Your Team.........What do know about them?

Reading time : 7 minutes

Every individual working for you wishes to grow. You as a manager expect every member of your team to have 2 basic qualities. 

1. Obedience 

2. Efficiency  - You may not articulate it. 

Rest everything is a subset of these two. Competency is a subset of Efficiency, similarly good execution has it's roots in Obedience, etc.  

It's quite similar to human feelings, which originate from 2 basic emotions - Love & Fear. Everything else is a derivative of one of the 2. 

Interestingly, Obedience kills Improvement - which is essential for growth. Similarly efficiency diminishes innovation, which pushes human mind to newer challenges and enable humans to grow. 

Quite paradoxical. 

Similarly if one has to ask the question

Why do teams fail?  reply : Poor performance of employees. 

Why do employees perform poorly? reply : They are not hardworking.

Really ?

In today’s competitive environment, where meetings, client interactions, time spent during work hours, practically every thing is recorded, how can one find time to while it away. 

With intense competition and turbulent financial markets, perseverance or hardwork is a quality which is expected to be a hygiene factor.  

Then why do some teams fail?  Why are people asked to leave? If everybody is working hard, then why is team not achieving the set goals?

Is the board asking right questions from the leader of businesses?

Question to be asked is – What’s your team like? Do you know your team members well?

Presenting you : The team matrix - BCDO

Also introducing 2 acronyms: DQ – Diplomacy Quotient (conducive to the Political environment of the organization) & TQ – Technical Quotient (Complete Knowhow for executing the Job). IQ and EQ have been used innumerable times before, hence avoiding to substantiate on those terms.

Each team has few or all of BCDO

1.      Bohemians – These are smart talented individuals who are non-conformist of the system but are very useful for the organization. They have the ability & talent to reach the goal post single handedly. They generally don’t add anything to the organization or team in terms of culture, knowledge, team camaraderie etc apart from numbers. They are silent workers and do not have too much connect or relations within the organization. They have limited friends within the company and seek internal motivation to achieve targets. Most important thing in their life is FREEDOM, freedom to operate & execute. Consistency is not the thing they admire most. Also during times of need, one can’t necessarily vouch for their delivery. They generally have very high TQ, Very low DQ & EQ. Moderately high IQ. These kind of people have very high expectations from themselves. For them, competition is internal and they try to better off in every try they make. Management is not particularly fond of them due to their social disconnect and lack of Yes Man attitude. They keep jumping jobs for the thrill of one and are not sticky to one organization for a very long term. 

2.      Congruous Workers – These are the core of any organization. They are always in line with the organizational objectives and think of the wellbeing of the organization as their first priority. They like to be directed by the leader and are good at following instructions. They prefer structured working environment and laid down rules & regulations. These kind of employees find it difficult in startup ventures and grow up ranks fast in large organizations. They adapt and moderate as per the organizational norms and deliver results as per the leader’s expectations and control. One can’t expect superlative performance until being directed into. They receive enthusiasm and motivation from the organizational elements and the leader. They have moderate balanced IQ, EQ, DQ & TQ. They have generally long serving careers in one organization and remain loyal for longer duration of their work life. Leaders generally repose lot of faith in such workers due to their “YES SIR, CAN Do, WILL DO” attitude.

3.      Dependable – These kind of employees are best for the organization with High IQ, EQ, TQ and moderate DQ. These are consistent players of the team and take every opportunity to assist the leader and organization in achieving its goals. They need minimal instructions and are quick in understanding and execution. During adverse conditions they adapt to the newer conditions and keep the ball moving. They engage with rest of the team, help in building culture and good work place environment. They contribute over and above number by mentoring and coaching junior employees. They are the best fit for building cross departmental synergies. They generally are secure and don’t get involved in unnecessary gossip and mudslinging exercise amongst employees. They generally don’t deliver superlative performances but have consistent delivery year on year. Despite of being loyal, generally they don’t stick to one organization due to competitive poaching & organizational politics.

4.      Obsessive Brand Creators – These individuals have great oratory skills with perfect timing. Language and content is not so important for them as compared to communication and timing of it. They don’t work for the organization but for themselves. They remain sticky with the organization till the time they see organization creating value for them. Motivation for these employees is brand ME. These employees are social in the organization and make sure their presence is felt and recognized in each discussion and within the organization. It can become really difficult if the leader has these traits. In such a scenario, leader wouldn’t allow others to grow and take the organization forward. For such employees, failures are always due to the organization’s fault while successes are contributed by them. Best part about them is their delivery skills during testing times. They tend to perform well when overall organization is reeling under pressure, so that their leadership can be portrayed to the external world by their performance. They generally have high EQ, DQ and moderately high IQ and TQ.

Siddhartha Rastogi says, "To win & achieve mammoth results, first identify core motivational traits of your people, then sharpen their skills & steer their efforts, Your team will become Unbeatable."