There Is No Lone Genius; Hire a Team With these Four Types

There’s something romantic about the idea of the lone genius. The early success of GE is often attributed solely to the inspiration and perspiration of Thomas Edison. But experience and research both tell us that lasting success is built by teams that drive each other through collaboration, different skill sets and, yes, tension. 

It’s difficult to imagine the stratospheric successes of Steve Jobs without Stephen Wozniak or Mark Zuckerberg without Sheryl Sandberg. Edison had many collaborators and competitors who drove him, including the engineering genius Charles Steinmetz.

Diverse teams drive more innovation. Hiring people with different styles, backgrounds and experience increases the success of teams. My sense of what makes a successful team is constantly evolving, but these days I look for these four types when I hire.

• The fish out of water. People who are from, or have lived in, global markets expose the company to different mindsets and ways of approaching tasks. Different educational backgrounds also help foster critical thinking skills. Candidates who have studied anthropology and psychology, for example, bring keen observational skills to your team, which is especially good for early stage market and customer prototyping.
  
• Someone who can FIO (Figure It Out). Teammembers who can FIO are critical to navigating the ambiguity of the global economy, which no longer has a standard playbook. This quality isn’t necessarily detectable on a resume, so I like to give interviewees hypothetical but decidedly ambiguous scenarios and creative challenges laden with constraints to test their fortitude and creativity.
  Still, there are some signs that someone has the skills to FIO. Anyone who has served in Teach for America, the Peace Corps or a similar organization has most likely been thrown into a leadership position in a challenging situation. I remember a candidate whose background in disaster relief for non-profits in locations ranging from Haiti to Somalia made me confident he could have figured anything out in the corporate world. Likewise, my work with GE’s Veterans Network has shown me that people with military service can perform complex tasks with scarce resources.
  
• Candidates with design training. Businesses need design thinking, and not just for creative roles. Design training helps people get a feel for the essence of an issue quickly. It also trains them to visualize concepts in a way that bring people together around a common narrative. Think of all the great ideas that started as sketches on the back of a napkin – that’s design thinking.
  
• The well-balanced player. Teams need specialized skillsets but they also need people who can work across disciplines and contribute in multiple ways. A few years ago at GE, we came up with a framework to define a well-rounded team called the 4 I’s: Instigator, Innovator, Integrator and Implementer. The 4 I’s are present, to some degree, in every candidate we interview but some people have them in just the right balance. Those people are often your team leaders.

Collected from LinkedIn.Com

Should Everyone Work In A Startup, At Least For A While?

The answer is: It's probably a good thing but it's not about the money.

Certain experiences shape a career. Some are in the "you-will-be-a-better-person-for-this" category. Getting fired and really bad bosses tend to top that list. Conversely, a special relationship with a mentor or time spent in an exceptional training program can propel a career in the positive direction. But mentors and cool training can be hit or miss. The alternative for pure career shaping moments: time at a startup.

Career shaping moments are built on day-to-day experiences where the requirement is to be able to drink from a fire hose. Many would say that time spent in an early stage company is that fire hose. Time spent there beats an MBA, beats any training program and can propel one's career into a leadership role and create wealth (if that's what one wants) more than any thing else. That's what many would say and most in Silicon Valley.

There is a certain cache to working at a startup. Friends are jealous and assume you might be the next Facebook zillionaire. Other friends are always and willing to lend advice - in exchange for equity. Hot new technology abounds and cool snacks might be in the kitchen. You can probably build an entire wardrobe around logo riddled clothes you receive.

But working at a startup can be risky. Pay and benefits can be less than market rate. The CEO might be twenty-five years old and learning on the job. Venture capitalists and bankers might be annoyingly in your way. More conservative friends may wonder, WTF?, You are wasting your talent. But if you are ready to deal with the risk / reward equation and build a career around the experience, it will pay off. Here is why it can be worth it:

You are always dealing with the biggest business lesson of all: Business is about making stuff and selling stuff. If you are not doing one of those two things, what are you doing?

You learn that cash is king and every nickel counts. Any one in a startup knows two of the most feared phrases are "We are running low on cash", or "Our runway is two months". Living with those phrases will definitely shape a career.

You learn that there are lots of details in any enterprise. You might have to name the company, design a logo, find office space, figure out the legal entity, find an insurance carrier and all the thousands of mundane activities that one takes for granted in a larger company.

You learn that meeting payroll is not an automatic God-given right.

You learn that results matter and shape the company. As in, results count, not effort.

You learn that every situation has an upside. You may not get paid a lot but maybe you can take your dog to work. You don't have to dress up and will save money on clothes. Really close quarters could mean really close friends. You see the results of your labors.

You learn that if you don't make coffee or get the dirty dishes out of the sink, no one else will. There is no maid. You learn that if you call in sick your team will suffer because no one has any extra capacity.

You learn that business is sometimes a series of forced choices. Should we have free snacks or revamp the website? Should we have free coffee or hire another engineer? Should we launch early when we are not quite done, or wait?

Maybe the thing about startup experience is that it almost always happens early in a career and the positive shaping can last a long time. You learn that leadership matters, even if you are twenty-four years old.

Working at a startup is a simple equation. The numerator is risky. The denominator is an experience that can shape a career. You make the decision. And there is that Facebook zillionaire thing.

Creating A Company Culture That Matters!

My company's leadership used to focus mostly on vision, position, product and service while assuming our culture was organic to our company and the employees. It wasn't. Whereas our company ran, communicated and created on point, our culture was random. Last year we decided to work with our team leaders, employees and interns and define a culture that would support the company and define both the experience of working as well as the aspects of the people we would hire and contract.

Together we created the four pillars of the Cinequest culture and the effects were startling. First, within a month of defining the culture, several people who had just signed longterm contracts unexpectedly left the organization. The culture as defined was not for them. Then energy shifted and we started to see both new talent as well as seasoned team members integrate with the cultural pillars. Leaders and employees consistently reinforced the culture both in regular meetings as well as in interviews with prospective employees and interns. The end result has been exceptional: our team has strongly improved as has the day to day vibe of working together. Now the company DNA includes culture along with vision, position, product and service.

The four pillars of the Cinequest culture are, as defined by our team:

• World Class Excellence: creating work at the highest level of quality and impact.
• High Energy: drive, enthusiasm, passion.
• Love: love of the people we serve, each other and of Cinequest.
• Integrity.

What are some of your favorite cultural 'pillars' you have or would like to see in your organization?

From:
Halfdan Hussey
Co.-Founder & Director at Cinequest