Black In Business

Together Everyone Accomplishes More. The first letter from each word spells TEAM! Corny, you bet, true, you got that right. Many times people are promoted to manager because they were good at something. I was a good salesman, not great by any means but nerveless always one of the top ranked salesmen in the division. I did consistent business and managed to sell more than much more talented salesmen. For that I got promoted to National Accounts Manager for Government Accounts. I was fortunate in that position and had some remarkable accomplishments. I was promoted again in 8 months to a district manager position. It would be natural to assume my success would continue, it did, but it was more challenging than anticipated.

I was responsible for a group of 12 people. I was a good salesman, had an unbelievable year as an National Accounts Manager. I also had never been anyone’s boss before and had no training other than a week of administrative information. I did not even know how to go about hiring a secretary. Little did I know the biggest task would be building a team? My thoughts were everyone would want to be a team, have team goals, enjoy each others company, and do well.

It was shocking to find out, some folk just wanted to get paid, were negative, were defensive, and could not even think of listening to coaching from a black manager that was much younger. Here is what worked.

We celebrated success, the team had not done well and felt things were different in upstate new York. If anyone did something positive we went over board with complements.

We established a team identity. I tried to hire people that did not fit the corporate image. The image of this company was like Ken and Barbie dolls. I resented the image because it did not fit me. I diversified by hiring several blacks, loud shit talking white guys and some very nice people. We wanted to be like the old Oakland Raiders or Detroit Pistons. The bad asses. Several of us wore full beards, some wore too much jewelry, we adopted paisley ties as a look. We all dressed in nice expensive clothes and raised hell together. The only way we would not be laughed at was to kick butt.

We had team meetings every month and conference calls on a weekly basis. We had Friday afternoon happy hours and plenty of team dinners. We had team picnics and put pressure on ourselves to win and win big, but we kept it a party.

We became a team thought being real people first, learning to like each other, setting common goals as a team and individual goals and celebrating success. We loved the fact that we were different. We helped each other get promoted. We became a family that loved and respected each other. The bottom line is when building a team think about the people first. Allow every one to be them selves and feel valued in order for the beautiful dynamics of team elevate performance. As the manager, be a leader not the boss, be a team member, not the boss, admit mistakes and take advice. Do not pressure yourself to be perfect, be good not perfect. Let your people know you faults and all. It is a lot of fun!