Are You a Star at Work?

Are you using a star's approach to teamwork?

We've created a whole culture of teamwork - largely because of the elimination of so many middle-management jobs. Teams are supposed to fill the vacuum left by middle managers. But they often don't succeed. The problem isn't with the teams, of course. It's with how and why they get formed and with how they actually work - or don't work.

I like to compare the way stars think about teams with the way Charles Lindbergh thought about what to take on his historic flight across the Atlantic. His plane could carry only so much fuel, so he had to decide what he would take and what he would leave behind. With each item, he'd ask, Do I absolutely need this to get across? If the answer was no, the item got left behind.

Stars look at teams the same way. They say, "I've got only so much time. Do I absolutely need this team - or does this team absolutely need me - to make something important happen?"

Of course, once stars are on a team, they become very good team players. They make sure that everyone on the team knows and buys into its goals. They make sure the work gets distributed in a way that makes sense and that's fair to everyone. They also make sure, once the team is put together, that it actually gets the job done.

Do you know how your company really works?

Stars also have what we call "organizational savvy." In Chicago, where I grew up, people call it "street smarts." It means understanding the lay of the land in an organization. Part of it is knowing whom to trust and whom to avoid. Part of it is knowing how to navigate all of the competing interests within the organization - recognizing which ones will come into play and which ones you can safely ignore.

Stars also pay attention to conflicts. In most organizations, conflicts don't get enough of an airing. People who are opposed to a decision often just get run over, and often it turns out that they should have been listened to. But the flip side is also true: There's too much agreement in organizations. Remember The Abilene Paradox, by Jerry Harvey? In it, he told a story: Nobody wants to take the trip to Abilene, but nobody wants to be the one who speaks against it. That kind of complicity can lead to all kinds of fiascos.

That's why organizational savvy is important. But how do you develop it? You start on your first day at an organization: You keep your eyes open. You pay attention. You get your boss's view of what's going on. You talk to some of the old-timers who have been around and get their views. You talk to star performers and get their sense of how things work. Chances are, you'll get several different perspectives. It's not important which perspective is right. What's important is knowing that there are these different perspectives. Then, as you go about doing your work, you can take them into account.

These days, a lot of people recommend that you find a mentor. That's very good advice. But it's one of those pieces of good advice that doesn't apply to most of the population - because mentoring doesn't happen very often. Most people can't find a mentor. Most mentoring programs that companies set up don't work, because mentoring isn't something you can command.

But you can become your own mentor. Pay close attention to what goes on. Find out who the people are who make things happen. Find the stars and study them. Become a student in the workplace. When you study different approaches, you learn what works and what doesn't work in your environment.

Are you a star at show and tell?

Stars also know how to use the right message with the right audience at the right time. They are superb communicators. But being a good communicator doesn't mean always "being on." In fact, one of the things that average performers do wrong is to overcommunicate: Every day, they send another memo to the boss. They chatter on, but they don't really have anything to contribute. People turn a deaf ear to them. Star performers know how to time their messages, and how to craft them, so that people pay attention.

If you want to excel at "show and tell," understand your audience: What moves people in this particular audience? What do they listen to? What language makes sense to them? For one person, it's going to be dollars; for another, it's going to be values. You match that language with the way you deliver information - whether you're making a presentation, sending a memo, or cornering someone in the hallway to test out an idea. Figure out the message that moves people, put it into the language they speak, and deliver it in a way that works for them.

What do you do on Monday morning?

If you're an average performer and you want to become a star, what do you do on Monday morning? Start by taking a hard look at yourself and at the star performers. Ask yourself, "What are they doing that I'm not doing? And what am I doing that gets in my way?" Then become a student of the stars: Do what they do.