Every manager wants a team that supports their efforts, communicates well and works together towards the organisation’s goals. But building a successful team is not something that happens overnight. If you’ve just landed a C-Suite role, it can take a significant amount of time, effort and investment to feel happy with the team you have in place.
In this article, we’ll discuss the three main stages of building a successful team as a newly appointed executive, breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps you can take to set yourself up for success.
What makes a successful team?
When it comes to building your team, there’s no one universally accepted definition of success. However, as a new manager or C-Suite executive, it’s important to spend some time defining what it will look like for you. This will both help you to work towards your goals, and make it easier for you to recognise success when you achieve it.
For example, here are some of the characteristics that a successful team might share:
- Motivated and goal-oriented: Your team should help you move towards your goals and mission as an organisation.
- Shared accountability: A strong team should be able to share in both wins and losses, without assigning blame to any one person when something goes wrong.
- Good communicators: A great team should be open and honest, enabling them to share ideas and solve problems effectively.
- Complementary skills: It’s important to choose team members whose skill sets complement each other so that everyone can work to their strengths.
Your definition of a successful team might also be built around the objectives that the team needs to meet. For example, if you need to increase your sales figures, then a successful team might be one that includes more highly skilled salespeople.
The three stages of building a successful team
In a McKinsey survey that interviewed high-level executives about their transition to the C-Suite, 86% of respondents cited mobilising a high-performing team as one of the key activities that impacted the outcome of their transition. This was second in importance only to creating a shared vision with the rest of the organisation.
Creating and developing the perfect team is one of the most important tasks you’re faced with as a newly appointed C-Suite executive. But it can also be both time-consuming and overwhelming.
To make things easier, consider breaking down the process into three key areas: assessing your current team, upskilling and motivating them, and filling any gaps with recruitment. We’ll break that down further below.
- Assessing your current team
The first step towards building your perfect team is to assess your current situation. This means learning as much as possible about your existing team’s strengths, skills, weaknesses, concerns, desires, and preferences. It also means carefully studying the company culture so that you can identify any areas for improvement.
To start things off on the right note, it’s a good idea to hold a meeting with your entire team as soon as you can — as early as your first or second day in the role if possible. This allows you to set your expectations for your team from the get-go. It also gives you the opportunity to begin getting to know your team, by asking questions that help you understand their roles, personalities, relationships and ways of working.
- Upskilling and motivating
Just because someone isn’t a perfect fit for your dream team right now doesn’t mean they can’t become one — you just need to develop strategies for upskilling, training, and motivating your existing team. For example, in the very early stages of thinking about your team, you should identify the skill gaps that you need to fill to move forward. Then, look for employees whose existing skills would make them a good fit for the training or upskilling needed, and offer them the opportunity.
As well as helping your employees to develop new skills, it’s also important to ensure they’re motivated, engaged, and performing their best work. To do this, you’ll need to create a culture where everyone feels valued and listened to. You might also want to consider organising fun team-building events to bring everyone together. Publicly rewarding your team’s successes (for example, in a weekly meeting or newsletter) is also a great way to boost morale and increase engagement.
- Supplementing with (the right) new recruits
Almost every new C-Suite executive makes at least a few new hires. This allows you to better shape the future of your organisation by putting the right people in place to move it in the right direction. But in the McKinsey survey mentioned above, 74% of the executives surveyed said that at least half of their initial reports were still on their team at the end of their transition, and the most successful respondents often made even fewer changes. Clearly, It’s important to be strategic about the replacements you decide to make.
Another insight that the survey highlights is that it’s best to move quickly when it comes to making new hires. The majority of those surveyed had their final team in place within a year — but 72% still wished they had moved more quickly. This means that the first months in a new C-Suite role might be the perfect time to enlist some professional help with your recruitment efforts. Reaching out to a recruitment partner that understands your needs and the demands of the market gives you the best possible chance of building your perfect team.
Build the perfect team with Career Moves
Transitioning into the C-Suite can be a difficult process. Identifying the right priorities to move the company forwards can be challenging — and communicating these to the rest of the organisation and getting them on board isn’t always easy either.
At the same time, you need to ensure you have the right team in place to support your transition — and an expert recruitment firm like Career Moves can help. With decades of combined experience and expert knowledge across professional services, tech, creative industries, Career Moves could be the solution you need to help you build the perfect team.
Interested? Reach out to one of our consultants to find out more about how we could help you.
