Rodney Tippit is a Connecticut-based case goods buyer for Bob's
Discount Furniture. This is a regional furniture chain that has dozens
of stores throughout the Midwest and the Northeast corridor. Though
Connecticut is his home base at the present time, he actually has a long
history in the state of Texas. He was born in Paris, Texas, and he grew
up in Odessa, which is in the western part of the Lone Star State. As a
young man, he moved to the state capital of Austin, and he subsequently
lived in a number of Texas cities as he traversed his career path in
the furniture industry as a manager and a buyer.
The sport of
football is huge in the state of Texas, and people who are passionate
about the game are well aware of the value of team building. This is a
very complicated matter, and there are many different facets to it. Good
coaches know how to assemble the right combination of players, and this
is something that business decision makers like Rodney Tippit have to
master as well.
There is a common adage that is utilized when the
subject of roster management is being discussed: “You can't teach
talent.” Without question, when you are building a team as a
businessperson or a football coach, you have to look for individuals who
have the innate ability to get the job done at a very high level. At
the same time, this is just one factor to take into consideration. There
are other qualities that individuals can possess that make them
valuable team members.
One of them is the ability to take
instructions. If you have someone who has a lot of talent who is not
coachable, the individual in question can actually have a negative
impact on the team. He or she can become a distraction who tends to bog
things down in the big picture. Plus, this type of person can create a
negative dynamic when you have other earnest, eager team members who are
ready to follow the game plan. These individuals can actually be taught
to become better players, and they will embrace the team concept. This
is what you are aiming for, but a disruptive force can create disharmony
and do more harm than good, even if the talent is there.
Many
people would say that chemistry is the key to a successful team, and
this is an elusive quality that cannot be clearly defined. A certain
combination of people who are working toward a common goal can achieve
phenomenal results when they are all on the same page. Successful
managers like Rodney Tippit often have the ability to identify
intangible qualities in different people that can be combined to make
the whole greater than the sum of its parts. This is what team building
is all about.
