THE POWER OF TEAMWORK. BY DAVIDE ACCETTO, BYRNES DENTAL LAB Leave a comment
Are you happy where you work? I think this is a question you’ve heard before. Now think deeper about this and ask yourself, are you really happy to wake up every morning and spend at least 8 hours in your work place every day for the rest of your life?
WHAT MAKES YOUR WORKING DAY A GOOD DAY?
I will answer for you! TRUST and EMPATHY. Having trust and empathy with your colleagues makes every day work a good working day.
It has taken me more than 13 years to find the right working place. The first time I have stepped into Byrnes Dental Lab, I noticed something that I have never seen before in all the labs I have been working in between Italy and the UK. It was something that I could feel in the air, between people, and the whole place was lightened from this feeling.
What I was facing that day was something that I have been attracted instantly with. It wasn’t about the fancy stylish laboratory, or about the newest dental technologies in the lab, but the feeling of belonging to the company and one that cares for people, and it was there all the time from the start.
One of our company core values where I identify most for myself is “RELATIONSHIP”.
This is what we build at Byrnes before teeth. We work as a Team, maybe sometimes I spend even too much time to walk around the lab and spend time with my colleagues in different departments, but we care about each other, and this make the difference. Obviously, as in the best families, we have some bad times too and I believe that these times are the most valuable because it shows me every time how we are able to get over these problems together.
TRUST
Teamwork is about trust. This make us comfortable to be ourselves and to work at our natural best.
A trusting team is where you feel safe to be yourself, to make mistakes, to open up and get your feelings and problem out, to say I am worried, I am scared; to get help and sometimes even to challenge the “rules” to make the right thing.
If you don’t have a trusting team, are the people that comes to work every day invested in the people, work or company? Probably not, and the one’s that will suffer are companies, customers and at the end, ourselves.
The responsibility of this bad environment is not always the wrong employees, but most often our leaders, managers and bosses who create the environment.
Obviously, trust is not something that can be built from night to day, it is a very long and painful process but the results creates a winning Team.
EMPATHY
It’s the ability to understand and share feelings of others.
Many workplaces of every kind can have a lack of empathy, where it is only about rules and numbers, and they forget that employees are people too.
“Davide, you been late at work for the last week. If you won’t change this, it will have some serious consequences”
How would this make you feel it it sounds this way instead:
“Davide, you been late at work for the last week. How you doing buddy? Are you ok? I am worried for you.”
Sometimes we struggle with personal problems at home, with family, kids and partners. Getting closer and understanding those problems will create a profound and beautiful connection that will bond us as friends, not only as colleagues. I personally hate when someone says “you cannot be a friend with a colleague” and I have heard this many times and have been hurt many times in the past from colleagues I thought they were my friends.
Empathy is creating that safe circle for all, where we will share our problems and work together to solve them, where you are not accused but understood, where friendship is possible.
Work hard as a Team but do not forget to have “FUN” with your team. We are exceptionally good at this at Byrnes by having food together and organizing events out. We have built relationships and we can proudly says that we are Family and not just colleagues.
I hope these few words would be an eye opener for all those Teams and leaders which wish to create a better place to enjoy their working life.
