I previously introduced the metaphor of your business as a road trip, asking you to consider who you want in your van and suggesting you perform an assessment of the people on your team and make tough decisions about whether you have room for everyone.
If people on your team are impediments to your organization's goals, culture, reputation or commitment to mission, values and customers, there’s no reason to hold a seat for them.
However, your people assessment doesn't stop there. You need to make sure everyone you want on your team is in the right seat.
For example:
Get the picture?
Whether or not you succeed in getting everyone in the right seat is tied to how well you understand your destination. So, use your organization's strategy and goals as the guide for evaluating and aligning each team member with their ideal position. Here's how.
Review your strategy with a critical eye toward the skills, capabilities and leadership attributes needed on your team for success. If your strategy for the next 18 months includes a product launch, new service, fund raise or strategic partnership, examine your team to make sure you have people who can accomplish those goals. Ensuring this may require making key hires or creating new work groups to bring the necessary skills and styles together.
In conducting this type of evaluation, make a list of what's required in two areas:
With these two lists in hand, you'll more easily see gaps you need to bridge and strengths you can leverage.
[…] you’ve read the first two posts in this series (Who Do You Want in Your Van? and Get People in the Right Seats), you know that we’re on a metaphoric business road trip, that you don’t want to travel […]