Posts Tagged ‘Team Work’

I broke my left arm last week just below the elbow. It was early in the week, so the bulk of my week was spent enduring pain and discomfort. Entering my second week of recovery I have started to gain a bit of perspective.

Presently there is much I cannot do alone. Dressing is one thing. Typing two handed another. Shaking hands when I walk into a sales meeting holding my material is another. Even opening a door is a challenge. Putting deoderant under my right arm another. Playing the piano another. Driving has proved interesting. Answering my phone and trying to take notes simultaneously IMPOSSIBLE.

But through all these experiences I have discovered one thing - teamwork. When a member of my family irons my shirt - that’s teamwork. When they help me put on my shirt - that’s teamwork. When they do up my buttons - that’s teamwork. When my PA takes dictation right now of this blog entry - that’s teamwork. And on and on goes my list of successful tasks undertaken because I am ably assisted by another member of my team.

Without teamwork I could never achieve anything. We need each other, and the event of breaking my arm has heightened my appreciation of my team; whether it be family, friends or associates. It has also caused me to realise that it is as I work with my team that we can achieve far greater results than if I seek to do everything alone.

And as I have written before “Teamwork makes the team work.”

Over the past six months or so I have been preparing to franchise my Web Design company http://www.oe-design.com . The first step was to hire a business coach. I realised that if I was going to change my business dramatically, I needed to grow internally before I could go where I had never gone before.

It’s one thing to have a vison, but it’s another thing to actually pull it off.

During the past three weeks we have seen significant growth in our business. But that aside, I suddenly realised that it was once again time for me to start growing on the inside again.

One of the ways that I help myself grow is through finding those books that will teach me new principles and new ways.

Rooting through a discount bookstore the other week I stumbled across two books that were made to order for this time in  my life.

The first was HAPPY MONDAYS - Putting the Pleasure Back into Work By Richard Reeves.  Reeves writes that “a full life means fulfilling work.” And that “happiness.. lies in meaningful work for all of us.” He also notes that “Albert Camus believed that ‘without work, all life goes rotten…and that Kahlil Gibran said work was , “love made visible.”

One of the reasons I read this book was not to make myself happy at work, because I love what I do. But rather that I ensure that I create an environment where my team are correctly positioned to enjoy their work. My role as an employer is matching their strengths to the tasks they undertake and by providing an atmosphere of ownership and contribution, where innovation and creativity is praised and rewarded.

 And that brings me to the other book I found - RESULTS FROM THE HEART - How Mini-Company Management Captures Everyone’s Talents and Helps Them Find Meaning and Purpose at Work by Kiyoshi Suzaki.

This book made my heart sing, because it reinforced my whole vision for my present and future businesses. To provide a place where individuals are given the freedom to explore the creativity that is found within each and every one of us.

As Suzaki writes…’every unit or every department is a mini-company, and each task force, committee, or project team is a mini-company as well.’

He adds, ‘In a practical sense, the mini-company is a group of people working together to accomplish a common mission at work. To contribute what they can to satisfy customers, all mini-companies have to prove their reason for existence - for adding value to the end product. Whether we call it a mini-company or not, all units and members of the organization have to work with this guiding principle.’

And as Antoine de Saint -Exupery said, ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t gather your people and ask them to provide wood, prepare tools, assign tasks…Just call them together and raise in their minds the longing for the endless sea.’

And Suzaki concludes that, ‘In a nutshell, this expresses the point of listening to our heart and findng the source of initiative and creative energy within us. Then, we have our brain and other resources available to us that can be put into effective use….It is as if we search for a harmonious solution of our brains and hearts with heart being the ultimate driver.’

So my journey continues as we step by step move towards the process of franchising OE Design - The Web Designers.

Growing and going….stay tuned!!!!

Alex Haley, the author of Roots, used to keep a picture in his office of a turtle sitting atop a fence. He kept it there to remind him of a lesson he had learned years before; “If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help.”

Haley remarked, “Anytime I start thinking, ‘Wow, isn’t this marvellous what I’ve done!’ I look at that picture and remember how this turtle - me - got up on that post.”

Source: Developing the Leaders Around You - John G. Maxwell