The 3 Pieces To Building The Right Team

The Myth of the Solopreneur

There are 3 legs or components to every business:

1. -Sales and Marketing
2. -Product and Fulfillment
3. -Operations(HR, IT, Finance, Legal)

When first starting a business you may be the one man show wearing all the hats. As you grow, you should do time studies to figure out what is taking the largest part of your time, list out all of your activities on a weekly basis and figure out how much of your time is spent on each. 

This should also give you an idea of what you are good at, and what takes you longer because you may not like it or have the skill required to perform the task in the most efficient manner.. 

These are the parts you should outsource, or hire for first. 

To build the right team in the beginning you’ll have to replace yourself in all these roles. Starting with the roles you are weakest in and eventually to build a company that will stand on its own, even the roles you enjoy and are good at. Ideally you will finding people who fill your gaps and are masters at their positions

Creating the Culture for your business to Thrive

Before you start hiring others into your business you need to have your Core values written down along with your culture statement. 

Core values – Company core values are the traits that support the mission statement. While the mission statement is subject to change based on how a company evolves, core values are often fixed, unchanging beliefs that act as a foundation to company culture. Core values are like virtues that a company lives by. They include things like creativity, honesty, innovation, learning, passion, leadership, and teamwork, among others. Companies often pick or rank a few core values that help underscore the most important aspects of their culture and identity. 

Workplace culture statement – Culture statements, sometimes called a culture code, is like a handbook or guide that employees can refer to as an overview of the company culture. Culture statements are composed of various cultural aspects of the company, including the mission statement, core values, code of ethics, company history, and any other information pertinent to company culture. Workplace culture statements should be provided to all new employees in the onboarding process, and they should be readily available in both print and digital form for your employees throughout their time in your company. 

Cultural statements should also be succinct, all-encompassing descriptions that you can showcase on your website or through advertisements. Although a lot of culture statement taglines or descriptions are tongue in cheek or playful, they should reflect the core values and mission statement of your organization. 

Once these are in place you as the owner should live by them and hold yourself and anyone you hire to these standards. If you do not it will be noticed and others will start to deviate from the core values the business was founded on. 1 bad apple can spoil the bunch, and should be dealt with as soon as possible once discovered. This will show others in the company that behavior outside of what is expected has consequences and your culture will remain strong. You can also strengthen this dynamic by pushing your employees to read books that align with your culture and then having discussions about the books  company meetings. Doing this will weed out people who do not feel comfortable being a part of a high performance culture with strong core values.

Trust equals speed

There is a spectrum on which you should micro-manage people and trust them, but you should never get too far to either side of the bell curve. Trust a long time employee too much, do not monitor their progress, and they will begin to take advantage of the company. 

Micromanage a new hire too much and they will likely quit. 

As a leader you need to feel out how much trust you should be giving people and the more you are able to trust someone the more you can let them run and drive the company forward. The more you micromanage and they have to ask for permission to do anything the less initiative employees will take and the slower your business will grow. Therefore, developing trust with employees inside your business is what generates the most momentum and speed as a company grows.

The information for this sections information was sourced from Dan Silvestre | Your Next Five Moves | Master Building The Right Team