Tweet

Knowing Your Players is Worth the Time Investment

Written by: Marshall W. Northcott

Article Overview: It takes time to get to know the people on your team. Treating people as individuals and understanding how they are wired and what makes the tick enables you to meet them at their needs and coach them for maximize performance. Learn how to do this more effectively and why it is necessary, read on...

Knowing Your Players is Worth the Time Investment

The biggest favour that a manager ever did for me was taking the time to get to know and better understand me, personally and professionally. In doing so, he helped me see myself better and helped me change and grow beyond what at the time I thought was impossible.

Knowing your players has nothing to do with manipulation, using or abusing them or controlling people. It has everything to do with encouraging them, motivation, inspiration and helping them rise to a level of achievement that they didn't even know was possible to attain. It's about understanding how they are wired. Truly knowing who they are, how they think, what triggers their emotions and what spurs them into action.

Make it your mission to know your people as well as, or better than they know themselves and you will find it so much easier to leverage their strengths and work through their weaknesses. Find out what makes them tick, what their interests and passions are. Invest time, one on one, get to know them on a deeper level not just a superficial basis.

There are many excellent profile testing tools available to help you get to know and better understand people. Getting a clear picture of them emotionally is critical because it makes it possible for you to define what they can handle. What will they be okay with and what is it that will set them off? Are they emotionally balanced and can I count on them to handle things calmly and coolly when I am not around? At the same time, do they have empathy and sensitivity to the needs of others or are they so cool that they are cold to the needs of customers and co-workers?

Being in tune with their personality make up as a whole will help you to determine what roles and responsibilities they are best suited for and also make it easier for you to coach them in the areas where they need some assistance. Defining strengths and weaknesses will save you from making costly mistakes when promoting people or assigning important tasks. It will also highlight red flags that act as important indicators that you need to pay attention to.

Gaining clear insight into what matters most to them and what is most important to them personally and professionally will tell you more than any performance review could ever do. Long before you came into the picture what were the most critical life lessons from their upbringing and background? What do they hold in the highest regard? What are their personal core values? Where is the line that they will not cross? What do they believe about life, about people, about work and what are those beliefs founded on? What are they most comfortable doing in life? What are they apprehensive and even fearful of? Where and how hard can you push them for personal and professional growth without crossing the line? In and outside of work, what are their personal likes and dislikes?

Knowing the knowledge, skills, core competences abilities and assets that an individual brings to the table is of obvious significance. However, it is knowing if you can count on them when you need them most is more critical. Will their work ethic shine through, will they face their own challenges and excuses for failure with character?

Are they a student? Is this person open-minded? Will they consider a new idea or thought and give it the consideration it is due? Will they change if change is proven to be necessary or will they resist with all of their might?

Ultimately it is the face-to-face conversations that you have with your people that will make the biggest difference. Not only will you be creating a bond simply by taking the time to do so but you will be learning about them at the same time. Speak with them frequently. Make it easy and comfortable for them to open up and share with you. Listen beyond the words, search for meaning and put a solid effort into understanding them at the core.

"Invest the time, get to know your players and you will build a solid, performance driven team." - Marshall W. Northcott

Related Articles
  The Bozo Explosion
  Management's Guide to the Top 10 Differences Between Sales Winners and Losers
  Inspire loyalty like great sports coaches.
  Sales Management-Coaching the Team
  Take the Money Issue Off the Table & Sell More

Article Tags: Coaching, Maximizing Human Potential, Mentoring, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Training



Related Forum Posts
Investment Advisors vs Faciltators - Investment advisors provide advise to investors on public companies or investments. Leadsco is a telemarketing company for advisors - providing leads. Investment advisors will not put you in touch with investors. Violates compliance regulations. Facilitators are the best way to help you with strategy and offering for private investors or venture capital.
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Which kind of industries are you interested in? - Ecological or E-business or Investment or Finance or Management or Non-Profit or Retailer or others.
How to valuate a business - Hi Garth - here is how we did it at Northern Crown Capital when I was helping them raise venture capital for Toronto-based entrepreneurs. Assume the start date is 2003 so 2008 projections are 5 years out: How Northern Crown Capital Valuates a Business 2008 Financial Projections Earnings Before Tax $5,865,000 Tax Rate 42% Taxes $2,463,300 Net Earnings $3,401,700 Amount Seeking to Raise Today $3,500,000 Discounted Value of Future Opportunity, 5 Years Out 2008 P/E Ratio 15 Value of Company in 2008 $51,025,500 Discount Rate Applied 30% Year 2008 $51,025,500 Year 2007 $35,717,850 Year 2006 $25,002,495 Year 2005 $17,501,747 Year 2004 $12,251,223 Value of Company at Investment in 2003 $12,251,223 Less: Investment Amount $3,500,000 Present Value $8,751,223 Discount for Risk & Private Company 40% Less: Discount for Risk & Private Company $3,500,489 Private Company Value $5,250,734 Present Value (What the Owner Keeps) $5,250,734 60.00% Financing (What the Investor Gets) $3,500,000 40.00% Total $8,750,734 100.00% I hope this helps!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Avoid Burnout: Do the Limbo Regularly

Basic Operating Question (BOQ) for Empowerment

International Employment Background Checks

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.