Using Team Leaders to grow your business

Selecting the right Team Leaders for your business is a key decision that impacts the overall success of the enterprise. But where do you start?

A Team Leader provides instruction, direction, support and motivation to a working group. Effective Team Leaders:

• keep employees on track
• help increase efficiency and decrease mistakes
• provide a positive role model
• create an environment conducive to success by promoting communication and collaboration
• execute the owner’s vision for the business

Quite a mission-critical list of responsibilities. So it’s logical you’d want the best possible person for this.  Your starting point? Depends on whether you plan to promote from within – which is a great idea if you have the right person – or recruit externally. Let’s focus on the former: growing your own.

Look in the mirror: are you ready to put your ego aside and trust the Team Leader to do the job you’re paying them to do? Giving up an element of control is a tough one for many owners. Micromanagement has downsides for all concerned: drains peoples’ confidence, takes up your valuable time and often results in lack of innovation and creativity across your business. And just unnecessary annoys most intelligent adults. But if you can’t let go, even the most competent Team Leader will not succeed.

Ask the question: is a Team Leader role one you really want? Some individuals don’t. And there’s few greater mistakes you can make at work than promoting someone who simply doesn’t want it or isn’t ready for it.

Be honest: provide full information on the role: the good, the bad and the ugly. Allow the person time to ask questions and make an informed decision.

Ask again: see point 2 above. We cannot stress this highly enough.

Support to succeed: don’t cast the individual adrift once they’re in the role. We typically promote based on the person’s skills as an individual contributor then expect the same great results when they’re in charge of a team. It’s highly likely you’re going to have to offer your new Team Leader support as they grow into the role. And support means different things to different people: training, a mentor, an opportunity to vent, all of the above…depends on the individual. Not sure? Ask.

Be realistic: are you asking the person to undertake their former role as well as supervising others? If the answer is yes, you should consider redesign of the position…otherwise something’s gonna give.

There’s little doubt having the right Team Leader takes a portion of the managerial load off your shoulders. This allows you to spend less time working in the business and more time on it…helping the business grow and prosper. Your dollar investment in this level doesn’t go astray either: a recent study found that running first-time managers through a leadership development program offered a 29% ROI in the first 3 months, and a 415% annualized ROI. This means that the business made $4.15 for every $1 spent on training.

Convinced? So here’s the next smart step. Find someone to help guide you through the process of identifying and sourcing the right Team Leader for your business. From the initial “what does the role/ideal person look like?” analysis through organisational and job design phases, to your selection of the perfect Team Leader and identification of the appropriate support they need as they grow into the role. Your guide should be someone with genuine HR management-level experience who’s been there, done that and got it right. Sound logical? Check out the Bare Bones Consulting point of difference here.