Home | Learning Center

Search
Close this search box.
FREE: Get the #1 book on the fundamentals of proper logo design and company branding, written by George Ryan, CEO of Hatchwise

Home / Resources / Business

Effective Team Management Strategies

When you look at any leading company, you’ll find that behind the company, is a good leader. After all, a company is only as good as the person who runs it. There are lessons all managers can learn by looking at the leaders behind the companies they admire and looking at what effective team management strategies those leaders have utilized. 

This is especially true for entrepreneurs behind a startup. When the startup first launched, the team was small and management may have (or may not have) come easy, but you were able to handle it. But as the company grows, you may be faced with the decision to step down from the daily management of your team and instead focus on the bigger picture, growing your company. 

As you begin this transition, the first step is learning how to build a successful team. What makes an effective team is more than just finding a full team of managers, each with its own set of expertise for the job. What makes an effective team is hiring managers who can find opportunities for their staff to develop, who can deal with issues, and who can plan for the future. When you are thinking about how to build a successful team, you need to find a group of managers who not only care about the company and their job, but who also genuinely care about the employees that work under them.

If this is hitting close to home, you may be struggling with whether it’s time for you to hire more managers at your company. To help you in building a successful team, we’ve outlined four effective team management strategies below. 

Effective Team Management Strategies

Analyze your current team 

Before rushing out to hire a new management team, closely examine the current team you have in place and look at their talents. Often, you’ll find that there is talent standing right in front of you that you haven’t noticed before.

 When you are taking this deeper dive into your team, you’ll want to look at:

  • What each employee is responsible for,
  • Who on your team has been proactive in taking action, 
  • Which employees have been resourceful in their everyday work,
  • And what professional connections within different organizations, individuals, and/or clients your current employees have. 

As you look closely at your current team, you’ll uncover each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. This will help you assess if there are opportunities to reallocate job responsibilities and where there may be holes in your work coverage. You may decide that the best solution for your work is to promote an existing employee instead of hiring an employee that is completely new to your company. 

Not only will this practice help you to get to know your team better because it’s one of the many effective team-building strategies you can use, but you’ll find that the talent you discover is a talent you can use. 

Identify (and be familiar with) what jobs need to be filled

You can’t hire new managers if you don’t know where you can best use management. That’s why identifying what jobs need to be filled is another step of what makes an effective team. Now that you have analyzed your existing staff, you’ll have a better idea of what jobs need to be filled because you understand what spots are already filled with experts, what jobs may need to be replaced, and which job positions are still open.

To conduct a job analysis, you’ll want to follow the steps below:

  • Review the job requirements of the position by either meeting with the current or previous employee, and/or meeting with the manager of the role to discuss expectations. 
  • Research similar job descriptions to uncover what your competitors are doing and how they define the expectations.
  • Think of your 30-, 60-, and 90-day goals for the position to identify the outcomes required for this job.
  • Analyze the job efficiencies and remove any tasks that are better suited elsewhere. 
  • Determine if there will be any skills or training required.
  • Set the salary band for the position after reviewing what salary competitors are offered and your company’s current and previous salary bands. 
  • Continue to evolve the job even after you hire an employee!

Depending on what you uncovered as opportunities for new management, top positions, such as a CEO or an operations manager, will take some time to fill. If you need to hire for a position that takes more time, you never want to rush with hiring for these positions, because once you hire someone it’ll be challenging to replace them and hire someone new if they do not work out.

On the other hand, with smaller positions, you’ll have more room for trial and error. You still won’t want to hire fast just to fill a seat, but you’ll have an opportunity with hiring for these smaller roles to choose exactly who you want for the job. You might decide to give new people a try or you might decide to promote someone within the company to have a shot – the decision is yours! Just keep in mind that the skill levels for each position vary greatly so you may not always need an expert to fill each position. Someone with the basic knowledge of the job will be able to fulfill the needs of the role without you having to seek out the best of the best.

Fill in any gaps 

After analyzing your current team and your current job needs, you probably found all the gaps that are not being covered. Those steps led you to see the jobs that you need employees for and what employees need to be replaced. These gaps in coverage are something you can’t ignore as a leader. These skill gaps will need to be addressed and you may find that it is difficult to know exactly how to address them. 

Some ways you can fill skill gaps are:

  • Upskilling existing team members by offering them learning opportunities so they might be able to learn more about that particular skill. 
  • Hiring new employees that have the skillset you need. This is especially true if you are dealing with a temporary job. For temporary jobs, it may be a good idea to hire someone for a part-time job from outside the company.
  • Outsourcing certain tasks to a third party, like a freelancer or a service platform, that have the skillset you need for the task to be completed. 
  • Promoting someone from one of your departments that might excel better in a different department.

As you can see above, there are many options regarding how to build a successful team that you can choose from. It may be hard to see and accept that your company has gaps but don’t fret! Don’t be afraid to hire someone new; they may have a fresh and new take on the company, and you don’t know what they can bring to the table. One of the most effective team management strategies you can utilize is to always have a diverse staff in place that consists of a mix of internal and external hires, all with different levels of skills and experience.

Never stop growing 

Just because you followed these successful team examples on how effective teams can be formed doesn’t mean that your job as a leader is done. You may be wondering what comes next or where you go from here. Well, now that you’ve taken the leap in handing over some of your managing responsibilities and have taken a step back, your job is now to ensure that your new management team continues to deliver great results time and time again. 

That means you’ll want to:

  • Ensure that you’ve provided ample (and ongoing) training to your employees,
  • Confirm that your employees understand their job and responsibilities,
  • Set up regular check-ins with your staff to touch base on their performance and the employees below them,
  • And continue to hire and fill any other gaps that you see as your company grows. 

When it comes to effective team management strategies, it’s essential to understand that your company will keep growing and with it, your staff will too. Different skills are needed at different times and your team will change and evolve as your company does.