teams | The Caleb Barney Collection

Calling all entrepreneurs!

Don’t underestimate the value of having a good team!

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” – African proverb

It’s easier to do things by yourself. You can trust that you’ll “do things right.” Training others can be time consuming and stressful, but if you’re not willing to let go of the $10/hour tasks so that you can focus on the $1,000/hour tasks, you will cap your upside. We only have so much time in the day…

It’s perfectly fine to try to do things on your own. But to make the biggest possible impact, you’re going to need a great team around you.

Teamwork makes the dream work

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb

You can only go so far, or accomplish so much, on your own. It takes teamwork to achieve something great.

Teams (especially large teams with many decision-makers) can take a long time to decide and act on something. It is easier to move quickly when your team is small or you’re by yourself. But you will be limited by your time, energy, and mental capabilities if you only work alone. If you work with a team, with each team member having their own strengths and bringing something valuable to the team, you can achieve something larger than any one person.

Management

If you are in a position to manage others, there are two major mistakes to avoid. The first is micromanaging. If you have capable people working for/with you, they have good ethics, they have produced results in the past, and they know what the near-term and long-term goals are for themselves and the company are, do not constantly be looking over their shoulder. Don’t step on their toes! Let them do what they know best. But it’s good to keep the lines of communication open. You should still have regular check-ins to see how they’re doing, if they need help/another opinion on how to do something, etc. When you micromanage, you take away not only their sense of autonomy, but you also remove accountability from them. After all, they are only following your orders when you tell them every single thing to do.

The opposite is also a problem though, which is to becomes so hands-off that those you are managing don’t think you know what’s going on. If you’re not present, don’t talk with them regularly, or aren’t in any meetings with them, when you go to make a suggestion they are much more likely to disregard your suggestions. You become an outsider at that point, not a team member, a leader, or a manager.

Aim to strike a healthy balance between the two forms of communication. Guide them, but let them be the heroes. Ask them questions so they can think of how to improve a situation. Monitor their results and be prepared to step in if you feel they will do something that may have catastrophic/irreversible results. But, ultimately, keep in mind that people will work hardest for you when they like what they do, when they’re engaged/interested, when there is mutual respect between themselves, their manager, and their co-workers, and when they feel you have their back.

Having a team to go far

I’ve always enjoyed the quote, “if it is to be, it’s up to me.” This implies that if you want something done, you have to take action to put yourself in the position to get it. YOU have the power to change your life. It may take a while, and it may never come to fruition, but it will NEVER happen if you don’t do something about it. But this quote is very self-centered and, in my eyes, incomplete.

Recently, I read one of Gary Keller’s books and he modifies the quote slightly to, “If I want it to be, it starts with me.” At first, I didn’t think anything of it. It is changed a little from the initial quote, but I attributed the change more to an accidental misquote – almost like how the message always seems to change just a little from person-to-person when playing a game of telephone. But after giving it more thought, they really are different ideas. With Gary’s quote, it still says that if you want something to happen, you have to be the catalyst of change. I agree with this. But what Gary’s quote implies is that change only starts with you. If you have big enough goals, you’ll never be able to do everything by yourself. You’ll need to build a team around you.

This brings me to the last quote of the day, an African proverb, which states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” You can move very quickly if you’re working alone because you don’t have to take time to try to influence others why your idea is best for the company. You can pivot at a moment’s notice when you’re working alone, not bogged down with bureaucracy. But you will eventually reach your capacity, whether it’s your time, financial, emotional, physical, mental, etc. We all have limits as individuals, but if you construct a team to “fill the gaps” where you are weak, you can prevail over those limitations! If you have a team of all stars to help overcome your capacities, you can achieve huge goals that you never could have by yourself.

So, instead of trying to be a superhero, doing everything yourself, work to build a team around you to reach the really lofty goals. It will eventually save you time and frustration, and if you enjoy their company, you will have some fun along the way.