Pick Your Colleagues Carefully
Like ingredients in a recipe, choose your team purposefully - skills, energy, loyalty, and chemistry - to bring out the best in each other and achieve more together.
Adam Danyal & Julia Danyal
October 29, 2023
WRITTEN BY: ADAM DANYAL
The teammates around you make all the difference. Like ingredients in a recipe, the mix determines the outcome. Baking a cake calls for harmony. Making great things happen calls for the right people.
Chemistry matters. We’ve all been on teams where teammates clicked, hungered for wins together, and brought out each other’s best. And we’ve suffered the opposite. Teammates who dragged us down, made work a chore, and achieved far less together than the sum of our parts.
As leaders, we don’t choose teammates randomly or by convenience. We pick them purposefully, like a chef chooses ingredients. Flavor, texture, balance - it all starts with the selection.
Pick people with skills to complement yours. If you’re a big picture visionary, choose detail-driven handlers to execute your vision. If you’re analytical, pair with creative sparks to see new possibilities. Diversity of thought propels teams farther.
Pick positive people. Energy is contagious. Surround yourself with colleagues who inspire you to achieve more. Their joy becomes your joy when you share success together.
Pick loyal people. Teammates who have your back when times get tough and cheer loudest when you succeed. People you’d run through walls for, knowing they’d do the same. That’s real chemistry.
Pick hungry people. Teammates who want to be great and are willing to work relentlessly until they are. People who push you as much as you push them.
Pick people you enjoy. Yes, skills matter enormously. But happiness matters too. Spend your best hours with people who make you smile and fill you with optimism. People who become friends for life.
The teammates you pick become your legacy. They define your journey. Surround yourself with people who bring out your absolute best, care intensely about your shared success, and inspire you to achieve more than you dreamed possible.
Leadership is a team sport. Pick your team carefully.
From our Leadership Bookshelf:
WRITTEN BY: JULIA DANYAL
In her book “Leading with Y.E.S.”, author Maria Van Hekken introduces an inspirational leadership framework. The acronym Y.E.S. represents key principles for unlocking extraordinary potential in teams.
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The book advocates listening first with humility, asking thoughtful questions, and considering diverse perspectives.
It emphasizes connecting authentically with team members, involving them proactively, and caring about more than just work output.
The framework also focuses on having people's backs in challenges, taking responsibility instead of blaming, and shining the spotlight on teams.
By embracing these principles, leaders can build environments of psychological safety and trust. This empowers teams to take ownership, collaborate effectively, and drive success. Credibility stems from earned influence rather than formal authority.
With uplifting leadership, you can inspire teams to embrace their extraordinary stories and deliver outstanding results. Leading with Y.E.S. provides guidance to bring out the best in people.