It was International Day of Friendship yesterday which set us thinking about the importance of friendship within Forever, and how it is one of the hallmarks of successful and happy teams.

Sadly, it’s still the case that traditional work cultures are not great at showing appreciation. Research shows how important it is for retaining staff, for their happiness and their productivity, which also contribute to fostering friendships.

Friendship is part of Forever’s DNA, so how do we foster friendship and success in our teams?

Giving recognition – why it matters

From an early age, we crave recognition from parents, teachers, and friends. So strong is our desire for positive affirmation, particularly as we develop, that we can even perceive a neutral reaction as a negative one. This continues to hold true for us even as adults.

Recognition in teams

•     Helps them stay together

•     Increases engagement of the individual team members so that they feel they belong

•     Encourages high performance

Recognitions don’t have to be grand affairs and don’t always have to be performance related. It could be recognition of someone helping another team member, or doing something that took them out of their comfort zone like hosting an online meeting or giving a team talk online about their Forever journey. It could be performance related, celebrating how they have achieved success with a particular product or achieved a Marketing Plan milestone. Recognition is a celebration of the individual and can be as simple as a team extending congratulations and a round of applause. The key is to make someone feel important and appreciated.

It’s worth understanding what motivates your individual team members. Find out the kind of rewards that they would most appreciate. The fact that you have gone to this trouble will undoubtedly go as far as the recognition itself, not least that you took time to get to know them, and that you care.

We all want to feel that we matter, that we are more than just a cog in some wheel. Recognise team members’ birthdays or anniversaries in the business, be thoughtful, be creative. Get feedback and ask the team what motivates and inspires them.

While physical company events are not currently taking place, perhaps if you have a small team, you could consider a team picnic as a simple way of socialising and increasing that sense of belonging, it doesn’t and shouldn’t be all business related and this is where friendships are fostered within the team.

Be sensitive to individual team members’ needs. Many people join Forever to escape being a cookie-cutter employee where everyone is the same. Not everyone will develop their business at the same rate, they will have individual goals and have different commitments which means they will have different levels of motivation and time to develop their businesses. People also develop skills at different rates and have different levels of confidence with different aspects of the business, some may love retail but shy away from team building themselves. Respect these differences and work with them.