How to Build the Ideal Team for Your Project/Club

You’ve come up with your project idea and goals. Maybe you’ve launched your first initiative solo, but this brings you to your next big step: forming a team.

Having a team is so crucial to a successful impact project. Your team will exponentially scale the pace of your project development, complement your strengths, and help you reach a broader audience.

Here’s three steps to build your most efficient team.

Before you begin, make a copy of this worksheet to complete as you go through the article.

Step 1 - Assess Your Project

Let’s begin by thinking about your organization’s mission and needs. A project which organizes recurring fundraisers has much different needs than organizing a research project.

Consider the following:

• Type of Organization: What is the core purpose of your organization? Is it a non-profit, a tech startup, or a social enterprise?

• Organizational Needs: What are the specific goals and objectives of your project?

• Required Skillsets: What skills are essential to achieve your goals? Do you need technical expertise, creative talent, or strong managerial skills?

Write answers to the above questions in your worksheet. Understanding our organization gives you your initial direction to build your team.

Step 2 - Understand Yourself

As the founder of your project, it’s also important to understand your own leadership style. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses help you identify what you need from others to complement your approach.

There are 5 core leadership styles:

• Authoritarian:

  • You lead with clear direction impose expectations and define outcomes

  • Most effective when: the leader is the most knowledgeable in a team or team members are inexperienced and need clear guidelines

• Participative:

  • You work collaboratively with your team, making decisions together. Leaders usually have the last word in decision making.

  • Most effective when: you are in the early stages of project development - trust needs to be earned or maintained.

• Delegative:

  • You trust your team to make decisions independently. You delegate initiatives to separate team members

  • Most effective when: you and your team have tremendous experience & don’t require supervision. The team has clearly defined goals.

• Transactional:

  • You use “transactions” - rewards, punishments, and other exchanges - to get the job done. The leader sets clear goals and members know they’ll be rewarded with their compliance.

  • Most effective when: organization has established tasks and you don’t need to adopt transformative change.

• Transformational:

  • You inspire your team to achieve goals through a shared vision.

  • You encourage and empower them to achieve it and you serve as a role model for the vision.

  • Most effective when: organization is just starting with a lack of resources or when you require extreme dedication from the team to accomplish a large task with minimal rewards. It is also great to build long-term team loyalty.

To determine your leadership style, answer the questions in your worksheet.

Step 3 - Find Who You Need

Finally, you’re ready to look for people to join your team! Every successful team comprises a blend of different personalities and skill sets. Here are four key types of team players to consider:

• Visionaries: These are the ideas people who thrive on brainstorming and generating new concepts. They keep the team focused on long-term goals and innovative solutions.

• Doers: The hands-on team members who excel in execution and implementation. They take ideas and turn them into reality through diligent work.

• Reasoners: Detail-oriented individuals who focus on data, analysis, and logical problem-solving. They ensure that everything you’re doing logically makes sense and deduces the next step forwards.

• Bridge Builders: These are the unifying forces that bring different team members together. They excel in communication and fostering a collaborative team environment.

Match the above team players to your leadership style & weaknesses. Write down a name of someone you know who could fit into these categories. Again, fill out the final section of the worksheet.

The goal is to create a balanced and dynamic team.

You now have a much clearer idea of who to reach out to for your project and why they fit. Let’s begin building your team!