This article caught my eye because I love that it compares “The Hobbit” to your average working team.
In any team, people naturally fall into roles and without going into the psychology of it, you have your analytical people, people that like to be given direction, team leaders and your front runners (to name a few).
This article explains how the ‘extra miler’ in your team can be a motivator and increase the effectiveness of the rest of the team. I like the front runners, the people that take their passion pills before work, the ones that are always there to help and no matter what you ask them, they will know the answer. They are the people that build morale and make your daily working environment an enjoyable place to be.
They help others achieve and want to better themselves, because let’s face it, beating the front runner always feels good! But you wouldn’t be able to do it unless they set the benchmark.
So Thorin’s, let your Bilbo’s motivate the rest of the dwarf’s in the team and front runners, keep showing your inner Bilbo!
Evidence suggests that minorities can influence behaviour in wider groups, but they need the opportunity to interact and model superior norms of behaviour. Accordingly, when the extra-miler was huddled away in the back room, their influence was minimal. If you have a committed extra-miler well-embedded in a team, you don’t need to worry about measuring what everyone else is doing. What you do have to worry about is that the extra-miler has opportunities to interact with the team, spreading their positive way of doing things.
Read the original article here