20+ Best Inspirational Teamwork Quotes for Workplace Collaboration

Inspiration can be hard to come by in the modern world, so why not turn to the wisdom of the past? Teamwork quotes for workplace scenarios are a trusty way to drive motivation and increase engagement in your staff, bucking up your team when they most need a bit of a boost.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” as the catchy cliches go. There’s a saying or phrase to galvanize any person or lighten almost every situation. Here are some of the best teamwork quotes for workplace situations out there to get you started.

For other ways to inspire your staff in a fun way, check out this list of workplace quotes, or plan a movie night featuring one of the greatest workplace movies of all time.

1. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace to Inspire Hard Work

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

- Michael Jordan

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

- Virginia Burden

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changes really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

- Mark Zuckerberg

“An entrepreneur is someone who will jump off a cliff and assemble an airplane on the way down.”

- Reid Hoffman

“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

“Many hands make light work.”

- John Heywood

2. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace to Increase Motivation

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

- Henry Ford

“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

I'm a true believer in the strength of teamwork, in the power of dreams, and in the absolute necessity of a support structure. 

- Julie Payette

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

- Helen Keller

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.”

- Steve Jobs

“One of the differences between some successful and unsuccessful people is that one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.”

- Edmond Mbiaka

3. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace about Failure 

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

- Johnny Cash

"Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be.”

- John Wooden

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

- Denis Waitley

“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”

- Robert T. Kiyosaki

“No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.”

- Chris Hardwick

"The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."

- Paulo Coelho

4. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace about 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

“Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.” 

- Pat Riley“

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

- Mattie Stepanek

“Great leaders don't succeed because they are great. They succeed because they bring out the greatness in others.”

- Jon Gordon

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.”

- Ray Goforth

“Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success.”

- Arianna Huffington

5. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace on Collaboration

"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. 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

“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

- Charles Darwin

“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

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.”

- Steven Spielberg

“The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”

- Knute Rockne

6. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace on Communication

"Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”

- Brian Tracy

“Communicate in a respectful manner – don’t just tell your team members what you want, but explain to them why.”

- Jeffrey Morales

“Although we live in an information technology age, we often find ourselves in failure to communicate situations.”

- Johnny Tan

“Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”

- Ernest Hemingway

“In teamwork, silence isn't golden. It’s deadly.”

- Mark Sanborne

7. Teamwork Quotes for Workplace on Team Building 

“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” 

- Peter Drucker

“Good teams incorporate teamwork into their culture, creating the building blocks for success.”

- Ted Sundquist

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” 

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

- Vince Lombardi

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

- Reid Hoffman

8. Funny Teamwork Quotes for Workplace 

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

- Matthew Woodring Stove

“You think it’s dumb when someone says there’s no ‘I’ in team, but you stick one in there and you see how dumb that looks.”

- Brendan Kiely

“Teamwork means never having to take all the blame yourself.”

- Stephen Hawking

“Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.”

- Patrick Lencion

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

- H. E. Luccock

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”

- Margaret Mead

9. FAQs

• What Are Some Teamwork Words?

Words like unity, collaboration, cooperation and team success promote a sense of positivity and group bonding. Highlighting these qualities with well-chosen teamwork quotes for workplace situations also indicates to staff the attributes you value in your coworkers. 

• What Makes a Good Team Quote?

What makes a good team quote is a combination of insight and inspiration. Whether you’re drawing upon the great minds of yesterday or the great minds of today, the key is motivation and positivity, which in turn engender productivity and engagement.

• Why Is It Important to Inspire Your Team?

Inspiration can jumpstart the creativity and efficacy of a team. One of the most important leadership skills a manager can have is the ability to motivate their employees, igniting their passion for their roles. This way, you can ensure you are getting the best performance possible out of your staff.