Whether it is a crew on its way to frame and sheetrock a house or a small team trying to cobble together your social media strategy, the importance of productive and efficient teams can’t be understated. If the success of your business depends on your teams, you need to be diligent with regard to how you can assemble quality, efficiency and productiveness. So, how do you do that exactly?
- Before all else, you need to have the right players in place. You need to know the type of person you need to bring into your company that will make it stronger over time. This, of course, is no easy thing. Where are you weak? Too many extroverts? Need more leaders and fewer followers? Once you have those people assembled, you must establish clear and extremely precise guidelines and goals. They must know exactly what you want, when you want it and a strategy or two for how they should get there. There must also be in place some manner of system by which their performance is measured and evaluated.
- If you are going to hold them accountable, you must also allow them the freedom to feel their way and develop their own methods for achieving a particular goal. Try and micromanage and you will micromanage your business right into bankruptcy. Besides, if you are only hiring people you think you have to micromanage, then you are hiring the wrong people.
- Know your players inside and out. Know who you need on what teams so that there is a balance of skills, personality and experience. Avoid having meetings like the plague. Nothing kills momentum and wastes time more than one ridiculous meeting after another. If you really must hold a meeting then hold it without anyone having a cell phone on them and make everyone stand for the meeting. Such a meeting will get to the point quickly and efficiently.
- Create an environment where your people, and teams will thrive. What kind of a company culture do you want to have? One where everyone hates what they are doing and your turnover is high because of it? Or, do you want a company where your people spring out of bed in the morning because they are going to a job they love?
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
