Any successful endeavor requires a team of people to pull it off. Whether you are a solopreneur or a multi-location mega business, it is never a one-person success show. It takes a variety of different talents orchestrated together in just a particular way that allows for the greatest outcomes. Unfortunately, organizations struggle with this concept of teams and success. They get it intellectually, but they do not necessarily execute it behaviorally.
If you were to look at your organization and team through the lens of a sports franchise you might invest in your teams’ talents differently. Each member of the team has specific roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and expectations. As you engage each of the members of your team you evaluate the return of contribution against the cost of acquiring those services. The greater the return the higher the potential compensation you may be willing to invest to acquire those talents.
In some cases, the talent you bring into the team is not yet at their peak contribution level. You invest in the talent to acquire it and now you must invest into them so they mature into the talent you expect in the future. All team members regardless of their carrying cost require continual investment to assist them to grow both individually and as contributor to the team.
Consider your business being on the stock exchange and people would invest into the business based on the return they would receive back in growth and dividends. The better your organization produces the more it grows and thus your investors get a greater return. The same is true for your team members. When you have team members who are contributing and growing then you would want to make an investment into them so that they can continue to grow, develop, and contribute to the value of the organization. You would in effect buy more “stock” in them and as they produce both of you are rewarded appropriately.
This week when evaluating your team talent look at the return you are receiving for the investment or the carrying cost of the talent. You may get a different view of how the players on the team need to be aligned. It may be a role alignment update, a compensation alignment update, a development alignment update, or potentially other alignment updates. The key is that at the end of the game did you put together a team which is a winner?
Looking for ways to evaluate your team’s best alignment? Give JKL Associates a call and let us begin a conversation. We can be reached in Florida at (407) 984-7246 or Michigan (313) 527-7945