Don’t keep Michael Jordan on the bench

Group assignments can be a challenge for college students. Your grade for the class is now in someone else’s hands, and most people do not react well when they feel that they have lost their sense of control over a situation. When your success is directly related to the actions of others, it can bring out the worst in you.

However, once you learn how to bring out the best in others, you will all succeed as a group!

One of my teachers once told me, “If you had Michael Jordan on your team, you would let him play! You wouldn’t keep him on the bench all game.” And she was, of course, correct. When you have talented teammates, as a leader, you should empower them to do what they do best. For your group work projects, bringing out the best in others requires three simple steps:

1) Identify the skills and passions of others in your team

2) Assign roles that match the person’s talents or interests

3) Don’t tell them how to do their job / Don’t micromanage

The first step is identifying the skills of your teammates. Everyone has something that they are good at or that they like doing. When you discover, for instance, who on your team is the creative thinker and who is the analytical thinker, you can then place those people in roles where they can flourish.

The second step is as follows: Once you have identified each person’s strengths and what they bring to the team, give them tasks that they can perform to the best of their ability. For example, the creative person might be great at brainstorming ideas, but lack the discipline to choose one single idea and iron out all the details. A more detail-oriented teammate might be a pro at developing an outline and filling in the missing spaces, but a nervous wreck when it comes to presenting. A third teammate, who is very outgoing and enthusiastic but seems to lose focus easily, might be a captivating presenter. If you assign these people to the right roles, you can see how the entire group will succeed with far less of a headache. Likewise, if you arbitrarily assign people to tasks such that their talents are not being used effectively, you waste time and energy and create unnecessary stress.

The third step is just stepping back and watching your well-oiled machine work. When you have identified people’s strengths and placed them in the right positions, you need to make them feel empowered to do their job their way. Sometimes, this can be the most difficult step, especially for the leader. It is difficult to trust people when you have a stake in the collective results! You need to first trust yourself and know that you have performed the first two steps well.

All right, what do you do when you get a dud on your team who seems to have no skills? I know that not every team is going to have prodigal members with useful core competencies. When this happens, I suggest you ask that person what they think they are good at. Everyone thinks that they have strengths in some area (whether you agree or not is a different story). Let them tell you how they feel they can best contribute, and see where it goes from there.

Much of this goes back to the idea of SYNERGY which I reference in an earlier post: 2 + 2 = 5. Look for the Michael Jordans on your team and let them shine! It is difficult to trust others and relinquish control, but you must find a way if you want to succeed as a team.

Have you ever felt like you were the Michael Jordan on your team and that your talents were wasted? How can you avoid letting that happen to others in the future?

How can I become a more competitive candidate?

This is a sentence I make my students memorize: “How can I become a more competitive candidate for your internship program by Summer 2012?”  It’s amazing how often you can get exactly what you want if you just ask! Fill in whatever company name and timeline you want, but the basic structure is pretty simple.

In the hunt for part-time jobs, internships, or even full-time positions, you can encounter an extremely competitive environment, particularly in today’s world. But have no fear, this sentence will get you much further than your peers, I promise!

If you have gotten yourself up, dressed, and at a job fair or speaker presentation, you are already ahead of the game. Once you get there, all you have to do is introduce yourself and ask what the company looks for in a potential hire. After you discover the candidate criteria and you feel it is a good match, tell the recruiter a bit about yourself and why you think you’re qualified. Then, ask them what you can do in the coming weeks or months to become a more competitive candidate for their company program by whatever deadline you choose (summer, graduation, semester off, etc.).

They will tell you exactly what to do! There is no longer any mystery or stress over what the recruiter wants in a candidate, because you asked them upfront. If you do what they tell you, it stands to great reason that you will then get the position, or at least have a much better shot than everyone else.

There are a few reasons why this sentence is so critical:

1) When you ask people for advice or help, you are acknowledging them as an expert in their field. Everyone likes to feel like an expert, so you flatter the recruiter.

2) When you ask for help and they give you advice, the recruiter then becomes slightly invested in your success as you follow that advice.

3) When you say “competitive candidate,” you acknowledge that the position is important and widely desired. The recruiter feels proud to represent a coveted position, and perceived exclusivity is attractive.

4) By asking what you can do to get the job, it shows that you are interested and committed to the company and position. Most people at job fairs just ask what the job is or what the company does, so a committed student is rare.

5) If you are a strong qualified candidate to begin with, you give the recruiter some credit for your future success when you ask for their advice. Credit is free for you to give away and can mean a whole lot to someone else receiving it!

This sentence has worked for me COUNTLESS times, and I have witnessed it work for others. Try it out next time you are at a job fair or talking to a recruiter!

*Make sure you are relatively prepared to talk about the company and the position, and why you would make a good fit. Do a little research on the firm before hand, or Google them on your phone while you wait in line at the career booth!

Think about how you would answer that question as a recruiter for your dream job. What would you want from a candidate?

What happens when you run out of fuel?

A friend of mine once shared a story with me that really changed the way I think about managing stress, and I would like to share that story with you today.

She told me that she grew up in Haiti and her family was very poor, but when she got a job and needed to go to work, her uncle let her use his old car. The car had a lot of problems and among them, the gas gauge was broken. The first time she drove the car, her uncle told her to drive until the car runs out of gas. Because the gauge was broken, she would never know when she was close to empty unless she drove the car until it ran out of gas once and observed the symptoms.

She did this and noticed that when the gas level was low, the car would make more noise, she felt that she had less control over the steering, and the car was unable to go at high speeds. Now she knew how the car functioned when it was low on gas and in the future, when she noticed these symptoms beginning to emerge, she would fill up the tank before the situation got worse and she ended up stranded somewhere on the island.

Everyone needs to run out of gas once so they know what happens to them as they get closer and closer to empty.

Her story made me think about what happens to me when I start to feel overwhelmed or stressed. I make more noise – usually, I start to complain more about my work load or vent to friends about relationship drama. I feel as if I have less control over what is happening around me, and it becomes increasingly difficult to steer through my problems and to a solution. I cannot go full speed when I start to feel stressed, and sometimes I have to cancel commitments in order to prioritize other things.

I believe it is extremely important for everyone to run out of gas once, so that they can identify the symptoms in themselves as they get closer and closer to empty. When you know yourself and your capacity for stress, you can make much more informed decisions about what projects you are able to take on and when. Even more importantly, when unexpected issues arise, you know how much you can handle and when you may need to ask for help or take a step back.

If you discover your personal fuel tank capacity and know what starts to happen to your body as you run low, you will be able to fill up again before you end up stranded!