Build Your Team

Building a winning team, much like many other endeavours, is an inside job.  The entrepreneur does not roll off bed one day and decide to employ people, just because he needs companionship. Rather  the entrepreneur knows that a team must be in place for him to achieve his goal over the long term.

The First Person

Who is the 1^st person in your Team?

No-brainer:

YOU!

As the entrepreneur,  it was your idea, your decision and your time, money & skills that started up the business. It is your passion, drive and commitment.

An indepth knowledge of yourself, who you are and what makes you tick, is a pre-requisite for managing others.  Otherwise you will end up driving the rest of the team out of the business.  A lot of the work that I do with entrepreneurs is helping them find their FLOW – that zone, that sweet spot where you are loving what you do, doing it well, playing to your strengths and delivering exceptional results.

Flow applies whether you are working alone or building a team, to work with you.

If you are NOT in Flow, it is incredibly difficult to build a team around you that brings out your best and their best.  In the process, you waste time, step on each others toes and lose money. 

Remember that as the entrepreneur leading the business, you have a direct influence on the team walking on the path.

During the start up phase,  the vision, mission, objectives and culture come from you.

Team + Work

The key is to build a team around YOU to get the work done versus building a team around the work.

Example

If you are filling a vacanacy for a P.A, you don’t only want a P.A that has the appropriate qualifications, experience, skills and competence.  Because that alone won’t help you to succeed, if the P.A is not on the same page as YOU and does not complement you to get the work done.

The Trap

And therein lies the trap that most entrepreneurs fall into. Many entrepreneurs to try building a team like themselves, that works  like they do – this is not the same as building a team around you to get the work done.  When you try building a team like yourself, getting what you want may be the worst team for your business – you end up with a team that shares the same tunnel view of the world as yourself. So you don’t have diversity of thought and more importantly, different work requires different ways of thinking and approaches.

When you build a team around YOU to get the work done, you consciously recognise that they must complement you, not be the same as you.

Example

If you are the type of person that finds fault with everything, building a team of fault finders like yourself can bring everything to a stand still.  When you build a team around you to get the work done, they will complement your fault finding by showing you how those faults are addressed, don’t exist or even if it materialises, your business can handle it.

Remember that others are choosing to be be part of your team. Not the other way around.