Your team can be a powerful accelerator. Keeping the team, and the founder team in particular, strong and moving in the same direction takes conscious effort.
For most founders it becomes a challenge at some point to keep everyone aligned and working well together. Investing in the founder relationship pays off over the long run more than almost anything else.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, said it well. If you are playing a solo game, you will always lose out to a team.
The team is one of the most important assets of any company. Team trouble is also among the top three reasons startups do not make it. It is one of the few reasons largely within your control.
Check in with yourself
- How much do you know about your team members personal drivers and priorities? Do you talk about it?
- Is everyone working toward their strengths?
- Are roles and responsibilities clear?
- How effective, and how enjoyable, are your meetings?
- How often do you give and receive feedback and compliments?
Acting on your team
- Review where roles and responsibilities are unclear, and align tasks with strengths.
- Organize an offsite that covers more than strategy. Work on the relationships in the room.
- Host a session on shared goals, strengths, pitfalls and irritations.
- Book tip. Scaling Up by Verne Harnish covers team effectiveness, delegation and accountability better than anything else we read.
