By: Mae Cornes
Building a successful, high-performing team takes hard work – from attracting and hiring the right people to cultivating and nurturing individuals. You should be discerning about who you select to join your team. Diversity is also essential; therefore, look for people with varied experiences who have worked within different ecosystems.
From the outset, when attracting talent, understand that competitors are constantly approaching high performers. Therefore, it’s crucial to demonstrate a grand vision – one that drives transformation, disruption, and innovation. By doing so, you will motivate individuals to get on board with you, explains successful international investor and self-made entrepreneur Daniyar Serikbay.
You also want to clearly and quickly achieve some short-term success to demonstrate a quick win, which will motivate the team to keep charging forward and underscore their faith in you.
Value Feedback, Respect the Team
Creating exceptional teams doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In addition to sharing your grand vision, which inspired members to join your company, they must feel valued, respected, and important by you and their fellow colleagues. If your team members are not respected, they will be less invested in the company’s success and will not contribute their best ideas. Trust your team, avoid micromanaging, set the tone, and demonstrate respectful behavior that others can emulate.
Daniyar Serikbay explains that the team should feel instrumental in executing and achieving your vision. Ask for feedback so that you cultivate a “we” environment.
Clearly Define Roles
It’s important to create roles with intention in high-performing teams. Consider the types of skills, behaviors, and experiences each position requires. Assign one task to one individual at a time to avoid creating unnecessary frustration among team members. Members must be taught to work together as a cohesive unit and help each other achieve a common goal.
Skin in the Game
In addition to clearly defining each position, it’s critical to outline financial and other metrics so people can focus on work and know what it takes to achieve the company’s vision. Team members should also be encouraged to have skin in the game and to act like owners. For example, if the end goal is to grow the company and be purchased by private equity, with everyone having a financial stake in a successful acquisition, they will work together to achieve the established key performance indicators (KPIs).
No Preferential Treatment
Mr. Serikbay explains that no single team member should feel privileged, as this will only demotivate other members. Meritocracy must prevail without any favoritism. All the company’s successes must be celebrated as a collective achievement while highlighting individual contributions.
Team Building efforts must be consistent and meaningful to ensure an opportunity for quality bonding time. Feedback and consultation with team members must be genuine and done regularly. Radical transparency should also be encouraged, where team members are rewarded for facing and exposing errors and fixing them rather than hiding them.
About Daniyar Serikbay
Mr. Serikbay is a self-made international entrepreneur and business leader with multi-country investment experience. He leads a world-class team that executes a proprietary, high-quality, real estate development pipeline in a fast-growing market. He also co-founded a private equity fund that operates a successful portfolio of companies in real estate development, construction materials production, and retail.
Published by: Martin De Juan
