Team or Individuals
May 26, 2022How many books, trainings, pieces of advice have you been offered on ‘A+ Talent’ or ‘the perfect candidate’ or ‘the best employees’? From my experience, it has been a lot. A mountain of materials focused on finding and building the best individuals.
This tends to lead to competition amongst those amazing individuals. It is baked into our culture (here in the U.S. at least) to compete, to be better than others, to compare. In turn, our teams and cultures take the hit. How do you expect folks to work together if they are trying to be better than each other?
Every once in a while, we see great performances from groups of people. Groups that have great folks in them, but not that super individual, that perfect, standout person.
Unfortunately, far too many people, supported by the culture, upper management, the media, etc, focus too much attention on those standout individuals.
Crazy thought, but what if we turned more of our attention to the teams, on how all of our folks are working together? What if we spent our time with everyone, rather than just a few people?
We can do this, it may take bucking the trends and brushing off peer pressure, but we can begin to look at the team as a whole. Each individual has a contribution even if they aren’t getting all the headlines.
Start with observing each member of your team. What are they good at and what do they need support in? Talk with each member about where they are at and where they want to be. Examine how everyone on the team interacts. Do they work well with certain people, and do they need to improve some relationships.
The early benefits will include a boost in positivity within your team and culture. Your folks will get a renewed sense of welcome and belonging. They will also start to break down the barriers that are built from competing so much.
As the early benefits begin to pick up steam, your team will begin to accomplish more. They will solve more problems, more quickly. Eventually, you will end up with a team full of incredible talent.
Perfect individuals will come and go, but your team won’t care because of how awesome everyone is.
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