Chapter 13: Building Your Team
The point of hiring a team(s) is to take some weight off your shoulders, so don’t micromanage. I’m sure you’ve heard that good leaders know how to delegate. Your job is now managing your employees - so make sure they’re happy and productive, but don’t do their jobs for them.
I really can’t stress this point enough.
Chances are, you aren’t an expert in everything. This is why hiring and building out teams is awesome. You have the opportunity to hire experts in specific fields where you might be lacking. So make good hires, and trust them.
Slack and/or Discord are KEY
Having an online chatroom for your employees to interact with each other and receive updates and announcements is critical to early stage startups. A lot of companies use Slack, personally I like to use Discord, but the premise is the same. Depending on the size of your company you can have separate channels for different departments.
The point is to foster an environment of constant communication where you can always see what’s going on. This can also be an easy way to interact with your employees on a regular basis, answer questions, and get reports and updates on important milestones.
Note: Listen to your employees! If they have problems or ideas, pay attention to them. Chances are your employees are going to be your best source of feedback, whether positive or negative. They understand your business, and they might understand their job better than you do. So pay attention and listen to what they have to say.
Especially in the beginning, you want to try and foster a community between your employees. Teams should get along well together, and communicate consistently. I’m going to be redundant on this - communication is key. Schedule weekly team meetings or department check-ins, and make yourself accessible in these instances.
Feel free to schedule out of office activities as well, but make sure they’re not cringe. Nobody likes being forced to spend an afternoon playing volleyball if they don’t want to. If people want to do something fun, make sure to allow room for it, but don’t force it.