Friends, Counsel and Performance

“If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.”

No one achieves real success alone. We depend on our core friends, associates to achieve great things together. Without a good team, the opportunity to perform at high-levels and produce consistently does not exist.  Last week I had two experiences that reminded me of the value experts who are your friends.  John Maxwell in his best seller, “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork” talks about the strength of a Team, how members affect the team’s performance.

Evaluate this equation, the assumption team members perform on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. Five team members potential is (10x10x10x10x10) =100,000, one member is a 5, (10x10x10x10x5) =50, 00. One member reduces the potential by 50%.

Friends can be Experts, Boost Performance

Friends can be experts; the two I spoke to this week are experts. Working with one client, a family owned business that needs to redefine and improve its sales process. My friend shared some innovating ideas. Solid sales strategy begins with a few foundational points. A solid understanding of your business, your strengths, weaknesses, where success has come from, where failures and obstacles have occurred; sales success starts with getting real close to the mirror.

Friends can be experts, working with one client , a privately held firm in a growth mode that needed help with their Team and one if its members attitude and behavior. Susan Scott suggests, as a leader names and ideas will come to you.  The ideas you must write down and act upon as soon as possible. The names need to be divided into two lists. One is those lists is  people you need to make available to industry because they are sucking the joy, success out of your team or they are people you should listen to, promote and enable to grow. My friend connected me to Susan Scott and her TEDxOverlake  – The Case for Radical Transparency

[responsive_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVKaXUB4EFg]

It was a powerful conversation and positive reminder of Teams, Team work and the Leaderships responsibility to lead. Failure to lead to address poor performance; it sets the tone for the entire organization that bad performance is acceptable. 

Every employee should understand that the company needs everyone’s contribution more than ever, and if that doesn’t work, every employee should know there are thousands of motivated people looking for the right opportunity. This statement is not made to be a threat, because a person working under fear is a sure way to achieve bad performance. Think of it more as a promise that they will be held accountable.

Great friends share and make us all richer, more intelligent and complete. In 1996 an article in Fast Company suggested “Hire for Attitude-Train for Skill” The writer suggests a point Leaders may consider in addressing under performers, What You Know Changes, Who You Are Doesn’t.