Harnessing the Powers of Your Internal Champions - Investing in Those That Make Your Team Tick
By Leanne Crain
While searching the net for something yesterday, I stumbled across a term I thought was very powerful . . . "Internal Champions". In the reference I was reading it was a term used to describe a project manager or liaison of sorts - however I'm going to use it a bit differently.
To me, internal champions are those team members within your organization - those members that make your company buzz with excitement. The ones that ideas and high quality work flow from consistently. They can be anyone from your front-line all the way to the top-most manager. I would venture a guess that everyone has a team full of champions - even if they haven't harnessed that power yet.
Every champion is unique. Even those with the exact same training and skill set will most likely do things differently. Indeed, that fact alone is part of the magic of a keeping a company fresh and in the forefront.
In saying that, a logical conclusion to come to is that no champion can truly be "replaced". While processes may be duplicated, you cannot duplicate the intellectual property of the person that was there before. It would stand to reason then, that if you value the internal champions you currently have, you should focus on making them even better, and retaining the creativity and uniqueness that only they provide to your team.
How do you go about harnessing the power that you already have? What ways can you make it better?
You need to invest in those champions. Even the best champions on your team need an investment in them. After all, as Anthony Robbins said, "if you continually do what you have always done, you will continually get what you have always gotten." How true this is. If you want to make your organization even better, and strengthen it - even in a down economy - the best way to do this is by investing in those champions that you are already fortunate enough to have.
When you take time and energy to invest in the champions that are currently with you, you are in turn not only increasing their abilities, but also showing them that you believe they are worthwhile, and that you value what they bring to the team. This gesture to them will make them even more energized to belong, and in turn that energy and enthusiasm will shine through to your clients.
We all know what's it like being a client for an enthusiastic, energized team with an ever increasing skill-set - you can't help but want to deal with them again and again. Invest in your champions every chance you can, so that they may, in turn, deliver your clients the message that you are an organization they want to deal with repeatedly.
For more leadership information, or ideas for ways to better your team, please contact Gary Gzik at ggzik@bizxcel.com.
Leanne Crain is a Marketing Assistant for BizXcel. Her background is marketing and tourism, and she has over 12 years experience in the sales and marketing field.
