How Running a Team of Mavericks changed my Mindset.

When you go solo,  you get wearied off, but when you go with a team, you move faster and far.

Having started my Organization in 2015, I knew if I was going to go far and fast, I was actually going to need a team. So I set out to recruit the individuals that I will be working with. I know I was not looking for a mere team, I was looking for individual who could counter my ideas, bring up their own ideas, make something out of nothing and of course keep the organization moving without my presence.

Well, it might interest you to know that getting people with the above listed qualities is very hard; it is going to take a leader of strong will and determination to get them. When I finally got hold of the team, I found out that it was even hard to keep them together than it was to recruit them. Running a team of mavericks is quite hard especially when you don’t know the principles of managing human.

I had to break some of myself imposed principle, refine my leadership skill, replace the once I need to replace and also undergo a huge development in my leadership skill. In my ordeal to do the above mentioned, in order to keep the team together, I acquired the following lessons.

Mavericks’ answers to you but you can’t impose your ideas on them without giving them reasons:

I realized that in as much as having mavericks in your team makes the team indomitable, pulling through with your own personal idea can also be challenging. So I derived a better means to pull through with my idea, and also integrate such idea in them, in order to get a maximum result.

One way in which I was able to do this, was by backing up my ideas with strong reasons and points.

In Order to Successfully Work with Mavericks, I developed a skill in managing people

Managing people is one of the hardest things to do; though with much writings on this topic by different authors, managing people has been made a little easier.

Mavericks are not people you control; they are people you manage and influence by putting them in the direction of things that interest them the most.

Developing of Intuition and Believing in my instinct.

As a leader of Mavericks, I learnt how to be intuitive by been sensitive as to when the team members gets bored during a long duration of meeting. I was also able to forecast and predict future events that will take place in our organization before it occurs.

Enforce Discipline when Necessary:

I still remember the first time we had the maiden meeting for the growth of the organization; everyone was present but not on time. I cannot write off the fact that majority of the team member came at the appointed time, but I understood that I cannot run a successful team if some members of the team are lagging behind. I gradually began to impact discipline in them by adapting strict and professional measures like making sure the message for the next meeting gets across to everyone one week ahead of the date, and a subsequent notification was also sent within the week to avoid any excuses. However I also made sure that the agenda for the meeting was also sent across to enable every member of the team to prepare for the meeting.

It is not just about work, it is about the team:

Limiting the discussion of the team to work programs inhibits the bond that is meant to hold the team together, thus reducing the workflow and the work chemistry. In order to build up this bond, I decided to always hang out with the team, either individually or in group. Trust me when I say the result was duper super awesome.

From the above lessons and experience, I came to a conclusion that leadership is not about me or the glory that I receive, rather it is about the team, the workflow and chemistry that exist within them.

Johnpaul Nwobodo

Entrepreneur| I track Startups and Fellow Entrepreneurs like me, I bring them to the Lime Light|