Why caring for your team is essential for Team Work

[#1]

We all know at least five motivational quotes like "leadership is to produce more leaders," "leader is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things," and so forth. And I stand behind (most of) them, of course.

But.

There is always a "but," right? ;)

Leaders are an essential part of the cycle called "teamwork"; they are the initial flame who inspires and keeps us motivated through our workdays. Viva leaders!

There is one tiny little small detail here - in 90% or their time leaders are doing their leader stuff like managing large organizations or working with enterprise customers, thinking about company growth and future. What I am trying to say here is that when you need a pat on the back for the job well done, the leader will not always be around. :)

One thing is keeping all of us going, even in grumpy days - caring. If I need to be honest, I love this word and the meaning behind; this existential starvation for giving a damn.

I know that my teamwork-caring example is built on a company with 30 employees and I'm not belittling it. 3 or 30 or 300, my vision will probably stay the same: If you want a passionate, diligent, healthy team - personalize. Think in terms of a team and terms of a team member. 

What we do for teams

Like every software company, we stick to the classics: company t-shirts, hoodies, team buildings, hackathons, tons of surprises, and sweets, and cupcakes. Recently we started an initiative called Hobby day, we have Game nights, Movie nights, or just "let's have a beer" nights. The issue with that type of company culture is that not everybody likes to participate in similar activities - it's fun, but there are some lone wolves who spent their time working, meeting with US customers, or just ignoring the noise (I am one of them, totally ignoring every possible "social" moment).

What we do for team members

First of all, what we do, we do it quietly - restricted pages and calendars in Confluence, Trello boards (big thanks to Jodi and her helpful article about people management boards!), hidden folders are just the beginning. When someone is celebrating, we are searching for ways to make his day bigger with at least one smile!

Let's dive in examples, and you know how much I love photos! :)

• Happy happy birthday flowers for Manuella - one of the smartest and beautiful girls in the room.

• Happy happy birthday hand-made coffee chocolate for Rossen - the person who can take 7 shots of espresso and still sleep at night.

• Happy ninja birdy for Yuri - our karate master and hacker at the same time.

• Hand-made knitted baby shoes for Vlado's newborn baby girl.

• Our Christmas presents tree, decorated late evening when everybody is enjoying their time at home, except us - the mighty carers of teams! 

These are the little things that made significant progress. That warm and fuzzy emotion that makes people feel like home, and enjoy their time with a bunch of friends, not just colleagues. Mixing these two ways of caring for your team - the company and the personalized one makes a strong bond between you and your co-workers. 

The best part - we are way more productive as a team!

And the best of the best part for me: people are keeping all the small items, notes, and surprises with months (even years)! ♡

Enjoy your day, all, and feel free to share your vision or tell us more about your company culture in terms of caring for teams. :))

[Monique vdB]

@Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_ I love this article! Our team does amazing birthday celebrations too. Here I am with my flowers, balloons, and flower crown from March. Not pictured: cans of my beloved La Croix in the same color scheme. 🙌🏻

[Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_]

You look great! :) with that happy face that we, the team-caring staff, love to see 😌

[Fernando Bordallo]

I'd love to see more teams do this sort of thing! Within Atlassian, the JSD community is well-known for its teaming activities. One of my favorite, French wine, and cheese Fridays MMMmm 🤤

[Sedera Randria]

Fall 2020. Seven months without social contacts. For Thanksgiving, we made tiramisu for our neighbors and drove all afternoon to bring Thankyou bags to every teammate I’ve worked with over the last months.
A simple gesture to value each of my teammates, in a very practical way. Amazing memories.

[Teodora _Old Street Solutions_Tempo_]

They are lucky to have you @Sedera Randria! Makes me grateful to see people who care for the special things in life 🙏