Understand and Fill in Your Weaknesses

This is Part 2/4 of my leadership series speech that I have given to companies, conferences and teams around the country.

Great leaders understand when and where they are weak. Like the Avengers – they complement themselves with people with other skill sets. In the case of building the Xbox team, there were two technical guys who saved Xbox.

The first technical leader is named Tom Holmdahl who is still the head hardware guy for both Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox one and now the Microsoft Band. The second technical leader was J Allard who was our chief software lead and is someone who is an inspiration when it comes to user experience (UX).

Because I was and still am not a “technical guy” these two guys complemented the work that I did perfectly. This combination of skills and talent was pivotal in building the Xbox team’s success.

I’ve read a book called Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns (long but worth reading). In the book Doris chronicles how Abraham Lincoln won the republican nomination for President back in 1860. He competed against us 4 other candidates – none of whom he should have beaten. But he did… and the first thing he did after he won was invite all four of his competitors to be in his Cabinet. While he may have done this for political reasons and inclusion purposes I believe that he did this because these 4 other candidates had skills that Lincoln did not have.

Bringing the country back together at that particular time was going to require avenger-like skills and as great a person and leader as Lincoln was – he was going to need others to help.

Thus as you think about building your team you know you have to find other people who you can trust, share power and control, and incorporate them into your thinking to ultimately benefit from their super powers in synergistic ways.

Part 1: What is your Superpower?

Part 2: Understand and Fill Your Weaknesses

Part 3: Establish Culture

Part 4: Earn and Command Respect