Good Evening!
When I quit my day job back in 2016 to do SEO/Internet Marketing full time I never had any desire to be a manager of any kind, or have a team.
I planned to make a nice 10-20k a month doing SEO and just “live my best life” as the kids say.
However I kept getting busier and busier so I brought on my first person.
Then my second person.
And it has just continued to snowball from there to the point where I manage around 10-20 people (depending on how you look at it).
While I do have a little bit of management experience nothing at this scale so I have kind of had to make it up as I go along.
Its probably the thing I have the most self doubt about when it comes to my business.
I want to treat people as nicely as possible and not do the things that made me want to quit my job in the first place.
I find that the trick to that is to get to know all of them on a personal level and find ways to relate to each of them.
With some people this is easier than with others… and sometimes I drop the ball and find a problem after it is too late.
That said I think some important tips and advice I can give on managing a team include:
Set the tone – Make the workplace (even if it is just Slack) a place people like going too and working. For example one of our Slack channels is #random where we just post random funny stuff, and I post what have been called the funniest Dad Jokes ever! (Called by me sure, but they are called that… I wasn’t lying 😃 )
Communicate frequently – I talk to every member of my team every day… both about work and about non work matters. This builds a strong bond between you and each of them and makes it seem like you have a collective goal.
Clear expectations – Nothing makes a workplace more tense than not knowing what is expected of you/them. Make it clear to each person what they are expected to do and when. This is probably the one I have gotten wrong the most often, but I am working on it.
Group meetings – If you can get everyone under one roof that’s great… but if you can’t then just use Zoom or something similar to do a call every so often. This is something we have started doing recently and its really made everyone work together a lot better.
Gratitude – If there is one word that defines my last year or so in every part of my life it is gratitude. Managing a team makes this especially important. Let them know how much you appreciate them, their work, and the help they give you. They appreciate it, and they deserve it.
Those are just a few tips. Managing a team is the hardest, and also the most rewarding part of business, and if you get the right team working the right way you can accomplish most anything.
Do you work with a team? Any input on how to manage them and get the most out of them? Would love to hear about how everyone handles it.
Let me know in the Profiit Academy Daily Facebook group.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Best,
CMW