Even world-class individuals can't outweigh a team

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What guarantees success? It is not a few outstanding talented people, but a team full of people with excellent skill levels who are able to perform well under pressure. You should never rely on only two or three highly talented individual who are paid excessive salaries. In the recent championship, the soccer teams from England, Brazil, Spain and Italy didn’t do very well.

They had depended on a few highly talented individuals, who are paid millions of dollars, but these countries were not able to progress to the final stages and record a win. On the other hand, the teams from Germany and the USA consisted of players with a high standard of core skills. And these teams were able to beat their opponents  because of this particular quality. According to an article on the leadingeffectively.com website, this is where sports and business are analogical.

A few extremely gifted players – or employers – certainly do sometimes have an impact, but a group of very skilled people can deliver great results every time.

Spending too much on too few

Are you spending a disproportionate percentage of available resources on a relatively small number of your employees? It is possible that you would be better off by dividing the same amount of your time and money among a larger group of people. This could result in higher levels of core skills among all your staff and  may produce better results. Well, of course ideally you need to do both, invest in your regular staff and give  something extra to exceptional talent. But what about the expected gains from the investments you are making into the latter group – are you sure they are not overrated?

-jk-

Article source CCL Blog - official blog of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®)
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