“Running a small team is easy”- words spoken by many a large team leader. For a team to work symbiotically, it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the actions taken. Sometimes this can be tougher in a smaller team because if one person is MIA there are fewer people to pick up the additional workload, or if something negative happens, the effects spread a lot quicker. When there is a vast team, all focussed on the same target and all depending on each other to play their part, motivation can be easier. The ‘mood-vacuums’ can have little impact as they are hidden in the crowd. However, when you have a small team, these folks can stand out more.
Efficiency is key to (any) team’s success and here are our top tips with your small team in mind
Lead, lead, lead!
You don’t have to know everything and be able to do everything to lead. But what you do need is one common goal. A common goal brings the team together. Communicate this goal to your team, ensure they know what part they play and what tasks are their responsibility.
Keep them in the loop
Communicating with your team means keeping them in the loop. A small team will pick up on problems, struggles, issues and suchlike, but if they are not communicated and acted upon, your team will suffer (as will your team efficiency).
Flexibility
The world has become much more flexible in recent months because we’ve had to. Interestingly, many companies have seen the benefits. A leader who is flexible with their team treats them as adults some may say, builds a level of trust, motivation and feeling of value with their team members. Working from home, working flexible hours, flexible days even, the modern world and worker may no longer suit your 9-5.
Give them some autonomy
Being given a level of independence in their role, people will feel trusted, motivated, and excited about what they can further do in their role. Many then focus on how they can improve and grow and offer more. Often in small teams, we need to ask people to do things slightly outside of their ‘role profile’ so engaging them at all possible opportunity is key.
Feedback- two-way
Forgetting that feedback is a two-way street is many a leader’s downfall, but nail this and the efficiency of your team should rocket. Creating a feedback culture can be tough but having a regular process of reviews, chats, 1:1s etc scheduled and adhered to is a great place to start. Employees want to have that ‘airtime’ where they can talk about their roles, ideas, and progress towards goals. And invite feedback from the team. If you accept feedback from your team, you should identify issues before they become problems and solve customer and team complaints before they escalate.
Systems
Obviously, a fantastic system is top of the agenda for the efficiency of any team. If you have a small team then you have a few cogs. If one of those cogs isn’t available or stops turning there aren’t many left to pick up the slack, especially when they all have their own individual part to play. You need that ‘pick-up’ process to be as smooth as possible. If your team works from the same system, following the same processes then the ‘pick-up’ becomes simpler as the whole team are on the same page. Holidays, sickness, and absent employees need not have such an effect on your team if you have a fantastic CRM.
Automate
If you automate some of the manual, robotic tasks your team will be grateful and it will free up time and space for them to focus on bigger projects, higher value items, tasks that will engage your customers, convert your leads, and drive your sales.
Celebrate
Celebrate wins as a team. If you expect them to pull their weight when the going is tough, then you ought to celebrate the success and the wins when the good stuff happens. As well as that, celebrate and recognize the individuals, the hard work, the team efforts. One of the major benefits of being a small team is the close-knit feel, so celebrate the non-work stuff too.
Have fun
A small team can be hard to engage because if one person is feeling negative, it’s easier to bring down the whole group. Give them the best tools and systems to work with, create a great atmosphere of trust, feedback, training, support, and communication and then incorporate some fun. Pizza Tuesdays, free coffees, breakfast meetings, team building activities, whatever it may be, keep it light and fun. People are truly less efficient when they are bored, stale, and feeling undervalued.
Collaborate
The real key here is to collaborate with your team and lead from within. A small team needs to work closely, be on the same page and have everything working efficiently so they can get stuck in and create, improve, and grow the business rather than waste time on small, stifling non-value tasks.
If you want to learn more about what Jarvis can do for you, please contact us:
Phone: +1 877-501-8038
Email: info@jarviscrm.com