Leading Winning Teams

4Understanding and Leading Team Members

KNOWING YOUR TEAM members and having a profile on each person is a big deal to me. Being a good coach often comes down to knowing your team members very well. It's very important for an organization and its leaders to look at their team and have a ton of data and background on each member. We are constantly making decisions based on our personnel, and as a coach I am consistently putting my members in a position to be successful.

Baseball Cards for Your Team Members

The first thing I start with is a background on each individual person within the organization. They are the folks I will be managing first. I build a profile on my peers, my bosses, the ownership group—I want a significant profile for every single person I'm going to encounter. Where do they come from, where were they raised, what was family life like growing up, what university did they go to? Did they go to trade school? How do they learn? What motivates them? What are their superpowers? Where do they think they will have maximum impact and contribute the most?

These details will give you clarity of where people are coming from. It is a beautiful way to dive into the lens of how someone sees the world and from their experiences. I did not have the same experiences as many of my teammates and team members and that is okay. They did not have the same experiences I had either. I love the fact that we come from diverse backgrounds and those experiences shaped our lens and ...