Building Blocks of Great Teams
How identifying and empowering your Initiators, Motivators, and Implementers will create the ingredients you need to build your dream team.
2022 is shaping up to be one of the tightest labor markets we’ve seen in some time. Great talent is highly sought after, including the top performers that are already with you. What are you doing to retain your top performers? Are you leveraging their strengths, so they enjoy their work and feel fulfilled in their role? In the March/April 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review, “The Real Secret to Retaining Talent”, Roger L. Martin shares that “feeling special is more important to talent than compensation is.”
It begs the question; do you know the individual strengths of your team? And if you recognize these traits in your top performers, are you validating this in their work opportunities, in the ways you reward them, and how you develop them? Leaders that can identify and empower unique talent will create a culture that is ripe for your employee’s best work and will be a magnet for top talent.
In my several years of team building, I’ve found that there are key ingredients that make a great team. It’s when these individual and unique strengths come into alignment that synergy among a team can be achieved. Here I will talk about the role of Initiators, Motivators and Implementers in your organization. While your team members may lean more towards only one of these roles, something really special happens when you have those that excel at two or more of these traits.
(c) 2022 . Lead With Impact, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Initiators – these are go-getters for new opportunities. Initiators love to “run the horses” on new ideas and concepts without getting bogged down in all the reasons why it “can’t” be done. They are insightfully curious, balancing their own opinions while reflecting on other viewpoints. They approach decision with facts and intuition and are willing to take mindful business risks.
How to Engage: Value the opinions of Initiators. Include them in on strategy meetings, allow them to research, dream big, and present new ideas.
Motivators – they inspire themselves and others to achieve great work. Motivators are generally healthy in their own self-concept while continually striving to improve. They manage stress well and aren’t afraid to hold others accountable, knowing when to be lenient and when to enforce. People respect them for their work ethic, teachability and compassion towards their colleagues and direct reports.
How to Engage: Provide continual growth opportunities where they can develop new hard and soft skills. Give Motivators opportunities to lead direct and/or cross-functional work teams where clear deliverables are being measured.
Implementers – these team members bring great ideas to fruition. You will appreciate their excellent communication skills, their inventiveness to find efficiencies and process improvement strategies. Implementers in leadership roles will also be excellent delegators, willing to make and own leadership decisions while inviting collaboration and input from the team, building trust and mutual respect with colleagues and direct reports.
How to Engage: Let them experiment! Implementers can put details and actionable plans to big vision, so don’t micro-manage the details. Allow them to process and implement new ideas and concepts.
So what happens when two or more of these traits are strong in any one individual? You will find these types of contributors – Visionaries, Operational Geniuses, and People Leaders.
Visionaries (Initiator & Motivator) - Big vision people that inspire and drive others towards accomplishing challenging goals. They will be appreciated for their respect of other’s opinions, teachability, and their “truth with love” approach to holding others accountable for great work. From the leadership perspective, they will take calculated risks that could pay big dividends down the line.
Operational Geniuses (Initiators & Implementers) – Masterful at putting feet to vision. They not only see and develop “big picture” concepts, but also invent new and creative ways to implement them. They are forever learners, confident in their craft, yet teachable to learn new skills and concepts, inviting input from others to achieve the best results.
People Leaders (Motivators & Implementers) – Innovative delegators that inspire others to do their best work. They are effective communicators, being able to articulate opportunities and challenges with all levels of the organization. Their teams will appreciate their collaborative spirit and their integrity to own decisions if results don’t go as planned. Other team members enjoy working with and for them because of their “can do” attitude that is backed with persistence to find the best outcome.
If you have a team member that exhibits all three of these traits – that’s rare and coveted like a unicorn. They will likely be your G.O.A.T. dream team member. Value their ideas, develop them, and remind them how special they are to you and your organization. Allow them to shine and provide ample opportunity for them to work on projects that are fulfilling and rewarding.
If you’d like to know how to identify these traits in your team, contact me to find out how we help leaders identify, attract, and retain their dream team.
