A powerful team is more than a group of knowledgeable people working together.
To help your company grow, your team should be harmonious, collaborative, and consistent. Only that way can you foster innovation, uniqueness, and creative thinking.
Here is how to build a powerful team to boost company growth.
Have a Clear Plan and Set SMART Goals
Company success is all about planning. Your team members should know what your objectives are and how you will measure them along the way.
When setting business goals, keep them SMART. In other words, your company objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. If you have ten different goals and objectives, you do not have any.
Setting clear company goals impacts the choice of metrics and KPIs. Even the slightest miscalculation can take your employees off-course.
Build a Shared Scoreboard
Think of your business as a basketball team. There are many positions, including the point guard, the shooting guard, the power forward, and the center. While their roles in the team are different, they all operate in harmony to win. To help them stay aligned, a coach creates a shared scoreboard.
You can do the same. The goal is to select the right performance metrics that reflect the success of your organization. That way, employees are empowered to make decisions that are aligned with the rest of the company.
Create a Strong Company Culture
Every company has a culture, even if it is not explicitly communicated. Bring together a few employees to work on a project and they will eventually develop their manner of communication.
However, that does not mean you should kick back and hope that your team members will align over time. Instead, set clear guidelines on how your staff members should work together.
For starters, building a company culture starts with the hiring process. Apart from candidate knowledge and industry experience, also pay attention to their soft skills. Consider performing thorough employer background checks to filter out any candidates that lack experience or possess personal traits and attitudes that contradict your company culture.
Determine what behaviors are appropriate or inappropriate. Emphasize your goals, missions, and values. Instead of just performing tasks, your employees should live by your organization’s stated values.
Apart from incentivizing them for accomplishments, you should also reward behaviors that align with your company values. Most importantly, be specific. When creating guidelines on company culture, do not make your lists too long. Keep them specific, clear, and memorable.
Show Respect
Most employees have worked for at least one bad boss during their careers. Their behaviors vary, from the lack of communication and continuous micromanagement to disrespecting employees.
That leads to a lack of workplace engagement and satisfaction. Feeling burnt out, employees will keep looking for new professional opportunities.
To avoid that, you should appreciate your staff members. Set a clear tone that reflects respect. Your team members should be able to say everything to everyone, as long as they say it right. Any disrespectful behaviors, such as gossiping, should be immediately dealt with.
Such an atmosphere builds trust with employees and provides a feeling of safety and comfort inside your company.
Also read Benefits of Upgrading Your Company’s Technology
Communicate Transparently
The key to company success is clear and transparent communications.
For starters, schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your team members. Talk to your employees about both professional and private lives. Ask them about honest opinions about their roles and workplace environment. Is there anything they would like to change? If there are any performance issues, talk to them honestly.
Also, set expectations for feedback. Apart from 1-on-1s, you should also conduct employee satisfaction surveys. Since many employees are not fond of sharing their thoughts publicly, consider keeping surveys anonymous.
Providing feedback is just as important as collecting it. Do not limit yourself to yearly employee performance reports. Deliver them weekly or monthly to keep staff motivated. Most importantly, tell your employees how often you will deliver feedback. That way, they will not be alarmed when they receive your email.
Finally, in the era of Coronavirus, managers need to upgrade company technology and invest in the right team collaboration tools. Cloud-based platforms, such as instant messaging apps, video conferencing tools, project management tools. They will facilitate employee interactions, irrespective of their locations.
Ready to Strengthen your Team?
Building a successful team may seem simple, but only in theory. In reality, you are going to face many challenges you will need to address.
If there is one thing that threads through this article, it is that transparency is the backbone of your company. Set clear goals and communicate them to everyone in your team. Most importantly, nurture team-building and harmony.
Is there anything you would like to add? Please, tell us what tactics you use to build a strong team.
