Some teams are great, others just good. It is not easy to qualify what actually makes the difference. There is no "magic recipe" and most of it is directly linked to the quality of the leader, his values, his ethic, his vision, his passion and his way to manage people and business. Thinking about what I was given to see and experiment, I tried however to list a few characteristics that should facilitate greatness versus goodness.
Success is all about people. Actually life is all about people. So you should start by the people, as it is the most crucial resource to build sustainable success.
Never hire cheap or low to protect your job, your position, your status or your knowledge. Hire the best people you can afford, no matter what. That will help you performing and going to the next level while establishing players to take over your job when you will be gone. It is not the easiest way but you have to create the conditions to challenge your-self to move forward.
This is always a tough decision to fire somebody, but there is no hesitation to have. A low performer who is not made responsible at the end of the day, after appropriate warning, training and meeting to help him getting back on tracks, could ruin your team and your credibility as a manager and a leader. The first time I did it was devastating for me. But I had to do it several times in my career and I know it was the best move I could do to put my entire team on a successful path.
- Train your team all the time.
The world is changing fast. Competition is launching new products. New technologies are appearing on a constant basis. And on the top of that, you have to make sure your team is sharing the same referential, the same objectives, common vocabulary and processes. To achieve this, training is paramount. A killer team that is not appropriately trained will not stay at the top very long. Consider training as an investment to keep your leading position. And so invest wisely on training that are really going to make a difference on the field.
When people know where they have to go and why, they can make decisions quickly, without wasting time escalating the ladder to get a decision from their management. Sure that requires trust, but keep in mind that trust doesn't mean lack of control. Over the time, control gets looser and trust gets stronger. Obviously people
will do some mistakes (who doesn't ?) and this is no big deal.They will learn more from their mistakes than from their successes. This is a fine balance to find, and I believe the only way to have an
agile organization, motivated people and a high productivity.
This is a key point. Accountability is the corner stone of an healthy organization. You should first be accountable for your own decisions. Don't blame somebody or one of your team member if you were aware of the situation and did not react, or worse, approved the decision. There is no alternative but leading by example here. It is only being your-self 100% accountable that you can ask your team to be. This will raise the maturity of the organization. No more "I didn't know", "It is not my fault"or "How could I know". Taking responsibility and admitting failure to next searching for solutions and ways to avoid it in the future is the best practice I know to build a strong team.
In my next posts, I will cover two other key topics, results and processes. These are the two missing legs to create a great organization and a stable stool on the top of this first one, a well trained, empowered and fully accountable team of the best people you can hire.
