imapMyTeam Blog

Spring Training is Fundamental

Depending upon what part of the country you live in you might disagree; but spring is just around the corner. One way we can be sure is, spring training has started for professional baseball. Spring training reinforces successful play. Teams spend time getting to know new teammates, work on all of the important fundamentals that lead to success and prepare for the long season.
There is so much about baseball that can be applied to business – here are three important lessons to consider:

1. Have the right person in the right place. You can have nine great shortstops but maybe a terrible team if none can play another position. Successful teams can’t get overloaded and neither can your business team. Do you have the right balance of players that cover all of the bases? Blind-spots can cost the team wins [success]. Which leads to:

2. Good teams are never accidental. Teams that win [succeed] use the best possible combinations of people they can get. The ‘best skill’ player sometimes doesn’t help the team if they don’t fit the overall team chemistry. If given two players who have similar skills but one excels at interacting with their teammates, guess which one the team will choose to keep? Adding a person only for his or her skills sometimes backfires…think about baseball teams that acquire a player at a trading deadline that looks great on paper but ends up hurting the overall team performance. However, you lose if you choose to stand pat because:

3. You cannot remain static. Your competitors are constantly learning and adapting [probably in part from your strategy] and changing their ways to be more competitive. You can never stop adjusting and evolving. You need to be in a constant evaluation mode yourself. What are my strengths, weaknesses and how do I self-manage them.

Are you getting the most out of your work relationships?

If not, conduct some personal ‘spring training’ by logging into imapMyTeam® to work on your fundamentals.