Find the Right Startup Team Module Overview
Introduction
According to Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great, “the most important decisions that business people make are not what decisions, but who decisions.” No entrepreneur succeeds alone. The success of the business depends more on who you have on your team than how you are doing it. It is through teamwork and collaboration that you can achieve success beyond your expectations.
Making the right decisions about who to have on your start-up team whether they are co-founders, early team members, external advisors, mentors or coaches will increase the probability your business will succeed.
The most important metric for a founder to look at continually is the percentage of key people on the bus (i.e. in the business) filled with the right people in the right seats.
Overview
In this session we will cover the following:
In the first part, we will look into the critical importance of the ‘Who’ decisions at the start up stage
In the second part, we look into the characteristics of a high-performing team, and what a Team Charter looks like and how to create one.
In the third part, we will discuss who the Right People will be for your start up, whether a co-founder is right for the business and for you and what sort of questions you should be asking when considering whether to co-found or not. We will also focus on hiring, one of the most critical skills to get right if you want business success. We will examine the common mistakes and biases we should all be conscious of when we are hiring and we will share an example of a very successful hiring system developed by Dr Geoff Smart and Randy Street.
In the fourth part, we will talk about how to make sure your team member is in the Right Seat by looking at three key areas: clarity of role, figuring out how well-matched their abilities are to the role and how motivated they will be to perform the role.
In the final section, we will dig into how critical it is to not only find the Right Person, for the Right Seat but also at the Right Time. Questions such as do you hire a specialist or a generalist or whether attitude over aptitude is more important will be discussed.
Objectives
The overall objective is to help you reflect on the premise that who you work with is potentially going to have more of an effect on your business than any other decision.
As such, the best way to maximise the chances of getting those ‘who’ decisions right, is to think consciously about it and create systems/processes to support you.
Benefits
This workshop will help you:
- Gain insight into the characteristics of what makes a high-performing team
- Reflect on the capabilities, skills, mindsets and experience you should consider for potential team members at the start-up and early-stage phases of the business.
- Learn about common problems with hiring and gain an understanding of a hiring methodology.
Outcomes
This workshop will help you make the right “Who’ decisions to set up the business up effectively and take it through its initial stages.
Module Leads
Mark Farrer-Brown
Founder, Fit to Lead
Mark is a coach and mentor for entrepreneurs and the founder of Fit to Lead. Having experienced the entrepreneurial journey from all perspectives – as an entrepreneur, director, mentor, coach and investor, Mark is uniquely placed to help entrepreneurs survive and thrive as they go on the rollercoaster ride.
Mark supports and challenges Founders through Fit to Lead’s holistic approach to discover their true potential and become great CEOs who are built to last.
Mark is also a business angel and have invested in over 60 companies in the UK, US and India.
Jonathan Bannister
Founder, Strategist and Facilitator at Make Happy
With 25 years of experience working with individuals and teams from start-ups to FTSE 100 companies in both Europe and Asia, Jonathan facilitates a wide range of approaches to help clients develop innovative solutions grounded in strategic insights.
Jonathan helps entrepreneurs, business leaders and their teams exploit their creativity and collective intelligence to strengthen their business models, marketing and innovation programmes and organisational development.