When it comes to putting together your team, one of the most critical resources you will need will be personnel. Certainly, you will need to have sufficient numbers of personnel to accomplish your goal. It is not necessarily quite so easy to determine.

Obviously, finances are a consideration when it comes to determining how many team members you can afford to have. Of course, as always, you must remember that it is damaging to your long term success if you try to achieve certain goals that may be unrealistic based upon the team you can afford to have. If necessary, shorten or lessen your goals in a way that will make them achievable for the team that you wish to develop. Long term growth will allow you to achieve bigger goals once you can afford more team members. 

However, the size of your team is only one element of evaluating your personnel needs when it comes to building your team. In many situations, the number of people on your team may often be less important than the quality, experience, and education of the members of your team. Again, assessing the types of team members that you need goes back to examining your goals for the team. 

If you are starting your team from scratch, make a list of the qualities that you will need for your team members to achieve your goals for the team. Some of these characteristics may apply to everyone on the team while some of them may only apply to one or two members of the team. A SWAT team will determine one or two individuals who will be the primary and secondary negotiators; while all members of the team are likely to receive some training in case they need to step in and negotiate, the reality is that they will not all be equally suited to the task. This is the case for many specialized fields. The more niches a position has, the more likely it is that you will have limited resources for that position. Consequently, you need to define how many people you need and can reasonably expect to find that will fulfill the requirements of each position that you determine to be necessary to the success of your team.

Determining how many and what types of team members that you will need may require some input from others in your field or help from a consultant. There may be some considerations that you have not given any thought to but may be critical for the success of your team.

So once you know how many members of your team are required to achieve your goals as well as all of the positions necessary to achieve team success, you can move forward with the team building process, ensuring that each of those positions is filled with the right individuals for each job.

In addition to the skills, education, and experience of your staff, there is yet another element to consider when building a team from scratch or when replacing a team member or expanding a team. In an ideal world, we would all be able to interact professionally all of the time, regardless of differences of opinion or even personality. In reality, that is a pipe dream. To achieve the most success from your team, you need to have a team dynamic that works. This means that all of the team members need to be able to get along with each other and interact in a productive, effective, and efficient way. This does not mean that all team members need to be alike. In fact, sometimes what a team needs most is someone who will come from a completely different perspective, or who has a different method of communicating, or brings some other needed jolt to the existing members of the team. It does mean, however, that when building the team you will need to consider compatible characteristics, personality traits, communication styles, and so on. Team members do not all need to be the same but if you know that the team as a whole will not respond positively to certain styles or individuals, that should play a role in how you decide to bring new members into the team.

When interviewing or screening for potential members of a team, have a list of not only the skills and expertise that you will need the person to bring but also what type of personality or style will work well with your existing team. There are likely to be some growing pains any time a new team member is brought on and that is perfectly acceptable. However, if you know that a particular individual you are considering to fill a position is likely to be met with long term or considerable resistance, it does not do anyone any favors for you to try to force them into the existing team. Of course, it is always worth considering if that is the case, you may have some issues worth addressing with your existing team. 

Now it comes down to finding and recruiting members of your team. You know what you are looking for and what you do not want, so it is time to find it. Depending upon your goals for the team, the specialty of the position, and so forth, you may be able to find the team member that you are looking for rapidly or it may take longer. Again, if you are looking for an additional team member to be part of your crew painting houses, your needs should be easier to fill and placing a job listing in the local newspaper will likely be all that is required. Alternatively, if you are looking for someone experienced and trained in hostage release, you are likely to have to go another route. A recruiter may be required and you will have to consider what on your ideal list of qualities the person should have might be negotiable to fill the position. Even when the time constraint is an issue, it is critical to fill important positions with the right person, even if it takes longer to find.