Birds of the Same Feather Flock Together

When I learned this idiom 20 years ago, I thought it means that people with similar interests will stick together. But it gives me a different experience lately while I was preparing for MY Challenge 2010.

Many people have always reminded and cautioned me to not recruit part-timers in any of my productions simply because they will not be fully committed to the job assigned to them. I disagree because I always believe if we really want to do something, regardless of whether the job is big or small, or whether we already have a full-time 9 to 5 job, we will do our best. Therefore, I do not mind working with part-timers if they are really good. I mean I do not mind working with very good part-timers. To avoid misunderstanding, I always give the person the benefit of adult during the interview before I recruit them into the team. I will tell them the job descriptions and what I expect of them. I will also give them the task sheet and the deadline when the tasks must be completed. As leaders in their very own departments, they are expected to not only follow my direction and instructions, I also expect them to propose a detailed progress plan for the departments. They then have to monitor the progress and report to me weekly so that I know what they are doing falls in the compliance of the event direction. I also want to see follow ups being done as this is not only a way that they communicate with their team or external partners involved, it is also to gauge whether the plan works or not.

I am very proud and blessed to have so many ex-students to volunteer to help out in my recent production. Besides that, I am also very lucky to have recruited some other people to manage certain areas for me. I have been working with Pang and Hew since previous productions and have since developed some mutual understandings on how certain things work. I have definitely no complaints when it comes to working with them. To the new recruits, it will take them some time to get used to my style and expectations. Meetings have been conducted to explain the preparations and event direction for the production, and everyone was expected to carry out the tasks assigned with immediate attention. It is therefore very disappointing to discover that some of the team members are not enthusiastic and/or proactive enough to handle these assignments.

Before I put the blame on others, I shall look at myself in front of the mirror first. Have I not monitored my team close enough, or have I not given them enough training nor clear instructions of what I expect of them? I shall give them a last chance. In this coming meeting, I will remind everyone again what I expect of them. If they can't cope after this, I have no choice but will have to ask them to leave the team. I have no time to babysit such people or to handle such emotional situations. I would rather spend time doing it myself than chasing after people to get the work done for me.

I have plans to form my own dream team for future productions, I only want efficient, capable and committed leaders in my team, nothing else. Are you the one?