A lesson in Team Spirit

Now that the hangover has passed, I’ve had time to reflect on our achievement of being a finalist in the Toast of Surrey business awards and, I have to be honest, being ‘just a runner up’ hit me harder than I thought it would do.

I had convinced myself that being a runner-up was all that we’d achieve, and that the overall winner would be one of the other finalists.  And I was comfortable with that.

But, on the night itself, one of the organisers let slip that we’d actually won, so I had two hours to work on my Oscar-winning acceptance speech, and dream about what winning would feel like.

However, that was not the case…

My concern immediately switched to our team and how I could motivate them and make sure they felt good about projectfive reaching the finals.

But I guess my own feelings were hard to suppress, and my disappointment was hard to disguise.  As I battled through a heavy workload on Friday, complete with hangover too, I was never quite able to conjure up the words or actions needed to lift the team.

But, I needn’t of worried, they we there to motivate me, and this is what I received in my inbox on Friday…

From: Phil Dear
Sent: 14 March 2014 16:24
To: Steve Coburn
Subject: Because….

Hi Steve,

Despite the fact that it was a great night out, I think we are all a bit disappointed that we didn’t actually win last night at the Toast of surrey Awards. I’ve asked the team why they think we ‘should’ have won and, in no particular order, here are some of the reasons they came up with….

“Because even our clients turned up, uninvited, gate-crashing the party, expecting us to win.”

“Because of our originality of course!”

“Because of how much we’ve grown and how many people we’ve taken on recently!  It shows that we’re doing the right thing for our customers and that we have something to offer that people really like. Projectfive really is a great place to work and the fact that we can keep attracting really awesome people to work here with us just proves that it is easy for other people to see this too.”

“Because we’re a great close nit company who look after each other, which then naturally means we look after our customers.  As projectfive get stronger the local businesses we work with also get stronger 🙂 ”

“Because we have exquisite taste in alcohol (consumption only).”

“Because we all genuinely want to help the people we meet and make their jobs/days better. Every one of the team are passionate about what they do and will go the extra mile to help people.”

“Because we cheered the loudest on the night!”

“Because this isn’t just a job, I don’t feel like it’s a chore every morning to come to work. We have an amazing team with cracking personality and it feels like a little orange family! We are all well looked after, the management team are always helping even if it isn’t a work issue. Basically projectfive is the best place to work and that’s due to all the hard work we all put in.”

“Because as a team we are sick and not like ill sick, like amazing sick!”

“Because of our Family atmosphere (including the occasional spat), diversity of characters (even amongst the geeks) and our unrestrainable senses of humour and mischief”

“Because we are the best dressed”

“Because the fact that all 17 of us turn out to the awards goes to show how proud everyone is to work for projectfive. Everyone is engaged and dedicated to the projectfive brand and purpose; everyone works incredible hard; and we really do love working for projectfive! We’re a talented, friendly bunch and are committed to providing our clients with honest, reliable and personable support – we deserved to win!”

“Because were the loudest and clearly had the most team spirit”

Some comments are obviously more serious than others.  I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t look like a list made by people who think they are losers!

I will let you guess who said exactly what, but what is great is how positive everyone feels about what they do at projectfive, even the bits that are ‘work’.

Thanks for arranging a great evening out for us all to have a bit of fun, and more importantly, thanks for arranging projectfive so we can have fun during the days as well.

Cheers mate!

Phil

As you can see, that really is a great lesson in Team Spirit because, as a team we were able to work out who needs the most support at any given time, and be on hand to provide that support just when it’s really needed.

Thank you projectfive!