To result in a successful business, you need to understand the ten secret ingredients to a winning team. It is vital to have productive team members working within your business.
Quite simply, there are only so many hours in a day; therefore, through the power of leverage you can achieve more with a motivated team. Lets have a look at the 10 Ingredients that are important to the successful set up of a ‘Winning Team’:
1. Strong Leadership
Leadership is the ability to get work done with and through others while gaining their confidence and co-operation. Almost every aspect of work is influenced by, and dependent on leadership.
A team will only ever be as good as the leader. It is therefore imperative that your ability to teach, work with and motivate your team is the key to success.
Being a leader is different to being a manager. A manager is responsible for ensuring the business has the people, tools and systems in place to achieve results.
A leader’s role is to ensure the people are motivated to actually do the work – Neither can work without the other.
2. The right person for the job
Selection of the right team members is imperative to success. Look for specific personal traits in your staff members in order to ensure success in the project and/or business environment. For example, working in the service industry, It is very important for all team members to have excellent social skills, a high level of self confidence (as they will need to speak with friendly authority directly with our customers) and are able to build trust among the other team members.
Finding team members that will show leadership skills will only help with the growth of your business. For example: if a serviceman has the knowledge, displays the right attitude in line with the values of the business and automatically takes charge of a situation, the responsibility of leadership and providing direction to the rest of the team can either be delegated or shared with this person.
3. Establishing common goals
Establishing common goals within the team is essential in team building. It is important to establish goals early so the members understand their purpose for participating. Where they are going and what are they working towards. As an individual needs a goal, in a team the goal is shared. Goals give the team direction and provide a feeling of value and importance. It is very important for a leader to make sure the team knows how the work will be done and how they will accomplish their tasks.
Without goals, the team has nothing to strive for, and many members may lose motivation. Keeping the goal simple and achievable will be very beneficial to the team in the end.
4. Allocation of roles within the team
Assigning roles to team members help them to know their place on the team. Each member should be assigned a role that is clearly defined and relates to his or her personality.
Advantages of defining roles among team members are that it makes assignments more straightforward, helps to understand the decision-making process, and assures the task will be completed.
It is important to clarify each of these roles at the very first meeting so members know exactly what they have to do. Making a list of everyone’s skill sets, preference, work experience, courses taken, and interests would help in assigning the roles. From this list it should be determined who is best suited for what role. If there is conflict in the process, team members can always share the responsibilities. Otherwise the leader can perform a quick lottery to decide who gets what role. Each role has a specific outline of responsibilities that together, as a team will take the team one step closer to achieving the common goal.
5. The right skill set for the job
It is important within a team to have a balanced skills set. One way to achieve this is by having ‘experts’ in different areas.
Combining all strengths, and balancing skill sets can be one of the most challenging things to achieve, but it is very important to do to ensure the success of the team.
Harmonising personality
The personality of a team leader plays a big factor on how the team performs. A leader must understand the kind of personality they need to have in order to gain the respect from his or her members. Many studies have been made to see if personality effects working environments – It is imperative for leaders to have a positive and effective personality to gain respect among their team members.
6. Action Plan
The action plan is what you do each day following the path to reach the goal… in each position.
It’s about who does what when?
What is the expected outcome for them as a individual? And therefore what will the collective team result look like?
Each team member needs to follow the guidelines as outlined by their job/position description, and/or direction from their leader in the pursuit of the common goal.
7. 100% Involvement/Work together
Without every person on the team being involved it’s difficult to call it a team! A team must know how to work together in order to be productive and successful. If a team can work together, they will be able to raise and resolve issues that are standing in the way of accomplishing a goal.
Working together may not come easy at first, but with proper training the team will be able to adapt quickly. The training may include the instruction on how to communicate better, manage conflict, or understand the skills and talents that everyone brings to the table.
If people are working together effectively rather than working by themselves, a lot more work will be accomplished.
Remember: the team is only as strong as the weakest link.
8. Support within the team
Another important ingredient for a winning team is support. Support is the aspiration to help others succeed. “Someone who shows supports is dedicated to the team’s success and wants what’s best for the team, works behind the scenes to aid the team, willing to pitch in whenever necessary, always willing to help out, willing to take on more responsibility, very easy to work with, and listens well to others’ ideas.”
It is imperative to support risk taking considering nothing grows if it stands still! You need to constantly welcome the evolution of change, the constant path of improvement.
Often the business owner restricts growth by being in the way. Sometimes you need to simply get out of the way and allow and encourage your team to take some risks…
9. Making effective use of resources
Effectively using resources is essential in the success of a winning team.
Resources are essential to team building and they must be used wisely and efficiently.
10. Communication between team members and leaders
For a team to work best – A leader with good communication skills, must be able to speak the truth and deal with problems openly. Their goal should be to promote listening, to understand different viewpoints, and to work toward a resolution. It is important for a team leader to make team members feel comfortable enough to express their needs and their wants. Members want to feel that they know what is going on at all time and are informed about things such as plans, priorities, and progress the group is making.
Communication is important socially to build rapport, trust and a relationship between team members. Team members benefit from social events such as team bonding activities – golf, skirmish or even a dinner/drinks with them and their partners. This social interaction brings the team members closer together as a united family.
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.
