A new team member is like a new organ in your body

Welcoming a new member into a teamEvery manager knows that process of resourcing is a never-ending story. Constantly “fighting” for headcount, acquiring approvals, justifying the needs, not to mention recruiting, selection and interviewing are extremely time and effort consuming endeavors. But what if after all this the new team member is unable to find his or her place in the team, cannot “blend in” and deliver what’s expected? Did we somehow mess up the recruiting process? Or maybe it’s something else?Think about your team as a human body, and it all becomes clear. Continue reading

Team members function together like organs of human body: Part 2 Team Functions

Every team member, in addition to straightforward job specific duties, has additional (and critical) responsibilities in the team, related to his or her personal predisposition. Successful manager has to know how to ensure that all these additional team functions are present by building a customized communication and incentives system for each team member (see more on that under Team Building tag). There are many different typologies for these functions, so feel free to use mine :-). Continue reading

Team members function together like organs of human body: Part 1 Responsibility Structure

The human body functions based on a very simple principle – every organ has its own job to do, but in case something goes wrong, there is a possibility to divide the lost function between other organs. You break your legs – you can crawl with your hands, someone loses his sight – other senses step up to the task. Because we have such an intricate regulator as our nervous system, we are never completely down even when we are. It creates a clear Responsibility Structure of body organs. Continue reading

A Perfect team is like a perfect body

A Perfect Team is like a perfect bodyThere are different approaches to management, but all managers share one simple desire. We all want to succeed in what we do. To be successful, manager will require a strong team to rely on. But what is a Perfect team?  I came with a simple concept that helps to define the parameters of such a team and to maximize these parameters.  Continue reading

Building a Perfect Team – main issues

Building a Perfect Team - main issuesIn the same way that finding a perfect match in personal relationship is not an easy task, finding a right match for a position, let alone building a team with multiple positions is not trivial at all. In today’s market, the majority of the human resources placement, especially in mid- to big-size companies, is being done through some sort of mediator, i.e. recruiting agency or human resource department. There are several, “common sense” reasons for that: Continue reading