Effective teamwork: The key to success and growth

Effective teamwork is the secret behind the growth and success of the most successful companies in the world. Teamwork is an incredibly important ingredient of the 'successful business' recipe.

Take companies such as Apple, Yahoo and LinkedIn for example. All of these companies are well aware of the importance of teamwork. They work hard to promote teamwork and encourage collaboration among their employees.

What can we learn from these crazy successful companies and how they view and foster teamwork?

Lessons on teamwork from Apple, Yahoo and LinkedIn

Here are some valuable lessons on teamwork from Apple, Yahoo and LinkedIn:

Lesson #1: Highlight the importance of teamwork

"Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people."

- Steve Jobs, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Apple

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”

- Reid Hoffman, Co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn

Key takeaway:
Make teamwork one of your key companies values and continually work on promoting it.

Lesson #2: Teamwork starts at the top

“There is tremendous teamwork at the top of the company which filters down the teamwork through out of the company.”

- Steve Jobs, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Apple

Key takeaway:
Teamwork starts at the top and filters down through every layer of your company. If you want your employees to foster team collaboration, model it form top.

Lesson #3: Trust is the key

“Teamwork is dependent on trusting the other folks to come through with their part without watching them all the time.”

- Steve Jobs, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Apple

Key takeaway:
Hire the best people and trust them to do their job. Team members will hold each other accountable.

Lesson #4: Teamwork leads to innovation

“When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.”

- Marissa Mayer, Former president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!

Key takeaway:
If you want to find a new, creative solution for a certain problem, bring (different) people together. Diversity leads to innovation.

Lesson #5: Teamwork is a process

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

- Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

Key takeaway:
Teamwork is a continuous process. Team members must learn how to successfully communicate and work together.