What March Madness Can Teach You About Building a Great Team

The NCAA Tournament is fast approaching and whether you’re leading a team at your company or an agency, there’s a lot that you can learn about leadership and running a great team from the colleges that make the great dance.

To create great marketing and implement great strategy, try following these steps:

1. Grow Your Team. Do you have the right group of people in place to help you accomplish your goals? If not, you may need to look at hiring or promoting from within to fill the needed positions. Having the proper people with the necessary skills will make you stronger, which will make your clients and customers happier.
2. Train Your Team. Once you have the right lineup in place, you need to train them. Providing opportunities for your people to grow and learn will make them stronger as employees as well as benefit your company. Training doesn’t have to be limited to your industry either. Courses or workshops in project management, time management, or even communication are also valuable.
3. Define Your Goals and Metrics. Just like a college basketball team’s goal is to make it to the NCAA playoffs, your company should know what is trying to accomplish. Understanding your goals is one thing, but it’s also important to know how to measure them. Figure out what your KPI’s and goals are, and visit your results on a quarterly and yearly basis. Be sure to celebrate as your goals are accomplished throughout the year. Don’t save it all up for their annual review or Employee Appreciation Day, reward your team with praise, free lunches, bonuses, or other accolades as each metric is met.
4. Assign Roles to Your Team. Not everyone can play in the post or block shots. It’s important to understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses, letting them play at what they do best. Consider which employee is the right person for each role, even if it means changing people between departments or locations. Focus on their skills, and not on the person themselves, when assessing if the position they are in is actually the best for your company. This will give your company a competitive advantage – helping you advance and setting solid foundation for future growth.
5. Attack. Practice. Repeat. Once you have the right people, who are properly trained and know your goals, it’s time to attack! But this doesn’t mean you stop hiring and training either. Just like every coach needs to refine his strategy, you need to refine your own strategy as well. Setting a goal and having trained employees is not enough. Review and adjust your goals to fit your market or client expectations is key to keeping your team strong and on mission.  Practice with new marketing or training techniques, test new products, and measure your success to make the most of your championship run.

If you follow these 5 steps for managing your group, you’ll find yourself a champion and entering a Big Dance yourself.

Tags: Digital Marketing