Sports

Book Summary – The ABC’s of Building a Winning Business Team – Written by Blair Singer

This book is part of the Rich Dad Advisor family. Being able to build a successful team is a sought after talent. Think about your favorite professional, college, or Olympic sports team. I bet football fans can tell you which teams won each Super Bowl. Can they tell you who came in second, probably not because no one cares? Building a great team is by far the most difficult component of business. You are dealing with unique personalities, qualities, and skill sets. So the question is, how do you do it? Blair answers this question in the book.

Why is this important to me?

I try hard not to waste your time. You are part of a losing team or a winning team. That’s it. If you were ever part of a winning team, you may still remember the connection, the camaraderie, and the code. If you consider the most effective teams, they all operate under a strict code of honor. This is essential to keep the team together. The best example of this is seen in the US Marine Corp. These guys have to run under a code or die. It’s that easy. Semper Fi – “Always faithful.” Blair’s book is concise and to the point. We will outline the creation of a Code of Honor for her team.

Why an honor code? In the absence of rules, people make their own rules. The best way to avoid disagreements, collisions, and disharmony in any group is to make sure everyone follows the same rules. The code brings out the best in everyone who subscribes to it.

Mission-Team-Solo – That’s the order of the code. When people agree, you have the foundation for a winning team. If you don’t believe in Mission-Team-Individual, just imagine if the individual or the team came first. Bernie Madoff put the individual first and Enron put his executive team first. Look what happened. If the Marine Corps put people first, then we wouldn’t have our freedom today.

Selecting the right players for your team is crucial. The old adage that people are your greatest asset is NOT true. They have to be the right people. I can tell you that my biggest business expenses and losses have ALL been from hiring and recruiting the wrong people. I could have been in miniretirements in my late 20s if I had learned this skill correctly. I’d wager that, over the years, I’ve spent over seven figures on the wrong people. This doesn’t include the heartache, counseling, and other nonsense that comes with having the wrong people on your team. I implore you to learn this skill for it will save you years of heartache. It’s cheaper to burn wads of $100 bills than it is to have the wrong people on your team. LEARN THIS SKILL NOW!

Question – How do we get the right players on the team?

1. What kind of energy do they have? The highest energy wins. If the person is low on energy, don’t recruit them.

2. Do they have a desire to win? This is essential because if they don’t, they won’t have it for the team.

3. Are you willing to let someone else win?

4. Are they personally responsible?

5. Are they willing to abide by the code?

6. Do they have a unique talent or ability?

Do not hire to fill the gap. This costs too much. Blair analyzes his performance model and focusing on results means it’s too late. Focus on the chain that creates results and good things will happen. How do you create an honor code? This is covered in the book and I’ll describe some sample code here:

1. Never abandon a teammate in need.

2. Be willing to “call and be called” when code is broken.

3. Celebrate victories.

4. Be on time.

5. Keep all agreements and clean up any broken agreements as soon as possible.

6. Direct Deal.

7. Be responsible

8. Be resourceful

9. Never let personal things get in the way of your mission.

10. Be loyal to the team.

11. Commit to personal development

12. Do not seek or ask for sympathy or recognition

13. Everyone must sell!

A critical component of championship teams is reporting code violations. This is the hardest part of the whole process. Think about it: you create the code, you hire the right people, and then… If the team doesn’t enforce the code, the whole process falls apart. Everyone has to report code violations, even if it’s their boss who breaks it.

I hope you found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the power of teams. It took me spending a lot of time, energy and money to learn the true power of teams. You can invest 15 minutes a day in leadership and influence and it will pay you exponential dividends in the future.

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