One of the greatest African proverbs says: “If you want to go fast, travel alone. But if you want to go far, travel together.” That’s the essence of the entire process of building a powerful business. It’s about working within people’s passions and with their unique abilities, but also bringing that together and systematizing it.
It’s really about making the dream team a reality, keeping it going, and making sure it never falls apart. But how do we build that ideal team, and where do we start?
Why don’t they get it?
The most common frustration with the team is that they don’t “get it.” They are good at what they do, but they miss those almost intangible extra steps crucial to ensuring clients are taken care of. They don’t realize their tone with clients on a stressful day. They don’t go that extra step to ensure all the bases are covered. They are nice, but how do you make them “get it” and go to the next level? How to train and empower them?
“Getting it” isn’t a skill set or a task you can be trained on. “Getting it” is the awareness that you can’t turn off once you experience and see the impact on the other person. And to be truly aware, it has to matter and mean something emotionally.
The hardest-working, most qualified team member cannot “get it” without experiencing heightened awareness through an emotional connection to what you do and what it means to clients.
Helping your team members “get it” is very easy. Simply explain to them what you do, and how it affects your clients, who you serve, and why they really write you checks. Everyone has a grandmother, a mother, a husband, a child, or someone they love and care about who has been or could be impacted by the problems you help clients solve. Once they see your client as their loved one, they “get it.”
You’re not too busy to communicate with your team
People need people to be well and thrive. They need feedback, communication, and the sense that you generally appreciate that they are there and part of the team. Unfortunately, I find that I am missing more than 50 percent of the time. In my 17 years of experience, most employees don’t work out because they were hired and then left alone to try and figure it out. The connection and communication were either inconsistent or nonexistent.
What have our employees stopped asking us because we bosses are always “too busy,” “running late,” or “under time constraints?” Are some employee questions annoying? And are you really too busy sometimes?
The attitude of broken promises and being too busy can make our team stop expecting us and stop asking us essential questions: ‘How do we make a difference for clients?’ ‘How does this new service help our clients?’ ‘Is our future as a business stable? Are we going to be OK?’ And we walk in one day to an empty desk, a termination letter, and their door key.
If you want this kind of employee, who cares, you also have to be willing to show up, care, and be committed. Don’t forget about the following simple practices.
- Monthly lunch or coffee date—Schedule time to connect and check in with each person on the team individually. This must start within the first 30 days.
- Quarterly team outing – Plan something fun as a team. Bug off early at 2 p.m. on a Friday: bowling, skydiving, Japanese steakhouse, maybe fondue. Find something that will allow everyone to bond and connect.
- Consistent individual reviews. Not the dreaded, archaic version of an employee review you might know, but an empowering, growth-oriented session.
Don’t forget about the power of measurement
Be specific with measurable goals. We all need to know where we are winning and where we are missing the mark, and we can only do that with measurement.
Build in time to review the measurements and discuss how to keep winning and improve on the misses. Be clear that missing a mark doesn’t mean the employee screwed up or is doing a bad job. You are simply measuring, adjusting, and correcting to achieve success.
For example, let’s say your employee is responsible for getting 30 people to each of your monthly workshops, but misses the mark one month. You may find, when you review the numbers, that you need to change your advertising method, because one newspaper you advertise in is not returning any results. This doesn’t mean the team member messed up. In fact, measuring, tracking, and adjusting based on this information is the key to success. It leaves the team members much more in control and a part of the solution than just feeling like they are failing, with no idea what to do about it.
If we’ve learned one thing through years of coaching teams, it’s that making the difference in creating teams that achieve their goals and last, it’s keeping your team in a forum for empowerment and learning. By consistently fostering communication, setting clear expectations, and measuring progress, you empower your employees to contribute to the lasting success of your entire organization.
