ASSEMBLING YOUR TEAM: 5-MINUTE PRIMER

Say you just got handed a huge and important project that’s already behind deadline and you have to assemble a team to get it done. Now, once you know who’s going to be recruited to help you save the day, it’s time to act.

Minute 1: Step outside yourself and start to imagine what it feels like to be one of your listeners. 

Minute 2: Consider their distractions—the email and papers and phone messages piling up, skipping lunch to try and leave at a reasonable enough hour to have dinner with their families.

Minute 3: With all the other stuff they have to contend with, ask yourself what’s in it for them (W.I.I.F.M.)—and why should they be bothered listening to you. 

Minutes 4-5: Map out their distractions as well as the solutions or incentives you can offer them.

You now have a tool to help you maximize the enthusiasm and efforts of your team, and at the same time, that will help minimize any resentment or frustration on team members’ parts about having to drop everything at what seems to be your “whim.”

(Excerpted from Loud and Clear by Karen Berg. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/wm2tod4)