Career Q & A
By Alan Kearns
April 4, 2005
As a new director, I am responsible for hiring and managing a larger team. Are there some best practices that you have observed for building great teams?
One of the strengths of a great leader is the ability to hire and develop successful teams. The Gallup Organization interviewed 80,000 managers in 400 countries to determine what some of the best managers do, and what key mistakes are made. The results are documented in a book called First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. According to the study, many managers make two key mistakes:
- They assume that each person can learn to be competent in almost anything.
- They believe each person's greatest room for improvement is in their weakness.
Great managers, however, do not help people overcome their weaknesses so they can do a competent job, because competency does not lead to excellence. Which would you prefer, a "competent" surgeon or a great surgeon?
Identify what core competencies you have on your team, and where the gaps
are. As you mould and develop your team, work diligently at having your key
people in the right roles. Don't be afraid to bring in experts from other
parts of your organization, or even from outside, to fill in the gaps. And
do it sooner rather than later.
It can be dangerous to focus on improving an individual's weaknesses. This
can take an enormous amount of energy on the part of both you and the person
you are managing. Plus, it could put your project at risk. Obviously, we all
can improve. Encouraging a strengths-focused philosophy, however, increases
the likelihood of success and is much more profitable and enjoyable for all
involved.
Alan Kearns is the Head Coach and the Brand Champion! of CareerJoy.
He is one of Canada's foremost experts on all things career. With more than
14 years of experience coaching people through successful career changes,
he brings an intimate knowledge of the entire transition process to all of
his clients. To contact Alan about paid professional services, e-mail alan@careerjoy.com
or visit his web site www.careerjoy.com.
To submit a question for a future column, please e-mail it to careercoach@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in this column.
