You will doubtless, at some point, come across literature on the subject of team-roles and team-building. The Belbin model makes a frequent appearance, as well as related academic items such as Myers-Briggs, PI and so on. They are all very well up within reason, but they miss the point. You are not trying to build a balanced team, or necessarily an effective team – you are trying to build a team which is useful to you.
This means the individuals in it need to complement you in the right way, and do not necessarily need to complement each other at all. In more detail:
Extension staff – these are meant to do your work for you. So obviously they should be like you (although not as good of course).
Specialists and Inferiors – these should complement you, especially if your Extension staff are going to be like you. If you have poor attention to detail, your Specialists and Inferiors need loads of it, and so on. In this way they will function effectively in tandem with you and your Extensions.
Minions – well who cares? Actually it’s best if these people are opposite to you in one key way. You are looking after number one; they should look after everyone else. Look for displaced nurses, infant school teachers, social workers and the like, people with a conscience about both individual duties and infantile trivia.
Loyalists – only one quality really matters: the skill of getting people to talk to them. If they are going to Spy for you, in any kind of workplace environment they are going to do most of it by listening. It is hardly realistic (well most of the time) for them to secretly photograph documents or observe other managers through infra-red binoculars. Having said that, it is surprising (well perhaps not) how many technical support staff spend Friday afternoons reading the company email records for amusement.
A final thought: Loyalists are invariably better in this regard if they are smokers. There is a camaraderie of moaning and indiscretion in smoking rooms and in those wet porches outside the back entrance of companies without special internal smoking areas, which often transcends rank or status.
A final thought: Loyalists are invariably better in this regard if they are smokers. There is a camaraderie of moaning and indiscretion in smoking rooms and in those wet porches outside the back entrance of companies without special internal smoking areas, which often transcends rank or status.
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