We often underestimate the importance of building world-class teams in our efforts to scale. You cannot hire one world class team. There are no hacks or shortcuts – you have to build them. But building these teams effectively is easier said than done.

Teams are a puzzle of different personalities and strengths that you must bring together to succeed. When you get it right, your profits will increase, your company will grow, and your culture will flourish.

Getting it right involves assessing and understanding the attitudes of individuals, mentality and personalities to match people to the problem at hand properly.

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Collection of Personal Information

I'm becoming more convinced that A) it's harder to change people's attitudes, and B) attitudes matter so much when we consider what it takes to build great teams.

My co-founder and I have put together some really great teams, but we've also missed the mark by not aligning people's personalities/attitudes and skills with the right tasks. Having the right people in the right places has catapulted us through every product launch, company growth phase and market shift. As your business scalesit is especially important to understand your people.

This information gathering process should begin during the hiring phase. Ask open-ended questions about a prospect's career. Are they generally optimistic? Do they take on tasks with confidence? What excites them? How do they manage disasters? You'll quickly discover that not everyone wants to be in an early-stage or even a late-stage startup.

Administering personality tests—although a less personal method—can also be useful for quick results.

Once hired, encourage managers and other organizational leaders to take the time to really get to know their employees. pLANNING regular checks or even quick outings outside of work (who doesn't love a midday coffee?) are great ways to make these connections. Note what situations employees thrive in, but just as importantly, what they avoid and any other personality drivers.

This information is an excellent starting point for matching employees to the right roles in your company. But at my company, Wistia, we found we needed a more formal framework to weaponize ours management teamthat took us to the American West.

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Pioneers vs. Settlers vs. city-builders

Not literally, but we took inspiration from the American West — yes, think Oregon Trail — to create a system to help categorize different personality types with business stages. This resulted in pioneers, settlers and city builders. Each has its own unique role to play and value to add to a growing business.

• pioneers ARE risk takers ready to step into the unknown. They will do whatever it takes to find something of value, and because of this, they often thrive in early-stage startups.
• settlers are more prone to risk. They are driven by implementing an initial structure and building a community around a guaranteed opportunity or idea discovered by a pioneer. But they feel less at home as the business grows and the “city” turns into a large “city” with more complex systems.
• City builders shine when tasked with building more laws, rules and roads as your company grows. They can help build and expand infrastructure that will grow with your company in the long run.

And every once in a while, you'll find someone versatile enough to succeed at every stage. Keep them as long as you can.

Each company will have pioneers, settlers and city builders. Regardless of the topic, the concepts remain the same. This system helps us match better EMPLOYEE in the right role for their personality at whatever stage of the company we are at. This helps teams and ultimately our business to thrive.

Even after nearly two decades of trying to unlock the human puzzle, we're still learning something new every day. But it is undeniable that when you get the right people working on the right problems at the right time, everything clicks. With great teams, you can move much faster and smarter as a business.

Entrepreneurs who quickly identify people work styles you have the best chance of getting the right people in the right places on the ladder. This doesn't happen overnight. It takes investment from leadership to know their people and put the right frameworks in place. But if you're lucky enough to put a team together with a good thing, don't let it go. After all, a business is only as strong as its team.