Who’s On Your Bus?
Rick T. from Chicago wrote: In my startup I have five team members plus myself. Three of them meet their targets every week outperforming the other two. It creates conflict that’s affecting morale. They’re all talented and good people, but there’s a change I have to make. What say you?
Rick’s dilemma is a common one for new founders. Nick Saban, one of the greatest college football coaches in history, created many championship teams. As with many great coaches, his advice on leadership and team building ring true for businesses as well.
Saban claims that a big part of being a leader is the ability to communicate performance standards. During his team selection process Saban makes his expectations very clear from the start.
Team chemistry is important. Saban’s view is that mediocre people don’t like high achievers and vice versa. Mediocre people and high achievers don’t mix well. They won’t like each other.
Saban goes on to say, (and I paraphrase), that the team players on “your bus” (your team) need to be aligned to the performance standards you set. Getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus is one of the hardest jobs of leadership. But it’s got to happen.
An organization’s success is due to having team members committed to being personally accountable for meeting the standards of the org. Without everyone’s full buy in, you have no alignment, no success.
Bottom line: Know your standards for excellence. Communicate those standards. Hire team members who will hold themselves accountable to those standards.
Trouble creating, communicating and holding folks on your team accountable? We need to talk! Contact me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com
Building teamwork is a relatively untapped activity because it’s hard to measure. There are other worries to attend to in the early stages of a startup that may seem more important – funding, customer satisfaction, marketing, technology etc. But without establishing a good sense of teamwork early on, you are putting your company on defense.
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