ManagementSpeak: Team Player
Translation: Someone who can bludgeon, bribe, cajole, threaten, intimidate, wheedle, sweet talk, pressure or otherwise coerce coworkers into assisting with a project.
This week’s anonymous contributor didn’t need to engage in any forceful persuasion. Submitting this excellent entry proved he was, in fact, a team player.
Fun with PowerPoint:
Draw a circle for each of your direct reports, arranged in a ring. Color the solid performers green and those who present challenges yellow. Your problem children? Red.
Next: Connect every pair of circles with a colored line — green for good working relationships, yellow for those with some friction and distrust, red for pairs who would fight about whether Han shot first. (He did. Don’t argue.)
(Do you need a fourth color — do you need to color any circles or lines gray because you don’t know? Make a note: Unless you’re new, you shouldn’t need gray.)
When you look at the whole picture, what’s your overall impression … how un-green does it look?
