Team spirit is a concept many people find hard to get their heads around. The curious thing is that most of us first come across the term back in primary school, yet right up to our working lives we never quite figure out what team spirit actually is, or how it is built. As the times and technology race ahead, the make-up of a team and the way it works have changed beyond recognition. According to the Harvard Business Review, today's teams have four defining traits: they are diverse, dispersed, digital and dynamic. As the era shifts, the ways we build and manage teams need rethinking too — here are four essentials for building team spirit in a modern society:
A compelling direction
Every outstanding team shares a similar foundation: the ability to deploy talent according to each member's strengths and to amplify what each person does best, achieving a 1 + 1 > 2 effect. Without a clear, well-defined team goal, employees won't understand the meaning and purpose of their own work, and so they will struggle to bring what they excel at into it. A team leader can learn more about employees' expectations of the work process and its outcomes, and by working together with them, find the incentives that spark their drive — and from there pinpoint the goals best suited to the team's work. These team goals should carry a degree of challenge: they can't be too simple or straightforward, but equally they mustn't be so difficult that they sap morale. Once achieved, the goals should also yield visible results that keep pushing people to see continued progress in themselves and the team. That momentum can come from extrinsic rewards — promotion opportunities, a pay rise and the like — or from intrinsic rewards, such as satisfaction, self-efficacy and a sense of meaning. This matters all the more in a time ravaged by the pandemic, when communication between people has been separated by a screen: when everyone pictures the same goal differently yet can't resolve those differences face to face, building team spirit becomes harder still. At moments like these, a compelling work goal can effectively promote communication and initiative, building a sense of belonging by working towards a shared goal with teammates from scratch.
A strong structure
In the workplace, a group with team spirit should have a strong structure, which means the team's make-up should carry an appropriate degree of diversity, with neither too many nor too few people — a right mix and number of members. Diversity means thoughtfully bringing together people of different cultural backgrounds, genders and ethnicities to work as one, because their respective thinking, behaviours and skills can complement one another and play to each other's strengths, sparking innovative chemistry between employees that drives positive dynamics in the workplace. This avoids groupthink or a situation where everyone simply goes along with the crowd, and it stimulates critical thinking. While diversity is emphasised, that doesn't mean the group's structure should become chaotic. On the contrary, a company's structure should be clear and clean, avoiding redundant roles or overlapping duties.
A supportive context
Organisational support sounds complicated, but the idea is somewhat similar to the psychological safety mentioned in another article (see: [HR Must-Read] How to Choose an Employee Training Programme? Three Qualities to Look For). Beyond feeling psychologically supported and cared for, however, organisational support also refers to any strategy that motivates employees and makes them feel valued. One example is setting up a clear and reasonable reward system to further encourage and praise high-performing employees, so they come to see the company's growth and their own progress and performance as closely intertwined, which boosts their motivation to work hard. Another point, hugely important yet often overlooked, is building a good information system and network so that employees can easily access and use the data, software or programmes they need. Take, for instance, companies that ask employees to help cut videos or edit images but provide none of the relevant software, expecting employees to pay to download it themselves. In situations like this, employees feel powerless and helpless, sensing that the company doesn't support their work — let alone respect what they produce. Even if the boss doesn't see it that way, this feeling of being unsupported can seriously damage morale and team spirit, and over the long run it is deeply unhelpful in creating a cohesive work culture.
A shared mindset
You might be wondering: "Cultivating team spirit is especially hard in the digital age, particularly when working from home, where clear, effective communication isn't always possible — let alone team spirit." Indeed, the convenience of technology also brings today's workplace challenges that stem from communication, distance and diversity. In an era where technology is woven into work, because we can't necessarily communicate face to face with colleagues at any given moment, we can easily slip into an "us vs them" binary mindset. The binary here doesn't mean two people harbouring hostility towards each other; rather, incomplete information breeds a sense of distance, leaving people without that feeling of being on the same side. A very useful approach is to build a shared mindset — that is, to establish it by emphasising a common identity and common understanding, supported by the shared goals described above.
The above are the four essentials for building team spirit in modern society and the modern workplace. As for how a leader should concretely devise and carry out management strategies that aim to achieve these essentials, do keep a close eye on TreeholeHK's articles — Part 2 will set out concrete examples and practical recommendations.
References
Haas, M. & Mortensen, M. (2016). The Secrets of Great Teamwork. Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School Publishing. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork
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