The role of a leader is not always paved smoothly – in fact, the road is probably bumpy along the way. Building a balanced team is not an overnight process. Moreover, the success of your team largely depends on how you run the show. Cultivating a team is more than just blindly hiring talent and crossing your fingers it’ll work out. A study done by USC showed that 69 percent of employees say an environment that facilitates teamwork is the number one contributing factor for high productivity.
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Teamwork makes the dream work” coined by John C. Maxwell. Building and maintaining a team can be challenging – you have to factor in previous experiences, skills, department goals, and more. And while nurturing a well-balanced team is no easy feat, we’ve outlined a few tips that’ll make the ongoing process smoother and allow you – a CFO, Controller, Accounting Executive, or the like – to foster an effective work setting for your employees.
Read on to explore the top tips for maintaining a balanced team and how partnering with a virtual accounting provider can help you oversee the finance and accounting function without a hitch.
Suggested Reading: The Challenges of Leading a Small Team (& How to Fix Them)
Team Building Toolbox
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Make a Plan and Set Goals
If seeing your business succeed is high on your priority list, then setting goals and making plans is how you knock-it-out-of-the-park. There’s nothing that grinds a leader’s gears more than a lack of objectives. It’s essential to set clear, realistic goals for your team to ensure that A. your employees have a goal to work towards and B. the goals align with your company’s overall mission and values.
However, there’s a difference between creating a goal and creating a good goal. Reference the acronym ‘SMART’ when setting goals:
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Specific – Make sure your goals are explicit and outline exactly what you wish to accomplish.
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Measurable – You should be able to track your goals and reevaluate when necessary.
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Achievable – Are your goals possible to attain?
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Relevant – Will these goals make an impact on your department and/or company?
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Timely – Do your goals outline a definitive deadline?
Read More: How To Set Goals To Grow Your Business
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Build a Well-Balanced Team With Diversity in Mind
If you’re in charge of supervising a team, chances are, you’re supporting a wide range of temperaments, talents, and work styles. It can be easy to overlook ideas that don’t align with your own or dismiss new ones because you’re stuck in the ‘traditional’ way of doing things. However, balance is important within a team. In fact, research has found that diversifying your team can boost productivity by 35 percent and companies with a diverse workforce and increased innovation generated 19 percent more revenue than companies with a lack of diversity.
In addition, building a work environment where new ideas are encouraged can actually safeguard your team – it becomes easier to attract new (and the right) talent and to retain your current employees for longevity. Moreover, with the right diversity in place, innovative solutions become easier to obtain, which leads to a more effective organization.
“I believe that creativity leads to productivity, provided that the workplace environment is developed and nurtured in a way that allows the two to peacefully co-exist.” – Boland Jones, CEO at PGi
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Delegation for a Balanced Team: Assigning Tasks to the Right People
Delegating tasks might seem like you’re taking the easy way out, when in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Assigning projects and responsibilities to individual team members is more than just lightening your workload. As a leader, delegating helps you identify who is the right person for the job. For example, if you have both an Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable Specialist on your team, you wouldn’t entrust the AR Specialist with processing expense reports. No, that would be an AP Specialist’s assignment.
A common hurdle that leaders must overcome is knowing what projects to dole out and how. Take a look at a few ways to designate tasks:
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Small – These are the tasks that take little time to complete but add up over time.
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Monotonous – These are low-impact tasks that require little to no skill.
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Time-consuming – These are tasks that take all day to complete.
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Time-sensitive – These are tasks that are on a strict deadline.
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Terrible at – These are tasks that need to be assigned to someone on your team whose skills better align with the task at hand.
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Acknowledge Their Needs
It’s no secret that everyone – regardless of what position they’re in – craves some sort of affirmation. Does that mean every accomplishment deserves a free lunch outing paired with fireworks? Absolutely not. However, validation goes a long way and can be the difference between a thriving company and one that is running itself into the ground. Taking the time to acknowledge your employees needs not only fuels productivity but it also elevates engagement. Here are a few ways to recognize your team members:
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Say ‘thank you’. This is the easiest way to boost employee morale.
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Give positive feedback – Make one-on-one meetings a weekly occurrence. Highlight individual wins and applaud them for their achievements.
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Give positive acknowledgment in front of other team members. This sets a precedence for other members on the team.
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Promote from within – The best form of acknowledgment is recognizing that your employee is an asset to your department, and you want to see them grow within the company.
Read More: Authentic Employee Engagement: Create The Company Culture Millennials Crave
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And with this, you have the right knowledge and tips to keep a balanced team flourishing. If maintaining a well-balanced team seems like a huge undertaking, we’re here to help. Here at Personiv, we’ve helped both small and large teams prosper with the right team, and we can help you too. Get in touch with one of our experts to see if teaming up with a virtual accounting provider is the correct move for your company.
In the meantime, check out our latest eBook, 5 Best-Kept Secrets From Today’s Most Successful CFOs, to see how you can survive in today’s fast-changing accounting landscape.
