HOW TO BUILD A STRONG TEAM & KEEP CLIMBING
Written by Angel Quintana Issue #41
Photo by Carley Page Summers & Flea Market Fab
Building a team is no small task; it takes a lot of dedication, patience, and management to create a top notch winning team.
But what most of us small business owners fail to understand is that your team is a reflection of your management skills. Your dedication. And your patience.
I remember my days as a bookkeeper well. I had a lot of hands in a lot of peoples’ cookie jars and that meant I experienced great, mediocre, and awful management. Your employee or subcontractor can only be as good as you lead them to be. Lucky for me, I learned from the bad ones and took note of the good role models-- but I still have a lot to learn!
So why do some small business owners point fingers at their team members when they should be pointing the fingers at themselves. It’s called “lack of ownership.”
Lack of Ownership is the product that results from lack of self-awareness when it comes to something that belongs to you or is a by product of what you created. In this case we are talking about your business. Unless your team member has a vested (and I mean partner share in your company), the only vested interest they’re likely to have is receiving a paycheck for their labor-- and you better pay then on time!
However, small businesses can’t thrive if the team isn’t invested in some kind of manner and you won't be able to continue to climb and build your business without giving your team a reason to go to the moon with you. This doesn’t have to be ownership in your company; it can be all sorts of things.
Here are some of the greatest ways I know how to maintain vested interested team players, so you may continue to build your dream business:
Let Them Share Their Ideas.
When you hold space for your team members to share their ideas, you open the doors to greater communication-- and with great communication comes deeper understanding and trust.
Trust me when I say, we do not have all the answers as business owners. You’ve already heard the saying, “it takes a village to raise a child,” well the same holds true with businesses. It takes a ton of creativity to stay in the game, creativity that doesn’t always need to come from you. Let your team have an opinion and share their ideas, it keeps them invested and it just could be an idea you absolutely run with!
Be a Better Manager.
If you've never climbed the corporate ladder (I for one, did not), then you’re managerial skills probably suck-ass. Being a manager is a lot harder than it looks. Because I’ve had my share of working with horrible (and excellent) managers, I can tell you the ones who were insane, frazzled, and constantly complained were the gigs I cared a lot LESS about.
You can’t force your team to love your business, but your management skills can. Being a great manager means you take responsibility when something goes awry. Yup, even if you think it’s their fault; it’s probably yours!
Here’s an example:
If you allow your team to show up late, one day it’s going to piss you off, but the reality is, if you had been a better manager you could have nipped that problem in the bud from the beginning. If you want to build a strong team you’re proud of, improve upon your management skills now.
Improve Time Management Skills.
Feeling accomplished is one of the greatest highs as a small business owner and when it comes to building a team that allows you to keep climbing, it’s truly the secret sauce. As small business owners we often think that hiring another person will resolve the chaos, but a lot of the time you can solve the problem by improving productivity, which ultimately comes down to time management. Time management doesn’t mean you have every hour on your calendar accounted for, being flexible is part of a true time management master.
Time management mastery starts with a plan of attack, at which point a game plan is devised to tackle it head on.
Here’s the secret: when you hand a team member a project with a game plan, they are more equipped to complete the project to YOUR STANDARD and with a completed project comes a sense of accomplishment. What team doesn’t want to feel accomplished, that’s what we’ve worked so hard for in the first place!?
There is a great quote that sums it up nicely,
“Tackle the day with determination and you will go to bed with satisfaction.”
In closing, building a strong team starts with you becoming more self-aware and understanding that a weak team is actually a reflection of your management skills (or lack thereof). Employees and subcontractors need boundaries, guidelines, and a game plan in order to do their job correctly. This means you need to provide a safe place for them to share their ideas and be a part of the process!
Because you can’t build a team at all, if your workers doesn’t feel like they aren't part of the bigger picture.
If you’re looking to improve your business by becoming more self-aware, please join me in a free monthly call where I will help you tap into your intuition, awaken your gifts, and ward off bad juju! Register free at www.selfcarerituals.com.
Each call comes with a special potion created specifically for you to enhance your third eye and improve your experience with life and business! Pick-up your potion at www.selfcarerituals.com while supplies last.
ABOUT the FOUNDER
Angel Quintana is the founder and apothecary behind Holistic Fashionista®, a 360 degrees holistic experience for the woman who wants it all. The Holistic Fashionista Agency offers cutting-edge business trainings and advertising for the ambitious entrepreneur and our Botanica (COMING SUMMER 2016) stocks self-care rituals, medicinal skincare, and herbal beauty products to fuel the mind, body, and spirit.
In her book, Funnel Foreplay, she teaches change makers how to successfully quickly warm up cold leads and turn them into buyers. While her tattooed exterior shows her creative tough side and her road to success has been difficult, it is her thoughtful approach to brand building and unique selling approach that has won her thousands of raving fans. Angel and her businesses have been featured on: Apparel News, Examiner.com, Law of Attraction Radio, and spoken on stage at Digital Marketing for Business, At The Helm, and Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, CA.