Building a team without your organization is an important aspect to your company’s success as well as your own success. But once your team is built, the hard part isn’t over. You will have to develop your team’s needs to ensure they can work together under your leadership in pursuit of your common goal. Developing a team requires a strategy and a plan. Here are four tips for developing your team and how to identify their needs.
1. Training Needs
Despite the strengths of your team members, it’s important to always ensure they are developing their skills and abilities. Providing training — both internally and externally — to your team should be a top priority. Start by identifying your team’s weaknesses, so you can begin to devise a training plan. In order to do this, talk to your team and make sure to not identify your goal as finding their weaknesses but rather as an opportunity to improve and be more successful. Use your own experience to teach them what you know. Allow them to ask questions and see where they feel they could improve.
2. Find The Correct Development And Training Methods
Not every worker will have the same learning and training preference, so you will first need to identify how your team learns best. Even though this may be the most time-consuming method, consider working one-on-one with your team members so you can pass along your wisdom to them. Acting as a mentor to your team members will help them develop at your pace. But along the way you must try to strike a balance for everyone’s training styles in case mentorship doesn’t work with everyone. However, no matter what style you choose to implement, it’s important that a majority of training is through hands-on experience. This will ensure the best results as they will learn through real-time situations.
3. Team-Building Activities
Team-building activities are another excellent way to develop and train your team. These exercises work great for having everyone work together, while using communication to reach a common goal. By running your team through these activities, you will be able to get a firm grasp on their weaknesses — both individually and as a team. Be alert during these activities and look for communication breakdowns, creativity halts, and who steps into a leadership role. In addition, participate in the activity yourself and act as you would in a real situation. This will allow you to exemplify the skills you seek to instill in your team members.
4. Consult Your Team
This step is one of the most crucial to developing your team. Your team members know what is best for them — and it’s important for you to learn what they think will best develop your team. This will be your best quality as a leader. Ask them questions and listen to what they say. Discuss how you can implement their needs into a strategy that helps the entire team develop. This will also make them feel like their ideas and wants are important, which they are.