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Image source: rawpixel.com<\/em><\/p>\n \n No matter what kind of business you own or the size of that business, chances are you\u2019ll need a team of employees supporting you as you develop and grow your company.<\/p>\n A team is a group of people who share a common purpose and a common goal or set of goals.<\/p>\n A great team can make or break your business. That\u2019s a lot of pressure on us as business owners and entrepreneurs!<\/p>\n What differentiates winning teams from teams that fail or stagnate?<\/p>\n The key is to know what you\u2019re looking for, and to adhere to the values that you want to instill in your team. Yunha Kim, founder of Simple Habit, emphasizes<\/a> the importance of finding people who care:<\/p>\n Find smart people who care about the product. The most important thing you can do early on is build a team of people who move fast, work hard, and genuinely care. Your product will always change, and your early team members will have a huge impact in shaping it. Our team uses our product personally on daily basis and this has helped us build a great product.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With a clear direction, people who care, and patience, you can build a winning team that will set your company up for success. Here are six tips to help you build a great team for your small business or startup.<\/p>\n What are your values? Goals? Methods?<\/p>\n These are things you\u2019ve either thought about or quickly should because they\u2019re all essential elements in defining a company\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n Your culture will be unique to your team and will dictate how you envision and plan for the future, communicate with each other, the amount of freedom within the company, and all the other details that make your company yours. Before you even begin to build your team, you have to identify the culture that you want those team members to embrace.<\/p>\n Unlike other aspects of business, culture is harder to teach. People will either fit in or feel out of place and pull the team in a different direction. So, before you look for people, consider the culture you’re building. And then identify habits of employees<\/a> who will help you win.<\/p>\n Receive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors.<\/p> Receive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors.<\/p> Receive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors.<\/p> Before you check for a culture fit, look for people with the necessary technical skills. Depending on your company, you may need a mix of engineers, customer service people, marketers, designers, lawyers, managers, and more. It\u2019s important to identify the specific roles you need to fill, and the skills that are required<\/p>\n Depending on your company, you may need a mix of engineers, customer service people, marketers, designers, lawyers, managers, and more. It\u2019s important to identify the specific roles you need to fill, and the skills required for those roles.<\/p>\n Look for people that know their role better than you do. When you surround yourself with smarter people<\/a>, you\u2019re automatically forcing yourself to delegate all while strengthening your team by filling some of your own knowledge gaps.<\/p>\n Filling these roles all at once may be financially impossible for startups and small businesses. Luckily, smaller companies have some creative alternatives. They can hire people who have broad skillsets, like an engineer with design experience, or they can hire just the essential people to launch their product and then be on the lookout for additional team members once revenue starts rolling in. Holly Cardew, CEO of Pixc, offers a solution with her mentality of \u201calways be hiring\u201d. Cardew says<\/a> that she saved a lot of time by keeping a growing list of potential candidates:<\/p>\n I thought I needed money to hire key players, however, in fact, I should have been making a list of amazing key players that I wanted to have on the team, ready to hire as soon as we grew. If you don\u2019t do that, you waste too much time once you do have an opening: Recruiting, vetting, interviewing, and deciding. You can move much faster if you already have some amazing candidates in mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although it should be obvious, it’s worth emphasizing: expertise shouldn\u2019t be your only deciding factor when choosing a person for your team.<\/p>\n Make sure each person you choose for your team fits the culture that you identified earlier. Take a close look at how they communicate, their personality type, or even how they respond to unexpected questions. You want to find out how they work, what types of people they like to work with, and how they react. Check to see if they share your company\u2019s values, and see if their personal goals would fit in well with your goals for the company to create effective team dynamics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember that a good cultural fit doesn\u2019t mean you found a new best friend to work with; it just means there will be good harmony in moving the company forward. Cultural fit also doesn\u2019t mean that every person on your team is the same- diversity is an asset. But you do need a cultural fit to succeed.<\/p>\n A 2005 study<\/a> looked at the performance, satisfaction, and contribution of employees who fit and didn\u2019t fit a specific company culture. The study revealed that the employees who shared the company\u2019s values and goals consistently outperformed the employees who didn\u2019t fit in as well, and they also reported higher levels of satisfaction. Their cultural fit also kept the employees in the company longer, which helped the company focus on product growth rather than onboarding and team changes.<\/p>\n Also identify people who understand the difference between leadership and management<\/a>. This difference is important because successful teams often reflect the work of many informal leaders.<\/p>\n Be aware that every winning team has weaknesses as well as strengths. The same goes for every individual person. If you only search for people with all strengths and no weaknesses, you\u2019ll either come out disappointed and without a team, or with a team full of large egos- neither of which will help you and your company succeed.<\/p>\n Instead, acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and think about how the different combinations of skills will help your team win. Nicole Snow, president of Darn Good Yarn, always tries to focus<\/a> on how others can help fill in weakness gaps:<\/p>\n I’m not afraid to say if we aren’t good at something and we need to call in someone to support our needs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For Snow, it\u2019s important to bring in additional team members when someone needs extra support in an area. It\u2019s not a big deal to her if someone can\u2019t do it all. Where someone may have a weakness, another person may have a strength. Try to look for people who fill each other’s skill gaps and encourage the personal development<\/a> of team members. A learning management system<\/a> can help promote continuous development and improve skills among your team.<\/p>\n You can read more about weaknesses in How You Can Become a Better Leader By Recognizing Your Own Weaknesses<\/a>. And you can learn more about team building in a terrific book, Tribal Leadership (we wrote about the book here<\/a>).<\/p>\n When building a team, starting completely new and searching for fresh minds outside your network can be easy. But if you trust your network, chances are they are connected to people who closely fit what you\u2019re looking for in a team. Turn to people in your network for references, connections, or even advice.<\/p>\n It\u2019s always helpful to have someone \u201cpre-vetted\u201d as an option. According to a survey<\/a>\u00a0by Jobvite, over 59% of job recruiters<\/a> rated personally referred candidates as being \u201chigher quality\u201d than those found through traditional recruiting methods. Since those candidates were of higher quality, recruiters often found their job searches stopping earlier.<\/p>\n A winning team can\u2019t be built in a matter of hours. Like anything else that\u2019s good, a winning team takes time and patience to build- so don\u2019t rush the process.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll have to take the time to interview people, vet them, bring them on board, and integrate them into your company. You\u2019ll have to wait for people to learn how to work together efficiently and use each other to grow the company.<\/p>\n Take your time when talking to people, when teaching people, and even when listening to people. Just like they need time to grow into your vision, you need time to reflect on the process. You have to constantly think about the elements that make your team successful and how you can keep improving those elements. Ultimately, you must give yourself and your team the time needed to succeed.<\/p>\n What are your strategies and tricks for building a winning team? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n\n Will your business idea succeed?<\/span>\n Take our quiz - completely confidential and free!<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n1. Identify Your Culture<\/h2>\n
Free Business Startup Kit<\/h2>
Get your free startup kit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Free Business Startup Kit<\/h2>
Get your free startup kit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Free Business Startup Kit<\/h2>
Get your free startup kit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n2. Find Your Experts<\/h2>\n
3. Check for Culture Fit<\/h2>\n
4. Acknowledge Strengths and Weaknesses<\/h2>\n
5. Don\u2019t Forget About Your Network<\/h2>\n
6. Don\u2019t Rush<\/h2>\n
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