The Right Style

Dream Team

Introduction

• Introduction

– Every business must – and will – have a

nature and style all of its own. A culture.

Any and every group of people that co-

exists for any length of time has a culture,

whether it chooses to or not.

Culture - Values

• Values

– It is because values are so important that

we have heard some say “hire on intuition,

not paper qualifications”. Sharing a culture

is about agreeing on what matters and what

is trivial, what is good and what is bad.

Culture - Mythology

• The mythology of your business is

important. How did the company begin?

What were its darkest moments, and

how did you get out of them? What was

the biggest lucky break?

• Mythology supports values by

embedding them in stories, and by

giving those stories value.

Culture - Rituals

• Rituals are hugely important, for

reminding people of the culture‟s values

and mythology and of their shared

membership of the group. The original

meaning of the word „Religion‟ was

„binding together again‟, which is exactly

what ritual does.

First:

• Select the right people

– Your cornerstones should be people you

totally trust, ideally because you have

known them for awhile. The difficulties arise

when you come to selecting the Dream

Team.

• Select on character, not on apparent merit.

• Key virtues are enthusiasm, optimism and

honesty.

Second:

• Having selected well, set out dos, and

don’ts from the start. Reward teamwork,

„mucking in‟, imagination, extra effort

and, most important of all, anyone who

encourages or helps a colleague in

difficulty. • Anyone who engages in point-scoring, one-upmanship or „mind

games‟ – the expression of hidden agendas should be given a

warning, then dismissed.

Second – Cont..

• You should have a vision of what the

new company means. What it does, for

whom, why people should buy from you,

what kind of place it will be to work in.

The more the company has real

character, the more people will be

prepared to subsume their personal

interests to company ones.

Have a culture of Success

• Visualize success, and make sure your

team does the same. Celebrate success

whenever it happens.

– Professional sports people do this,

visualizing success via videos of their own

greatest moments, and celebrating

outrageously whenever they succeed

again.

• Can you create a similar feel in your office?

Dream Team

• Your Dream teamers are „doers‟,

remember, so encourage this. Have a

can-do culture, where people get

praised for having a go at something. If

the start-up is busy, there will be more

jobs to be done than people to do them,

so let people have ago if they think they

are „up for it‟

Dream Team – Clarity

• Clarity is a much undervalued

management virtue. Tell people what

they are supposed to be doing and why.

This sounds obvious, but surveys often

reveal managers to be mired in

uncertainty about what the hell their

actual job is.

Leadership – Dream Team

• Select wisely

• Set clear rules

• Have a vision (and

communicate it)

• Have a culture of

success

• Be clear on the

objectives (do not

move the goal posts)

• Lead by example

• The one cost that

you cannot get

around is the

opportunity cost of

not having able

people working with

you. The payback in

terms far outweigh the

costs.