Building a Team That Shares The Vision: Strategies for Success

One of the most critical aspects of building a successful business is assembling a team that shares the vision and values you’ve established. When your team is aligned with the mission, they are more likely to be motivated, productive, and dedicated to achieving the goals. But assembling the right team isn’t easy, and it’s taken me 7+ years to feel “good” at it. It hasn’t come without firing or disappointment.

Step 1: Define Your Vision and Core Values:

Before you can build a team that shares your vision, you must first clearly define what that vision is. Consider your company’s mission, long-term goals, and core values, and articulate them in a way that is easy to understand and communicate. This clarity will serve as a foundation for finding and retaining the right team members. I recommend putting together a brand deck or working with a team like ours to build out a strategy for your brand. Having some “gut check” questions will help you hire the right people and stay aligned with the mission.

Step 2: Hire for Cultural Fit

When hiring new team members, it’s essential to assess not only their skills and experience but also their cultural fit within your organization. In the past, I’ve had a few great candidates for a position and the question becomes: should I hire based on experience or should I hire based on personality? There are varying thoughts on this but I’ve always chosen to hire the people that I thought I would enjoy working with the most. Culture is absolutely everything. If they get our mission and our values, they love to learn, and they’re hungry – they’re going to fit in well here. Teaching and helping them grow in their skills is always something I’m happy to have patience with.

Step 3: Connect with your team often to communicate the vision:

To ensure the team is always aligned with the vision, it’s crucial to communicate it regularly. Our team tries to meet about once a week (whether one-on-one in more working sessions) or as a group to chat through what we’re doing, how we’re improving or can improve, and how we’re moving towards the goal so we all stay on the right track. Even though I am the founder and creative director, I don’t want all of the ideas for how we achieve the vision to be my own. Some of our best ideas have come from encouraging open dialogue and collaborating as a team.

Step 4: Empower your team to also lead

When thinking through our core values, I knew I wanted ‘empowerment’ to be front and center. Liberty Type is not about Amanda Burg, it is about all of us, and I want to empower my team to have ownership of the business, the clients, and the ideas. Giving my team members the tools, resources, support, and autonomy they need to contribute in their own way has been a game-changer. One of the latest things we implemented at the start of 2023 was an educational credit. Every member of our team is given $500 at the start of the quarter to spend on educational resources that will help them learn and grow in their role. I want to make sure I am leading by example, encouraging constant knowledge, and helping my team feel fulfilled in their own careers and journeys.