When I used to be the captain of a competitive figure skating team as a kid, my coach used to always tell us that “There is No ‘I’ in Team.” She said it so many times, it used to drive me crazy, and I always wanted to respond… “but there is a ‘m-e’ in team” (grin)!
Thinking back on what my coach used to say, I still think she could have come up with a less generic phrase to make her point. With that said, she had a really important point that has stuck with me until today! My coach wasn’t just talking about ice skating; she was talking about business and life. If you want to get ahead, it’s about putting your needs aside at times for the sake of the team, and yes, sometimes that meant keeping my mouth shut … even when “I” wanted to say something that would have been so funny.
The reality is that adults are no different than kids… we still have the same temptations as kids, and we still struggle with knowing where to draw the line between our needs as a leader and the needs of our team. The question then becomes: How do we take the ‘I” out of team, and foster a collaborative environment that helps everyone win?
Here’s one tip which will help you skate your way to success:
Create Teams that Want to Work With You, Not Just For You
Being the best business leader you can be means being ready to work with a team …. whether you are currently leading one or not. In fact, it’s great to have these type of leadership principles in your head when you are first forming a team or leading a new team, so that you can quickly take your team to the next level.
Great leaders create a collaborative environment in which they are not just directing their team, but they are also part of it. They realize that they don’t have all of the best answers, so they consciously avoid “going it alone”. Rather, they leverage all the strengths of their teammates to strategically succeed. In the process, they create teams that want to “work with them”, as opposed to just “work for them”. Teams that feel like their leader is truly their partner are more likely to ask their leader to be their sounding board, and in the process, they come up with better ideas than either the leader or the team member(s) could produce alone. As Tony Goldwyn explained, “As an actor, I always found that to be the most freeing thing, when the director would collaborate with you, so that together you’d come up with something exponentially better.”
Action Steps:
Think about how you can create the most collaborative environment for your current or future team. What would make your team want to work with you, as opposed to just work for you?
If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.
To your career and leadership success!
Jos
Career Transition Specialist and Leadership Coach
Tags: Action, Career, Leadership, Success, Transition
