It’s the dream that creates an “us”

Anyone can lead. Because leading doesn’t have to mean being the one in charge!

Followers create leaders, not the other way around. And we follow people who hit a chord with us, who are passionate, authentic, and represent something we believe in at a core level.

Typically a CEO or other c-suite executive will engage us to help their executive team become more of a team, collaborating and leveraging their respective strengths. In the majority of organizations individuals on these teams feel like “I’m great” on some days, and “this sucks” on others. Easing these teams on to a path of greater collaboration and alignment isn’t necessarily easy. A recent example illustrates the range of leverage points for prospective leaders out there seeking to develop thriving, high performing cultures.

This sucks!

Starting point: “This sucks”

We started with seven members of an executive team in a technology company.

There were the usual silos and resultant issues: sales, engineering and business development didn’t really understand each other, and infighting and favoritism became the norm. Each leader and their team hunkered down and did their own thing. Which could be tolerated up until the best interest of the company shifted and required more collaboration to move forward with their growth plan.

1. Growth Focus at this milestone: Suck less

Anyone can get along if they leave each other alone. But put them into cross functional groups requiring honest communication, and stuff bubbles to the surface. To have them “suck less” requires being curious and asking questions about what they believe they want or need. Oftentimes it’s far simpler than the initial aspirational request around team building. Three fundamentals we’ve discovered are:

The Conversation
photo: Roel Wijnants

• Acknowledge each other. Consistent, sincere public acknowledgment goes a long way. Some teams need a tangible incentive to shift behavioral patterns, like being entered into a drawing. Discover what works for your team.
• Dyads before triads. Although triadic relationships have distinct benefits, we need to crawl before we can walk. Leaders can practice with each other being clear not only on what is being said, but also on how it’s said. This is especially critical in stopping any back-channeling that may be taking place. How are people on your team communicating?
• Communicate more, not less. Some may think you should just trust that your colleagues have it all together. But when you’re starting with minimal communication and silos, trust needs to be earned. Any formal consistent method of keeping lines of communication open starts to get things to suck less. As people demonstrate giving and keeping their word, trust and respect gets built. How is your team communicating?

2. Growth Focus at the next milestone: Create a foundation for trust and safety

Why won’t you trust me?

While it’s common for CEOs to invite people to disagree or raise issues without fear of reprisal, many aren’t aware of how their actions may communicate a different message. Employees, even at the c-suite, have radar for knowing when it’s safer to say yes even when they’re not fully agreed. That distinction has serious implications. Creating a foundation of trust and safety is essential, and usually requires having missing yet crucial conversations. At this phase, create opportunities to ask questions of the team like:

• What would help you trust each other more?
• What would help make things safer to speak your mind and even disagree with the course being taken?

How safe does your team feel to express disagreement and say “no”.

These may be uncomfortably ambiguous or personal, but in some way that territory needs to be covered, and from the perspective of those living in it. This could include addressing factors like:

• When everyone is accountable, no one is accountable. Invite people to be engaged, take ownership and make promises to their peers.
• Developing more rigor in making clear requests and eliciting real promises. It’s usually both obvious and eye-opening that saying yes doesn’t necessarily constitute a promise! Nor are we clearly making the requests we mean to make.

3. Growth Focus when new possibilities are in sight: Becoming a team

Working Together
photo: Scott Maxwell

It’s not until there’s a critical mass where people are communicating and doing good work that they can start to coalesce as a team. “Team” is not a solution to a problem. It’s what wants to happen when people are engaged in creating a meaningful possibility. Here are some of the signs for team emergence, and some distinguishing characteristics:

• People start speaking more in terms of we, us and our, instead I, me, mine. Just changing behavior can start to make a deeper difference. There comes a time when team members refer to themselves as “we” and really mean it. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile is the source of your joy.”
• People are interacting more in triads and networks, and not simply dyads. Communication starts to branch out from the common hub & spoke, time-intensive 1:1s to more networked communication, where people keep each other informed and are quick to share resources and information.
• We can talk about values. Achieving consensus within a group about almost anything is challenging. Achieving alignment around the core values that drive us is easy, once a strong foundation exists. This is the beginning of a Self-led team, especially when important decisions are aligned with core values.
• There’s a unifying purpose that transcends individual needs. Once individuals feel competent and secure, they can stop competing and look beyond what they can accomplish alone. Their north star becomes what they can accomplish together, the collective purpose and meaning of the team. Beyond our needs for autonomy and mastery, we seek purpose and meaning. This is the mark of the highest performing cultures, like Zappos, Disney and Southwest Airlines. The capital S in Self-led represents the resonant core values and noble cause of the group. These attributes of the greater good guide decisions, not personal agendas.

There’s an art and a science to helping organizations become more collaborative and aligned. We acknowledge that each team is unique and requires specific interventions; this is where “art” comes in to play, to which we add our expertise and experience in this work. Contact us for a checklist to get this process started in your organization.