Originally published on bignewsnetwork.com
Much of the focus of business success is on the owner or CEO of the company. But, as entrepreneur Adam Ferrari explains, the true determinant of business success is an effective leadership team.
While leadership starts at the very top of the organizational chart, it's the top-level leaders that are responsible for trickling down the company's message and way of doing things to the workforce. Without an effective leadership team in place, the entire company is at risk of failing.
To build an effective leadership team, you need to bring in people from diverse backgrounds with different viewpoints who must be able to work together as one unit. Here are some ways your company can build a solid leadership team of seasoned members and newcomers as well.
Hire with Intention
When you're building your leadership team, you want to think strategically about every prospective member and what they could bring to the table. In addition, you'll want a diverse set of skills and viewpoints so ideas can be bounced around the room without anything being missed.
You need to balance out individuals' weaknesses with other individuals' strengths. This way, where one person is lacking, another can step in and pick them up.
The first step is understanding what skill sets and experience you are looking for in a leadership team. Then, once you've defined what you want, you can search for the right people with intention.
Communicate Your Vision
The leadership team can be effective at achieving whatever it is you want them to achieve. This is why it's essential to communicate your vision for the company so that the leadership team can create a blueprint for success according to that vision.
Any leadership team needs sound direction and leadership from the business owner/CEO. Without it, they are left to their own devices and have no solid foundation.
When you communicate your vision from the start, you'll enable your leadership team to remain focused and avoid creating silos.
Develop a Structure
After communicating the vision, you need to set up a sound structure on which your leadership team will operate. Every business needs sound operations; otherwise, they can easily fall prey to inefficiency and chaos. The same goes for leadership teams.
Without the proper direction and framework on which to operate, leadership teams can easily drive off the rails. However, with the framework at hand, the leadership team can do what they do best — create sustainable and scalable systems by which the company will operate to achieve success and sustainability.
Create Measurables
A vision and structure are essential for leadership teams to succeed, but how will you measure that success? As Adam Ferrari explains, measurements shouldn't be focused on bigger-picture items such as sales growth or a certain amount of profit.
You should set up much more granular benchmarks by which to measure your leadership team so that you can track their progress along the way. Setting up smaller, shorter-term benchmarks will help the company achieve those big revenue growth goals over the long term.
Prioritize Development
Just like you work on building the skills and development of your employee base, you should invest in the same for your leadership team. While the people who sit on your leadership team will be considered among the best in your company, there's always room for growth and improvement.
As you help support their professional development, you'll be investing in your company's overall success. In addition, the enhanced skills they gain from this professional development will trickle down to other employees and eventually show themselves in your company's production.