When you need your team to perform to the highest level the obvious answer is to recruit as much top talent as possible. Or is it? Similarly to sports teams businesses need structure and a range of abilities rather than just a team of top-line talent. Or do they?
There’s no i in team
Particularly talented individuals are likely to be fully aware of the abilities they possess and the attributes they can bring to any business. They are also more likely to be used to being recognised for that talent, meaning that it is often difficult for them to accept being simply part of a team.
In situations where talented individuals need to work together there can often be conflict as a competition for status overshadows the work that needs to be done.
Horses for courses
The rule does vary according to the environment. Continuing the sports analogy, in a game like rugby the team needs to be made up of players who all have different attributes. By working together and applying their different skills they can achieve the ultimate goal. However, in a sport like cricket having a team comprising the very best players in the world would be advantageous given the individual aspects of the game. Applying this to the business world, in situations where maybe individuals are given specific areas of the country to work in, the cricket scenario works well. Friendly rivalry in that climate should in theory only fuel success. Having assessed the level of interdependence required, if employees do not have to work so closely together
Too much talent?
Having a team full of stars could also mean that they themselves are devoid of room in which to develop and grow the skills they already possess. If a situation ends up stifling them, the likelihood is that they will walk away eventually.
However, does the idea that overloading a team with too much talent can lead to problems simply mask another issue? Rather than the idea that talented people can’t work together successfully, is the answer more about ensuring that there is strong and effective management from leaders who can orchestrate them to gel as a unit?
Strong management and training
Managing a team where egos are on a collision course is a big ask and requires specific and strong management skills to bring it all together. But, it can be done. Additionally, there are subtle structural changes that can be made to accommodate a number of talented individuals. Larger organisations can often utilise people by moving them to alternative parts of the business, or define what is meant by talent differently in a way as to improve team co-ordination. This might also involve a certain amount of training both for the individuals being asked to work as a team and those seeking to leverage the abilities they have into a cohesive unit. Indeed, the training of those managers charged with the task of forging a successful team out of the talented resource available to them, could be seen as the singularly most important part of the process.
So, in conclusion a group of talented individuals will require a talented leader to fuse them together. Businesses should look at the make-up of the departments they are recruiting for and highlight what skills are needed to make it successful. In some cases recruiting the very best people will be the right course to follow, at other times covering a wide range of skills and levels within a group will work better. In this area there are many parallels to be drawn from team sports and for organisations to ignore this opportunity to learn from them would be churlish in the extreme.