If you don’t build a team, you will never go far in life. An emerging organization without a team is one that is preparing for its own funeral—for its own death. In other words, a successful organization leader without a team is a leader who is slowly but surely heading toward their end.

ADVANTAGE #1: The Team Generates Ideas

A team is a group of people, educated or not (young or old), who bring ideas, energy, and resources; they always have something to contribute to the organization. Some people think they are useless. No! You are not useless! You are not part of this team by accident. If you ever feel that way, make it a habit to ask yourself this question: What can I contribute to help move the organization to the next level?

At the next meeting, don’t seek to promote yourself. Instead, offer ideas that will promote your teammates—and as a result, your own interests will be promoted. When you have a team and face financial difficulties, team members who have embraced your vision can contribute financially or materially. Why? Because they don’t see themselves as workers, but as collaborators, working with you and not for you.

In other words, they don’t work for your organization, but for their organization, because they have made the vision of the organization their own. People give the best of their ideas, energy, and resources toward achieving the goals of an organization when they take ownership of its vision.

In September 2015, VIP WORLD (Vision-Information-People), a values-driven organization with the vision of raising exceptional leaders, which I am part of, faced a naming issue. Many people mistook us for a religious group, which was not the case. The solution to this problem came during a meeting through the suggestion of one of my teammates.

He proposed organizing a show called the “VIP STREET SHOW.” It was held in the garden across from the SOBEBRA (Beninese Brewery Company) headquarters, located at the Béninoise roundabout (Akpakpa-Cotonou) in Benin, and several musical artists were invited. This one-month-long show helped VIP WORLD correct its image, and many locals appreciated the initiative. A simple idea propelled us to another level—so imagine if VIP WORLD had not had a team. Perhaps it would still be facing the same issue today…

This text is an excerpt from the book “BUILDING A STRONG TEAM” written by ULRICH MEHOUELLEY.

We invite you to read the next article: “The Team Maximizes the Leader’s Strengths and Minimizes Their Weaknesses.”