As your business grows and you start to add people to your team, the importance of team management begins to play a larger role. A business owner needs to be purposeful in creating an atmosphere in which everyone enjoys working together.
But a positive work environment doesn’t just happen by accident. From the beginning, you have to be purposeful in which methods you use to build and strengthen your team.
Before You Hire A New Team Member
Creating a positive work environment starts before you hire a new team member. Be proactive in your search before even posting for an open position.
First, think about which skills are still needed on your team. To do this, take a skills inventory of your current team members. Then list the skills that are missing from your team. When you know this information, you can begin the process of looking for your new team member. By trying to fill the gaps of missing skills, you will build a well-rounded team.
In addition to thinking about the skills you need in a new hire, you may also want to consider their working and personality strengths. For example, if you are a not a planner, you will want to hire someone who has a knack for being organized. One option you may want to consider is to ask the candidate to take a personality assessment. There are a few free options like the Myers-Briggs or DISC. The Kolbe-A, Strengths Finders, or Enneagram are other great options, but they do cost anywhere from $10-$50. If you do ask a potential candidate to take one of these tests, you should offer to pay for the cost.
Hiring A New Team Member
Don’t simply hire the first person that answers your open position post. Take the time to look at samples of work related to the skills you need to fill. Seeing excellent work samples done by the potential team member can give you peace of mind knowing that you are filling your skills gap with a highly-qualified person.
Another point to consider is how the person will get along with your current team members. If you can, it’s always a good idea to speak with references about how the person has gotten along with past team members. It’s also a good time to find out how quickly they complete their work.
Once you hire a new team member, it is important to have a smooth onboarding process. A new hire needs to be added to all the tech systems she will be using. If she is not familiar with the system, there should be some time set aside for training her. Because team communication needs to be strong, especially with a new hire, set expectations for when and how often you will want to have a meeting.
Ways To Build A Strong Relationship With Your Team
There are many ways that you can improve team management in your business. Whatever you do, it important that your team members feel appreciated at the end of the day.
- Get to know each of your team members as individuals. Your team members want you to know they are real people, not just a person who completes the tasks you’ve assigned them. Ask them questions about how they got to where they are. Learn more about their family. The more you know a person, the more you will be able to support them if a need should arrive. When you treat your team with compassion and dignity, they will respect you and produce quality work.
- Check in with your team members on a regular basis. Check in with team members at least every two weeks. You should check in with a new hire more often. Make sure everyone feels comfortable on the team. If one of your team members is working on a big project or has a quickly approaching deadline, you may want to check in with them more regularly than you normally do.
- Make sure your team members get the information and documents they need to complete the tasks assigned to them. Nothing is more frustrating for a team member than to be assigned a task and not be able to complete it. If this happens too often, you may end up losing members of your team. Make sure team members are getting the information needed to complete a task. This is a good thing to address in your regular meetings.
- Recognize your team members for a job well done. It is important to frequently express and show your appreciation to your team members. When someone works hard to produce quality results, they will feel so much appreciation if you take the time to praise their work. When you do this, people become loyal team members. If the task completed has been an especially large undertaking, a surprise gift would mean a lot to them.
- If conflict arises, be sure to address it fairly and quickly. You always hope that you won’t experience conflict on your team. But it probably will happen at some point. If it does, you want to address it right away. It may be something as simple as miscommunication. Or it may be a difference of opinions on how to do something. Whatever the issue, get it out in the open and do your best to get everyone back on the same page.
The Importance of Good Team Management In Your Business
As your business grows, you will need to put a team in place to handle all the demands so you can continue to focus on the creative side of your business. It is at this time that the importance of team management is crucial. If you take the time to grow your team slowly and with purpose, the team you put in place will serve you well and contribute to the growth of your business.
P.S. As your business grows, you will need to hire more team members. After awhile, you may discover that you are spending most of your time managing your team and less time doing what you love. When you find yourself in this position, it is time to consider hiring an online business manager who can manage your team. Schedule a free discovery call with me today by filling out the questionnaire on my website contact page. We can discuss where you are in your business and what I can help you with so you continue to grow.