The Power of Pool

Nothing is impossible for a winning team provided every member is a winner himself, write Inderjit Baboota & Sanjula Baboota

POOL territory is a group of people working and supplementing each other in one big territory to achieve the personal and organizational goals.

Why pool?
There are certain big territories where the customers are large in numbers. Moreover the topography of these places is such that the chances of cross-sales are too high. Therefore, in such places more than one person is there to manage the sales and this group is accountable for the company’s vision.

Advantages and disadvantages
Pool has many advantages and disadvantages. It all depends on the individuals in the team to enjoy the advantages or disadvantages. Pool team is just like the five fingers of the hand, which are of different sizes but have their own importance. The best gripping occurs only when all the fingers comes together. If one of the fingers is weak or does not take its responsibility, the gripping gets weakened in the process of outscoring the competition. In the same way in a pool territory, every individual has its own strength and when all the strengths come together we get POOL ie. Power Of Organized Leaders. But if one of the individuals is weak enough to invest in the team, the goal of the team becomes very far.

Essentials of pool
There are certain essential things, which should be there in a pool to combat and win over the competition. These are:

Everyone should be a leader: Every one has some high impact positive areas in which he is a leader. One should fit him in a job, which suits the best for him so that the performance towards the goal achievement is distinctive ie. right team member at the right place.

Goal: Goal of the team should be given the priority. As a human being, it is our tendency that at times we become selfish and self-centered and work for individual goals. But in a pool, goal of the team should be given the priority and our individual goal should also be rested on the team’s goals.

Accountability: Every individual in the team should be made accountable for the destiny of the pool. Here, it is the integrity and the character of the person which comes into picture.

Communication: Proper co-ordination and transparency should be there amongst the team members. Remember no or less communication is catastrophic for the pool.

Respect for each other: The team members should respect each other irrespective of their position or seniority. Members should put their viewpoint openly with all respect. Ego should not come as an obstacle in achieving the targets.

Sharing success: Hunger of knowledge never ends. In a pool we have the advantage of having a bigger pie of this knowledge ie. in Delhi itself we have more than 100 years of experience and knowledge to share. Every team member should share his experience so that the team can work more effectively towards the goal.

Leadership: The word leadership makes a lot of difference in the two same talented teams. A successful leader will make leaders from his team and the other one only followers. The leader is like the sun in a solar system who has a clear vision for the team. There are a few catastrophic bullets for the pool. These things are relevant to de-pool territories also but since in a pool the members meet each other quite frequently these bullets are of more significance. If in a pool a person is adamant or not investing or contributing in the team, no time should be taken to replace him by a team member. Remember a single rotten fish can spoil the entire river.

This situation can also prove to be cancerous as the infection can spread to other members also. No decision should be autocratic in a pool. It should be all or none phenomenon. One should convince the members about his idea and always take the team along with him. Leadership should be unbiased. The leader should always put a brake on the manipulators and team destroyers. He should take seriously the mismatch between the words and the deeds. This is very important to take the team into confidence and to make positive impact on the members. Team members should contribute to their best. Remember if one member does not contribute or contributes less to the goal, then there are other members who have to contribute more. Some of the ways of making members accountable:

1. Give every member some qualitative & quantitative job. Give them the time frame and keep a reward for the best. Evaluate unbiasedly at the right time. If the job is accomplished, reward immediately in a team meeting so that the confidence is boosted and sense of achievement is also there. If the job is not achieved, then reasons for not achieving it should be found and work should be centered towards the improvement of these reasons rather than leg pulling.

2. Make small groups of individuals from the team members for a pilot project and rotate the duties so that every team member can contribute to his best.

3. If any team member is shying or running away from a particular job then the leader should make him in charge of that particular job. This will make the person realize the difficulties one encounters while performing. In this case, the leader should take adequate action immediately.

4. Recognition is the best motivation. Recognition should be given to the performers at the right time. This motivates the other members also to come closer to the nucleus (ie. achieving the goal from different directions).

5. For any team to perform, the activities should be in a play way manner and everyone should be involved. If required training should be given to create positive team attitude.

Lastly it can be summarized as: Nothing is impossible for a winning team provided every member is a winner himself. j
The writers are with Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, New Delhi