Every organisation and every tem has to be as strong as possible to get by in the competition. Working with great people makes this happen.
Build your Management Team
What is needed in order to build a working management team?
- Adaptability.
- Built trust and respect.
- Build relationships with your people.
- Be true to your word.
- Setting common goals.
- Listen to your team.
- Clear vision and strategy.
- Establish team values and evaluate team performance.
You may even use the same principles as Google uses:
- Is A Good Coach
- Empowers team and does not micromanage
- Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being
- Is productive and results-oriented
- Is a good communicator — listens and shares information
- Supports career development and discusses performance
- Has a clear vision/strategy for the team
- Has key technical skills to help advise the team
- Collaborates across Google
- Is a strong decision maker
Now, let us look at building these characteristics in detail:
- AdaptabilityLike it or not, leaders must adapt to succeed. Leaders all over the world are facing change and complexity — new cultures, new jobs, new markets, new everything. Research conducted by CCL has confirmed this imperative to adapt. According to the research, the most frequently cited success factor for North American managers was the ability to develop or adapt.
- Build Trust and Respect“Individuals don’t win in business; teams do.” – Sam WaltonThe employee-manager relationship is one of the primary components ofa strong organizational structure. Employees rely on their managers for career development and guidance on how to improve their skills. One of the elements of a successful employee-manager relationship is trust. When the sense of trust is strong between an employee and manager, it adds efficiency to other elements of workplace productivity. If an employee doesn’t trust their manager, the company suffers. There are many things that managers can do to establish trust with their employees, which include being open and honest about changes that will impact them. Sometimes the smallest gesture of kindness goes a long way.
- Build Relationships With Your Employees“Employees are the ones who create customer value through the design of products; the execution of marketing and realization in service. They are your brand, your reputation.” – Carolina CissowskiThe personal relationships you build with your employees are key to creating a work environment that is positive, inspiring and gives a boost of energy to go the extra mile atwork.
- Be True To Your WordEvery employee is different and therefore will respond best to different types of motivational language. Stacey Philpot, a principal at Deloitte Consulting, said it’s important to plan your words and phrases to ensure that you connect with your employees in a meaningful way.
- Setting Common GoalsGoals are the teams road map. According to a study by Workboard, 69 percent of high-performing companies surveyed rated companywide communication of business goals as their leading tool for stacking a team of top performers.
- Listen To Your Team“Leaders job isn’t to have all the ideas. It’s to make sure all the ideas are heard and that the best one wins. ” – CHRIS HAWKERThose who do listen to their employees are in a much better position to lead the workforce. By trusting your staff and listening to them, you’ll create an environment where they want to work in the long-term, creating a number of benefits for your business.
- Clear Vision And Strategy“You cannot be everything to everyone. If you decide to go north you cannot go south at the same time.”– Jeroen De FlanderManagers must define and communicate a clear strategy if the company is to be successful. Vision and mission statements summarize a company’s business strategy in a form that can be communicated and understood easily by stakeholders.Having a clear vision can give a team direction and inspiration and be the foundation for goal setting and action planning.
- Establish Team Values And Evaluate Team Performance“You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.” – Mother TeresaA manager can simply rate the employee or group performance based on a series of criteria. A manager evaluation is simple to use but may be very subjective in results. These evaluations can also be used across a wide variety of employee types and groups with little or no changes.
- Celebrate And RewardThe people who work for your organization perform essential functions for you, and in return you should respect them, appreciate them, and be supportive of them. It’s time to celebrate your employees with thoughtful gestures that can take their employee experience to the next level. Support innovative ideas with resources, rewards, and recognition.“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees they will take care of your clients.” – Richard Branson
- Open Communication“An employees motivation is the direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.” – Bob Nelson
Without effective communication, relationships are unable to develop any kind of long-term trust or honesty, and goals remain ambiguous and unfulfilled until any hope of a lasting connection fades away.
The role of the management team
A single director or manager rarely has the combination of skills that a management team might have. Each member of a management team can concentrate on their own area of expertise. In addition, the business benefits from having its overall direction and goals viewed from different perspectives.
The rapport within a team is very important and can add further value beyond the individual talents and skills of each employee. Teams whose members relate well to one another contribute significantly to the overall success of their businesses. A disjointed management team could well put off anyone involved with your business, e.g. employees, customers, clients or suppliers. This could ultimately lead to corporate failure.
A strong management team is particularly significant if you want the business as a whole to grow and develop. As a business grows a management team is also important in spreading leadership responsibility. It is crucial if:
- your business operates in more than one location
- you are in more than one type of business/industry
- your business has different cultures, for example after a merger or acquisition
It is worth remembering that management teams can also operate at different levels. Consider establishing teams to help run particular locations or divisions. This provides additional opportunities for staff development and involvement and will benefit your business.
It may be helpful to find a training course that covers the ways a management team can support your business.
Management team skill sets
The skills required to run a business successfully include:
- sales and marketing
- production
- finance
- administration
- procurement and buying
Not every business needs these competencies to the same degree or in the same combination. While all businesses need sales and administration skills, for some production will be critical, while in others buying ability will be more important.
Building the team
You might like to consider the following stages in developing your management team:
- Review your business’ progress to date and decide what direction you want it to go in.
- Measure your performance in the market against your competitors. Analyse any strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats – commonly known as a SWOT analysis – to identify what gaps there are between where the business is and where you would like it to go.
- Analyse what skills the business requires and consider what strengths and weaknesses you offer personally.
- Learn the skills, potential and ambitions of your existing staff and consider less-defined skills such as leadership qualities.
- Analyse the fit of existing skills to business requirements and establish priorities for the acquisition of missing skills.
- Establish where staff development could fill skills needs and consider reallocation of responsibilities to create a genuine team, rather than a group of individual managers.
- Re-examine any skills gaps.
- Consider other options such as consultants, outsourcing, contract workers, with a cost/benefit analysis.
- Look to permanent staff recruitment – where possible it is best to plan ahead by recruiting for future positions and anticipating any prospective skills gaps.