One of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs is that they build effective teams. The most successful entrepreneurs and innovators we know have figured out that teams can take on many different forms and for many of them, the term “team” has a pretty loose definition. Their “teams” are comprised of a network of specialists, mentors, strategists, planners, attorneys, accountants, students, retirees and random coffee shop connections, the majority of which are on someone else’s payroll. Yet, they make significant contributions to the innovation that the successful, shrewd entrepreneur is developing or selling or scaling.
Generally speaking, you have to spend something to build a team. But, for most established organizations, teams are built by bartering for a certain percentage of an individual’s time in exchange for paying some portion of that individual’s salary. Projects get caught in the extremely frustrating loop of always searching for resources and talent and competing with other priorities and departments or projects with bigger budgets.
What successful entrepreneurs understand is that they can build an equally effective, sometimes even more passionate team by spending a different resource — instead of salary dollars, they invest time.
Now, we’re not proposing that every new innovation can succeed, or even survive, without dedicated resources. But, we are suggesting that a savvy innovator, working inside an existing organization, can creatively build out a team by investing time, as opposed to money.
Without doubt, there are individuals in your network that are specialists in specific areas. There are individuals, within and outside your organization, who aren’t being fully leveraged or tapping into their own creativity. There are individuals all around you that want you and your idea to succeed, and they would reciprocate your time investment with their own time, knowledge, skills, connections and ideas.
Investing time to build this informal, extended team isn’t difficult, but it does require planning and attention. It’s a purposeful investment in getting to know the skill sets and passion areas of individuals in your network; asking for referrals and then following up as they introduce you to new specialists that can become part of your extended team.
Consider investing 10% of your time in building out your team. You’ll get a strong return.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 via Flickr user: jareed