SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 170,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: Which kind of team would you rather lead?
- A team of all superstars: 29.72%
- A team with a few stars and a few problems: 53.26%
- A team with no stars but no problems either: 13.4%
- A team with all problems — I like a challenge: 3.61%
Give me the stars! Clearly, most of you want a team with a substantial number of, if not full of, superstars. Sure, this makes life easier in terms of not worrying about poor-quality work, deadlines or other issues you’d run into with poor performers. That said, managing a team of superstars takes a specialized set of skills and techniques. Sometimes, the bigger the stars, the bigger the leadership challenge. Leading any team is full of obstacles — it’s simply a question of what kinds of obstacles and the skills you need to overcome them.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”