Tips for building teams — inspired by Star Wars
For all the Star Wars fans out there, the force will be awakening soon! But what can you learn about business from Star Wars (other than…
For all the Star Wars fans out there, the force will be awakening soon! But what can you learn about business from Star Wars (other than how merchandising works)? Well the Rebel Alliance can save you from the dark side with tips on building teams inspired by the films.
In the original trilogy, things started out looking pretty bleak for the Rebels. Darth Vader’s grip on the galaxy indicated the destruction of good. But, by banding together, the Rebels put together a team that was able to overcome. Here’s how they did it.
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If you think about the original trilogy, no person was greater at bringing the right group of people together than Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was more than just a mentor, he was a skilled recruiter and a true leader. He was able to combine the passion and goodness of a young Luke Skywalker with the confidence and brashness of Han Solo, a loner outlaw. He even brought a couple of useful droids into the mix.
But recruiting doesn’t end once you’ve brought someone onboard. Obi-Wan knew this. He gave Luke the confidence and got him the training from Yoda he needed to become a powerful (ahem!) force against the Empire. Kenobi’s fearlessness in the face of adversity even inspired Han to stop fighting only for himself and become a member of the team.
If you are a small team or a solo entrepreneur looking to grow, maybe you can’t afford to bring on your recruiting Obi-Wan. That’s okay. Using a recruitment agency can be a helpful, cost effective way to build a team and help outsource some of the skills you may not possess.
Define your end goal and share it.
Defeating the Galactic Empire was a pretty obvious goal. It was also easy to rally behind (unless of course you were a fan of the dark side). Although your business may not have an evil adversary to defeat, rallying your team is much easier when you have a clearly defined goal shared amongst your team.
Whether you’re building teams for specific projects, departments, or your entire office, clearly defining and sharing your goal is crucial to bringing people together. Once the goal is established, it becomes easier to define roles and responsibilities. Your leader will then be able to assign tasks befitting the personality of your individual team members.
Celebrate your successes.
Nothing says “celebrate!” like an award ceremony. But even if you can’t bring entire planets together to celebrate a victory (like the after the destruction of the Death Star), making time to acknowledge the successes of your team is important.
It’s also important to recognise individuals for their contributions, like the medallions given to Luke, Han, and Chewy at the end of ‘A New Hope’. Not only does it show people you are aware of what they’ve done, it helps build loyalty and trust amongst the team.
Do you have any tips to add for building teams that you’ve gleaned from Star Wars? We’d love to hear about them.
Originally published at www.thesearchparty.com on December 11, 2015.