Growing your team the right way
Are you at a point in your business where you are ready to grow and are looking to expand your team? Growing a team can be a challenge for even the most savvy business owner. Not only do you need to be ready to delegate, you need to know when the right time to hire is.
Sometimes, hiring is a better option than trying to push through a task that is out of your wheelhouse. First, ask yourself: “What can’t I do that needs to get done in my business?” It’s much less expensive and more efficient to hire an expert than try to learn it yourself. Then, ask: “What tasks don’t I enjoy doing? What takes up more time than I want to spend?” There is an opportunity cost here. By spending time on one task, you may not have time to get to a more important task and that could be costing you money.
Here are 5 tips to grow your team the right way:
1. Attract the right people.
Yes, I know this sounds really obvious, right? It also appears to be hard to do in this online space. Finding the right person the first time around can be a challenge. But if you’re ready to scale, you need the right people doing the right tasks. Before you even go online to look for the “right people”, you need to be really clear on your mission, vision, and values so you can hire someone who aligns with them. Yes, you hear me talk about values frequently on this blog, but that is because they are so important in the small business world, especially when hiring. Include them in the job description and application and touch on them in the interview as well. It’s much easier to teach someone a skill than to work with someone who has different values.
While you should always aim to build a team that agrees with your company values, don’t hire people who have similar strengths to you. Hire people who have the skills your company needs to grow. I can remember a time when I was on a discovery call with a potential client who was looking for a strategic partner and operations assistance. We were discussing our Kolbe index results and quickly discovered we were very different innately; I was a low quick start and high fact finder while he was a high quick start and low fact finder. We were complete opposites, but it worked out beautifully because that is exactly what the leader and business needed at that time. Hiring someone who was similar to the leader (high quick start) was not going to help move the business forward.
2. Avoid onboarding mistakes.
Clarity is vital during the onboarding process. Be explicitly clear on your expectations for the new hire and communicate those expectations—both in writing and during your one-to-one meetings. Teams need structure and clarity to perform at their best. That means giving them clear roles, plans, and goals so they can work on their designated roles and tasks without hesitation.
Take the time to develop an onboarding process for your new team members. Meeting with them once when you first hire them and then throwing them into the project management tool and hoping they swim is not going to produce the results you are looking for. Organize key documents and information about the company for them in one place to easily review. Include items such as the mission, vision, values, details of their role, other team members and their roles, and expectations around both internal and external communication.
3. Adopt a culture of cooperation and trust.
Teams are most effective when individuals feel comfortable taking risks and being vulnerable around each other. Focus on creating an environment where team members support each other and are empowered to take some risks to help the business find new and better ways of doing things. You want to foster a team environment where each team member knows what their lane is and also trusts that others will meet their responsibilities without having to be micromanaged. Even though you are the leader of the business, that doesn’t mean that you know everything. You are depending on your team to be the experts they are in their key areas. Ensure that your team knows this and are comfortable making suggestions and taking ownership of different areas within the business.
4. Create effective and repeatable processes.
As your team grows, it is important to clearly document repeatable processes so that assigned team members can do the tasks efficiently and others can step in when necessary. You do not want to be in a position where only one team member knows how a process works and everyone else must spend extra time asking them. Imagine if a client makes a request while the one person who knows how to do that task is on vacation! Taking the time to document processes will go a long way in your team cohesiveness and growth.
5. Embrace change.
When bringing new team members on, it’s important to focus on the positive while still allowing opportunities for challenges and concerns to be discussed. Be sure to talk to your team about why the new team member is being added, what will change, and the skills and expertise this new member brings to the table. Make sure the entire team is informed about the overall strategic vision and that they understand the decision to bring new members into the project. Ask for questions or concerns, and be sure to address them. Transparency goes a long way toward reassurance. Create opportunities for the new and existing team members to get to know each other.
Above all, be patient throughout the implementation process. There will be hills and valleys along the way and it is important that you are able to show your team how to ride these.
Growing a team is an exciting time. It allows you to grow and scale your business much faster than if you were in it alone. But it’s not without some stressors—stressors you can avoid when you grow the right way. Patience, clear communication, and a solid plan will set you and your team up for success.
