Squad Goals: Assembling The Perfect Team For Your Small Business

Pic of My Besties Courtesy of Chic Sketch.

Where would you be on a Friday night out without your girls? Not only are they a special group of friends with whom spending time together is always a delight, but each has their own inimitable skills that make night out after night out go with a bang. They wear their personalities on their sleeves; in the way they dress and the way they conduct themselves. There’s the sensible one who always makes sure that things don’t get out of hand and wards off unwelcome attention, the one who’s able to get you into the best places for free, and the one whose infectious sense of joy always lightens the mood and gets everyone up and dancing. This dynamic of complementary skills is important in a friendship group… but it’s even more important in the business world. ​

If you’ve decided to take that all important first step towards entrepreneurship it’s important to build a team of people whose skills, personalities and work ethic you can trust to launch your nascent business into the stratosphere. Yet, assembling that team is easier said than done. In fact, 60% of entrepreneurs say that recruiting top talent is one of the biggest challenges that their businesses face in their early years. While there’s no right or wrong way to go about building your team, there are some tips that can get you off to the best possible start;

Embrace diversity but don’t fear similarities
Sometimes, there’s nothing more valuable than a fresh perspective. You’ll inevitably recruit team members with very specific backgrounds to fulfill very specific functions; resulting in a richly skilled multi disciplinary team with wildly different personalities... But if there may be some overlap between team members in terms of skill set this may not necessarily be an impediment. Different team members will always have unique and subtly different experiences and insights to bring to bear even if their training and experience are similar on paper.

Bait the hook
As diverse as team members may be in terms of their skills, they will also be diverse in terms of what motivates them, so it’s important to bait the hook in accordance with what drives each member. Some may be money motivated, so it’s important to be transparent with them in terms of the rewards structure you will offer and use a paystub generator to help them track their progress. Others will thrive on competition, so it may be of value to incentivize healthy competition between team members.  Others may be seeking community so foster opportunities that build relationships. 

Match personality types to each other
It’s often valuable to consider personality types in creating an environment conducive to teamwork and factoring this, as well as skill set and background in when assigning working groups. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a useful tool in gauging personality types. I am an  ENTJ (if you take the test you will know what that means and what motivates you-see point above!). I have a small business where the personalities of my managers are very different. One likes to spend a lot of time interacting with clients and other is more task oriented. Both are great qualities to have if they are in the right position. So let the task oriented person manage tasks and let the people oriented person manage client relationships.  Then everyone wins!

Embrace training and team building
As valuable as diversity is, it’s also important that all team members are on the same page and united under the banner of your business. They should be well versed in your business’ unique mission statement and know how to live your ideals in every facet of their operations. Training and team building exercises are an integral element in bringing people with disparate personalities and skills together.  

What are your tips to putting together a great team?