Not every leader knows how to deliver rousing speeches.
If you struggle to come up with effective pep talks when you’re put on the spot, fear not.
Chances are, someone else has already thought of the best words for the occasion.
So, the next time you go looking for a short motivational message for teams that are in dire need of a morale boost, use one of the teamwork quotes we have compiled below!
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Top 5 motivational team quotes for better workplace collaboration
Knowing how to inspire teamwork can help you become a better manager, no matter which style of leadership you subscribe to.
In addition to improving employee engagement, this skill can also boost your team’s productivity.
With that in mind, we wanted to share top 5 motivational team quotes that will help you understand the value of workplace collaboration.
Best collaboration quote:
“The greatest asset of a company is its people.”
— Jorge Paulo Lemann, Brazilian investment banker
Best team building quote:
“If you can laugh together, you can work together.”
— Robert Orben, American writer and comedian
Best team effort quote:
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
— Booker T. Washington, American educator
Best teamwork quote for success:
“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
Best quote about working with a great team:
“If work isn’t fun, you are playing on the wrong team.”
— Frank Sonnenberg, American author
There are plenty of ways to incorporate these teamwork quotes into your team meetings or casual discussions with your coworkers — even if you don’t work in the same space.
Now that we’re in the mood to receive all the wisdom these teamwork quotes have to offer, let’s see some more examples!
It starts at the top: Quotes about leadership and teamwork
When it comes to creating the right conditions for teamwork, it all starts at the top.
The following quotes about leadership and teamwork carry different lessons leaders should learn about teamwork.
“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
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”
— Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
“It is better to have one person working with you than three people working for you.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President
“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
“Create an environment where people can take risks. If everything has to be brilliant from the word go, you’re never gonna get off the ground.”
— Paul Hewson aka Bono, Irish singer-songwriter and activist
“The key is really aligning everybody so they all understand where you’re going.”
— Eytan Lenko, Australian CEO of Boundless Earth
“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
Two flints to make a fire: Insightful quotes about working together as a team
In the world of business, true greatness is never achieved through selfishness.
If someone on your team forgets that, send them one of the following quotes about collaboration.
“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
“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.”
— Master Jin Kwon, Korean martial artist
“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
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
— Ryunosuke Satoro, Japanese author
“Growth is never by mere chance, it is the result of forces working together.”
— James Cash Penney, American businessman
“It is great to do what you love, but greater with a great team.”
— Lilah Gifty Akita, Ghanaian author
“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
— Mattie Stepanek, American poet
“It is the long history of humankind that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
— Charles Darwin, British naturalist
“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
There’s no I in TEAM: Inspirational quotes that show the value of humility
At the end of the day, teamwork should be about group achievements — not individual triumphs.
If you want to get that point across to your team, try using these quotes about helping others succeed and sharing the spotlight.
“It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you do not care who gets the credit.”
— Harry Truman, 33rd U.S. President
“To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.”
— Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball coach
“The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.”
— Iyanla Vanzant, American inspirational speaker
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
— Ken Blanchard, American author
“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
“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
“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
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”
— Napoleon Hill, American 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
“Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.”
— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha, Nigerian author
“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”
— Joe Paterno, American football player
Beyond self-interest: Teamwork quotes about overcoming division
Relinquishing self-interest in favor of a group identity can be difficult, especially when a team’s performance can be affected by miscommunication and misunderstandings.
The goal of team collaboration is to transcend these points of conflict and focus on the tasks at hand.
If your team struggles to stay on track, these teamwork quotes should remind them of what it’s all about.
“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, American industrialist and philanthropist
“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
“Bad attitudes will ruin your team.”
— Terry Bradshaw, American football player
“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
“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
“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
“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
Together we rise: Motivational team quotes about the value of team effort
Once all those internal conflicts are resolved, a team can start working on achieving their goals.
Here are some motivational team quotes to help you inspire your team to do great things.
“We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.”
— Martin Luther King Jr., American minister and activist
“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.”
— Virginia Burden, American author
“Together, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.”
— Becka Schoettle, American author
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
— Helen Keller, American author and disability rights advocate
“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
“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
“Focus on being productive, instead of being busy.”
— Tim Ferris, American entrepreneur
“There is no team without the individual members; an individual can never be a team.”
— Michael Joling, English researcher
Shared success: Teamwork quotes for employees and managers
Teamwork allows us to reach heights we couldn’t get near as individuals.
With that in mind, here are some words of wisdom about achieving success through hard work.
“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, Nobel Peace Prize winner
“Success is best when it’s shared.”
— Howard Shultz, former CEO of Starbucks
“You don’t win alone. That’s just how it is.”
— Tobio Kageyama, anime character
“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”
— Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner
“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”
— Vince Lombardi Jr, American author
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
— Henry Ford, American industrialist and business magnate
“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.”
— Althea Gibson, American tennis player
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
— Michael Jordan, American basketball player
“Team spirit promotes greater accomplishment.”
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Ghanaian 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
“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
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
— Estée Lauder, American businesswoman
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.”
— Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist
Stronger together: Quotes to use during team building events
All the challenges we go through while working on team projects become worth it when it’s time to celebrate our achievements.
The following positive team quotes perfectly express the purpose of teamwork.
“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.”
— Japanese proverb
“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
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
— Phil Jackson, American former professional basketball player
“A team is more than a collection of people. It is a process of give and take.”
— Barbara Glacel, business consultant and 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
“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
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
— Patrick Lencioni, American author
“Everyone you work with, in order to achieve a goal, must have something to lose if it is not realized and something to gain if it is realized. These are the people that are going to stick around you through thick and thin until the job is done.”
— Saidi Mdala, Botswanian author
Finding the fun: Teamwork quotes for working with a great team
Your team is there to help you achieve greatness — but also, to help you unwind.
Having good chemistry with your teammates is incredibly important, as many great thinkers have noted:
“If you take the team out of teamwork, it’s just work. Now, who wants that?”
— Matthew Woodring Stover, American novelist
“The nicest thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.”
— Margaret Carty, American author
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
— Henry Ford, American industrialist
“Every once in a while, you hear an expert that says team chemistry is overrated. You just write that person off.”
— Tony La Russa, American baseball player and coach
“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
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
— Mark Twain, American writer
“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
Final thoughts: Teamwork quotes can make us appreciate our coworkers
Remember: your team is your greatest asset.
Nurturing those interpersonal relationships will result in a more productive workplace, where everyone can work toward a shared goal.
Granted, the teamwork quotes we have compiled can’t magically inject harmony into a dysfunctional team.
Still, they might help you change peoples’ mindsets about their coworkers and work, in general.
✉️ What’s your favorite quote about teamwork? Have you ever used teamwork quotes to inspire your colleagues or employees? Was your pep talk effective?
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