As every successful thing has a powerful source of energy pushing it to reach the heights, similarly every startup business no matter the niche has a strong human force backing it to grow towards the successful future.

The essence of growth of the organisation and creation of a product begins by putting in place an effective winning team. And for startup organisations, the team size may be considerably smaller, and building them along with building the organisation goes hand in glove.

Building a team involves bringing people to work on a common goal. And each of them may vary in their skills, thinking, personality traits, and demographic backgrounds too.

With all the variances the organisation has to grow and that happens through building people. “Build the people. And people will build the business”. And hence the importance of team building activities and programs.

so yes, Putting in efforts to make your workforce stronger is thus no more a formality but a requirement that every business owner needs to take care of while aiming to reach heights in the industry they are working. 

The need for building high-performing teams has always  been critical and it’s more than just pulling together a group of talented people with the right skills. It requires careful development and nurturing of key traits, behaviours and best practices. This process  is very fundamental and critical to the success of a startup, making sure your team is not just surviving but thriving. Below are some key important steps to consider when engaging in team building;

1. Set Your Goals: Once you build your team, you’re ready to focus everyone on the goals. Make sure you teams buys into the vision of your startup and are willing to travel the journey with you.

Lead with empathy, recognising your team’s strengths, and aligning them to each other, you can focus them on the plan., Putting a clear set of priorities and measures of success early allows you to plan where you want to go. Set goals and check your progress against them moving forward to strengthen focus and accountability. It’s important to be flexible, but simplifying the core purpose and direction of your team leads to greater alignment and overall engagement.

2. Know their Strengths: As a Team leader, you must thoughtfully consider each individual’s strengths and nurture them to run with you. Beyond the technical skills and current level of work they’re contributing, the questions should be “How can I support them in their career development? What can I take off or add to their plate to align with their goals and strengths? How do their individual aspirations tie to the team’s overarching objectives?”

Working with individuals to answer these questions and supporting their strengths, talents and goals will ultimately pay dividends and positively affect your team, your organisation and the product or service you offer.

3. Be observant: Always begin by observing. How colleagues interact with each other as well as other groups, and how they collaborate and solve problems, are indications of how your team unites. As you work with any group of colleagues, Build a culture of empathy and understanding, making them acknowledge that they have a lot in common with colleagues because at the end of the day, you have that human connection.

However, never ignore dedication, expertise and experience of existing team members. When you have great people already in existing roles, your job as a leader is to find the best way to utilise their strengths.

Observe and build relationships. Find out what is most important to them and how they see the company. When in doubt, listen first.

4. Get into Positioning: It doesn’t hurt to continue reshuffling the team till everyone gets their best Positions for execution. Effective positioning is very crucial to a team member playing his role. After Positioning, Build their strengths and team collaboration, painting a “we” win Board.

Now that you have an understanding of the individuals, you need to position them according to their strengths and talents to fully unlock the team’s potential. Putting your people in positions that leverage their strengths within the group structure and helping them build connections with each other creates a team that understands how to work together. This is the core of efficient team building.

To put it into sports terms, once you know who your players are and what positions they should play, you have to put them in the right formation so you can succeed as a team. At the end of the day, you win as a “we” and not a “me” when you ensure team members are placed in positions that build their strengths and ensure they individually understand how the collective team will come together to succeed. How they play a role in that bigger picture is critical, and you can help them find it through effective positioning “ Linda Tong”

If you are a startup reading this, you are probably asking yourself “what if we spend so much money on employee training and team building and they leave suddenly?”. well here is our answer to you “What happens if you do not train them and they stay?!” Think about it!

Richard Branson once said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat people well enough so they don’t want to”.

People are the fundamental strength of an organisation. Not the product, not the services. People First. The best organisations, be it at the startup stage or large corporations understand this and engage in team-building activities because it is the essence that brings people together to create something valuable and productive.

For an organisation with a long-term vision and ready to contribute to the world, team building is a continuous process and part of the startup’s culture.

Get to work.