Blog Archives
Jon Bon Jovi’s Take On Leadership…
I watched Jon Bon Jovi on Oprah’s Masterclass TV series a few months ago. I really enjoyed his take on leadership and wanted to share it with you today:
“You have to lead by example. You have to be a good listener. You have to be a good friend. You have to know when to take a punch, and when to give one. Share the spotlight and take the spotlight. Love one another unconditionally, but push each other more than anyone else would.”
Pretty great quote from somebody you probably thought was just a rock star!
Have a great day!
Is Your Team One-Dimensional?
One of the professional hockey teams that I follow closely have had consistency issues all year. It is hard to believe that they are still struggling considering they were awarded the #1 draft pick three years in a row!
It has become increasingly clear over the last while that there is one glaring issue that plagues the team. They have too many of the same players. The team is one-dimensional. The skilled players are very talented but are too small and don’t have grit. At least some players need to possess all of those characteristics.
This situation got me thinking about sales teams and corporations in general.
How effective is a sales team if there are too many hunters or farmers, or perhaps too many quiet reps or outspoken ones?
A good mix of players is an integral part to a healthy, vibrant team. The team needs to feed off each other’s strengths and support each other while improving their weaknesses.
What about for a corporation in general?
If the sales department is performing well, but manufacturing and accounting are a mess (as an example), there will still be struggles overall. If manufacturing is firing on all cylinders, but everything else is having issues, the company is still “broken”.
I have always been a huge proponent of “temporary job trading”.
Do the role of somebody in a different department for even a day to get a better understanding of what it takes to perform their job. Maybe you won’t get so annoyed with them, and have a new appreciation for what they actual do!
Work to cross-train employees so they aren’t so one-dimensional. There will be a greater chance of mutual respect within the team if they have a true understanding of what everyone else is doing each day.
Sports teams, sales teams, and companies as a whole thrive when everyone is working together. Diversity within a team is healthy, and understanding what everyone’s roles are reduces tension within the group.
Think back to the controversies that are often made public when certain superstar players don’t make an olympic or other highly competitive teams. On the surface it looks like a glaring omission. In reality it is a strategic move by the management team to put other role players in that position. A team cannot be made up of only superstars. It rarely works, and the odds are against from the get-go.
I really enjoyed this post by Carol Dougherty this morning. It is a thought-provoking look at teams generating ideas (or lack thereof). Enjoy!
Does your team generate great ideas? Are you open to all ideas? Do you encourage even seemingly off the wall thoughts? Does each of your team members feel they will be heard? Do they all come up with unique ideas or concepts?
If you can answer yes to all of these your team is rolling along well and is open to any and all input. Great! Unfortunately most teams aren’t operating in this well. There are several reasons this may be the case.
- Lacking Diversity – If the team all has the same job functions/ background you may not get unique ideas. When everyone does the same thing or has the same background they tend to see things the same way.
Solution – Bring in people who are outside of the area of expertise of the team. Open it up to internal or external customers and suppliers, or people from…
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Sell, Lead, Succeed! 