| Top performers are the best kept secret of a winning team. Losing team is not an option today. How do you make your team all stars team? How do you win, let alone survive in today’s reality? |
 by roy² |
In her Four Ways to Improve Your Team’s Performance Daisy Wademan Dowling digests New York Times article about Tom Donnelly’s strategy of building a winning team:
Spend as much time with the slowest runner as with the fastest.
Take away performance pressure by adding perspective — and fun.
Accept inevitable setbacks — and move past them quickly.
Let the team’s performance be its own reward.
It resonated with me so much I decided to share my stories too:
Cherish The Top Performer, Mentor The Rest
I have witnessed two common practices during my career. (I have 14 years and 12 managers under my belt, does it count?)
- Spotlight top performers. In this case top performers get all the attention, all the time. No time is invested in developing the juniors. The result usually was burnout for top performers and fixing problems caused by untrained juniors. The bottom line: you lose both.
- Train, coach, mentor the junior. The other extreme is investing all the energy into the juniors without making time for top performers. The most vague response I personally heard was “I know you can handle it, so why would I bother making myself available for you?”. Dude, you have just lost your top performer’s trust in you. You have just lost your top performer. How long would it take you to raise another one?
Spend as much time with the slowest runner as with the fastest.
Results, Results, Results
End results are all that matters. Almost. How the team gets the results is the secret ingredient. One way to get results is squeeze it, the other tease it.
Two short stories.
Once I was told “We will decide and you will just do it”. By the way, “we” did not include me. I could disagree and start arguing which would be a pure career limiting move. So I agreed but did it my way - which was completely different from what “They” decided. Yet in the end, I produced the results “They” wanted….
The other day a perspective was shared with me, not a very shiny perspective for the whole team. It moved me and I decided to go beyond what I am usually supposed. The move I have made helped a member of the team improving the overall team’s performance.
Sharing perspective worked better than just pressing me to work harder.
Take away performance pressure by adding perspective — and fun.
Motivated By Failure
What motivates me a lot when I face with a challenge, let alone failure, is a quote I found in Tim Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich 
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake - FRANK WILCZEK, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics.
Mistakes and failures are part of my life, the trick is how I treat them. I can go around and blame the world for the failure. Or I can change what’s under my control - ME.
Change the way you think, change the way you act. BOOM! Success.
Accept inevitable setbacks — and move past them quickly.
Top Performance Is The Reward
What would you prefer? The trophy that collects dust on the shelf or a great change you are responsible for? I’d feel very eroded having a trophy without making a serious impact. The other question is - would you be able to make a serious impact alone, without relying on your peers? - NO!
My biggest strength is my network I have cherished for so long. My wins are due to the support of the network - it goes beyond the team of colleagues. My family, my friends, my mentors, my dog ;). When I perform at my best here is what happens:
- Family gets happy high energy son, daddy, and hubby
- Colleagues get a peer who’s willing to share the knowledge and success recipes
- Managers get motivated and focused employee ready for the next fight
- Friends get a crazy guy telling funny stories that never says NO to the invitation to go drink a few beers.
Let the team’s performance be its own reward.
Practice This - Get Results
- Invest time in both winner and rookie - keep the former and grow the latter.
- Share vision for the result vs. press for result - Get that result.
My Related Posts
- Creatures Of Logic And Creatures Of Emotion
- Become The Next Great Mind - Now
- Mark Twain Quotes - Motivation Super Power (WARNING - Addicting)
Editor in chief – Jimmy May
17 comments ↓
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake - FRANK WILCZEK, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics.
I have heard this many times, that the way to success, is to fail faster, I still try to understand this and implement, but there is something holding me back from it.
I’m a fan of building A-teams and pushing people to their best. The journey is more important than the destination and it’s where the growth happens.
I care about mistakes. I care the most about those you already committed
Share your lessons - I am thirsty to learn. I remember your post on raising 4 kids. I am sure the lessons you shared there did not come easy, eh?
tom,
Failing fast is my favorite. They say the best way to “save” a failing project from closure is injecting more budget into it - that way no one will have able to just cancel it. Fail fast is the opposite. You cancel your projects - life and work - very fast once you sense it’s a failure. Here are few checkpoints to help you identifying whether the project is going to fail:
http://practicethis.com/2008/10/26/is-your-project-going-to-fail/
Mark,
:
WHOA! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! “Mentally, physically and emotionally”. Add “spiritually” to the mix and you get the recipe for personal super power.
I beg you to briefly scan this, please
http://practicethis.com/2008/03/06/4-dimensions-of-personal-power/
JD,
I am sure the mental image you had when writing the comment was the scene from the “Peaceful Warrior” movie, right?
Tom,
Spending too much time with the slowest erodes spirit of the strongest guy, and makes the slowest even weaker since the guy gets used to such care and never gets thrown to the deep waters….
For example, if you play a sport like tennis and wish to improve your skills, you may assume playing with a more experienced player would be to your advantage. At the same time, learning to play with someone less experienced would actually teach you useful skills too. Expanding abilities are not only linear in one direction.
This is very interesting angle you show here. It surprised me which is a good thing
Fantastic post, I love all the content and stories. My favorite is where you said “When I perform at my best here is what happens” That really made the point clear for me.
Thank you,
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Happy you liked it!
Sharing personal stories is my favorite, one of the reason I visit your blog BTW
Barbara,
Thanks for kind words!
The wisdom is not mine - it’s from Tom Donnelly. I just practice it ;). True, I stopped blaming myself for my mistakes. I learn from it, then share here on my blog
I like your emphasis on spending equal time with the slow runner. The weakest link of a team is the team.
HA! - loved that - “weakest link of a team is the team.”
Indeed it was
I believe the proof is in the pudding. Results, Results, Results, really made me take a look at how I am getting the results. It has also made look at how others are getting the results. I would say that the key for me is whether or not I am allowing the other person to bed self determined or making them be other determined.
* Invest time in both winner and rookie - keep the former and grow the latter.
* Share vision for the result vs. press for result - Get that result.
Yes! I like it.
Sheila
Happy to hear you liked it!
[...] “Team of Top Performers” on Practice This, written by Elik Levin. You will want to bookmark this site. [...]
Leave a Comment