Work From Home Australia Blog by James Hannan

What would it be like if you were able to:

• Build your business so fast that it seemed your business was out of control.
• Generate results that made your competition green with envy.
• Scare your bank manager because you only needed him for deposits not loans.
• Have the freedom to take a holiday when and where you wanted.
• Build a sense of family within your business so that everyone is begging to be a part of it.

All of this is possible for everyone from the home business operator to the large multi-national corporation. This all comes down to “teams” and having the right group of people working together with a common cause, understanding and respect of each another.

Now some of you may be thinking that is some high and lofty ideal and could never happen, and you know what, in some cases it is. However in there is the rare case where a leader steps up and is prepared to do more, be more, expect more and inspect more. They are able to achieve building a team of people that enjoy turning up to work, getting results and leave at the end of the day knowing that they are where they are supposed to be and doing what they are supposed to be doing.

To build a team like this takes “guts”, it means the owner and/or manager of the business needs to look first at themselves and THEN at the people around them. Now if you are a single person operator and are thinking, “well this isn’t for me I am a one man/woman band, I don’t have a team around me so I can’t get anything from this”, you couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, we all have a team of people around us. They may not be staff, but they could be family and friends who instead of getting angry (because you never have enough time for them) they actually send you work. They could be suppliers who really like what you are doing so they give you great deals without having to ask, or other businesses who are looking for people they can trust to refer their own clients to. You see, we all have a team around us and we get to determine what comes out of that team.

So let’s look at how to develop that team.

1. Understand what makes each team member tick. You want to know their dreams and desires. You see there is an old saying: “What motivates, motivates”. Take the time out to get to know who it is you are working with, remember this can vary from your suppliers to your management team. People will always react better when they know how much you are interest in them. So take the time to build relationships. You want everyone talking about how great you are and how interesting you are to talk to. It is amazing how interesting you become when you spend most of the time talking to a person about them. (Look for the teaching I have done around FORM on this blog).
2. Once you know what makes them tick be committed to finding a way of motivating them with their desires. Let me use an example here. You can use this not only in work but also in your family. My wife and I have two daughters, one is motivated by money the other isn’t. I know you may be thinking “come on James everyone is motivated by money..” not so. You see my daughter who is motivated by money can see what she can get with it. My other daughter actually just likes to save her money and not spend it, so it is not a real motivator. So what we did was give them an incentive for them to practice their extra-curricular activities at home more, instead of just them attending their lessons. One had to practice more on the keyboard and the other had to practice more with her martial arts (she really kicks my but too). One of them was very happy to get money for doing the extra practice and the other wanted to go horse riding, so of course she needed to do MORE, but she is going to get her reward. We found how to motivate both of them with their desires. Remember everyone is different so find out what makes them tick!!
3. So here is the next part. Be prepared to reward them. Look for small sprouts. Your job in team building is not as a Captain barking orders, but as a cheer squad encouraging everyone across the line. Look for the small sprouts that come up that you can encourage. You are looking for the things that people are doing that are generating the results you are looking for. Remember none of us get enough praise for the good things we do. We get put down quickly for the mistakes we make however, and when it comes to actually doing something that is good, no one ever hears about it. So be the person that is ALWAYS looking for a praise point. Encourage often and openly. If you have to reprimand, do it as scarcely as you can and in private.
VERY IMPORTANT…Reward the small wins along the way. This does not have to a monetary reward. It can just be a small note or card that says “I really appreciate the hard work you are putting in”. Remember people will do almost anything for recognition.
4. Now you may be thinking “what about if I have people who are not prepared to do anything.” Well, you need to bring them back to point number one. Finding their passion and helping them see that by working their job or business they will be able to full-fill it. Yes, there are some times when you have to move people on. A great friend and business mentor said to me one day, “When it comes to knowing who you have to let go of and who to keep, look at the person and ask, is the reason they are not getting results due to a lack of skill, or an attitude problem? If the person has a lack of skill but has a good attitude, then help them, and build their skill through training. But if they have a bad attitude, you need to give them their marching orders. You see, I can always help a person who wants to be helped, but I can never help a person who doesn’t”.
Remember, you are building a team around you that needs to be able to work together, a bad attitude will be like a rotten apple in a bucket. It will spoil the rest of the apples very quickly. So get rid of the bad apple as quickly as possible.
5. Once you have the right team you need to get them on board with your purpose. That is, the reason you are doing what you are doing. You want them to all “SEE” the plan and the vision. Allow everyone to know what the purpose to their work is. It could be exceptional customer care, to get a job out the door, to save the world, but whatever it is, you want a common cause running through your organisation. This gives “something” or purpose for everyone to be working towards.
6. Be an Inspector General. Now this may seem weird since everything up until now has been all nice and caring, however there is a reality that we need to understand and it goes something like this, “What gets monitored gets done.” Now if you have never done this before I can almost guarantee that the results that are coming from your business are small in comparison to what they could be. Unfortunately, people will only ever do what they have to and what they can get away with. Have some kind of monitoring process in place and again, when you see results from individuals reward and acknowledge them. Likewise, when you see no results then check, is it an attitude issue, or skill issue, and deal with it accordingly.
7. Have an expectation of positive powerful results. Don’t set your bar so low that anyone can achieve it. Make sure you set it at a height that says “yes with a little work we can do this”. Make sure you let your team know that you EXPECT results, for them to give everything they have while they are at work and get the job done. You will generate a massive sense of excitement and energy when you have the right group of people to work with and when they have achieved this goal they will be ready for the next one that can be a little bigger. The last thing you want to do is lower the bar. Continually lift the bar, however, when you lift it, make sure you are lifting the people as well or they will feel as though they are being used. Allow them to take ownership of the next step and get them involved in the process of setting the next target (if possible as I know this is not always the case).

These are what I call the 7 golden steps to building a dynamic team. Yes, there is more I could talk about however, in my experience these are the most important. If you are a single person operator ask yourself how can I make these steps work for my environment and the people I am in contact with each and every day.