You Can Do Something - A Team Can Do Anything
Team Building In Business....
Building of team is very necessary for any smooth running business, the following qualities needed to build a team are as under :-
Teams need
leadership. This doesn't mean someone has to be "in charge" but for
any task there needs to be direction and ambition. Leadership also means
A range and
balance of skills is also vital. Three people who enjoy coding together but
don't do marketing or strategy is not a great team. A minimum of technical
skills to create the product plus sales and marketing is needed. Good
operational or project management skills are a real bonus. Creativity and
strategic thinking are are also necessary but ay come from a combination of
founders rather than one key individual.
"The ideal
founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of
similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at
building products and the other at selling them." - Navel Ravikant,
Founder AngelList
Whatever the
number it will be a very small group so chemistry between the individuals is
essential. You can checklist the skills required but how they combine is an art
not a science. A past history of working together (and not trying to kill each
other!) is the only reliable indicator but may not be possible. One other thing
I look out for is inclusiveness. If everyone's ideas are not valued highly then
the group probably isn't working. It is also crazy. If you only have three
people, leaving someone out is a pretty spectacular waste of resources.
Logically you
might think that a passion for the business would also be a good sign of an
effective team. Certainly passion is required and heart on the sleeve passion
is often the most welcome sense from any Startup pitch. However, just because
everyone is passionate does not mean that they can harness those passions
together so be careful not to rely on just this.
Of equal
importance with passion is commitment. Any great Startup is a long tough haul.
A failing Startup is even harder. The core founding team needs to be on board
for the duration. One tough aspect of this can be the way equity is shared in
the business. There is no right answer to the value of each individual and it
is very much a choice for the team. As an investor though I will look to be
confident that all of the founders are motivated by their share.
This is a pretty
tough list and it could be much longer. One article I found in researching this
piece offered 101 tips for building a Startup team! Bear in mind that in every
team there will be gaps. In fact I actively look for gaps. A team with no gaps
is either trying to kid me or is just kidding themselves. Deceiving yourself
about weaknesses is one of the worst mistakes you can make.
There is one last
thing that overrides all the others and is the one gap that can't be covered.
Action. It is easy to create a group of friends. A successful business team is
much more than friends and so much harder to build. The Startup team needs to
do things, not necessarily fast, not always right, sometimes not even well but
there is no progress without action
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