Step 3: The Power of Team (Looking Outward At Leadership)

The single most critical role the entrepreneurial leader plays is that of facilitator for his leadership team. The degree to which the group behaves functionally directly correlates to the ultimate success of the company. A high functioning leadership group is like a fine oiled machine that can capture seemingly all opportunities and make excellent decisions. A poorly functioning one does the opposite and is destined to fail (with plenty of finger-pointing along the way).

Entrepreneurial leaders understand that synergy is not an abstract concept nor is it a fancy word to be marched out in presentations. Rather it is the extraordinarily tangible result from taking talented and dedicated people and transforming them into a team built on trust. They also understand that this does not occur naturally, but rather through intentional steps and actions that ultimately become norms for both the group and the company as a whole.

The peripheral benefits of creating and maintaining a high functioning leadership team are enormous. Members of high-functioning teams are far more loyal, hardworking and enthusiastic about the enterprise and the entrepreneur’s chances of retaining the individual members of the team over the long run are far greater than when there is dysfunction. This goodwill inevitably filters throughout the entire organization.

This stage consists of providing the entrepreneur with a wide array of tools and concepts which collectively begin the process of creating a high functioning team. It too is totally customized to meet the reality of the particular entrepreneur but could include (as examples) intensive retreat activities, introductions to basic group concepts, meeting agenda development, decision making models, existing group diagnostics, etc.

Groups are dynamic organisms and as such the entrepreneurial leader understands the importance of periodic check-ups and evaluation to ensure a high-functioning group remains so. This stage also provides the tools necessary to perform this critical maintenance.

Completing this stage will mean that the entrepreneur has taken tangible steps to creating a high functioning team (and begun to reap the benefits) as well as learned the tools to maintain high functionality. Furthermore, he will have set the standard for how work groups below the leadership level should function and behave thus maximizing those units’ performance.