A Practical Guide For Founders To Building A Strong Team
The Tale of Tenzig Norgay
Tenzig Norgay was one of the very first people to climb Mount Everest in 1953
Tenzing Norgay has been on more Everest expeditions than any other man, and he probably “deserved,” if anyone did, to reach the top.
However, Tenzig did not make it by himself. He had a team. It was the team effort that allowed him to make it to the top. Together with his team, they were all required to carry enough resources that they will need for the climb. The higher they reached, the more challenges they experienced. There was more snow, more wind and it became more and more difficult to even breathe because of the altitude. The higher they got, the more teamwork and team effort was required. It was deadly for any member of the team to be selfish and think of just themselves.
It was a difficult climb. Teamwork was what kept them alive. Eventually, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary (Another member of the team) Were able to represent the whole team at the very peak of the mountain.
What is your Everest? What are you envisioning? What is the end game for you and the company? It is exciting.. right?
Now, look at your team. Is it Everest-sized?
When a student is not doing well in class, whose fault is it? Is it the teacher? Is it the student?
There are three schools of thoughts to this question:
- The student is wrong. This student is lazy, he doesn't perform, he never pays attention when I teach. Look at him, he eats all the time
- The Teacher is wrong. We are 38 in the class, he doesn't even know my name. He talks very fast and all he does is beat me up. I hate him. I hate his class.
- The teacher is wrong. The student is also wrong.
Well, I personally don’t care who is wrong. Either way, someone has to take responsibility. Someone who is keen to reach the top of Everest.
The same is true for leadership — followership relationship.
The truth is, no one is perfect. We all make mistakes at different times and at different capacities. What matters most is who takes responsibility and owns up to their mistakes.
This read is for the one who wants to take responsibility, the one I like to call -the leader.
Nothing gives you power like presuming responsibility.
Once you presume responsibility, by default you begin looking for a solution. You focus your mind on the solution and not the problem. When we pay much attention to the problem, we magnify it and we make a big deal out of it. Once you alternate your energy to think “solution”, your mind will seek to understand. As one of the well-renowned principles of highly effective people: To be understood, seek first to understand. I cannot begin to emphasize how many times leaders take this sentence for granted. Seeking to understand is not listening to the context of the other and try to fit it in with your context. It is not pretending to understand and promising to do it in the near future. It is not being political and ask for your team’s opinion while infact you have already decided. It really means to understand the other. To understand their worries, their fears, to understand what is holding them back, to understand why they don’t see things the way you do, to actually understand where they are coming from. When you heavily invest in this, you will be able to communicate with your people in a way they understand you because you are coming from exactly where they are — mentally.
Now, let's get to more practical examples:
I have told John multiple times, and this is the third time he is failing the team. To be honest I am done with him!
Aye, hold on for a minute: You’ve told him? You’ve told him what? How did you tell him exactly? Here is something you should know, the biggest investment a leader can make is to invest time in his team. Why do you think John is making these mistakes? Does he mean well for the company? Is it out of incompetence? Or maybe there is something he is afraid of? And if this is the third time, why do you think it keeps reoccurring? Never assume you know why John keeps making this mistake. Make the time to talk to him. Don’t think about doing this after you’ve scolded him in front of the rest of the team. As leaders, we sometimes think our team knows what we expect or what we mean when we say something. To be honest, you need to say it over and over again. There is nothing like over-communicating in leadership. This also means over listening. You’ve got to really listen and sometimes just stay quiet, maybe they will feel comfortable to say more. If John keeps letting you down, make time with John and assess how ineffective your communication is with him. Sometimes when you look carefully John may be dissatisfied or hurt by something. You will need patience and wisdom to deal with this. People are fragile, use that for you.
Every time we agree on something, they don’t do it and so I end up doing all the work!
Ha! I hear you. And I am so sorry. But hey, relax. Let’s rewind and reflect back during the planning process. The planning process involves words and with different levels of thinking, each member of your team naturally has a different picture in their head. There is a famous saying “are we all drawing the same cow?” In every meeting that involves planning and delegations you should always ensure that everyone or the key personnel understand the issue, the sensitivity of the issue, why is the issue important to the company, what are the pros and cons, why or why not should it matter? is it of high significance? when is the deadline? When is the start date? What exactly is expected of them? These things help you and the team to ensure that you are drawing the same cow! Leaders are interesting, because of the many things going on in their heads, they really assume that a single sentence will suffice to ensure the others understand what they mean. Well, they don’t! Communicate for god’s sake! When days are getting by, it is very okay to pop in and ask what’s going on if there is little movement. “Hey Joe, we are due next week on that project, any progress yet? Is there something you need me to do? If you won’t make any progress by the 3rd of this month, I will have to intervene, please put it as a high priority”. Simple as that! I have met a lot of leaders who just put their toes on issues they already delegated, and they may never ever know it, but it is very hurtful. I agree your people may lack a sense of urgency, or they may not be able to do it as well as you do it, but you should always involve them in the process, it is their duty after all. When your team sees this pattern of behavior from you, they will never take any job you give them seriously. they will feel like you will redo it all over again or you will just do all the work by yourself. STOP IT. It is killing the morale of your team.
I really think I should change my team, I don’t feel if they are competent enough to achieve these big goals.
Sometimes changing a founding member, or a person with the most shares is not as easy. But, in circumstances where you really feel like your team isn’t cut out for the job, you have two big things to do:
1. Grow yourself. This won’t be easy, especially when you have a million other things to do, however, this law of the lid may serve as a gentle reminder as to why this should be your ultimate priority.
You are so busy doing the day-to-day operations that you do not feel the need to grow yourself? This is dangerous. You have to make time to grow, infact this should be your highest priority. You need to ensure you are learning. Begin by identifying 5 key things you are terrible at. Get these insights from your team, spouse, or friends. Get them to tell you what is not right about you and build a strategy and assemble resources that will help you learn about the specific issue. Put practical activities for yourself to begin improving. You’ve got to set deadlines and have an accountability partner or mentor who will check on your progress and follow up on your commitment. When your team sees that you are growing and when they see that growing is a high priority to you, by default they would want to do it too. Infact this will make your next task very easy.
2. Grow your people. Leaders naturally focus on two things: The bottom line and the vision. The bottom line is everything that brings money and keeps the company going and the vision is the promised land they dream of arriving into. The Everest. However, they forget the most important thing that will allow them to get to the vision quicker and easier: The people. When a leader invests in people, he slowly won’t have to put much of his energy on the bottom-line issues. He will slowly not have to do all the work by himself. He will slowly begin to invest in systems that allow the operation process to go smoothly without his presence. As leaders, we complain a lot about our people not having enough time and not doing the right things, and not being able to prioritize. However, we forget that it is our duty to help the team to grow, to help the team remain focused. We do that by growing ourselves first.
Look, your team is your responsibility. If they are not growing you either cut them out or help them grow. Leaders have the weirdest definitions of “Help your team to grow” Some of them will say, I told them to come to me if they need anything, others will tell you, I share with them a lot of reading materials frequently, and some will say, I expect them to be proactive. I am not against all this but think of it as an investment; If you do very little, you will get very little results in turn. And some will say, but I chose to delegate the job and I know it will help him grow. Yeah, it is a good thing, but is this person really ready for the job? Because it will be worse if they blow up, this doesn't help them grow but rather cuts off any hope they have for themselves. When a team member goes through failure over and over again, it is wise to help them achieve a quick win that will build up their esteem. As part of helping your team to grow, avoid taking all the credit for any collective work effort. You might have done the biggest portion but what use is it to your team if you take the biggest portion of the credit? Give credit to your team, do it publicly and privately. As leaders, we naturally underestimate the power of praise. Acknowledge, praise and consistently award good things that your team does. Even if it is the little things.
- Make your people the highest priority. Be creative and genuinely elevate their value
- Understand at what stage your people are: Do they need coaching, do they need guidance, do they need authority?
- Embrace, accept and make the most out of the personality differences and understand the real reason behind their reactions and mistakes. This will help you to empathize and connect with your team a lot. (Use Belbin team roles)
You will always be biased in your judgment and choices without proper systems in place
I really understand that at some point, you have done everything in your power to help someone but it just ain't working anymore. Infact this team member is now becoming a virus to the team. Spreading negativity, complaining all the time, never really appreciating, and underperforming — consistently. It will serve you big time when you build proper systems. You need powerful systems to first help you with the recruitment and selection process. You also need a powerful system to keep everyone informed about what is acceptable and what isn't. You need a well-renowned system that will allow your team to measure, gauge and appraise performance. Be creative, figure out something that will work best for you and your team, and finally, you will need a system that clearly defines the actual measure and guidelines to undertake when a teammate is not measuring up to the required standards. Here is a full read about systems and structures for further reference.
I know. This is HARD work.
But the truth is, a majority of employees spend 10 or more hours per month complaining or listening to others complain about bad bosses — and almost one-third spend 20 hours or more per month.
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. Many have died in the mission of ascending this mountain. Of course, it is difficult. To make it to the top, you’ve gotta be different from everyone else and go the extra mile. Doing this hard work is the extra mile. It will be a lot more fun and bearable if you genuinely love your people.
The strength of your team really lies in the strength of your time distribution. Whatever you give more time, you will get more returns. To build a strong team, you need to give more time.
