Being a solopreneur is both endlessly rewarding and consistently challenging – in the best possible way, of course! To truly achieve success, you can’t do everything yourself. A team that’s as enthusiastic and passionate as you is the best weapon in your arsenal. So, how do you get one of those?
Many will tell you that nowadays, hiring a team is as easy as a few clicks and a quick payment via PayPal. While it’s true that not being geographically limited means you have access to a huge pool of talent, it doesn’t mean that a web search and a financial transaction immediately results in a fully engaged team.
We spoke before about how to identify ideal team members. Now, take it to the next level and follow these steps to your dream team. Superheroes, assemble!
Step #1: Find Your Team Members
In an earlier post, we talked about how to identify those dream team members. We’d all like it to be an easy process, but our number one tip for this step is: don’t rush it. Take your time when you’re recruiting; much like with online dating, even if they make you swoon on paper, it’s important to make sure you’ve got the chemistry.
Aside from testing their competencies, find the time to have a live interview with them so you can fully gauge their passion for the company and the position. And it’s not only about you sizing them up; they need a chance to learn more about your vision and business and whether it’s what they’re looking for. After all, you don’t want an employee who isn’t fully committed to being there.
Evaluating self-motivation will save you so much time in the future. Seriously, you’re building this team to help share the load, not to suddenly have to write endless follow-up emails trying to get an employee to complete a task! If they’re truly motivated and engaged, this will shine through in an interview.
Step #2: Give them a Team Welcome
You know what they say: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. A team member’s initial introduction to a company plays a big part in how they feel about it, so make sure your new hire feels like a member of the team from the get-go. Whether it’s just you and them (for now!), they’re joining an existing team or you have several new recruits starting at once, think of a positive way to welcome them.
A simple idea is arranging a company-wide call for everyone to get to know each other or, if this isn’t possible due to time zones, invite them to the social channels. Ask everyone to introduce themselves in a fun way – perhaps by sharing something people might not guess about themselves (nothing too scandalous, at least at first!). Team members can share photos so new recruits can put faces to names and make the experience of working in a remote team less impersonal.
Step #3: Encourage Communication and Team Spirit
Once you’ve started off on a warm welcome, keep this positive team spirit going by encouraging regular communication and collaboration – for both work topics and non-work-related topics. An engaged team is one that’s comfortable with each other, so it’s important people feel like they’ve got a social space within the remote team set-up.
Try to do regular team building activities, whether these take the form of fun games (guessing the baby photo is always a crowd-pleaser!) or weekly ‘coffee calls’ where you aren’t allowed to talk business. As the boss, take an active interest in your team members and their achievements. Share positive feedback from clients, highlight a different employee a week and send an email about how they’re demonstrated your company’s core values.
Step #4: Use the Right Tools
The world is your oyster when it comes to remote work tools – these are what make our company existence and growth possible. Make sure you’re using the right ones for your business, the size of your team and your work style personally. This last one might seem a bit surprising, but ultimately you are the person who will need to manage all these different communication channels (unless you’re lucky enough to have an online business manager!), so it’s important they suit you.
Tools like Slack mean you can set up one-to-one messaging, group conversations on different topic threads and your team have the opportunity to catch up with each other as well. In line with step #3, we’d recommend creating a ‘social’ channel for things like celebrations, Game of Thrones debriefs and chats about the weather! To manage projects, Asana and Trello are vital so everyone knows that they’re doing and when. Clarity on tasks makes for a more productive and engaged team.
Step #5: Perfect the Balance Between Autonomy and Development
We all know from experience that no-one likes a micro-manager and there’s no surer way of undoing all that great team building you’ve done than intervening in everything they do. The most successful companies are those with empowered team members who feel trusted to do what they do and keep getting better at it.
Having said that, you’ll also need to strike a delicate balance with managing remote team members to maximize their productivity. As a coach, you know how to encourage people to unearth their full potential, so use those skills with your team as well as with your clients! Establish clear benchmarks for success and emphasize the developmental side to your advice, rather than criticizing and you’ll see immediate positive results.
Now have fun working with a positive and engaged team by your side!
