How Leaders can Facilitate Team Bonding
Team Bonding Needs to be Intentional
The modern-day workplace has always been a treasure trove for pop-culture references; one of the most recent being the AppleTV show Severance. If you have not gotten a chance to watch it yet, I would highly recommend doing so. As it is one of my wife and I’s favorite shows, we were incredibly excited when season 2 came out a few months back.
Throughout the show, I have found all the office rituals, like melon parties and the dance experience, absolutely hilarious. The most recent workplace cliché to be added to the list in the new season was the classic team nature retreat. However, they took this example to the extreme by roughing it in the woods in the middle of winter.
As silly as that sounds, we know organizations will go to great lengths to help their team “bond”, some of these bordering on ridiculous (I’m looking at you Trust Falls.) However, despite all the time and money put into these activities, they rarely produce the type of cohesion leaders hope for. After a fun (or not-so-fun) time away, people return to the office and slip right back into dysfunctional habits. In a recent article I wrote on team-building activities, I unpacked how spending time together is simply not enough. Leaders need to be intentional in planning activities that are not only fun but facilitate engagement and trust among team members.
This can also go beyond team-building activities and extend into routine tasks and operations. Every day the leader has an incredible capacity to set a tone for collaboration and trust in their team. And the good news is… they don’t need to send them out into the woods to do so.
The Role of Trust in Team Bonding
Now before we get into the tactical side of things, we need to build the proper foundation. Bonding has far more to do with how your team treats each other in the office during regular work interactions than during socials or retreats. That is why when trying to facilitate team bonding, leaders need to start from a place of cultivating trust. Leadership guru Simon Sinek gives an amazing breakdown in this video. Similar to how teams interact with their leader, they will not be able to bond together if they don’t trust each other. While a leader ultimately can’t control how people choose to behave, they can cultivate an environment that is conducive to building trust.
There are a few neuroscience concepts that can help us understand how trust is built or lost on teams. The first thing to talk about is the importance of a hormone called Oxytocin. Often called the “Trust Hormone”, Oxytocin is released when we experience positive social interactions with others and genuine connection. Not only does this hormone enhance trust, but it also promotes prosocial behaviors like compassion and cooperation; both incredibly important for teamwork.
Yet there is another important hormone at work that often opposes the effects of oxytocin. This is the stress hormone Cortisol. Due to its role in stress response, many people associate Cortisol with a negative connotation. However, it’s important to note that Cortisol serves a useful purpose in that it prepares our body for “fight or flight.” This hormone helps us push through challenges, and avoid threats. The problem is that many workplaces today and filled with chronic stressors. Thus, many people experience a stress overload in their job, leading to an excess of Cortisol. This is very unhealthy for the body. Even more importantly, Cortisol acts in opposition to Oxytocin.
So in high-stress workplaces (which is most), we see an absence of many of the pro-social behaviors of Oxytocin. This often looks like people being more guarded, selfish, withdrawn, and less considerate of the needs of others. Therefore, it is very difficult for people to bond in environments where they don’t feel safe. This is where the leader has an incredible capacity to facilitate trust and collaboration.
The Right Environment for a Team
Too often leaders waste time and energy trying to control the behaviors of their team. A perfect example is when a leader asks me: “how can I motivate my team?” The disappointing answer here is that you can’t. You can’t control someone else’s level of motivation. However, what a leader can do is cultivate an environment that is conducive to motivation. The same is true with trust and team bonding. You can’t directly control this, but you can create the right kind of environment. That is how leaders should look at the process of team bonding. What kind of environment are you creating?
This is where the concepts of trust and stress are important. Right away a leader can assess their workplace and remove barriers. What is causing your team stress or frustration? This is an easy place to start. A great question I heard to gauge this is:
“Where are we manufacturing energy?”
What habits or rituals drain you and your team’s energy without giving anything back? Where are we having to drum up motivation? Meetings are a prime target here. Most companies have too many of them. This is just one example of a way leaders can alter the workplace environment. The more you can remove these challenges, the easier it will be for Oxytocin to be produced, leading to good behaviors.
Secondly, a leader can then look at Oxytocin promoting strategies. A few great places to start include:
Social Interaction – While I have already touched on this, it’s important to mention again that positive social interaction is incredibly important for your team and should not be neglected. Sometimes these interactions can merely be having fun together, but it is also important that the leader has other times that are specifically designed for building trust.
Empathy – Empathy plays a very important role in Oxytocin release. Thus it is also a very important thing for leaders and teams to practice. I would suggest including activities that allow your team to practice empathy in your meetings and socials. This can include things like active listening, role-playing, etc.
Recognition and Appreciation – This is often neglected by many leaders. Recent research conducted by Gallup shows some amazing benefits of employee recognition. Employees who receive positive feedback on their performance are:
45% less likely to turnover in 2 years
5x more likely to be engaged
47% less likely to be searching for another job
Regular acts of recognition and appreciation from leaders not only improve individual performance, but the Oxytocin boost will also carry over to team behaviors. This is an easy and low-cost tool for leaders to help their team.
Bonding Takes Time (and maybe a little bit of help)
As with many things, change takes time. Once a leader starts making adjustments in the environment, they need to be patient as their team adapts. I would encourage you to take a couple of concepts you learned today and start applying them to your workplace.
If you are looking for more insight into teamwork and collaboration here are a couple of helpful articles for you:
Furthermore, if you are looking for assistance in your leadership journey, I have helped many leaders grow their skills, and create high-performing cultures in their organization. Book a free Discovery Call with me to learn about the different services I offer and see if they are right for you.
