You’ve heard it before: Teamwork helps productivity, and productivity is the bottom line when things just have to get done. In the integrated marketing space, there’s always a list 15 miles long of priority items to accomplish. When you hit the wall of juggling tasks, there is nothing better than having a team to lean on for encouragement, a quick laugh to boost energy, or for a much-needed creative brainstorming session to keep things moving.
Here are the things I’ve learned, in terms of teamwork, during my time at lotus823:
1. Give Proper Recognition… It’s Deserved and Appreciated!
When you receive an email offering appreciation and gratitude for a job well done, and realize the person behind that particular task isn’t in copy, what do you do? Steal their limelight or give proper recognition? At our firm, we give credit where credit is due (even if it leads to quoting basketball players!) For example, take the following email passed through after compliments were given on a blog post theme:
“Yes, you go girl and go team!!!!! Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. – Michael Jordan. Awesome collaboration!” – Allison Hernandez, lotus823 Managing Partner
And then, even on the busiest of days, an email can go out to offer kudos, titled “Horn Toot!” You read right, “horn toot!” Sometimes our social media services garner PR-oriented results even when PR isn’t the client’s primary service (this happens when a team is composed of integrated-minded people!). Unexpected, sure. Results worth celebrating, OF COURSE!
“I will send to toot a horn of amazingness!” – Jessica Guida, lotus823 SEM/SEO Manager & Strategist
2. ‘Team’ Extends to Our Clients, Too!
Teamwork doesn’t stop at our office doors. We welcome our clients and contacts into the lotus823 family to grow and succeed with one another. With our services, we take an integrated marketing approach. This carries over to our relationships, too! We represent our clients’ products as if we invented them ourselves. Our passion and dedication goes deeper than a short-term contract. It’s a commitment and perseverance unlike any other, and its something that our client testimonials speak to (something we like to ‘toot our own horns’ about 🙂). Just the other day, we received the following from one of our beloved clients who’s been with us since the very beginning:
“Thank you so much, team, for all your work on our behalf. We appreciate you and the time you spent getting our name out there! Best of luck to all.” – Mary Beth Campbell, www.boomboomcards.com
3. Have Fun With It (Inside Jokes)
On the dark side (I’m talking about the search engine optimization team, of course), we do it our way. We work crazy hours, constantly have to reign in our OCD tendencies, and let absolutely nothing get in the way of reaching the goals at hand. Sometimes, this cannot be done alone. Thus, we reach out to fellow ‘dark side’ team members in humorous ways to keep things moving in the right direction. You guessed it! We motivate each other via Skype chat icons and the use of ridiculous hashtag chants when the moment calls for such…
#BOOM! 
Go #SEO Team! #SEO Team!
Or, one of my favorites:
After all, it’s not only about working together, it’s also about achieving together!
There’s No ‘I’ in ‘Team’
What I do know is that ‘teamwork’ has an entirely different meaning to me today than it did during a solid round of tug-o-war back in Elementary school. At lotus823, it’s the language we speak, it’s the food we eat, it’s the way we function and it’s why we’re accomplishing the things we are day after day. To my lotus823 team, I commend you (and adore you!). Thank you for making each day bright, manageable and successful!
Have your own stories to share on teamwork? We’re all ears. Leave a comment below to let us know what ‘teamwork’ means to you!