Managing my team as a business unit

I have recently joined a new team and I have been tasked to grow the team. The organisation is very interesting in that it allows you to fully manage your team, develop a structure that works for you and do your own recruitment. My team is a business unit. My profit targets have been given to me and now I have to make things work. Where do I begin. Mathew

Hello Mathew , well first of all congratulations on joining what seems a very flexible and robust organisation. I wish you well. I can see the excitement given that you are allowed to structure your team and also do the hiring etc. while exciting I think its important that you have some structure to help you so that your strategy is focused with a clear goal in mind. Since you are relatively new I would spend some time understanding the business and what it does. I would also spend time talking to staff other managers who have been there longer than you have so you get a feel of culture, hear the stories- successes as well as failures so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes. Like in planning start with the end in mind.

You mentioned your profit targets which suggests this is very big priority for you. Take time to think about how you will attain targets as well as the team that will help you get to where you need to get to. In addition think about the structure that works for you. Above you mentioned that your team is a business unit. This suggests that you are also accountable for managing the cost centre and making sure it is profitable.

There are many different structures that you can think about, yes there is automatic employ everyone and pay them a salary however this maybe very expensive so think about combining two systems – half salary half commission based on performance. This way you may find teams members are motivated to achieve.

In addition to structure also think about how you want to work and what type of team culture you want to embed. This is very important because with a wrong culture and poor behaviours your whole plan may fall apart; you know what they say about “culture can eat strategy for breakfast”.

Think too about aspects of how you will manage performance and how you are going to help your team improve as well as address the difficult conversations. As you can see a lot to handle and think through – the bottom line is that you have to be successful but make sure your successful with the right team working in the right environment and with the right culture and attitude. Good luck