The Science and Art of building and maintaining your dream team - Seven solid gold insights

Whether you’re part of a growing workforce or an overwhelmed hiring manager, getting to grips with some solid gold insights into modern team-focused thinking and approaches is a flat out necessity.  Let’s cut through the fluff and get to the nitty gritty of creating and functioning within a stellar team. Yes respectful, egoless etiquette is very much appreciated but what is really important to leaders and team builders? What traditional beliefs have evolved for the modern workforce? Well, here’s our seven solid gold insights into building and maintaining dream teams.

Golden insight #1 - Don’t just think local.

It may be a tad too forward-thinking for some to introduce the possibility of recruiting a remote based team member. Of course there are obvious benefits to having your total team under one roof but (tweet this) don’t be tempted to choose convenience over performance and fit. Many remote teams outperform local ones for a variety of reasons, and while you don’t have to go totally remote, you could consider shaking up the team structure and stepping outside the box.

This solution tends to work for companies who hire for the talent fit. They know this unorthodox approach might require some figuring out but when they find the right talent, the rest is simply logistics. A remote member can force you to up your tech communication game, a move that has a positive knock on effect for the whole team.

Golden insight #2 - Opt for tech alternatives to traditional practices.

How you behave and communicate as a team is key in determining performance and keeping everyone happy. Everyday ways of undertaking tasks and discussing ideas should be re-approached and tailored to what works best for your unique team. From a social standpoint, humans can let their social restraints affect their ability to share and collaborate. No matter how close you are a team your insecurities can still stint performance.

Keep your eyes and ears open, if a team member is great at workshopping idea one-to-one but struggles in a group situation, remove the uncomfortableness. Why not go for a tech brainstorming solution? Get a dedicated Google Chat on the go or utilise an online collaboration forum like Trello to share ideas. Good leadership and team management is about citing an issue and tailoring a solution.

Golden insight #3 - Get scientific with social skills.

The best teams aren’t made up of big brained extroverts, bursting at the seams with confidence and ideas. The ones that really perform, inspire and stay motivated are the teams with a great balance and dynamic. It’s your job to figure out what dynamic, skills and values you need to have on side and create that team.

Yes you need actioners, visionaries and creatives but you also need listeners and questioners. Be mindful of the roles and duties that your company may see roll in over the next few years, how do today's team measure up to them? Social skills are just as important as industry-based skills.

Golden insight #4 - Team Building exercises do work (kinda).

Before you start summoning up images of trust exercises and most embarrassing moment revelations, let’s talk about what team building really is. Building genuine connections with your team is truly valuable as you create your own dialogue and approach to collaboration and group creativity that always leads to better performance. Trust, openness and honesty are key team attributes but none rely on aged notions of sharing.

A workforce is a collection of very different people who have very different patterns of thinking and doing, cater your teambuilding events/operations to that fact. Get out of the stale boardroom and set up a volunteering stint for the whole office to get involved with. Why not do a team lunch once a week where you dine at a local non-office location? Change the nature of what teambuilding means to your team.

Golden insight #5 - Take mentoring seriously.

Onboarding is another recruitment process that’s experienced a serious facelift. It has moved on from a simple assessment to an all singing, all dancing experience where new skills and partnerships are made instantly. We all know about pairing off new starts with current employees is an early day answer to this but what impact does this really have on new talent?

(tweet this) Mentoring is shadowing taken seriously. More than just ‘here’s the fire escape’ and offering an insight into office politics, mentoring is unique and wholly valuable. Pick a specific mentor for each new start based on their personality, skill set and embodiment of a company value. Instead of listing company values, show new employees how they are represented through the team you have. Show your newbies that you can be part of the company culture in your own way, and use this pairing to approach projects and bring new dynamics and ideas to the business table.

Golden insight #6 - Invest in trust.

It’s no secret that trust keeps teams vibrant and performing well. It’s harder to build than you’d think, and can be spoilt by one bad apple. Trust can’t be faked or listed as a key component of your company culture; it needs to be exercised. Yep, you need to take that leap and actually trust your team. (tweet this) A lack of trust leads to doubt and that leads to micro-management - the team happiness killer.

Empower your team to take responsibility for their actions. Make them proper business decision makers who play a very real role in the successes of your company. Accountability means standing by the work you do it and that requires pride. Invest a sense of pride into your team and they will be inspired to do their best for themselves and you. Share the company’s success with them, giving them private and public praise and recognition.

Golden insight #7 - Know that finding talent is only half the battle.

Retention has always been viewed as a necessity but it’s often a sidelined as a ‘cross that bridge when we come to it’ stage. The truth is retention should be a constant consideration of yours from that first interview. There’s more to keeping staff happy and motivated than limp incentives and slight pay rises. (tweet this) Appreciation and incentives are two very different things. Appreciation is an authentic gratefulness for someone’s impact or action. An incentive is a ploy to keep them temporarily focused. Always opt to show appreciation. Unique perks and practices show your team that you know who they are as people, not just talent to be pinned down. Show appreciation frequently, don’t just pull it out the bag when waters get rough.

Gone are the days when you’d hire your next employee based on simply having a suitable skill set and personable character. Modern recruitment calls for you to tick today’s and tomorrow's business boxes, it demands you find a culture fit and it pushes you to think and act fast. It might sound a little swish but building your team really is a mixture of science, art and gut instinct.

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