Top 7 steps to create a high performing team for a startup company in the early stage

Do you think the idea is everything to get success in your startup journey? The answer is “No”. You have to execute your idea to grow your startup business. Execution of ideas is not possible alone. You can start your startup journey with a single hand. But you will need some other hands to move forward. Need a high performing team to make it successful. To make a team is easy but here I am talking about “High Performing Team”. For that you have to be careful about some facts. I think this article will help you a lot creating a high performing team in your startup company in the early stage. 

 

Before making a high performing team, you should know these two things:

1. What is called a high performing team in business?
2. Why do you need a high performing team for your startup?

Here are the answers:

What is called a high performing team in business?

High-performance teams or HPTs is a theory in business development where a group of talented, skilled and goal-oriented people work together to achieve their goals and produce top-class business results. 

Why do you need a high performing team for your startup?

Startups are different from any other general business organizations. That’s why a super talented high performing team is needed to grow your startup. 

 An authentic business analytics platform CB Insights finds out the top 20 reasons for startup failure by analyzing 101 startup failure history. As per their report 23% of startups fail because those startups do not have the right team. So, making a wrong team can be a top reason to fail in your startup business. 

Steps to make a high performing effective team

Now you know how important it is to make an effective team for your startup. It’s time to talk about the process of creating a high performing team for your startup. Hope this article will give you strength to make a top-level team for your business. Read carefully the steps:

📃 Table of content

1. Know yourself before making a team
2. Find Co-founder who will be great fit with your vision
3. Making team structure
4. Advertise for hiring team members
5. Selecting the team members
6. Develop the teams’ skills
7. Terminate the bad hire

1. Know yourself before making a team

The first thing is to know yourself. If you know your strengths and weaknesses then it will help you to make a strong team. 

Not every person has all skills to run their startup. But you have some skills. Evaluate your skills. Try to find out in what department you are best. Find out what is your lacking point. 

It will help you to understand what responsibilities you should take in your startup business and what responsibilities should provide to the team members. 

2. Find Co-founder who will be great fit with your vision

It will be very nice if you are capable to run your business with your own leadership. But most of the time a startup founder needs a co-founder as a helping hand. You should hire a co-founder who can portray your vision in his leadership.

Why do you need a co-founder? Answer is:

• A co-founder shares your vision and gives emotional support in your tougher times.
• To lessen the investment risk, you need a co-founder.
• In decision making your co-founder will help you a lot.
• A co-founder divides the stress and responsibility with you.
• Your co-founder has different skills that will reflect in your business.

You must consider following things before hiring a co-founder in your startup business:

• A co-founder has to be someone with whom you can share your vision and goal.
• The ideal co-founder should be passionate about the business.
• A co-founder should have an entrepreneurial heart.
• Logical & realistic co-founder will be great for your startup.
• A trustworthy co-founder will give you peace of mind. 
• A co-founder should have a complimentary skillset.

 

You have found your desired co-founder. Next step is to hire other team members to make your high performing team. But before hiring you should make a team structure.

3. Making team structure

In a startup, hiring one for a role arises when the co-founders are unable to handle the volume of work. Before hiring other team members, you have to make a team structure to give a proper shape of your startup. 

Making a team structure will help you to move forward to the next steps of the hiring process. Think about your business pattern. Then decide what will be the vacant post in your company and who you need to hire. Evaluate what will be the responsibilities of your team members. 

Some common team members are required to run a startup. They are:

1. A Leader
2. Developer
3. Designer
4. Content Writer
5. Marketing/Sales Executive
6. Digital Marketer
7. Financial Expert

Beside these co-partners you may need other team members. It will only depend on your business pattern and working needs. 

You have made your team hierarchy model. Now it’s time to hire some effective team members for your startup. 

4. Advertise for hiring team members

 

You have already made a team structure. You know very well who will be your team members in your startup company. So now it will be very easy for you to post for hiring team members.

The process of hiring: 

• Make a perfect recruitment plan to get your perfect candidates. 
• Give a job description in the post including job requirements, special qualifications, desired characteristics, and requisite experience.
• Advertise the position internally or externally. You can use your company’s website and social media platforms and job posting sites like LinkedIn, industry publications, and local newspaper advertisements to publish the job circular. 
• Try to make it clear to the candidates what is your business plan and what is the goal.
• Focus to minimize the overall cost of recruitment process.

Your team members will help you to take your business to the next level. So, making a perfect recruitment plan is very necessary for your company. 

5. Selecting the team members

After the hiring advertisement you have got many applications from the candidates. Now it's the time to select your desired team members for your startup company. And it will be the toughest time for you. Because from many candidates selecting some talented team members is not a joke. 

The process of selecting the team members:

• After receiving the applications via email review, the applications and send notifications for interviews.
• You can take an initial interview by a phone call and then invite the selected candidates for a physical or online interview. 
• Assess the applicant giving them different standardized tests to find out real talent.
• Check their background and reference.

From their resumes, interviews and references make a research on candidates and choose your perfect candidates. But keep these things in mind before selecting team members:

• Will they be a great fit for your startup team, culture and environment?
• Will they like your business idea and strategy?
• Will they help you to achieve your goals?
• Will they agree with your mission and vision?
• Will they serve your company in the long term?
• Are their experience and skills legitimate?
• Have they required potential like talent and experience to grow your startup?
• Are they action takers to get the job done?
• Do they have the mentality of customer service to serve people?

 

Select the right candidates based on their real qualities not their resume. A piece of paper doesn’t tell the actual story. Keep in mind the above factors before selecting a team member. Because team members can take your business to the next level.

 

6. Develop the teams’ skills

Developing team skills is the most powerful step you have to take to grow your startup. Here you have to think and work as a great leadership approach to mentor your team members.

 

You have to be a great leader to show the path of success to your members. I am telling you what you can do to develop your team members skills:

 

➤ Divide role & responsibilities: Assigning tasks to your team can improve productivity and create a progress in workflow. So, make them understand what are their responsibilities and what manners they have to follow to grow their career. 

 

➤ Observe: “Observation is a dying art.”- said Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest American filmmakers. Before reacting, you have to observe the team members. 

• Are they doing their responsibilities? 
• Are they facing any problem to do their tasks? 
• What are the passions and interests of your team members? 
• Do they like the startup environment? 
• Do they enjoy their works? 

➤ Train & Motivate: This is a vital role you have to take to guide your team members. To train and motivate you can do: 

• Train your first member of the team and make improvements based on his/her feedback. 
• For your next hire, ask the first team member to train him/her. This will naturally set the hierarchy in the team. 
• As more people are hired, promote the first hire as the team manager for that team. 
• Give team targets and motivate them to work together to achieve their targets. 
• Give team incentives when targets are achieved such as a team lunch or an outing to change their mindset.
• Give individual incentive and reward basis on his/her performance.
• Give a friendly environment to work.
• Be friendly with them to achieve their goal.
• Give proper breaks in the work for increasing productivity.
• Don’t put excessive stress on them.

➤ Monitor & take actions: You have trained and motivated every team member. Now it's time to monitor them how they actually react. Assess their work regularly. Anything can change at any time that's why get them prepared for any dynamic situation. Give them challenging work and provide useful feedback so that they can improve. 

➤ Build a team for long vision: You have a vision. Make the feel in your team members heart to take your vision as their ultimate goal. You have a startup and it’s not a small business. You have a plan to grow this for a long term sustain. And try to build a team for the long term sustain. 

7. Terminate the bad hire

 

Before hiring you can take time to get the right candidate. But in the case of a bad employee terminate them fast. Because people who don’t fit the company culture, they are wasting your time and money. 

You can give them one or two chances but if they’re going to keep making mistake after mistake then you have to take action fast. But don’t be rude to terminate. Make them understand that it is the valid reason for termination and make it confidential. Because it can reflect badly on the other team members.  

 

High performing team is an essential asset of any startup business. In the early stage of startup, you need a good team to grow your business. A good team member will help you to achieve success on the other hand a bad team member will drive your business into the ground. 

That’s why follow and apply the strategies of the team building process discussed in this article and see the difference yourself. Thus, work together as a team in your startup business and achieve success years after years.