In my view the focus on the article is off - They have missed the flow- on value of having a rock-star(s) in your team as a catalyst for raising everyone's level.
I concur with and would reinforce Phil's observation "[Team capability]...is more closely related to the potential of its most talented member than it is about any collective potential". My observation based years of working with competitive athletes/teams is that if you compete against more talented players/athletes you improve your game. Similarly, it has been proven over and again that you will play down to the level of a less talented performer/team. In my view, when building teams you need respected, talented performers who lift the entire team to their level. If the outcomes delivered by top performers are publicly recognised and rewarded, then this becomes the acceptable standard to which everyone aspires. My experience at Salesforce.com was that top performers were publicly lauded (frequently to the point of their embarrassment) and it set a culture of overperformance that has made them one of the hardest driving, fastest growing and most respected software organisations in the world. Hire the best you can and make sure that the A-team is where everyone wants to be. Go ask a Facebook, Google or Salesforce.com employee what they love most about their company and the #1 answer is, "Because every day I am working with super smart people." On Jun 22, 9:24 pm, Phil Sim <philip...@gmail.com> wrote: > The Barcelona analogy in the article, has forced me to buy into this one: > > Barcelona have the best player in the world - Lionel Messi - and after they > won the European Cup, the coach was quoted as saying that the way they would > continue to stay at the top was simply to assemble a team around Messi. Not > necessarily fill in with the greatest players in the world, but to fill it > with players that complemented their star and thus would enable the team to > perform at its maximum potential. > > I think any great team has to have at least one superstar, who leads the way > and can dictate direction or redirection if needed. I think any team > building, like in Barcelona's example, is about bringing together > complementary people who make up for the weaknesses that others in the team > may have. I'd suggest generally that a team's potential, however, is more > closely related to the potential of its most talented member than it is > about any collective potential (yes that is a bit of a generalisation but > trying to make a point - an my exception to this rule, is where a team is > able to draw on the external superstars ie advisors, investors and mentors > who can lift an entire team higher than it would other be capable of > achieving). > > phil > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Ruchir <ruc...@langoor.com.au> wrote: > > The message I take from the article is not if its better to hire one > > person who is exceptional vs ten people who are good. I think we all > > aspire to hire the best anyway and most of us usually will unless the > > company demands otherwise. > > > But what cuts through is whether we are losing the focus on building > > quality teams by hiring exceptional individuals. I think both things > > are important, but should one be more important than the other? > > > On Jun 22, 4:03 pm, Alexander Levashov <alex.levas...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > It will be foolish to argue that there is a big gap between great and > > mediocre developer performance. > > > > IMO, issue that company like Accenture has thousands of developers and > > hundreds of clients, so there are just not enough star developers to do all > > amount of job and not every job must be done by star developers, for many > > jobs just good developers are good enough. > > > > As an extreme example, would you hire guys from FriendFeed to create > > 'just another Wordpress website"? > > > > -- > > > > Best regards, > > > > Alexander Levashov > > > > Altima Interactive - custom web development > > > >www.altima.net.au > > > > email: alex.levas...@gmail.com > > > > Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 3:46:13 PM, you wrote: > > > > The gap simply changes based on the uniqueness of the work being > > performed right? Even on the average Accenture project, from my experience, > > there is somewhere from a 3x to 5x net difference between a great developer > > and a mediocre one. > > > > On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:30 PM, Alexander Levashov < > > alex.levas...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hi Ruchir, > > > > I also noticed this article yesterday. Have you read comments to the > > article on HBR website? > > > > I think that mostly the critique there is valid and the author seems > > > > not fully understand software development business, a simple math > > > > doesn't work here. > > > > However I would say that 'is it better to higher 5 great developers or > > > > 100 good' greatly depends on your business and while first option > > > > may be better for Facebook, the second one is only valid for > > > > Accenture. > > > > -- > > > > Best regards, > > > > Alexander Levashov > > > > Altima Interactive - custom web development > > > >www.altima.net.au > > > > email: alex.levas...@gmail.com > > > > Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 3:11:52 PM, you wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > I read a fascinating article today - > > > > >http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2011/06/great_people_are_overrated.html > > > > > . > > > > > I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on this article. > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > Ruchir > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > > Australia mailing list. > > > > Guidelines on discussion: > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > > > To post to this group, send email to > > > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > > Australia mailing list. > > > > Guidelines on discussion: > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > > > To post to this group, send email to > > > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > > Australia mailing list. > > > Guidelines on discussion: > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > > To post to this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > -- > Phil Sim > Chief Executive Officer, > MediaConnect Australia Pty Ltdwww.mediaconnect.com.au > phi...@mediaconnect.com.au > Ph:+61 2 9894 6277begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +61 2 9894 > 6277 end_of_the_skype_highlighting > Fax: +61 2 8246 6383 > Mobile: 0413889940 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
