I start out real...
"We are not a good team."
Tons of confusion and perplexed look from the little dudes; some are even put off.
"We can become a good team, if each and every one of you plays your part: Not everyone scores goals. Not everyone can stop goals. Not everyone can play defense. Not everyone can pass. But if each of you accept the role that you will be given, maybe, just maybe, we have a chance to be something special."
Vince Lombardi, I am not, but if you think about it, it applies to any team you build.
The six things you need to build a team:
1. Everyone in the proper position.
People need to be hired for a position and understand the extent of their responsibilities. This gives them direction each day and enables them to work toward the goal of mastery. Every co-worker wants to have mastery over their job because that makes them feel fulfilled and a successful part of a team.
2. Everyone working toward the same goal.
Whatever your company does, there needs to be a unified understanding of what the goal is. Goal setting gives people a clear understanding of what they, and the collective team, are trying to achieve. Whether it is sales, new customers, unit sales, it doesn't matter, everyone needs to be working toward a common goal. When one person is not, the whole team suffers.
3. Praise when things goal well.
Humans like to hear praise. Not praise for praise sake, but rather praise for a job well done. It is part of the human condition, people need to hear they are doing a good job.
4. Direction when things go wrong.
When things go sideways, or someone makes a mistake, they need to understand why this was wrong and how to correct it. Once this mistake is repeated multiple times, you replace, or reassign, that person. They aren't getting it. But more often than not, once given this direction, co-workers respond and grow.
5. A joy for what you do.
There must be something more than collecting a paycheck. Whether it is the other members of the team, the camaraderie of the workplace, or the task at hand, people who find joy in what they do generally perform better than those who are collecting a paycheck. It is the responsibility of the leader to create a work environment that is conducive to this. For example, why does Google offer such a fun environment in which to work? Because they know this breeds creativity, camaraderie and the responsibility to get your work done.
6. A leader with vision.
Best illustrated through a big business example:
Heard on the news that Chipotle closed forty-three stores in Oregon and Washington on fears of a "potential" E coli outbreak. I thought to myself, "How difficult that decision must have been for the powers that be."
My wife responded, "I heard they didn't think they had a problem at each store, they simply closed stores in a certain radius where they thought they might have had an impact."
Brutal decision.
Think about the loss of revenue for all those days, in all those stores, until they finally get the ok to re-open. But what about the impact "if," "IF" they did not close all those stores and there was an outbreak?
I would imagine Chipotle leadership consulted a "Scandal-like" crisis counselor to make the decision to go wider than necessary and be proactive rather than wait for more possible cases of E Coli poisoning to happen.
That is leadership: not easy, not cost-effective, but great leadership... and morally correct.
Similar example of where leadership went wrong: the Georgia Peanut Corporation of America executive who botched a salmonella recall which then led to his own twenty-eight year prison sentence or the Blue Bell ice cream listeria recall that took too long and cost the CEO his job.
Tough decisions are not profitable, but they are the right call.
In sum:
The hard truth is not every team in the league can or will be undefeated; not every company does everything right all the time. But if the aforementioned six things are considered, a small business (or a 4th grade soccer team) is well on its way toward success.
This post also appears on The Huffington Post.