Madness - The best bet to building a successful team

Unlimited energy, passion to make a difference, dying to work, motivated like hell...Can you imagine the efficiency of a team, all of whose members possess the above attributes? These are the exact attributes that created the likes of Microsoft, Google and Apple. Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. These are the teams that went on to become huge success stories. If you ask any of these people the secret behind their success, they would have just one statement to say "Passion to the extent of madness". Luckily for me, I've had some opportunities to work in a couple of similar teams. However, sadly enough, such teams are extremely rare.

What most teams fail to realise is the importance of self-starters. They wait for someone to provide them the push. Its almost like they consider team tasks to be some kind of a work which is only supposed to be done in specific timeslots. The attitude of "lets start right away" is as rare in teams as drops of water in a barren desert. According to researchers, this is primarily the reason why most teams fail to achieve their objectives. These teams go on the backfoot at the very first instant and from there on are always making up for it. Personally for me, I absolutely relish working in teams which demonstrate passion to the extent of madness. The experience of working in such teams comepletely puts you in a positive state of mind. There's absolutely no room left for negativity for the simple reason that you are working on something or the other all the time. 'An empty mind is a devil's brain', this is one philiosophy which such charged up teams completely negate.

In most of my leadership stints, I've tried to inculcate this quality of madness into my teams and its a lovely feeling when such attributes form the DNA of your tea. The problem however is that most people tend to confuse it with "over-excitement", which to some extent is fair as far as their observation is concerned. But then what's the point in being plain mundane and conventional. After all, there couldn't be a bigger satistfaction than the feeling of giving your best 24 X 7. At the end of the day success truly lies in the philosophy of "you might not be the best, but try to be different from the rest" and in case this difference comes in the form of the desire to give your best, nothing like it.

So all you crazy people out there, in case you feel that energy and excitement runs in your DNA, do get in touch with me. We'll sure end up taking a new initiative, irrespective of whichever corner of the world you reside in.