The Importance of Team Building
Any successful manager will agree that being surrounded by a good team is something to be proud of and anyone who has been part of a good team, will say it’s very exciting and brings great satisfaction. Having a positive experience such as this is memorable and makes one feel they are making an impact.
However, as businesses continue to deal with the pressure to provide a service or product, depending upon the style of management, this pressure (which should be a positive experience) can end up causing undue stress, be extremely demoralising and affect overall wellbeing. This is shown by over 75% of the workforce saying that their “bad boss” is the worst part or the workplace.
If you’ve ever had a good manager, you will know only too well how greatly they influence the atmosphere in the workplace and the productivity of their team – even in some of the most undesirable jobs. It can make all the difference as shown by the 65% of employees say they’d rather take a new boss than a pay rise!
This infographic provided by Maximillion highlights many interesting figures and shows how important proactive team building is and how it contributes to wellbeing within the workplace.
Bob Brotchie is a counsellor, mindset consultant and creator of "Conscious Living by Design"™. He writes for Anglia Counselling, is featured on various other websites and introduces us to many guest writers all covering topics related to mental health and wellbeing.
Bob provides bespoke counselling services to individuals and couples in the privacy and comfort of a truly welcoming environment at his Anglia Counselling company office, located near Newmarket in Suffolk, England. Bob also provides professional online counselling, for local, national, and international clients. The therapeutic models offered are bespoke to the client’s needs, especially those in receipt of 'childhood emotional neglect' (CEN), whilst integrating a mindful approach to psychotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) principles. For clients experiencing trauma and/or phobia, Bob offers EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing).
Gosh, there’s a lot in that.
When I was MD of a small company I hired my direct reports on the simple basis that I wanted them to be better than me in their chosen field. I hired without caring about depression, disability, race, colour, creed, sex, or sexuality. I just wasn’t interested in any of that.
I hired people who either could do the job or were hungry enough to prove to me that they could do it. If they took a bet on themselves I took a bet on them.
I hired for preference from those who were unemployed if all candidates were equal. I viewed those already employed as just wanting a change. The unemployed needed my jobs.
I made hiring errors, too. I had to learn to terminate employment as well. And I helped my direct reports to build teams. My role was to give them the ability to succeed. Their success meant my success. My success meant the enterprise succeeded and pleased the shareholders.
My team turned the company from loss into profit and doubled its revenue stream. My team received the credit, and in the way each appreciated. As an example I sponsored one through university.
My message to any manager reading this is that your team is more important than you will ever be. Take care of them, put them and their needs first, lead and guide them and only direct if absolutely necessary. Usually it will not be.
What does this have to do with mental illness or suffering?
Not one thing, because you will prevent ailments like depression from being big things in your working environment. Sure, folk will still have those things, but their importance at work will be minimised. But take good human care of those who need that good care.
Oh, and “Team Building Events” are pure torture, inflicted by the incompetent on the teams they are unable to build themselves. We, the employees hate and despise any manager arrogant or stupid enough to hire in external charlatans to inflict your personal brand of torture upon us.
Teams are not built by dodging fake laser beams nor by getting barrels over imaginary rivers. Teams are built by you and by your personal efforts in constructing a proper workplace that recognises the performance of the team and leads them into working even better together.
Or you can destroy them.
Inflict a Team Building Exercise on us and we hope you burn in eternal fire. You deserve all you get. You’ll unite us all right. We’ll become a very effective unit against you and your personal career advancement. And you will cause us untold stress and depression will rear its head inside the office. We will take sick days much more often. You will miss your goals. Exit interviews will reveal, albeit too late, that you need to go, and go you will, compulsorily and suddenly.
Instead, if you want to build us as a team, if you truly want to build a team, reward us. Show us how much you appreciate us by going the extra mile and creating something fun. Show us that you have thought how to make us enjoy working for you, however mundane the work, and you will make us happy, we will suffer less from stress, hence depression, and you will hit your goals.