The Rules of Management, 4th Edition

RULE 13

Accept their limitations

As we saw earlier, effectively fusing a team together means you need several different parts – or team members. Now some of us are good at certain things and others not so. If we were all the same we wouldn’t be able to work as a team – we would all be leaders or all followers and you need a combination, not either/or.

So if some members of your team aren’t leaders – or followers – you have to accept that. If some are good at figure work and others not, you have to accept that. If some are good at working unsupervised and others not, you have to accept that.

And to be able to accept these things you have to know your staff pretty well. You have to know their strengths and weaknesses, good points and bad. If you ...