Many small business owners think the reason they struggle to create their dream team is because, as the saying goes, "Good people are hard to find." As many will tell you, they are even harder to keep.
The issue, though, is most often not because of a lack of skilled, employable workers, but because of the organization's leadership. What if the reason you are not cultivating your dream team is because you are failing to step fully and unapologetically into your role as a leader?
What is the role of a leader?
A "leader" is not to be confused with a "manager." Managers are important, too. We need them to oversee processes and, sometimes, people — to ensure things get done.
In your business, you may need to be both a leader and a manager at the outset, but your goal as you grow your business is to create managers for the day-to-day operations so you can continue to elevate yourself as a visionary leader. Your business cannot and will not succeed unless you do.
Here are five aspects of leadership to work on if you want to become better at cultivating your dream team:
1. Create and hold the vision for your business.
You must be crystal clear on your mission (purpose), your vision (execution of your mission in the future) and the core values of your business. This is your job as the company CEO. It is non-delegable.
You must get clear on why do you do what you do. Why is your mission so important that you decided to create a business around it? For example, if you are a divorce attorney, your mission may be to help families divorce amicably so it reduces the trauma to children and future generations. Or, if you are a personal injury attorney, it may be to help relieve the financial suffering of families who just lost a loved one in a horrible, preventable accident. If you are a business coach, it may be that your mission is to help other business owners create lives of financial freedom and security for the benefit of all humanity. A health coach may think it is critically important to help middle-aged women live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives because it benefits not only them but their families and communities.
What is your vision for the future? Do you want to impact 100 people? A thousand people? What kind of impact do you want to have on the world through your business? How will you do this?
Once you are clear on your mission, your vision and your core values for your business, every decision you make, including whom you attract and hire, will reveal itself to you with total ease. It will inform your company culture. Best of all, you'll quickly be able to identify those who do not share your passion or goals.
2. Inspire your team.
If you have done your job correctly in hiring people who share your mission and vision, then inspiring them will be easy. They will be inspired by the work — as long as you stay the course. However, sometimes, we may make decisions our team does not understand because they are not privy to the big picture. It is your job as the leader to help them see that the mission has not changed even if the vision has.
This can require mastery of skills such as listening, communicating, setting and holding clear expectations and consistency of action. Begin to look for and read books about inspirational leaders — biographies, memoirs and the like — not just in business, but in sports, the arts, politics or wherever leaders are found, to see great leaders inspire their teams.
3. Elevate others.
Coach potential leaders within your organization. Teach what you know, and help your employees grow into managers and leaders themselves.
Start by listening to them, consistently engaging them and realizing all strategies you create fall apart without your team of committed, inspired participants in your mission. Like detectives, leaders must always be on the lookout for what their people secretly desire — what will keep them engaged. Most often, that's not just money: It's recognition and appreciation.
Ask yourself: What can I do to help my employees continue to fall in love with the mission and vision of this company?
4. Think and act strategically.
You need a plan to execute the vision, uphold the mission and achieve the business's goal of profitability. This requires strategic thinking.
Your team, your clients, your family and others who depend on the health and success of your business require you to think strategically — not to give in to impulse and emotion every time the wind blows. Like the captain of a ship, it is incumbent upon you, the leader of your business, to plot a course to the destination, to consider all possible obstacles that could arise on the journey, and to have plans for staying the course, regardless of what arises.
5. Act consistently.
Always align your actions with your mission, vision and core values because that is how trust is created. When you say what you mean and do what you say, without fail, your team will trust your leadership. Without that trust, they will not continue to follow you. You will lose good people — people who once were excited to work with you and your company.
Good people are easy to find. They are simply waiting for the right leader with a mission and vision that speaks to their heart. That's you.
