80+ Best teamwork quotes that will inspire team collaboration

Leading a team has its ups and downs. 

The trick is to inspire your teammates and remind them why being a part of a team is their biggest advantage. 

What best way to do so than with teamwork quotes?

Even some studies have implied why teamwork quotes are useful in the workplace. For instance, one study of motivation showed that words of encouragement helped people stay on track with their goals. 

To help your team be motivated enough to strive towards a goal together, in this blog post, we have selected some of the best teamwork quotes and divided them into several categories.

So, whether you are looking for team collaboration or team-building quotes, we are sure you will find your match in our list. 

Why are teamwork quotes so important?

Uniting a workplace sometimes seems like an impossible task. Whether you have an in-office team to inspire or you are trying to reach your remote workers, keeping them motivated is the key to your success.

Motivation and team collaboration transform your team into a well-oiled machine. If everyone is working together to achieve the set goal, it makes your job a whole lot easier. 

But, how can you inspire your team? 

While outer motivation is important, you shouldn’t forget the importance of internal motivation. 

It was Steve Jobs who said, “Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.” Keeping that one collaboration quote in mind, you are already wired to make room for your colleague’s opinions. Being an individual and working hard to get your unique ideas across to your team is a brave task, but an even braver one is stepping down, relating to your team, and hearing out every idea, until the solution is born.

Your workers need to feel that they are a part of a team, and what better way to inspire them than to use some of the teamwork quotes that will surely inspire team collaboration?

So, if you are looking for the best teamwork quotes that will motivate your team to work as one and to always have their goal in mind, then you should take a look at the following list of quotes about teamwork and success.

5 best quotes for teamwork to inspire better team collaboration

Great teamwork is a valuable asset to your management style and the overall well-being of the workplace. When you make your team drop their differences and get them to work together towards a common goal, that is when you know you are on the right track to success. 

We have selected 5 of the best teamwork quotes to help you in the following areas:

• Collaboration
• Team building
• Team effort
• Success
• The importance of working with a great team.

Best collaboration quote 

“The greatest asset of a company is its people.”

— Jorge Paulo Lemann, Brazilian banker 

It’s never what other people can do for you, but what you can do for other people. 

Think about how your teammates have helped you in the past. Whenever you had a complication in your work, there was your team holding down the fort. 

So naturally, putting your colleagues and co-workers ahead of you when doing any task will help you to be a better team player and allow yourself to truly hear and understand others’ ideas.

One way to achieve this kind of open communication with your team is by creating a positive work environment. 

Forming a team and having those people commit to the same cause will cause a wave of greatness. Appreciating one another and building a strong team is what all companies aspire to. 

Also, consider giving your colleagues a space where they’ll feel comfortable sharing their ideas, thus promoting the collaborative culture to your trusting team. An open-door policy can help you achieve this.

Best team building quote

“If you can laugh together, you can work together.”

— Robert Orben,  American writer and comedian 

It’s incredibly easy to say that you are a part of a group that works together from Monday to Friday. 

But being a part of a team takes dedication and empathic communication. 

Communicating is the first step to great team-building. By giving your team time to connect with one another, you will set a foundation for great teamwork in the future. Even if your team is scattered or virtual, there are plenty of ways how you can incorporate team building quotes and workshops to strengthen the bonds that make the team deliver results.

Best team effort quote

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”

— Booker T. Washington, American educator 

If we are too caught up in only helping ourselves, we lose sight of what it means to be a part of a team. While individual effort matters, there is a greater achievement in helping others. Booker T. Washington tries to shine a light on our habit of looking after ourselves, and urge us to change. 

Why? Well, helping others is what makes a team work. After all, we tend to rely on a ‘helping hand’ to guide us when we get lost — we should be just as ready to give a ‘helping hand’ in return.

Best teamwork quote for success 

“A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.”

— Bill Bethel 

There are a lot of things that go into a successful team. There should be equal parts dedication and determination. 

What Bill Bethel tried to say with this particular quote was that uniting all of the minds in a team, through effective communication and a common goal, makes all the people in the team work as one unit. 

We all want to be a part of a successful team, and a successful team communicates and cooperates — sometimes to the point where those are more reflexes than obligations. When talking about success, we usually get caught up in only seeing the results. But, obtaining success is a matter of all the hard work that came before success. 

Best quote about working with a great team

“If work isn’t fun, you are playing on the wrong team.”

— Frank Sonnenberg, American author

People spend decades trying to bring fun into the workplace or forcing the people working together to have fun at work.

But, they forgot that work in itself can be fun if you are working with like-minded people. You can benefit a lot from surrounding yourself with a group of people who understand you and share your opinions. These benefits can make your time spent working feel like hours flew by. 

Let’s name a few:

• Sharing and receiving advice
• Nurturing and establishing lifelong friendships
• Being able to rely on and trust others 

More great inspirational quotes for working together 

Quotes can be used as words of encouragement when you feel you are at a loss for words. 

In line with that, there are never too many quotes you can use to inspire your teams to work together — so, here are 5 aditional ones, for starters.

“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 “Master” Kwon, Korean fighter 

“If you can laugh together, you can work together.”

— Robert Orben, American writer

“Bad attitudes will ruin your team.”  

— Terry Bradshaw, American football player

“If you take the team out of teamwork, it’s just work. Now, who wants that?”

— Matthew Woodring Stover, American novelist

“Not finance, not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare.”  

— Patrick Lencioni, American author

Moving forward, let’s look at other great quotes about: 

• Collaboration, 
• Team building, 
• Team effort, 
• Team success, and 
• The importance of working in great teams.

Collaboration quotes

Keep in mind that greatness is never achieved through selfishness, and every busy bee needs to be reminded from time to time that your team is here to help, motivate, and inspire you. 

After all, that’s what effective collaboration is all about.

Now, surely, it can be difficult letting go of control and trusting someone else to help take the load off your shoulders — in other words, collaboration requires trust. But, trust within a team is rewarding once you establish it.

So, here are the best quotes to inspire trust and collaboration within your team.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  

— Isaac Newton, English physicist 

“It takes two flints to make a fire.”

— Louisa May Alcott, American novelist 

“It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you do not care who gets the credit.”  

— Harry Truman, 33rd U.S. President

“It is great to do what you love, but greater with a great team.”  

— Lilah Gifty Akita, Ghanaian author

“Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.”  

— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha, Nigerian author

“None of us is as smart as all of us.”  

— Ken Blanchard, American author

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

— Ryunosuke Satoro, Japanese author

“Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

— Vince Lombardi, American football coach

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist 

“It is the long history of humankind that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

— Charles Darwin, British naturalist 

“Growth is never by mere chance, it is the result of forces working together.”  

— James Cash Penney, American businessman

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

— Michael Jordan, American basketball player 

“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”

— Mattie Stepanek, American poet 

“Together, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.”

— Becka Schoettle, American author

“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, American writer 

“Without teamwork, there is no way that the company is going to experience success. In teams, individuals will work together and accomplish a lot more than what they do by themselves.”

— Michael Welton, Canadian author

Team building quotes 

Putting together people with expertise, without putting in the effort of making them a team, is almost like not having a team at all. 

That’s where team building comes in.

Team building events and activities are the best option for helping you enhance team cooperation — but quotes help as well.

In line with that, here are the best team buidling quotes that will help streghten your teamwork and improve motivation amongst teammates.

“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.”

— Virginia Burden, American author 

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”

— Halford. E. Luccock, American Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School 

“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, American comedian 

“A leader must inspire or his team will expire.”  

— Orrin Woodward, American author

“Not finance, not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare.”

— Patrick Lencioni, American author 

“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”

— Mother Teresa, Albanian nun 

“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”

— Patrick Lencioni, American author 

“The nicest thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.”  

— Margaret Carty, American author

“The key is really aligning everybody so they all understand where you’re going.”

— Eytan Lenko, Australian Chief Executive Officer 

“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”

— Mia Hamm, American soccer player 

“Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return?”

— Adam Grant, American organizational psychologist and author

“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, American writer

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

— Phil Jackson, American former professional basketball player

“There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.”

— George Shinn, American businessman and author

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you are playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”

— Reid Hoffman, American entrepreneur

Team effort quotes 

Team effort is the key ingredient when you have a tough task waiting to be resolved. While there is no ‘I’ in the team, you should note that every individual effort towards the same goal is priceless. 

Team effort is what builds trust in your team, and proves to other team members that the collective will always have their back. 

So, while you are working on improving other components of your team, here are some team effort quotes to help remind your teammates why they are irreplaceable.

“The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.”  

— Iyanla Vanzant, American inspirational speaker

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”

— Booker T. Washington, American educator 

“We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.”

— Martin Luther King Jr., American minister and activist

“A team is not a group of people who work together, but a team is a group of people who trust each other.”

— Simon Sinek, American author 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

— African proverb

“A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.”  

— Proverb

“Many hands make light work.”  

— John Heywood, English author

“The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.”

— Lewis B. Ergen, American actor 

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprung up.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician 

“Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation, and consensus.”

— Simon Mainwaring, Australian author

“I realized that if I was willing to step up and be in the spotlight, I’d be able to make everyone else around me much more powerful as well.”

— Alaina Percival, American CEO of Women Who Code 

“Focus on being productive, instead of being busy.”

— Tim Ferris, American entrepreneur

“Success is best when it’s shared.”

— Howard Shultz, American CEO of Starbucks 

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”

— Napoleon Hill, American author 

“To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.”

— Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball coach 

Teamwork quotes for success

Working aimlessly, with no goals or no perception of success, will only drag your team down.

They might lose sight of what they are working towards. 

So, to make sure that doesn’t happen, you can use some of these quotes for success. 

Remind yourself and your colleagues that obtaining goals and reaching success, no matter how big or small, is what will keep the team spirit alive. 

“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, American baseball player 

“You don’t win alone. That’s just how it is.”  

— Tobio Kageyama, anime character

“The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other.”

— Thomas Stallkamp, American author 

“Collaboration has no hierarchy. The Sun collaborates with soil to bring flowers on the earth.”

— Amit Ray, Indian author 

“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”

— Joe Paterno, American football player 

“A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.”

— Bill Bethel, American minister

“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”

— Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist

“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.”  

— Vince Lombardi Jr, American author

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.”

— Ariana Huffington, Greek-American author 

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

— Herman Melville, American novelist

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.”

— Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist 

“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”

— Estée Lauder, American businesswoman 

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

— Dale Carnegie, American writer 

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”

— Colin R. Davis, English conductor 

“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”  

— Mister Rogers, American television host

Teamwork quotes for working with a great team

Don’t forget to appreciate your team and let them know that they are doing a great job.

Appreciating the team that you have built and continuing to build trust and efficiency will help the team work flawlessly even through tough times. 

Let these quotes resonate with you, and give your team the appreciation they deserve. 

“If work isn’t fun you are playing on the wrong team.”  

— Frank Sonnenberg, American author

“There’s nothing greater in the world than when somebody on the team does something good, and everybody gathers around to pat him on the back.”

— Billy Martin, American baseball manager

“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.”

— Althea Gibson, American tennis player 

“Overcoming barriers to performance is how groups become teams.”

— John Katzenbach, American author 

“Regardless of differences, we strive shoulder to shoulder… Teamwork can be summed up in five short words: ‘We believe in each other.'”

— Anthony J. James, American CEO 

“It is better to have one person working with you than three people working for you.”

— Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President 

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

— Henry Ford, American industrialist 

“We = power”

— Lorii Myers, American author 

“When you form a team, why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed.”

— Russel Honroe, retired American military general 

“Steps taken together take us Far.”

— Aniket S. Sharma, Indian author 

“The more we are able to engage in enthusiastic disagreement with each other, the more we will be able to uncover the best in ourselves and each other.”

— Karen Kimsey-House, American author 

“Team spirit promotes greater accomplishment.”

— Lailah Gifty Akita, Ghanian author 

“There is no team without the individual members; an individual can never be a team.”  

— Michael Joling, English researcher

“If you focus on the strength of the team, you will begin to find work as a positive challenge.”

— Salil Jha, American author, and poet 

“Everyone you work with, in order to achieve a goal, must have something to lose if it is not realised and something to gain if it is realised. These are the people that are going to stick around you through thick and thin until the job is done.”

— Saidi Mdala, Botswanian author

Conclusion: Teamwork quotes will make your colleagues appreciate the team

To circle back, your team is your greatest asset, and nurturing and inspiring your colleagues will not only produce an astonishing workplace, but it may also give you friends who share your goals and mindsets. 

Keep in mind that these quotes can only help you to inspire your team — the rest is on how you manage and lead your team.

Let these working together quotes shine some light and help you and your team to only grow as a whole.

✉️ Did you ever have to use teamwork quotes to inspire your colleagues? What effects did you accomplish by using some of these quotes?
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