What is an essential thing in a startup? Of course, it’s the team. The very people you recruit into your team and how you manage them determine your business’s success. This is not easy if you don’t know how to do it.
Being only a professional is not enough; you also need other qualities. After all, a startup is an increased workload, urgent deadlines, and a tremendous amount of work. You need total dedication, maximum effort, and a desire to work. Such people need not only to be found but also retained.
There are nine rules to help you create your dream team in India.
Table of Contents
Hire the Best
Instead of hiring a few newbies or “middlers,” it is better to hire one professional. Although it will cost more, this approach will more than pay off in the future. Those who know what they are doing is much easier and more pleasant to work with. You do not have to explain how to do this or that work every time, and then do not remake it for an inexperienced person.
Often companies take on just the same beginners to raise them as professionals. But in this case, it will not work. This is good for established companies with a formed team backbone where the cost of a newcomer’s mistakes will be small. In a startup, however, any error can be fatal. So the fewer blunders, the better.
Look for the “Achievers”
In addition to professionalism, you need another quality – the ability to invest the maximum effort to achieve the common goal. It’s not hard to recognize such guys. Find out what achievements the person has. And it’s not just about the professional field. What goals has he already achieved? What successes has he committed? Let it be the championship on knitting needles, but if he made it an outstanding success, it’s already worth something. After all, you want the person to invest in a startup, not just sit back at his workplace, right?
By the way, the more versatile a person’s talents, the better. Companies like Google understand this, which is why you can find jugglers, fencers, and artists on the same IT team. A narrow-minded person won’t be able to give you brilliant ideas, no matter how hard you try.
Pick the Team Yourself
Another critical point in selecting the team: people must be close to you in spirit. And to understand whether the person suits you, you need maximum involvement. It is best at this stage to become an HR director yourself. Because only you, as a manager, will know whether you can work with the person in the challenging conditions of a startup or not.
Be sure to assess people not only by professional experience but also by personal qualities and values. How energetic and communicative is the person? Are your values and principles similar?
Play on Ambitions
A high salary is not the only or most important way to motivate and retain your employees. Especially for those employees who have no shortage of reasonable job offers. So how do you keep them interested? Allow them to fulfill themselves.
Why do Indian people move to startups? They are driven by ambition and ambition. The desire to prove themselves, to do something new, and to solve non-standard problems. Which means you can use all of this to your advantage. Play on ambition. Turn tasks into challenges, add excitement and light a fire in their eyes. Be a true leader – inspire and teach them to enjoy their work.
Don’t Isolate Departments
It is crucial to assemble a good team and teach them to work with each other. Therefore, you need to decide how the work will be organized. For the startup to develop effectively and for employees to work together, you need to bump them into each other as often as possible. Avoid dividing the entire team into small groups with their own problems and tasks. Actively involve employees from different departments in one common cause. Look for such interaction between various departments that will cause a synergy effect.
Don’t Be Afraid to Fire People
It happens that a person does not fit into your team at all. Such a person should be fired, no doubt. But what to do when a person doesn’t work how you need or would like? A kind of an average level, not bad, but not good either. To keep such an employee, or is it better to fire him?
To understand what to do, ask yourself: if I had to rehire the team, would I invite this person? If so, maybe the reason lies in something else. Perhaps the whole working process is organized poorly? Or maybe he needs to improve some skills. If so, check some courses on smartyindians.net. If not, then the person must be fired. Everyone makes mistakes, but if a person makes the same mistakes repeatedly and does not learn anything, he will pull the whole team down.
