Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Most companies have a quote such as “People are our most appreciable assets”. This sounds great, but is it so in practice?
How does a financial specialist manage assets?
They compound them.
They want the money to work for them and multiply the results.
They call this “leveraging effect”, a small lever moving a large piece.
Although this is possible with money, this leveraging is even more powerful with applied to people.
The compounding power of teamwork
If money can work for you, do you have people working for you?
Are you doing everything yourself, or do you have people adding value to your goals?
Here is how you can get a team or network of people to work for you to maximise your success.
1. Make a thoughtful initial investment
Hiring the best people in your team is the key to your success. In my last executive role, the company’s President told me that my primary role was to deal with the wrong casting, as he was calling it. As a passionate leadership trainer, I could improve the existing team but soon realised that it was so and that I had to raise a new team more closely aligned with the company’s vision.
Do you have the right casting in your team? Do they fully support your vision, identify with it and contribute to it with all their energy and ideas?
If not, you should consider reviewing your team and their alignment with your vision and, if not possible, replace the team.
2. Contribute regularly to growth
Would you leave it to die if you found a beautiful plant that matches your interior design?
Of course not!
Do you nourish, feed and treasure the team that you have?
I don’t believe that we should motivate our team members. If we have the right people in the team, they will be already motivated, but we can kill that motivating but leaving obstacles in their path.
Even more than that, are you expanding their skills, empowering them more and more with freedom, resources and possibilities to fully bring them creativity, expertise and passion for adding value to the organisation?
If you see yourself as a coach, you can develop them without micro-managing them.
Additionally, are you supporting the team in their respective styles and personalities to work together as a powerful team optimally?
3. Realise the value of time
Are your employees a commodity that can be easily replaced or a long-term investment?
It is not very difficult to determine if the employees are just in for the job or are intrapreneurs, seeing themselves as long-term innovation team member.
The difference is how they place their vision and heart in their job and develop short-term actions and longer-term innovations.
Sure, not everybody has a mentality of an intrapreneur – an entrepreneur within the company – however, you can empower each team member to improve their immediate environment, for example, proactive decisions to improve the client experience.
4. Reflect on your rate of return
Three questions are essential to finding solutions that will support your bottom line and, therefore, your rate of return:
1. Is there a placement issue? Are people in my team serving in their strength zone?
2. Is there a people issue? Is this a conflict resolution or communication issue within the team?
3. Is there a performance issue? Did I invest in the team and build the right accountability?
5. Adjust for inflation and other factors
A financial plan never runs as planned! That’s for sure!
What does a good asset manager do?
They constantly adjust the investments to what is happening with the assets.
You also have no control over the past. Mistakes will be made, that’s for sure.
Therefore learn the lessons from them, compassionately support your team to learn from them and grow the lesson learned.
6. Compound growth
Just imagine that you have a team of world-class leaders, but they need to get your approval for every single decision that needs to be taken.
You will not only create a bottleneck in your organisation, slowing the reaction and proactivity, but also warn them.
What if you would have world-class leaders, not only empowered to make their own decisions, bringing their passion, ideas and innovation, but also able to raise leaders that are the same?
Wow, that would be a dream!
This can be a reality in your organisation.
Additionnal resources
Managing team FAQ
Team collaboration FAQ
17 Laws of Teamwork
Leadership Services
