A quick thought for you today…
We preach “knowing your audience” here at The Latimer Group. We preach it all the time, all day, every day. It is critical to clear communication in the 21st century.
In a team context, we would add a slight wrinkle. In a team context, being a great teammate and team leader requires that you know your teammates really well. Great team leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of the people they work with, and therefore, they are consistently able to put their people in a position to succeed. Less successful leaders put less thought into this, and simply plug people into roles without giving a lot of thought on the fit to that role. Don’t make this mistake.
Give some thought to the people on your team, and make note of what their strengths and weaknesses are. You might even sit down with each and ask them for their perspective on that exact question. And then try to match people up with a role that plays to the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses.
Obvious? Perhaps. But we see a lot of people and organizations get this wrong.
Good luck.
At The Latimer Group, we believe that successful teams are built on honesty, open communication, and collaboration. For more on team building and team communication, look for Dean Brenner’s book, Sharing the Sandbox: Building and Leading Great Teams in the 21st Century, on sale now.
Photo by Colleen McMahon used under the following license.
[…] of just being nice, pleasant, saying “hello” and smiling at someone. When I think about team leadership in the 21st century workplace, I always come back to how hard it is to align smart people, with differing agendas, high ambition […]