Episode 35: The Law of the Inner Circle and Team Building

According to John Maxwell, "A leader's potential is determined by those closest to him."

John notes, "When you have the right staff, potential skyrockets."

The team or organization leader needs team members he/she chooses. Many times they can inherit and/or have someone from higher up in the organization want to add people to the team.  This is unfortunate and can cause issues of with results orientation and effectiveness. When given the opportunity to select his/her own team mates the leader needs to take advantage of this to select the best and the brightest that will bring their special attributes to the team.

It is important for the leader to recognize that he/she wants to select those individuals who address the weaknesses of the leader not clones of the leader.

 

( Patrick Lencioni )

The leader has to take time to support and develop that team that will become his inner circle. This is the group that will connect with each other and will develop a deep sense of trust to the organization, the leader and accomplishing the mission. Check out Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of the Team.

This does not happen overnight it requires the leader spending time developing his team.

This means interacting with each other not just in meetings and eating together. It means having an opportunity to laugh and play together and to experience turmoil and difficulty together.

Check out my thoughts about playing soccer, racing cars, the fluer-di-lis, and the lightening bolt.

It also means that the leader needs to find out what training and coaching they need and insure that they get it.

As a note, it is possible that you will make a bad selection for the team, the leader has to be willing to address that because it is a weakness for the team that will disrupt success.

I hope that you enjoy this episode and I challenge you to take the time to examine your organization and ask yourself …

Do you have an inner circle?

Do you support them?

Does someone not need to be on that team?

Some words of wisdom from John Maxwell:

"One of the mistakes I often made early in my career as a team leader was that I thought everyone who was on my team should remain on my team."-John Maxwell

"Hire the best staff you can find, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them."-John Maxwell

Recommended Reading:

John Maxwell's:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

Patrick Lencioni's:

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Also, you can subscribe to John Maxwell's Minute with Maxwell. 

A daily dose of leadership advice from John at no cost to you.

Enjoy!

Length: 31:21