If its your business or a volunteer organization, choose the people you want to work with and don’t settle. We’ve been working at putting together a 4-day non-profit conference this 4th of July weekend, and I can’t say how great the experience has been simply due to the team working on it. The team is small, agile, and has a passion for the work involved. Each member was hand chosen to be on the team and was given a unique role to fulfill. The roles were broken down to the T, and everyone was very clear on their responsibilities.

I bring this up because how many times have we found ourselves on teams where we hated doing the work, hated the people we had to work with, or just became apathetic to the situation? Apathetic is the absolute worse since you haven’t quit and still nothing is getting done. And all those situations get worse when you’re working with a volunteer or non-profit organization. There, everyone feels they’re doing this for a good cause so they can’t take criticism or delegation.

So I implore you, don’t assemble a team based on volunteers or just credentials and don’t get sucked into a team because you think its for a good cause. Hand pick your team based on how well you work with them and their passion for the overall purpose/vision for the business or organization.