subject: 6 Easy Ways To Maximize Your Team [print this page] Selecting the right people is just the beginning of building a successful team for your business. However, you cannot simply expect that your team alone will transform your business and take it to its next level of performance.
It is equally important to have the following six elements in place:
1. Strong leadership. Strong leadership requires creating a working environment that encourages the cooperation of your team members. Encourage and inspire and they in turn will inspire and encourage your customers.
2. Common goals. Teams need to understand what their common business goals are and those goals need to supersede all individual goals. Sports teams provide an excellent example of this concept.
Setting common goals for the business starts with the owner's vision. This must be regarded as the central aim and leaders must enlist the support of all team members to inspire them to do the things that they have to do.
3. Rules of the game. Employees also need to understand the rules that govern the way the owner conducts the business. The rules must be written down and available to them.
Without providing defined rules including the company's culture, the owner or manager will need to rely on policing to run the business. Also, if the owner doesn't establish the culture, the employees will create a de facto culture that may not be to the owner's liking or in the best interests of the company.
4. Action plan. Another key element for a winning team is a strong action plan that is spelt out in clear and unambiguous terms to all members of the team. While the common goals referred to above identify what the owner and the business want to do, the action plan identifies how the goals will be achieved.
5. Support risk-taking. Business is all about risk and reward. To make the business grow, a leader must be willing to support prudent risk-taking by the team. If the owner doesn't allow risk-taking, the business will lag behind market leaders. The level of risk-taking is usually related to the company's culture.
6. 100 percent inclusion and involvement. By providing 100 percent inclusion the owner can then require 100 percent involvement as an expectation of the organization's culture.
Strong leadership, strong vision and common goals will not only create more teamwork, but will attract better qualified and quality team members to your company.
Start now, and start to see better results in your business.
