Building and keeping an all-star team in top shape is one of the biggest challenges even the greatest business leaders face. After all, the people you choose to hire and retain affect your company’s growth.
Keep in mind that, while competitors may be able to duplicate your offerings and processes, there’s virtually no chance that they can copy your team and how you manage and take care of your people as is.
Of course, keeping an all-star team goes beyond the recruitment stage. Once you hire the most suitable people for the job and your company, you also need to exert effort in keeping them happy and ensuring that their skills and values align with your business goals.
Whether you’ve decided to launch a start-up or already have an established company, having an excellent team is crucial for your success. In this article, you will learn about the five ways you can build and nurture an all-star team.
1. Coaching
If you’ve ever tried getting help from a professional development coach, then you already understand the benefits of partaking in the process.
An individual can enjoy a wide range of advantages from engaging with a coach, particularly on a personal level.
Coaching can help boost confidence and establish better communication. It can also help an employee improve their performance at work. Coaching involves one-on-one feedback with participants. Through coaching, your staff can get plenty of encouragement, which, in turn, can translate into productivity and initiative. Moreover, this type of engagement also helps keep employees happy and, therefore, boosts retention rate (more on this later).
Corporate coaching also takes learning a bit deeper, in a way that an individual can learn all about themselves, how others perceive them, and other areas they may not be satisfied with.
Below are more advantages of professional coaching for an organisation:
● Empowers individuals to take more responsibility
● Enhances staff engagement
● Provides data on team members with high potential for leadership and other skills
● Assists in identifying organisational and individual development opportunities and strengths
● Demonstrates the commitment of an organisation to talent development and management
2. One-On-One Check-Ins
Aside from hiring a professional coach to help members of your team reach their full potential, you also need to do your own check-ins with them. Ideally, these check-ins should be one-on-one so you can focus on the individual and their unique strengths and concerns, all while cultivating a closer relationship that yields loyalty and friendship.
As the leader of the team, you have to be updated on where your members stand, particularly in terms of business goals and policies. This will allow you to have a clearer insight into any conflicts that may arise within the team and help in the individual development of each member.
Moreover, this will help demonstrate that you genuinely care about the team and show them that you’re a leader worth emulating. It can also help you track each member’s progress, mitigate conflict, and foster growth in the company.
When set as a regular thing (perhaps as bi-monthly or monthly check-ins), this can help you create a company culture with self-reflection and growth at its very core.
3. Team-Building Activities
Another way you can instill teamwork and other crucial skills in your all-star team is to organise team-building activities. This is especially crucial when you’re just beginning to establish your very first team.
The goal is to make sure that individual members of the team come to work not only to offer their best contributions but also to see how they fit into the bigger picture. It also promotes the value of working with others, united in achieving the same goals.
Team-building can also help you and your teammates know more about each other on a more value-centered level. After all, only when you understand someone personally can you develop a sense of confidence and trust in them for future collaborations.
When choosing a team-building activity, reflect on the culture you want to build within the company. You can choose from a specific range of gatherings, including:
● Simple but frequent meals together
● Occasional adventurous company excursions like a seaplane tour
● Workshops and seminar days focused on exploring one another’s visions and values
4. Morale-Boosting Efforts
Employees feel more engaged and perform at their best when they are happy about what they’re doing and where they are.
Studies show that employees who are satisfied in their jobs tend to work harder, with their personal productivity up by 12 percent. Unhappy team members, on the other hand, tend to be 10 percent less productive.
But what exactly can you do to improve employee morale? Below are some examples:
● Reasonable salaries
● Flexible work arrangements
● Incentives and bonuses
● Potential for career growth
● Transparency
● Trust and openness
● Healthy work environment
5. Constructive Feedback
Although feedback has been found to help businesses improve as a whole, it is often overlooked by business leaders as a tool for engaging talent.
Avoid this mistake and seek honest opinions from people you work with, especially the company’s employees. This is particularly useful in implementing strategies and processes that enhance working conditions.
Remember that listening to feedback and acting on it is what helps leaders build successful businesses with an all-star team. The bottom line: communication is the key to creating a sound company culture built on transparency and trust.
Besides employee retention, pooling experience, and knowledge from the entire team also aid strategy planning, marketing campaigns, and product improvements.
To do this, you can start by:
● Conducting periodic surveys on employee satisfaction;
● Organising company group discussions; and
● Opening forums on social media and other platforms that promote free speech.
Teamwork Works
Building a team is just one half of the battle; you also need to nurture the circle you built for it to work in favour of your company.
As a business leader, you must remember the value employees provide your business and ensure trust and loyalty are cultivated by applying the tips listed in this article.
Leila Rezaiguia is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kompass Consultancy, an innovative global talent management consultancy headquartered in Dubai and with offices in Abu Dhabi and Sydney, that specialises in enabling individuals, organisations and educational institutions to achieve performance excellence and career success. Leila is a multi-lingual (English, Arabic and French) PCC Coach, Mentor Coach, Trainer, Facilitator and Business Mentor who is passionate about coaching, women in leadership, talent management and organisational development.
