A growing team is a sign of success and expansion.” In the dynamic landscape of business, building a strong growing team depicts that your business is catering to the audience, making the right decisions, and continuously thriving in the field. However, growing teams come with a number of complexities and challenges that make it difficult for the manager to manage. There are more backgrounds, personalities, skillsets, and experiences that a manager has to manage skillfully and seamlessly.
Whether you are a business manager or a team leader, it's important for you to adopt effective leadership strategies for expanding teams to ensure that everyone is working aligned and towards the common business goal. It is the responsibility of leaders and managers to handle the challenges of growing an organization's team while fostering a cohesive and productive team environment.
Managing team growth challenges requires strategic adaptation, communication, decision-making, delegation, and proactive leadership. In this blog, we will discuss the best leadership strategies for expanding teams and some effective team scaling techniques to ensure hiring the right people and streamlining growth.
Cultivating Growth: Leadership Strategies for Expanding Teams
A growing team can bring a lot of skills and expertise to the business, increasing its vitality, health, and chance to seize growth and success opportunities. However, when new people join an already established team, it becomes crucial to manage them properly to help them work efficiently. Have a look at some of the most effective leadership strategies for expanding teams:
Add Hierarchy and Delegate Authority
One of the most successful strategies for building a strong, growing team is adding hierarchy and delegating authority. It's difficult for a team leader or manager to manage a team of 100 employees while taking care of other duties also. Therefore, creating a team of subordinate leaders or assistant managers and delegating authority and responsibility to them can ensure seamless management and supervision.
Choose the people who boast leadership and management skills, are easily approachable and have the highest experience in the team. Delegate tasks and duties while empowering them to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Provide clear instructions on which employee will report to which manager and who will make final decisions.
Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities
Managing a team of 5-6 people is way different than managing a team of 50-60 people. You cannot remember the role and responsibilities of each employee when the number is huge. To cope with this, clearly define roles and responsibilities to your employees with the help of documentation.
Define and document team members' roles and responsibilities, communicate their roles to them clearly, and maintain their progress records with project management tools. The best tools for managing roles and responsibilities within the organization are RACI charts, Asana, Trello, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Zoho Projects.
Besides tools, you can use job descriptions, role clarification workshops, organizational charts, employee handbooks, performance management systems, etc., to define work.
Keep Communication Channels Open
Communication is the bridge that connects employees and leaders, fostering effective collaboration and success. However, when a team grows, communication becomes even more challenging, as messages may get lost in transit, leading to misunderstandings and confusion.
Therefore, it's crucial to keep the communication in growing teams open and transparent.
The employees should be given the necessary freedom to communicate and discuss important things with other departments directly. In addition, employ open-book management techniques, where objectives are made explicit, feedback and questions are welcomed, conflicts are resolved, and team meetings are held regularly to discuss progress.
Establish a Clear Corporate Culture
Corporate culture plays a crucial role in managing team growth challenges and harnessing the full potential of new skills and experiences brought in by new employees. While onboarding the employees, familiarize them with the company’s culture, mission, vision, goals, values, beliefs, long-term objectives, etc.
By fostering communication in growing teams and enlightening them with information on the company's corporate culture, you can ensure that the new employees are well-versed in what’s expected of them. Also, they get a clear idea of how to interact and communicate with co-workers and whom to reach out to for any issues.
Recognize Achievements and Grant Rewards
Acknowledging achievements and offering rewards is one of the best leadership strategies for expanding teams. Don’t be a supervisor who monitors the work; instead, become a supportive team leader who praises employees' hard work, recognizes their achievements and rewards them accordingly. Keep the employees happy by showing appreciation for their work and encouraging them to perform even better.
You can provide gift cards, organize weekly pizza parties, send personalized emails expressing appreciation for the worker's efforts, and more. You can also commend employees in team meetings to boost their confidence. When both old and new employees receive recognition, the chances of them working together as a team also increase, leading to better collaboration, innovation, and growth.
Manage Conflicts Strategically
As the team grows, conflicts also grow, especially between the old and new employees. Conflicts are a big problem; if not resolved quickly and correctly, they can lead to a lack of motivation, incorrect work, and hostility. Therefore, building a strong growing team requires you to manage and solve such conflicts with correct strategies without being partial towards one side.
The best way to solve conflicts is to foster open communication - know the reason behind the conflict, understand different perspectives, and based on that, provide effective solutions. Moreover, you can encourage collaboration to make employees work together, understand each other's personalities, behaviors, beliefs, and perspectives, and respect that which automatically reduces conflicts.
Host Meetings Regularly
Host meetings regularly and create a supportive and healthy work culture in which employees feel valued, respected, and inspired to do their best. Meetings help you update the employees on new changes, discuss projects, brainstorm ideas together, take questions, and send constructive feedback.
Encourage employees to share their ideas and suggestions on various topics and appreciate those who contribute effective ideas. Team meetings also allow employees to get to know each other and work together on the same page, which increases productivity. Also, encourage cross-functional collaboration to harness the team's diverse skills and expertise.
Moreover, hold individual meetings to review work and offer constructive feedback using positive language to improve performance and enhance their work quality.
Prepare your Existing Team for Change
Existing employees may find it difficult to cooperate and collaborate with new employees; therefore, to manage a growing team, it's crucial to prepare your existing team for change in advance. During the onboarding process of new employees, let the existing team know that new people are going to join them and update them on any changes that are going to take place in advance.
Also, tell your team about the skills and experience new employees bring to ensure mutual respect and appreciation. Ask the questions and concerns of the existing employees and make sure to address them to avoid any conflicts upon the new members' arrival. Conduct orientation sessions and make sure old and new teams can get to know each other.
Effective Team Scaling Techniques for Hiring
It's crucial to use effective team scaling techniques to build a strong foundation for your company’s growth and success. Have a look at some of the most effective team scaling techniques for hiring that can make adding new employees much easier and streamlined:
Define Goals and Objectives: It's crucial to define the goals and objectives of hiring new employees, including their roles and responsibilities to contribute to the company's growth and success. Defining clear goals and objectives helps you select the right people with the required skills, qualities, experience, and work history.
Define Clear Hiring Criteria: Outline the skills, experience, qualities, educational requirements, work history, and cultural fit required for the specific role. This strategy helps you attract candidates that align with your criteria and your team’s needs and values.
Streamline Hiring Process: Technology has evolved, leading to increased use of automation tools for various purposes. Simply use applicant tracking systems (ATS) and automation tools to manage applications from different candidates, filter out the ones that align with the criteria, and streamline communication with the shortlisted candidates.
Leverage Referrals: Leveraging employee referrals is one of the most effective team scaling techniques. It not only exposes you to a pool of skilled candidates but also encourages trust and positive relationships with existing employees. Implement referral programs to encourage employees to recommend skilled and qualified candidates for the desired role.
Utilize Multiple Sourcing Channels: Don't just stick to popular job portals; expand your sourcing beyond them and reach a broader pool of candidates via social media platforms, online directories, professional networks, seminars, industry events, recruitment agencies, tech portals, collage placements, etc.
Implement a structured interview process: Develop a structured interview process that includes both technical skills evaluation and soft skills assessment. Make a list of predefined interview questions and evaluation criteria and conduct skills assessments to ensure hiring the right people who can bring the necessary expertise to the company and contribute to its growth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, managing a growing team can be challenging since fresh recruits may feel uncomfortable integrating into an established team, and current employees may find it challenging to adjust to new members. Therefore, managing team growth challenges becomes important to ensure that there are no communication gaps, internal conflicts, or deviations from the main business goals. We have discussed some of the best strategies for building a strong, growing team while ensuring their proper management. So, adopt these strategies and foster a positive work environment in your company even with growing teams.
