During the COVID-19 Pandemic, most businesses have been forced to shut down normal operations. Many businesses have been devastated, and some will not be able to survive even with government stimulus. The true financial consequences of the shutdown will be felt by small and medium-sized business owners for years to come. Every decision these businesses make while trying to recover from the shutdown will be critical to their survival, so it is important to consider the business Return on Investment (ROI) when making any decision.
What should businesses focus on to get the biggest ROI? The ability for businesses to bounce-back may be dependent on how willing they are to proactively develop a team-based culture strategy. Businesses that take the time to look at their balance sheet know the biggest investment they make is in their employees. Their employees are also the biggest asset they have. Employees are the ones that run the day-to-day operations, innovate products and services when necessary, and touch customers as the face of the brand. Even with artificial intelligence to run repetitive tasks, without employees the success of a company is unlikely.
This means that it is imperative during this pivotal point in time for a business to ensure one of their top priorities to safeguard their success is to focus on creating a team-based culture. There have been many studies teamwork such as Google’s Project Aristotle which looked at the characteristics of strong teams. They found that the strongest teams had a culture that promoted; Psychological safety, Dependability, Structure, and Clarity, Meaning, and Impact. In other words, they created a culture where employees could thrive and ensure the success of the team.
The Return on Investment of a strong-team culture is resilience, enhanced communication, increased productivity, innovation, and heightened trust among employees. The immediate impact of these characteristics is a more agile and adaptable culture within the business to keep employees focused and engaged during challenging times. With the pandemic changing the business landscape, it is even more important that businesses focus on creating a strong team culture to ensure the successful pivots that businesses need to make to persevere.
A strong-team culture does not happen by itself. Leaders of the business must invest in making sure they have teamwork set as a priority. Then and only then can businesses have the best resource needed to survive and adapt to the changing landscape. Motivated employees are the resource that will work together to help the business overcome adversity and achieve greatness.
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