As business owners, one of the trickiest parts of our role is building a strong team. It doesn’t matter if you’re hiring for the first time, or trying to make improvements to your existing team, there are so many steps to be considered that it can sometimes seem like way more work than it’s worth.
But trust me when I say that building a strong team is SO worth the effort it requires.
As entrepreneurs, many of us have a strong drive to try and do it all ourselves …but that’s just not realistic. Unfortunately, the business community is overflowing with messages that being the boss means doing it all, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Plus, we often think we should be able to do it ourselves, so we let ourselves go far longer than we should without help.
This type of thinking is downright detrimental to your business and even to your personal life. Finding the support you need to grow your business while also having a life simply must be a priority. In fact, this is something I feel so strongly about that I created a hiring guide to help people navigate building their team.
Building a strong team will require ongoing effort and probably push you out of your comfort zone in a few different ways, but if you want to continue to grow a successful business it’s necessary.
Let’s take a look at the key areas you need to consider when building a strong team.
Stop Putting It Off
Building a strong team is an investment in your business. From my experience with my clients, there are generally two common reasons business owners will put off hiring a team.
- Deciding what you need help with can feel overwhelming. There’s so much advice on who to hire, when to hire, and what to outsource that the idea of figuring out a hiring plan seems like so much work.
- You think hiring will be too expensive. While this is a valid concern, it doesn’t take into account that you have options. Nothing says you must hire a full-time, high salary employee from the get-go. You can start slow and build from there, whether it’s hiring someone local or possibly overseas.
There’s also another thing that hiring brings up — you’re going to have to be the leader. You’ll have people looking to you for guidance and direction, and while you may think that sounds like more work for you (and yes, it’ll be in the short term), there are countless long-term benefits.
One of the best ways to combat those worries about how you’ll handle a team is to be proactive. Understanding some of the common team issues leaders experience BEFORE you grow your team means you can build a strong foundation for everyone to be successful.
Be Proactive About the “What Ifs”
When speaking to my clients about why building a strong team is necessary for their business, the biggest concern I often hear is that they’re worried having a team will suck up all their time.
And yes, that CAN happen, most commonly with these three scenarios:
You spend all your time answering questions — often the same ones over and over again.
You spend too much time looking for statuses or deliverables from your team.
You spend way too much time fixing things or redoing work your team has completed.
The good news is that all three of these challenges can be minimized (or even eliminated), especially with repeatable tasks. Having robust systems can help in building a strong team because they have clear direction and need to rely less on you for support and questions.
Think about tasks in your business that are done the same way over and over again and start there. Create step-by-step procedures that document how the tasks need to be completed, so someone else can follow your preferences without asking you questions constantly.
These types of processes help with tasks such as:
If you’re starting from scratch, set a goal to document one thing per week or month. As time passes, you’ll have a library of systems your team can use to complete tasks and greatly reduce the number of questions you need to answer day in and day out.
As a bonus, this will also reduce time being wasted on trying to dig up things you can’t find because your processes should include steps for how each item is tracked and filed.
Systems and Processes are a MUST
If your biggest worry about building a strong team is that you’ll end up having to redo work or send it back to them for substantial revisions, start by establishing best practices and guidelines that clearly outline your expectations for completed tasks.
For example, creating a style guide that outlines the do’s and don’ts for your brand can help address little things that you’re constantly correcting. Think about anything you commonly correct and start documenting them. Something as simple as a brand guide can help your team use the right colors, fonts,and formatting.
Having a process for quality control in place is also in your best interest. It could be as simple as having team members run a spellcheck and grammar check and verifying all links are correct before sending items for approval. All these small steps will add up to less time updating when you’re doing reviews of content.
Now, should you find yourself in a situation where you’ve put processes, systems and quality control in place but you’re still redoing work, then there’s no shame in recognizing it may be time to uplevel your team. You can’t expect your team to be perfect, but if you’re seeing the same issues over and over again it may be a case of needing someone different to fill the role.
A good leader is willing to invest in their team, but they also can recognize and admit when things aren’t working and look for ways to course correct.
Don’t Forget — Everyone Needs a Break Sometimes
Finally, when you’re building a strong team don’t forget to prepare for them to have time off! Happy team members are productive one, and you don’t want taking time off to be stressful for you or for them. By taking a few steps to ensure the business can handle their absence, you can promote the kind of work/life balance that your team values.
