3 Truths of Leading Teams
Leadership comes with many challenges – most of them have to do with people!
You can have a strategic direction, a vision and all the systems in the world, but if you have the wrong people on board – you’re in for a challenge.
Years ago I learnt a valuable lesson which I have never forgotten.
We were traveling to an overseas conference with International Health Company. Surrounded by amazing people, the destination became very secondary. We had a great time and it was mainly because of the people.
Lesson # 1 – Get the RIGHT people on board.
In business, if you have the right people on board, two of your biggest challenges has largely been addressed – how to motivate and manage people.
Good people don’t need much management.
And good people are self-driven so there’s not much you can do or need to do to help with that either.
Wrong people always need picking up. One on ones, pump ups and the constant monitoring of performance that makes leading a great team virtually impossible. There’s just not enough time or energy to go around.
Lesson # 2 – Give the WRONG people a parachute.
You cannot go far with the wrong people. They become like a yoke around your neck. You’ve all had plane rides sitting next to someone negative and different from you for hours and how long and painful this can be (maybe you pretend to sleep). You don’t want to come to work and try and build something great with these kinds of people.
Give them a parachute and help them safely land in another position, in another land.
Next one….
Vision
If you hire the RIGHT people first, then work together as a team to build a business, a product, a service, something special – you will alleviate the “Change Issue” that many businesses back themselves into a corner with.
Let me put it this way… if you hire people by selling them on a vision of where you are going – and then – you change directions… you will lose people.
Sometimes you will even lose good people.
Vision changes and direction changes affect people, but only if they have been sold on a vision when recruited.
Lesson # 3 – Who Before Where.
Get around the right people and build a team with like minds and complimentary skills and you will find you can change directions with less effort and less fallout.
When people are on board because of who else is on board, it doesn’t matter where you are going.
You’ll never do anything great with the wrong people. With the right people, you can do anything.
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