#BusinessTip #Tuesday
This second in the series continues to expand your team. Notice the definitions and explanations, but also the considerations and personality types to look for when recruiting. The team individuals makes a difference. How they work together makes a difference. But, be careful not to interpret camaraderie alone as effectively working together. Your team needs to bring their best to the table, be able to argue progressive points, be able to defend their findings, and articulate solutions. All this needs to be centered on YOUR business, all of it–the vision, mission, goals, and ethos inspiring the impact. That’s a high-functioning team. Anything less is an office party.
Strategy & Programming
Strategy is important for every aspect and every level of your business. I couple it with programming because programming is strategy made practical. Marketing and clear financials are great, but if strategy is not a part of the equation you will fail. Without programming, the activities of strategy are never implemented.
For this task, you need a person who can see the big picture, but also one who is not afraid of the details. This person is going to be an excellent communicator verbally, in writing, and with pictures. it will also be helpful if the person is great at making analogies and patient with people who are not as large scope or detail oriented.
The only danger with a strategy and programming person is that they may move your activities away from your vision. You will want meet with this person outside of the meeting to hash out some of the broad goals to ensure mission alignment. Make sure that they have a sense and a belief in your vision, not an opportunity to express their own divergent ideas.
Personnel & Operations
You need a person who know human resources as a field and also as a network. That is, this person should know people. Great workers, visionaries, public relations associates, legislators, pastors, social workers, and lawyers, they should know a bit of everybody. I couple it with operations because the people resource should directly support the operations of your business. This person needs a keen understanding of best practice in business as well as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business.
The challenge here is to have a person who not only knows people but has the ability to influence those people. You need someone who can get people to the table. That’s the first level of influence. You need someone who can influence those to influence others. That’s two levels. You want someone who can fill the room, but also knows how to ensure the operations serve the room well.
Information Management
Information management has the potential to provide for databases decision making. Real time information can inform daily updates in your business processes. Aggregate data can inspire your stakeholders and supporters. Beyond the media, publicity, and marketing packages, you want someone who can set up systems, collect data, process data, and communicate data in raw, aggregate, and packages terms.
Make sure to vet to recruit a targets-based person. Such a person will give you the actual numbers and situation. They will also let you know the numbers you need to hit your other strategic targets. Beyond simply reporting, they take the initiative to run the hypotheticals, build models, and provide options.
Development & Entrepreneurship
Development refers to capital development–making money. You need a person on your team who brings ideas and understands how to scale them to revenue centers. I couple development with entrepreneurship because the latter is the name for creating products and accessing markets. Development and entrepreneurship will serve your business well. In non-profits, the person may have expertise in fundraising on the development side. On the entrepreneurship side, they also need expertise in outcome logic modeling that includes an awareness of product-based opportunities that result from normal operations.
This person will be a wealth of ideas, potentially an embarrassment of ideas. You want someone who has immense creativity and freedom of thought, AND someone who has the respect and tact related to your business to understand sustainable growth. The fact is that you cannot and should not do everything that you could do in your business. You definitely cannot do it all now. The best development and entrepreneurship person understands and can map this growth over the long term.
