In one of the courses I have recently been teaching, we had some excellent discussions on the importance of team members at all levels of the organization having a good understanding of how their behavior will impact the overall effectiveness. To take it to a further level, this must move from understanding to implementation, beginning with top-level leaders modeling the desired behaviors so that it will permeate the entire organization and it places the responsibility for organizational behavior in the hands of the leader. In her book, Leadership and the New Science, Wheatley (1999) reminds leaders that “they are not operating in a vacuum,” and that their actions and behaviors will ripple throughout every part of the organization. We must all remember that if we want our teams to function well, we must first be the example of what functioning well looks like. If we want our teams to behave in certain ways, we must do so first.
Another good discussion had to do with another key component that it takes to have a great team. I believe that the foundation of any effective team must be the commitment of all members to the common mission. Without that, it is virtually impossible for a team to truly come together and do all that they have the potential to do. For me, and the teams I lead, mission is the paramount issue. To support this, again I turn to Margaret Wheatley as she states,
“If we discover an issue whose significance we share with others, those are transformed into colleagues. If we recognize a shared sense of injustice or a common dream, magical things happen to people. Past hurts and negative histories get left behind. People step forward to work together. We don’t hang back, we don’t withdraw, we don’t wait to be enticed. We seek each other out, eager to discover who else might help. The call of the problem sounds louder than past grievances or our fears of failure. We have found something important to work on, and, because we want to make a difference, we figure out how to do the work, together.”
There are many other things a leader can do to elevate the effectiveness of their team, but I believe these two covered today are critical. As a leader, always remember to be the model of what behavior you want from you team, and keep your focus squarely on your mission.
Lead well.