“Attitude! Attitude! Attitude!”
Those actually aren’t Ro’s words to live by, but a memory he shared of being compelled to shout that at a conference made for a fun quick aside and activity from today’s feature presenter, Jeremy “Ro” Rheault of The Art Jar.
Jeremy has an extensive background as both an art teacher and basketball coach, training literally hundreds of young people to hone their skills and successfully compete together, as individuals and in teams. From that experience he’s synthesized and boiled successful team management into 4 major rules:
1. Shine your stars.
In short, appreciate your winners. Recognize talent, achievement, and hard work to reward those providing it and incentivize others to do the same.
2. Work your horses.
There are those you’ll have who aren’t yet ‘star’-quality, but they have the ambition for it, and for moving the team forward. Don’t let them sit idle. Give them the assignments, pushes, and feedback that they crave. They may even start to shine too.
3. Fix your problems.
A team is an orchestrated balance of individual and cooperative performances, all affecting each other. Oftentimes the team’s maximum capability is a function of its weakest link. Buttress your team’s weaknesses and watch their performance-capacity increase.
4. Get rid of dead wood.
Dead wood is good for burning, and that’s about it. It doesn’t reanimate, or grow further, or enrich the whole. If left unchecked, it might not only be taking up a valuable spot where new life can flourish, but also poses the risk of spreading disease and rot to the whole. Recognize as early as you can those not willing to contribute or grow, who are just taking up space, and replace them before they make your problems unmanageable, or worse—infect your stars and horses.
Jeremy likes to impart great lessons like these in all he does. To schedule art lessons with Jeremy, connect with him at his website. And to hear another great presentation like this one from another member-professional, join us next week!
