How do I build a great team?

“I don’t have a great team?” is a typical response when you ask a business owner to describe their team. It is not like they have a bad team, they aren’t just happy with the one they have got. This doesn’t mean the situation is grim, though the owner isn’t pumped with the quality of his team, or so he thinks.

As a business coach, I encounter this “people/team” challenge very often with my clients, to them it is a real issue, one that doesn’t allow them to scale their business. It is the proverbial, “only if..” challenge, not having a great team is impeding the growth of the company.

The “I want people like me” trap

Man is a creature of association and familiarity, we feel safe when we are around people like ourselves. While fundamentally there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, when in context of a business setting, it is best to have people of different skill sets and attributes, here the dissimilar is a strong requirement. Most entrepreneurs hire people and instantly expect them to behave and operate like themselves, as if they are a carbon copy. That just isn’t possible, and that sets the spiral of disappointment from the word go. It is an unconscious bias that the entrepreneur has and works like a classic invisible trap.

If you feel you don’t have that trap, then look around your office and team and you will see how deep this trap is.

What is a Team?

A team is an association of a group of individuals coming together for a cause, project, or purpose. The difference between a poor and a great team is just one simple ingredient, “Team, before self”. Everything done and said has to be in the larger interest of the team, that part is non-negotiable. So, when an entrepreneur says, I don’t have a great team, he is referring to this fact. There might be some great people in the company, but as a team, it lacks the greatness required.

The Key for a great team

The composition of the team is also very critical for achieving this greatness. As the company grows in revenues, new people are brought on board and the employee pool keeps growing, often times the focus on recruitment is about getting people the fastest when it should be getting the “right” people. Jim Collins, author of the classic business book, Good to Great says “Leaders must first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats”. This is one line, in effect is the key to building a great team. You might say, it’s easier said than done, though till you try, the answer will be always NO.

The People already on the bus

Even before you start looking at your current people from a new perspective, the first thing you ought to do is critically look at “WHAT” needs to get done or is getting done in your company for serving the customers and other business stakeholders such as investors, bankers, lenders etc. The reason is, once you are crystal clear about this, it becomes far easier to know “WHO” on your team is best suited to carry out that activity for you and what are gaps that need to get filled. 

In a typical SME, people have titles and the roles and responsibilities they have are extremely wide, hence you will see people are burdened with work and always trailing behind deadlines. This is very common is companies that have grown very fast and haven’t had time to create a talent management strategy and policy.

This is a painful exercise if done seriously, as it exposes the current status and brings forth vulnerability, no wonder it doesn’t get done at all in most companies. While doing this exercise you will get two outcomes – whom do we retain and whom do we retrain (or worse case let go). These are hard choices and need to be taken for the growth of the business and in turn growth of the people.

New people on the bus (Recruitment)

A classic brief that recruitment firms get is, “we want an accountant, X years of experience and Y salary range”, its sounds familiar isn’t it, maybe it is not that bad, but it isn’t great either. Very less thought is put in writing the Job Description & listing the qualities of the individual who will do this job. Hence the task of recruitment gets relegated to some interviews and salary fitment and that’s it, a new person is hired. The one being hired gets a job, though the one hiring isn’t 100% sure if the job will get done.

The more clear you are about what(job) needs to get done, how(Job description)it is to be done & who(type of person) will be doing it, the more simpler the process of recruitment gets.

Letting people go

It is important that people, either because of their skill sets or their value systems do not fit in your company, then they should be let go off. It is not a pleasant thing to do, though it is the right thing to do. It helps the individual, the organisation and most importantly it helps the entrepreneur to focus on growth and getting the right people in the right jobs. Whenever possible, write a letter of recommendation when you let people go, it will help their career and it is the right thing to do.

Job Fitment

This by far is the most difficult/or easier step, whichever way you look at it. This one activity can be the game changer for any company. For this to become a success, the entrepreneur has to exercise humility and get out of the way and let people figure out how to do the job at hand. Very often the entrepreneur wants to be part of everything and meddle in people’s work as he is afraid it won’t get done properly. He has to learn to trust and allow people time to rise up to the occasion.

The sad fact is, each organisation has hidden talent which was never given an opportunity to showcase their talent, now is the time, allow your people the chance to shine and show off. 

In Summary

1.    Don’t fall into the I want people like me trap

2.    Evaluate your current team in context of the jobs to be done

3.    Hire good talent

4.    Let go of people that don’t fit

5.    Getting the right people in right roles

The above is a starting point and lays a ground to build great and successful teams.

Here are a few other things you can do, to build a great team.

1.    Create a rewards and recognition policy

a.    People like being rewarded

b.    People like being recognised

2.    Create a Job Description manual for every job in the company including yours

a.    This gives clarity

b.    This gives measurability

3.    Improve your recruitment process

a.    Devote time for interviews

b.    Identify “must haves” such as attitudes, qualities

c.    Write a standard introduction of your company that can be shared with potential candidates

d.    Stay connected with rejected candidates

e.    Always do a reference check before making the offer

4.    Regularly engage with people to share the organisation vision

a.    Be available to people to ask you questions and not the other way around

b.    Onboard your team on your vision – an aligned team is a great team

5.    Treat people well, they will get others to join them

a.    Pay well

b.    Incentivise well

c.    Value your people