Smart leaders know the importance of building great teams. Teams allow you to accomplish far more than you ever could by yourself. Teambuilding is a skill all successful leaders have developed.
I just finished Molly Knight’s great book The Best Team Money Can Buy. Molly effectively chronicles the story of the 2013 and 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers and the ownership’s desperate attempt to win a World Series. The Dodgers had the highest payroll in baseball both years yet only won one playoff series.
Their story gives fascinating insights into what is required to build a great team. All leaders, regardless of your industry, can learn from the following 25 quotes and lessons on teambuilding and the type of people you should be recruiting from Molly’s book:
- Find People Who Work Hard – “Teammates talk about how his (Clayton Kershaw) freakish physical gifts were matched only by how hard he worked.”
- Find People With A Healthy Egos – “Kershaw knew it took only one superstar ego to engulf the rest of the locker room in flames.”
- Find People Who Produce – “As far as on the field, nobody cares about how much money you’re making if you perform.” – Kershaw
- Find People Who Value Relationships – “Nothing validates famous people more than being around other famous people.”
- Stockpile Talent – “A general manager’s number one task is to stockpile as much talent as possible.”
- Exercise Discretion – “While general managers are judged by the moves they make, their best deals are often the ones they don’t make.”
- Don’t Overpay For Talent – “(Carl) Crawford would have to find the team that was both rich enough to pay his fee and crazy enough to want to.” – The Dodgers were his team.
- Find People With High Standards – “Being great wasn’t enough for Kershaw to sleep well at night: he pushed himself to be perfect.”
- Find People Who Are Generous – “A devout Christian, Kershaw believed his wealth could best be used to help others in need. His faith taught had taught him that he needed only enough money to ensure his family never had to worry. The rest was for giving away.”
- Find People With High Character – “Kershaw believed that money didn’t change who a person already was: it only amplified it.”
- Don’t Waste Opportunities To Add Top Talent – “Teams with the highest picks in the Major League Baseball draft have one job and one job only: not screw it up.”
- Every Great Team Has Great Role Players – “They (four role players) weren’t the stars of the team, but they were the glue.”
- Find People With Good Chemistry – “‘Getting along’ is probably not the right way to say it, but there needs to be a climate that provides acceptance.” – Team president Stan Kasten
- Avoid People Who Feel Entitled – “In some ways, managing less talented, younger players under the dysfunctional pall of bankruptcy was easier for (Don) Mattingly that culling through his new roster of high-profile veterans.”
- Find People Who Do Little Things Well – “We didn’t have quite the resumes in our clubhouse, so we had to do the little things better than everyone else.” – Mattingly
- Find Motivated People – “Motivation was something that couldn’t be taught.”
- Find Self-Motivated People – “They need to be self-motivated, number one.” – Mattingly
- Find Indispensable People – “He’s (pitching coach Rick Honeycutt) the most indispensable member of the organization.” – catcher A.J. Ellis
- Find Bridge Builders – “Mattingly’s most important objective was keeping twenty-five grown men who live in uncomfortably close proximity to one another for nine months out of the year from killing each other.”
- Find People With A Passion For What You Are Doing – “Zack Greinke loved baseball more than perhaps anyone in the sport.”
- Have A Plan And System For Finding Talented Team Members – “A team’s intelligence in the draft room mattered to Greinke when he set out to choose whom he would play for.”
- You Must Properly Evaluate Failure – “All winning teams are alike. Each losing team loses in its own way.”
- Great Teams Needs Some Good Luck – “The teams left standing in October are usually the ones who suffered the fewest elbow and shoulder injuries to their pitching staffs.”
- Find People Who Put Others First – “One of the reasons Mattingly had hung on to his job when the team failed was that he was a man who chose his words carefully. He toed the company line even better than his mentor, Joe Torre; and for the most part resisted saying anything that would draw attention to the club’s personality clashes. When he and his coaching staff disagreed with the front office over how to discipline Yasiel Puig, he said nothing about it to the press. When the Dodgers didn’t announce that his contract for 2014 had automatically vested he kept his mouth shut.”
- Be Smart – “Mark Walter (Dodgers’ principal owner) had learned that money couldn’t buy championships. Being the richest team wasn’t as important as being the smartest.”
As you can see, The Best Team Money Can Buy is a great team building book. Pick up your copy by clicking HERE.
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