Seamless teamwork doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a great deal of effort from everyone involved as well as some trial and error to cultivate a successful team. One of the most important responsibilities of a leader is to guide their employees toward better performance.
You can view yourself as a visionary, manager, mentor, and savvy businessman, but ultimately, the employees are the ones who make the company come alive and really sing on a daily basis. Your employees are truly the guiding force behind your own success.
Many people want to be entrepreneurs. They have a good idea that they believe is marketable and potentially profitable and the financial capability to make it happen. If this is you, I recommend giving significant consideration to the type of team you need to build to carry out your vision and build a strong company.
There are many ways to go about accomplishing the team-building part.
It all begins with identifying the skill sets and personality types your employees should have. On one hand, this means defining whom you’ll work most effectively with and what types of people will be comfortable within the office culture you plan to establish.
But there’s a factor that’s just as important and a key question that you must ask yourself: what type of employee will be most effective in serving, building professional relationships with and even selling to your customers?
For example, if you visit an Apple Store, everyone with whom you interact has been carefully selected to serve as a public representative—you might even say a living embodiment—of Apple’s brand. Each employee is apparently a strong cultural fit who also has the right personality and amount of knowledge to serve as a public-facing staff member.
It’s important to build a strong team. Then, once you’ve built your team, you’ll need to keep them.
Employees thrive when they have a high level of job satisfaction. As their leader, your challenge is to provide that. This doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily going to love what they do all day, every day. But it does mean that they have reasons to go to work every day motivated to provide the company—and the customers—with professionalism.
Most importantly, employees need to feel valued. They need to know that beyond the paycheck they receive in exchange for their time that they’re making a difference. As a leader, try to let them know this when possible. Public praise is important. So is constructive criticism when a potential obstacle is encountered. But most important, you want to let them know that they each play important roles as part of a team, and you want them to take pride in their work.
There are many ways to show appreciation, and each company is different. But if you build a team with the most talented, motivated people you can find, then continue to provide motivation and rewards—in whatever form that takes—you’ll be creating and managing a workforce that maintains longevity.