Unit 2: Building the Right Team
Building an effective management team is one of the primary steps in launching a venture. Entrepreneurs must explore their personal strengths and weaknesses and then determine the resources needed to fill the gaps. Successful businesses require not only stellar executives and advisors but also employees who are a good fit for the company. Thus, anyone tasked with managing a group of people needs to know how to be an effective leader. Relative to successful leadership, managing is easy.
A manager must be able to delegate responsibility and make decisions for the team, but a leader must be able to influence team behavior. For this reason, motivation is one of the most powerful tools that a leader can use. A motivated team will be able to go above and beyond the call of duty. Using motivation is far from manipulation – just look at one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This unit will help you distinguish between management and leadership and will also explore human resource factors, such as recruitment and staff selection. The unit will also discuss employee assessments, emotional intelligence, and Tuckman's Stages of Group Development.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 16 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify and describe the dynamics of teambuilding.
2.1: The Management Team
Listen to the podcast. Mark Juliano discusses how to build a management team, which is perhaps the most important thing an entrepreneur can do.
2.1.1: Managers vs. Leaders
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to describe the different types of managers and understand the nature of management work.
This chapter explores the roles and importance of leadership, entrepreneurship, and management strategy and how these qualities are related.
2.1.2: Leadership Styles
Read this chapter to learn about leadership styles, effective leadership behavior and characteristics, and how to use leadership skills.
2.1.3: Emotional Intelligence
Read this section to learn about how emotions affect workers' behaviors. You will also learn about Affective Events Theory, emotional labor, and emotional intelligence.
2.1.4: Succession Planning
Read this section, paying attention to succession planning. Try to answer question 4 in the Exercises section.
2.2: Board of Advisors
This lecture describes how to create a winning culture among executives, board of directors, and partners.
2.3: Hiring A-Players
Hiring your first employee is a huge step for a small business. If your small business has reached the point where you need help because the assistance of family and friends no longer covers the gaps, you may have reached the point where you need to bring paid staff on board.
2.3.1: Recruitment and Selection
Read this section.
2.3.2: Staff Development
Read this chapter.
2.3.3: Team Building and Group Dynamics
Read this chapter to better understand group dynamics an what influences teams as well as to learn how to develop and manage effective teams.
- This article discusses how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your team through team-building activities.
2.3.4: Conflict Resolution
In this chapter, you will learn about different types of conflict, what causes conflict, the consequences of conflict, how to manage conflict, and the process of negotiation.
Unit 2 Assessment
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.