A dream-team is one that is efficient and is easily managed. And if the right efforts are made in the right direction, a small business too can build a great dream-team. Our five ideas are sufficient to build a five-star team:
1. Build a rapport:
The small business must win members’ trust by being great listeners and problem-solvers. There must be mutual trust in order to build reciprocal relationships. The management team itself needs to be a great mix of empathy and sympathy for the rest of the team and ensure an effective mechanism to resolve issues. As a result, team members will give back by being efficient in their work and will begin taking work as a welcome responsibility. Each will contribute towards making a great team.
2. Foster transparency:
There are no secrets among members of an effective team and each one is accountable for own task or responsibility. This happens only when a manager shares his challenges and limitations and still stays positive. He shares openly about goals and targets, deadlines and weaknesses of processes and volunteers to handle the trickiest of situations. In a small business, such a manager can make it all the more possible to have a team that knows every small detail of the company and tasks involved. This fosters a sense of belongingness among the members who also learn to volunteer and wear others’ hats if required.
3. Invite ideas, accept executable ones:
Another key ingredient of building and managing an effective team is to actively involve them in decision making. This kind of a thing makes employees feel a sense of importance. They feel that their opinion counts. However, there is a thin line between accepting ideas and executing them. Never accept ideas just because they are good. Accept them based on their practicality of execution. And don’t forget to communicate this criterion while inviting ideas and you will see how your team doubles its creativity and efficiency.
4. Collective brainstorming is good:
Involve the employees in analyzing results and generating solutions. It may be weekly, monthly or quarterly but ensure that your employees know where you stand as a business. Ask employees what they think, feel about their company, where do they want to see it, what else do they expect their company to achieve etc. This kind of involvement in brainstorming unites the team and leads to efficiency.
5. Praise publicly, criticize privately:
This is probably the most age-old but the most crucial piece of advice to small business team. The ability to recognize performances publicly but correcting members privately will go a long way in building an extremely efficient and strong team.
At the heart of each of these suggestions is the idea that each employee will be effective in a team once he feels his role is crucial to the growth of the business. This is the ingredient of a five-star team.
