I’m posting this on the second day of April, also known as the day after April Fools Day. You probably opened a few trick emails yesterday and checked to see Google’s infamous prank-of-the-year.
It occurs to me that perhaps the world is out of balance. We…
www.openforum.com/articles/killer-crowdfunding-5-businesses-who-did-it-right/ -
Teamability for 10,000 Entrepreneurs made Open Forum!
I hate those yearly review bingo cards where no matter how you score someone it’s never high enough. It’s like living in Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average. Besides, with this system, all the responsibility for improvement falls squarely on the shoulders of the worker, not the manager. Here’s my simpler system, in three simple questions, which you ask directly:
1. Are you doing enough of what you like?
2. Are you doing too much of what you don’t like?
3. What can we do to change these things and make them better?
There is no scoring key. Just an open relationship between two team players who want to serve their organization’s needs.
What do you think?
1. You can’t lead the team if you’re not on it.
Soccer star Mia Hamm said, “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” True in any sport and especially true on the business playing field. The leader must be as much in the game as the players.
2. Identify and develop undervalued players.
Think Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s (read Moneyball if you missed it.) ’Talent’ is not just about skill and experience – it’s about teaming. ‘Scouting’ the resumes, interviews, and LinkedIn pages will give you lots of data about the individual. But in order to predict business success – no matter what the mission of the team – the right metrics are Role, Coherence, and Teaming Characteristics.
3. Know the difference between competition and coopetition – and when to use each.
If there were no Coopetition, there would be no draft, no free agency, and no player trades. And whether you love or hate the outcomes, Coopetition adds variety and produces better on-field Competition. But when you ‘team’ with your competitors in hopes of mutual benefit, you had better stay on the high road. In this highly networked world, playing dirty tricks or trashing the competition is not just bad for business – it can have lethal impact on future opportunities.
Let’s make this the year that the winners’ circle starts spinning again!
Someone is asking for a manager who is “a big picture visionary with great attention to detail.” This is the job description equivalent of expecting someone to be far sighted and near sighted at the same time. My optometrist once let me try on contact lenses purported to replace progressive lenses (which are the stylish upgrade for old-fashioned trifocals.) It was an amazing experience – everything near became more near (and hence more fuzzy) and everything far became further (and a total blur.) While it was fine for remembering the 60′s (only kidding, kids, Mom did not do that stuff) it was not very good for doing anything of consequence. Nor would any manager who actually fit that description.
If you didn’t play with other kids when you were young, I don’t know how you learn this. I don’t mean organized sports, either. I mean when you have a street full of kids and school is out and there’s nothing but the collective imagination. Someone comes up with a huge idea that seems impossible, so someone else riffs on that with rapid-fire thoughts, and another one shapes up the best of those ideas, then a couple more kids get it going. One runs to get the stuff you need for the game and when you don’t have the right stuff, someone else figures out how to make it work. Another kid makes sure everyone knows what the game is about, someone else fixes the little annoying stuff that doesn’t work and, if you’re lucky, you have the one kid who can remember how it all worked out and how much fun you had.
That’s how my team’s playing!
I had a friend who loved to have given a dinner party.
No, there isn’t a grammatical error in that sentence. She loved it when it was over, basking in the afterglow of a wonderful evening. But she really didn’t enjoy the rush of prepping five dishes on a…
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When I started this blog, I learned that not everyone knows what a trep is. Even some entrepreneurs.
The most interesting thread in the comments I got from people was that they associated ‘trep’ with trepidation.
Let me distinguish those two words with a…
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No, that’s not a typo on ‘Happy’. It’s how I celebrate Labor Day.
There was a time when I celebrated it the usual way, joining my union in some sort of rally or march. (I can’t really remember that far back. I had a boring job so I became the grievance…
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