Is Your Team In It to Win It?

My wife is a big Toronto Blue Jays fan, and since she controls the remote most of the time you can likely guess that I’ve become one as well. It’s not difficult to be a fan when the Blue Jays are on such a strong winning streak, but their consistent wins should come as no surprise.

This year, more than in previous years, the Blue Jays have invested heavily in acquiring new talent, most recently Price and Tulowitzki. This investment alone has had a significant influence on the Blue Jays performance as a team, most notably camaraderie amongst the team is higher, talent that wasn’t performing to the new team standards have been released or returned to the minor leagues and talent such as Jose Bautista is actually performing at a higher level than in previous years.

By investing heavily in some new talent, the performance of the Blue Jays has improved, setting new higher standards as to expected outcomes.

If making these types of investments and changes in teams can yield such dramatic improvements in performance of the team, then why don’t we take more dramatic action and make more significant investments in attracting and integrating high performing talent into our businesses? Historically I hear CEOs and executives tell me that they just can’t find the talent, or the process to remove an employee is simply too cumbersome. They choose to hold onto individuals who are clearly performing at levels that hold the rest of the team back.

[Tweet “You are never going to win in the game of business if you don’t have a strong team.”]

We know what to do; we just don’t want to do it.

When the topic of under-performing employees comes up with the clients I invariably remind them of something. Holding onto an employee who is not meeting your performance standards is doing the business, the employee themselves and the rest of the team members a complete dis-service. It’s fair to say that not everyone is going to “fit” in your team or your business, and that’s okay. You owe it to everyone including your employees, your customers, your shareholders, and your family to take action where action is necessary.

Make higher investments and take rapid action to attract and integrate the right talent into your team and watch their performance soar.

© Shawn Casemore 2015. All rights reserved.