A great leader goes beyond leading the team toward success; they also lead teams toward better unity.

A cohesive team is critical in achieving your company’s vision and goals. When everyone works together, it’s easier to achieve better productivity, which leads to better sales, more partnerships and other business wins. Unity, however, doesn’t happen overnight since you’re working with very different people. Some members of the team are more focused on serious aspects of life (probably planning to get a VA mortgage for their home) whereas others are carefree, relaxed and more invested in finding the most expensive Starbucks drink ever.

Hard work, patience and empathy go a long way in establishing teamwork in your workplace. You must also engage and communicate with the team, as well as build their relationship with you, if you want to establish an indestructible workforce.

How can you make teamwork work for your team?

Clarify Your Vision

One way to unify your employees is to clearly articulate the vision of the company. Set an overarching goal or two and make sure they fit your vision. To make it more interesting, share stories concerning each goal so that your employees will easily understand them. Doing so also encourages them to rally around the team goal. When all of your team members are committed to the vision and rally around the goals, they’ll be one team with a purpose.

For example, your company’s vision is to improve the home life of your customers. A sample goal would be to invent better and more marketable products each year. To unify your team, tell a story of how one of your newest products improved many customers’ lives.

Understand The Team Building Process

Building a great team is not a one-step process; there are five steps. In the forming stage, your employees assess one another. During the norming phase, they start working together, albeit they practice a little caution when they do. Once they reach the storming stage, the team will start showing their expertise through collaborations and contributions. The performing stage will display each member’s performance potential. Whenever you introduce a new member to the team, they will go through these processes again.

Clarify Their Roles

Each member has a special role within your company. Unity can be disrupted if the members do not clearly understand their assigned roles or ignore them, choosing to take another role instead. For instance, if an employee was hired to manage sales, they shouldn’t busy themselves with the marketing team. Similarly, the company’s owner should refrain from managing all the functions of the team; instead, they let their team do their assigned roles.

Build Rapport With (and Within) the Team

Employees who respect each other are more unified compared to team members who have no care for one another. Establishing better relationships among the team, however, does not happen instantly.

Start by recruiting people who are successful in similar roles in their previous companies to ensure that you’re working with professionals. Next, invest time in building rapport with all the team members. Get-to-know activities can help employees know the people they’re working with better. One activity you can try is “Two Truths, One Lie,” a game where shares three “facts” while the rest of the group figures out which one is the lie. The activity is not only a conversation starter; it also gives employees tidbits about each other, which they can keep in mind.

Coffee breaks with the team are also commendable. Once in a while, invite the team for a time-out and enjoy cups of coffee and pastries, plus some good conversations (that do not discuss office work).

Build Trust Within the Team

Trust unifies teams. If the members of the team don’t trust each other, they won’t work together. If they don’t trust you, they won’t trust the team either. Provide many opportunities for the members to get to know you and one another on a deeper basis through team building activities and events. Also, manage trust issues immediately and create opportunities for the team to build their relationships.

Be Generous With Compensation

Incentive packages and compensation can either build a team or destroy it. If the rewards are based on individual wins, especially if there are losers and winners, your employees are more self-centered instead of minding their team. On the other hand, incentives based on the team’s performance encourage teamwork. For example, profit sharing or bonuses can also be based on the group’s team performance.

As the old saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work. If you want to succeed in business, you must first succeed in building the winning team.