To be a team leader or manager is a wonderful privilege, but also a great responsibility. As leader of the team / business, you must help, inspire and lead your team to fulfill their potential and become the best that they could be as a team. Many business / team leaders feel quite overwhelmed by this task, knowing that ultimately they are responsible for the team’s success.

Frequent questions asked: “Where should I start?” “What must I do to get the team together?” “What should I focus on first?” These and many other questions sometimes increase the anxiety levels of new leaders. Although there are many success principles when it comes to teamwork and leading a small business, there are a few essential items that will go a long way in preventing, resolving issues and increasing team effectiveness.

V: Vision & Values

Vision brings a team together, values keep them together. When all the team members are clear about what they need to achieve, what they are working towards, and what the rules of engagement (values) are, morale will be a lot higher.

Your role, the leader’s role, is to create and ignite a burning vision, focus the team, give them the tools to reach the goals, remove obstacles, make hard decisions and get out of their way.

When team members feel that they are empowered in these ways, they will work a lot better together.

E: Empowerment through encouragement

Everyone in the team has a role to play. By the way, if this statement is not true, then the team was assembled incorrectly. Each member has to take ownership for the function they are fulfilling in the team. This means that as leader, you need to help members take responsibility for both their own role, but also the success of the team.

The best and easiest way to do this, is to encourage, recognize and reward your team when they have done something well.

T: Team identity through team building

Lastly, recognize that your team / small business is an entity with its own vision, purpose and personality. Use this! Brand this! Create, mold and build this identity.

Create a slogan, logo or motto that will inspire the team. Make it fun and true to the organizational culture. When people have a symbol that represents what they stand for and what they are doing, it brings people together.

Teams have the potential to achieve so much more if they are inspired and focused. Use this power of teams! Harness it and you’ll accelerate your team success and business growth, tenfold.