Is your team ready to win?

PLAY BALL! Baseball season is about to begin. All winter, teams have been making deals to acquire the best possible talent. However, star power alone doesn’t win a championship. As Babe Ruth said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” Therefore, smart teams have spent spring training working on creating a team culture, developing team dynamics and molding their group of stars into a cohesive unit who will work together to win a championship this year.

I had the privilege to hear Red Sox skipper Terry Francona speak about the 2004 championship Red Sox. He talked about how their historic and odds defying wins were as much about team chemistry and off the field team bond as it was about on the field talent and heroics.

Companies can learn from this. When building their team, they need to examine how the talent they hire fits the culture they wish to build. It is hard to change individuals because most people don’t want to critically look at themselves and they hate change. Therefore, instead of just hiring for talent, companies must examine candidates for attitude and team fit.

The entire team must be on the same page and working as a unit. An organization will fail if people are acting as individuals and in their own best interest, just like a baseball team may lose if the hitter tries to boost his batting average rather than hit a sacrifice and move the runner closer to home plate. When everyone is aligned, the organization is aligned and heading in the same direction.

Traditional business thinking aims to control situations, but companies must avoid the temptation to try to set the culture by force. Companies should stop focusing on controlling employee interactions and focus on matching up people with similar expectations who will build and deliver the desired culture. When you recruit based on shared expectations, less effort will be required to attain success. This is due to the fact that the team will shape their own culture based on these expectations and they will be inspired to advocate for the organization. Because of this, companies will find it easier to recruit and retain other loyal internal and external advocates.

If you want to win, hire for attitude and team fit, create an environment where extraordinary things can happen, give your team the power to shape the organization, the resources to get it done, and the guidance to keep it moving forward. If you follow these steps, your team will create an extraordinary culture that builds long-term advocacy, the organization will succeed, and you will have a strong and winning brand.

© 2007 IMAGE identity, LTD, All rights reserved.

For reprint permission, please contact IMAGEidentity at 508-259-9016.

Daddy, what do you do at work?

One morning at breakfast my four-year-old asked me what I do all day at work. As I started to give my thirty-second elevator pitch I use at networking events, I soon realized he didn’t care how “I build stronger brands and improve organizational dynamics” nor did he seem interested in how “I help companies succeed.”

So I told him that “I make companies better.” And he asked, “Are they sick?”

“Well kind of,” I answered, struggling to bring my complex methodology of creating extraordinary experiences and advocacy building down to a single phrase that would satisfy my son. Finally I said, “I make stores, restaurants and banks into fun places to shop and work.” Satisfied with the answer, he shifted the discussion to something more important; what we were going to do together that day.

As I later pondered this discussion, I realized that we often describe our businesses in terms of how we understand them, not in terms our audiences will relate to. My son understood ‘fun’ was better than ‘not fun’ and he has often been bored in stores, restaurants and banks. By putting things in his terms, he was able to personally relate to that description and see why making them fun would be a good thing.

I have since changed how I describe my business and so should you. When you discuss your business, do not use industry jargon, fancy marketing phrases or well-crafted elevator pitches. Talk to the prospect in terms of their business and their issues. Which means you must ask them about their business and listen to their issues before you ramble on about your business.

If you are able to talk in terms of their perspective and are able to make a real connection between their business and your product, soon you will be spending some quality time together building a solid relationship.

© 2007 IMAGE identity, LTD, All rights reserved.

For reprint permission, please contact IMAGEidentity.