The best basketball players in the league get it. The original Dream Team’s Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird come to mind. They understand the game so intuitively, it’s second nature to them. They make playing seem effortless. 

In my article on building your business dream team, I stated that you must have players who passionately share your vision and have the skills to help your business win consistently. Your players must get it, want it, and have the capacity (GWC™ in Traction terms) to consistently deliver what their position on the team requires.

So what does “get it” really mean?

Are you willing to become your best?

Instinctively, most business leaders would answer Yes to this question. Why on earth would anyone say No? The challenge comes when small business leaders are put to the test—in the heat of the moment of the day-to-day grind. This is when shortcuts are taken to ease tension and pain. Because after all, everyone is overwhelmed.

You may have inherited, hired, or promoted people who you’ve recognized and rewarded for exceptional production and output—only to hear rumblings that they're getting those results in ways that damage your company’s reputation, aggravating fellow team members and undermining everything that you’re trying to accomplish for the long term. These are usually me-first versus we-first people who put their interests before the Core Values of the organization.

In the meantime, they continue to produce results, but they get those results in ways that go against the company culture. In other words, while they are highly productive short-term, they're killing your company long-term.

A client reached out recently with the following:

“Stacy and I are planning to have a ‘difficult’ conversation with Joe tomorrow. His performance is leaving a lot to be desired. I suspect he will be surprised. We plan to talk in terms of core values, capabilities and accountabilities, but acknowledge that Stacy and I may have created some of this problem by stepping in and assuming some of his responsibilities (rather than holding him accountable). He may be in the wrong seat and, as we define the seats on the Accountability Chart, he may be better suited for a different role. Did we screw up?”

One of my clients, a small software company in Detroit, had this a-ha moment in our recent quarterly session. “With great power comes great responsibility. We have great power (talent on our team), and we’re not being responsible because we aren’t focusing it effectively.”

Fortunately, they have great people on their team that fit into their culture and are extremely talented. Unfortunately, several team members are bringing in too many new ideas and opportunities for the team feasibly to pursue.