Building an unbeatable team is much like baking a cake. If you don’t have all the ingredients, it won’t be successful. If you want a successful team you have to include the right ingredients, in the right order, to help you bake the team of your dreams!
Over my time leading, coaching and mentoring teams, I have noticed there is a distinct set of elements or influential factors that are required to help build a loyal and passionate team that is aligned with what you do. The quicker you can do this, the closer you will be to success in your business.
And as I mentioned before, you MUST include all the elements (or ingredients) to make it UNBEATABLE. Forget one, and you’ll struggle or you’ll spend most of your time-fighting HR fires.
The good news is its pretty simple, but it takes time and application. Leaders invest time & energy, so it up to you to make it work.
The 4 essential elements are:
Onboarding:
This is where you get to introduce and welcome the “right employee” to your business. Most businesses put zero effort into this, and subsequently, the new recruit is left stranded and wondering where the toilet is after the first week.
If you can prepare a detailed onboarding process that includes a welcoming induction (outlining the company vision, values, standards) and outline the expectations of the new employee you’re off to a great start. Then invest time into their first few weeks and map out exactly what they will be doing. Involve them with how their input will provide impact to what the company is doing. The more you put in now, the more productive they will become, sooner.
Training:
In the real world, if you want to become really good at something, you need to put in the work. T To do this in terms of training, we need to dedicate time and resources to assist in providing the perfect foundation for the new recruit to learn from. Create printed materials, videos, work scopes, training courses and use these alongside a dedicated “trainer” to help them learn the ropes and become overly competent in their new role.
Training is often an under-utilised aspect of hiring new employees but I believe the most critical.
Coaching:
Your team will only be as good as you allow them to be. Coaching others is an aspect that is often overlooked, but in reality, we are all coaching someone. Whether an employee has been with us for two weeks or two years, it’s our role as the leader or business owner to coach our team members to be GREAT!
For this, I would highly recommend applying the Situational Leadership Model, created by Ken Blanchard. This model helps align coaches and their employee’s through a leadership process that matches the development level of the individual with the leadership style that should be applied. For more on this, read the book Leadership and the One Minute Manager (Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, Drea Zigarmi) it’s well worth it!
Investing:
If you invest in your people, they’ll invest in you. And it’s true! Research has shown that 79% of employees that leave workplaces do so because they feel unappreciated. More often than not, people are hired, trained (poorly) and left to do their job for the rest of their life (also true!).
I believe it’s the employer’s responsibility to encourage the teams underneath them to thrive and reach their full potential in their role. That’s called investing in others.
You can do this plenty of ways. Deliver praise and acknowledgement often, continue their development with trainings & courses, look after them by shouting them lunches, parties, massages etc. You can introduce incentives & bonuses (these are only short term investments) OR you could create an asset pipeline.
An Asset Pipeline is a team-based structure (or process) where people are promoted from within an organisation “UP” a pipeline whilst learning, developing skills and being remunerated in the process. This helps to strengthen teams, create versatility, build culture, increase employee satisfaction and increase retention. Either way, it’s a win-win for everyone.
So that’s it! Four simple elements, that carefully applied, will result in everything a business owner wants from their employees. More productivity, more efficiency, better retention, greater working synergy and overall happiness!