Your most valuable business asset is your people.
Running your business every day, delivering top quality work to your clients, and growing your business depends on your team working well together. Your job is to keep them inspired, engaged, challenged, and growing.
We've all had those projects where our team suddenly falters. Maybe it's a personal issue between two members. Maybe it's a team leader overreaching and not being open to other members' ideas. Whatever the case, your job is to re-inspire them to function as a true team.
When teamwork happens the way it's supposed to, it can be incredible! Getting everyone equally invested in a common goal leads to improved productivity, more innovation, and a strong company culture.
When you reach that point when each team member feels like every other person has their back, job performance, engagement, and satisfaction skyrocket!
However, keeping your team inspired can be challenging. This is where quotes come in handy. Using the right quote can help inspire confidence and motivate your team.
20 Collaboration Quotes and Why They're Impactful
Turning to the inspirational words of others can sometimes be exactly what you need to recharge your team's enthusiasm.
Here are 20 teamwork quotes you can use to inspire and energize your team:
1. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller
There is strength in numbers. Working together can solve any problem.
2. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” - Michael Jordan
The most talented person on your team can't match the combined talents and efforts of your entire team. Teamwork inspires innovation and gains more wins for everyone involved.
3. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” - Henry Ford
The perfect team helps each other move forward together toward a collective goal. And when each team member is on the same page and works hard, then success comes without the stress.
4. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” - Andrew Carnegie
This is one of the best teamwork quotes in terms of outlining the true meaning of teamwork. Carnegie built his empire on teamwork and directing his teams toward specific goals and objectives.
5. “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” - Henry Ford
Ford knew he needed to build teams to achieve his vision for the assembly line technique of mass production. Groups of employees working together down the line changed the manufacturing process, and the techniques live on today.
6. “You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” - Jim Stovall
Being an effective team requires everyone working toward a common goal and being aware of what each team member is responsible for. A good team supports each member's efforts and works to encourage excellence!
7. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” - Babe Ruth
The Babe's words are wise. If you put together a team of your best talent, but they can't function as a team, none of their talent matters. To work, a team has to enhance each team member's skills and talent to make the whole greater than its parts.
8. “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of its parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.” - Steve Jobs
Apple is infamous for their technological advances. Jobs built teams like he built technology. Like Abraham Lincoln, he often built teams of rivals, but their strengths and shortfalls balanced each other perfectly.
9. “There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” - Idowu Koyenikan
This is the basis of true teamwork. If all team members are invested in the same goals, with no bias or ego, nothing can stop them!
10. “A group is a bunch of people in an elevator. A team is a bunch of people in an elevator, but the elevator is broken.” - Bonnie Edelstein
Again, the commonality of goals and ability to work together without ego determines the effectiveness of any team. When faced with a challenge, a team unites to come up with a solution.
11. “The ratio of we's to I's is the best indicator of the development of a team.” - Lewis B. Ergen
A team works as a unit to reach a solution. When ego is left at the door, innovation happens!
12. “One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up. Add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say, that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.” - Jin Kwon
The sum of the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
13. "If you can laugh together, you can work together." - Robert Orben
Having fun with your team helps you to be more innovative and creative. This adds value to collaboration and establishes bonds.
14. "A successful team is a group of many hands in one mind." - Bill Bethel
Teams that collaborate together successfully have the same focus, the same goals, and are willing to do the work to move the team forward. They come together as "one mind."
15. "A strong team can make any vision turn into a reality." - John Carmack
Nothing is impossible when you work as a team to accomplish goals.
16. “A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of others.” - Norman Shidle
Mutual encouragement is needed on teams for each person to contribute meaningfully to the work of a common goal or project.
17. "Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there." - Virginia Burden
If your team members don't succeed, then you don't succeed. Everyone can succeed with cooperation and collaboration.
18. “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” - H.E. Luccock
One person can't go it alone and expect to achieve great results. It takes a whole team working together as one to see the results you want.
19. “Sometimes, great collaboration is hard to nurture online, so doing so offline is the way to go.” – Cameron Russell
In the digital age, collaboration can be hindered by connecting online. Make efforts to collaborate in person to maximize your efforts.
20.“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler
The best people to have on your team are the ones who challenge you to do better and to be better. When you spend your time working with them and listening to them, you can transform your habits and the way you think.
30 More Quotes to Inspire Hard Work and Collaboration
via GIPHY
Can't get enough of our quotes? Check out these additional quotes for even more inspiration.
- 21. “When you form a team, why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed.” - Russel Honore
- 22. “When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.” - Marissa Mayer
- 23. “Collaboration and augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation.” - Vaclav Smil
- 24. "Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” - Ryunosuke Satoro
- 25. “Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” - Mattie Stepanek
- 26. “None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” - Mother Teresa
- 27. "I’ve learned that anything in life worth having comes from patience and hard work." - Greg Behrendt
- 28. "I learned the value of hard work by working hard." - Margaret Mead
- 29. "I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near." - Margaret Thatcher
- 30. “I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson
- 31. "Hard work beats talent when talent fails hard work." - Kevin Durant
- 32. "Politeness is the poison of collaboration." - Edwin Land
- 33. "Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." - Vince Lombardi
- 34. "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain
- 35. "It takes two flints to make a fire." - Louisa May Alcott
- 36. "Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it's a really good thing to remember." - Ginni Rometty
- 37. "Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit." - Helena Rubinstein
- 38. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” - Paulo Coelho
- 39. “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” - Dale Carnegie
- 40. "Do not whine… Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone." - Joan Didion
- 41. "It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone." - Mark Cuban
- 42. "Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen." - Conan O’Brien
- 43. "Be true to your work, your word, and your friend." - Henry David Thoreau
- 44. "All good work requires self-revelation." - Sidney Lumet
- 45. "To succeed, work hard, never give up, and above all, cherish a magnificent obsession." - Walt Disney
- 46. "Go and get your things. Dreams mean work." - Paulo Coelho
- 47. “The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.” - Margaret Carty
- 48. “Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.” - Ifeanyi Onuoha
- 49. “With an enthusiastic team, you can achieve almost anything.” - Tahir Shah
- 50. “Teams share the burden and divide the grief.” - Doug Smith
Creating an effective team means motivating each individual to strive to be the best, support each other, and work toward the same goal.
These teamwork quotes can help you get your team on the same page and inspire them to act together while putting in the hard work to hit their personal and professional goals. This, in turn, helps you achieve your business goals.
Practice using them at your team meetings and watch what happens!