How to create an ‘A’ team so your business can thrive

• Fed up with having to constantly learn by trial and error?

  

• Finding yourself thinking ‘I wish I’d known that before I’d invested ££s’
• Not enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done?

If the answer to any of these questions is a yes then may be you need to have a re-think about the key people who are supporting you in running your business.

The key people supporting you in running your business are your ‘A’ team. Having a strong ‘A’ team means:

• your decisions will be based on professional expertise rather than naïve guestimates
• you’re more likely to get things right first time
• you’ll come across as more professional and credible to customers
• there will be less crisis management and ‘mopping’ up after things going wrong
• you’ll find it quicker to achieve your business goals.

A great ‘A’ team will be made up of the people with skills, knowledge and expertise to compliment your skills, knowledge and expertise. Your team will be within your inner circle of trust so that you can be confident in their advice. Their advice, challenge and support will enable you to thrive and perform at a high level in delivering successful outcomes for your customers.

So grab a moment for some thinking time and ponder on the following seven coaching questions to assist you in ensuring you have the right team to support you in achieving your potential. Use this worksheet to organise your thoughts.

1. What needs to be done for your business (or job) to be successful?

Write down everything you can think off, whether it needs to be done now or in the future. Include personal qualities that you need to be successful. (eg networking, cash flow forecasting, PAYE, VAT payments, website, SEO, create email list, business planning, marketing plan, advertising, deliver the service, joint venture partnerships, associate opportunities)

2. Considering each item in your list… how confident do you feel in your skills/expertise to deliver good enough quality?

3. Again considering each item in your list… how confident are you in the time you have available to deliver what needs to be done?

4. Which areas is it important that you have high levels of skills and expertise? These will be the areas that are core to your business and core to your values and your vision. You need to create a development plan for yourself to ensure that you keep your skills fresh and up to date. (A future blog will cover this.)

5. For those items which you’re not confident in your time or expertise… who do you know who has the skills and expertise to deliver these tasks to the quality your business. Where there are gaps you need to do some research and networking to find the best people who can assist with these tasks. Failure to fill these gaps means that you may be heading for trouble in growing your business.

6. Once you have identified who you need in your ‘A’ team the next step is to think through in more detail what you need from them and how you will engage them. For example pay for accountancy advice, collaborate with others in your profession to set up speaking events and ‘swap’ services with others who will benefit from your expertise.

7. You then need to make sure that you seek their advice on a regular basis so that you keep on track for success.