Diverse, motivated, and teams aligned with your business purpose – all key ingredients to business success.
There is a lot that goes into building a successful team.
From recruiting the technical skills required to carry out the job role to finding the right person who shares the same values, passion, and drive. Building a successful business team is about finding the perfect “fit” while also having the foundations in place to support growth.
Building a business team that drives success and purpose takes time, and in this post, we look at this in more detail, including the benefits of implementing specific strategies.
What does a successful team look like?
When you think about your internal teams, what is it that makes them successful? When are they most successful? And what qualities and attributes have helped contribute to this success?
For us, a high-performing team is one where you can clearly see that the team’s talents and skills complement the business wholeheartedly.
The business is innovative in its approach to market shifts, enabling it to adapt quickly. Teams collaborate, communicate, support and empower others.
They are dedicated and drive toward a shared purpose, contributing to shared goals.
However, this level of “team” does not happen overnight.
In fact, according to Bruce Tuckman’s theory (forming, storming, norming, and performing), team members take time to gel (from being strangers to becoming co-workers) and can either bring out the best in each other or the worst.
As business leaders, understanding these stages and knowing how to get the best out of your team members at each stage can be vital in supporting teams to become more effective.
This means nurturing soft skills, providing opportunities to develop technical skills, introducing a work-life blend as the norm, and ensuring that everyone is aware of what the company truly stands for, its purpose, and why the business does what it does.
How to build a strong business team
How can you build a business team that drives success and purpose?
1. Look beyond technical expertise
Technical expertise is, of course, a high priority, but businesses also need to consider leaning into core soft skills. Encouraging and promoting effective communication, looking at behaviour, attitude, and teamwork.
Look closely at diversity and inclusion, building teams with different backgrounds and varying levels of experience to allow you to build something unique. Where every single person brings something to the table, supporting high levels of innovation that allow you to adapt quickly to market changes, creativity that helps with problem-solving, and more informed decision-making, keeping purpose at the forefront.
2. Communicate….and well
How many times have we heard that in business, in every transaction we carry out, communication is key?
Having open, honest, and effective communication channels is a business’s best way to ensure everyone understands the company’s purpose, objectives, and business plan.
Aligning their work and seeing the impact of their role on the business first-hand motivates individuals and teams to strive to achieve these and more.
Good internal communication practices also provide a space where people feel safe to share opinions, ideas, and solutions.
Creating trust and building a feeling of openness where everyone’s voice is heard not only helps to boost morale, but it also drives innovation, creativity, and the biggest and often challenging area in business, problem-solving.
This, in turn, leads to better team cohesion, with team members contributing, learning, and performing (again linking back to Bruce Tuckman’s theory).
3. Define roles, responsibilities, and processes
Defining job roles and being incredibly clear on expectations allows you to set standards from the start. This isn’t to scare people, but rather to provide clarity on business vision, the business’s objectives and goals, and how their role and objectives help to meet these.
Showing, quite clearly, how individual goals and objectives align with the business empowers people to work towards them, as they can see the bigger picture and want to be part of it.
We’ve talked in previous posts about the importance of putting clear procedures and processes in place to improve workflows and customer experiences, and when building a successful team, the right processes can make all the difference.
These processes can range from having the right onboarding systems in place to conflict-resolution procedures that support teams and provide boundaries and organisation.
4. Provide growth opportunities
Today, we as individuals want so much more from our workplaces. We want to feel part of something. We want our contribution to count. And we want to know how we can progress, grow, and develop.
For business leaders, this means having clear progression plans and growth opportunities in place that fully support continuous learning.
Embracing people’s need to know what’s in it for them and encouraging them to do more and push boundaries, continuous learning and development motivates employees to improve their skills and knowledge. It boosts morale and shows teams a level of commitment from you that they will, in time, return.
It also helps teams to remain adaptable, resilient, and able to evolve to meet the demands of your ever-changing target market.
5. Lead by example
This is a big one for us.
Good leadership is about not only setting expectations, but also following them.
Providing clear guidance and setting the right levels of expectations are vital. Matched with a demonstration of clear technical expertise, sitting alongside a high level of emotional intelligence, you have the perfect recipe for success.
Leaders should be empowering, motivating, driven, and inspiring.
Taking time to understand a team’s strengths and weaknesses. Celebrating and recognising achievements and showcasing why these are important.
A good leader is one who makes their team feel valued.
Benefits of building the right team
Developing and building the right team around you can bring leaders and businesses many benefits, such as:
- It can deliver exceptional business results as performance increases.
- You create a positive workplace culture that fosters support and empathy.
- Businesses can scale sustainably.
- Building a diverse team enhances a business’s creativity and innovation, allowing you to adapt to changes and solve problems with ease.
- You create better job satisfaction where employees want to stay and deliver positive results.
- As everyone feels safe and trusted to contribute, levels of empowerment increase, leading to enhanced productivity and efficiency.
Driving success and purpose
Good, reliable, and successful teams don’t happen by accident. They are built through hard work and commitment.
With the right team behind you, your business can grow, survive and thrive, driving success through a commitment to purpose.
Want to know more?
Contact us to find out how our business development support can help you build and empower your team.
