My friend Chris once said to me ‘new brooms sweep well’. She was referring to a new hire who’d recently joined our organization and who our boss was touting as the person who was going to be the ‘game-changer’ for our organization. They weren’t but that’s what we tend to do with new people. We put them on a pedestal and expect them to be the person who saves us from whatever is slowing us down or getting in our way. The reality is that organizations are a team sport. It’s not one individual that is the silver bullet. It’s the chemistry that happens when the right individual gets added to the right team at the right time. Instead of looking for someone to ‘save’ your organization, department or projects, look for someone who can strengthen the team you have. When you set up someone to be the star player, you set high expectations for those around that individual that may or may not be fair and potentially undermine the culture of teamwork that you need to achieve big goals.
Who are you putting too much pressure on?
