Fred Jefferson, a long-time friend and bank CEO, quotes his father as saying that there are three things you will not know about someone until they go to work:
If they are lazy
How they get along with others
Whether they have common sense
Fred's father is onto something.
People and companies often have a set of aspired values and another set of lived values. The aspired values get framed and put on the walls. The lived values can often be quite different.
Knowing team members' actual competencies and passions can be equally elusive.
This has a lot to do with why teams don't become high-performance teams. These teams require that their members embrace its healthy core values, have the needed gifts and talents, and have a burning desire to achieve.
The needed gifts and talents involve finding out where a person is best suited to thrive. This is rarely easy. It is common for people not to know where they will most thrive.
Stephen Covey says that leaders need to have not only a vision for themselves and their organization, they also must have a vision for those they lead.
Never forget that leadership is, as Stephen Covey notes, communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it themselves.
Great entrepreneurs help their people flesh out, discover, and thrive in their abilities. Giving people opportunities that are not generally in their realm of responsibility and observing their performance can be invaluable. "Catching" team members doing something exceptionally well is often an indicator of unique ability and talent.
A burning desire to achieve is another attribute that thriving entrepreneurs look for in their team members.
We asked Billy Hart, the top sales rep for our company three years in a row, how he did it. His one-word answer: "DESIRE." When we asked what he means, He feigned holding one of us underwater and then allowing us up for air just before drowning. He explained. After being held like this this three times, the drowning person is blue, heaving, and desperately fighting for air.
When the person is allowed up for air, they are fighting with all their might to get it. It is then that Billy says, "This is desire!"
The members of your high-performance team must have an overwhelming desire to achieve. There is no amount of gifting that can overcome a lack of burning desire. When someone has a burning desire to achieve and has the gifting and talent your team needs, you have found gold.
Andrew Carnegie's words ring true: "Give me a man with an average ability but a burning desire to succeed, and I will give you a winner in exchange every time."
To help you lead a high-performance team, I have created a resource: Business Impact Plan, Seed, Sunshine, Soil, Harvest. It has a whole section with great questions that you can use to challenge your team for maximum contribution. It i
s a free gift. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.
Let me know how your team is doing.
Harry T. Jones
P.S. Don't forget to get my free resource, Business Impact Plan, Seed, Sunshine, Soil, Harvest.
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