Latest news with #teamwork
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
'He wants to build a team of players who are together'
Manchester United defender Matthijs de Ligt feels the work Ruben Amorim is doing around the first-team group will pay dividends - despite being set to start next season under intense pressure."I've experienced many managers and he's one of the most easy to talk to as a player," said De Ligt."He's really into details. Before signing new players, first he's looking at the culture, what needs to change and what can be improved to become a better football club. From next season, we will see more of that."He wants to build a team of players who are together, fighting for each other and making the most out of what they have."Maybe before, you had the best players, but you're not a team."
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why Building a High-Performing Team Beats Individual Brilliance
Founders who try to do everything end up doing nothing well. Long-term growth doesn't come from heroics — it comes from teams, systems and the discipline to let go. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In the early days of starting a business, the "do-it-yourself" mindset is a survival skill. You write the code, pitch the client, manage the books and clean the office. There's pride in wearing every hat, and sometimes, no other option. But eventually, if you're still doing everything yourself, you're the bottleneck, not the solution. One of the hardest transitions a founder has to make is letting go of being the hero. I've been there. I bootstrapped 46 Labs from day one. There were no investors, no parachute, no backup plan. For the first few years, I didn't take a salary. I handled the technical architecture and the business strategy while working alongside a handful of teammates who also had skin in the game. But here's what I learned: scaling a company doesn't happen when the founder works harder — it happens when the founder learns to trust and build around others. The hero-CEO model doesn't scale. It burns out. And often, it takes the company down with it. Related: 7 Steps to Building a Smart, High-Performing Team Why the hero mentality fails Being the hero can feel good, especially early on. You close the deal, solve the client issue, squash the bug and feel indispensable. But that "indispensable" feeling is dangerous. Because if you're the only one who can solve a problem, you've just created a fragile system. I've watched brilliant founders build businesses that revolved entirely around their abilities. They made every decision. They approved every hire. They were on every sales call. Eventually, the business outgrew its ability to control it. And instead of delegating, they worked longer hours. They held on tighter. That works — until it doesn't. When something breaks, the team doesn't know how to respond. When you step away, progress stalls. That's not leadership. That's dependency. In aviation (which I've done for years), no pilot flies alone for long. You rely on checklists, instruments, copilots and systems. Not because you can't fly the plane solo, but because flying safely requires redundancy, collaboration and awareness of your own limitations. Business is the same. You don't scale by controlling everything — you scale by building systems that work without you. Related: 5 Long-Term Strategies to Build and Sustain High-Performing Teams Hiring people you'll actually trust One of the best things I ever did as a founder was throw out the traditional hiring playbook. I don't look at resumes. I don't care where you went to school. I want to know how you think, how you solve problems and how you communicate under pressure. We've hired people from outside the telecom industry, from outside the U.S., from industries like fashion or finance. They've become some of the best team members I've worked with. Not because they knew telecom, but because they knew how to think critically, challenge assumptions and own their outcomes. If you want to stop being the hero, you have to hire people you'll trust with the keys. That means focusing on mindset and fit, not just experience. It also means giving people the freedom to operate. A strong team isn't just made of smart people — it's made of empowered people. Replace yourself (over and over again) A lot of founders talk about "working on the business, not in the business." But few follow through. Why? Because stepping out of a function you once owned feels like giving up control. But in reality, it's the most strategic move you can make. I've made it a habit to regularly ask myself: "What am I doing today that someone else should own within the next six months?" If I can't find anything, I either haven't built the right team—or I haven't learned to let go. Replacing yourself isn't about disappearing. It's about creating clarity. When everyone knows what they're responsible for, decisions get made faster. Mistakes become learning moments instead of bottlenecks. And progress scales with or without your direct involvement. When I handed off key engineering decisions to people I trusted, our product got better. When I stepped back from day-to-day project management, execution improved. When I stopped being the one reviewing every deal, we closed more of them. Your job isn't to hold everything together. It's to build something that holds together without you. Related: 7 Ways to Build a High-Performing Team Focus on systems, not heroics One of the best lessons from flying is that systems outperform instinct. In a crisis, you don't rely on your gut—you follow the checklist. You troubleshoot systematically. You communicate with the team. You execute the procedure you practiced 100 times before. Businesses should work the same way. If a deal goes south, a product fails or a system breaks, your company shouldn't rely on you to dive in and save it every time. That's not sustainable—and it's not scalable. Instead, build systems that catch problems early. Build dashboards that show you where things are headed. Build processes your team can run without hand-holding. The less your company relies on heroics, the more it can rely on consistency. Lead from the front, not the center There's a difference between leading and doing. I still jump in when needed. But I don't try to be the center of everything. That's not leadership — that's inertia. Leading from the front means setting direction, making the hard calls and clearing obstacles so your team can execute. It means showing up with clarity, not with your hands on every project. When your business is small, you have to do a little of everything. But as it grows, your job is to make sure everyone else can do their jobs better. That starts with letting go of the need to be the hero. Final thought If your company falls apart when you take a week off, it's not a business — it's a solo act with support staff. The founders who scale well are the ones who replace themselves again and again, who build teams that make good decisions without them and who see their job as building the system, not being the system. You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. You need to build a room full of smart people — and trust them to fly the plane.
Entrepreneur
3 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why Leaders Who Hide Behind Ambiguity Are Failing Their Teams
Teams aren't paralyzed by change — they're paralyzed by leaders who won't make a decision. When clarity is replaced with hesitation, even the best teams stall out, waiting for someone to step up and lead. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Let's stop pretending that ambiguity is some kind of evolved leadership skill. It's not. It's avoidance, plain and simple. Somewhere along the way, many leaders have confused open-mindedness with indecisiveness, and teams are suffering for it. Today's workplace isn't short on talent, but short on direction. People are ready to move, ready to build and ready to make an impact. But too often, they're forced to operate in a fog of strategic vagueness. Not because they lack initiative, but because the people above them are unwilling, or unable, to make a call. Leadership used to be about vision and decisiveness. It meant choosing a direction, committing to it and giving people a clear line of sight on where they were headed. That didn't mean micromanaging every move, but it did mean taking responsibility for setting the course. Now, too many leaders dance around decisions, offering a parade of possibilities instead of planting a flag. The consequences are real. Teams become fragmented. Resources get spread thin across too many priorities. People spend more time aligning than executing. And worst of all, the energy and drive that make a team powerful begin to erode. Not because people don't care, but because they don't know what they're aiming for. Related: Is It Time to Fire Yourself? 5 Signs You're Holding Your Company Back This isn't about leadership being "bad." It's about leadership being absent when it's needed most. There's a common pattern in organizations today: a big problem emerges — say, declining customer retention. Leadership acknowledges it, initiates a few working groups, and asks for ideas. Weeks go by. Research is done. Options are presented. And then…nothing. No real decision. No clear direction. Just more meetings, more analysis, more "let's keep exploring." It's not that leaders don't want to make the right choice. It's that they're terrified of making the wrong one. But that fear is costing teams far more than a few missteps ever would. When leaders don't make decisions, they shift the risk downstream. Teams are left to interpret vague signals and hope they're aligned. It's like being told to "build a bridge" with no information about the river, the traffic, or even the destination. Sure, your engineers might start designing, but the odds of building something useful are slim to none. Teams don't need endless exploration. They need a call to action. They need someone to say, "This is the direction we're going. It might not be perfect, but we believe it's right — and we're going to learn as we go." Related: The One 'Superpower' Trait These 6 Top Leaders Always Look For When Hiring And no, this isn't about embracing top-down command-and-control. It's about stepping into the responsibility of leadership. Decisiveness isn't a character flaw. It's a necessity. People want to follow someone who's willing to take a stand. They're not expecting perfection. They're expecting courage. The irony is, once a clear decision is made, teams don't collapse — they ignite. Give them a clear goal, and they'll bring the creativity, energy, and ownership needed to make it happen. They'll debate the how, they'll iterate on the what, but they'll do it with a shared understanding of why. That's where true innovation happens, within the guardrails of a defined purpose. But without that leadership, even the best teams end up stuck. They chase consensus instead of progress. They build plans on assumptions instead of direction. And eventually, they disengage — not because they're lazy, but because ambiguity is exhausting. So, what's the fix? It starts with leaders recognizing that decisiveness isn't about ego — it's about service. It's not about being right all the time. It's about giving people the clarity they need to do meaningful work. That might mean taking a position before every stakeholder is fully aligned. It might mean making a call when the data is still a bit murky. It will almost certainly mean facing criticism. But that's the job. Related: Are You a Procrastinator? Here Are 5 Ways to Be More Decisive. We've made leadership too comfortable. We've turned it into facilitation instead of direction. Discussion is important — but it's not the destination. At some point, someone has to say, "This is the way forward." If you're a leader, ask yourself: What decisions am I avoiding under the guise of being collaborative? Where have I created confusion instead of clarity? Am I giving my team enough information to act, or just enough to stay stuck? Because the truth is, your team isn't asking for a crystal ball. They're not looking for infallibility. They're looking for a signal they can trust, a decision they can work from, and a leader who's willing to step up when it counts. Clarity doesn't kill creativity — it unleashes it. And decisiveness doesn't stifle innovation — it enables it. What's killing momentum in organizations today isn't change — it's the unwillingness to commit to any change at all. So, make the call. Choose the direction. Lead. Your team is ready. The only question is — are you?
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
How to unleash the career superpower of curiosity
Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter. Sent every Monday afternoon. A junior analyst notices that a recurring report includes several metrics that no longer align with the team's current objectives. Instead of merely updating the report as instructed, he asks, 'Why are we still tracking these specific metrics?' This question prompts a discussion that leads to a more relevant and streamlined reporting process. A mid-level project manager is assigned to lead a project involving a department they're unfamiliar with. Rather than solely focusing on their project plan, she takes the initiative to learn about the department's workflows and challenges by asking, 'Can you walk me through your typical process?' This curiosity fosters better collaboration and uncovers opportunities for process improvements that benefit the entire organization. These are just two situations that occur in workplaces across the country every week, sometimes every day. In today's dynamic workplace, curiosity isn't just a trait – it is a strategic tool for career advancement. By actively cultivating curiosity, you can unlock new opportunities, drive innovation and position yourself for growth. Here are five practical strategies to harness curiosity effectively: Ask open-ended questions Curiosity starts with the right questions. Instead of yes/no prompts such as 'Is this working?', try asking, 'What's going well, and what's getting in the way?' or 'What haven't we considered yet?' These kinds of questions invite deeper insight and spark more meaningful conversation. Before your next meeting, prepare two open-ended questions to raise such as, 'What would success look like here?' or 'What led you to that approach?' In one-on-one conversations, try asking, 'What's been your biggest challenge this week?' or 'What's one thing you need from me?' A helpful habit is to pause before offering your own opinion and ask a clarifying question first. By consistently using open-ended questions, you show engagement, foster learning and open the door to innovation and problem-solving. Seek diverse perspectives One of the best ways to fuel curiosity is by actively seeking out viewpoints beyond your usual circle. Make a point of asking colleagues in different roles or departments for their insights, especially when you're tackling a problem or making a decision. You might ask, 'How does this affect your team?' or 'What's one thing you'd want us to know from your side?' Even an informal chat over coffee can reveal perspectives you hadn't considered. When working on a project, invite someone from another function to weigh in early. It could surface issues or opportunities you'd otherwise miss. By regularly tapping into diverse perspectives, you'll broaden your understanding, challenge your assumptions and build stronger, more collaborative relationships across your organization. Embrace lifelong learning Curiosity thrives when you make learning part of your routine, not just something you do when required. Look for small, practical ways to expand your knowledge, whether it's reading an article about industry trends, watching a short tutorial or asking a colleague to explain a tool you're unfamiliar with. You might say, 'I'd love to understand how you approach that, could you walk me through it?' or 'What resource would you recommend if I want to learn more about this?' Even 15 minutes a week set aside for learning can pay off. By showing a proactive approach to growth, you demonstrate adaptability and initiative – qualities that your leaders will notice and value when thinking about future opportunities. Reflect and adapt Curiosity isn't just about asking questions of others, it is also about examining your own work. After finishing a project or task, pause to reflect: What went well? What was challenging? What should I adjust next time? You can also ask others, 'What's one thing we could improve next time?' or 'Was anything unexpected for you in this process?' This habit of reflection and adaptation helps you avoid repeating mistakes and spot opportunities to improve. Over time, it sharpens your judgment, strengthens resilience and signals to others that you're proactive and committed to continuous growth – all qualities that can accelerate your career. Create a safe space for inquiry Curiosity flourishes in environments where questions are welcomed, not shut down. Whether you're leading a team or working alongside others, you can help create that space by modeling openness yourself. Try saying, 'That's a great question, let's look at it together,' or 'I hadn't thought of it that way; tell me more.' When someone raises an idea or concern, resist the urge to dismiss or rush past it. Instead, ask 'What makes you see it that way?' or 'How do you think we could explore this further?' Over time, encouraging this kind of dialogue builds trust, improves problem-solving and fosters a culture where innovation can take root. It makes you not just curious, but also a catalyst for growth. Curiosity is more than a nice-to-have – it's a professional superpower. It helps you navigate uncertainty, uncover fresh insights and adapt to change with confidence. By bringing curiosity to your daily work, you not only elevate your own growth but also inspire those around you to think bigger and bolder. Merge Gupta-Sunderji is a speaker, author, mentor to senior leaders and the chief executive officer of the leadership development consultancy Turning Managers Into Leaders.
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
This is the process that lets managers get the best out of their team
What does it mean to be a manager? In today's world, managers need to wear many hats. They have to be a mentor, mediator, communicator, coach, and numerous other roles simultaneously. But at its core, management is about matchmaking. You need to map the talents of your team to the needs of your business. That means making the most of your team's combined talents and unlocking the diversity in your team. Unfortunately, as managers struggle with limited time and resources, they overlook this critical component. All too often, managers end up assigning tasks on autopilot, matching business challenges to job titles rather than thinking creatively about how to leverage people's hidden talents or offer growth opportunities. The shift to hybrid and remote work has also reduced opportunities for the spontaneous discovery of people's hidden talents. This can end up shrouding people's true strengths. Collaboration and engagement can also suffer. Fortunately, unlocking your team's strengths doesn't need to be time-consuming. Over the past three years, I've helped dozens of teams unlock talents they didn't even know they had—and match those talents to the most pressing challenges they faced—through this simple, three-step exercise: Step 1: Self-reflection Gather your team together—ideally in person —and ask everyone to write down their talents and strengths on a flip chart. Emphasize that this isn't a competition to see who can list the most strengths, but rather about identifying the talents that people might take for granted or struggle to recognize in themselves. Sometimes, we're so used to our strengths that we don't even notice them. Encourage them to think about what they find easy to do, or what people come to them for. This short 15-minute period of self-reflection lays the foundation for using the hidden talents for the benefit of the team. Step 2: Team input Next, go around the room and ask each person to read their strengths aloud. Resist the urge to discuss or critique the strengths each team member identifies. Simply ask the rest of the team, 'What talent or strength do you see in this person that they didn't mention themselves?', and have the person write each additional talent on their list. And before moving over to your next team member, ask the team, what's the number-one strength of this colleague that at this moment we should use much more as a team? As you go around the room, each person will be surprised by the strengths their team sees in them. As their manager, you're likely to be surprised as well at the number of hidden, untapped talents that may surface. This step is often particularly powerful for more introverted or less confident employees, who might generally be more hesitant to talk about their strengths. I've found that while teams always have something to add for everyone, it's often the quieter members who receive the most additions from their colleagues. The step uncovers underutilized talents and lays the groundwork for deeper appreciation and trust within the team. Step 3: Match strengths to challenges The final step is to connect the strengths they've revealed to the challenges your team currently faces. For example, I worked with a biotech company that struggled to collaborate with another department. The team had identified that Georgina was highly collaborative, and so she became the natural choice to lead cross-functional projects. Paul's talent, on the other hand, was structuring information that could be used to address the challenge of distilling insights from complex data. And Tim's talent for visual storytelling could help address challenges in communicating with investors and other stakeholders. In this way, teams can collaboratively move beyond asking, 'Whose job is this?' Instead, they can ask, 'What talent could help us address this challenge?' It dynamically redefines roles, making full use of often overlooked talents such as: Spotting talent: The ability to recognize potential in oneself and others. Offloading: Knowing which initiatives or activities they need to stop (or simplify). Finishing: The drive to see projects through to completion. These are not always the talents you see on a résumé. But when you face a challenge, knowing the specific strengths that each team member possesses can be extremely helpful. Make your matches stick By design, this 90–120 minute exercise is short and simple. However, to drive lasting impact, it's important to ensure that your team members continue to have opportunities to flex their talents. For example, Michael often clashed with senior leader Frank over project approaches, stalling progress. The team recognized that Anna, who excelled in stakeholder management, could bridge the gap. Anna began mentoring Michael, helping him engage Frank's input early in the process instead of letting conflicts fester. Michael's projects then moved faster. Both Michael and Frank came to appreciate Anna's mentorship, and she continued to assist the team with similar stakeholder challenges. Embedding this practice into your management style can be as simple as revisiting the exercise during weekly stand-ups, monthly team meetings, or even as part of onboarding new employees. The key is to commit to ongoing self-reflection and feedback. Regularly measure progress, share successful matches, and be willing to adjust the approach as your team evolves. Being an effective manager today means stepping back from the daily firefight to invest in your people. When you act as a talent matchmaker, connecting individual strengths and organizational challenges, you unlock a powerful resource that drives both team performance and engagement.
