50 teamwork quotes to motivate and inspire your team

Success takes a village. No matter how independent your job may be, you never truly work alone. And your individual commitment is only one part of the equation. Everyone’s work facilitates or disrupts a team’s ability to reach their goals and objectives. 

That’s why encouraging teamwork is so important. Doing so acknowledges everyone’s value and reminds the group you can’t accomplish as much without the help of others.

It’s easy to get lost in your own world. Busy schedules, remote work, and personal ambitions can make it hard to see your importance as a team member. But absorbing others’ wisdom is a great way to stir up self-reflection and motivate teams to work as one. 

There are plenty of team-building exercises and motivational podcasts out there, but sometimes a single inspirational teamwork quote is enough to ignite a new perspective.

Why is teamwork important?

Effective collaboration goes beyond strong relationships and trust. It requires individuals being dedicated to a shared purpose. And company culture plays a big role in uniting people around a common vision. When team members see they’re linked to one another by the same cause, it has the potential to drive stronger and more productive teamwork. 

Aligning team members around common teamwork values brings enormous benefits, like: 

• Bolstering a sense of belonging

• Creating community

• Discouraging information silos

• Encouraging creative brainstorming and problem-solving

• Improving communication skills and efficiency

How to share inspirational quotes for teams

Using a motivational team quote to stir up excitement may sound like a scene out of a blockbuster movie — like a heroic protagonist delivering a scene-stealing monologue. But there’s always space to lift up your team members and encourage better collaboration.

Here are a few ways to share an inspirational quote:

• In team meetings: Building a great team doesn’t have a finish line — you can always develop a deeper connection with your coworkers. Consider using a team quote as an icebreaker to kick off a meeting. Choose a motivational quote that aligns with the meeting’s goals and invite teammates to share their thoughts. It’s a good strategy to strengthen team unity and invite self-appraisal.

• Via internal communication: Consistently including an inspirational team quote in a company bulletin reflects the importance of teamwork to the company. Remember that positive quotes for work are secondary. They can’t do all the heavy lifting. Teams are built through action, and sharing quotes should mirror a deep understanding of your team’s work motivators and build a supportive workplace environment.

• During a project kickoff: Beginning a new project by sharing a motivational quote for work deepens your team’s understanding of the purpose or overall vision. In addition to aligning team members, using a quote to prompt the discussion of teamwork stresses its import and keeps collaboration front of mind. 

• When celebrating milestones: Employee recognition boosts morale and engagement. During a team celebration, sharing an inspirational quote personalizes the acknowledgment of collective efforts. It also reinforces everyone’s sense of accomplishment and conveys that teamwork is valuable. 

50 motivational quotes to encourage hard work and collaboration

Whether it’s overcoming failure, accepting the help of others, or the importance of knowledge sharing, there’s a teamwork quote for every occasion. 

Here are 50 motivational quotes that encourage deeper bonds and stronger teamwork: 

1. "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford
2. "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision… It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." - Andrew Carnegie
3. “Extend a hand whether or not you know it shall be grasped." - Ryunosuke Satoro
4. "I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance." - Steve Jobs
5. “To me, teamwork is a lot like being part of a family. It comes with obligations, entanglements, headaches, and quarrels. But the rewards are worth the cost.” - Pat Summit
6. "Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." - Mattie Stepanek
7. "Teamwork makes the dream work." - John C. Maxwell
8. "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African proverb
9. "No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it." - H.E. Luccock
10. "Don’t take your culture for granted. There needs to be a constant renewal of values that lead to camaraderie." - Mike Krzyzewski
11. "The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be." - Reid Hoffman
12. "As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own." - Amy Poehler
13. "Growth is never mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." - James Cash Penney
14. "Learn from many but copy none." - Mark Sanborn
15. "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow." - Helen Keller
16. "Every mistake is an opportunity to improve competence." - Ken Blanchard
17. “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.” - Vince Lombardi
18. "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington
19. "Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
20. “The most valuable gift you can give to humanity is a good example.” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
21. "I always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come." - Michael Jordan
22. “Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” - Louisa May Alcott
23. "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." - Babe Ruth
24. "Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers." - Pat Riley
25. "When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else." - Iyanla Vanzant
26. "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry Truman
27. "The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble." - Serena Williams
28. “Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and consensus.” - Simon Mainwaring
29. "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." - Vidal Sassoon
30. "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton
31. "Each person must live their life as a model for others.” - Rosa Parks
32. "Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head: not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but: how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?" - Florence Nightingale
33. "Don't think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success." - Robert Orben
34. "The ratio of we’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team." - Lewis B. Ergen
35. "Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there." - Virginia Burden
36. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin
37. "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." - Phil Jackson
38. “The best way to serve the individuals on the team is to see that the whole team wins.” - John C. Maxwell
39. "Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability." - Patrick Lencioni
40. “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” - Rosalyn Carter
41. "Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher." - Oprah Winfrey
42. "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." - Mother Teresa
43. "When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you." - Michelle Obama
44. "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
45. "Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." - Simon Sinek
46. "Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." - Margaret Mead
47. "If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living." - Gail Sheehy
48. "The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning." - Pelé
49. "Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, "What's in it for me?" - Brian Tracy
50. “I’ve never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.” - Abby Wambach

Motivating you to motivate your coworkers

A motivational quote can capture the essence of teamwork and push you to strive for deeper collaboration in your work. But while the world’s most outstanding thought leaders and pioneers can eloquently articulate concepts, real team motivation goes beyond words. 

As a team member, your work depends on cultivating trust and mutual respect with your coworkers. It’s a never-ending task that’s worth it since inspired team members won’t only hit strategic objectives — they’ll exceed them. And when you build deeper team connections, you open up the potential for more career contentment, creativity, and lifelong professional relationships. 

Reflecting on the teamwork quotes that ignite something within you is just the start. The next step is building an action plan to practice what they preach.