8 ways to get your Rock Stars to work effectively in a Team
Warren Myers | CMP Recruitment Consultant | Likes this article:
One of the goals every single company or business strives towards is to put together an all-star team, gathering all of the best professionals from several disciplines, and having them achieve amazing things. However, while that approach has many merits, it’s not exactly perfect. Super star employees which are the best at what they do often have a hard time collaborating with one another.
Sooner or later, big egos come into play, and it boils down to rather ego things, such as who has a larger commission due, bigger office, or better parking space. Not only does that impede progress when working on team projects, it can often stop them dead in their tracks, having never gotten off the ground. Of course, the solution would then be to assemble a team that works well together, but sometimes that’s not an option.
For instance, most start-up companies don’t have a lot of money they can invest into developing their innovative business ideas, so they rely on gathering the best talent in the industry to make up for their lack of funding.
Fortunately, establishing a few ground rules can go a long way toward creating a successful team.
1. Establish Clear Lines of Communication
A misunderstanding can turn into disaster really easy if you have a team of super star employees, which means you need to make communication your first priority.
Make sure they are allowed to communicate in several different ways, whether it’s through digital channels, such as instant messengers, emails, bulletin boards, or through holding team meetings where each team member has to be present.
Also, should a problem arise, they should know who to contact, so that it gets dealt with as soon as possible.
2. Empathy Is Essential
Making sure that team members understand one another is one of the building blocks that go into making a great team.
In the workplace, empathy can show a deep respect for co-workers and show that you care, as opposed to just going by rules and regulations. An empathic leadership style can make everyone feel like a team and increase productivity, morale and loyalty. Empathy is a powerful tool in the leadership belt of a well-liked and respected executive.
3. Assign a Role to Each Team Member
Defining a strict role for each of the team members is a must. Why? Because, they will know what their responsibilities are, and they will be held accountable for their own actions.
In addition to that, having each member stick to their own role means they won’t get in each other’s way, professionally speaking, which means fewer conflicts and better workplace atmosphere. Even though they are supposed be a team, everybody should have their own assignment.
4. Establish a Creative Working Environment
Providing a creative environment for your super star employees will enable ideas to flow back and forth, but you also need to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard. This means treating each member with respect and discussing their ideas as a group, instead of dismissing them right from the very start.
That way, they will feel respected and know their ideas and contributions are being valued, which will provide them with the necessary confidence to present other ideas they might have.
5. Constant Collaboration and Cooperation in the Workplace
We’ve previously pointed out that each team member needs to have their own clearly-defined role, along with all the perks and responsibilities that go with it. But, those roles need to be put into context, seeing as each should be designed to contribute toward a common goal.
Also, team members should be encouraged to collaborate on a certain problem together, as opposed to approaching it individually. They will come up with a solution faster and more organically, and they will develop professional camaraderie in the process.
6. Provide Them with a Challenge
If you assign your team a challenging task, they will be required to pool their individual talents together and grow as a team in the process in order to overcome the obstacle you have provided them with.
It should be something that none of them can solve on their own, something that will push each and every one of them out their comfort zones, so that they start to rely on each other.
Once they have solved the problem, the sense of accomplishment and the fact that they’ve found success by working as a team will bring them closer together.
7. Make Sure They Feel Useful and Valuable
All of the previous reasons combined should result in team members which feel like they are respected and valued as professionals and human beings, both by their peers, and their employer.
If they feel like their skills and knowledge are essential to the company, they will be more motivated, and will identify the success of the company as their own.
8. Reward Success and Turn Each Mistake into a Learning Experience
If your team of super star employees are successful in completing a challenging project, that is definitely a reason for celebration. They have deserved their praise, so let them have it. Let them know how much you appreciate their efforts. But, make sure that they are aware of their mistakes, so that they can learn from them and never repeat them again, if possible.
Managing a team of strong individualists, and making sure that their collaboration is something more than a simple sum of its parts is definitely a challenge, but it’s not impossible. All you have to do is provide your employees with the right conditions and a healthy environment. All of the other pieces will fall into place accordingly after that.
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