How to Create a Great Team out of Unique Individuals
How to Create a Great Team out of Unique Individuals
If this was a speaking presentation to, say, 50 people, I would be making 50 presentations. Each person in my audience would be hearing something different.
When you communicate with your staff, each of them receives that information differently, based on their own unique perspective.
Every human being is unique in the course of human history. Every person is born with a unique set of skills, abilities and talents. These are developed through a set of unique life experiences.
The uniqueness doesn't stop there. The recipient,including you, of any communication is on two main journeys. One is during the course of daily geographic travels between waking up and going to bed. Only some of that journey is in the workplace. The other will be an experiential journey from yesterday to tomorrow. Your message will be greatly influenced by what is significant in those journeys.
What does all this mean for you as a manager?
You readily embrace people's difference when it comes to determining the needs of your customers. But it isn't so easy when it comes to managing employees. Many bosses simply say that's the way we do things here and you can take it or leave it.
As a manager, are you therefore supposed to treat each employee individually? No more so than in the way you deal with customers. Just as your business success depends on respecting that each buyer is different, so you need to respect that each member of staff is different.
And you really wouldn't want all your staff to be the same. In a world of knowledge management, business thrives on the diversity of thinking.
Successful managers embrace diversity in their staff positively and with enthusiasm. They see the people in their business like a mosaic. The pleasure of an attractive mosaic is found in the overall picture, based on a creative arrangement of separate pieces. The excellent manager respects, acknowledges and encourages any process that promotes individual diversity to maximize corporate productivity.
Instead of a pyramid organization chart,with the CEO at either the top or the bottom of the pyramid, we need sometimes to see the organization as a flat line structure, showing all staff as equals, irrespective of their corporate status. The flat line approach highlights staff as unique beings, sharing part of their personal journeys for differing reasons and lengths of time. Round table discussions can do much to increase the harmony between personal dreams and corporate goals.
Now comes the acid test of this article. I wonder how you received it, what it meant to you, and how/if it will change your thinking in any way about managing staff? I wonder where you are in your life journey and what in that journey brought you to read this article? Whatever your answers, I wish you well in your personal journey and in your efforts as a manager to harmonize your personal goals and those of your staff with the goals of the business.
How to Create a Great Team out of Unique Individuals - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Nicholls's Website.
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You are reading this article differently to any other reader. You will see the same words but they will have different meanings and interpretations to those perceived by anyone else - including me!
If this was a speaking presentation to, say, 50 people, I would be making 50 presentations. Each person in my audience would be hearing something different.
When you communicate with your staff, each of them receives that information differently, based on their own unique perspective.
Every human being is unique in the course of human history. Every person is born with a unique set of skills, abilities and talents. These are developed through a set of unique life experiences.
The uniqueness doesn't stop there. The recipient,including you, of any communication is on two main journeys. One is during the course of daily geographic travels between waking up and going to bed. Only some of that journey is in the workplace. The other will be an experiential journey from yesterday to tomorrow. Your message will be greatly influenced by what is significant in those journeys.
What does all this mean for you as a manager?
You readily embrace people's difference when it comes to determining the needs of your customers. But it isn't so easy when it comes to managing employees. Many bosses simply say that's the way we do things here and you can take it or leave it.
As a manager, are you therefore supposed to treat each employee individually? No more so than in the way you deal with customers. Just as your business success depends on respecting that each buyer is different, so you need to respect that each member of staff is different.
And you really wouldn't want all your staff to be the same. In a world of knowledge management, business thrives on the diversity of thinking.
Successful managers embrace diversity in their staff positively and with enthusiasm. They see the people in their business like a mosaic. The pleasure of an attractive mosaic is found in the overall picture, based on a creative arrangement of separate pieces. The excellent manager respects, acknowledges and encourages any process that promotes individual diversity to maximize corporate productivity.
Instead of a pyramid organization chart,with the CEO at either the top or the bottom of the pyramid, we need sometimes to see the organization as a flat line structure, showing all staff as equals, irrespective of their corporate status. The flat line approach highlights staff as unique beings, sharing part of their personal journeys for differing reasons and lengths of time. Round table discussions can do much to increase the harmony between personal dreams and corporate goals.
Now comes the acid test of this article. I wonder how you received it, what it meant to you, and how/if it will change your thinking in any way about managing staff? I wonder where you are in your life journey and what in that journey brought you to read this article? Whatever your answers, I wish you well in your personal journey and in your efforts as a manager to harmonize your personal goals and those of your staff with the goals of the business.
How to Create a Great Team out of Unique Individuals - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Nicholls's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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