In my journey as an IT & MSP business coach, I am privileged to be able to learn and help many business owners to unlock the potential and performance of their people, without even spending a penny. (Big promise hey!)
With that, I am honoured to be able to share this with more than 200 MSPs, resellers and vendors at the Channel Partners Europe. It was a two-day event that happened on the 14th and 15th of June 2022, where we discussed business best practices, pivotal issues, and market opportunities.
The main highlights were the presentations, speeches and panel discussion from 50+ channel leaders and experts in the IT & MSP space. It is where I delivered a 30-minute keynote which I will be glad to share it here.
At the root of every question when building great teams is , “How to begin or where to even start?” and what is team engagement all about and why do I need it?
Being an MSP Business Coach for me, is all about expanding the mind and understanding the Ripple Effect of what we do. This is where when we provide support and this impacts the person we are helping, they then also do the same to others. (Hence the ripple)
Admittedly, this has been one of the things that drives me in the business I face, whatever I learn, I will ensure that I will be able to share it.
After instilling such mindset, as a leader, it is also key that we are never scared of change. It must be something that each of us needs to work on and we need to positively embrace.
Just like in leadership, we are bound to experience changes as we face different people.
I have my take on this in the frame of the Dentist analogy. In every appointment we undergo, we are always advised to be consistent in the way we take care of our teeth, and this goes the same in how we deal with the new things we learn in Business.
Meaning that success is not just about the one-off meetings, it’s about creating daily disciplines.
Before I tell you the golden keys to building great teams, allow me to share the three pillars that we always work in the MSP Growth Hub with my Business Partner Stuart Warwick
3 key principles to building a sustainable MSP Business.
These are the 3 key principles to building a sustainable MSP Business that we teach at The MSP Growth Hub
1) We start with Harnessing Your Ambition and helping you understand strategy, vision, values, KPIs and planning. This helps you to set the direction and how to tactically focus and start to construct your growth plan.
2) Then we look to Amplify Your Capacity to deliver through having right SOPs and building a resilient business environment including having the right people in the right roles.
3) Finally we Maximise Your Opportunities, Building and knowing your customer relationships by targeting the right people to sell to and also having a slick Sales & Marketing process that delivers a steady flow of new opportunities.
These 3 pillars will not only grow your MSP Business to £1.0m Turnover, but will help you build up your confidence as a business leader as well.
At the heart of my keynote, here are 6 golden keys to creating, building and leading great teams:
Shared Company Vision, Mission, and Values
Initially, to build on how to crystalize the vision, mission and values collectively is very important. It is in here that the direction of the company is established. This is what everyone collectively sees and aim for the company.
Values on the other hand, must also be considered and developed carefully. Understanding the company and personal values is a great way to address issues on differences and conflicts that is unavoidable. In it’s importance, recruiting the right people with its corresponding skillset and values breeds the direction towards getting the right clients as well. When different views and points are put in, listen and consider these difficult conversations helpful. Hence, it is in this phase where everyone in the company openly establishes the direction and identity to be set in.
Business Wide KPI’s and Connected Team Targets
Second, never forget to be clear and specific when laying down company targets and include as much detail as you can.
How many sales, how many leads and how it should we as a team get these correctly set up. Take time to connect with KPI’s, know and learn what the system looks like and the application of how are we going to connect and measure our organisation to our target people.
This may be very hard to get your head around this to begin with, I must admit. But when you learn and know how to set it up correctly to begin with, its like a Set and Forget concept.
Team Self-Awareness – Knowing Each Other
In the workplace, knowing the people you work with is essential in order to keep the culture alive and the business growing. Here, you have to understand the team and understand how you work together. Self-awareness in the team should be considered a key leadership skill.
One of the tools that helped our clients, is the behaviour assessment tool, DISC, where we consider behaviours and characteristics in the workplace around Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. Knowing which component they best thrive in will help you know how to approach or what to do to support them.
This is a gateway to at least knowing how people’s brain works and knowing how to adjust.
Two of the components that are commonly helpful in tech businesses are Steadiness and Compliance. For steadiness, you have to remember that these are the people who are at such pace while ensuring that things are right, correct and should be highly instructed well. For compliance, they need to always make sure that everything is in order, in good level detail and is logical or the ‘SOP’ people.
Again, the DISC profile is just one way of getting to know each other at a deeper level, a glimpse of how to understand different types of people and how you need to adjust your behaviour as a leader.
Individual Appraisals, Target Setting, and Accountability
Another step that used to give me a headache, (but I am glad that I was able to learn to value) is where we connect your team and their targets together. By setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound) targets, you must agreeing with your staff and not just directly assigning tasks to them. This coupled with correct accountability will really set your team on Fire! (so to speak)
Measured Employee Engagement
An important key to assess how are you are going about in the process of engaging with your team. Here, it is important to know and assess is the team really doing well but more importantly, what can the team still do for the better. Allow your members to rant, suggest and listen to what they say and see about in the long run and remember you have two ears and one mouth (Use them in this proportion!)
Correct Reward and Recognition
Finally, always know how to correctly reward and recognise your team members. Reward people in the way they want to be rewarded, and a tip, you can go back to their DISC profiles to know how they go about it. It is important to understand how they work and their intentions to get just the right way of rewarding and recognizing their efforts.
SUMMARY
There you have it, these golden keys should cost you nothing! (but precious time).
Establish your shadow as a leader well, know what’s in the gap, who do you need to be connected with and what do you really need to do on a daily basis.
There is no easy way to unlock potential and build great teams quickly, It is a continuous process that you take on.
I hope you enjoyed this Blog and if you want more like this, then check out my other awesome content specifically for IT / MSP and Tech based Businesses. Also remember the IT Experts Podcast as well!
Alternately, if you want to have a quick chat about how we can help you take your business to your next level then click HERE to book an Intro Call.
