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Business Rule #54:
Do It for the Team
February 11, 2007
by Caroline Pfouts
There are worse things than having someone else get credit for your work—you could be on a losing team.
The most telling advice this week came from the Laker who explained that a team comes together when they cover for each other's weaknesses. When a group works together on a project, naturally they get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. Using your strengths to bolster a teammate's weakness will encourage the group to pitch in when you need help. What it often means though is allowing your contribution to make someone else look good.
For this week's task of harvesting, bottling and selling honey, Surya Yalamanchili tried to step up for the Arrow team on the marketing part of the challenge. Surya was after all a Brand Manager for Procter and Gamble. Surya, however, quickly got bogged down in explaining theoretical approaches to marketing, rather than drawing up a marketing plan and implementing it. As the newest member of the Arrow team, it's understandable that Surya would want to avoid sole accountability for marketing on this task. By chattering on endlessly about what additional info he thought he needed though, it looked like Surya was simply trying to cover his own butt. It's a bad sign when, even before a plan is in place, the planner tries to place blame elsewhere.
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Arrow took some risks with their approach to sales. Their "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" campaign was well received and successful, as far as it went. Sending Tim Urban and Nicole D’Ambrosio into the field to make bulk sales though—which had been so successful just last week—failed this time out. Perhaps it was the kind of stores they targeted: gas stations and bakeries, or the fact that they were pitching mostly to store clerks with no buying authority. The sad result was that Tim and Nicole couldn't make a single bulk sale. And having Tim and Nicole out in the field meant Arrow had two less people selling at Ralph's Supermarket.
At the supermarket, everyone on the Arrow team noticed that their leader, Aaron Altscher, was just standing around. When someone finally told him to go out and sell, he replied, "I hate selling." This certainly is no crime, but it’s shocking to hear it from a professional sales person. Perhaps some other line of work might better suit Aaron's personality.
Over on the Kinetic team, Derek Arteta and the other people who harvested the honey were disappointed to discover that the Project Manager, Aimee Trottier, and Jenn Hoffman hadn't been able to decide on a name for their new brand of honey. Soon enough though they all agreed to call it "Bee More," and the project moved forward.
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Using your strengths to bolster a teammate's weakness will encourage the group to pitch in when you need help.
