Every company can take the necessary steps to hire qualified talent. However, even organizations that manage to attract top-quality candidates for their roles won’t be able to guarantee great results until they see how their employees adapt to the company culture.
Businesses that are able to successfully get all of their employees working toward the same short- and long-term goals, however, will have a much better chance of seeing their business grow over time.
Set Clear and Attainable Goals
A results-driven team is one that needs a direction to face. This all starts with unifying the team's strategies by setting clear and attainable goals they should reach. Not all goals are created equal. This is why making your goals S.M.A.R.T. is so important:
- Specific - You don’t want your goals to be too broad since it can be hard to visualize the necessary steps to hit important milestones. The goals you set should clearly outline how each goal can be achieved successfully.
- Measurable - If you don’t track your progress over time, you won’t be able to know if and where to adjust your tactics. This is why you’ll want your goals to be something you can actually measure.
- Achievable - Of course, no one wants to be given impossible tasks. You should make sure your goals are actually achievable and reasonable based on the needs of your business and your employee’s capabilities.
- Relevant - The goals you set should be based on your employees' skills and abilities but should also be directly tied to the bigger-picture objectives of the organization.
- Time-bound - Try to avoid making individual goals open-ended. It’s important to set the priorities of goals you put in place by assigning the necessary deadlines for your important projects.
Encourage Collaboration and Shared Purpose
Building a great team isn’t about surrounding yourself with lone wolves. It’s about having a group come together regularly to ensure they’re all working toward the same objectives.
A big part of this is encouraging team members to regularly ask questions and share their ideas in as many ways as possible. This could be while setting up projects or identifying potential roadblocks they’re facing. Getting more of your team members involved in various projects and departmental decision-making creates a shared sense of ownership of the teams' objectives.
Another important aspect of helping everyone work toward a common goal is through knowledge sharing. To successfully facilitate this, you should set up specific communication channels with all of your team members so they can more easily exchange ideas or even celebrate each other’s successes.
Over time, though, even the best teams can occasionally drift apart. This is why you should regularly remind your team about the bigger picture they’re trying to achieve while taking time to recognize each person’s contribution to it. This helps everyone always feel like they are part of something more than just their day-to-day tasks.
Provide the Right Resources
The success of your team is dependent on the resources and tools you make available to them. Oftentimes, this starts by taking a look at your technology stack and making sure the software you use is relevant and actually helpful to your employees. Many times, this includes investing in certain task management tools or communication platforms that help your team streamline their workflows and collaborate with other departments.
Placing value on training and career development for your team can also help you improve their performance. Company leaders should always be on the lookout for opportunities their employees can take advantage of to help improve their skills and help them add more value to their current and future roles.
This all comes from having the right perspective regarding the support company leaders should be willing to extend to their people. By being proactive when helping employees identify potential roadblocks they might come up against and equipping them with the knowledge and experience they need to overcome them, organizations can create a much healthier culture for everyone.
Emphasize the Importance of Accountability
In many business environments, it can be common for certain team members to actively try to avoid accountability. This isn’t necessarily because they’re lazy, but may often be a result of having bad experiences in the past with other employers.
The word “accountability” can have a negative connotation for many people who look at it as simply a way to point blame if something were to go wrong with a project or individual task. However, accountability is an important component of building a great team.
It is about helping each member of a team take ownership of certain parts of a project and helping everyone identify where their contributions will fit into the collective good. This is why home renovation projects, for example, often have a number of overseers of specific tasks all working together and holding each other accountable.
But to make accountability something people are not afraid of, a system of regular check-ins and performance feedback helps individuals continuously move in the right direction. Managers should always look for opportunities to encourage their employees as they progress, as this helps establish trust on both sides, making it easier to accept newer responsibilities.
Recognize and Reward Success
Every company has a different idea of what it means to “thank” employees. While some employers go above and beyond what’s expected to ensure their employees constantly feel valued, others assume that an employee’s paycheck should be all the thanks they need.
The truth is that the value employees place on themselves in a business needs constant reinforcement from their employers. A simple “thank you” for the hard work being given can pay dividends for organizations as an employee's motivation is closely linked to knowing they’re appreciated day-to-day.
Organizations should be strategic about how they reward and incentivize their employees, however. It can be much more effective when rewards are associated directly with specific achievements the employee has made, such as hitting an important milestone or accomplishing certain tasks.
This shows the employee that the hard work they put in can be worth it monetarily, and it also helps to reinforce the behavior since it shows that the company actually recognizes and appreciates the effort they put in.
Establish a Culture of Continuous Growth
Your team should be considered a muscle that needs constant exercise to stay in shape and perform as it should. But in order to make this happen, you need to find the time necessary to develop skills to continue to grow.
It can be hard for businesses to be willing to hit “pause” on their current projects or deadlines to sit down with their employees to help them find new areas of focus or to help them improve their abilities. However, it’s important to create a culture of continuous growth, and this takes an investment of company time and resources.
Putting time aside to sit down with each member of the team and focus on their development is critical to helping them continue to provide more value for themselves and the organization.
You’ll want to work with them to help blueprint a career path while helping them achieve the building blocks they need to walk it. This makes sure that employees never feel like they’re stuck on a treadmill, doing the same thing day in and day out without witnessing their own growth.
Start Building a Results-Driven Team
It can take time and patience to build a great, results-driven team. However, by following the steps provided and continuously working toward better collaboration, shared accountability, and the regular growth of your employees, you’ll be better equipped to help your business succeed.
About the Author: Dalip Jaggi − Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020-inception, Revive has since become the smartest solution for homeowners to maximize their home’s sales value across the nation.
