Building a team that can work through challenges and be successful takes some thought and intention. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you consider new team members:
- Do they have similar thoughts and experiences to yours?
- Do they have strengths that are complementary to yours?
- Do they agree with you no matter what opinions they have of their own?
- Do they have more experience than you do?
- Do you include the people who will disagree with you?
Some people would look at the last few questions on the list and would really need to think about it before moving forward with candidates who fall into those categories. It would make it really easy to only include the people who always agree with you right? You basically get to make all the decisions and no one will push back. Does that really help you get to the best solutions though? Most likely that answer would be no.
When Abraham Lincoln became President, he purposely included people in his cabinet who were opposing him and would not automatically say yes to whatever he wanted. He included these dissenting voices so that he would understand both sides of a situation and be able to plan for any possible outcomes. Even though they didn’t all agree, they treated each other with respect and listened to each other.
Would you be willing to do the same? Could you encourage these type of open discussions to help you become a better listener, more respectful of other people’s ideas and reach stronger outcomes? Trust in yourself and recognize that this approach is what some of the best leaders do to successfully work through challenges and change.