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Business Rule #54:
Do It for the Team
February 11, 2007
(PAGE 2 of 3)
Muna Heaven criticized Aimee's lack of priorities while unloading boxes of honey from the truck. A lesser person would have stopped working to complain. To Muna’s credit though, she vented her spleen all the while making sure that the honey got onto the shelves of Ralph's market.
Sales were slow at first for team Kinetic. Derek though leapt into the breach by donning his beekeeper's suit to attract attention and make sure all of the shoppers knew that there was a special event taking place. Angela Ruggiero, for her part, used her Olympic status to help move product. Who could resist the opportunity to buy honey harvested by a Gold Medalist?
Most people on the Kinetic team were unhappy with Aimee's lack of direction and leadership. One even observed that, if they won this task, Aimee would be their Project Manger on the next one. In spite of the fact that Aimee might benefit unfairly from a win though, it didn't stop Team Kinetic from stepping up to the challenge and doing what they could to win. Sure, it's great to get accolades for your good work. When you’re working as part of a team though, it doesn't always happen. If you get what you want from a situation, such as being part of a winning team, you can afford to be gracious about someone else benefiting as well.
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In recent years there has been a lot of interest in creating and rewarding teams in the work place. It's easy to set up an every-man-for-himself environment; most standard sales contests do it by rewarding only the best performer—or only those who achieve certain performance levels. The problem is that this atmosphere does nothing to encourage the sharing of skills and information. Why would a star sales person reveal his killer closing technique to anyone else in the office if it would hurt his chances of winning the contest? Why help the competition?
Of course, the manager of the sales department would much prefer that all other sales people benefit from the knowledge and experience of the best. I was called in to help a sales team once that had one hugely successful star and one mediocre performer, while the rest of the staff was simply struggling to survive. In the past, the sales incentives rewarded only the individual top sellers. The first thing I did was basic sales training in order to make sure everyone in the department had the skills and tools they needed to do the job. Then, I set up a sales contest where the entire team would be rewarded with a trip to Hawaii—but only if the department as a whole doubled its sales.
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If you get what you want from a situation, such as being part of a winning team, you can afford to be gracious about someone else benefiting as well.
