Does Your Team Have 9 Shortstops? Two Tips to Avoid It.

I found myself watching baseball recently. It's a fabulous summer sport and I want to hold on to every bit of summer! In baseball, like many sports, to be successful you need a diverse set of skills. Without a blend of speed, power, agility, creativity, and drive on your team, competitors will soon find a weakness and exploit it.

As I watched the game, I started thinking about one of the groups I worked with recently. They were all very similar. They had similar communication styles, were roughly the same age, and their backgrounds were far more similar than different. The program was great, and everyone enjoyed it; however, I started thinking: Did they really learn from each other, or did they merely enjoy each other?

Back to baseball for a moment, as a manager, do you want a team with the skills of nine shortstops or do you want a team with a well-balanced set of skills, beliefs, styles, and past experiences? I would argue that diversity in style, approach, task completion, work history, achievements, and goals will raise your team’s over-all performance.

But how do we achieve it? Sometimes you must firmly separate the styles of those that you like from those that are not to your liking.

Here are two small things to consider when building your team:

First, consider substance over communication style – As managers and frankly, as people, we are often drawn to people who are like us. They make us comfortable. We feel OK when we are around them and often feel like we have connected with them. I have managed hundreds of salespeople and the ones who I remember the best are those who achieved success in ways in which I never could have imagined nor duplicated myself. They weren’t like me but, in so many ways, so much better. They gave their teammates unique perspectives and drove them to raise their games. Don’t let someone’s style cloud your assessment of what they can achieve.

Second, differentiate being driven from being able to drive - Past performance is not always an indicator of future success. I have seen lots of people who were in the right place at the right time and made the most of an advantageous position which drove them to remarkable success. Then, when placed in a new and unfamiliar position without the same tail winds, they couldn’t find their own drive to persevere. I would much prefer someone who has produced above average results in many different areas for a sustained period of time versus a superstar who achieved extraordinary results at one point in time.

Style and drive are hard to spot because they can be masked. It’s easy to pick out differences on a baseball team as each position requires slightly different skills and physical characteristics. In reality, we want a similar level of diversity that would be required for a successful baseball team but, to find it, we must be a bit creative.

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