Who is the Boss?

I read a quote this week on LinkedIn, “Build a team so strong you don’t know who the boss is.”

Sounds easy.  In practice, in may be the most difficult and most rewarding action you can take in your career.  In my last role, I had at least three people on my team who could easily have been the boss (and … to be honest, many times they were my boss).  How do we build a team like this?  

We all realize that our success starts and ends with a great team. This formula applies to small startups as much as it does to large corporations.  Our team exists to allow us to succeed by growing, scaling, and thriving in a way that we, as an individual, could not accomplish by ourselves.

To build our team, we need to start with hiring the right people (how to do this, we will touch on shortly) — those who value working toward a common goal, are positive and goal-oriented, and work together within the cultural norms of your organization.  Once you have the right people in place, the goal is then to bring them together into a cohesive unit (a few tips will follow below).

To start, we’ll need a set of values, behaviors and cultural guardrails so that everybody knows how to work together.

Building our team is a challenge, ensuring we have the right people on the team is even more difficult.  Where do we start?  The word “diversity” should always be on our mind (and yes racial and gender diversity is very important).  Also, introverts and extraverts, long-term thinkers and short-term action folks, innovators and pragmatists, serious and funny, individual contributors and team leaders, early risers and late night hawks, “A+” talent AND “B+” talent (imagine trying to manage all over-achievers who want to be CEO tomorrow?), and so on.

As we begin to find the right candidates, we will need to expand the net we cast in our hiring search. Expand our network to where we can find “different” candidates: LinkedIn, employee referrals, HBCUs, competing companies, social media, job fairs, recruitment sites, minority MBA/Tech programs, etc. – cast a wide net.  Remember to hire for the talents we need vs only someone with experience in the job (this will limit our talent pool).  Try to limit inline promotions without talking to at least 4 or 5 other candidates.  If we can, the best way to build an excellent team from scratch is to widen our search to include remote employees, temp-to-perm, talent ready to jump into the role (vs having been in a similar role) and freelancers.

Question what our “must have’s” are and our “nice-to-have’s” before we start the process.  This will help us from making an emotional decision on a candidate.  Don’t rush our hiring process - start by hiring for the position we need most, and once we have someone doing a great job there, move to the second most needed position and so on. 

Remember earlier I spoke to diversity – it plays out as we try to hire a range of personalities.  Building a team is all about recognizing what we need and finding the right person for the job. But beyond that, look for versatility.  Find people with intelligence and enthusiasm at the beginning of the hiring process and the rest will follow. Our first bunch of employees will train the next group and so on until we end up with a focused team of hard workers, but also people who are awesome to be around. (As a side note, differing personalities and diversity is harder to manage but more rewarding - and they will bring us better solutions, more creativity and innovation, as well as differing lenses to view each problem). 

To build a successful team, we have to be willing to take a chance on people who show potential and the right skillset but might not have the experience and qualifications to back it up. We’ll have an occasional miss along the way, but by mentoring our formative talent, investing in their professional development, and encouraging them to grow with us over time, we can build a highly successful – and loyal – team from the beginning.

Also remember that hiring is making our best educated guess, but firing is knowing.  They may seem perfect during the interviews.  They may look excellent on paper.  They may have a wonderful personality.  At the end of the day, hire fast - fire quicker.  Also, use our network to research a candidate – take the time to ask the right questions, and we will get the answers we look for.  We'll do the person, our team, and our company a favor.  We all know too many times when we let a poor performer stick around.  Not good for anyone. Demonstrate our commitment to our culture and leadership by hiring, leading, mentoring and firing when appropriate.

As we build or re-build teams, it is important to establish a winning nucleus of talent that can move forward without us.  These will be the go-getters that set the tone. The next level that understands the mission, lives by the team values and drives for results.  Remember we will have 2-3 “A” players and 4-5 “B” players for every ten hires.  Replace the others sooner than later.  Eventually, we’ll have a team that’s singing the same tune and rowing in the same direction. This is how loyalty and team chemistry will be built.

Ensure we have an aligned vision.  Many new hires don't fail because they're incompetent - they fail because they don't yet know how to succeed. When we're building a team, we need to set the vision then share the steps required to get there. Once our employees understand what's needed to succeed, we can give them the autonomy to chase it down. 

Assess and communicate our needs.  Create a list of things each team member needs to know and be able to do now and in the future. As our team grows, each team member will need to be able to do a variety of different things.  Building a team is like selecting all the right pieces to put together a puzzle. You'll need the edges, which represent the borders, and then all the inner working team members to fill in the big picture.  Recognize our own expertise and then hire others with expertise in other areas.  

Do not forget success depends on our team and company culture.  We all like to work in a culture that’s approachable and innovative, that inspires our team to grow together. Focus on two key components to great culture: alignment in mission and purpose amongst the leadership and the team in the short-term.  Clear investment in the growth and success of our people in the long-term.

Lead with patience, courage and transparency.  It takes a long time to build a high-functioning team. Clear communication and personal accountability only go so far. Our teams need to become more in tune with each other’s workflows and habits. It helps to identify mistakes, make improvements, and learning how each of us works. 

Now, as we have our teams in place, we need to build a cohesive and high functioning team.  This will require: a clear focus on roles; valuing each role for the value it brings to the team; clear and open communications about what is expected; what is happening company wide and what is not tolerated (keep a level of transparency whenever possible with all team members, even if the information doesn’t directly pertain to every person on your team); give each and every team member a voice (and listen to them); work with the team to set clear, accountable and stretch goals; celebrate the team and individual successes (and failures!); and allow the team to know each other on a personal level (getting to know the people we work with helps us understand their style of work and how to have constructive discussions).

Establish expectations from day one. Set ground rules, and let our expectations be known from the start—not just in terms of team goals or a three-year plan, but in terms of the type of team environment we’re looking to establish.  Respect our team members as individuals. A robust team environment blossoms when individuals are appreciated and respected for their unique gifts and their ability to contribute toward our common goals. Engender connections within the team. While it’s critically important that we value and honor each individual member of the team, it’s also important that the team encourage individuals to not regard one another as a body who sits at the desk next to them, but as a partner who will work toward a shared goal of individual and team success.

Practice emotional intelligence. Great leaders value the importance of emotional intelligence. Great leaders understand that not every person is motivated by the same thing. By embracing the realities of different work styles and different forms of motivation, we will treat people’s individual differences as an asset, not an obstacle. Motivate with positivity. Great leaders also subscribe to the adage that it’s more effective to shape behavior with positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement. Look for ways to reward good work. People love affirmation of their hard work. 

Diversify and trust. When it comes to building our teams, our team should be as diverse as possible—different backgrounds, experiences, lenses, ages, thoughts and opinions. Hire with the goal of covering our blind spots: we should surround ourselves with people who will inform the judgment calls we make and the content we put out. After we find a team we trust, we need to groom them to be collaborators by empowering them to make leadership decisions on their own. 

Lastly, shift the paradigm from individual to team positive.  I consistently express during the interview process my focus on team accomplishment.  Rewarding team-based and positive behaviors.  Happy employees lead to satisfied customers. If you keep your employees engaged at work and make them feel valued, you will reap the benefits in the form of happy internal or external customers. 

And yet, it takes continuous, proactive management on our part to build a strong group culture. We need to focus on how to better communicate, collaborate, and share in one another’s successes.  Remember, alone we can only do so much, but together we can do so much.

Together.  We.  Win.