How to think about teams
I’ve worked with a lot of teams in the past decades. Finance teams, cross-functional teams, leadership teams, musical teams (yes, drummers really are a breed apart!). However, it was only when I was appointed as interim CEO of a software company that I really started to dig into “what makes a team tick?”.
I had no idea where to start. I got advice from several sources, and they didn’t all agree. One said I had to “put my stamp on the team”; another said I had to “bring the team together”; yet another counselled me to “keep the team focused on execution!”. But none of them helped me think about team, and my role in building the team.
In “The Wisdom of Teams”, the authors highlight the key differentiator for teams (vs groups, families, or other organizing structures): Teams have goals. A team only exists to achieve something. Once the objective is reached, the team has realized its purpose. Now, sometimes there is value in achieving a goal multiple times (like the Stanley Cup) but, in business, the purpose of the team is usually not something you need to repeat.
Insight 1 - the team needs a goal
OK, this was something I could work with. So, what was my team’s purpose? It became clear to me that this purpose could not be reached by consensus. The team can’t come up with the purpose; it must be something externally-driven that everyone can be part of achieving. Yes, the team needs to buy into the purpose, but it can’t originate it - that has to come from elsewhere.
There are a few places a goal can come from - the market (dominate a particular market); your board (hit break-even or product-market fit); society (make the world a better place - ok, more specific than that, but you get the drift). Wherever the goal comes from, the team leader must embrace that goal. That leader needs to get the purpose into the sightlines of all team members, and get them motivated to achieve that goal. That is the leader’s primary contribution - set and maintain focus on the goal.
Insight 2 - there must be a leader for a team, and that leader must embody & evangelize the goal with the team.
Interestingly, the stronger and clearer that goal becomes, the more integrated the team becomes. No need for beach-front cabins and late-night Kumbaya sessions - clarity of purpose and consistency of effort brings a team together better than any expensive team-building exercise.
As I worked with the leadership team, it became apparent that each member belonged to two teams; the leadership team, where they were a member, and their own departmental teams, where they were the leader. Not surprisingly, loyalty to the departmental team (“my people”) was greater than loyalty to the leadership team.
This is dysfunctional. Natural, yes. Typical, yes. But still, it will ultimately kill your company, and here’s why:
The company has A goal. It needs to be focused on that goal, with all hands pulling together. But when the leadership team is more of a congress, where each department is jockeying for position vis a vis each other; when one leader wins by another losing, the company doesn’t move smoothly. Rather, it lurches about as decisions are made based on political strength and position, not on corporate, united goal achievement.
And your staff, those people being lead by these leaders, the ones they seek to put first, notice it. Customer Success can’t get fixes customers need because their leader can’t wrangle the Dev team to build the fix; Sales can’t get support from Customer Success for referrals because the Sales lead pissed off the CS lead…and so on. You’ve likely lived some version of this, maybe are living it right now.
Patrick Lencioni, in his book, “The Advantage”, talks about this as the leadership team being “The First Team” for leadership team members. Priority and loyalty is given to that First Team so that the company can pull together, and not suffer from infighting. If you have a problem with silos in your organization, look at the priority your leadership team puts on their 2 teams. As you bring your leadership team together, you’ll find the silos gradually disappear.
Insight 3 - The team you are a member of is your First Team. The team you lead is your Second Team.
There’s a corollary here for CEOs - you are leading a team. Are they your first team, or your second team? This was a really hard lesson for me to learn, but my leadership team needed to be my second team, even though I wanted them to be my first team. I was my first team. I was a very lonely team, true. I found it critical to create my own team of advisors who could be my peers; could hear me grapple with (and kvetch about) struggles I was having, and speak into them with wisdom and care The CEO can’t lead a team he is only participating in - he needs to lead that team with the help of his first team.
And that first team can’t be your board. Their job is to hire/fire the CEO (among other things); you can’t expect them to hear about your struggles and still see you as a strong and capable leader. They are your boss, not your peers. No, as the CEO, you need to have 2 or 3 peers with the experience, wisdom and care to help you lead. Other CEOs can be a great source for this, as can professional coaches.
Insight 4 - The CEO needs his/her own team of experienced, wise advisors.
All this is about building teams, which is what most of us think about when we discuss team formation and development - the positive part. However, a very wise colleague of mine regularly pointed out that team building behaviour is not the only team-based behaviour - team destructive behaviour also exists, and team leaders need to guard against it.
Team destructive behaviours include bullying (obvious or subtle), ridiculing, demeaning or belittling, and of course gaslighting and manipulating. Any behaviour which erodes trust is team-destructive. Psychologists tell us it takes 5 positive things to make up for 1 negative - think about how much team-building work you need to do if any of these destructive behaviours exist on your team! Eliminating team-destructive behaviour is a major way to improve morale, effectiveness, and decision-making. Freed of destructive behaviours, I’ve seen teams rapidly grow as they share more information, come up with more-comprehensive solutions, and enjoy their work more and more. And their teams enjoy it more too.
Insight 5 - Team-destructive behaviours massively oppose your team-building efforts. Eliminate them however necessary.
