The single key attribute to building an A team is initiative.
Of course, initiative would make the top of any list. This
may seem simple, but it’s deceptively so; because there is immature initiative
and mature initiative. Unless we are
able to distinguish between the two, we will fall into a trap that completely
derails our productivity and the growth of our business.
Early on in entrepreneurship, our key job is to sell the
vision to the world and to our team. As an entrepreneur, our vision for the
business we’ve created is the heart beat of what we do. It’s what drives us…..to
accept risk, to push ourselves to an insane level of commitment, to forego
security and comfort. Without our vision, we have nothing. It becomes who we
are.
So, when we have a team member who comes to us as says “I
see what you are building and I want to build it with you”, we get swept up and
mistake this as initiative, because to some extent it is. But we often forget
to dig further because finally, we have received external validation that what
we are building is legitimate. Our first visionary convert.
I’ve made this mistake more than once. But as time went on,
I’ve learned how to differentiate mature initiative from immature initiative
and it has changed my entire organization. It is simply the difference between
a period and a comma.
Immature Initiative looks like this: “I see what you
are building and I want to build it with you.” Period. Statement over. The next step falls on us.
What tends to happen with these individuals at first is a blessing.
They want to help. We naturally give them all the little tasks that eat up our
time, but still need to get done. Great. Those are knocked out and off our
plate.
But with immature initiative, the team member will come back
and ask “what else can I do?”. You give them a list. Then they come back. “what
else can I do?” You give them a list. Then the come back…..
I found myself at a point where I was spending so much of my
time making a list for them to do, that I couldn’t even do my own job. It
became a black hole and is completely unsustainable.
Then I discovered mature initiative.
Mature Initiative looks like this: “I see what you
are building and I want to build it with you, here are a list of ideas and
plans I have that will increase customer acquisition, retention, loyalty….”
At last, once I discovered mature initiative and what it
looked like in my organization, productivity soured. Things are getting done at
a rate I only dreamed of. Morale is through the roof. Customer retention is a
strength, rather than a weakness. I’m actually getting my work done. And the
best part of all, it’s contagious. When the rest of the team sees it, and sees
it rewarded, it grows.
If you can give yourself and your business 1 thing as an
entrepreneur, develop your ability to distinguish between the two and build a
leadership team of people who have mature initiative.
