Building a Good Team Culture: Why and How

Team culture is a set of values, beliefs, and behavioral standards that individuals share within a company. Team culture has a significant influence on an organization’s work environment, activities, and ambience. As a leader, knowing how to build a good team culture will bring many benefits. 

Why a good team culture matters

The culture of a team, like the culture of a society, is fostered by the individuals that make it up. The culture is reflected by how leaders and team members behave in representing the company, interacting with one another, handling conflicts, performing job duties, and abiding to rules. Here are some characteristics of a good team culture.

• Promoting great leadership

Leaders have the most influence than followers in workplace situations, thus a great leadership is crucial. If managers in a company show a favorable leadership towards employees, a healthy team culture will follow. 

• Providing a great place to work

The work environment, which includes occupational settings in which employees perform their tasks, is heavily influenced by culture. A healthy team culture consists of the majority of employees following principles and behavioral standards. The manifestations of such a culture are shown by support for others, treating people with respect, and assisting the organization in meeting business objectives.

• Encouraging more engaged employees

Employee engagement, defined as the dedication to a job that may emerge in employees, has been shown to increase productivity. A high level of engagement is a critical quality of strong cultures, as a strong team culture is required for engagement to emerge.

• Lowering turnover

Employers need to spend more money on recruiting and training as a result of increased turnover. This might also weaken team members' motivation as it limits their opportunities to make professional relationships. Employee turnover can be lowered with a positive team culture.

• Minimizing interpersonal conflicts

A healthy team culture fosters a sense of togetherness among employees, which is likely to decrease workplace conflicts. To deal with employee conflicts, a healthy team culture typically provides strategic measures, such as an effective communication procedure.

How to build team culture?

Acknowledging that a good team culture is essential to improve employee wellbeing is not enough; real implementations need to be carried out. Here are some actions to pursue a good team culture for your company.

• Reviewing current team culture

What are the values shared by a majority of employees? What are the shared beliefs among employees in relation to supportiveness, respecting each other, and achieving business goals? What are the managerial activities that communicate, maintain, or improve team culture? What are worker-specific cultural differences that conflict with the team culture? What are the company policies and protocols that guide staff behavior?

• Learning from fellow companies of the same industry

Companies that operate within the same industry usually have similar team cultures. It can be helpful to learn from them, especially if they are known for having a good team culture. Some points to research on can include corporate values, worker behaviors that reflect corporate values, brand image, employee engagement activities, and employee reviews on management.

• Identifying possible improvements

After reviewing the inside and learning from the outside, the next thing to do is to identify possible improvements in cultivating a good team culture. Ensure that your company values can accommodate employees’ values and beliefs, behavioral norms, and leadership activities.

• Implementing top-down approach

Top-down approach is the best option when it comes to implementing improvements for team culture. This means that a change should start from top level management first, followed by employees below that level. If leaders are able to exhibit positive behaviours towards their employees, a good team culture will be pursued more effectively. Therefore, it is important to communicate the vision of the targeted team culture to company leaders. Moreover, employee incentives, such as reward and benefits, can help reinforce changes to the team culture. This is to assert values for employees' contribution, so they will develop morale towards the company.

Business conduct should aim beyond gaining profits; it should pay attention to employee wellbeing, too. Building a good team culture can be a good start for improving employees’ wellbeing for the greater good. Now that you have learnt several aspects of a solid team culture, as well as techniques for developing a strong culture, it is time to start taking actions.

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