Teamwork And The “Invisible Bruise”

I just love to eat fruit.

I like it raw.

I like it cooked.

I like it just about any way you can serve it up… except for one…

Bruised. 

Take a bruised apple, for example. Maybe it’s how it looks.

Maybe it’s the texture…

Whatever it is, there’s just something about it that’s not appealing to me in any way.

But, here’s what’s interesting… If I take that apple and put it in the blender with some other fruit to make a smoothie, I can’t taste anything different about it.

I can’t tell it ever looked different.

There is nothing left of that apple to let me know that it was ever bruised in the first place.

You know, great teams are a lot like a fruit smoothie.

If you’re in the business of building and leading teams, you more than likely would love to build and maintain the best possible team you can.

But sometimes, we get stuck on finding those “perfect” employees or team members who are just good at everything.

I don’t have statistics, but those seem to be pretty rare. In fact, I could argue that they don’t even exist.

What I have learned, and continue to learn, is that the challenge isn’t always finding the best individual, but finding the best team member.

The truth is, we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I need someone to compliment my strengths with talent and areas of expertise that I lack. And, those people likely need some of my strengths to offset their weaknesses.

What’s beautiful, is that those weaknesses, or “bruises” if you will, become invisible when woven into the fabric of a great team that is focused and intent on becoming the best group of individuals that they can be.

So don’t be too quick to just dismiss that “bruised apple.” It might be just the one you’re needing to make a great, productive team!