It can be quite daunting to lead a small team, especially during the critical initial stages when it still hasn’t established a strong foothold in the business. As a leader, the responsibility of ensuring that the team gets off on the right foot rests on your shoulders. Instilling strong core values in the team early on is the way to build a successful small team.
The pivotal values every small team should have are integrity, trust, and teamwork. These core principles help ensure efficiency and synergy in achieving goals. Other values, such as passion and extreme ownership, also have crucial contributions to how swiftly a small team can establish solid roots.
If you’re eager to know what values you must instill in your small team to ensure success in the ever-dynamic and challenging world of business, read on to find out more. We will discuss how integrity, trust, and teamwork can make or break any team, especially in the beginning stages when you’re still trying to find your footing. You will also find out how passion, extreme ownership, fearlessness, and risk tolerance can help you reach new heights.
1. Integrity
Effective communication, honesty, and transparency are essential values in a small team. Without these, a team can quickly lose its footing and crumble.
Having integrity means you have the fortitude to always uphold your moral principles. Your standards of what is right and wrong must be very clear, and you must ensure that these are always adhered to by the rest of the team.
An atmosphere of openness should be cultivated within small teams. This means each member must feel safe when voicing out their opinions and ideas, even if these may go against the flow of the rest of the group. It also means that faults and blunders must never be covered up through fibbing and concealment, since things can quickly spiral out of control.
Confidentiality is just as important. Effectively managing a team means you should be able to make your employees feel that they can trust you and you’re one of their safe spaces in the team. However, there are limitations when it comes to openness and candor. Know what types of information are relevant to the team and which are best kept out of the public eye.
When your employees share personal information, struggles, or misgivings, let them know any details they share will be treated with confidentiality. Be discreet when discussing sensitive topics with your team members, and make them feel that they can freely talk to you because you’re on their side and are willing to help them progress and accomplish their goals.
2. Trust
Trust is the foundation of any team. It’s what allows a group of people to function synergistically like a well-oiled machine. Without it, that group of people won’t be united in working together toward the attainment of common objectives.
Trust has a significant impact on a team’s efficiency and productivity. It will make your team members feel more eager to take on tasks, even the most daunting ones. They know that come hell or high water, their team leader and teammates have their back. It will make them feel bolder to take risks and step beyond their comfort zones.
With trust as a cornerstone of your small team, you can empower your team members to strive to achieve their full potential. After all, an individual’s success is the entire team’s gain. It will also enable them to not be afraid of making mistakes. With trust, they can spin these into learning experiences the whole team can also benefit from.
3. Teamwork
There is an African proverb that goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” There is certainly something to be said about strength in numbers, and this is apparent when you’re part of a team. Efficiency and productivity inevitably soar when people working toward the same goals are grouped together.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
African proverb
In managing small teams, you must ensure that collaboration and teamwork are at the core of your leadership. This is one way to ensure your team survives the trials and challenges inevitable in any business. Instill the mindset that when one team member wins, the whole team is victorious, too. Along with trust, teamwork ensures that the team is always moving forward toward success.
4. Passion
Passion is known to bring out the best in people. It is the driving force that makes us intentional with our words and actions. It fuels people to be determined, energetic, and resourceful in achieving set goals.
More importantly, passion is contagious, and it can certainly make a significant difference in how a small team functions. One team member’s passion can quickly rub off on others, igniting a collective desire to improve productivity, enhance motivation, and prioritize growth and development.
Let’s take a closer look at how passion impacts small teams:
- Boosts productivity. Passionate people give 100% (and more!) effort in goal completion. A passionate team can work tirelessly and consistently toward the attainment of objectives, and will bravely face any stumbling blocks encountered along the way.
- Improves team motivation. Passionate people enjoy their work, so their motivation levels naturally soar. Boosted team motivation is what will make the team committed to working synergistically with another and ensuring that the team’s interests are always prioritized.
Encourages growth and development. Passion encourages innovation, making people constantly search for ways to improve themselves, the way they perform their roles, and relevant aspects of the business. A passionate team is never stagnant, but ceaselessly grows and develops.
Remember that conflict is necessary and unavoidable in any business scenario, particularly in small teams where diversity is recognized and encouraged.
5. High-Risk Tolerance
Being a responsible risk-taker is crucial in small teams. Starting small is sometimes inescapable, but thinking big is definitely essential. Leaders and team members must be willing to go the extra mile and forge through the challenges of high-risk situations to ensure advancement and victory for the business.
Leading a small team means you have to be a bold visionary. Lead your team members in setting goals that may seem daunting but, when tackled with grit and collaboration, will eventually develop into a reality for the team. Encourage your team members to think innovatively, be open to change, and not set limitations for themselves. Support them with adequate training, opportunities, and resources to help them achieve their objectives.
6. Extreme Ownership
Leading a team means you must hold yourself and your team members accountable for both failures and accomplishments obtained. It can be easy to acknowledge achievements, but it may be utterly challenging for most to own up to blunders and defeat. Having a high sense of responsibility and taking extreme ownership of the business will ensure progress and success.
As a leader, adopting an extreme ownership mindset means you never blame problems on anyone other than yourself. All that is bad is for you to own; all that is good is for the team to enjoy!
As a leader, adopting an extreme ownership mindset means you never blame problems on anyone other than yourself. All that is bad is for you to own; all that is good is for the team to enjoy!
7. Fearlessness in the Face of Failure
As a leader, it can be easy to feel frustrated and irked when team members fall short of your expectations when accomplishing tasks or when goals aren’t met as swiftly and efficiently as you would have liked. In small teams, it is essential to tackle mistakes and shortcomings in the most constructive ways possible.
When things don’t go as planned, assume that errors and deficiencies are honest mistakes and miscalculations, things that occurred not out of malice. Properly managing a team means you have to ensure your team members know you’re on their side — that you’re an ally, not an enemy. Inculcate the mindset that they shouldn’t be afraid of failure and that they should spin these frustrating scenarios into positive learning opportunities for the team.
8. Focus On The Why, Not The How
It’s vital that the person closest to the problem decide how it should be solved. Otherwise, we end up in a situation where decision-makers lack the necessary skin in the game, as Nassim Taleb writes it.
This means that decisions will most likely be based on assumptions rather than an up-to-date understanding of the situation, sometimes in the shape of micro-managing. This is how things go sideways.
To help you focus on the why and not get stuck in the details, here are some tips:
- Clearly communicate the “whats, whys, and whens.” Be specific when setting objectives, and be precise about the steps that will get the team there. Employ the SMARTER mindset when setting goals and ensure that they are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Risky
- Time-keyed
- Exciting
- Relevant
- Allow your team members to exercise independence and critical thinking. Let your team brainstorm on the “hows” that will get them closer to the set goals. This helps build their motivation, self-esteem, and sense of ownership.
- Be a good role model. Set great examples for your team by practicing what you preach. Celebrate victories, no matter how small, and be quick to acknowledge and make amends for your faults.
