Article: Are You Building A Powerful Business Team?

          Would you like your business to operate with fewer errors and interruptions? Do you want to enjoy owning and running your business to a higher degree? Are you interested in greater efficiency and productivity? Do you want your business to be more successful?

If you want your experience as a business owner to be more enjoyable and rewarding - and your company to be increasingly successful - it is imperative that you consistently work toward building and maintaining a dynamic and powerful team. This is accomplished by first, putting motivated and skilled individuals with positive attitudes in place, and then, assisting them in utilizing more of their tremendous potential on a consistent basis.

The easiest and most effective way to build a powerful team is to hire intelligently. Unfortunately, the typical path to hiring people is filled with biased or incorrect information and involves quite a bit of guess work or assumptions. How can any business successfully assemble a team of skilled, solution-oriented and motivated people without the matter-of-fact data needed to do so?

This is where Job Benchmarking and assessments come in. When this approach is utilized correctly, productivity rises by an astonishing 30 percent and retention goes up by a welcome 50 percent. Productivity rises because a team member’s behaviors, core values and competencies align with the duties, responsibilities and rewards of the job. Retention increases because there is symmetry among the new hire, job and company values.

The second component of building and maintaining a powerful team requires that you, and your managers, take on the role of coach or mentor to all team members to help them become empowered players so they, your clients and your business will experience greater levels of happiness and success.

Conversely, one of the surest ways to damage a business from within is to tear down or undermine solid team members and their efforts. This comes about through unconstructive criticism, blame, lack of follow through, ineffective communication and simply not appreciating those individuals who make up the company. These behaviors undermine self-worth, self-confidence and self-esteem in team members and also, undermine the leadership’s credibility with the team.

Human beings thrive when praised for a job well-done. Recognizing a team member’s solid effort, and working with them in a positive and constructive way to continue reaching for higher levels of excellence, is the most effective way to help a person build self-esteem and confidence, which results in greater levels of performance.

Consider what Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, had to say on the subject: "Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."

Empowering owners, then managers and finally each team member to become mentors of one another is a powerful solution to many of the ills experienced in business.

 As each team member develops their unique skills, the business runs much more efficiently and effectively, the work atmosphere grows more positive, turnover goes down, attendance goes up, client satisfaction increases and the bottom line improves.

Does this sound like the type of business you want to own?

If you find yourself at a loss for how to do this - or in need of assistance yourself - explore your options and choose the coach or mentor that is best suited for you. There is strength in engaging and utilizing quality help. By doing so, you provide a powerful example for your team members to follow.

Even with the best information available, there is no guarantee a team member will work out in the long run. Circumstances change in business and in the lives of the people who make up the business. As circumstances and people change, stay aware of corporate culture and performance, keeping and supporting those individuals who truly want to contribute to the happiness and success of everyone involved.

You have the wonderful opportunity to help your team members find and develop their strengths, and to come alive as active and engaged players in your business.

Bring in a qualified professional, hire intelligently, learn to be a mentor, and work with your team members to fully develop their potential. Lead by example, and your well-chosen team will follow you to new heights in your business operations.