Teamwork: what does it mean? What does it mean to you? Most importantly, what does it mean to your team and accounting practice?

There’s an oversupply of definitions for teamwork, varying slightly depending on who you ask. In business practices, it’s best to approach it together, so as to build consensus in the workplace around a shared definition.

Teams of accountants today range in size and complexity, from hundreds of accountants working on audits of multinational organisations to two accountants working on a project for their manager. Collaboration (that stems from good teamwork) has emerged as one of the defining characteristics of successful firms, and is aided by technology – platforms that provide accounting teams with a controlled, centralised online space to communicate, share files and documents as well as coordinate time management and resources.

Partners are always challenging employees to ‘tear down silos’ and ‘transcend boundaries’. There are very few geniuses working in rooms all alone nowadays – nearly every project requires an element of collaboration.

So why is it so hard?

Collaboration is only effective when there is buy-in, and as ever, working with other people can breed obstacles.

Egos can get in the way. It’s natural to have competition in the workplace, you want to advance your career after all. A certain level of competition is healthy for the work environment, however too much may create disunity.

Unequal levels of effort or time from individuals can also cause rifts in the team. One accountant may appear not to pull their weight, or else completely dominate the work, which can make others feel alienated. This can trigger an ‘us vs them’ mentality, and all of a sudden, members of the same team no longer feel that they are working toward the same goal.

Unproductive and dull meetings are another teamwork inhibitor. You can bet these sound familiar.

Ground rules can help

Teams work best when they put some initial effort into defining roles, clarifying processes and preventing or reducing conflict. Sensible ground rules can instill the behaviours needed for good teamwork. Here are some areas where ground rules may be helpful.

• Decision making

  Clarify who makes the critical decisions at the start of the project — and split up the responsibility for less stress at the top and greater ownership throughout the levels. One person (partner or manager) cannot be the source of all information, but delegation does have to come from the top and without visibility into who is working on what, it’s difficult. Changes regarding the scope of the project or changes in goals should certainly go through someone more senior, while other project participants might be empowered to make decisions about changes in tasks and methodology, so long as they don’t impact the project goals or deadlines.