How to Build a Trusted Business Team (From Anywhere)

Times are tough right now to be an entrepreneur building a startup company. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has changed how we do business entirely. More and more companies are switching to permanent work-from-home models and as you build your team, you may run into challenges finding people who are willing to travel or come into the office five days a week. In this post, we will go over some ways that you can build your trust team, no matter where they are located or where you are working from.

Trust And Respect

Any good relationship is formed on a foundation of trust and respect and the same thing is true for the relationship with your business team. If you and your team are unable to be in the same location daily you are going to need to hire people that you can trust. Since you won’t be able to pop into their office and make sure they are on task, it’s important that you can trust them to get their jobs done effectively without micromanaging or you pushing them in the right direction. Perhaps your team is in the office but you are traveling a lot for your CEO duties. The same adage holds true, find a team that you can trust to hold down the fort and grow the business without constant supervision from you. When employees feel like you respect their opinions and trust them, they will be more motivated to perform better and make you proud. Your employees should also be able to trust you, the street goes both ways. If you expect high productivity and results from your employees, then you should be leading by example and producing high-caliber work yourself as well. When you make promises to employees, be sure to follow through with them. You want to be seen as an honest, hard-working and reliable leader so that kind of environment is fostered in the office— whether that office is physical or remote.

Meetings For All Employees

If you are assembling a remote team, it does not mean that your employees will never meet one another and won’t have the opportunity to be on the same page. Plan weekly or daily meetings, whatever works for your needs. This can be a time for the team to openly communicate and catch up on what everybody is doing and plans to accomplish for the week. If your team works within teams, it’s important that the teams meet more frequently but you should still be planning company-wide meets every so often. This is a good way to make sure that everybody is up to date on policies and everybody is on the same page and is able to ask questions to anybody that they may need to, not just people directly on their team. Also, try to plan at least one in-person meeting per year. This way, employees can really get to know one another, ask questions and accomplish goals in-person, without the barrier of a screen. This can be done at a retreat, a resort, a sporting event or any other type of venue that will allow the employees to let their hair down a little while still accomplishing some goals.

Team Hiring

There’s no greater compliment to employees than knowing that you trust them and want their input on who will be the next person to join the team. After all, the new hire will be working closely with the team so their input is extremely important. Have your team meet with candidates and ask any questions they may have. Then, have a group meeting where everybody is able to share their input on said candidate and why or why not they think they would be a good fit for the team.

Use Conflict To Your Advantage

Anytime people are working in a team, there is bound to be some conflict or some disagreements. It’s your job as a leader to mediate the conflict and turn it into good. Try not to take sides when mediating a conflict within your team, instead act as a sounding board and let all sides get their stories and opinions out there. If there is a third party that simply observed the issue, talk to them to get an unbiased account of what happened. Then, facilitate a brainstorming session as a team to resolve the conflict. This will encourage the team to come back together and bond instead of you making the decision and appearing like you are choosing a side. This way, everybody can leave happy and work together, even to overcome their challenges.

Even in these uncertain times, it is still possible, with a little creativity, to assemble and lead a productive business team. Follow these guidelines and you will foster a happy, productive environment…no matter where you and your team are working from.