6 Signs of Good Teamwork At Work (2024)

The signs of good teamwork at work give anyone a good idea about how good the leader of the team is. Good leaders have teams with good teamwork constantly on display. Unlock the power of teamwork in your team by using all our tips to encourage teamwork.

Most managers look after a group of individuals. In my experience, when a group is interdependent on each other to do their jobs well – which are most groups at work – a team easily outperforms a group of individuals. Teams deliver more, teams deliver better, and they have a lot more fun doing it.

Unlocking the power of teamwork to improve team performance gives a lot to the manager too. Produce great team performance and the business will keep giving you more people to manage and you get all the great benefits of promotion after promotion.

Unlock the power of Teamwork! 6 Signs of Good Teamwork At Work

1. Every team member understands and believes in the team goals
2. The team cultivates an environment of trust
3. Team members put the team first and themselves second
4. Everyone delivers their part
5. Open, honest and lively communication is the norm
6. The team is always results focused

Before we dive into the 6 signs of good teamwork, lets quickly cover what the manager gets by unlocking the power of teamwork. Here are six key benefits of good teamwork:

1. Teamwork enables better problem solving
2. Teamwork unlocks potential for innovation and sparks creativity
3. People are happier in teams with good teamwork
4. Teamwork increases personal and professional growth
5. Working in a team lowers stress and the risk of burnout
6. Individuals working as a team are a lot more productive

All these result in much higher performing teams, which create significantly more value for the companies that employ them.

Managers of higher performing teams are happier, more satisfied, more engaged, paid more, get bigger bonuses, get promoted a lot more, have higher professional status, get a lot more respect and are much more visible to leadership teams. A great position for any manager to be in.

When you are serious about progressing your management career, helping your team to keep increasing their performance is the best way to help your own career.

Firstly, in teams displaying good teamwork every team member understands and believes in the team goals

Clear direction and expectations for each team member produces a lot of benefits. The obvious one is that more effort is spent on achieving a narrower set of goals, which significantly increases the chances of meeting and beating those goals.

I also think that clear goals and expectations for each team member:

1. Creates a joint sense of purpose and shared experience, which further increases the power of teamwork
2. Team members feel psychologically safer as they know exactly what is expected of them. They know if they deliver, they get praise, job security, appreciation, and more opportunities.
3. Asking for help and getting help is a lot easier when you are clearly working to achieve shared team goals

As a manager, setting clear goals takes more work than the majority managers realise. To set clear goals with the team I would suggest you go through at least these steps:

1. Understand what your team does to create the most value while aligned to and supporting the wider business goals. Team goals should talk to both.
2. Write down the team goals in language that the team uses and relates to. Share these goals with your boss and get their input. Then share the goals with the team and get their input.
3. Share your finalised goals whenever you can, again and again, with your team. Put the goals on the wall. Talk about them in team meetings and one-on-one meetings. Create games and competitions amongst the team to support reaching those goals.

Do everything you can to keep goals front of mind for all your team members, even when they get bored hearing about them.

The second sign of good teamwork is a team that cultivates an environment of trust

Without trust, you don’t really have a team. When you have an environment of trust, everyone knows that their teammates will do their job and not let them down.

When a team cultivates an environment of trust, each team member also knows that their teammates have their back. They can rely on teammates for support, for help and to share the workload. This is great teamwork.

There is a sense of community, being part of a something bigger than yourself. Teammates automatically give you the benefit of doubt, trusting what you say and do.

In a trusting environment, you are much more willing to be yourself, to express different views and ideas from others and dare to put your head above the parapet and take risks. Good teamwork drives creativity and intelligent risk taking.

This environment fosters better problem solving as everyone’s differences encourage challenge and different thinking. Team members are unafraid of constructive conflict and heated disagreements WHEN they are in service of the team reaching collective goals.

How Managers Influence Team Trust

As a manager, to cultivate an environment of trust pay careful attention to your own behaviour, actions, and decisions. I suggest you aim to do at least the following:

1. Demonstrate you trust your team by assuming they will do a good job when they have clear direction and support
2. Communicate openly and honestly with your team
3. Listen to your team and act on their good ideas and suggestions
4. Value your team members and use praise to reinforce great behaviour
5. Use mistakes as learning opportunities

To build trust in your team, extend trust to your team. Treat them as individuals you trust both personally and professionally and expect them to trust each other in the same way.

Thirdly, a team showing good teamwork puts the team first and themselves second

Those teams who practice great teamwork in the workplace know – what is good for the team – is good for the individual. Everyone shares in the success of the team overall.

Individual team members are very rarely successful without the team being successful because nearly everyone relies on colleagues to personally do a great job. Our colleagues give up information and work and vice versa. Very few jobs work in isolation without interdependency on others.

Those teams showing the signs of great teamwork know that when they put the team first and their colleagues are doing the same, everyone is a lot better off individually.

Put The Team First

Some of the behaviours of individuals putting the team first include:

1. Team members are quick to shout about others who contributed and collaborated to help produce their great results
2. Team members jump at opportunities to help colleagues and share the workload, knowing they will be helped in return
3. They do what is right for the team and reaching team targets, even if it costs them personally in the short term
4. Individuals use “we” language much more than “I” language when describing what they are working on. Lots of collaboration is a great sign of good teamwork at work.
5. Team members are constantly seeking the opinions and ideas of others and willing share their own to get better solutions than they could on their own.

Great managers consistently display a team first approach. They protect, fight for and support their teams, even when it costs them personally. They work tirelessly to remove problems the team faces and help each person overcome issues and challenges. Great managers lead from the front and put their teams before themselves and ask their team members to do the same.

The fourth sign of great teamwork is team members deliver their part

When you have good teamwork at work, everyone in the team is confident that their fellow team members won’t let them down. This confidence comes from seeing teammates delivering what is expected of them because they want to rather than have to.

The team has a lot of confidence that together the team can overcome all their challenges. There is little doubt about reaching targets. There is a real sense of inclusivity. Everyone from top to bottom knows their part in the team and what is expected from them, and they make sure they deliver it and do their part.

As a manager, you can encourage good teamwork by setting out clear responsibilities and accountabilities for each person in the team. Support this with clear team structures and job requirements for each person. Work hard to remove significant overlaps and be clear what happens when there is overlap. Both help great teamwork in the workplace.

Teams that deliver are organised and each person’s differences are respected, appreciated and used to strengthen what the team delivers.

The fifth sign you have a great team is that open, honest and lively communication is the norm

Good teamwork involves a lot of communication. An obvious sign of good teamwork is how noisy the team is. Teams practicing great teamwork are constantly sharing ideas, asking for and giving opinions, discussing problems and solutions, sharing information and asking for help. You can’t do that in silence and collaboration apps don’t create the same teamworking benefits.

Good teamwork includes a good bit of laughter, banter and fun. Relationships are strengthened through sharing personal information, what happened at the weekend, what holidays are planned etc. Teams are social structures as much as for improving work outcomes.

Feedback in teams with good teamwork goes in all directions. Colleagues feedback to each other and to their manager rather than feedback only coming downwards. Team members welcome constructive criticism so they can improve what they do and how they contribute to the team. Great teamwork has good hearted challenge and competition between team members.

As a manager, the best way to create great communication amongst your team is to practice it yourself. Be open and honest. Share your opinions and ideas. More importantly constantly seek the ideas and opinions of your team to improve solutions and approaches to problems. Promote a growth mentality. Look for the learning opportunities in every situation and help team members grow through teaching, mentoring, and coaching. Pass on what you have learned.

Another sign of strong teamwork is all team members holding each other accountable. Share your personal objectives and how you are helping the team reach its goals so you too are accountable to the team.

The sixth sign of good teamwork at work is the team is always results focused

Results focused teams are constantly talking about team targets and their progress towards those targets. The numbers and progress are on display – there is no hiding place for any team member or the manager.

Each team member knows how they help the team meet and beat team targets. They know everyone in the team will be doing their part and are determined not to let anyone down.

As a manager, focus on the results and outcomes your team and team members produce. Help your team members work out specifically how they are going improve doing their part to get those results. Get the right tools, help, and support to each team member so they can do a great job.

Work alongside them to help them overcome problems and challenges. Help them find better and quicker ways of reaching their personal goals. Keep them focused on getting to the outcomes needed and protect them from getting distracted.

Do everything you can to sensibly and practically help your team members deliver great results. They will love you for all the work you put in to help them and work that much harder to not let you down.

in summary

As a manager, there is a huge amount you can do to encourage good teamwork and tap into the power of teamwork to deliver great results. Great teamwork at work significantly improves team performance and the outcomes that teams produce.

Great team performance will do wonders for your career as a manager so use the power of teamwork to improve your team’s performance further.

As a reminder, 6 Signs of Good Teamwork At Work are:

1. Every team member understands and believes in the team goals
2. The team cultivates an environment of trust
3. Team members put the team first and themselves second
4. Everyone delivers their part
5. Open, honest and lively communication is the norm
6. The team is always results focused

If you have any questions on “Unlock the power of Teamwork! 6 Signs of Good Teamwork At Work”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

I have had multiple experiences transforming underperforming teams, and in several cases increasing the measurable value created by over 10 times. In each occasion, creating a team, that worked together, supported and helped each other, overcame problems together… was key.

I certainly enjoy working in a fun and energetic team environment where the team is focused on delivering results. This is not for everyone, yet most people prefer to be working in teams that are successful and going places. The opportunities to learn and improve yourself are just so much better.

Managers are judged on team performance. If you are serious about your career, improving team performance at every opportunity is essential.