The Business of Team Building

Of all the ingredients needed for a successful project, no other is more crucial than team work. In other posts, I’ve briefly mentioned the value of building a good team for any home construction project, but this subject is so vital to success, not enough can be said on the subject.

Any successful venture requires a solid team of individuals that are talented in their fields. But finding talented individuals or even experts doesn’t ensure a successful effort. This is as true for your construction project as for another type of greater effort. Winning teams of every kind are not made of individual all-stars that gather together to do their individual best. Most people realize that this is a fact. Why then, do so many people approach their home construction projects from, frankly, a penny wise and pound foolish approach? We all know someone who’s tried to hire someone to work on their home for the least amount of pay and then try to squeeze every last dollar out of the contract. The reason? It’s just business. Although some of those situations wind up working out OK, from my experience, they never create a stellar result that generates the most value for the investment of time, money and emotion.

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that business is a team sport. Winning business teams, just like winning sports teams, start with a solid foundation of talented individuals. Those individuals are then gathered together by a leader with vision as well as expertise. Much has been written on this subject that doesn’t need to be re-hashed here, but the bottom line is that without a leader who understands the needs of the individual team members and how they can all personally benefit by contributing to the common goal, there cannot be an optimal outcome for the beneficiary of the effort. All the individuals will be working towards their own goals without understanding that the goals of the team will enhance their individual efforts.  Therefore, the most profitable business ventures are created by a leader  with vision and expertise, who can find the magic mix of human resources and support them with capital and natural resources in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Another key ingredient for good business is long term solid and trusted relationships. It is much more common for people to look to do business with folks they know than a stranger found through a Google search. If you need a new dentist, hair stylist, dog sitter or babysitter, you are many times more likely to call a friend or family member for a name before calling a phone number off the back of a truck driving down the road. There are several good reasons for this. I believe that the most common reason is that if any kind of hiccup in the business dealings occurs, maintaining the relationship will be a catalyst for finding resolution. Good, solid, profitable business that will bring about further profit in the future involves win-win scenarios. And I speak of “profit”, in a much broader sense than dollars and cents.

When selecting contractors to work “for” you on your home, take a giant step back and think about the situation through a larger window.

Ask yourself, what if? What if things don’t go the way you want them to? What if the plans don’t work in the reality? What if ……….

When reality rears its ugly head, how best to find a silver lining than a team, all working together to help make Plan B much better than Plan A ever was? I can’t tell you how many projects I’ve worked on where we needed to pull together the expertise and experiences of several different tradesmen to find a way around an unforeseen road block. A team leader with experience in construction problem solving is invaluable in those circumstances.

Yes, home contracting is, “just business”.  But business in the sense that it involves a knowledgeable and dedicated team of individuals all working together with a common goal of getting the project done in the most efficient, effective and profitable way possible,  for everyone involved. That kind of team work will ultimately result in the most rewarding and profitable result for the beneficiary of that effort: the homeowner.

Do you have experiences with team work, good or bad, that you can share? Your comments are always greatly appreciated.

I suggest reading Bret Simmons post: Goal Setting And Group Performance. Bret writes a Positive Organizational Behavior post that I always find interesting and inspiring.

Another perspective on Team Work  I found interesting is, Increase Your Team’s Motivation Five Fold.