How Great Leaders Build Unstoppable Teams. Dive into ‘All In,’ where Mike Michalowicz masterfully reveals the blueprint for cultivating unstoppable teams. This insightful guide is a beacon for leaders aiming to foster a winning workforce.
Continue reading to unlock the strategies that will transform your team dynamics and propel your organization to new heights.
Table of Contents
Genres
Entrepreneurship, Management, Leadership, Corporate Culture, Career Success, Business, Team Building, Organizational Development, Human Resources, Corporate Culture, Professional Development, Success Strategy
‘All In’ by Mike Michalowicz offers a comprehensive look at the intricacies of building effective teams in the modern workplace. The book addresses the challenges of remote work, flexible schedules, and generational gaps, providing practical solutions for leaders. Michalowicz emphasizes the importance of matching individual talents to company needs and transforming average employees into high performers. He advocates for creating a work environment where every employee feels as invested as an owner, ensuring a thriving, committed workforce.
Review
‘All In’ stands out as a pivotal resource for leaders at all levels. Michalowicz’s approach is both pragmatic and inspiring, offering a fresh perspective on leadership and team dynamics. The book’s strength lies in its actionable advice, backed by real-world examples, making it a valuable tool for anyone looking to build a resilient and successful team. With a focus on E-E-A-T principles, ‘All In’ is a testament to Michalowicz’s expertise and a must-read for those committed to excellence in leadership.
Introduction: Change your thinking about recruitment, and get creative, to unlock the power of great teams
All In (2024) argues that to build highly effective teams, great leaders must invest time and effort into recruiting people for potential rather than credentials, and fostering a sense of ownership and community in everyone.
Every manager or entrepreneur tasked with putting together a great team has a fantasy about how it will go. They’ll attract great candidates with impressive resumes, select from the very best, and the team will find energy and synergy all on its own.
But that fantasy is rarely how it goes. Great resumes and interviews don’t always lead to invested, energized teams. They can result in lots of wasted time and effort, along with added stress, particularly when you’re trying to recruit those key team members in a hurry because you’re already stretched thin.
And recruiting from within, while less unpredictable than new hires, doesn’t always result in great teams, either. The alchemy that drives teams to feel as invested in a business’s success as the founders do doesn’t happen independently. But it can be cultivated through strategic and creative recruitment activities, along with oversight that nurtures greatness in everyone.
So if you’re looking to drive profitability, tackle disruptions with ease, and scale up your business, this summary is for you. It is packed with insights and practical steps you can take to help identify, recruit, and grow your dream team. One that can take your business to the next level and beyond.
The high cost of bad hires
When Sabine first sat down for the interview with Janet, things had already become desperate. During three years of solid growth in their regional B2B marketing company, Sabine and her partner had established a popular and successful firm with a diverse client base. There were now not enough hours in the day for two people to grow the business and successfully manage their current accounts. So, they launched a search with their team’s capacity already stretched to its limits.
Without time to really prepare, Sabine scanned through Janet’s resume – noting several years of client support in a larger B2B marketing firm. She was on time for the interview and looked polished and professional. She answered Sabine’s questions, without a lot of detail, sure, but nonetheless seemed friendly enough.
It wasn’t difficult for Sabine to imagine Janet diving straight into customer support, and that’s exactly what stressed-out Sabine really needed. Someone who could step in and function autonomously to keep clients happy. After a mere fifteen minutes of back-and-forth conversation, Janet seemed a perfect fit, and Sabine felt enormous relief hiring her.
That relief lasted for just a short time, however. Sabine’s confidence in Janet’s abilities meant that on her very first morning, Janet was handed a list of clients who were desperate for support and sent right back out the door. Burnt out from customer service, Sabine couldn’t wait to turn her full attention to growing their business – and she did.
But that meant that when Janet called in asking simple questions about account histories, client briefings, or even just passwords for analytic accounts, Sabine was slow to respond. She told herself that Janet would figure it out on her own just like she had. Over time, Janet stopped calling in, and didn’t ask for any more help.
Signs of trouble surfaced. Clients began calling about Janet missing or rescheduling appointments, and Janet started to dodge Sabine’s calls instead. Clients seemed to view the business line as a means to contact Janet now, who was the only one who knew their programs, needs, or even passwords.
Even that didn’t alert Sabine fully to the dire situation until Janet left a message one Saturday evening saying she’d be taking some time off. There’d been a death in the family, and she was headed home for the funeral. Sabine offered both genuine condolences and encouragement to put work out of her mind and be with family.
When a client called to ask why Janet had said she’d be away at a funeral, but was posting from a bachelorette party in Vegas to her Instagram reel instead, Sabine saw red. How could a team member behave this way?
But instead of stopping at the anger, Sabine took a long, hard look at her own expectations and behavior beginning with Janet’s interview. Taking stock helped her identify a host of pitfalls she’d unwittingly fallen into, and even better, gave her the wisdom to change her ways.
Want great teams? Be a great teammate.
It’s easy to blame employees for not being invested or engaged as teammates and wonder where all the good workers have gone nowadays. But let’s take a closer look at Janet’s recruitment process – because there are many clues as to why she might have felt that lying about a week in Vegas was a justified choice.
First, Sabine realized that starting her search for a new team member really should have begun much, much earlier. Waiting until she and her partner were desperate for help meant they’d spent very little time on the process, and were too invested in finding someone fast. As a result, she saw only what she wanted to see, and had no incentive to go deeper. Instead, she had ample reason to ignore any red flags.
But it was reflecting honestly about Janet’s onboarding that helped Sabine see her own role in Janet’s performance. Because no one had invested the time, energy, and focus needed for Janet’s complete onboarding, how could anyone reasonably expect those in return? Without anyone explaining the who, the what, and the why of their business, and getting Janet’s buy-in on their mission, how could she expect engagement and investment from Janet?
So – the next hard lesson in building great teams is that you have to be a great team member first. Getting buy-in and investment from any new team member takes time, energy, and patience–another great reason not to recruit when you’re already desperate for help.
Perhaps the most important revelation for Sabine was that she bore the responsibility for encouraging all the wrong behaviors and accountabilities in the newest team member by expecting her to have the same entrepreneurial mindset as the founders. Without stepping into her new hire’s shoes, she expected Janet to act like her – without ever bothering to get to know her.
Ultimately that meant that Sabine had abdicated her primary role as a good teammate, one who showed the same level of commitment and investment to her teammates as she expected from them in return.
The give and take of recruiting
So, if recruitment of great teams can’t wait until you’re desperate, that means it needs to become an ongoing process just like any other in your business. But how can you add it to the overwhelming number of tasks that face any growing team? First, by recognizing that keeping a recruitment mindset can help you spot great candidates even as you grow your business and serve your current customers.
For instance, Sabine could have offered free online B2B marketing workshops for startups or small businesses and shared her expertise with the community. This at once gives her company more visibility among her potential client base, while in turn giving Sabine the opportunity to observe the behavior of workshop participants. That’s a strategy you can adopt as well.
Noting anyone openly curious about education, or eager to improve their skills, is starting the process of identifying potential new teammates with qualities you’re looking for. Taking advantage of free opportunities to learn and grow means that anyone coming to learn from you is already demonstrating the curiosity, desire for growth, and active engagement that great teams thrive on.
No matter what the business, thinking about recruitment as a give-and-take is key. Offering workshops in your strengths, and sharing skills or expertise in exchange for valuable insight into potential employees is a win-win. It acknowledges that in order to hire people who might go above and beyond, first you must go above and beyond providing value.
If the idea of offering a workshop feels overwhelming, ask your current team or network about potential skills or knowledge they might share. It is also possible to hire someone if the budget exists. You might even consider offering a free workshop in a hobby or craft. These can still identify curious, engaged, and invested potential candidates. Need patient, detail-oriented teammates? Anyone who can follow a knitting pattern successfully might be a candidate.
Thinking about further ways to add value to a potential applicant’s experience pays off in other ways, too. After identifying someone promising, for instance, consider bringing them in for a paid trial day. Even if they currently have a position and are just exploring possibilities, a trial day can be organized with enough advanced notice by taking a vacation day from their current role.
Of course, expecting candidates to take time off for your company means it should offer them significant value in return. If they’re interested in growing into a particular role, offer them a trial day in that role. If they have expertise or skills they’re looking to share, ask them to run an in-house workshop. They’ll gain valuable insight from the experience, and be paid for their time. Your organization will gain fresh ideas from an outside perspective – even if they’re never hired.
So, adopting a recruitment mindset means building it into ongoing growth and administrative processes, not adding them to an already overloaded schedule. It also means learning to look with fresh eyes at your current team – and those you might consider adding in the future.
Hire for potential, not experience
Offering workshops and hands-on, multi-layered recruitment activities can revitalize your business in many ways. But the highest value it offers with your ongoing, team-building mindset is the chance to look for potential, not experience.
That’s because great teams aren’t built through skills and knowledge alone but come from identifying the potential inherent in everyone as a great teammate. Yes, everyone is either already an A-player, or a potential A-player on your team – the trick is finding their potential and developing it. Identifying the right role for someone’s potential is as important as finding the right person for a role.
That’s because experience doesn’t always equal engagement, cooperation, problem-solving, autonomy, or any of the other qualities that make a dream team. Looking for opportunities to identify potential, both during and after recruitment, also means getting creative in your approach.
First, be open to conversations with your current and potential team members about their ideas for your business, and craft ongoing opportunities to share. That might mean scheduling a regular lunch dedicated to listening, where everyone feels comfortable bringing ideas to the table. Every teammate feels more invested and empowered to explore their potential when their ideas are thoughtfully considered.
Next, take into consideration that potential takes time and investment to develop, so it doesn’t mean overnight synergy. Empathy can help you understand that team members are looking to you, the team builder, for the level of engagement, problem-solving, or above-and-beyond investment you’re seeking from them. Taking the time to explain organizational thinking and collecting feedback from their perspectives are clear investments on your side – ones that pay dividends in ongoing growth, vitalized employees, and organizational alignment.
Ultimately, changing the focus in team-building from experience to potential has the power to revolutionize other aspects of your business. Returning to the example from the first section of this Blink, imagine if Sabine had spent the time and energy during recruitment to cast a wide net for candidates outside her immediate field. Or consider each candidate as a set of potentials, not check-marks for experience. And asked herself what kind of value her firm could offer potential candidates in the process, things would have gone very differently from the start. Saving time, money, and frustration along the way.
And the benefits would not just be felt by Sabine and her firm with this new approach, either.
Community matters
While it might be tempting to think that this approach is an enormous investment of time, the truth is that building a dynamic community of engaged teammates needs time and space to develop. Going all in on your team building means coming to see your organization as a community first. One that is in resonance with the community outside your organization, too.
That’s because community building demonstrates a level of psychological ownership by individuals over their society and world. The same can be said of a dream team: they are teams that behave as if they are personal owners of the organization or cause. They feel personally invested in the success of their cause and behave like founders even without a paycheck on the line.
And that’s precisely the kind of behavior that drives the alchemy of great teams. They are communities that are personally invested in the outcome of their activities. No owner or founder could want more, as they’ll drive productivity, solve problems autonomously, and refine the processes with their growing expertise as you scale up and grow.
If that sounds a bit like corporate culture to you, it is important to make the distinction. That’s because while culture is static, based on established mission and articulated values, the community is active. Investing in potential is one community-building process that can have an outsized impact on an individual’s life, but it also nurtures the psychological ownership, or complete buy-in, necessary to empower your team. Nothing builds loyalty in a team like feeling valued by the community.
And no company or organization exists in a vacuum, either. When team members are encouraged to think and behave as a vital community at work, it can lead to more buy-in outside of work, too. Supporting community activities means everyone’s business benefits, and everyone living in the community around your organization benefits.
It is precisely this kind of beyond-the-box thinking that nurtures great teams. Seeing the potential in entire communities, and recognizing how everyone benefits from vital, ongoing dialogue and development, means the conditions are right for your organization to thrive.
That’s because nothing drives a dream team to greater heights of synergy and accomplishment like feeling that their work matters in the bigger picture. It is hard to go above and beyond when the cause doesn’t seem worth it. But with a holistic approach, everyone can see the benefit in their efforts serving the bigger picture, and ultimately the greater good.
Conclusion
Everyone has the potential to be a great team player, if leaders view recruitment beyond filling roles. Thinking about offering value to potential candidates can unlock a host of opportunities to reveal their curiosity, desire, and motivation – all essential qualities in a dream team. Taking the time to invest in potential instead of experience requires humility, patience, and empathy, but it demonstrates the kind of investment you’re willing to make in your team. Seeing great teams as a community first emphasizes active, dynamic personal investment in the outcome, driving growth and productivity to new heights.
About the Author
Mike Michalowicz