Every small business starts with limited capital and resources. Initially, the CEO is trying to accomplish multiple tasks to avoid hiring excessive labor. As the company develops, the labor force increases and the CEO is forced to delegate tasks and create teams to organize his company and its departments in order to make optimum use of his labor resources.
A team of business people contains a number of professional who may have complimentary or similar set of skills needed to achieve and complete various business related tasks. There is usually a single team leader in every team and the team as a whole, is often held responsible for its performance, goals, and achieved targets.
Teamwork can often benefit a developing business greatly as better organization and task delegation becomes possible. The CEO is then responsible for managing the company as a whole and communicating with various team leaders to run the company efficiently. Being part of a team can also improve morale of the employees as they will get a sense of belonging and within every team, the opinion of each individual will be heard and taken into consideration, giving them due importance and a listening ear.
Steps to Building a Team
In order to build a successful team, a CEO needs to keep the following steps in mind:
1. Have a Purpose
If you are creating a team of leaders, you need to have a clear and defined purpose that you want the team to achieve. Whether the team is created solely for the completion of a difficult project or whether it will be assigned a particular department of the company to manage on its own, a team must have its goals to achieve.
2. Select Team Members
Each person included in the team should be able to contribute something to it. Make your selection carefully and choose people that can enhance each other’s performance and have complementary skill sets so that they can work well and achieve the team goals collectively.
3. Pick a Leader
Designate a team leader yourself or ask the members to vote for one from amongst themselves. This leader will be responsible for team performance and will report to you directly.
4. Delegate Tasks
Task delegation is important for a smoothly working team. As the owner of your business, you can choose to take this job on your shoulders or ask the team leader to assign responsibilities to each team member according to their skills and strengths.
5. Discuss Problems
Meet with the team leaders frequently to discuss developments and progress. Furthermore, schedule meetings with the entire team once in a while, to discuss any problems or obstacles that they might be facing. Tackle these effectively.
6. Set Deadlines
No matter how small scale your business might be. There must be a completion date and deadline for even the smallest of projects this will improve efficiency of your company as the work will always get done on time.
7. Evaluate Performance
The CEO does not need to handle each team personally, but he or she does have to oversee the business and working of the teams. Evaluate the performance of every team from time to time. If a team is lacking efficiency, discover the reasons and sort out the problems to optimize their work.
Using these seven small steps, a CEO of a business can develop a team of employees into a successful working unit. Now, the question arises, what is a successful team or how can a team’s success be determined?
Characteristics of an Efficient and Successful Team
To better understand a team’s success, you need to evaluate it on the basis of its characteristics as well as performance. Every successful team will have these defining characteristics:
- Good Understanding of the Goals to be Achieved
A team that is working towards progress will have a clear concept of the goals that they are supposed to reach.
- Striving to Achieve Common Aims
The awareness that each person on the team is working for the same aim is a strong motivator for its members.
- Working Together with Coordination and Collaboration
Coordinating efforts and working together as a single unit to bring a project to completion is the biggest indicator of a successful team.
Importance of Building a Team of Leaders
Some CEOs feel that task delegation and team building often take the control of the company out of their hands. However, in most cases, building teams of efficient employees that can help one another and balance each other’s skills, is an important part of developing a business further. A few key reasons for team building include:
a) Wide Range of Opinions
A group of employees that are combined together in a team often have different strengths and expertise. Accordingly, they will have different and varied opinions regarding a single project. More qualified and more experienced personnel might be able to give better and more implementable solutions as compared to others who are not experts in the field. Hence, when the team meets to discuss its plan of action, a diversity of views can actually improve the means by which a particular goal is achieved.
b) Proper Representation of the Whole Company
For a company meeting, one member or leader from each team can be asked to attend and share their views. If the entire staff is divided into small manageable teams, each standing for a particular department of the company, a proper representation of the corporation can be made without inviting the whole labor force.
c) More Eyes to Note Important Details
When a team is assigned a task, every individual member studies its details and often, one person can catch minute errors or key points that others have missed. Hence, having more eyes going over project details allows for more efficiency and accuracy in work.
d) Continuous Progress in the Absence of Team Members
A team is build up of many members and each is delegated a specific task according to their skills. As a result, the team does not come to a standstill because of the absence of one or more members. The present employees are aware of the work that they have been assigned and can continue to work on it even if their colleagues are unavailable. This allows work to continue smoothly without interruptions.
Considering the importance of building a team, every CEO should strive to achieve it, as task delegation and management are qualities of a true leader and can help you in making big decisions for your company by consulting your teams and team leaders.