Ten Tips for Top Teams

As a business owner you know that a high-performing team is essential for a successful business. But how do you start building a team from the group of individuals who currently work for you with all of their different personalities and egos? Any of these sound familiar?

• The cat – ‘hmm, good idea eh? I’ll be the judge of that.’
• The Labrador  – ‘that’s a great idea, let’s get started’
• The meerkat – ‘let’s see what our competitors are doing first’
• The white rabbit – ‘I’m sorry…what have I missed?’

Of course we’re all different – we all have different strengths and different experience, so what can you do, as the leader, to get all of these people to gel as a team?

Well, you can start by viewing individual personality traits in a positive way, and playing to strengths:

• Your cat’s circumspection may avoid ‘groupthink’ and give much-needed ‘paws’ for thought
• Your Labrador’s enthusiasm could be contagious and keep team spirits up
• Your meerkat could be tasked with being your ‘lookout,’ keeping you up to date with your competition and bringing in ideas
• Your white rabbit might keep everyone succinct at meetings to get their points agreed before he arrives! Of course he might just be late because he’s bringing you coffee!

But if you’re serious about building a High Performing Team, then here are my top 10 tips:

1. Get clear about your Vision for the business, and the Values that you want to live by and work to. Sounds easy, but have you actually done it? Don’t start to build your team until you have.
2. Ensure you employ people who share your Values. (I don’t mean clones or a ‘mini me’)
3. Share your story and your big ‘Why’ with your team – let them buy into your dream. Share your Vision – the ultimate goal for the business with the team – and work with them on having a clear route map to take you all there.
4. Establish simple, logical and repeatable ways of working (systems) and train your team to follow them. Adopt a cycle of review and improvement.
5. Get to know every team member as an individual; identify their strengths and weaknesses and work out their development plans together.
6. Look for everyday opportunities to coach, say well done and give ‘specific’ praise.
7. Communicate progress towards your goals, and celebrate every small win.
8. Review their progress formally at least every 6 months. Don’t forget to ask what the main thing is they want from you as their manager.
9. Take them out to meet suppliers and clients, let them see first hand how their role fits in to the bigger picture.
10. Share your business success with the team, both verbally and financially.  Let them feel how much you value their contribution.

‘The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.’  – Phil Jackson

Do one thing: Take a close look at your team, and use our checklist to see how you fare.

And if you or a manager in your business could use some help then check out our MPL ‘Managers’ Development Programme.’ Our structured 6-month online programme is aimed at developing the mindset and the skill set of business owners and their managers.

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Thanks for reading.