Building a Winning Team Takes A Lot More Than You Think

To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.

When I first read that quote in Forbes by Doug Conant, the former CEO of Campbell Soup, I realized that as trivial as it sounds, the more weight it carries. And one fine day, in the spring of ’16, it dawned upon me that I need to introduce this mantra, not only in my life, but in the life of my team at Orgzit too.

Bearing that noble intention in mind and with the will to reach that place where each team member realizes, acts and owns up to their responsibilities, I decided to sit down with my co-founder, friend, and brother Nitin Verma to brainstorm a few ideas on how can we transform our team at Orgzit from as-usual-productive to productive-even-better.

And in a matter of 2 hours, and for cappuccinos worth $20 (Mahn! Coffee in India is getting expensive), we struck gold worth “priceless”. Take out 2 minutes from your busy schedule and have a dig at some share of the gold.

Perfect Synching of Interests & Goals

Surprisingly, both Nitin and I realized that although our team was fit for action, they needed a little push in the right direction so that they are better able to navigate their way next time they are assigned a task i.e. Regardless of whether my team goals were set on company, group or individual levels, they had to be SMART — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and most importantly, time bound.

For instance, after our discussion, which was about 2 weeks ago, I had a team meeting to wrap up one of our product development goals for one of our users. All frontend, backend and other features had to be built, tested and demoed to the users. For achieving this, I divided the work items and assigned talent-specific tasks to my team:

• Ishan, although already working on a big backend feature, took to developing the frontend for the client’s feature.
• Prithvi was tasked with the responsibility of refining the UI/UX and fixing the bugs that were popping up like clockwork.
• Kartik, current growth hacker and a former engineer, started testing the app so that the first demo to client would be smooth.

Take Away LessonP.S — Even small gestures of appreciation can go a long way in motivating your team. Never shy away from them. : To attain this optimum effectiveness, divide your team members into self-sufficient sub-groups for completing small tasks in ‘unified’ ways.

And Voila! We successfully developed the feature for the client. We even presented Ishan with a token of recognition to acknowledge his work in developing the features in a short span of time and doing a great job at it.

To summarize, my team knew the goal. All I did was tell them the best way to reach there. In other words, alignment of interests with goals is quintessential if you want each team member to become more engaged and productive.

Getting a Hang of the Bigger Picture

Being an entrepreneur means that you have to believe that finding the needle in the haystack is absolutely possible with the right amount of optimism and hard work from each team member. Nitin told me that he has this quirk of getting all team members ‘ on the same page’ every time there is a need to collaborate. And I confess I took inspiration from his quirk.

What do we accomplish?

So I have started pushing my team members to share information and communicate with me beyond the scope of weekly and monthly meetings. This helps me boost enthusiasm of the team and simultaneously keeps me updated with the team on-goings outside work.

There is a thin line between micromanagement and macro management. I think the best way to do it is to mix the latter with a pinch of the former.

Today, I ensure that I find time at least once in a week to get my team into what I like to call as ‘ Orgzit Huddles’.

• Whenever developing a new feature for Orgzit, instead of drilling my way into how to do things, Nitin and I first give our team new feature requirements and encourage them to come up with a development plan.
• Since my team and I are already aligned after the first meeting, subsequent meetings are held to solve specific and focused issues, saving time and increasing productivity.
• Assess the work done and chalk the way forward.

I can most definitely see that my team has started putting more effort in w hat they do and how they do it since we have started following the mantra. And more importantly, they know where to go if they can’t make heads or tails of a problem.

Take Away Lesson: Set up team meetings which serve as a constant reminder of the bigger picture behind daily work activities and events.

A team must be aligned in interests, not in co-ordinates

Overcoming Challenges Faced in Distributed Teams

We even briefly shared views on a short yet important topic that plagues team members and reduces workplace efficiency across borders i.e. the dilemma of communicating efficiently with geographically diverse teams. Since Orgzit is a collaboration tool, and as forward-thinkers in using this platform, we encourage a very free and open-minded Work From Home policy.

After all, I can still hear Nitin gloating on a phrase he came up with at one of the demo pitches -

We came up with some unique ways you can efficiently build your team in the dispersed workplace.

• Hire self-motivated, open and honest workers who are also good communicators. They help in building a robust remote working scenario and effective teams.
• Invest in modern technology to empower members to collaborate seamlessly and build stronger relationships. Look for a collaboration tool that can help you communicate with your team and exchange information in an all-inclusive manner than using exclusive tools for the same (often leading to multiple data entry and exit points).

I already had a great team in place, my technology was up-to-date, and Orgzit became my single collaboration tool. I can honestly say that not only my collaboration level has tripled but I am getting more focused and work-specific replies from my team members.

Take Away Lesson: The secret behind working efficiently with distributed teams is the will to exchange useful information and having a great tool to do the same.

About the author: I have over 15+ years of experience in building enterprise software. I built Orgzit to fill the invisible gap which separates businesses from maximizing workplace productivity and make their work more meaningful and satisfying.

On a conclusive note I told Nitin -

To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace. And to win in the workplace, you must first refine your business processes

He chuckled!

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on April 10, 2017.