subject: How To Grow Your Internal Team [print this page] The problem with growing teams is that when new people come on board, it can be difficult to communicate the necessary information to them, particularly if this information is detailed and complex.
You can't run a project and expect to do all the work yourself, so ensuring that everyone involved is on the same page is essential to ensuring the productivity of the team. It might be time consuming to constantly reiterate your knowledge to a team, but further down the line you could find that your business and its processes have improved dramatically as a result of that knowledge sharing.
Dealing with the ever-changing economy is a tough challenge, and the best way to weather the storms of change is to ensure that your representatives are as well-prepared as they can be.
It's important to have a clear agenda when doing this knowledge sharing, deciding on what needs to be learned, how, when and why. Once staff are properly trained and equipped it means you can effectively delegate work to them.
When it comes to today's businesses, delegating can be the difference between profit and loss. Avoid the myth that "if you want something done right, do it yourself" and have faith in your employees. Allow them to learn from your expertise and grow into more skilled individuals, achieving their goals and fulfilling their potential.
A good way of ensuring that these employees do treat new responsibilities and work types with enthusiasm is to ask them what they want to achieve, and then delegate work based on these desires. By keeping all the complicated work to yourself you could be holding back the team.
When delegating work and responsibilities, give a very clear brief and confirm with the employee that they understand what it required of them, as well as highlighting deadlines or dependencies. Let it be known that you will be following up on these deadlines, but praise them for past achievements to make them feel confident going forward.
Plan to celebrate the success of the delegation, rewarding their learning, progression and drive. Encourage employees to share their stories about learning new skills, and make sure that they feel the company is trying to help them grow and achieve their career goals.
Growing a team is always going to be tricky, particularly if current staff do a demanding and skilful job which could take new candidates a while to pick up. By delegating and knowledge sharing, you could end up with a bigger, brighter and more skilled team.
