Build your Dream Team

Welcome to the London launch of “Build Your Dream Team”.
We are delighted to see you here and hope you enjoy this evening.

“Build Your Dream Team – Humanist Management in Practice” is a book about
people management. As the name suggests this is a practical guide to using
the principles we have outlined on a daily basis to make the team you have
into a great team.

We are not about hiring all new people to shape your dream team, but, by
making some simple, longlasting changes in an existing team we believe the
results for both the team and the organisation as a whole can be pretty
amazing.

Before we dive into the details of the book, first of all let me briefly
introduce you to our very own Dream Team!

We all work in the financial services sector in Brussels but are from
quite different academic backgrounds. Marie graduated in Criminology,
Philippe holds a degree in engineering and I have degrees in Business and
Management. Philippe and Marie are both Belgian, and I am from Ireland.

The fourth member of this dream team is James Farrell, director of Arena
books, our publisher, whom we thank very much for his support and faith in
our project.

We are not management consultants or lecturers on this topic. Our interest
in management has come from our day to day experiences leading and working
in teams.

Before we sat down to put pen to paper on this topic there were two
fundamental questions we were seeking answers to:

Firstly how can we better manage our teams, and secondly how can we better
teach management skills to new managers in our departments?

Well, having read widely on the topic we still could not find a succinct
answer, a guide or a practical manual on how to achieve this – or how to
at least put in place positive changes that might lead to this…

…So here you have Build Your Dream Team – a book presenting in short all
the key subjects in a very practical way – less than 100 pages to provide
the key principles to transform the team you are in charge of.

The book’s key idea is the link between performance and well being – the
idea of humanist management. Insisting on the practical application of the
principles through the “HOW TO” section at the end of each chapter – it
truly is Humanist Management in practice!

Humanist Management is a management style focused around people and their
emotions, development, freedom, initiative and innovation.

For a company the result of humanist management is productivity. When
people feel good, share a clear vision and are really empowered there are
also much more productive and efficient.

We have developed the concept of Humanist Management along three axes:
Develop a clear vision, develop people and develop an open management
style.

Firstly, if we want our team members to work together they all need to
share a vision of what they are working towards. A vision must be
supported by stong values that guide the actions, an optimistic attitude
that generates a postive climate to work in and objectives that make the
vision concrete.

Developing people covers two different aspects – Explain how to make your
team powerful by developing your people, and also as an individual, how to
improve your personal efficiency and productivity through your own
personal development.

The development of an open management style through the use of techniques
such as positive reinforcement and fair process will help people take an
active role in their work and help them avoid feeling sidetracked by
decisions where they were not consulted. Coaching and mentoring are the
back bone of this new way of managing people.

With this combinatin, we believe that there were find the answers to our
two questions of how to manage our teams and also helping future managers
to perpetuate these principles when they take over the reins.

We hope you will enjoy your reading, thank you for your attention.