Team.
Don Draper on Mad Men portrayed by Jon Hamm
I’ve been watching AMC’s hit television show, Mad Men on Netflix. I just finished Year 3 (two years ago so consider this your spoiler alert) where Don Draper leads a group of people from the firm, including two partners, to form their own agency. They take drastic and covert action when they find out that their old agency was being sold and they didn’t want to play along. At the end of the episode (and season), you see Draper standing in the hotel room being used as the new office. He is gazing at the 7-8 people hand picked to go to war with the new agency. These were “his people.” The ones he wanted to move forward. He had a choice to pick the best and he chose them.
Four years ago, as I was preparing to take the presidency of my 130 member Rotary Club, one of the speakers asked a compelling question – “If you’re club had to whittle itself down to only 25 members, would you be one of them?’ Very thought-provoking.
If you had to choose 5 people to move forward with a new organization, who would you choose? Why? Would you be one of them? Not everyone in your organization work and perform at the same level of excellence. Are you spending too much time trying to “fix” them at the expense of enhancing your best performers? Unfortunately, many executives and business owners spend too much time with the squeaky wheel. The same thing happens in schools. In the end, it only hurts the organizations. The best path is to work on your strengths, not your weaknesses.
Bottom line. Who would you go to war with if you only had 4 people to choose. What makes them your choice? Take those answers and instill those values in your strongest performers and watch your organization prosper.
This week’s quote – “Don’t let negative and toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent and kick ’em out!” Robert Tew
