what is a team culture Archives - Saletta Leadership, LLC

Culture cannot be a word that is just thrown around in business. Good team culture needs to be built and maintained.

What Is A Team Culture?

Put simply, team culture involves a shared approach to work based on values, beliefs and attitudes. Team culture truly showcases what is most important to a company and how it impacts their output. For example, some companies will promote a team culture in job descriptions, advertisements, training sessions and company events.

There is no doubt that culture can either make or break a company. A healthy and productive culture will foster collaboration and motivation. A toxic culture, meanwhile, can lead to numerous issues including a high turnover rate.

Why Is Team Culture Important?

Your team culture can certainly define how your company does business. It can impact relationships inside and outside the company by hiring the right people and creating successful business partnerships. Employees will especially enjoy finding identity and purpose within a solid team culture.

Here are a few of the many benefits associated with good team culture in the workplace:

Low Turnover Rate

Engaged and rewarded employees are far less likely to search for a new job. When employees feel valued within a team setting, they will stay with a company longer. This can save the company on recruiting and hiring costs.

Improved Productivity

It’s no secret that employees who care about the company they work for are oftentimes more productive. This will allow you to conduct more business while not concentrating efforts on recruiting help.

Innovation

Happy, productive and collaborative teams can come together and create new ideas. Innovation is key to business and it will move your company forward in the future.

Characteristics Of A Good Team Culture

Depending on the nature of your industry, you may not need all the qualities that typically define good team culture. The first thing to focus on is building a strong foundation for your team.

Consider these key values as you continue to build a strong culture:

Teamwork

Teamwork starts at the top. Management needs to create and maintain a collaborative environment. Rather than competing with one another, employees should work toward a shared goal.

Support

Again, starting from the top, all workers need to support each other when work needs to get done. Good support will help to reduce both stress and burnout.

Communication

Ensure their are clear and constant communication lines between all workers. Communication also entails that everyone have the access they need to any information necessary to performing their job.

Team Culture Vs Toxic Culture

Any company culture will stem from core values, beliefs and behaviors. Whenever leaders act inappropriately without consequences, this begins to normalize such behaviors. For example, when a higher up acts inappropriately, do employees feel safe to report the behavior? If not, this is a case of a culture of fear. This is undoubtedly considered a toxic culture.

A good team culture creates freedom for all. Employees need to feel comfortable speaking up, knowing their peers will offer support. This should be a message that is preached and actioned by management.

What Is Team Culture?