Truth be told: Once you start a business, you will assume the roles of over five people. Starting out alone means you are the owner, designer, advertiser, customer service representative, social media manager, and custodian. That’s a lot but so many people have done it before.
However, the goal is to progress from that kind of situation. To grow your company fast, you need to make every part of the business efficient. Therefore, you need to work on creating a team as soon as possible.
Who should be part of your team?
Bringing success to a business is not a solitary achievement. It takes a team to soar to great heights. Given that so much is at stake, you should be hiring people whom you know can and will help you do just that. Look for the following characteristics in potential members of your team.
Skilled
Of course, to produce positive results, you need people who are competent at their craft. You don’t want to bet on people who have nothing to offer. That is just inefficient.
However, when there is a lack of skill but there is so much potential, you can take your chances. Everybody starts somewhere. Even Steve Jobs and Larry Page had leadership development coaches or mentors.
If you find someone who is eager to learn, give them a chance. Mentor them, teach them what you know, and let them handle projects to see what they can do.
Willing to learn
If you look beyond talent and skill, you will see how important this trait is. Business is about innovation and you will get kicked out of the game if you are not fast enough to keep up.
Look at you. You probably hate at least one of the things you need to do in running your business. Maybe you hate dealing with finances, but you can’t just choose to not learn it. So, despite that, you make the effort to learn these numbers. Look for someone with that same trait.
Honest
To make a great team, you need to be able to build a solid network of trust. And that happens when everybody is honest. It actually starts with you.
One of the most important traits of a leader is someone whom his team can trust. Your integrity makes other members of the team copy you. What does honesty look like in the workplace? It can be as simple as giving feedback or being transparent that you don’t like someone’s idea.
Having people on board who can be honest with you about your lapses as a leader, they are for keeps. When people are honest, the communication among the team is open. This results in better achievements for the whole team.
Cares about the company
This is the most difficult thing to look for. After all, caring for a company is not something inherent in people. Out of all the people in the world, you are the one who cares the most about the business because it’s yours.
You cannot force them to mirror this. However, it can start with looking for people with the same values as you. You can hire someone with a Ph.D. from Harvard, but if they don’t have the same principles as you, you won’t last half an hour in a conversation with them.
Having the same values means you care about the same things. And, maybe, they can also see the value of your company the way that you do. You can look for people who appreciate what your company aims to do. Invest in people who believe in your goals and ideas.
How do you make your dream team work?
Involve everybody in the process. Value their inputs and trust their suggestions. They are not part of your team for nothing. You have seen something in them, so when it’s time to test it out, don’t hesitate.
If there are problems that they might help with, let them know. Teamwork and collaboration can bring your company places.
Teamwork means you have a shared vision. The company’s vision is no longer yours alone. It’s everybody’s vision now. You should also have team goals. And to achieve such goals, everybody must know their individual responsibilities as a team member.
Creating the perfect team can be a hit or miss. It’s people you are dealing with here. Everybody is different and there is no guarantee that they will get along well. This is why sometimes, creating your dream team can partly be attributed to luck.
