Build a Team that Works for Your People

How much time have you spent building your team?

That doesn't mean a fancy outdoor course with ropes and ladders and touchy-feely conversations in the woods. Conversations are a useful idea, but you don't need the snakes or mosquitoes.

What you do need is a team that gets along. What you do need is a team that talks things over, that is able to reach consensus quickly, that can argue without fighting, that can embrace new ideas without trashing the old. You want a team that works.

People work best when they work well together.

Individual performances improve. Collective performance multiplies. Goals become much more achievable.

Build a team that works for your people.

How do you do that?

- Remove rules that get in their way without adding value to your product or service
- Challenge people to be their best and to help each other get there
- Delegate with authority and follow-up with diligence
- Measure what matters and ONLY what matters
- Find out what your people want most from the team and create an environment that makes it possible

Fix what bugs your people, and you can leave the bug spray at home.

-- Douglas Brent Smith

To learn more, explore Building Your Team

Comments

Competition AND Collaboration?

There's no avoiding competition -- or at least, when you do avoid it there could be unsavory side-effects if it's there anyway. Even when we prefer, and manage to facilitate collaboration and cooperation INSTEAD of competition there will still be some competition blending into the mix. It's part of who we are. It's largely how we operate. I didn't invent that, I just navigate it. How about you? Whether we are collaborating or competing we should do it with respect. There's no reason to disparage the competition. Calling your competition names just makes you a name-caller. It doesn't make you a better competitor. So go ahead and compete if that's the nature of your game. But mix a bit of collaboration and cooperation in there and see how that improves your results. Your support team just might be larger than you think! -- doug smith

Problem Solving and the Root Cause

How much time do you spent identifying the root cause of a problem? It's a risk to assume that we know the real problem, that the root cause is obvious. Sometimes it takes a harder look. Sometimes understanding the root causes of a problem is more important than solving it. Options open. Possibilities abound. Chances emerge. Perspective clears. Solving a problem? Get a good look at that root cause! -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

No Complete Failure

"Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker." -- Zig Zigler You know that we can learn from our mistakes. You might also know that failure carries many valuable lessons. I like the expression that comes from NLP (Neurolistic Programing) "there is no failure, only feedback." There's always something to learn. Any effort that results in learning is not a complete failure. So it's up to us. While we would never choose to fail at anything (oh horrors!) sometimes we will. Whether we learn or not is completely up to us. Find the learning. Find the success. What have you learned today? -- Doug Smith

What Can Be

What can be possible right now? Is there a problem facing you that you've been avoiding because it feels like there are already just too many things going on? It's easy to fall into an "all or nothing" mindset where, unable to solve ALL of the problems we manage to solve NONE of the problems. That there are too many problems to solve them all shouldn't stop us from solving the ones we can. If what can be is one solution to one problem that is a wonderful place to begin. -- doug smith

Small Steps

Incremental goals make geometric goals possible. Little goals get giant goals going. Whatever your goal is, break it down into something small enough to do right now. One step forward is all you need to get going. - - doug smith

Future Leaders

Guess what: the leaders of the future are watching you today. What will they see? What will they learn? How will they remember you? -- Douglas Brent Smith Developing Leadership Skills

Time Changes Everything

Do you sense the pace of change? Is life vastly different than what you remember it to be when you were a child? Things do keep changing. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not. As leaders, it's our job to facilitate change. We're here to lead others in the direction of improvement, for the cause of positive change. Not every leader acts that way, but some part of every leader does believe that they have the right changes to bring about. Part of every leader's job is to make certain that the changes we create ARE for the better. It's our strength of character that keeps our acts of courage helpful. To do that, we need to know how to best align our goals with our mission and our mission with our vision. We need to know what it is that energizes our people. And, we need to mobilize our people by inspiring them with an important mission to begin with. Change driven in the direction of our mission makes all the difference in the...

Practical

Build things that people need and you'll always be needed. Just remember, you may have to change how you build those things. People's needs change and those needs are often more complicated than they seem. There is also a power difference between "classic" and "obsolete." As hard as it is, leaders need to navigate that difference. Build things that people need -- practical goods. And keep improving how you do it. -- doug smith

When Comfort's Got to Go

Are you comfortable with something that's no good for you? I sometimes find myself completely comfortable with a routine, habit, or situation that I somehow know isn't in my best interest and yet there is something cozy and comfortable about the reliably consistent. Even when it's reliably disappointing, at least it's reliable. We struggle to let go of the reliable. We struggle to approach the unknown. We struggle to let go. Solving a problem may require you to change something your'e still comfortable with. That won't be easy. That might take some courage. I'm willing to work on that this week - how about you? -- Doug Smith

Five By Noon

Development Exercise: Write 5 goals for the day and achieve them all by noon. If it's past noon now, do it tomorrow. See how it makes you feel. Then, in the wise words of the shampoo bottle: rinse and repeat. -- Doug Smith

High Performance Leadership

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