10 Clowns Don’t Make a Circus
Steven Schragis (former CEO and Publisher of the Carol Publishing Group) coauthored a whole bookful of wonderful bite-sized words of wisdom for leaders and executives. This issue’s principle furnishes the title for his book. It’s simple and straightforward: TEN CLOWNS DO NOT MAKE A CIRCUS.
You’ve Gotta Mix It Up a Little
The key here is DIVERSITY with COMPLEMENTATION. If you want a successful circus, you’ll need more than clowns. You’ll need the whole team of performers, concessionaires, ticket-takers, elephant trainers, rowdies, and midway workers. If you want a successful team, you’ll need to recruit people with a range of backgrounds, experience, training, skills, strengths, talents, and points-of-view – including those DIFFERENT THAN YOURS.
The temptation for most team leaders is to hire people just like themselves—people who are easy to accept, understand, relate to, and lead. That would be a mistake. Great leaders complement themselves with teams that bring strength where they are weak, and add new ways of thinking and seeing. Building a diverse team sounds easy, but you won’t be able to pull it off without one essential personal quality—you must possess healthy self-awareness… you must know yourself well!
Start Here: Know Thyself!
Goffee and Jones (writing in Harvard Business Review way back in 2001) said that self-awareness is essential for effective leadership. If you don’t have it, you will never be able to lead other people. Joan Magretta maintains that it guarantees the success of your team! In her book, What Management Is, she states that the hiring manager’s level of self-awareness is the greatest single predictor of a new hire’s success!
So… know who you are, and who you are NOT, and build a team that will complement you with the things you DON’T bring to the table.
Thanks for reading! And stay tuned for more great advice from more great CEO’s!
Yours for better LEADERS and better ORGANIZATIONS!
Dr. Jim Dyke – The “Boss Doctor”
