~by Haley Lynn Gray~
How many times have you just done something because it was faster to do it than to rely on someone else? How many times, because you could do it better, or you didn’t feel like communicating with someone else or dealing with them? Would you believe me that good teams are stronger than the individual can ever be, and can reach greater heights?
I can give you several examples from my life of this. One of the easiest to talk about is about Girl Scout Cookies. As I’ve talked about it before, my troop sells a LOT of Cookies. What I may not emphasize so much is that we actually will allow any girl in the council to come and sell with us. We’ll credit the proper number of boxes of cookies, donations, etc, back to her home troop at the end of the sale.
Why in the world would I allow other girls from other troops to sell at OUR BOOTHS?
Because teams are stronger. I have several girls who are trying to sell over 1000 boxes of Cookies each. That is a LOT of booths. When you have 5-6 girls who are trying to sell that number of cookies, they can’t all go to the same booths. Quite simply, it’s easier for everyone to reach those numbers, if more girls are working more booths. Even if it means having other girls from other troops who are trying to sell a lot of boxes come and sell with us.
Even if we give other troops some of our booths.
Why? Because we have certain locations that we try to have a booth at every day. We condition people to seeing us there every day. They know that at that particular spot, they will find a Girl Scout ready to sell them cookies the entire cookie season. And we publicize that spot. It’s a win-win for everyone.
We form an unconventional team, and turn the idea of cookie selling on its head. After all, who would ever think of multiple troops working together. But it works better that way because we approach the process with the idea that working together is better; that we aren’t really competing with one another, and that teams are stronger together. All of us together are stronger than a single one of us standing alone.
What do you think? What has your experience been? Are teams stronger?
[Deep Ellum – Girl Scout Cookies (Photo credit: awsheffield) ]
Meet the Author: Haley Lynn Gray
Haley helps female entrepreneurs create a strategy plan for their businesses – so they can make enough money to spend quality time with their family, pay for their children’s dance lessons, pay bills – and not worry about where the next client is coming from.
Haley is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Leadership Girl. She helps other entrepreneurs build their businesses by sharing the benefits of her business education and experience through Business Coaching.
Whether you want to get a new business off the ground or expand an existing business, Haley can assist you.
Connect with Haley:
- Work with Haley: https://leadershipgirl.com/work-with-haley/
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Leadershipgirl
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleygray