Why Coaching is Essential to Leadership and Team Management

What’s the importance of coaching with respect to team management? What has coaching got to do with leadership? Do you need to be a coach to successfully build a business team? You are going to find out below.

When you hear the word “coach”, what comes first into your mind? Do you picture a basketball team with a man/woman shouting out directions? Or perhaps a football team with a man/woman pacing to and fro and calling out the names of the players?

Coaching is no longer reserved to sports teams; it is now one of the key concepts in leadership and management. Why is coaching popular?

Why Coaching is Essential to Leadership and Team Management?

1. Coaching levels the playing field

Coaching is one of the six emotional leadership styles proposed by Daniel Goleman. Moreover, it is a behavior or role that leaders enforce in the context of situational leadership. As a leadership style, coaching is used when the members of a group or team are competent and motivated, but do not have an idea of the long-term goals of an organization.

This involves two levels of coaching: team and individual. Team coaching makes members work together. In a group of individuals, not everyone may have nor share the same level of competence and commitment to a goal. A group may be a mix of highly competent and moderately competent members with varying levels of commitment. These differences can cause friction among the members. The coaching leader helps the members level their expectations.

Also, the coaching leader manages differing perspectives so that the common goal succeeds over personal goals and interests. In a big organization, leaders need to align the staffs’ personal values and goals with that of the organization so that long-term directions can be pursued.

2. Coaching builds up confidence and competence

Individual coaching is an example of situational leadership at work. It aims to mentor one-on-one, build up the confidence of members by affirming good performance during regular feedbacks; and increase competence by helping the member assess his/her strengths and weaknesses towards career planning and professional development.

Depending on the individual’s level of competence and commitment, a leader may exercise more coaching behavior for the less-experienced members. Usually, this happens in the case of new staffs. The direct supervisor gives more defined tasks and holds regular feedbacks for the new staff, and gradually lessens the amount of coaching, directing, and supporting roles to favor delegating as competence and confidence increase.

3. Coaching promotes individual and team excellence

Excellence is a product of habitual good practice. The regularity of meetings and constructive feedback is important in establishing habits. Members catch the habit of constantly assessing themselves for their strengths and areas for improvement; that they themselves perceive what knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to acquire to attain team goals.

In the process, they attain individually excellence as well. An example is in the case of a musical orchestra: each member plays a different instrument. In order to achieve harmony of music from the different instrument, members will polish their part in the piece, aside from practicing as an ensemble. Consequently, they improve individually as an instrument player.

4. Coaching develops high commitment to common goals

A coaching leader balances the attainment of immediate targets with long-term goals towards the vision of an organization. As mentioned earlier, with the alignment of personal goals with organizational or team goals, personal interests are kept in check. By constantly communicating the vision through formal and informal conversations, the members are inspired and motivated. Setting short-term team goals aligned with organizational goals; and making an action plan to attain these goals can help sustain the increased motivation and commitment to common goals of the members.

5. Coaching produces valuable leaders

Leadership by example is important in coaching. A coaching leader loses credibility when he/she cannot practice what he/she preaches. This means that a coaching leader should be well organized, highly competent is his/her field, communicates openly and encourages feedback, and has a clear idea of the organization’s vision-mission-goals.

By vicarious and purposive learning, members catch the same good practices and attitudes from the coaching leader, turning them into coaching leaders themselves. If a member experiences good coaching, he/she is most likely to do the same things when entrusted with formal leadership roles.

Some words of caution though: coaching is just one of the styles of leadership. It can be done in combination with the other five emotional leadership styles depending on the profile of the emerging team.

Moreover, coaching as a leadership style requires that you are physically, emotionally, and mentally fit most of the time since it involves two levels of coaching: individual and team. Your members expect you to be the last one to give up or bail out in any situation especially during times of crises.

A coaching leader must also be conscious that coaching entails investing time on each individual, and on the whole team. Moreover, that the responsibilities are greater since while you are coaching members, you are also developing future coaches as well.

37 Quotes and Business Advice on Team Work and Team Building

What’s the importance of team work in building a business? What lessons do famous entrepreneurs and drop out billionaires have for me with respect to team building? Why do I need a business team? How do I build a business team? How do I impact the spirit of team work in my employees?

If the answer to any of the questions asked above interests you, then please read on as I share with you 37 quotes and business advice on team work and team building from successful entrepreneurs.

37 Quotes and Business Advice on Team Work and Team Building

1. “Mr. Morgan buys his partners, I grow my own.” – Andrew Carnegie

2. “Successful entrepreneurs may hate hierarchies and structures and try to destroy them. They may garner the disapproval of MBAs for their creativity and wildness. But they have antennae in their heads. When they walk down the street anywhere in the world, they have their antennae out, evaluating how what they see can relate back to what they are doing. It might be packaging, a word, a poem, or even something in a completely different business.” – Anita Roddick

3. “Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.” – James Cash Penny

4. I’d rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100 percent of my own efforts.” – J. Paul Getty

5. “If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don’t have to manage them.” – Jack Welch

6. “I hire people brighter than me and I get out of their way.” – Lee Iacocca

7. “My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.” – Jack Welch

“People problems must sometimes be dealt with harshly. When you make an example of someone, make sure everyone knows what the lesson is. Punish one, teach a hundred.” – The Mafia Manager

9. “The most important ‘speed’ issue is often not technical but cultural. It’s convincing everyone that the company’s survival depends on everyone moving as fast as possible.” – Bill Gates

10. “The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.” – Jack Welch

11. “My definition of an executive’s job is brief and straight to the point. It’s simply this: Getting things done through other people.” – James Cash Penny

12. “The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” – James Cash Penny

“There will be times when you will have to be abrasive, even brutal to members of your staff. Don’t worry that your people will say bad things about you because of this. They already have. But in general, try to be pleasant and accommodating. Try to please the greatest number who work for you that you can; antagonize the fewest. Blow smoke.” – The Mafia Manager

14. “Bringing together the right information with the right people will dramatically improve a company’s ability to develop and act on strategic business opportunities.” – Bill Gates

“The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.” – Bill Gates

16. “Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well motivated individual.” – Bill Gates

17. “I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try, they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact.” – Bill Gates

18. “If you give people tools and they use their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”

19. “You’ve got to give great tools to small teams. Pick good people, use small teams and give them great tools so that they are very productive in terms of what they are doing.” – Bill Gates

20. “Coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success.”

37 Quotes and Business Advice on Team Work and Team Building

21. “Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they are going to make mistakes.” – Henry Ross Perot

22. “We bring together the best ideas – turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.” – Jack Welch

23. “The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” – James Cash Penny

24. “The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.” – James Cash Penny

25. “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller

26. “I have run engineering since day one at Oracle, and I still run engineering. I hold meetings every week with the database team, the middle ware team, the applications team. I run engineering and I will do that until the board throws me out of there.” – Larry Ellison

27. “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the company’s product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash

29. “To be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running, and if you have a good team around you and more than a fair share of luck, you might make something happen. But you certainly can’t guarantee it just by following someone else formula.” – Richard Branson

30. “Individuals don’t win in business, teams do.” – Sam Walton

37 Quotes and Business Advice on Team Work and Team Building

31. We’re all working together; that’s the secret.” – Sam Walton

32. “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

33. “The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.” – Steve Jobs

34. “Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn’t perfect at predicting the future. Based on today’s stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down and things may be different tomorrow but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today.” – Steve Jobs

35. “I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.” – Thomas Edison

36. “If I attack alone, I might turn out to be a wimp. But with a strong business team behind me, I am a force to contend with.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

37. “Go to the wolf, consider its ways and be wise. A wolf will never hunt alone; it hunts in packs because it knows the power of team work.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

How to Build a Strong Business Management Team from Scratch

“Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.” – Tupac Amaru Shakur

How do I build a business team for my small business? How do I assemble a business team when I can’t afford them? Are you interested in building your own business team from scratch? Do you want to know what it takes to build a strong business management team? Well, if you are interested in finding an answer to any of the questions asked above; then please read on as I share with you the pros and cons of building a business management team from scratch.

“Individuals don’t win in business; teams do.” – Sam Walton

In previous articles, I highlighted four reasons why you need a business management team and also laid out a step by step guide to developing your business management skills. So in this article, I will be summing it up by revealing the exact step by step approach to building a business team based on my own entrepreneurial experience.

“When employees unite, they form a union but when business owners unite, they form a team.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“I greatly admire GE, their utterly ruthlessly focused management, to get the cost out and get this integration done.’ Ok, we may make a few mistakes along the way but we are not going to waste any time.’ They make decisions; they are incredibly disciplined and focused.” – Larry Ellison

How to Build a Strong Business Management Team that Wins

1. Outline your personal objectives

The first step to building a business team is to outline your own personal objectives but I prefer to this your primary aim. Every entrepreneur must have a primary aim in order to succeed in business; without a primary aim, you have nothing worth dying for.

Now what has your primary aim of building a business got to do with a business management team? While I have no direct answer to that question, I want to point out that the main reason why entrepreneurs build business to use that business as a leverage to achieve their primary aim. That primary aim may be freedom, self actualization or anything.

“Money is not a goal. The goal is to make companies grow, develop, be competitive, be in different areas, be efficient to have a great human team inside the company. Look for human development of the people of the companies because you cannot do anything without human capital, without your human team.” – Carlos Slim Helu

Now it’s the duty of your business team to work towards the growth of your business, which will in turn fulfill your primary. So directly or indirectly, your business team has a role to play in the actualization of your primary aim and if they are not going to help you achieve that aim; then they are not worth being a team.

2. Outline your business objectives

After outlining your personal objectives, the next you will need to outline are your business objectives. You need this because it will help determine who is worth being on your business team. When assessing your proposed business management team members; you must make sure that their various skills will add to the bottom line and help the business achieve its objectives.

“Management by objective works, if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time, you don’t.” – Peter F. Drucker

If a proposed member possesses a skill that doesn’t add to your bottom line; then bypass him/her no matter how skillful that person may be.

“We need leaders who add value to the people and the organization they lead; who work for the benefit of others and not just for their own personal gain. Leaders who inspire and motivate, not intimidate and manipulate; who live with people to know their problems in order to solve them and who follow a moral compass that points in the right directions regardless of the trends.” – Mary Kay Ash

3. Identify your strength and weaknesses

The true essence of a business team is to balance each other’s act and work towards a common goal of building a strong business. Before beginning the search for a business management team; I will advice you look into yourself and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Just as I said above, the essence of a business team is balanced each others act. What’s the essence of having a business team whose strengths are your strength?

“Bringing together the right information with the right people will dramatically improve a company’s ability to develop and act on strategic business opportunities.” – Bill Gates

Your goal must be to build a business management team whose strengths complement your weaknesses. For instance, I am a good communicator and strategist but occasionally, I blow smoke and this is not quite good for negotiation. My attitude of occasionally flaring up and blowing smoke is the reason I have my friend Precious on my team as my adviser and confidant. Precious is an excellent negotiator with basic knowledge in banking and finance issues. But most importantly, he’s cool headed.

So whenever I go on business deals; I take Precious with me since he’s very good at negotiating and bargaining. And should in case I blow smoke, he knows how to calm my tempers down and bring the situation under control. Whenever I get too excited and want to make a blind business move; he pulls me back and forces me to have a rethink. When I am emotionally attached to an investment or deal, he thinks objectively and bring my senses back; when he want to go astray also, I step in and bring back his senses. If not for these checks and balances; both of us would have lost businesses and blown up deals.

The situation explained above is a practical way true business team members balance each others’ act. If business team members can’t balance each others’ act and skills; then they are not a team.

4. Develop your business mission

“Being an entrepreneur, I have come to realize that all successful businesses are driven by three fundamentals. One is the cash flow, two is the team and three is the mission. Of these three, the mission is the most important.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

Your business mission is probably one of the most important elements of your business because that’s where your entrepreneurial spirit dwells. When assembling my own business team; I made sure I sold my business mission to them. If they have an objection to the mission or act otherwise, they are free to take their leave.

“The IKEA spirit is strong and living reality. Simplicity in our behavior gives us strength. Simplicity and humbleness characterize us in our relations with each others, our suppliers and our customers.” – Ingvar Kamprad

Your business team must accept and align themselves with the business mission because the business mission is the bond binding the business together. Without the business mission, there will be no team spirit among your employees and business management team.

To further illustrate the importance of preparing your business mission beforehand and selling it to your business team, I will share an incident with you. I once walked out of a business deal simply because I couldn’t comprehend the mission of that business. I was invited into that deal as an inside investor; I was also asked to be a member of the core business team.

The business idea was about publishing a magazine and to be sincere with you, the business team was very experienced in the game; the business plan was solid and the feasibility shows strong potential but I walked away. I walked away from that deal despite the fact that it showed strong potential because I realized that the business mission of that business was simply to make money for the entrepreneur.

I tried to sell the entrepreneur and the entire team on the idea that we should run lean and avoid taking a salary since we are major shareholders and secondly, the business was still in its startup phase. I suggested this and told them that I was willing to work for free because I knew from experience that publishing was a tough industry to operate in and we are just a startup.

But my advice fell on deaf ears. The team members could not reach an agreement on the salary issue and this issue was always the top agenda during our meetings. Being the last and newest member of the business team, I quietly watched the unfolding drama and when it became a reality that making money was the true mission of the entrepreneur, I walked away and I never regretted my actions.

“To turn really interesting ideas and fledging ideas into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.” – Steve Jobs

This real live experience made me realize the need of a business mission before even starting a business. If you don’t have a business mission, then your business will not stand the test of time.

5. Develop a business team acquisition plan

Now that you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, highlighted your business objectives and business mission; it’s time to draw a business team acquisition plan. And your business team acquisition plan begins with you answering the following questions:

Why do you need a business team?
What specific role will be played by your business?
How will you compensate your business management team?
How will you maximize the potential of your business team?

These are real live questions you must answer and plan towards before embarking on a quest to assemble a business team. It’s also advisable you list the qualities, skills and specific characters your proposed team members must possess.

Remember, the process of building a business management team may span for years and this team will carry on the business when you are no more; so you must plan carefully and make sure that the right individuals make up your management team.

6. Begin your search for a business management team

Now having highlighted the qualities you need in your business team; it’s now time to begin the search for suitable individuals that will form the team. Now how do you find skilled individuals that will make up your business management team?

“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the company’s product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash

The search for a business team is not a process you can run an ad for especially when you are starting a business from scratch with limited budget; it’s a process that has to be approached tactically. When I made up my mind to build a business team; I knew the process wasn’t going to be an easy one, yet I began the process and with experience from this process; I want to state that there’s no definite pattern to finding individuals that will make up your business management team.

I met some of my business team members based on referral from other entrepreneurs; I sent others a proposal to join my team, some walked up to me with the intention of identifying themselves with my business and the remaining started out as friends and associates. One lesson I learned from the process is that the goal to build a strong business management team is a long term goal; people will keep joining and dropping off as members of your business team until the right team inter-locks.

Now until the right business team locks; you the entrepreneurs must stay true to the entrepreneurial process of building a business team. If you sway otherwise, your standing team will dissolve and you will start the process afresh.

7. Sell your business mission to your prospects

After finding individuals who you deem fit to be on your team, the next step is to sell your business mission to them. If they comprehend the mission and decide to be part of it, bring them on board but if not; let them go. Selling your business mission to your proposed business team members is like transferring your passion and spirit to them; it’s all about selling them on your dreams, values and culture on which you want to build your business.

“The most important ‘speed’ issue is often not technical but cultural. It’s convincing everyone that the company’s survival depends on everyone moving as fast as possible.” – Bill Gates

If they can’t grasp the possibility of your business mission and vision, then they are not worth being your business team. Your business team must feel your passion and join forces with you to transform this passion into energy.

“An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch

8. Identify competent employees and bring them on board

If you have a business already in operation; then it’s time you look inside and identify employees who have shown long standing commitment, diligence and outstanding performance and bring them on board. Remember, such employee who finally makes it as a team mate will be an asset in the long run because he/she must have mastered the intricacies of the business while an employee.

9. Unleash your business team

“Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well motivated individual.” – Bill Gates

Now that you have commenced the process of building your own business team; it’s now up to your business team to prove its worth. Every member of your team must be smart and competent in his/her field; and their professionalism should reflect in the books.

“You’ve got to give great tools to small teams. Pick good people, use small teams and give them great tools so that they are very productive in terms of what they are doing.” – Bill Gates

Now if you have a highly skilled smart person on your team, ride him fast while he/she lasts because he/she may be gone tomorrow. Let your newly acquired business team be an added competitive advantage for your business.

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” – Jack Welch

As a final note, I want to repeat the statement that the process of finding your right business management team is not a one hit affair; it’s a continuous process that may span for years, so you must be prepared to go it through.

And one more thing, always remember that business teams are built according to business needs and the entrepreneur’s value. What this means in essence is that the right business team for you might not the right business team for me because we share different core values.

Now how do I pay for the services of a business team?
I can’t afford my own business management team?

In answer to these questions, I usually tell my protégés that employing the services of a business management team as a startup entrepreneur and paying for such services entails creativity. You have to find a way to afford your own business team; after all, Rome was not built in a day.

I did not wake up one day and assembled my own business team; rather, I found them one at a time and for each one found; I see a corresponding result on my bottom line. Like I said earlier, paying for the services of your business management team requires creativity that you alone can come up with because you are the only one that understands your business and its financial strength

As a tactic to reducing your overhead, you can leverage the skills of your business team externally and pay them outright for their services. This was exactly how I started. I sought the advice of business professionals individually and after finding the right combination of professionals I was comfortable with; I started bringing them together on a round table brainstorming session during the weekends.

“I have run engineering since day one at Oracle, and I still run engineering. I hold meetings every week with the database team, the middle ware team, the applications team. I run engineering and I will do that until the board throws me out of there.” – Larry Ellison

Some of my team business members were gainfully employed, while others ran their own businesses but I was able to pull them together in synergy on weekends over lunch and sought their advice as a team. You can apply this approach of utilizing a team of external advisors if you are not financially buoyant enough to bring them in-house; after all, entrepreneurship is all about creativity.

You can also assemble a business management team with an agreement that they will be compensated when investors come on board. You may also consider making them shareholders; that means they will work for free while awaiting a greater pay off when funding comes.

In conclusion, bear in mind that you can get anything you want in life and business; if you are willing to be creative in your approach. So don’t let the issue of inadequate capital stop you from growing your business internally and externally; just put your brains to work.

10 Strategic Reasons why you Need a Business Management Team

I have watched or listened to several successful entrepreneurs and drop out billionaires being interviewed. I have read several business books and studied the business success strategies of famous entrepreneurs; and they all seem to share one thing in common. They all attribute their rapid business growth to their business management team.

Now why is a business team important to an entrepreneur? Why should I build an in-house business management team when I can always seek external advice? What impact will a business team have on my business? I am running my business on a lean budget; why should I increase my overhead by bringing a business team on board?

These are usually the questions I receive when I discuss the importance of having a business team with my protégés. You may be a small business owner operating a mom and pop shop but I still want you to know that you need a business team. It may not be your short term goal but you need to include it in your long term plan.

“Individuals don’t win in business; teams do.” – Sam Walton

No successful entrepreneur assembled a business management team in a day; it’s a process that can take as long as ten year before the perfect team assembles. Finding the right business team is definitely not an easy task and that’s why I listed it among the ten major business challenges entrepreneurs face when starting a business.

Now why do you need a business management team? Well, below are ten strategic reasons why you building a business team should be your long term goal.

Ten Strategic Reasons why You Need a Business Management Team

1. Raising Capital

One of the key reasons why startup entrepreneurs don’t get the venture capital is because they are trying to raise capital alone. A business mentor of mine once said that venture capitalist prefer an average product with an excellent business team than an excellent product with an average business team.

If you should consider this statement; you will come to acknowledge that it’s the truth in its entirety. A business team is vital to the process of raising capital for your business; in fact, it increases your chances of securing the capital. Show me an entrepreneur that raised billions of dollars in capital and I will show you an entrepreneur backed by a strong business management team. Just like said in the investment world; money always follow management.

2. Taking advantage of new or existing opportunities

Having your own business management team will give you the leverage to take advantage of business opportunities effortlessly. A business team will be your eyes, ears and nose in the business world; they will not only help you sniff out opportunities but will also help you create opportunities out of thin air.

"A business idea is just another idea. But an idea backed by a strong feasibility, a thorough business plan and a smart team is no longer an idea. It's now a solid business opportunity worth pursuing." – Ajaero Tony Martins

3. Strategic business development

Do you want to grow your business from the inside? Do you want to strengthen your bottom line? Then build your own business management team. Strategic business development is not the doing of an individual but a collective effort of a business team. Employee performance programs, staff motivation and operational excellence are part of the duty of a business team.

4. Rapid expansion and growth

Take a close look at companies that grows rapidly and stands strong in times of economic recess and you will find a strong business management team behind such companies. The massive outside expansion of any company is the handiwork of the business team. An entrepreneur visualizes while the business team draws the plan; critique the plan and executes the business plan. For instance, take a look at the rapid acquisition move taken by Oracle Corporation; buying up a total of 57 companies within five years. That’s the power of a good management driven company.

5. Business leverage

How is a company able to operate successfully in different sectors of the economy? How can an entrepreneur successfully run a business conglomerate? The answer is leverage.

"Successful businessmen share the ability to hire people smarter than they are." – Dillard Munford

The leverage of a business team is the reason successful entrepreneurs became billionaires effortlessly. Leverage is the reason why entrepreneurs such as J. Paul Getty and Carlos Slim Helu are able to run over 200 companies without burning themselves out. The leverage of a business team is a form of intellectual leverage. Just as a man is known by the friends he keeps; so is a business respected by the management team it keeps.

“People are definitely a company's greatest asset. It doesn't make any difference whether the company's product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps." – Mary Kay Ash

6. Increase confidence of the investors

Just like I stated above; money follows management and who provides the money? The answer is the investors. Nothing inspires or boosts the confidence of an investor than the professionalism of the business management team piloting the affairs of the company he/she invested in.

Have you tried raising capital before? Have you tried sourcing for contracts before? Have you tried sending a business proposal to another company before? Have you ever tried selling a business before? Or better still buying a business? Have you ever taken a company public before?

If you have engaged in any of these acts; you will come to accept the fact that one of the most popular questions investors ask is this:

Who is on your team?

Who on your team has taken a company public before?

Who on your team has experience in business management?

The questions above are real life questions asked by investors because they feel comfortable hearing the fact that the managers of their investments are competent.

7. Increase the entrepreneur’s credibility and competence

Observe the words of successful entrepreneurs and drop out billionaires carefully; and you will see that they attribute much of their success to their team. Have you ever wondered why some drop outs end up successful business owners? The reason is because they built their business on the shoulders of intellectual giants; who happen to be members of their business management team.

An entrepreneur can never know it all and that’s why he/she relies on the calculative initiative of the business team. Show me an entrepreneur backed by a weak business team and I will show you an incompetent entrepreneur. So if being recognized as an entrepreneur of credibility and competence sounds good enough to be added to your resume; then build your own in-house business management team.

8. Strategic innovative thinking

Innovative companies are usually companies driven by a strong management team. Observe companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and Sony; and you will come to realize that these companies have being built, driven and sustained competitively on innovation. Now who are the engineers of innovation? It’s the business team; the brains behind the company. Tactical approach to issues, detailed competitive analysis and strategic thinking are benefits derived from having your own business team; so would you rather not have one?

9. Critical problem solving

How does a company survives a recession? How does a company survive in a fierce market? The answer still lies in the team. In the previous article I wrote, I highlighted the characteristics of successful business management teams and one of such characteristics is critical problem solving.

Entrepreneurs are known as critical problem solvers but I also want to add that problem solving is a product of collective strategies and ideas put together by a group of individuals; and such individuals in this case is your business team. Critical problem solving is the reason why teams go on brainstorming sessions. Now tell me, how do you create a brainstorming session when you don’t have a business team? I leave that for you to answer.

10. Increases the value of the business

Value appreciation is the last but not the least reason why you need a business management team. One of the most important assets of a business is the management team on ground because with a good business management team; every other asset can be synergized into yielding positive results for the company.

The reason why I call a business team your most important asset is because other assets are easy to create or control once the right business team is in place. So instead of focusing of improving your lifestyle; acquiring investments individually or running your business solely, I will advice you first build a business management team and the rest will fall in place.

As a final note, I want you as an entrepreneur to shift your primary aim from acquiring luxuries to building a business team because investment on a team is probably the best investment an organization can make.

12 Characteristics of Successful Business Management Teams

What are the success secrets of the world’s most successful business teams? What characteristics or traits do they possess that other business management teams don’t? What characteristics must I be on the look out for when building a business team? If any of these questions ignites your interest, then please read on as I explain in detail the characteristics that make a great business management team.

I have listened to series of successful entrepreneurs and drop out billionaires being interviewed but despite their different lines of business, strategies employed and marketing terrain; they all seem to have a common business success secret. And that business success secret is their “Business management team.”

Now if the richest people in the world such as Bill Gates, Ingvar Kamprad, Mukesh Ambani, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Li Ka Shing and Aliko Dangote; the richest black man in the world all credit their success to their business team, then there must be something significant about having a business team.

The sustained growth of companies such as Oracle, Apple, Dangote Group, Berkshire Hathaway, Reliance Group, Arcelor Mittal and General Electric is primarily hinged on the expertise of the business management teams behind these companies.

Now instead of telling you the importance of having your own business management team or how to build a business team (which I have explained in details in previous articles), I will be using this medium to highlight the specific characteristics possessed by the successful business teams all around the world. So if you are ready to learn, then sit back and read on.

12 Characteristics of Successful Business Management Teams

1. Definiteness of Purpose

Definiteness of purpose is one of the success secrets of the world’s most successful business management teams. Successful business management teams know the company’s goals, objectives and vision at their finger tips; and they are focused in the pursuit of the company’s objectives. They know their specific role in the company and they concentrate on this role to make sure that the business objectives are met.

2. Knowledge of the Business

Successful business teams have adequate knowledge of the business of the company. The general rules of business are the same throughout the world but market intricacies are different from industry to industry; so also are the environmental factors. That’s why I said that successful business management teams have adequate knowledge of the business.

A competent corporate manager in the food industry may not perform excellently when assigned to a business operating in the oil and gas sector. Why? The reason is because the industrial intricacies and the market are entirely different. Take a look at what happened to Apple when John Sculley took over leadership; Apple lost market share and profits declined rapidly.

What really happen? I can’t really tell; after all, John Sculley was successful during his time at Pepsi. But all the same, I can attribute his failure to sustain Apple’s market share to lack of understanding of the business and market intricacies associated with the technology sector.

John Sculley was experienced in the food and beverage industry; however, he wasn’t able to transfer that experience to the technology industry because the rules of the game are different. So if you are going to build a successful business management team; be sure to make “knowledge of the business” a top priority for the members of your team.

3. Commitment

Take a closer look at the characteristics that make up successful teams and you will see commitment at the core. Successful business management teams are committed to the success of the company in which they serve. You may not really understand how commitment affects the performance of a team until you study the management structure of companies such as Berkshire Hathaway and Google.

4. They are Goal and Result Oriented

Successful business teams are result oriented. They know that their competence and credibility will be adjudged based on their accomplishment; so they press forward for positive results because results keep them in the game. If they fail to produce results; they will get kicked out of the company by the business owner or investors.

5. They are Individual Thinkers and Critical Problem Solvers

Members of a successful business management team are individual thinkers and critical problem solvers. Though they are a team, the members still think individually and solve intricate problems associated with their own area of expertise. For instance, the Chief Operational Officer individually tackles problems associated with the firm’s daily operations while the Chief Financial Officer strives to keep to keep the company’s finance in good position; yet they are all working towards a common goal, “Sustained Business Growth.”

6. They are Team Players

Successful business teams are team players. Though members of the team are individual thinkers; they all act with same definiteness of purpose towards actualizing a common goal.

12 Characteristics of Successful Business Management Teams

7. They are bonded by the Business Mission Statement

At the core of every successful business management team is something very important. This single factor is the reason why successful business teams are successful and this factor is the “business mission.” Successful business management teams know that the entrepreneur’s spirit is in the business mission and that’s why they strive to stay focused on the business mission. It’s this same mission that keeps them together as a team; take the mission away and the centre will not hold any longer for the entire business.

8. They are Strategic in their Approach

Successful business management teams are strategic in their approach. All members of the team are individual master strategists with respect to their own field or calling. Successful teams strategize, plan and make in-depth calculation or analysis before arriving at a decision. And once a decision is reached; they execute it without delay and monitor the feedback.

9. They are Competitive

Just as soldiers are tested on the battle field; so also is the competence of a business management team tested in the marketplace. Competitiveness is the reason why successful business management teams emerge successful; they are always on the watch to swiftly counter the moves of competitors. Price wars and media attacks are product of business teams testing their wits against each other.

10. They are Responsible and Accountable

Successful business management teams are responsible and accountable for their actions. They know that the company’s success or failure is dependent on the decisions they make; so they take charge and execute their plans without fear of the consequences. If their move backfires; they take responsibility, learn from the mistake and move on.

11. They are Opportunistic

Successful business management teams are opportunistic in their approach and strategy. They are always on the lookout for trends, problems and opportunities they can exploit. They are always quick to take advantage of a miscalculation or false move from the competitor.

12. They are Excellent Communicators

And lastly, successful business teams are excellent communicators. They know how to motivate their workforce, raise capital from investors, promote the company’s products and increase brand loyalty through their spoken words.

As a final note, these are the 12 characteristics and success secrets of the world’s most successful business management teams.

So if building a business management team that will serve in high capacity and keep your business metrics strong is your topmost priority; then make the characteristics listed above a priority while forging the values on which your team will be built and your business will end up having a strong management team.