A team culture is necessary for success. Working together effectively is not automatic. It requires a specific effort and the development of a culture that is supported by executive management. Shared experiences create unity and value. Knowledge transfer is essential for the growth of an organization. Without knowledge transfer and without sharing success, it is difficult for the group to share a vision and work towards common goals.

1. Create an intentional communication strategy. Your management team must understand and support a common vision. This requires clarity. Clarity begins with effective communication. Make sure your management team’s communication reaches all employees.

2. Don’t establish intentional competition in the workplace. Try to make sure that individual skill sets complement each other rather than competing with each other. Distribute responsibility and authority by alternating leaders for various tasks. Look for the potential of a star and introduce coaching and mentoring as a skill set.

3. Create team ownership in the decision-making process, but it is not committee management. Avoid groupthink by making sure people express their opinions openly without intimidation. Responsibility must be accompanied by authority and accountability.

4. Build trust and respect by giving trust and respect. Act as a coach or mentor and not as a boss.

5. Create team building activities off-site on a quarterly basis. Social gatherings, sports activities, laser tag or other activities that promote unification and mutual trust.

6. Don’t just talk about empowerment and delegation, believe in it and demonstrate that belief by allowing team members to make decisions and act independently.

7. Adopt complex plans and strategies and assign responsibility and ownership. This creates more efficiency and enhances creativity. Assign responsibilities according to individual passions.

8. Brainstorming should be encouraged to unleash team innovation. The exchange of ideas with each other stimulates creative thinking that leads to creative solutions. This in itself brings people together with a common purpose.

9. Ask for solutions by assigning responsibility and empowerment. Ownership of ideas and initiatives generates commitment. Involving the team in the creation of direction and solutions through empowerment generates commitment to the tasks necessary to meet the objectives.

10. Challenge your management team. Confidence in the effectiveness of the team minimizes risk by being more flexible and adaptable than relying on a single individual. No single individual can jeopardize success. Losing a team member can be overcome without losing sight of goals.