Building your dream team
Article Date: Mar 23 2005
Don’t get off the learning curve
The key to building a successful and high-performing team, is for the leader to remain on a ‘constant learning curve’ says Adrian Moorhouse, the former Olympic gold medallist who now heads leadership consultancy Lane 4.
'Be prepared to be open-minded – just because you are the CEO, you must not get stuck into thinking you are the expert. Requesting feedback, and the ability to take it, is crucial. This is often an element that is difficult to swallow.
As a leader, you have to bind the company. People are rewarded for the job they do, but as they get to senior level, it needs to be less about rewards and more about the value they are bringing to the company – this needs disclosure and honesty. Unfortunately, there is not enough of this in senior teams. Great leaders put their business first – self-interest doesn’t work at a high level,' believes Moorhouse.
He recalls that back in his sporting days, he worked well with three out of the four people in his team.
'Getting results is not down to being aggressive, but to the way you get on with your "club". In sport, as in business, you get an atmosphere of healthy competition. One person in my team would not engage – but the rest of us worked together and thus challenged each other. Sharing our ideas had the knock-on effect of driving us further,’ adds Moorhouse.
Don’t get cosy
But there is one serious downside to a team that gets on famously, says Tony Bond, of Results Business Consulting. ‘Teams that have been together a long time get comfortable with each other and start to defer to each other. Issues don’t get aired properly, and the chance to pool resources never arises. You often find these sorts of vulnerable teams in businesses that are stagnating.’
Diversity is key
Yuval Yashiv, chief executive officer of AIM-listed digital photography software specialist Pixology, joined the business in 2000 and has been responsible for building most of the current management team, from sales director through to finance director. He believes that bringing a mix of skills to the table, rather than relying on a person’s previous experience, is crucial.
‘Build a team that has different abilities. Don’t get tempted by people with only a background in technology or marketing, for example, as they will be lacking financial skills. You need to be able to break away from the past. Many people look for "more of the same" in their senior management, but I don’t think this is necessarily right,’ he explains.
Underestimating ability is also a common mistake when it comes to team-building. As Yashiv points out, a technical director from Hewlett-Packard might sound like a good addition – but the chances are that more often than not, this won’t work in a fast-growing business.
Common Purpose’s Middleton is also a firm advocate of diversity being the key to successful team-working.
‘If you have a diverse team, it means you can’t have a lazy leader. If there aren’t enough points at your board meetings that are causing friction, then you’re in trouble.’
Don't ignore under-performers
While it’s all well and good to identify and concentrate on the ambitious and talented performers who could help you drive your business to the next level, it can be dangerous to ignore those who appear not to be meeting their targets. HR and marketing can be two of the biggest cost drains, and it can be all too easy to overlook bad behaviour in favour of a quiet life.
Pixology’s Yashiv is refreshingly candid about the key issues. ‘Recruiting can be a game of trial and error – and I’m sorry to say that we have been firing a lot of people because they don’t fit within the business.’
Equally robust is Graham Wilson, who now works alongside Adrian Moorhouse at Lane 4 after a career in sports psychology. ‘Investing in your people as you grow is really important. And it's not just the talent pool that you need to motivate – under-performers need attention.
Often, companies ignore these problems because they perceive them as too difficult to deal with. But, you need to communicate your expectations so they are clear. Coaching is one way of dealing with this – you want people to recognise that they are under-performing, otherwise they will not progress. Above all, address the issues early,’ he recommends.
