Build camaraderie
Preziotti worked to unify the disparate parts of Vertellus, but he
started the process outside the company’s walls.
He says one of the best ways to bring your employees together
and build camaraderie is to get them involved in projects outside
of the day-to-day routine of their jobs.
“We do things where we go out to dinner together as part of our
monthly leadership meeting,” Preziotti says. “It just helps build
that sense of trust and camaraderie amongst each other. We’ll not
only do a dinner, we’ll do some kind of fun team building. Instead
of a regular dinner, you go to a place where you actually prepare
the meal. You’re working together as a team where you’re going to
prepare the meal together.”
The idea is to find ways to solve problems that lack urgency but
engage creativity.
“You’re not working together in that tense work environment,”
Preziotti says. “You’re getting to see another part of everybody that
you work with on a regular basis. You tend to have more compassion, and I think that ultimately makes you function better as a
team. You’re not going to blame each other. You’re going to fundamentally dig in and do whatever it takes to help a team member
who may have an issue that they can’t solve on their own.”
An additional bonus to doing things outside of work is that it
allows you to observe how people work together and who the natural leaders are.
For even better results, get employees involved in planning some
of the team-building outings.
“You just have to try doing different things,” Preziotti says.
“You’re not going to know instinctively. If you have a diverse team
with different sets of backgrounds, there’s no one thing that’s
going to work for everybody. Especially if your team has a diverse
makeup, you’re going to have to vary those activities you do so
that you’re acknowledging everybody as you move on through the
company.”
Work can often be a grind and a source of stress. When you
can inject fun into the mix and make people feel good about
working at your company, you need to do it.
“If you’re not having fun when you are working and if you
don’t have a sense of humor and a sense of humility about
what you do, then you’re taking it too seriously,” Preziotti says.
“When people are having fun and they know that they can poke
fun at their teammates back and forth, it just helps to build that
working relationship.”
