This is the second in a series of posts about leadership and Don Yaeger’s advice to the West Point cadets.
The second lesson he listed in a recent post of his is as follows:
2. You have to lead the team you have, not the team you want. There isn’t a coach in the NFL who would not like to have Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as their quarterback— but only two coaches actually do. The other coaches have to work with the team (and the quarterback) that they have.
So quit thinking about the advantages others have and build your own! We should look for opportunities to grow our own team to reach its maximum potential because the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Professional development is the key to building a successful team. Mentoring your staff and collaborating among team members will be the building blocks to reaching greatness for a long time. Focus on the strengths of your team members and leverage those strengths when giving staff assignments. Not everyone has the ability to do everything well.
One team member may write well, another is an excellent presenter, while yet a third is a financial whiz who can’t write a grammatically strong sentence. That’s OK! Combine all three and you have a strong and well-rounded team. Deploy those team members according to their strengths and foster that growth to find their niche.
This is how a team is built on and off the field. With the NFL draft tonight - coaches are choosing their players based on their strengths and the needs of the team as a whole. This is the best way to build a professional, productive, strong team in the office as well.
How do you spot opportunities for growth within your team members?
