Building a team around you

Building a team is the task of any leader, but building a team around you may not be quite the answer.

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We invited Steve Coulson to come and speak at Stronger 2022 about building teams. Steve had a background in Investment Banking, Strategy Consulting and a VC backed start-up prior to starting his own company that now has a team of 46.

“You have a vision, you have some plans, but building a team is what you’re currently working on and praying about.”

I’ve spent some time with Steve interviewing him on a podcast before and was really impressed with the way he has managed to galvanise people around a vision and launch a successful business. I am so pleased that he was able to come and share with us all and distil some of hard-won learnings in this area.

I am convinced that there are people out there for whom the next step is to build a team. You have a vision, you have some plans, but building a team is what you’re currently working on and praying about. Steve’s session is for you.

We will release the recording of Steve’s talk in due course, but in the meantime, here are a few of his insights that I wanted to reflect on with you:

1.Build around vision, not around you

This was the first of Steve’s points and I think something so applicable in all settings from church leadership through to entrepreneurship. This is how Steve began:

‘…I think Scripture shows us, the leaders of the church, and in particular, the lessons of the New Testament are encouraging others to pursue a vision that is greater than themselves.’

If you’re a leader and you’re looking to build a team, you need to invite people into a vision that is greater than you and greater than you all. There will be people who first come on board because they support you and trust you as you pursue that vision. 

“‘...as a Christian, the bigger picture is always God’s Kingdom at work in and through the person Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, renewing creation in our generation.’”

I’ve seen this when building the operational team for Stronger Network. I followed up some contacts to see whether people might be interested to work towards this vision. They had never heard of Stronger Network, but they had a relational connection to me and were open to hearing more about Stronger. So however people first get involved, the bigger picture is what will keep people engaged. As a leader, point to the bigger picture.

And of course, as a Christian, the bigger picture is always God’s Kingdom at work in and through the person Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, renewing creation in our generation. This reality is the backdrop to all we do in the different contexts we do it.

As a leader then, we have a unique role to play to remind people of this bigger picture. This is what Steve said:

‘A friend of mine is a fantastic visionary, and he's spent some time with some of the people that he's building something with, and they check in every three months or so. And really, the purpose of meeting up is because he wants to remind them of why they're there….and at the end of it, someone came up to me and said, ‘It feels so good. I finally feel like I've been plugged back into the mains.’ ..and really, it's your job as a leader to plug your team back into the mains of the vision. And you don't do it once and it's done, you have to do it again and again and again.’

A really helpful reminder for any leader, your primary role is to keep point people to the bigger picture as the same time as giving people clarity about what their role is and what they next steps are. So there is a strategic and an operational part to play as you build a team.

2. Hire against values not against performance

I’ve hired quite a few people over the years that I’ve led a church. I have had the privilege of recruiting, hiring and developing a staff team for 11 years, so when I heard Steve talk about ‘hiring to values’ I was extremely interested to hear what he was going to say.

When talking about ‘hiring’ this doesn’t just relate to paid employment, but also applies to onboarding volunteers, hiring employees, building a board of trustees. 

It was such an interesting point of Steve’s, and he began by first outlining his companies four values (insert your own values here, the specific values aren’t the important thing, the important thing is that you are clear about your own values). He then went on to say this:

‘We have four values and we are trying to build our culture and everything we do around it….and we've seen time and again, that you have to focus on the values because you're building for the long run. … we have to ruthlessly hire and sometimes fire against those values, protecting the culture you've got is absolutely everything. And if you don't  have a huge bar for your values, then inevitably they end up getting diluted over the course of time. So ruthlessly hiring against your values … if you don’t you are trading off short term gain for long term gain…’

It was very interesting listening to Steve’s passion for protecting the values of his company. He would rather hire someone who had an alignment with values than someone who could competently do that job. The premise is that you can always train the right people, but you probably can’t train the wrong people.

I’ve reflected on team building a lot over the years, and have had the privilege of doing it in practice. Steve’s point reminds me of the 6 C’s (not my own and I’m sure there are many more ‘C’s’ out there, but these have helped me). This simple framework can help you find the right people for your team. Broadly this applies across contexts, although you may need to do a bit of translating for your own:

1.Character (what kind of person are they, are they humble and teachable)
2.Chemistry (how do they get on with the leader and the wider team)
3.Competence (can they simply do the job)
4.Culture (do they get the organisational culture)
5.Cause (are they behind the vision)
6.Call (is there a sense that God is calling this person)

There was a lot more in Steve’s talk and we’ll share it in due course, but these two things might be helpful as you think about hiring and onboarding people to your team.