Your business needs great workers, as a music band needs great musicians. Great bands are formed of great musicians with a common purpose (making good music and, if possible, a living from that). A business team is also a group of different individuals who share a commitment to working together to achieve common goals.

All teams are group of individuals, but all groups of individuals not necessarily demonstrate the cohesiveness of a team. Working together as teams transforms the groups of individuals (in a band or in a business) into committed and successful groups.

Teams outperform individuals because teams generate a special energy. This happens a lot with bands: the members of the team are never as popular as solo artists as they are together as a band. Think about The Beatles:  Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, they all had solo careers with successful hits, but they were never as successful as when they were The Beatles.

TEAM FORMATION

Team formation involves:

  • Identifying the functions required to support the team’s assignment
  •  Determining the team’s size
  • Selecting the right teamwork members

Identifying the functions of the team

The first step is to define your project. Which is the purpose of it? What do you want to do now? Building a brand? Selling your products? Creating a band? What kind of music are you playing?

Each member of the team has to have a predefined function and responsibility for the success of the project. All the aspects of the project must be covered by the members of the team. Think and plan all the possible steps you need to walk to reach the end of the walk: do you have the tools to do it? Do you need to learn them? Can you hire a specialist?

For example, if you want to be a band, write all your objectives and the path you’re using, all the responsibilities and tasks of each member and sign it as a contract. Who are your band members? What is the role of each member of the band? How are you marketing? Social Media and technology plays now a disruptive role in marketing music. Any of the members needs to be in charge of feeding Social Media, or you need to find a friend who is able to do it and consider him or her as a member of your band. If you want to learn a bit more, read the articles I’ll post about Social Media.

Determine the team’s size

As mentioned before, consider the team you need to reach success. Even if you’re a solo player you’ll need someone to help you: a manager, maybe also a friend to take you photos, a friend who helps you with Social Media…Maybe you don’t have money now, but if you know what profile you need to help you, you’ll find. Analyze the path to success looking at other people’s examples.

It is the same if you are an entrepreneur. What do you need to build your team? What profiles? Can you hire them? Can you associate with them?    

If you have any question, ask people. You’ll be surprised by how helpful people are. Learn from the example of others. Look for a mentor. As Bernard of Chartes (or Newton) would say: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants (and yes, it is also an Oasis album).

Selecting the right teamwork members

Each team or band has to reflect individuality as a whole. Each member of the team must be a valuable individual in its own. Different personalities can coexist but must be managed. The selection and the management of the members should be a responsibility of the manager.

The team leadership role has to be defined. Although members can share or rotate leadership responsibility, the person in charge has to understand her role. Members should trust each other at the work team level as they depend on each other.

All of us want to be part of something bigger than we are individually and team relationships fulfill that basic need, but when you are in the process of creating something new (a project, an album…), egos can collide and conflicts can arise. Differences in terms of power, values and attitudes contribute to the creation of conflict.

Bands (and any team) must remember that you need all the members of the team to build your song (or project). There’s an interesting interview by Mark Richards to Pearl Jam in which they talk about this. Learn from them.