(small business team – 5 minute read)
Hi there accounting fans,
Let’s talk about your team. At some stage, you will have found the need to have other people join your business as it grows. As I like to say, no successful company is ever built on the work of one individual. It takes a team to grow a successful business.
The biggest challenge faced when having team members isn’t the recruitment. Its maintaining their motivation and engagement with the business. So here are some tips that you can use:
Remember that its their business too
This is often the hardest thing for small business owners to do. There is a tendency to slide into that whole ‘I am the boss and you work for me’ attitude where you end up talking down to your team. Instead, you should treat their opinions as being equal to yours. The work they do helps grow the business and in return, so should their remuneration.
If you can make it clear that their contribution helps grow the business, they will have a greater sense of ownership over the business. This usually translates into better motivation and greater engagement with the work they are doing.
Clearly communicate expectations and goals
Your team members should know exactly what is expected of them and how their work contributes to the overall growth of the business. Having a ‘session zero’ at the start of your engagement is a great way of outlining these roles and responsibilities.
Be clear about what their deliverables are. If they are behind on their expectations, you should point it out to them and ask if they need any support in meeting those expectations. Regularly checking in with them will help you determine what level of support they need or if those expectations need to be reset.
Be transparent about how the small business is doing
Now this may sound a bit controversial but at our company, we make it a point to share with our team how the business is performing financially. We do this on a monthly basis. I know that not many business owners will do this. Each of our team members know how well we are doing each month.
On top of that, we share our wins, losses and any bad/good decisions the company has made. Any opinions or ideas are welcome from the team. Because of that, the team feels strong ownership over the business direction and can see the effects of their work as the year goes along.
I do truly believe that the team is the business. If you’re witholding information from your team, then you can’t expect them to truly engage with the business.
Have an awesome work culture that allows mistakes to be made
There is a lot of articles about building ‘positive work culture’ in a business. However, most of it contains empty corporate platitudes like ‘supportive work environment’, ‘diverse and inclusive workforce’ and ‘work-life balance’. I’ve worked for many companies that purported to do all that, but never actually did.
What I feel is an awesome work culture is a culture that empowers team members to take responsibility for their work. It gives them true ownership to be assigned tasks, achieve those tasks in a way they see fit AND still have the company’s support if things go south.
I’m not a fan of micromanagement. It’s too much stress for me and demoralising for the team member. Instead, teams have to produce a certain amount of work within a certain amount of time to a certain level of quality. So long as they adhere to the expectations set of them, I’ve got no issues with how they spend the rest of their time.
But what about those corporate buzzwords?
If you can empower your team to own their work, you can still be:
- Supportive – Support your team if they hit a wall, or get into trouble with a client. Remember, the buck stops with you as an owner and its your job to make sure that your team has the tools to do their job.
- Be diverse and inclusive – Hire people that can get the job done. What I often find is that if you focus on the work outcomes (instead of ‘team fit’), you’ll end up with a diverse and inclusive team in the end.
- Work-life balance – When team members are empowered to do their job within a timeframe with the tools given to them, they can set their own work-life boundaries. Your job as the owner is to respect those boundaries.
Your team IS your business
I can’t stress this enough. Treat your team as your business partners. You’re growing your small business together with them. Their opinions matter as much as yours. Always get feedback from them on how the business is going. The only difference between you and your team members is that the buck stops with you.
You still have to make the final decisions when it comes to the business. But by involving your team in the process of running your business, you can make better decisions in the long run.
Stay positive team!