Putting the right team in place is key to success for any company in any industry. Or sport. Or orchestra. Or – you get it… I have had the good fortune over my career to consistently assemble highly capable teams. They have consistently executed their way to success, and in the time of COVID-19 businesses across the United States stand ready to make lemonade from lemons. Unemployment is nearly 15% and more than 40 million Americans have filed for first-time unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic forced the US economy to shut down in March. One in four American workers has filed for unemployment benefits.
There are a lot of good future employees in the ranks of the unemployed right now. As we slowly move toward opening the economy, many things will change, but not the need to build the best teams possible. Now is a good time for companies to recalibrate their workforce, and there are certain inalienable qualities of strong teams. There are many resources on the Internet that call out these qualities, but the following Top 7 Qualities of a Successful Team from Sophie Deering of Undercover Recruiter (https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/qualities-successful-work-team/) is very compelling:
Building great teams is a very human endeavor. We all know the rock stars we have worked in the past. My tendency has been to bring them along with me and that cascades from opportunity to the next opportunity. I have had employees I have hired 3 or 4 times in my career. Although I believe I have a powerful network, one startling, unexpected thing happened along the way. There are certain times you hire one person into the network, and you acquire that person’s equally broad network of really good people. That is a profound game-changer. Good hiring is, indeed, hiring from the network of people you know and trust. People who will challenge you, people who are doers, people who follow the mission but are self-directed. These people share the characteristics of being smart, good-humored, hardworking, reliable, prompt, and trustworthy.
You can find such people at Turning Point.
With good employees, you also need someone at the helm that provides strong leadership. Sustainably winning teams stay that way when the leader sets the course with a vision and a mission that everyone can get behind. Strong leaders are self-motivated, optimistic, positive, stable, decisive, accountable, focused, persuasive, empathetic and most of all passionate about the business they are leading. A strong leader will preside over a growing business that will need to evolve over time, so will also need to fine-tune the mission of the business over time. A strong leader also needs to be an excellent team builder, as the team will evolve over time.
You can also find that kind of interim/fractional leadership in the people at Turning Point.
Turning Point Consulting specializes in business and technology management and we are experts in change and transformation. Our team has a lot of real-world experience around innovation and change across many verticals and companies small to large. We have “Been There, Done That” and are ready to help you not only survive but thrive in the new world order.
