By Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, Chief Cheetah and Founder of Cheetah Learning, and Megan Alpine, CCPM, Co-Author
Great employees are those who:
1. Not only can learn fast, but can put what they learn to use fast, as well.
2. Quickly complete their projects and help others do the same.
3. Get along with others in the way that brings out the best of everyone.
Being great is only part of the story, though.
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing: the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, also known as the original “Dream Team,” which won gold. Years later, we still remember and admire this team. So why don’t we love the star-filled 2004 team, which included LeBron James, Allen Iverson, and Carmelo Anthony, just as much? Like the 1992 team, they were all exceptional players – but overall they were an inferior team. What set the original Dream Team apart was their ability to work together and bring out the best in each other. This is what differentiates a good from a great project team as well.
As a manager, you know that success requires getting the best players on your team. You’ve done an impressive job of picking out the MVPs in each field to build your team – the best salespeople, finance people, marketing people you can get. But there’s something missing – and your team’s performance is dragging because of it. Your players may not have the skills to use their innate strengths to work with each other effectively and bring up the performance of the whole team.
Sports teach us an important lesson here: what good is a team if its star players can’t work well together?
A Project Management training program can help you develop your own dream team. When your team members improve their ability to leverage their innate strengths and learn how to build off each others’ strengths, they can pull off even the most difficult plays they encounter on the job.
Having people with these skills benefits you and your organization in three key ways:
Employees who learn how to use their innate strengths based on their personalities learn faster, get their work done more efficiently, and get along with coworkers and supervisors better.
According to a 2012 Gallup survey, when Americans use their strengths more, they stress less. The study goes on to note that most Americans do not realize this reduction in stress; only 1 in 4 adults live and work in an area that capitalizes on their strengths.
When your employees are working from their innate strengths, time becomes irrelevant as they intently focus on the task at hand. This is called being in a state of “flow.” Flow happens when there is a balance between a challenge you can meet with your ability level and a very clear goal. What are your team members’ areas of strength where they will be able to achieve the state of flow? You can get the most bang for your buck when you delegate project tasks in a way that capitalizes on each team member’s unique strengths.
Companies with a core group of employees who know how to use their innate strengths in this way show measurable improvements in not just earnings, but also profits. In a study of 31 of the biggest, most successful publicly traded companies in the US who used Cheetah Learning for the on-site PM training between 2003 and 2013, 90% of these companies increased their profitability and 85% of them increased their growth rate in the years after retaining Cheetah for their on-site training needs. Cheetah Learning’s Project Management methodology centers on identifying each team member’s unique strengths and challenges in Project Management, and helps them build on their strengths in order to have more success with their projects.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can tell you if an employee has the capability to be one of these top performers. Developing a KPI that accounts for the degree to which each member is working in their areas of strength will help you develop a high-performing project team.
When developing a KPI for to evaluate your employees’ effectiveness, consider creating a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) that includes these measures:
● Internal business processes – How well does this team member communicate with coworkers, supervisors, clients, and other stakeholders?
● Financial measures – How quickly is this team member able to move from acquiring new skills to implementing these skills in a way that creates value for your organization?
● Organizational growth – How passionate is this team member about their work? How well does this team member collaborate with others to generate new business ideas?
Making use of a KPI in managing your team will provide you a clearer picture of the extent to which your team members are working in their areas of strength and whether they are creating real value for your company.
If you’ve ever worked or played on a team that had talented people who just could not collaborate well with others (like that 2004 Olympic basketball team), you know first-hand how frustrating this is. By investing in Project Management training focused on developing the unique strengths of your team members – and then following through by using a KPI to evaluate employee performance – you can create a high-performing “dream team” on par with the 1992 US Olympic basketball team. What type of company do you want to work in – one that isn’t ready for the major leagues, or one that can rise to the top and become the best in the industry?
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management to the masses.
Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative Project Management and accelerated learning techniques.
Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learning, doing projects, and negotiating. CCPM graduates are able to choose the right projects and complete those projects “cheetah fast” based on their personality. They also learn how to leverage others’ strengths which significantly improves overall project team performance. When an employer has a cadre of CCPMs on staff, they achieve whatever they set out to achieve in record time. This is why over 90% of Cheetah’s clients experience an increase in both profitability and revenue within the first year of retaining Cheetah Learning for their Project Management training needs.
Honored by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.
Thank you for writing this article. Teaching team members about their own personality type and their team member’s type will definitely create a high performing “dream team”. I’ve had the privilege of teaching type fo teams for over 20 years and it really works!