The 11 Most Important Teamwork Benefits

What is teamwork? It’s a pretty simple concept. It’s when a group of individuals work together for the common good of a company or organization. When bad teamwork takes place, it means there’s not enough teamwork taking place. No matter what teamwork means to you or your company, it’s pretty clear that it has many advantages. It’s one of the key catalysts for improving the culture of a workplace. The better the culture, the greater the chance of getting superb results. Teamwork has many benefits. Here are the eleven most important ones:

1) A boost in creativity.

Teamwork unites workers who have different levels of knowledge and skillsets. This makes creative problem-solving much more likely to happen. When someone works alone, there’s a risk that he or she will get stuck on something. This situation can reduce the quality of projects and initiatives. Teamwork reduces that risk. Workers can share their own experiences and knowledge with one another. As a result, the level of creativity for a project will increase by a huge percentage. Problems will get solved fast. Issues will get resolved. And the end-product will be high in quality. In order for this to occur, there has to be a lot of communication. Great teamwork cannot exist without great communication. Not to mention, a strong willingness to collaborate is necessary too. Without collaboration, creativity will stay hidden in people’s minds. Strong teamwork brings out the creativity from people’s minds to positive actions.

2) Increased enthusiasm.

Companies and organizations benefit when workers are enthusiastic and engaged. Having your workers collaborate with one another should make this happen. Employees will feed off each other’s excitement as they work toward a common goal. Workers are much more likely to feel disengaged when they’re stuck in a cubicle on their own. Say you notice many of your employees conveying this attitude. The best solution may be to assign some team projects. It’s difficult to feel dissatisfied when your peers exercise optimal engagement. Enthusiasm is infectious.

In fact, scientific studies have proven that teamwork can make people happier. A little human interaction can go a long way in boosting one’s emotional well-being. Happier employees are going to be more productive and deliver better results. This is crucial for the success of any business.

3) Complementary skillsets get results.

When it comes to a team, people are going to bring different things to the table. Worker X could be a great writer and researcher. Worker Y could be an expert-level marketing guru. Worker Z could be the technology/internet expert. Next, you put these three in a room together. Then you give them an assignment. Their different skillsets will combine into a superb collaborative effort. Their combined effort will most likely provide great output. The results will be better than if they had worked alone. In fact, teams are almost always more effective than individual performances. Why? Because there are many different strengths all in the same room.

Think how much worse your favorite basketball team would be if they only put one or two players on the floor. They would lose every game. But when you have a complete team with diverse skillets, victory can get achieved. Industry and technology changes are occurring at a rapid pace. This makes teamwork more important to a company’s success than ever before.

4) Trust gets built.

The more that teammates rely on one another, the more likely it is that trust gets built. Trust is important to the success of a company. Trust strengthens work relationships. This leads to tasks getting done faster. It also establishes an environment where workers have open dialogues with one another. This leads to problems getting solved in a quick manner. Employees should feel free to make suggestions, offer ideas, and encourage their co-workers. If your company needs a boost in productivity, then it needs more interpersonal trust. And there’s no better way to go about this than by encouraging and rewarding solid teamwork.

5) Conflicts are more likely to get resolved.

Unfortunately, conflicts are bound to occur in the workplace. But teamwork can be an organization’s secret weapon in resolving conflict. Whenever teammates interact, they are sharpening their conflict resolution skills. They oftentimes don’t even realize that they are. Don’t take this tip the wrong way and assume that teams will never have disagreements. Again, conflict is sometimes bound to happen, no matter what. But a great team will disagree in a respectful manner. They will listen to what everyone has to say. As a result, an agreed-upon solution will become obvious before any time gets wasted.

6) Healthy risk-taking occurs.

As you may know, risk-taking is sometimes necessary for a company to be successful. Sometimes going against the grain is a business’ best way to combat its competitors. But individual workers are much less likely to go against the grain. Why? Because if an initiative or idea fails, the individual gets left with all the blame. This can make employees hesitant to try new strategies or take unique actions. This is another reason why teamwork is so important. Both success and failure gets shared by many people. Since blame gets spread out, workers are more willing to try doing things in a different manner. This behavior shouldn’t get punished unless it’s reckless. It should get rewarded because employees went out of their way to find new solutions to problems. In fact, most companies could use a lot more outside-the-box thinking. And that’s exactly what great teamwork leads to. Having the support of your team to fall back on will reduce worker’s anxiety levels. They’ll be less concerned about getting reprimanded. And they’ll be more concerned about doing all they can to achieve success.

7) A workplace culture based on teamwork brings in talent.

Love them or hate them, the millennials and Gen-Z are on their way. To where? Your company! In the next decade, millennials and Gen-Z will make up the majority of the workplace. What does this have to do with teamwork? Well, many studies and polls have concluded the same thing. It’s that these young generations value teamwork more than any previous generation. They would rather collaborate and compete. Many of them only want to work for companies that have a solid culture centered on teamwork. Thus, you may be walking talent right out the door if your company doesn’t value collaboration. Think of it this way. If you focus on teamwork now, you’ll be better at attracting talent in the future.

8) Great innovations are more likely to occur.

Most good ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re a result of different thoughts and theories colliding into one. And that is exactly what teamwork is. It’s easy to assume that success gets based on surrounding yourself with people that think like you. But most innovations are a result of diverse opinions getting worked out. In this case, employees get pushed to grow. They begin to reevaluate everything that they know and believe in. New insights and challenges are the secret weapon to innovation. And what better way to hear new insights than to have your team communicate? Ideas matter. Unfortunately, companies without fresh ideas are likely to get eliminated by their competitors. This harsh reality makes teamwork a necessary component to maintain long-term success.

9) Employee burnout is less likely to occur.

Many prominent business studies have concluded that tons of workers seem fatigued. About one out of four employees feel “burned out” on a daily basis. This is toxic to a company’s success. When a worker’s fatigued, he or she is very likely to act disengaged and unable to go above and beyond. As a result, that worker will continue scraping by and doing little above what’s required. So what’s the solution? You guessed it. Teamwork. Sharing the load reduces burnout. Team members are able to offer their support and encourage one another. This is because they’re on the frontlines. It makes them understand stress in a way that most managers cannot.

10) Stress reduction.

Human interaction reduces stress. It’s as simple as that. The more isolated an employee is, the more likely he or she is to feel stressed. Teamwork will usually reduce stress. Why? Because a good team motivates and inspires one another. In fact, solid teams can even have fun. Of course, that fun must be at an appropriate level and not too over-the-top. If your employees get stressed, they’re likely to make more errors and mistakes. Their mindset will stop them from giving you their best. A little teamwork goes a long way in reducing stress.

11) Reliance on management becomes reduced.

A manager’s time is important. Every second should count for accomplishing a variety of tasks. When getting bothered by subordinates, those tasks can’t get knocked out as fast as they need to be. This is a key reason why teamwork leads to company efficiency. Teams are often able to be self-managed. This means that workers each have a specific role and can ask each other for help. This frees up a manager’s time to concentrate on whatever is most important.