When building a team in your organization, you should look for people who:

Engaging people in your organization can be done in a variety of ways:

Non-governmental organizations are based on strong social ties and do not have to operate fully on the principles provided for business or public institutions. If you need the help of people you know well and can rely on, it makes sense to involve them in the operation of your organization. This is actually what the institution of association is based on: many such NGOs gather good friends around their common object of interest.

If you decide to recruit for your team, you need to think carefully about how to reach the best male and female candidates. Ask the right questions on the form, prepare a task that will immediately verify with whom you will establish a good working relationship. Avoid creating unnecessary positions.

When you intend to hire people in the form of an employment contract, you are bound by the Labor Code. During recruitment interviews, as when recruiting volunteers, be sure to ask key questions for you and your organization.

As your organization's team grows, it will be necessary to establish a certain structure: each of the people working in it will be different, so it is important that everyone knows his or her role in the team, is aware of the competencies he or she brings to the group and of the kind of help he or she can expect from others.

The assignment of roles in the team and the distribution of responsibilities among the people involved must take place in an atmosphere of free, safe conversation so that each person can take a position that corresponds to his or her competence, character traits and preferences. As a leader(s), in preparing for such a conversation, you may want to familiarize yourself with the classification of team roles, for example, according to Belbin.

It is important that your entire team is involved in the development and change of your organization. Therefore, the process of creating its mission, vision or strategic action planning should be structured in such a way that it involves all members of the team. If the people working for your NGO feel that within its framework they are doing things that are important and attractive to them, they will be more involved.

Remember, too, that not every member of your organization needs to stay with your organization forever - so if you notice that someone is losing interest in your NGO's activities, talk to him or her frankly. Perhaps it's just a temporary problem, completely unrelated to the organization, but maybe the person is no longer interested in such activities and it will be more beneficial if your paths part.

Remember to take care of the development of the team. All its members should have certain universal competencies that allow them to perform the basic tasks of working in the organization. Investment in the team's skills improves and makes work more enjoyable.

Male and female employees should be trusted. While this seems obvious, it often causes trouble for male and female leaders. After all, they are your team, your proven people, special people, chosen for their unique skills and experience. They are specialized in their field and ready to grow. Therefore, as long as they don't violate your trust, they deserve it more than anyone else. Remember that you set a good example with your approach, and an effective team must also rely on each other.

However, trust does not exclude control - the structure of your organization should clearly communicate to its members who their supervisor is and to whom they are accountable in fulfilling their responsibilities.

It is important that the whole team is aware of the progress of your work together. So it's a good idea to share tasks together, and then account for them together. This also raises your sense of accountability to the whole team, and after all, no one wants to let their own team down.

It will be useful here to adopt a unit of time, after which monitoring meetings will be held. It can be a week, two weeks, a month - it depends on the dynamics of the team's work. During such meetings, you should determine what has already been done, what tasks are overdue or have changed, and set a schedule of tasks for the future. In doing so, you can suggest that employees use tools such as a Gantt diagram, or at least the classic "to-do list" provided to team members and supervisors.

Crucial to good team relations and the smooth operation of the entire organization is the ongoing flow of information. As an NGO leader(s), you should keep your employees and staff members informed of the decisions you make, while they should report back to you on their work. Subsets of the organization may also need to communicate with each other. To facilitate this type of contact, organizations use different types of communication. For example:

There is no single recipe for the ideal flow of information in a team - you need to test different solutions, pay attention to the reactions of team members and let them use such solutions that best pass the test.

When flowing information, it is also important to give each other constructive feedback. In doing so, however, care must be taken to ensure that it takes the right form, as inappropriately worded feedback can negatively affect the motivation of the team or an individual.

In the process of managing your team and deepening relationships with your employees, you can't forget about integration. It is worth meeting with your team outside of work as well. A joint trip or at least going out for a beer can have a positive effect on the team 🙂

Also take time to celebrate. After a successful project, it is worth organizing an after party, and at Christmas time sit down to a common Christmas Eve table.

Care should be taken to justify the distribution of responsibility for tasks and areas of your organization among different people. It is also imperative that you take care to jointly define the consequences that will be drawn for failure to carry out the responsibilities assumed.

Remember that the basis of task delegation is a properly conducted conversation. The employee should have a good understanding of why he/she is responsible for such a task or project, why it is important, when it should be completed, and what the consequences of mistakes, delays or changes will be.

Delegate tasks in such a way that the entire team knows that you have a high degree of trust in them. The responsibility for carrying out given activities or conducting a particular segment of your work rests with a particular person because you all believe in his or her competence and professionalism and trust that he or she will do the job well and on time. The sense of full responsibility for an area that fully corresponds to a particular employee or worker should be a great motivation and cement the important role of this person in the team. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the consequences that come with accepting responsibility.

Each person working in your organization should also feel that if a task overwhelms him or her, he or she can (with sufficient notice) signal the problem and turn to a certain person for help. In such a case, she needs to feel safe - she should not be judged or criticized, but receive the support she needs and be able to continue her work in that department on subsequent activities.

Working with both a small number of people and a really large team, you need to find time to have a strategic conversation together, establishing your tasks and a plan of action. This is a necessary activity to make time for - so that each person knows exactly what you are aiming for as a team, what his or her role in it is, but also who is in charge of specific departments and who to contact about related issues. Remember - every minute of good planning saves you an hour of work!

Once you and your team agree on deadlines for completing certain activities and the common goal you are working toward, you must also agree on a common way to respond to obstacles. No project has yet been completed according to the original plan - and yours will not be the first. You can expect setbacks. That's why it's so important to develop a support plan when something doesn't work as it should.

As a leader(s), you have the responsibility for the success of the entire project and the good work of all components. Naturally, then, you become the last resort to turn to with problems. Your team needs to know that you are there to help whenever needed, but some boundaries need to be set here too. Each person responsible for a given task or area of work should know the deadline by which he or she can report a failure or problem. This time must be sufficient for you to establish and implement a Plan B.

If those responsible for their tasks report the problem in a timely manner, they should not bear the consequences for the failure, unless it was due solely to their negligence and seriously affected the quality of the entire project.

If, however, an employee or staff member fails to fulfill his or her responsibilities and fails to report it within the agreed time, you as the leader(s) should take the consequences for such behavior. It is important that the procedure for such action be written out in advance and known to each person on the team. This makes it easier to make such (unpleasant) decisions and is fair to everyone working in the organization.