The Art Of Building A Stellar Team
Building a stellar team is one of the toughest things to do in business. It can’t be reduced to neat checklists and transactional steps. It requires finding the right people and believing in them, supporting them to grow and deliver, and then holding them accountable. It also requires the team leader to grow as they navigate people dynamics and politics. But for all the effort, the payoff is huge. Not only does building a stellar team improve the chances of business success, it also provides long-term satisfaction for those involved. When we ask retiring clients what they’re most proud of looking back on their careers, building a strong team is invariably at the top of the list.
So, if your team is not stellar yet where do you start? With yourself. Ask your team three questions: Where do you feel we’re strong; Where do you feel we need to be stronger; How do you feel I can best support our effectiveness? It's a fast way to get good data, strengthen trust, and signal that you’re willing to change your own behavior in the process. You should share back what you learn with the team. If you're not comfortable leading this process on our own, hire a coach/consultant to help.
In parallel, ensure you have the right people on the team. No amount of fancy team building will help you build a great team with the wrong people. This step can be tricky. Maybe you've inherited team members that you can't let go of for some reason. Maybe the job market is tight, and candidates are tough to find. Or perhaps you feel the disruption involved with removing someone isn’t worth the risk. These are legitimate concerns to be taken seriously. The important point is that these are active judgement calls that must be made. Foot dragging regarding changing critical leadership positions creates myriad problems down through the organization. Find internal and external sounding boards to test your thinking.
Once you have your team in place, be clear with them why you believe in them. Don’t share platitudes; be specific. This strengthens relationships and builds trust. Also don’t assume someone is so senior that they don’t need to hear it. Everyone likes to hear positive, specific feedback. We all get too little of it. For example, if you’re a CEO and you deeply appreciate the strategic view your CFO takes, tell them that. If you think your COO is the critical glue bridging your old and new business models, let them know. Be clear about why they are so important, and what you, the team, and the organization need from them moving forward.
Of course, believing in a team isn’t enough. A team leader’s greatest responsibility is creating the conditions for the team to deliver excellence. At a foundational level this entails ensuring the team has needed resources including tools, staff, and professional development. Sometimes it entails removing roadblocks or going to bat for things that have been put on the chopping block. While these can be tough battles, this is often the easy part. The tougher part is managing the team’s growth and performance. To be truly valuable, it can’t be relegated to a corporate process that occurs 1-2x yearly. It must be built into the day-to-day conversations and work. If you see something excellent, say something. If you see something problematic, say something. It should be direct, supportive and honest. We recommend using a simple structure like a debrief to force these conversations at least twice monthly. Debriefs can be done with a full team or individuals.
Finally, stellar teams are accountable. They’re accountable to the team leader, but also to each other. That means that everyone on the team is aware of what other members are doing and no one is afraid to speak up if they see an issue. The debrief process linked above is a useful context within which to ensure this happens. What stellar teams understand, in their bones, is that delivering excellent siloed work is inadequate for delivering excellent organizational results. They feel responsible for the integrated whole. And that shift in mindset transforms accountability conversations.
Building a stellar team isn’t complicated, it’s just hard. Teams are cultures inside of cultures and the team leader sets the tone. If a team leader makes themselves vulnerable, others will too. If they balance the need to both drive results and be empathetic, others will too. If they supportively engage in tough conversations, others will too. There is no silver bullet to building a stellar team. There's just a messy journey of holding on to a vision, driving towards it, staying open, learning together and improving along the way. The reward for doing these things is the ability to look back on your career with immense pride for what a committed group of people were able to create together.