How to Improve Teamwork Collaboration in the Workplace

An executive’s role in teamwork is similar in some ways to the manager’s role. However, they should be more focused on what’s happening behind the scenes.

It’s important for executive leaders to set priorities, have discipline and follow through. They should be investing time, resources and energy into their managers because they understand the two non-negotiable traits for leaders.

From an executive’s standpoint, their role in teamwork has seemingly fewer immediate connections to the concept. This is because they’re driving the larger mission and goals, while communicating to managers and employees how their specific jobs connect to those greater goals.

2. Understand how you make decisions, then make great ones: Leaders must have an honest understanding of their decision-making limits (strengths and weaknesses), apply critical thinking, and use analytics-driven evidence (what do the numbers say?).

1. Bring multiple teams together: Executives need a well-defined and well-articulated mission and purpose that everyone can easily relate back to the work they do every day — their contribution.

Bottom line — if executives don’t create the culture , the culture will create itself. This leaves you and your organization susceptible to losing your best employees.

Consider a culture that might be the opposite of one that promotes teamwork — one that promotes entitlement. While cultivating a culture of entitlement may not be intentional, it can happen when executives make poor leadership decisions and focus on the wrong aspects of culture. For example, if an executive makes providing free, daily lunches a higher priority than the mission and purpose of an organization, entitlement will begin to define the culture. The executive may find teams complaining that the chef is no longer up to par, or maybe that the food isn’t as good as it once was. Perhaps the quality declined … or maybe employees are searching for something greater than a perk.

strongly agree that they know what their organization stands for and what makes it different from its competitors

41% strongly agree that they know what their organization stands for and what makes it different from its competitors

Philosophically, if executives have a perspective that positions the mission, purpose and values at the core and communicates this to managers, business outcomes and culture remain the focus.

According to the bestselling book, It’s the Manager , only 27% of employees strongly believe in their company’s values. And Gallup’s research reveals that less than half of U.S. employees (41%) strongly agree that they know what their organization stands for and what makes it different from its competitors.

Stop Hoarding Talent and Get Practical About Teamwork

Ever heard of talent hoarding? One sure way to improve teamwork in the workplace as an executive is to encourage talent sharing and be aware of talent hoarding.

Talent hoarding is when your star talents are being left without developmental opportunities because they are consistently resourced to the same people or projects. The personal priorities of some managers keep the best talent working for them — and when your “best employees believe that the only way up is out, you have a serious retention issue on your hands.”

Talent sharing, or proactively moving stars to new roles or having conversations about growth and development, is a great way for executives to help improve teamwork in the workplace.

Bottom line — if executives don’t create the culture, the culture will create itself. This leaves you and your organization susceptible to losing your best employees.

In the end, the executive is the one who needs to get practical about teamwork. Know when it’s going to fuel a team or when there is an intentional design to exclude teamwork. For example, collaboration and open communication may be encouraged — but competitive, more individualized work comes with the job (i.e., sales, recruiters, etc.). Executives should know where friction or healthy conflict is intentional.

Teamwork is not always defined by “getting along,” but rather, should be about having respect for individual ideas and personalities. In other words, teamwork has a couple faces — but it’s up to the executive to handle the tension between great products and outcomes, as well as great relationships.