Hi everyone, 

Thanks for reading my newsletter. This month, I want to talk about teams, strengths and disruption. 

I’m not sure about yours, but our team can be divided down the middle - the creatives and the instruction followers, the introverts and the extroverts, and many other ways.  

What we all are is concluders and producers. We all enjoy getting a job done but honestly, some of us are better at following instructions, ticking off lists and communicating the details. Sound familiar? 

I have worked in many teams. Sometimes as the leader, sometimes as a follower and often as not - filling the role of disruptor. You see I don’t believe in doing things the same repeatedly just because they have been done that way for a long time. The thing about these teams though, is I have had very little control over the work allocation and how to manage the team's strengths and areas for growth.  

The reason I tell you this is .... I now have my own team. It's small, friendly and safe. There is a lot of work-life balance.  Since we all came together, we have made lots of changes in how we do things and who does what. It makes everyone feel like they are appreciated for what they are good at.  

Have you ever heard of the portfolio investment idea coined by Peter Lynch "water the flowers, cut the weeds"? Peter Lynch was talking about dumping unprofitable businesses from an investment portfolio but I think it also works well for identifying individual strengths in the team and using these to grow our capacity, get better what we do and focus individuals on certain work so that we enjoy what we are doing.  

So far it has been great - we have the right administrators in the right place – We have Kate who is a whiz at following instructions and doing work consistently at a high quality, taking care of our accounts, systems set up and routine tasks.  

Then we have Molly who is creative, great with words and pictures and good at figuring out how to deliver my ideas, taking care of our social media and written content for our website, blogs, emails and newsletters.  

We didn’t start that way - they both had the same job, and it was NOT working. When we split the administration work down the middle things started to really hum.  

They are supported and led by Trish who you would have heard about in my last newsletter - our go-to person who makes the whole thing work. She challenges them and helps them grow, all while keeping me in check. (Basically, to do that, she is a magician.) 

Then we have our writing team. Justine is brilliant with the detail in business administration and governance. She is a whiz at figuring out HR, finance, committees, researching opportunities and writing things down that are actionable and useable for small business and NGOs.  

Gaylene is our editor, writer and expert on the use of correct English and in-house corporate writing and corporate document guru. (Don't tell her I used that word - she doesn't like it.)  

Gaylene and Justine are each a great writer but work very differently from each other and from me. Gaylene sits on the creative side of the fence, where Justine is more factual, and process driven. They are both very considered writers and I learn from them both on every project we collaborate on. 

This month the OTSPC team undertook the 16 personalities quiz. We discovered some interesting things about ourselves and each other through this process. To take the quiz yourself and find out about your working style and how you work best in a team, click HERE. 

This month I want to challenge you to sit back and look at your team from a strength's perspective. Are you getting the best out of your people by watering the flowers and pruning the weeds? If not, what could you do differently?  

If you are thinking about maximising your team, you might like to read these two articles which I found quite interesting:  

• https://hbr.org/2015/06/developing-employees-who-think-for-themselves  

• https://hbr.org/2011/01/managing-employees-in-their-tw  

If you think we could help you and your team work better, please reach out for a cuppa. 

Ciao 

Conni 

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That’s all for this edition. Thanks for taking the time to read it.  If there's anything you'd like to know more about, let's chat.