Any project is as strong or weak as its central team. The Visioner stepping out to create something new must ensure that she builds a powerful team, a real team of people who will be actually useful to the long term goals of the project.
When stepping out to start a new project, we must resist the temptation to add people to the team simply for the fun of it. You must be clear, very clear about what exactly each member of your team is bringing to the table, and before you can even do these, you must also be clear about exactly what you are trying to achieve and the kind of team members you will need to get it done.
Remember, you do not need a bandwagon!
A bandwagon team filled with people you do not really need will breakdown in the long run. When you simply add people to your team without deeply weighing the impact such a peron will have on your project, you will open up yourself to people who might drag things and weigh down the project.
When building a team, you have to be careful because good people do not necessarily make good team members automatically. A good person might not be a good fit for your project afterall! I get swamped with partnership requests and team role requests every now and then, and while some work very well, a lot of other projects do not work well.
I fail to make a mark or any meaniful addition to the project, not because I’m a bad team player or I’m not smart enough but because I’m not a good fit for that project.
As they say in football: you can buy the best players in the world, but you cannot buy a team.
Build your team slowly, you do not need a 30 man team initially to get things going. Add people to your team that you are convinced will make a good fit and will add real value to your project.
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Watching The World
- Fortune has named Google’s CEO, Larry Page as their 2014 Business person of the year. They are calling him the most ambitious CEO in the universe
- Facebook is rumoured to be making “Facebook at Work”, a version of the website targeted at companies. Read about it here
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