2017 is predicting to be a year full of great opportunities for Cairns region, so why not begin the New Year a step ahead of your competitors!

All too often I see businesses accepting mediocre performance, because they don’t think they have a choice.  Service suffers because there are not enough ‘doers’ on board and top-performers burn out quickly because they carry more than they should.

Sounds familiar?    Then read on…

In order for your company to prosper, you must have the right individuals on-board and they must work well together as a team – a complex undertaking. After all, creating a team means bringing together people with different skill-sets and varied personalities to work towards a common goal.

Here are my top 5 tips

1. Establish Rules 

Your team needs to know what their boundaries are and how to approach issues and problems. When issues arise, don’t allow your team to finger-point and speculate on why it happened. As the manager, you can do that at an appropriate time later.  Encourage solution-finding and ‘how can we do this better’. Always look for system faults first, rather than people faults.

As their manager it’s critical that you always lead by example. Do not make the fatal mistake of creating a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ atmosphere.

2. Seek to understand each individual’s strengths

You need to understand what your individual member’s true strengths are and allow that person to shine.  For example, you may find that one of your best sales people isn’t very good at details. Accept that they will never be good at details and partner them with someone else who can help shore up this part of the business.

3. Don’t recruit on skills alone

Collect as much data as possible so you can put together a very accurate job description. Once you have defined the job, you can then decide what skills is be required and what type of personality would be the best fit to do the job and fit in with you team and your vision.  Mistakes in this phase are often catastrophic for the team and for your bottom-line.

4. Team Solutions

Sometimes you need to let the team ‘storm, before they form’. If things start to ‘go south’, bring together those who aren’t getting along and make them work through their issues and concerns. Don’t end up as ‘the judge’. Instead, help and encourage team members to understand each other better.  You’ll be glad you did….

5. Provide Incentives

Create a team-goal that your team can work towards. You may want to ask them about what kind of reward they prefer before setting in stone. Realise that just as your team members have different skills, they may respond to different incentives.  Maybe rotating through the types of incentives you provide or allowing choice could be the key to success.

Having managed teams for over 25 years, I know first-hand how great talent can totally ignite the work environment, bringing fresh ideas and energy to the team.

Build a winning and effective team and ensure that your company can continue to thrive in our competitive and prosperous market.

By the way – Securing the right person is really hard work! It takes a structured process, experience, and a lot of energy.

If you need help with team-building, I suggest you lean on our expertise and get the job done right – the 1st time

Author: Mats Eriksson

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