Lesson #5: Build a Great Team
Lesson #5: Build a Great Team
“As an entrepreneur, it is most gratifying to watch a group of intelligent, talented people be transformed from employees working for a paycheck into an energetic staff that collaborates day and night to achieve a common goal,” she says. While she admits to having made a number of hiring mistakes throughout her career, she recognizes the importance of finding employees who have the right ‘fit’ with her company. This was precisely the premise of The Apprentice, where she regularly made the difficult decision to let someone go because they “just didn’t fit in.”
Stewart claims that there are two commonalities between all of the workers that she has fired in the past – they misread what the customer wanted or they simply did not work hard enough. In order to avoid making similar mistakes, Stewart now follows a more stringent hiring process; she considers numerous candidates even if the first one she met seems perfect for the job; she carefully checks references to find out the true nature of a person’s character; and she introduces the candidates to all her employees who they will be working with to examine how well they ‘fit’.
She also stresses the importance of choosing the right partners and advisors for your business. While partners can remove some of the stress of decision-making and provide invaluable advice, Stewart notes that the decision as to who to go into business with must be made with an objective mind. Entrepreneurs who go into business with friends often find that while their friendship might be strong, it is not enough to sustain a business relationship. Instead, advisors must be people who both understand your goals and complement your skills.
Once a team has been assembled, Stewart maintains a hands-on approach, going to photo shoots, on sales calls and out into the field in order to ensure she is personally involved in the development of her staff and her business. “I view these as important opportunities to share my thought process and to help good employees become great,” she says. Stewart also maintains weekly discussion forums with her staff in order to evaluate the business culture and critique each other’s work. While many in her own company have criticized this management style, Stewart feels that it is necessary to change and grow as a company. Otherwise, “when you are through changing, you’re through,” she warns.
As an entrepreneur, Stewart advises that you need to be willing to adapt to the times. “What worked well last month may suddenly not be working at all,” she says. People change, companies change and it is only the successful manager that is able to reconcile the two.
Lesson 5 Build a Great Team
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“Good employees will energize you and your business,” says Stewart. With over 650 people working for MSLO, Stewart has become a bonafide expert in the realm of human resources. Some have been with her from the very beginning and some have joined along the way, but all of Stewart’s employees share the talent, energy, passion and optimism that Stewart herself has for her businesses.
“As an entrepreneur, it is most gratifying to watch a group of intelligent, talented people be transformed from employees working for a paycheck into an energetic staff that collaborates day and night to achieve a common goal,” she says. While she admits to having made a number of hiring mistakes throughout her career, she recognizes the importance of finding employees who have the right ‘fit’ with her company. This was precisely the premise of The Apprentice, where she regularly made the difficult decision to let someone go because they “just didn’t fit in.”
Stewart claims that there are two commonalities between all of the workers that she has fired in the past – they misread what the customer wanted or they simply did not work hard enough. In order to avoid making similar mistakes, Stewart now follows a more stringent hiring process; she considers numerous candidates even if the first one she met seems perfect for the job; she carefully checks references to find out the true nature of a person’s character; and she introduces the candidates to all her employees who they will be working with to examine how well they ‘fit’.
She also stresses the importance of choosing the right partners and advisors for your business. While partners can remove some of the stress of decision-making and provide invaluable advice, Stewart notes that the decision as to who to go into business with must be made with an objective mind. Entrepreneurs who go into business with friends often find that while their friendship might be strong, it is not enough to sustain a business relationship. Instead, advisors must be people who both understand your goals and complement your skills.
Once a team has been assembled, Stewart maintains a hands-on approach, going to photo shoots, on sales calls and out into the field in order to ensure she is personally involved in the development of her staff and her business. “I view these as important opportunities to share my thought process and to help good employees become great,” she says. Stewart also maintains weekly discussion forums with her staff in order to evaluate the business culture and critique each other’s work. While many in her own company have criticized this management style, Stewart feels that it is necessary to change and grow as a company. Otherwise, “when you are through changing, you’re through,” she warns.
As an entrepreneur, Stewart advises that you need to be willing to adapt to the times. “What worked well last month may suddenly not be working at all,” she says. People change, companies change and it is only the successful manager that is able to reconcile the two.
Lesson 5 Build a Great Team
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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I've created this section on my site to share some of the incredible tools that I've used to build my business. I hope you too can benefit from them and look forward to hearing your feedback on the reviews! - Visit Evan Carmichael's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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