As a business owner, you learn quickly that there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to driving your success. There are industry rules and changes, product upgrades, balance sheets and office leases to name just a few. But perhaps the biggest driver of your company’s ultimate success is your team.
All successful people surround themselves with other successful people; they put together teams where the strength of each individual contributes to the bigger picture.
In business, just like in sports, the goal is to build the best team you can. You do this in one of two ways; find ways to bring out the best in the players you already have or trade for better players.
Sometimes you’ve seen a player play for another team and know that they would be a great addition to your own team, while at other times, you don’t know how a player will perform until you throw them into a game.
A challenge in business, especially a small business, is that some of your ‘players’ become your family. When that happens, it’s a lot harder to just replace them with another player who is “better” at playing their position
So how do you get the best out of your team while making sure you have the right players in the right positions.
First, understand that each of your team members has a unique personality, and each personality has strengths and weaknesses. As the boss, you need to make sure that you know where the strengths are.
Each person on your team has at least one area of strength (if they don’t, that’s a good reason to rethink that team member). What do they do really well? It’s easy to go through everyone in your mind and think about what they don’t do; that’s not what we’re looking for here and that’s not going to help you. What we’re looking for is one thing this person takes ownership of.
Taking ownership isn't just about accountability and responsibility, it’s also about being excited to take an active role in making things happen. Taking ownership requires an employee or team member to get out of their comfort zone, and that’s not something everyone is willing to do (even if you’ve told them over and over you want them to!). Taking ownership requires a team member to say, “I’ve got this and you can trust me because I trust me with it.” They have to believe in themselves as much as you do.
For someone to be willing to get out of their comfort zone and take initiative, they first have to care. But how do you get them to care about your baby (i.e. your business) like you do? After all, taking ownership also means taking responsibility for the outcome or results of your actions; another scary thing for many people.
It starts with sharing your vision. As a business leader or owner, sharing your vision is important. Getting everyone on the same page with where you are now, where you expect to go as a company, and what is needed to get there helps to set expectations of what needs to happen. When that vision is laid out loudly and clearly, there should be no question as to what is expected of each and every team member’s performance.
Next, clearly defining what success looks like to you, the owner, is important. Letting team members know what goals need to be hit helps them keep their eyes on the prize. However, you should not be the only one sharing those things. If you’re the only one talking, I guarantee you’re missing opportunities that your team might bring to the table if they felt more comfortable speaking up.
One way you can make them more comfortable is to play to their strengths.
Be a strategic boss. Your people are your greatest resource, and each of them brings something you need to the table. Do you know what that is? If not, have a conversation about it. This may be difficult for some bosses to hear, but know that you are not giving away your power by asking them about what they believe they do well, what part of their job they enjoy doing, and what they are insecure about in their current roles. In fact, you are being strategic in order to make better decisions that will create better results for your company.
Listen to employees. Let them know that their ideas matter, even if you don’t implement them. If your people feel they can share ideas, they are more likely to do it! But if they feel like they get shot down every time they open their mouths, they’re going to clam up and you might be missing opportunities that simply aren’t being shared because, what’s the point?
Here are some additional ways that you can encourage your team members to work to their strengths and take more initiative.
- Show them the impact they have made. Just as it’s easy for employees to get on autopilot, bosses can be susceptible, too. While your expectation is that your people do the jobs you hired them to do, by occasionally showing them how they made something positive happen because of what they did, they are more likely to see how they fit in. When they see how their piece to the puzzle makes a difference, they are more likely to care about what they do and even take ownership of it.
- Give them confidence by setting up some decisions in advance. What are things in your day to day business environment that always have the same answer? What are the things that your staff or team calls you about regularly to question, second-guess, or ‘just make sure?’ How many calls or emails do you get every day that make you think, “We’ve already talked about that!” By making clear that “if A, then B” is the answer 100% of the time, those unnecessary communications go away and your team members feel more confident about making them without your input.
- Give them permission to take ownership. Many people will not ‘step-up’ simply because they don’t think they should. They see taking ownership as overstepping boundaries. When you tell your team - actually tell them in these words - ‘I am giving you permission to take ownership. You are good at what you do and I trust you. That is why I have you in that position,’ more of them will step-up and do exactly that. Those who do not might not be the leaders you want or need to move your business forward. Delegate authority, not just work or tasks.
- If you have an environment where new people are regularly joining the team, create simple process checklists. What tasks in your business follow the same process every time they get done? Creating simple flow-charts for those tasks will give clarity and confidence to those using it, as well as make it easy for someone new to jump right in without you having to stop (again!) and train them.
- Be transparent about challenges. This is the human part of business. Not everything is a simple process, and it’s okay to acknowledge that. When numbers are down, the team should not only know that, but also why they are down and what, as a team, needs to be done. Remind each team member of his/her piece in that. Again, play to their strengths and you will have a much better chance for a positive outcome.
- Stay ahead of the game. Know what’s coming down the pipeline and hold your staff/team accountable for doing the same. It's so easy to get caught up on day to day autopilot that we lose sight of the fact that there are always little parts of things that we can ‘check off the list,’ even if the other parts of it aren’t happening yet. Stay on top of things, think ahead, and encourage your team to do the same to make their lives easier.
- Make sure everyone on your team knows what everyone else does and knows. When one team member has a question or needs something, do they always call you? If so, you probably direct them to someone else for the answer. When they all know who else on the team they can call to get that answer or update, the calls/emails to you will slow down.
Your team is the life force of your business. But always remember that team is made up of human beings who need direction, clarity, and encouragement. Once they know that you know where their strengths lie, and how what they do bring to the table is an important piece to the big picture, they will be more inclined to care like you do.