TEAM FIRST
JENNY JACOBS | STANDARD INTERIORS
THOUGHTS
LEAP THOUGHTS is a new series of commentaries written by AAMD Leadership on Teamwork and Team Excellence
Letting Your Team Excel in Their Specialty
I love to wear hats! If I could have a huge hat rack full of every style of hat that one could imagine I would. However, I’ ve come to realize over the years that not all hats look good on me, some styles of hats just don’ t fit, and frankly some give me a headache. I’ ve also found that some of the hats that I’ ve had for years and have been my favorites simply don’ t work for me anymore.
What I have found more than anything is that when I try to wear every style of hat that one could imagine, I always seem to fail. It seems that every time I get a chance to wear a hat I spend too much time on the hats that don’ t work instead of just grabbing that baseball cap that fits like a glove, throwing it on, and tackling the day.
I’ ve worked for Standard Interiors of Colorado for over a decade. When I first started with Standard Interiors we were a very small company and the ability to wear multiple hats, sometimes at the same time, was a job requirement. It was fun and exciting to go from one task to the next, never knowing what your day would entail until it happened. Over the last decade, Standard Interiors of Colorado has grown at a tremendous rate. As a leader at Standard Interiors, I’ ve had to adjust the way that I do my job in order to keep up with the growth of my company.
As my company grew, I tried to continue wearing every hat. I tried to wear the customer service hat, the estimating hat, the data analyst hat, the accounting hat, I’ ve even been found unloading trucks wearing a warehouse hat. Unfortunately, trying to wear every hat at the same time in a growing company means not wearing any of them as well as they should be. I had to learn to give up doing everything myself and wearing all of those hats and surround myself with a team that can pull off the whole ensemble.
In building a team one can continue to add additional members skilled at wearing multiple hats and each runs their section of business independently. This method of growth can be successful for many companies, however does not establish a strong team focused on a common purpose.
" A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."
The Wisdom of Teams( Harvard Business School Press, 1993)
This method of team growth also inhibits a company from experiencing large business growth without adding large costs in additional labor.
Another strategy for growing a team is through utilization of the Core Competency Theory. The term core competency was coined by the leading management experts, CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel in an article in the Harvard Business Review. By providing a basis for firms to compete and achieve sustainable competitive advantage, Prahalad and Hamel pioneered the concept and laid the foundation for companies to follow.
Through Core Competency, a team is given a common and very specific goal which when communicated clearly and often becomes a mantra and a culture to which the entire team prescribes. In developing operational efficiencies around a team’ s Core Competency, each team member is given a very specific role to support this mantra. A core competent team is made up of members who are experts in the role that they provide, they are focused on this role and they are not distracted by trying to wear too many hats or by being forced to wear a hat that just doesn’ t fit. The role of each and every team member is vital in the success of the company and the team must learn to depend on one another.
In developing a successful team around a Core Competency, the following principals should be followed:
1. The team should have explicitly stated goals.
2. Each team member’ s role should be clearly defined and understood.
3. All team members should contribute to the team’ s function through constructive and individual behaviors.
4. There must be effective communication across all team members.
5. Each team member should be given the tools and training necessary to complete their contribution to the team.
6. The team must be adaptable, responding to new challenges and conditions as they develop.
7. Each team member must be given timely and accurate feedback on their performance so that they may develop and grow in their role.
The benefit of developing a core competent team is great to the clients that the company services. The members of the team are focused on their individual roles rather than trying to wear too many hats. They are able to develop their skills and their knowledge at a faster rate because of this focus. They are able to complete more tasks than an employee who is constantly distracted by trying to work on too many different things at once. Therefore, the company that builds a core competent team is able to grow at a faster rate without adding additional costs and can increase the overall value to the client.
In building a core competent team, I have been given the opportunity to shed those extra hats that just don’ t fit and I never have to worry about juggling too many hats at once. I have a team of experts in their contribution to the company that I can depend on to accomplish the goals that we have set together. I have found the hat that fits just right and is comfortable and when I look up at each team meeting I see a room full of individuals, each wearing their specific hat which fits them just right and we are focused on a common goal of supporting one another to achieve success for our clients. www. aamdhq. org MARCH 2017 • TRENDS | 31