“None of us are as smart
  as all of us”            - Japanese Proverb

Is your business functioning like a
cycle team?

If you were watching the recent Tour de France cycle race you would have noticed how disciplined and coordinated the teams are.

Each member of the team has a job to do and each is a specialist at that job. There are those that are great at hill climbs, those that do well on the flat and those speedsters that specialise in the time trials.

Together they work as a team because the underlying principal is that you can’t be great at everything and that a lone rider has little chance of outracing a small group of riders who can take turns in the strenuous position at the front of the group.

It’s like that in your business. You don’t stand a chance if you try and do everything yourself. You need others to take the lead from time to time.

Balance your personality bicycle

Your personality is like a bicycle. The back wheels are your knowledge, experience, technical skills that power your effort. The front wheels are your people skills, social and emotional abilities that help you steer the bike.

Without good front wheel skills all the knowledge and expertise won’t take you where you want to go. The key is to finding the balance between technical and people, between data and emotion.

If your front wheel is too large and you’ve an abundance of people skills but few technical skills the bike moves slowly and little gets accomplished.

If the back wheel is too large you get all the speed you need but it will be difficult to steer and you’ll probably crash on the way.

Typically Drivers and Administrators are all back wheel, high energy, technical spokes that drive the wheel. Promoters and Supporters are the front wheels, tuned to people and negotiating their way along the road.

If you don’t want to do it, then hire someone who will

The key to success in business is to “hire your weakness”. Hire people who can do the things you can’t do well. The Rule of Thumb is, if you don’t want to do it, then hire someone who will.

Drivers need to hire people who can work with people and form great relationships and people who can do administrative tasks that Drivers find slow and tedious.

Promoters need to hire people who are detailed oriented and people who can take action and work to a plan.

Supporters need to hire people who work at faster pace than they do, who are prepared to take risks and who are ambitious and love to be challenged.

Administrators need to hire people who are good at socializing and networking, people who are active and results focused, people who want to win and communicate well.

Nobody's Perfect - But a Team Can Be

"What is needed is not well balanced individuals; but individuals who balance well with each other."

In my experience there are few organisations in any field of work where the major decisions are made by one person. Rather the running of any successful operation necessitates the collaboration of a team of people from different backgrounds and with unique personality and thinking styles, who interact as peers, pooling their ideas, judgment and plans.

The success of their endeavours hinges on the behaviour, talents, balance and cohesion of this management team.

There are two important elements to remember. The first is the recognition that human strengths usually bring countervailing weaknesses. The second is that some combinations of these roles have a greater probability of team success than others. Some achieve complementary productivity where others are likely to result in intra group competition.

You may have heard the saying "Nobody's Perfect - But a Team Can Be" and we have seen teams produce a quality and quantity of work far higher than the sum of what the separate members could have produced on their own. It follows that in organisations where priority is given to the selection, training and development of teams, to their psychology, motivation and composition, these organisations will outperform those in which teams are composed merely according to the functional roles that are needed.

Source: Dr David Marriott, internationally renowned corporate psychologist and expert in team and management development

Who are the personalities in your team?

The people in your organisation are your most important resource. Reliable, wide ranging information about your team’s behaviour will be the key to successful enterprise leadership and hiring in the 21st century. Here’s a general overview of the personality styles you’ll likely have in your organisation.

DRIVERS IN YOUR TEAM
Drivers are great at establishing outcomes and goals and moving things along. They like to take charge and will often be the first and last person to speak. Although this positive, ‘take charge, can-do’ energy can be exciting, Drivers can also be very ‘black or white” in their views. They have preconceived views of what needs to happen by when and will persuade others to accept their decision.

PROMOTERS IN YOUR TEAM
Promoters love group activities, meetings, think tanks and anything where they can share their ideas and talk. They are valuable contributors in group discussions and will support other people’s ideas provided they can get enthusiastic about them. Promoters can lead the group away from the key discussions off on a tangent. They do this by suggesting a new angle or a variation on an idea. Because they get enthusiastic they tend to over commit their time and as a result they often don’t deliver. They can often take too much on.

SUPPORTERS IN YOUR TEAM
Supporters are the easiest of all the styles to get along with. They enjoy working in a group and being a part of the common good and collective effort. They are not looking for personal recognition and prefer others to take the limelight. They are practical and down to earth people who will complete their assignment and follow through on what they say they will do. They can commit too much of their own time to help others, sometimes at their own expense. In a group they can often appear to be too easy going and not say what they really think.

ADMINISTRATORS IN YOUR TEAM
Administrators bring objectivity to the group. They are not influenced by emotions and they are the voice of reason. They are observant and good listeners. They can summarise the major issues and present them with clarity. Sometimes Administrators can be too negative and critical of new ideas.
They tend to under contribute even when they’ve got something worthwhile to offer. Because they are more conservative they don’t contribute to group activities as well and prefer to do things on their own.