A growing team is essential to successfully manage the operations of your business as it continues to scale. However, much like any component of your business, your team is only successful if it’s established properly. But where are you supposed to begin when you’re building and investing in your team? If you want to ensure that everyone in your workforce is in sync and focused on the success of each other as well as the organization, here are some excellent business tips for growing teams.

1. Get your employees excited to work with you.

Each member of your team needs to be excited and passionate about the work they do within your organization. In order to achieve this, it’s important that you seek out ways to boost their motivation and create a positive work environment. This may include:

• Meeting with your team members weekly to discuss progress, tackle new ideas, and talk openly about any issues they experienced.
• Actively encouraging team members when they do something great and relaying this achievement to the team as a whole.
• Being empathetic and asking your employees what the solution is when they encounter an obstacle rather than belittling them for not achieving a certain level of performance.
• Incentivizing them with rewards or promotional materials like business stickers. These types of items are not only keepsakes that your employees can place on certain work materials with pride but a way to help them market your business and feel like they’re truly a part of your progress.

When employees are rewarded for their hard work, they’re more excited to work for you. When your team members feel listened to, understood, and engaged, a great team is formed in the process.

2. Make sure that your team is in sync and singularly focused.

One of the biggest obstacles to forming an effective team is disorganization. Issues such as a lack of project management tools and the absence of a clear focus can leave teams feeling scattered and dampen productivity. The solution? Look for solutions that can integrate into your current tools, like Microsoft Teams OKR software.

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is an organizational, goal-setting system designed to help you and your team members stay singularly focused as you approach a project. This is achieved by setting up three to five objectives that act as your end goal and four to six key results, which provide you with actionable, measurable steps to take to meet this goal. When this practice is infused into a powerful solution like Microsoft Teams, your team can act as one and achieve your goals more efficiently.

3. Actively invest in your team members.

Although a team is supposed to work as one cohesive unit, the truth is that each of your team members is their own unique individual who has their own professional goals. To make sure that your team thrives, you have to focus on the success of the individual as well. This means investing in your employees by helping them set goals and providing them with work that drives them towards these goals.

This could mean offering your employees training and courses that build their skills as a working professional whether they’re looking toward executive roles or want tips for entrepreneurs that they can use to establish themselves as a business professional in the future. Or it could mean challenging them with more difficult projects over time. The more you invest in each member of the team, the more you receive from the team as a whole.

Putting together a team is easy. Building a team that works together effectively could be a bit harder. If you’re growing your team and want to ensure that they’re on the path to success, use the tips above to start giving your team the resources and support they need to thrive.