Top Teams Win Over Top Talent

One of the best things about being a business development advisor with Violand Management is that I get to see an incredible array of management styles among my clients. Each client’s style includes their beliefs about managing money, how they communicate with each other, and whether they’re transparent with their staff—versus keeping things close to the vest. Nobody’s right here, and nobody’s wrong. They just have different styles.

I’ve said many times that I wish I could have been in this position before I owned my company. Some of my clients have ways of running parts of their business that are downright brilliant. I can just imagine how much better my company would have been had I learned from them and employed some of those same strategies.

For today, I’d like to discuss how business owners manage their greatest assets: their employees. It’s been said that at the end of each day, 90% of a company’s assets walk out the front door. So what is it that makes them come back the next day?

Some companies are downright awesome at attracting and retaining great employees, and some (this might be the time to look in the mirror) … let’s be kind and just say that some have work to do when it comes to attracting and retaining talent.

I was going to use a descriptive adjective to describe the type of talent some attract as “top” talent, but honestly, I have come to the conclusion that creating a “top team” is much more important than hiring top talent.

If hiring superstars at each position was the answer, why haven’t the New York Yankees won the World Series every year? They have the bankroll to pay for the best players in baseball, and they’re willing to spend it. It’s paid off, kind of. In the almost 150 years of professional baseball, the Yankees have been at the top 27 times, mainly by “buying” top talent. But if money was the deciding factor, why haven’t they won 150 times? Do you know what team is tied for the number three position in all-time World Series wins? It’s the Oakland Athletics, a team famous in Major League Baseball for paying its players the least. From this comparison, money clearly isn’t the deciding factor in winning the World Series.

So, what is?

Let me use my own ‘baseball’ experience to make a point. After high school, I played on the same softball team for 12 years. None of us were very good. For example, I played second base because it was the only place on the diamond where I could throw the ball all the way to first base without bouncing it in the dirt. We were mediocre players at best, but we won. We won a lot. In fact, we won almost every league we played in, and we won a lot of tournaments. And we didn’t do it by beating Mrs. Finch’s kindergarten class. We played some pretty good teams. What we had was a group of people who communicated well, had each other’s backs, and trusted each other. And we didn’t let our success go to our heads. In fact, after a big game we frequently scratched our heads and wondered, “How did we just beat those guys?”

It was an honor to get to play with that team. A lot of mutual respect was had among its members. In short, we were a bunch of average players who did great things. Ok, maybe using the word “great” is a stretch, considering we’re talking about rec league softball, but you get the point. And you know what? It seemed like everyone wanted to join our team. Because of the culture we had built and the respect we had for each other, no one wanted to stop playing.

So how does my softball story apply to companies and their employees? Let’s circle back to the beginning where I said that some owners have built incredible teams. These companies have people who trust each other, communicate well with each other, and constantly have each other’s backs. Other companies have some arrogant superstars who are in it just for themselves. Is that type of behavior tolerated at your company? If so, what kind of team is being built?

Working with a bunch of arrogant individualists doesn’t sound like someplace I want to go to every day. I would rather work for a little less money and enjoy what I do instead of making bank and hating my life. I’m not alone here.

When you’re part of a team of people who respect each other, have each other’s backs, and genuinely enjoy working together, that’s when the magic happens. It all starts with the owner and where they’re willing to set the bar in order to play on their team. Are they looking for team players or for the superstar?

I’m willing to bet that the clients I have that attract and retain employees are the ones who pay a fair, not exorbitant, wage. But they offer their people something much more valuable than money. They offer them the chance to play on a team where they are respected and are part of something much bigger than themselves.

What I didn’t tell you about when I played second base was that our first baseman always had my back. He scooped a fair amount of my errant throws up out of the dirt. He made me look pretty good. Who wouldn’t want to play on a team like that?