Work together as ONE
There’s a phrase that says “teamwork makes the dream work,” and yes, it might be cliche, but regardless of that, there’s a lot of truth to it. When you work together as one, as a team, and rely on each other’s strengths, you’re all able to shine while being the best that you can be.
There might be someone on your team that has a large variety of talents, but when they take on more responsibility than they can handle or don’t let other team members work in areas that they excel at, then it might lead to problems with the culture and the ability to complete the task in the right way.
Think of it this way – if you have too many “superstars” or “superheroes” on the team and not enough people that act as the glue, then the team can fall apart. When you work as a team, then each individual can take on a task, and help get the ball rolling towards the universal goal of the company.
Build Upon Each Other’s Strengths
We see superheroes as someone that can do it all. The most common ones I can think of are the Avengers. Captain America has strength, speed, fast reflexes, and senses. Iron Man has the agility and flying abilities. The Hulk has super strength. Lastly, Black Widow doesn’t have any superpowers but she’s one of the most well-trained humans out there. Now, each of these individuals is great on their own, but when you have them work together as a team, they are unstoppable.
In a real-world environment, if a company has too many superheroes and they’re not working together as one, it can lead to failure, goals not being accomplished or even worse.
By knowing your role (what you excel in) then you can focus on becoming the best person for that role. Let’s say you’re in charge of the marketing department. Rather than having five people that are mediocre at graphic design, have someone that is a design expert and can focus on the graphic design tasks. Other members of the team then can focus on each of their own specialties, say typography or color palettes.
As we talked about previously, finding complementary strengths for your team may be a better way to succeed than trying to find ways to improve your team’s weaknesses. By finding teammates who get lost in doing the things that others find tedious or intimidating can help everyone focus on what they do well and keep the organization moving forward.
Sometimes teams can have people who want to get the glory – score the goal, close the deal, find the critical data or insight. My philosophy for teams I have led and coached has always been, “I do not care if YOU score a goal, I care that WE score a goal.” If we can all focus on the larger goal of winning versus a personal goal of scoring, we are aligned, and often the personal goals are achieved along the way. In college lacrosse this year, the University of Maryland had the best player in the nation on their team, but their team was always talked about as being unselfish. The players often made another pass before scoring a goal, recognizing that the next guy might have the marginally better shot than the previous guy. This team play leads them to a national championship and an undefeated season. Other teams, with great recruiting classes who got many 5-star recruits, this year did not even make it into the final tournament. I don’t know for sure, but it begs the question, were they unable to get their superstars to play as a team?
Superstars are people who are relied on to score the goal, do the work, etc. Sometimes when we have these people on our teams, others will just stop to watch and wait for them to do the work. I see this sometimes in lacrosse. Often times there is a dominant scorer, and everyone just gets him the ball, and by everyone, I mean coaches and players, so that that person with his wicked shot can score the goal and the team can win. But what happens when that player gets injured or is unable to play? The rest of the team has become so reliant on that person, that they have let their fundamental skills wane and they are unable to perform. They stopped practicing moving and getting open because they knew that all they had to do was get the ball to the superstar and he would carry the load. Now all of a sudden they are required to step back in and score their own goals, make good passes to their teammates, etc.
Assemble the Right Team
It can be confusing knowing where to start with this process. Here at Tackship Consulting, we can help your team discover and implement their strengths into their everyday tasks. Whether restructuring or transitioning employees into other roles where they’d shine the best, we are here to help you.
Activate your passion, and optimize your performance with Tackship Consulting. To learn more, schedule your free consultation today.