Tag: managing employees

Small business blog posts we liked this week

We hope you’re enjoying the warmer weather and finding some time to relax and put your feet up. Have a look at these small business articles & blog posts we’ve enjoyed recently – is there anything you’d like to share?

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Tips for building a strong team in your business

Tips for building a strong team in your business

Starting a new small business can involve building a team of capable people who complement your strengths and skillset.

At GoForth, our original team shared several core philosophies, the most important of which was a commitment to launch and build the leading small business training company in Canada. We’ve had our core team members in place since day one, evolving from a team of strangers into a family of committed, talented educators, writers, designers and entrepreneurs.

Here’s our advice for building a great small business team.

Don’t start with a layer of executives

If you hold the vision for your company, you most likely need functional roles more than you need a roster of VPs. We started with a single founder and a team of writers and creative people. We complemented each other in every way, and we work well together!

Bring experience to functional roles

You may be a founder or CEO for the first time in your new business and there’s a lot of on-the-job learning you’ll go through. Don’t surround yourself with people who are making it up as they go along. Experience matters.

Generalists are undervalued

In the early stages, you’ll need people who can do many things, who can brainstorm outside of their function and see how their roles affect others. To ensure this framework is rooted in your young company, hire the core technical skills you need but surround them with “deep generalists,” or people who have a specific role but the proven ability to cross into others.

Look for failures

People who have failed and recovered are a better choice than people who have never failed. Failure is a great source of insight, but more than that, people who can figure out how to rise again have the right personality for a new small business, and the pivots and adaptability that it entails.

Don’t hire people like you

You need diverse experiences, philosophies and talents to cross-pollinate. That said, hire people you like – you’ll spend a lot of time with them! Always focus on the next step. Everyone you hire is a magnet for future hires. Never hire a jerk, no matter how talented the person is, and never hire an ego, no matter how accomplished the person is. They will do more damage to your culture than their talent can possibly make up for.

Defer to other people’s greater experience

You don’t know what they know, or you wouldn’t have hired them. That said, always seek to understand how they are applying their experience to your business. You’ll learn, and you’ll be able to guide how the pieces fit together

There is no substitute for passion

If you’re like many new small businesses, you can’t pay top dollar for talent, and you don’t want to be a stepping stone to a bigger salary at a corporation. So you need your team to share your passion for what you’re doing. They should see getting to change the world through your business as a valuable, if non-monetary, part of their compensation. If you’re starting from scratch, you need to see the business move forward every day. Team members who share your passion are key.

Every successful company has an equally successful team behind it. The first step is to build and foster a team that can drive your business. We hope these tips help!

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Supporting your team during times of stress

leadership during stressful times

Stressful times – whether it’s a worldwide pandemic like COVID-19, or some other reason – can be tough on a small business. And as the leader, you may be feeling additional pressure. How can you be there for your team and support them, while making sure you’re also doing okay?

To us, leadership in times of stress must start from a place of empathy. We’re all feeling upside-down these days, and we can’t expect to meet the same standards we did before. This applies to you as a small business leader, as well as each one of your employees. Take greater care to engage with your team and make sure you’re giving them the support they need – both for their career and for their emotional wellbeing. Now more than ever, your team needs to see that you’re truly a leader who they want to follow.

And be sure to protect your own emotional health! Here are some ways to deal with stress in uncertain times.

Entrepreneur also had some great thoughts on this topic recently. For example:

Employees need you to understand their anxieties, frustrations, and pain points to be able to support them before expecting them to perform at their fullest potential. Leaders must prioritize connections and meet their people where they are rather than where you want them to be. This is how you build trust and prepare employees to handle a pandemic or similar crisis.

If you’re wondering how to support your time during the current pandemic, take heart – you’re not alone! Entrepreneurs across Canada and around the world are going through the same thing. Check out Entrepreneur’s article: How Leaders Nurture Emotional Well-Being During Times of Crisis.

 

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How to manage your team when working from home

Managing Employees Working From Home

Many small businesses across Canada have had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes having everyone work from home. If you’re new to managing a team of remote workers, here are some tips and guidelines to keep in mind.

How to manage a remote team

  • Be flexible and understanding. Many entrepreneurs and employees alike have been thrust into the work-from-home life in this unprecedented time, and are doing their best to manage their work responsibilities while managing family and their own mental health. Of course, your employee should be as considerate of their deadlines and schedules as in a traditional office. But it’s important to remember that most people are adjusting to this new way of working, while at home potentially with other family members who have their own schedules and needs too. You may have to be extra flexible to account for this, and cut your team a little more slack than normal.
  • Check in on a regular basis. Whether it’s weekly group chats or one-on-one check-ins, make sure you talk to each of your employees on a regular basis to see how they’re doing. They may need an extra day to complete a project, or may be in need of community resources to help them. Don’t pressure them to talk, but make sure they know your virtual door is always open.
  • But don’t jam-pack the days with meetings. Back-to-back meetings are often distracting even in a regular office environment, let alone a working from home during a pandemic environment. It’s important to make sure that everyone is kept up to date and knows what’s going on, but it might be a good idea to scale back the amount of meetings you have, to ensure nobody gets overwhelmed or falls behind. Instead, try quicker messaging options like Slack.
  • Trust in your team. A huge part of running a virtual office is trusting that your team is working. You can’t stroll by and chat with them like in a traditional office. Of course, you should be monitoring their overall progress and how they get there, but don’t make checking their social media and constantly asking for updates a regular part of your day. Many of us have seen reduced productivity during the pandemic, so take that into consideration as well.
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