Min-Maxing in Leadership — Press Start Leadership

Min-Maxing in Leadership

Playing to People’s Strengths While Growing Their Dump Stat

In gaming, it can be advantageous to maximize your character’s strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. In life, however, it can be more dangerous to ignore important traits that need development. So what do you do when one of your team members is high in Constitution, but low in Wisdom? Or overflowing with Intelligence, but short on Charisma? Ready to learn min-maxing in leadership? Here are 3 tips to set your team up for success:

1. Get to Know Your Teammates. Spend time finding out what each member of your team is good at. How do you do that? Ask them! But don’t stop there. What do their teammates think? What do you think? Conducting a pseudo-360 Degree Review can be a great way to find out what your team’s natural strengths are.

2. Prioritize Skills Appropriately. You never want to set someone up for failure, so now that you know what everybody is good at, assign your team members to projects that align with their skillset. Nobody succeeds in the long term without a variety of skills, though. Set your team members up for success by making support available in their weaker areas.

3. Provide Opportunities to Improve. If you’ve ever wished you could build a character that was proficient in all areas, this is how you do it: through experience. Give your team members room to improve. In addition to projects they’re naturally good at, put them on projects they’re weaker at too. Again, don’t set them up for failure: put them on a low-risk project with a loose deadline. Make sure the project is recoverable and have them shadow or pair up with somebody that’s already adept in that area.

In short, being a leader can be a lot like being a Dungeon Master: you make the rules, and you set the challenges your team members face. A good Dungeon Master creates an exciting, dynamic, and balanced campaign, so all the players can enjoy their adventures. My question for you is: will you be a good Dungeon Master for your team?

I hope you enjoyed min-maxing in leadership. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Originally published at https://pressstartleadership.com on July 3, 2020.