All business managers want a team that works together because it’s the secret to registering great results. Promoting team sports as team-building activities can help you achieve better results for your company. If you plan to expand your business and hire more employees, your company may deal with a common problem; the teamwork effectiveness decreases because your employees don’t know each other. This also happens because the connection of the old employees with the new ones isn’t very strong, and they fail to communicate.
Additionally, the time the managers and team leaders can dedicate to each specialist working for your company becomes progressively less because they don’t have the resources to handle everyone. Eventually, you may notice that the network of specialists becomes weaker.
Your greatest mistake would be to think that this is just how things go, and you cannot solve the situation no matter what you do. But what if we tell you that the solution to this problem lays in the lack of extracurricular activities your employees engage in together? You can train them to create personal connections and help them communicate.
People have a lot of personal connections in their lives. There’s the family. There are friends. And we should not overlook one of the most important types of relationships people have, the one with their employees or co-workers. Workplace relationships require a different type of approach. In this article, we discuss how team sporting events can support team-building and personal connection and increase the company’s performance.
Some may think it’s impossible to establish the same connections with employees and co-workers, but with the right bonding experiences, the connections can become even stronger.
Teamwork can be trained as any other skill, but you need to find a way to practice it without hurting the business as a company manager. Here team sports competitions come into play. You can create a safe environment like organising a 5 aside championship where your employees can experiment with their teamwork skills and improve their performance. There’s no better way to build an effective team than giving them the opportunity to train and work on their skills.
If you use team sports to practice teamwork, you allow the workers to train the skills in an environment that doesn’t pressure them to perform. Their results don’t impact the company’s performance. This activity can also remove the frustration the new employees may feel at the office when they don’t perform well in a team. Playing sports allows them to practice without worrying about failure. They have the opportunity to focus on the fun and social tasks at hand. In time, the employees who play in the same team can build personal connections and communication skills, and understand better their capabilities.
If you run a large company, you can divide the different business sections into teams and organise matches of team sports like 5 aside. Taking part in a team sports tournament implies all divisions to communicate, practice problem-solving skills, and learn about their opponents to find ways to win. Playing team sports and enrolling in tournaments and matches requires group effort that encourages your employees to work together to meet their common goals and build a sense of community. When they play team sports, all the aspects of their game will be transferred into everyday life at the workplace. You should provide them with a channel they can use to strategise and bond together if they don’t work in the same building.
Team sports competitions improve the performance of single teams and build healthy competition that drives your employees to work better. They don’t forget the skills gained during the event; they maintain their capabilities and the game atmosphere when they return to the office. You’ll quickly notice how the general quality of the work improves when your employees bond outside the office.
Offer rewards for the winners of the tournaments to encourage as many employees as possible to take part in competitions. You can offer money or other benefits. No one complains about receiving gifts. The prize should require the team to spend extra time together. This creates the opportunity for them to hang out together when deadlines and work-related projects aren’t involved and build a sense of comradery into their lives.
When you have more employees, you can divide them into teams of 5 or 6 people and encourage them to plan the tournament before they arrive on-site to play the actual games. Set up the prizes before the competition starts, and ensure there are gifts for all attendants. You can offer free launches for the winning team for a month, send them on a weekend trip or provide them with free access to their favourite sports team matches.
Randomise the order of the matches to make sure that each team plays with each team at least once. Team sports set up the perfect opportunity for the creation of personal connections between co-workers. They’re forced to work as a team that works together to meet the same goal, and when they strategise and practice, they bond with each other. Even if you do it in a playful and fun way, you’re using team sports to train your employees’ ability to train their ability to work together.
Team sporting activities are perfect for encouraging your employees to connect and create meaningful relationships. Building friendship relationships in a competitive environment like playing 5 aside can form deep bonds that help people work great together when they’re under pressure. But to ensure that this strategy works in the long run, you need to create a safety net. An annual tournament can provide long term sustainability. It also provides the employees with the flexibility of switching the team and getting to know other co-workers.
If you need a strategy to motivate your employees to work together, playing team sports together can work.