2017 has started off with more growth on the horizon for our team. Choosing our next team member is tricky because my businesses are only as strong as my team. Our team works exceptionally well together because we understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. One of the benefits of having a strong team in the office is that our team members have become proficient at dividing up tasks so they are done by the most qualified people.
You’ve heard me say this many times: our team totally rocks! It truly does. But this didn’t happen by accident. We’ve worked hard to make our team fit well together and after years of many of us working together we can tell pretty quickly if somebody won’t be a good fit.
So what it is that makes our team shine? As we continue to build our team in 2017 here are four things we are looking for in potential team members:
Emotional Intelligence
Having technical skills is very important but I would say that emotional intelligence is equally important…if not more. When people are aware of themselves and are socially aware, I find the connections are strengthened on the team…and with strong connections there’s a greater sense of trust on the team. Yup, emotional intelligence is number one!
Everybody Sees the Bigger Picture…
… And they believe in it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of StaffStat or the lead recruiter in Plan A, our common goal is putting out solutions that make accessing staff better, cheaper and faster. We all get that, and even though our individual jobs are completely different from each other, collectively we are all contributing to the same bigger picture. Believing what you can’t see is definitely number two!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
There isn’t a day that goes by where there isn’t laughter in our office. Lots of it! Funny stories, harmless teasing, inside jokes…it all can be found in our office on a daily basis. We’ve used humor to create a positive and fun culture which has helped us build our brand, attract and retain excellent employees and appeal to customers. If you can’t laugh, you won’t be a good fit for our team!
A good mix of people
We have Gen X-ers, Gen Y-ers and Gen Z-ers, ; we have married people with children and single people with fur babies; we have introverts, extroverts and intro/extroverts. We have empaths, and bleeding hearts and we also have people who are aloof and pragmatic. We have dreamers with high levels of creativity and people who use schedules to get the job done; we have people who are laissez-fair and those who like things tickety-boo. It’s this mix and accepting people’s strengths and their weaknesses for what they are and utilizing their qualities to best optimize our office that works for us.
These are just a few things that work for our office. There are definitely more. Please share what works for your team!
Happy Monday!
The A Dot 
I definitely agree Sheri, You are only as strong as your weakest link! This is the very statement I used when recruiting employees for the very first year round take out & delivery model of a very new and Northen Ontario based Brand of authentic Italian, signature smoked thin crust pizza called Fired Up Pizza!
Shortly after our doors opened and having hired mostly teenagers seeking their first “real life part-time job” whether it was a way to earn & save money for their post secondary education, gas for their car or just having a little extra spending money in their pockets, these kids learned very quickly how to work together as a team and depend on one another to get the job done! Having each other’s backs and sharing in the responsibility of our operation where the main goal is to put out premium tasty products while keeping our customers happy only happens when the contributions from our team is in sync. When I asked recently retired long time business owner, Merv McNamara for some advice on owning a business, his words were quite simple, “it’s all about The People.” You have to have good people working for you and good people will do good work.
The community of Rayside-Balfour has welcomed us with open arms and big appetites! As a business owner, one of my biggest rewards is to know I invested in my community. Bringing business to an under-serviced area surrounded by old neighbourhoods and new subdivisions, a handful of other restaurants, a community centre/arena, parks and churches where creating jobs gives these kids opportunity and experience in life they can use as a foundation for future endeavours. Everyone remembers their first job, it’s a starting point for bigger and better things to come. Let’s just hope we all can savour a little taste along the way!
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