Building a successful team to support your business is a challenge for all owners and managers.
As a leader, the initial step to building a productive and effective team requires you to establish that leadership – if your employees trust your judgement, they will work effectively, even when you’re not around. Try to build trust through honesty and transparency.
Establish relationships with each of your employees by learning more about them – their skill sets, what motivates them and their likes and dislikes. This will help you to understand them better and help you to match the right staff to the right tasks. Including employees in decision making processes also helps foster these relationships and encourages ownership of various aspects of the business.
Help to build relationships between your employees – take notice of the way they all work together and take steps to resolve any conflicts quickly and amicably by listening to both sides of an argument and act as a mediator, helping them work together as a team. Holding regular brainstorming sessions where staff can openly share with you and each other is a great way to do this and to nurture new ideas.
Create a set of team values and goals. Do this alongside your team, not without them, so that they feel a part of the process and know what is expected of them.
Consistency is key – team building is one of the most important jobs a manager or business owner has and it requires time and patience. It doesn’t happen overnight but is an organic and ongoing process.
Check back to our blog next month when we will be talking more about the top qualities of your team members and how to keep them motivated.
