Book Summary: The ABCs of Building a Winning Business Team by Blair Singer

This book is part of the Rich Dad Advisor family. Being able to build a successful team is a sought after talent. Think of your favorite professional, college, or Olympic sports team. I bet soccer fans can tell you which teams won each Super Bowl. Can they tell you who came second, probably not because nobody cares? Building a great team is by far the most difficult component of the business. It’s about unique personalities, qualities, and skill sets. So the question is, how do you do it? Blair answers this question in the book.

Why is this important to me?

I live not to waste your time. Either you are part of a losing team or a winning team. That’s. If you were ever part of a winning team, you can still remember the connection, the camaraderie, and the code. If you consider the most effective teams, they all operate under a strict code of honor. This is essential to keep the team together. The best example of this is seen at the US Marine Corp. These guys have to run code or they’ll die. It’s that easy. Semper Fi – “Always faithful”. Blair’s book is concise and to the point. We will describe creating a Code of Honor for your team.

Why a code of honor? In the absence of rules, people create their own rules. The best way to avoid dislike, collisions, and disharmony in any group is to make sure everyone follows the same rules. The code brings out the best in everyone who subscribes.

Mission-Team-Individual: that’s the order of the code. When people agree, then you have the foundation for a championship team. If you don’t believe in Mission-Team-Individual, imagine if the Individual or the team was the first. Bernie Madoff put the individual first and Enron its Executive Team first. Look what happened. If the Marine Corps put people first, we wouldn’t have our freedom today.

Recruiting the right players for your team is crucial. The old adage that people are your greatest asset is NOT true. They have to be the right people. I can tell you that my biggest expenses and losses in business have been ALL around hiring and recruiting the wrong people. I could have been in mini-retirements in my late 20s if I had accomplished this skill correctly. I’d bet to say that over the years, I’ve spent more than seven figures on the wrong people. This doesn’t include the heartache, counseling, and other nonsense that comes with having the wrong people on your team. I implore you to learn this skill because it will save you years of heartache. It’s cheaper to burn stacks of $ 100 bills than to have the wrong people on your team. LEARN THIS SKILL NOW!

Question: How do we get the right players on the team?

1. What kind of energy do they have? Higher energy wins. If the person is low on energy, don’t recruit them.

2. Do you want to win? This is essential because if they don’t, they won’t have it for the team.

3. Are you willing to let someone else win?

4. Are they personally responsible?

5. Are you willing to abide by the code?

6. Do they have unique talents or abilities?

Don’t hire to fill the space. This costs too much. Blair looks at her results model and focusing on the results means it is too late. Focus on the chain that generates results and good things will happen. How do you create a code of honor? This is addressed in the book and I will outline some sample code here:

1. Never abandon a teammate in need.

2. Be willing to “call and be called” when the code is broken.

3. Celebrate victories.

4. Be on time.

5. Keep all agreements and clean up any broken agreements as soon as possible.

6. Direct deal.

7. Be responsible

8. Be resourceful

9. Never let personal things get in the way of your mission.

10. Be loyal to the team.

11. Commit to personal development

12. Do not seek or ask for sympathy or recognition

13. Everyone must sell!

A critical component of championship teams is reporting code violations. This is the hardest part of the whole process. Think about it: you create the code, hire the right people, and then what … Everyone has to report code violations, even if it’s your boss who breaks the code.

I hope this short summary has been helpful to you. The key to any new idea is to incorporate it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in just 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the power of teams. It took me a lot of time, energy, and money to learn the true power of teams. You can invest 15 minutes a day in leadership and influence and it will pay you exponential dividends down the road.