Team Building - Ten Easy Ways to Do It

Why is it so challenging for many managers and leaders to build a great little team around them? What proves so difficult? Well, what we will do here is to try to tease out all elements of how you go about easy Team Building.

It's all about focusing on where best value in using time lies. Who is leader of team and what is your best use of time. Getting to know your own value and appreciating where you add it best is a big, and very productive step.

So, to start at beginning, here's how...

1. Do Less

   One of most important shifts for you is to appreciate that leading a team is about giving way and letting others get on with it.

2. Communicate Well

   Keep in touch regularly. Keep your people informed and listen to them well. Ups and downs - if you do this, they will build their trust in you.

3. Be Interested in People

   By creating a great team remember that they are all individuals too - they are real people who have differing needs from you. Appreciating that differentiates you as an exceptional team leader. There is an I in team!

4. Choose Well

   The best time to choose a team is at start. If you tolerate poor team members it is much, much harder to fix. So choose well. Recruit well. It's best form of Team Building you can use.

5. Learn Together

   This is a concerted effort of co-operative learning - all together, including you - admit your shortfalls and they will support you. Support them and they will grow!

6. Review
   
   

The Management Team Section of Your Business Plan

Even best new concept or existing plan will fail if executed poorly. The Management Team section of business plan must prove to investor why key company personnel are "eminently qualified" to execute on business model.

The Management Team section should include biographies of key team members and detail their responsibilities. It is important that these biographies are not merely resumes that include educational backgrounds and previous job titles and responsibilities of team members. Rather, biographies should highlight most relevant past positions that individuals have held and specific successes in each. These successes could include launching and growing new businesses or managing divisions of established companies.

Team member biographies should be tailored to company's growth stage. For instance, a start-up company should emphasize its management's success launching and growing companies. A more mature company should emphasize how team members have successfully operated within framework of larger enterprises.

Depending upon stage of company, key functional areas may be missing from team. This is acceptable provided that plan clearly defines roles that these individuals will play and identifies key characteristics of individuals that will be hired. However, it is generally not favorable if personnel are missing for ultra-critical roles. For example, a plan that is fundamentally a marketing play should not seek financing without a stellar marketing team.