What are the key ingredients to having success at your company? Some would say passion, integrity and creativity. Others would say productivity, hours worked and delivering of excellence. While each of these are all important in business, there is an ingredient that we at CBI believe is integral to success, so much that it is one of our six core values: Collaboration.
Collaboration is defined as the action of working with someone to produce or create something. Essentially this boils down to teamwork. Your employees represent both of your company’s largest line item expense, and your most valuable asset. Everyone in the company needs to be on the same page and align their goals as a team. At the end of the day your profitability comes down to whether these company wide goals are achieved or not.
Now you might be wondering “how is this accomplished”? This can be done in a various amount of ways:
1. Communication
Communication in business is ideal. You want to be on the same page with your colleagues right? Without communication this will be impossible. Benefits from effective communication are building your team, making things clear and the ability to handle problems.
2. Define the Mission
If you haven’t made it clear what your company’s mission is, then how is anyone supposed to do their job to the best of their abilities? Every company needs a definitive mission to work towards.
3. Set Goals & Incentives to Accomplish Goals
Once you have your mission defined it’s time to start setting those goals! Your company goals should always back up your company mission. Once these goals are set you need to get everyone on board with working to achieve these goals by aligning all of your goals. One great way to accomplish this is with incentives. Throw in an incentive for bringing someone on board, incentives for introducing you to a potential client, incentives for making it to work on time every day, incentives for reaching an agreed upon goal, the list goes on and on.
CBI accomplishes this through multiple incentive programs from recommending an employee and assisting with the process of gaining a new client. Also, all CBI employees have the opportunity to win the Cultural All-Star Award, which is decided on by a monthly company wide vote. The one who earns this reward gets extra compensation and the premier parking spot for a month.
4. Show Understanding
There are going to be times when others won’t agree with the direction and goals set out for your company. You don’t need to agree with these disagreements, but it is helpful to be understanding of them. Ultimately you have the final decision and you will make that decision. Showing that you are willing to listen and understand where someone is coming from can go a long way.
5. Make Teamwork A Priority
Combining each of the four items listed above is a recipe for good teamwork. Once this is accomplished it needs to be sustained. This is done by prioritizing teamwork and not allowing a decline in collaboration slip by unnoticed. Make sure you’re getting together outside of the office. Go out for some drinks, have an annual company outing, show your appreciation for all that they do.
At CBI we are all about working as a team. We often have team building activities, multiple annual company outings and meet once per month as a company to get everyone up to speed on what we are all working to accomplish for the company.