Who's more important: your team or those you serve?
Learn why your team and the people you serve exist as two sides of the same coin.
Your team and the people you serve are two sides of the same coin. One cannot succeed without the other.
Let me explain.
*dramatic pause*
With a slight build and common attire, the figure walking into the city wouldn’t register among the other people going about their business inside the castle walls.
The figure turns out to be Merlin. We’ve followed him into Camelot in the first episode of the BBC series that bears his name.
Seeped in Arthurian lore, the twist lies in telling the story from Merlin's perspective (as the name of the show might suggest).
The show wastes no time revealing Merlin’s unique capabilities. For those of you playing for the home team, Merlin has magic — great magic unlike any seen before. *jazz hands*
We also meet Arthur in the first episode. Blond, broad-shouldered, and clad in chain mail, we find him knocking a servant about while practicing his fighting skills.
But the show doesn't focus on his abilities in the first episode; it focuses on his need.
In addition to needing a major attitude adjustment, he also needs protection. When Merlin arrives, he walks through the gates and into an execution, after which a witch (say that five times fast) threatens Arthur's life.
And by the end of the episode, we watch her get within a few chain mail of taking it.
Merlin's magical abilities allow him — and only him — to be in a position to evade the witch's spell and move Arthur out of the way just before the knife blade strikes his chest.
Your team members — and by definition, your business — are Merlin. What you do and how you do it deliver the person you serve the value they need.
It takes your team and the people you serve to run and grow a thriving business. Or as the dragon chained under Camelot tells Merlin, "You're like two sides of the same coin. You are one side, and Arthur is the other. Without him, you cannot hope to succeed."
As a business, you must deliver value to the people you serve. That’s the entire point of your business. If you don’t deliver value you will cease to exist as a business.
But you can’t deliver value without your team. You must design a business that allows them to do what they do effectively.
Keep the coin spinning.