I was recently asked this question on a radio station:

“What’s the one thing that you would do if you were setting up a new business?”

And the one thing I would do is set up the team first because (a) if you try and do it all on your own, you’ll fail and (b) you can’t trust your business is going to run without you unless you have a team around you.

I’m so sick and tired of all those industry ‘gurus’ constantly telling us all about Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg etc because it makes us think we need to be like them.  But what we don’t ever hear of is what famous teams there are. Now, you do in sport, take basketball for example (because I’ve been talking a lot about football recently!).  The Chicago Bulls were incredibly successful (I’m sure you’ve seen The Last Dance), yes, they had Michael Johnson who remains one of the ultimate leaders in sport, but he couldn’t have achieved success on his own – it was the entire team on and off that court.

This week I want to share 3 reasons why I believe business owners fail to create an effective team.

1). “I’m Too Busy”

Even if you have a small team around you, it’s likely you’re still getting caught up in doing lots of stuff that may well be useful, but not necessarily important. Your team could be doing this, but they’ve probably never been given the chance to, or never been shown that they’re capable.  This leads to one of the biggest frustrations for owners, constantly running on that hamster wheel but not actually getting anywhere other than feeling burnt out.

2). “I Can Do It Better”

Most entrepreneurs think not only are they the only ones that can do it, but that nobody can do it better. And this is because as an entrepreneur, we start a business as one and we’re programmed to do it all ourselves.

Getting a support team around you will make your business stronger – and it doesn’t necessarily mean a new member of staff – there’s loads you can outsource. Those business that are most successful have put their egos to one side and said to themselves: “I need a Salesperson better than me… Operations who can deliver better than me… Marketing that can drive in leads and prospects better than me.”

You need to be able to release yourself from all of these key areas in the business so that you can set the growth strategy, the next vision, the next mountain you need to climb.

3). “It’s Too Complex”

The final trap we get caught up in is: “it’s too complex for me to tell you about that, so I may as well do it myself”.  Guess what? That makes me too busy which takes me back to the first loop. Everything can be simplified and shared, you just need to allocate time to get it out of your head and into a process for someone to follow.

The only way to get you out of the business, and have a business that runs whether you turn up or not, is (to paraphrase one of my favourite authors): get the right people on your bus, at the right time, in the right places, doing the right things.

Now, there’s loads of ways to help with all the above and start building an effective team around you and I’d recommend you read (or re-read) Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  Patrick gets to the very heart of why teams – even the best ones – often struggle, and he gives you actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.

As I’ve been sharing over the last few weeks, this is a natural progression from you as a leader, to your mindset, to your commitment to the mission, vision, and purpose.  Once you’ve got all that done, you now need the team to go out and deliver it!

BW,

Martin

PS if you want to listen to the full radio interview head on over to >> https://www.mixcloud.com/iamsoundradio/business-in-the-lockdown-with-martin-norbury/

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays

Image by monsterpong09 from Pixabay