Turn Your Great Hires Into Great Teams

5 team building steps to guarantee successful results from your great hires

Lucky sports fans recognize the feeling: that surge of hope when your team acquires a superstar in a blockbuster trade, or you land the number one draft pick and it’s a generational talent who has broken college or junior-league records.  It’s like the feeling business leaders get when, after a long, arduous—and expensive—recruiting process, a preferred candidate accepts the job offer.  You know, that candidate with an ideal resume, a great track record, and the personality profile we hope will turn around an underperforming team.

So, why are our hopes dashed so often? Why did that can’t-miss superstar fail to deliver the result, while yet again, we have to watch our rivals lift the championship trophy?  And why couldn’t our perfect hire carry a work team to the next level?

Because hiring someone with talent, who is a great organizational fit, only improves the potential for building a great team.  The team must still be built.

Great hires are an important starting point but don’t guarantee successful results.  For the latter to happen, you must take these 5 teambuilding steps:

Every team member has to sign up for the goal voluntarily; it cannot be imposed on the team.  A common goal does not replace individual goals for each person, but, without a common goal, they will never become a great team. On a football team, for example, a running back might aim for a 1000-yard season or a kicker who has a higher percentage of successful field goals. However, an NFL team’s obvious goal is winning the Superbowl, which must take precedence over individual objectives if the team is to be successful.

The team member’s part may be a technical competency that they bring to the team—their ability to sell, to design websites, to do financial reporting—or it could be a behavioral competency such as generating innovative ideas, ensuring team unity, following through on the details, etc. 

The diversity of thought and work styles should be seen as positive, not as a source of frustration.  Being able to see problems through different lenses, to communicate in different ways, and to evaluate decisions differently—these diverse approaches all help a team create better solutions.

Diverse approaches work best in a larger framework. For good teams, this framework evolves over time through trial and error. The best teams shorten the learning curve by formally defining these things early on.

Each member of the team feels a responsibility to deliver on their part (see item 2), and each team member should feel comfortable in calling out those who are not delivering. Done right, such accountability strengthens the team. 

When hiring a new team member, think carefully about how you will onboard them to the team … and how you will onboard the team to the new member. 

Make sure the team leader knows what to do to set new members up for success: how to stretch them according to their strengths, and how to spot warning signs that derailers are getting in the way.

Explain to the team what competencies this new member brings, both technical and behavioral.  Talk about the ways you expect the new member to change the current dynamic of the team.  Discuss what the current team members can do to help the new member be successful.

Tell the new member about the current team dynamic, and talk how you would like them to positively impact that dynamic.  Explain how the team communicates and makes decisions as well as what individual and team accountability looks like.

With the new member included, revisit the common goal with the team. Does everyone still sign up for it?

Revisit the team norms. Do the norms need to change now that there is a new team dynamic?

After the initial onboarding process, get the team back together again to review what has happened and course correct if necessary.  The timing varies, but anticipate 45-60 days for initial onboarding.

Following these simple steps will greatly enhance your chances of turning great hires into great teams.