How business owners can intentionally build, lead, and sustain a high-performing team. Emphasizing hiring the right people by looking beyond resumes, setting clear roles and expectations through structure and SOPs, and fostering psychological safety through trust, respect, and open communication. The blog highlights the importance of coaching with empathy and accountability, recognizing and developing employees to maintain momentum, and consistently measuring what truly drives business success. When people are prioritized and systems are aligned, teams become more engaged, productive, and capable of carrying the business forward.
If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. This African proverb holds within it the essence of having a team full of those who will help you go as far as possible in business. Many business owners often have a feeling of what they want for a team yet often fall short of creating that team they envisioned. So today, we dive into what makes a great team from beginning to end.
Starting with finding the right people. We want to have an exact outlook and description of your ideal employee. Even if you own a comic book shop, you still want someone who likes comics and can also sell them well. Credentials on a resume can tell you only so much about a person. Moreover it can only tell you about what they’ve done and not necessarily shed light on what they can do. Looking beyond the resume, means taking more notice to candidates as people instead of employees. You're building a team to grow your business, you want people who will understand that role and live it. Having a concise description of what that candidate looks like for that role is how you match and find your ideal team member. You should avoid hiring out of desperation as much as possible. Rushing the hiring process can lead to overlooking too many desired attributes causing a bad hire. The hiring process should not take months to make when done properly, but also take your time curating the team that you know will carry your business far.
When you know what you're looking for and who you're working with, it’s much easier to create everyone's role in the business. Although there may be many types of business structures to model your business after, you should embody what works best for your team. This will reduce friction between team members allowing for everyone to do their intended job without too much overlap. When you’re creating these roles, include goals for each position and make sure they contribute to your business values. Understand that the clearer you are on what you expect from your team, the better they can be with and without your presence. This is where creating Standard Operating Procedures makes a great foundation for what every role is expected to accomplish and more importantly HOW to accomplish it. You can expect less hiccups if your team knows exactly how to deal with problems when they arise, and when they get really good, they can prevent those problems from happening in the first place.
Psychological safety is the second foundational aspect of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Meaning, once a human is set in a comfortable environment, they must then feel safe mentally in that environment. Your workplace is another environment for people to reside in during their day, so making sure they feel comfortable when they come to work is a high priority. Therefore it’s up to you as the business owner to create that environment for every employee that comes onto your team. Safety looks like reliable pay for their position, having respect amongst all team members, and an overall sense of belonging to the team as a whole. When you can provide these aspects of a workplace then your team can feel safe which then leads to further productivity and happiness on the job. One major problem most business owners often falter on is in the realm of communication. It’s important that your team understand that they can talk to you about their problems, about their solutions, and ideas about their career. This creates a sense of trust with the company and that can lead to higher longevity in your team members. This environment is also highly attractive to other candidates as well. When you create a trusting, safe environment, your team can be filled with purpose resulting in great work ahead.
The hard part of getting the right ingredients and mixing the right proportions is over. Now that everything is incorporated, it's your turn to apply heat, and make sure everything goes as it should. A large portion of running a great team is problem-solving. As an entrepreneur you are probably already good at solving your problems. When it comes to creating and running a great team, you have to be good at solving their problems too. When everyone is aligned in their role, there still arise opportunities to learn from our mistakes. Sometimes people rush through a process, they miss a digit, or say the wrong thing to a customer. These types of problems always come forth, however different it may seem. It is your job to balance empathy with standards in order to correct mishaps without killing the morale of your team members. Feedback should not ignite fear in your employees. Whether that’s you or managers, everyone should know how to conduct concise and relevant feedback provided to your team. Shaming, chastizing, or even low level threats should not be used in order to correct problems employees may encounter. This can be mitigated first by appointing the right leaders. Furthermore, addressing problems as they come and fixing them early will reduce the amount of times the same mistake is made and increase how well it is handled in the future. Accountability is the name of the game, though everyone in the organization has to embody it.
Things are going well. Your team is knocking tasks out left and right. Work is getting done and the business is growing. We tend to overlook things when they're going great, not so much when things are going bad. However, it's important to celebrate when things are going well. This helps keep the momentum of things going in the right direction. Because your team was built with purpose, pouring back into your people has its benefits to them and to you. Pay attention to what your employees need as they grow your organization. Do they need more money? More autonomy? More praise and recognition maybe? Considering the needs of your team is how great owners stay ahead of any downpours that may occur. Treating your team to dinner or lunch can do wonders when you know they leave exhausted at the end of the day. Caring for others provides energy that keeps your team engaged. Learning what certain individuals like can also provide that sense of belonging to the organization. Yes, a general good job and post on the website may feel nice, but people really remember the specific awards and gifts. If you can provide that, then you can be certain that your team will return the favor with loyalty and productivity. Pour into your team and watch them grow.
