Now that you have built a great team, you have to make the necessary steps and create the appropriate conditions to make sure everybody is working in the same direction, and is aiming at the same results.
This is mainly common sense, but here are a few recommendations that could help you framing the environment to get the best results.
- Articulate a sound vision.
The best way to guarantee that all your team members are consistently adding their efforts up to reach the expected results is to give them a high level sense of the final destination, the big picture, a sound vision that they can relate to and dream of. That will guide their actions and help them to make the right decision along their way.
- Define clear goals and objectives.
But a sound vision is not enough. To really be effective, the team needs a much more specific road map based on clear goals and objectives. Everybody knows that they should be SMART, meaning Specific in their description, Measurable to be able to exactly know what will be achieved, Achievable to keep people motivated, Realistic to keep common sense, and finally attached to a Time Line with a precise dead line. Clear goals and objectives will also help people to make the right decisions without having to wait for you to make the call. The team will be faster, more agile and nimble and finally more productive.
Another key element to overachieve and develop greatness is to clarify what should be first, second... and last.Teams are usually working on multiple projects, themselves built from multiple sub-projects and tasks. It is so easy to run thin and burn a lot of resources on many topics without achieving anything. Defining the priorities and making sure they are both clear and understood by all will bring focus to the team; moreover achieving the first ones will bring a lot of satisfaction and then trigger a new wave of motivation within the team.
- Develop a strong business model.
Companies are sometimes unclear as to what is their exact business model and related strategy are. Direct or Indirect? VAR or OEM? Online or face to face? Large accounts or SMB's? Local or international? And on the top of that, what it is they want to exactly achieve? High revenue or strong bottom line? Higher gross margin or increased market share? New (challenging) accounts or (profitable) repeat business? These obvious questions are sometimes not clearly sorted and answered, and that causes a lot of confusion and waste of time. Again strong and clear business goal and model are paramount to get the team on the same page.
You could be a great speaker and give the presentation of your life to your team to line up your plan. In any case you have to do it. But nothing is better than a written plan that people can refer to. People are not going to remember your great speech (nor your killer jokes...) and you need to leave them with something they can easily read afterward, think about and use as a roadmap for their own actions. From making your slides public to adding to them a more comprehensive sound track or comment, you have to spend a fair amount of time to make sure your plan really goes through all the layers of your organization.
The worst thing a team could do to lose any chance of greatness is to be self-centric and forget who is actually the real and natural center of any company; its customers. Greatness comes when all the members of your team are 100% motivated and deeply aware that the ultimate goal of everything they do is to satisfy their customers. Great customer service, listening to needs, better anticipating them and finally delivering on promise are the key steps toward long term success. So make your customers are the number one preoccupation within your team, no matter what.
We have first reviewed how to build a great group of people and then create the best possible conditions to get outstanding results from it. Sound vision, smart objectives, clear priorities, strong business model, written plan and a customer centric overall attitude are the steps you need to take to make it happen. The next time we will talk about the third leg you have to take care of to reach greatness, the processes.
