Building Teams When People Work Alone

How could I get a group of people who rarely saw each other, barely knew each other and were competing against each other—to act like a team?

All day – by yourself? If the job means riding around in a car all day, it can be a lonely job. Those who have jobs in either sales or law enforcement are asked to spend a lot of time alone. Yet, these individuals are also asked to be part of a team.

In each of these industries, professionals are required to get out of their car and interact with customers. But, when they are not interacting with the customer they serve, they are often alone. As a sales leader for fifteen years, I saw this as one of the main challenges to building a cohesive team.

My team did not have weekly face-to-face team meetings for one reason. We were spread over multiple states. In fact, many of the people on my team only saw each other once every 3-4 months. In spite of this, they were expected to act like a team. My challenge was to create connection and trust between people who rarely spent time together. To add to the challenge, my teammates were ranked against each other in a monthly report from headquarters.

I asked myself, “How could I get a group of people who rarely saw each other, barely knew each other and were competing against each other to act like a team?”

To answer this question, I decided to ask them to do something different. I asked them to intentionally do something selfless for each other. The best definition of teamwork I have ever heard is: “Teamwork means selfless acts towards a common goal.” To make this actionable, I asked them to put aside their regular duties for one day in order to make somebody else on the team better.