Find Your Team Of Troublemakers

Table of Contents

I’ve fundamentally been a troublemaker my whole life. If you tell me not to do something, it makes me more determined to do it, haha! I caused such a disruption in high school, it drove my poor teachers mad. This disruptive streak led me to create The Troublemakers, an assembled team of troublemakers out to have a lot of fun in business.

Just like the diverse mix of players in team sports, setting up a winning team in business requires having a range of different skills and personalities that complement, and enhance performance toward a common goal.

In their book, One Minute Millionaire, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen explain how vital diverse partnerships and teams are. They found that companies suffering from low performance, unable to adapt and change in current markets and build new marketing campaigns were usually suffering from personality singularity. That is, the top-level staff were continually hiring the same personality type over and over. To describe why this was a problem Hansen and Allen assigned animals to each different personality type.

Hare

The creative person who is always having ideas and launching businesses. They’re great at seeing the bigger picture, but not very good at chunking down and looking after the details.

Hare’s are the troublemakers, they need to feel free and enjoy challenging authority or breaking the rules. Often kinaesthetic people, they like to follow their gut instinct when launching a new concept. Because the hare has so many ideas, they can often be attracted to ‘shiny objects’ and move from one idea to the next to the next. My coach has banned me from launching more businesses, apparently, I’m causing too much trouble haha!

Owl

The planner. The person who is excellent at analysis, and looking at the hare’s plans with a critical eye. The owl is a planner and go-getter who is great at leading teams and communicating with people in a way that has them buy into the overall vision.

In your team, your owl will use their outstanding ability to prioritise tasks and define the steps required to get your product launched to the deadlines you set.

Turtle

This is that cautious person who always finds the problems. They’re the eternal pessimist and the perfect counter-balance to the hare’s eternal optimism. Using their slow and steady approach, they will often test ideas and theories early, identifying pitfalls before you have spent thousands on establishing the business.

Sometimes people feel the turtle is a naysayer, pointing out what won’t work, however, because they have values grounded in tested methods and proven solutions, they can be the perfect counter-balance to the hare.

Squirrel

Also known as the worker bee, the squirrel gets things done. Think of the squirrel gathering nuts for winter. They do the work so the family can grow. They love to use their methodical and logical approach to follow step-by-step processes given to them.

Your squirrel will keep the wheels of your machine well-oiled and running smoothly.

Balance in Business

When you’re putting your team together, it’s so important to have a balance. Too many hares and you will come out of a meeting with 73 new business ideas, but nothing gets launched.

Too many turtles and you will have a five-page fully typed list of everything that will go wrong, and action will never be taken.

The Troublemakers group with have all of the above animals, but we’re going to give people awesome names rather than boring animals. I’m a troublemaker, and I’m going to play by the One Minute Millionaire rules!

This week my team have been hard at work researching and road testing locations for our next Troublemakers event, and I’m excited to announce that we have an incredible space in Sydney’s CBD lined up where we can all run amok. Block out Friday 23 September in your diary, and stay tuned as we announce special guests and the location for our upcoming Troublemakers event!

Kindest regards,

Matt Catling – Your Future Now