Sunday, December 12, 2010

Yearning For The Endless Sea

Marc Cenedella is the founder and CEO of TheLadders.com - - a job search website.  He has the following comments regarding his approach to team building - -

It became a matter of figuring out how to build a team and share with them what inspired me to start the company.  There's a quote from the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery that really spoke to me: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

So first, share your passion.  Explain to people why it's an exciting idea and how they can be involved in it.  I've learned to do the big-picture stuff, and I can be really great at the analytics - - sitting down and running the numbers.  What I've had to learn over time is the middle part about, O.K., how do you build a team?  How do you assign a team to do something?  How do you give them enough rope to be successful, and when do you take it back?  The middle part has been trial and error.

Being a manager also isn't about trying to become perfect.  You're not going to stop making errors.  But it's about having a mature appreciation for the fact that you're a flawed human being.  Probably everyone around you is a flawed human being.  What are your flaws and how are you going to manage around them?  What are your strengths?  How are you going to optimize those?

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