Building and leading high-performance teams is key to overcoming resource constraints, which is the number one growth inhibitor for MSPs entering scale-up mode, according to an attendee survey at the Growth Forum, which hosted the UK’s fastest growing IT service providers at the Grove Hotel, on February 2nd – 27th.
With 65% of Growth Forum attendees listing time, talent and budget constraints in their top two growth barriers, panelists across the day’s four insight sessions elevated the importance of boosting productivity and engagement within existing workforces and fostering a culture of growth from the top down.
The emphasis on fostering the right mindset was a key theme throughout the event’s fourth session, which brought insight from Julie Bishop, Co-Founder and CEO of IT Naturally, Greg Jones, Senior VP of MSP Development EMEA,Sam Callaghan, VP, EMEA Sales, Connectwise, Jane Ashworth, Director of Strategic Channel Partnerships at Lenovo (pictured above l-r).
They collectively discussed the importance of culture and collaboration for fostering high-performing teams. Callaghan noted: “Cultivating high-performing teams comes down to high-performing individuals uniting behind the company’s mission. For us this is collaboration underpinned by a winning mindset - a hunger for revenue is also important for us."
In support of this, attendees voted that promoting a strong sense of purpose and company vision was their primary strategy for aligning teams with their growth objectives as 56% chose it in their top two. Ashworth added: "It is about the environment that you create, and that is stimulated by the culture and your values you promote as a business.” She added that this alignment should be a key factor in recruitment.
Jones adds that done correctly; this should cause company culture, and a growth mindset, to transcend organisations that have hybrid working set-ups. “People need to feel like they are part of a team working to a bigger goal wherever they are working from.” On this theme, he pointed to the need for goals and targets that incentivise staff across all company functions, not just sales teams.
“This doesn’t have to be the end goal such as commission from a sale,” he said. “Add actions and to-dos that you can measure and manage then check in on progress.” This requires an acknowledgment that different people are motivated by different things. Callaghan added: “I've got other people who are motivated by their giving back and philanthropy, people who want as much time with their family, and others who are commission driven,” he said.
Connectwise asks candidates in interviews about hard times in their life, and what got them through it. By understanding this value system, it can tap into what is important to that person and incentivise them appropriately. “If you can join up the dots between work and life for employees then you are going to have a really engaged and motivated team.” Implementing performance-based incentives and rewards is third on the list for aligning teams with their growth objectives while around a quarter chose it in their top two..
Despite collaboration being elevated as a key priority, this must be balanced with trust and autonomy. In fact, encouraging autonomy and decision-making within teams was the second most employed motivator picked up by 25% our attendee poll as priority. Bishop added: "Communicate that you trust your people and believe that they can do more than they think they can do. Often they will go much further than they ever thought they could."
Venu Gudimetla, Head of Marketing Development at Tata Consultancy Services, proposed effective groupings of teams that consider their role in an organisation’s growth strategy. He suggested: "The first group is runners; those who run your business today, know your clients, understand your day-to-day operations, and therefore can identify use cases that can be useful in the now. The second group are builders; those leading your product development and are embedded in product development and ensure the success of your short-term roadmap. They will ensure smooth integration of features that give you a competitive advantage. Finally, you need dream catchers that are looking five years into the horizon to make sure you always stay ahead of the market."
Personal development
Having trust in teams and individuals is key to overcoming the main barriers to personal development. With 58% of leaders in an attendee survey citing ‘managing time effectively and avoiding burnout’ as their biggest personal growth challenge, it is apparent that balancing the workload can be overwhelming. Building a strong team can alleviate some of this pressure. By ‘delegating tasks and trusting team members to handle critical responsibilities’, something 39% of leaders acknowledge as a challenge, they can create more space for self-improvement.
This requires leaders to slow down to go fast, said Jones. He pointed to the Latin concept of Festina Lente. “The key is to move forward whilst ensuring your actions are deliberate,” he added. “Leaders have a tendency to try and rush to a solution, but they need to take a more considered approach.” This is critical due to a business leader’s role in cultivating a passionate and growth-oriented team. Paul Colwell CTO at Wavenet said during a panel: “The team’s mindset must come from the top down. If you don’t live it and breathe it, then how can you expect the people you work with to believe it.” He was joined on a panel by Jones, Callghan and Steve Harris, CEO at CloudClevr.
The panellists shared their own strategies for personal development, with self-education standing out as the main method. Attendees elevated the same priorities 79% of voters indicated that attending workshops, conferences, or leadership training is their preferred method for self-improvement, reflecting a strong commitment to continuous learning. Additionally, 51% of respondents also engage with books, articles, or podcasts, further emphasizing the importance of expanding knowledge through various channels.
Harris also pointed to the role of peer collaboration including events such as the Growth Forum as crucial to growth. He said: “Learning with peers is useful. In some cases, we need to put competition aside and have a beer with our competitors because we are battling in the same arena. We're all doing the same things and if we can help each other along the way, and everyone can win, then there's more than enough market to go around.”
