Momentously Ross and Jonathan did their first joint podcast this month and this is a 2-part summary of that. It discusses a) the reasons for surrounding yourself with people who know more than you do and also b) the practicalities of how you go about it. It’s fascinating stuff and based on the premise that ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ so maybe most of us think we know all we need to?
Note: your ‘edge team’ is your own specific team of people who contribute to your life and collectively give you a big advantage in terms of progression and performance.
Part 1 – why do we need an edge team?
If you are the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room
Sometimes in life we come across someone who is inspirational with their wisdom. We know of the owner of a web company who is incredibly generous with his knowledge and every meeting with him is enlightening and a real school day. A session in his company, usually on behalf of a client, makes you wonder if you actually knew anything at all about websites before! These are the types of people we need all around us.
Work on the assumption that you really don’t know much about anything other than your own specific role. Don’t believe that you know all you need to. It tips into arrogance – yet, we all do it. We get by. We know enough. But how much better life would be if we let ourselves be supported by people who really do know their stuff. People who try and do everything on their own will come unstuck eventually, something has to give. There aren’t enough hours in each day and we certainly don’t have the knowledge on all subjects to be able to solve everything efficiently.
The key to approaching this – building your edge team brimming with talent and resource – is to understand 100% that you are investing. These people aren’t an expense, they are an investment. Investments pay you back. That’s the difference. Yes, of course it can feel painful to fork out cash on someone who isn’t immediately showing a return. But if you have the right people, trust in the process and know that it will come good. Dissatisfaction comes about when the investment doesn’t pay for itself. But that’s down to using the wrong people. More of that in part 2.
Look at your own life and consider who you might have on your team already. There’s personal and business and possibly a few that overlap both areas. For your life team you might include your doctor, dentist, physio, yoga teacher, PT. For business you could have a lawyer, accountant, marketing person, mentor. Don’t forget those people who might have a more informal supporting role in your life too – the sounding boards, brainstormers, ‘water cooler people’ who are there for you. They might be friends and family and not on the pay roll.
It’s really important to be open to advice. Listen properly and, even if it’s just one small thing, you’ll take away something useful. People who try and figure things out for themselves will always face limitations – imposed by lack of scope, depth and not knowing what they might find… and therefore not looking for it.
Go to part 2 for HOW to create your dream team…
