Building a Team Starts with an Alignment in Purpose.

We’re always learning, and building our knowledge to attack each opportunity life presents at us. Different people are at different stages in their development and life, yet one observation I can make is that all people need a purpose. Over the last few months, Orkestra’s development has been centred around people. No one man is or can be a symphony - and finding musicians that you play well with isn’t easy.

But what is ‘Playing’ well together? What drives that? How do you align or even find people who'll add more to the show? These have been the questions we’ve needed to answer quickly as we move the business into its next phase.

I thought I’d share the top five discoveries I’ve made while searching for the answers to these questions.

1. Understand motivations - Understanding the core motivations of people is no mean feat. Until trust is established it is difficult to truly know what the drivers are for the people you meet. Establishing trust over a period of time is critical to building a solid relationship with those around you. Until you have this trust, you cannot ask people to be transparent with you, no matter how trusting you are from the start.
2. Foster the alignment - Once you have built a network of people you believe are a good fit and they’ve let you into the circle of trust. It’s important to align with their personal motivations. Making this the centre focus and developing the business around them creates win-win scenario’s - Life is more than money, and achieving life goals is always better together.
3. Keep an eye out - Moving faster than the pack isn’t leadership. If you think of the business as a train, it cannot stop quickly and your efforts to build momentum shouldn’t be ignored. Your job is to communicate well and pay close attention to how people come on to the train, and exit the train with the least amount of friction. Not everyone that you work with will come along for the whole journey. It is impossible to control all aspects of this but making sure that everyone has a great experience, that’s within your control.
4. Bring opportunity - If you’ve truly aligned to the personal motivations of your team, then you should be looking out for any opportunity to help them achieve this. When goals are aligned, success is a shared agenda that we’re working towards, not just the individual. Giving people the shot is not about proving to you that they can be successful, it’s about proving to them that they’re ready to take it. Confidence is earned, and giving people the opportunity to be more confident in their ability to succeed, well that’s the magic.
5. Acknowledge success - When you’re moving quickly and achieving small wins each day, that’s success. It’s all about making positive moves forward each day towards the common goal. Demand energy, teamwork and selflessness, and acknowledge everyone when they do these things well. If you’re working as a unit, success will come. Make sure you acknowledge everyone for their contribution to the team, and celebrate each and every win.

There’s no science to building a team, but I’ve found that there's an art to aligning purpose. It’s in this approach that we’ve welcomed a number of new team members into the Orkestra camp. I’m proud to say that we’re achieving success each day, to move closer to our shared goals and ultimately the lifestyle that we want for each other.

I look forward to any thoughts and perspectives regarding this article. Please feel free to contact me on 0499-477-488 or email at [email protected].