(Here at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit praying for God to give me new insight to help me in leading with Operation Christmas Child. To learn more about OCC click here...)
The Ideal Team Player
Thirteen years ago I spoke at Willow for the first time and
for me that was a mind-blowing experience. I talked about my book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,”
and how to take any group of people and make them a team.
It begged the question: are some people better at that than
others? As it turns out I did know
the answer to that question but I wasn’t aware of it. Years before I worked in a department that used core values
based on Jim Collins’ book. One of
the things we help our clients with is identifying their core values. Often they would say, “We’ll use those,
too.” But we thought they were lazy and encouraged them to make their own
values. Then we realized those
values were universal and were actually the descriptor of a person who can
overcome the dysfunctions of a team.
We started to share these values with clients. A few years later I was encouraged to
write a book based on these values and I’m shocked that it’s selling more than
any book I’ve written. There’s
something in it that seems to have struck a nerve with managers.
It’s the overlap of the three values that makes it special.
Three virtues—
HUMBLE—means you’re more interested in others than yourself;
not arrogant or ego-driven.
Sometimes people simply lack self confidence which is really an
abomination of humility. Someone
who denies their skills tends not to passionately argue for what is right. C.S. Lewis “Humility isn’t thinking
less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.”
HUNGER—someone who has strong work ethic, hate the idea of
being a slacker, will do whatever necessary to get the job done.
SMART—not intellectual smarts it’s about people smarts or
common sense around people. People who are good at practicing emotional
intelligence and can adjust their behavior to that of others.
What do you do with this model? First you need to know how to identify people on your team
and yourself who have these qualities.
Start by looking at the possible permutations.
Humble but lack hunger and smarts = pawn—not very effective on a team; not dependable on a team; need
our prayers but not to be invited on our teams
Hungry but not humble or smart = bulldozer—can get something done and leave a trail of dead bodies
behind them
Smart but not humble or hungry = charmer—funny, joking, but don’t get anything done
Two qualities out of three are not enough and can create
serious problems in organizations; however, no one is perfect and we all
struggle. We’re talking about
people who exhibit over time a serious lack of these qualities.
Humble & Hungry but not smart = Accidental Mess-Maker—always need to make excuses for them; ruffle
feathers; George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life” was in this category
(blurting out things)
Humble & Smarts but not hungry = Lovable Slacker—tend to survive for a long time; they just don’t
want to work; will do just enough work to keep you from doing something about
them; frustrates the people who work really hard
Smarts & Hungry but not humble = Skillful Politician—ambitious and hard-driving and know how to LOOK
humble; most dangerous and hardest to spot; like Al Pacino in “The Godfather”;
sometimes in church it’s harder to deal with them because we don’t want to be
unkind
What do you do with this? Use it to develop your people. Go to the people on your team and discuss what they might
lack. Had people in the group rate
their qualities from first to last then go into a room with others with the
same deficiency and brainstorm about what to do about the deficiency.
Next step—help them get better—when we develop our people we
have to have the courage to talk to them and let them know and to constantly
remind them. They will either
improve or they will opt out on their own. Either of those is more dignified than letting people stay
and be miserable.
Let’s talk about hiring. If you ask most people, they want to hire team players. Somehow there’s a disconnect between
that desire and what actually happens.
The first thing we have to do is not over-emphasize technical
skills. We need to look for
hungry, humble, and smart. We tend
to focus on that which is measurable and verifiable but behavior should always
rise to the top.
The interview process is broken. Get people out of the
office to see them in a regular world environment and watch how they deal with
human beings. Tells the story of a
ministry that made a bad hire and the person who hired said, “I should have
taken her shopping.” Also, ask
questions more than once. The “Law
and Order” school of interviewing—keep asking the same question. For me, a big part of humility is being
able to ask forgiveness, so I asked an applicant, “How do you deal with
conflict.” When I asked again “How
do you come back from an argument?
What would your wife say if I asked if you hold grudges?” He admitted,
“I’m a grudge holder.” We can’t
afford to subject our ministries to people who don’t work well with others.
Stop doing silent interviews—get everyone together to
interview candidate at once.
Scare people with sincerity. You’re interviewing someone and you have lingering doubts.
Say, “Hey, we’re fanatical about humility and hunger and people smarts and if
you are, you’re going to love it here.
If you’re not, you’re going to hate working here. We just want you to be aware of
that.” When you’re clear some
people will opt out on their own.
Ideal team players: Steph Curry (Golden Stateplayer)—humble,
hungry
Alan Mulally—one of the humblest people I ever met;
hardworking (missed 6 staff meetings in 38 years)
Woody from Toy Story
I want to finish with something that’s been on my
heart—especially for those who are followers of Jesus. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they
persecute you…” Persecution is real in our country
today. This is a golden age of
leadership because you know something—we are not meant to cower under this.
Pray we have the strength to stand strong and the grace not to become
bitter. May all of us leaders
be willing to suffer for Jesus.
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