Being The Boss: Creating an Effective Team

Believe it or not, hiring employees to work for your company under the same vision and mission and putting them in close proximity cubes does not constitute effective team building.

Recently I worked with a client whose business was growing to the point where she had to take the big step of hiring employees. It seemed like the perfect solution; hiring employees would free up the business owner to focus on more strategic aspects of the business while the team delivered services.  Unfortunately this was not the case.  Once the team grew the trouble began.  Punctuality issues plagued several team members, interpersonal conflicts developed, gossip and disrespect abound and the level of service provided to customers soon began to suffer.

The business owner was in a panic.  She couldn't understand why the team couldn't get on the same page and why they were experiencing so many issues with one another, with her and most importantly with their customers.  Through several coaching sessions we discovered that there were a few issues, all of which stemmed from an inaccurate assumption that a team would simply form and gel because the group happened to work in the same geographic location.

Think about the most effective team that you have ever been on; perhaps a sports team, a special projects group or even in the military.  What made the team so effective?  Did you start off on day one knowing that your teammates had your back and they had yours?  Probably not.  An effective team takes effort, time and a common purpose, not to mention a strong leader nurturing the process.

Start by asking-what is the common purpose of this team?  Do all of the members of the team know and understand the common purpose and what their contributing roles are to the team?  Are team members communicating with you and with one another in a frank matter?  If not the team is probably not operating on cylinders. 

Take the time to establish the building blocks of common purpose, communication and expectations and watch how other key pieces like trust begin to take shape. 

It's Relationship Building Stupid!

I admit that I stumbled upon value of social media for businesses quite by accident.  I attended a seminar about email marketing and naturally the interconnectedness of email marketing to social media came up.   Sure, I had a personal Facebook page and Twitter account, and (I'm ashamed to admit) a neglected LinkedIn account, but I had yet to unlock the potential that social media offered from a business perspective. 

Upon sharing my excitement with my boss, I was quickly designated the company's "social media" expert.  However, when I actually sat down to start, I was stumped.  What should I tweet and post about?  It seemed to me that the purpose of using social media was to get people to use our services, but how many times could I talk about how great the company was before it became annoying and ineffective?

Those first few weeks were rough.  We got virtually no traction our profiles and I couldn't figure out why.  About that time I attended a marketing seminar to better understand what I was doing wrong.  The answer was as plain as the nose on my face.  "It's relationship building, stupid!" 

Turns out I had been going at it all wrong.  I had entered the social media scene in order to sell something.  When in reality I should have been spending time creating and nurturing online relationships and establishing the company as the expert in its respective field.  From that day forward the purpose of social media changed.  I stopped posting so many testimonials and started posting links to articles containing expert information.  I linked our newsletter to our social media outlets, I sent "how-to's" and surveys.  And most importantly I dedicated the necessary time to engaging other businesses through direct messaging, following, re-tweeting and "liking." 

Remember, social media is electronic word of mouth.  Take the time to establish yourself as the expert and to develop online relationships.