Maximizing your team's talent and your time

In business and in sports, it is important to understand your players. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved is huge. We all have unique abilities and talents. The best teams learn how to mesh their strengths and cater to their weaknesses.

Like many of the great sports teams out there, it takes everyone playing their role at a high level in order for them to have the best possible outcome. As businesses scale it is key for them to bring on employees and partners who will improve the bottom line and end outcomes for the company.

Through delegating leaders within your company or start up, and open communication, it is possible to create amazing outcomes. Through a shared vision and a desire to find solutions you are optimized for success. It is better to approach your vision as a team focused on solutions versus dwelling on problems. Everyone will feel a healthy sense of urgency to maximize the potential of the group.

As a leader it is important to set the tone. Show up earlier and stay later. Also, be open minded to the strategies suggested and realize everyone has their own perspective and something to offer. Teams are dynamic and it is not always the perfect fit, but having doers in place with the right skill sets will lead to results.

Set goals for the team. Be very clear on the expectations for the team and for the group or company as a whole. By setting goals you can outline your road map, processes, and systems that will produce the results you need. With goals to strive for, even if you fall short, you have learned what doesn’t work or what needs to be adjusted. Having goals helps the team to find solutions rather than continue to hammer on same processes and never get feedback for when a goal is not reached. This feedback loop creates systems that actually work.

Open communication is huge. Meeting with your members one-to-one but also allowing larger group meetings to repeat company messages and increase comradery helps as well. It takes being specific in these meetings to increase a person's trust in their contribution but also it helps strengthen the relationship between managers and their team members. Allowing team members to ask questions freely, but also being able to communicate clearly what the expectations of them are.

Have leaders under the head leader. Allow people to lead in their own way and have autonomy. Autonomy allows your team members to make decisions based on the mission and values of the group. With Autonomy they will be able to accomplish their tasks in ways that are unique to them. There are certain tasks that can be delegated by leaders that will be carried out by team members who have the skill set to do that particular task at a higher level and with more creativity.

Create clear objectives for meetings and cut out meetings and cut down on the time you spend in meetings. Meeting one-to-one is great but do not wear this out. Also, eliminate meetings that are full of too many people and opinions unless it is related to the overall vision or a project that needs to be completed as an initiative by the company. Allow teams to meet with their specific group more often, and leaders or CEOs can fill in when needed and decide which decisions they need to influence. Have effective and efficient meetings based on important ideas and deadlines. Eliminate the others.

Maximize your team, your time, and your team’s time this week!

Cheers