As a future leader, you will (if not already) be responsible for creating and sustaining a winning team. In sales, many leaders will live or die by the individuals they hire and the team that the build - Reinforcing that it’s critical to get off on the right foot.
We’ve all been a part of teams that have failed, either because of individuals not pulling their weight or personality clashes that inhibit productivity. The question is: How do you avoid this when you are the architect? Several schools of thought exist, most notably the importance of diversity. Diversity of thought, age, sex, experience and so on… all excellent starting points. One catch is that hiring managers often overlook the intricate working dynamics of their group, instead selecting the person that appears to be the obvious choice on the surface.
Nikos Mourkogiannis, author of Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies, and senior executive adviser to Booz Allen Hamilton, believes that:
“The personal style of team members has the greatest influence on a group’s success. More important than any technical skill a team member brings is the ability to work closely together, free of backbiting and political maneuvering.”
To take this a step further, Mourkogiannis also believes that there are four archetypes of people in companies: magicians, lovers, sovereigns, and warriors. The key being, having the right mix on your team.
- Magicians - They are the rational yet imaginative souls in your organization. They think a new idea or insight is the only thing that can move the world. In truth, they’re obsessed by ideas. Their answer to feeding the troops is to pull a rabbit out of a hat. These types of people think a mere argument over an idea equals action.
- Lovers - For them, everything comes down to human relations. They’re pragmatic but emotional. They focus on building the winning coalition. They are obsessed not by ideas but by feelings. They consider agreement an action.
- Sovereigns - They are the emotional and imaginative types. They focus on the big picture and judge everything on whether it leads to where they want to go. They redefine what people consider is possible. They are obsessed by beliefs. And they consider direction a form of action.
- Warriors - They are rational and pragmatic. They’re focused on the next battle and can only see clearly what’s directly in front of them. They hold people accountable to systems and the fairness of those systems. They’re obsessed by facts. For them, action is finding the critical factor to get something immediately accomplished.
When building your team, it’s also natural to gravitate towards people whom have similar personality and experiences as yourself. Fight that urge. The most effective teams maintain a balance by having a variety of the above types in key roles. Each type is good at doing different things; a mix of magicians, lovers, sovereigns, and warriors will give you the best chance for success. On your next hire, challenge yourself to think differently and analyze your team in this fashion. The results may surprise you…
