Whether you are a solopreneur with a virtual team, own a brick and mortar business with onsite employees, or somewhere in between, your team can make or break you. The better you are at building an effective team, the stronger your business will be.
And team effectiveness is impacted by a number of considerations including:
- Do they work well together?
- Are they motivated?
- Are they in the right roles?
All of those considerations are important because if a team member isn’t in the right role, it can have an impact on the others. They may not work as well together as they could if there were small changes made to their roles.
Building an Effective Team
You have hired your team members but are they working effectively? Let’s take a moment to look at a few questions to help you determine if your team members are in the right roles:
- How well are they working together? This is something you can assess both by observing their dynamic as well as by asking the individual team members. It’s always a good idea to check in with your team from time to time to get their insight on the team dynamic.
- Are they achieving their objectives? Assuming you’ve set measurable goals and milestones for your team, are they meeting them? If not, it would be a good idea to backtrack and to find out where things are getting slowed down. This may not be as easy as it sounds. However, if goals aren’t being met, it’s a good indicator that one or more people aren’t in the right role.
- Is there turnover? People change jobs. That’s just a fact of life. They find opportunities that they feel are a better fit or that pay more and so on. However, if you are experiencing more turnover than you might expect, it may be due to at least one person on your team being in the wrong role.
What to Do if Your Team Members Aren’t in the Right Roles?
Once you determine that there’s a problem you have many opportunities to make corrections. You can talk to all of the members on your team and get their input on how to improve the team. You may find that a few tweaks can make all the difference. For example, you may have someone in a leadership position who isn’t great at organizing and delegating. But they may be exceptional at motivation.
Assign the organizational duties to someone else on your team and shift tasks and responsibilities. Just because someone isn’t in the right role doesn’t mean you have to let them go. It may simply mean that changing responsibilities to better suit their skills and talents would solve the problem.
What I like to do is have each team member self assess. Ask them what they feel they are good at and where they feel they need more training. You will be surprised at what they will tell you.
Your team impacts your bottom line. Make sure your team members are in the right roles.
