When you think of leadership what do you picture?
One person presiding over many others?
We regularly talk about leadership in these terms, but that isn’t usually the case. Most of the time leadership involves many individuals within a team, and a lot of the problems organisations face are certainly too complex to be solved entirely by one person.
Yet, we still see regular examples of individuals trying to be all things to all people and take on too many roles they shouldn’t be doing. The “It’ll just be quicker for me to do this myself” mentality is one that many people find hard to let go of, which can cause friction among those at the top of an organisation. In this blog I want to explore the importance of teamwork, what makes a strong team, the reasons teams might fail, and how to overcome conflict within a team.
Let’s look closely at ‘Making the most of the diverse perspectives’…
Getting teamwork right
Within any leadership team there should be a group of individuals who can work, learn, agree, disagree and succeed together if they’re aligned with the organisation’s goals.
The problem is that teams often aren’t aligned, leading to a lack of trust and credibility. You may see many different competing agendas that don’t support the strategy, which then has a negative impact, with confused teams, inconsistent messaging and disengaged employees.
In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Susan Cain talks about the need for people to come together for the greater good of the business, and sums it up brilliantly in this quote:
“We don’t need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.”
Leaders need to be consistent, and to understand that by harnessing the power of the group you can drive forward with intention. Creating change and taking people with you on the journey is much easier to do if you’re a cohesive group that people can follow, rather than a fragmented selection of people airing different views. The key here is alignment, rather than agreement. People don’t always have to agree with each other on every point but be united by a set of common goals and aspirations.
Agreeing to disagree
Nobody benefits from ‘groupthink’, the practice of making decisions as a group without debating and questioning them.
It usually results in poor quality decision-making due to a lack of evaluation or critical thinking because no one wants to rock the boat.
Real change can only happen if we tackle the difficult issues – the things that might be causing dissent. People can disagree with you and have different opinions and you can still work together.
I believe disagreement between any members of a leadership team is both inevitable and necessary. Without difficult conversations and productive disagreements, we’ll never get to the root cause of issues, communicate effectively, or move forward and make changes.
It’s crucial to make space for open debate and be able to hold respectful, constructive conversations.
Low levels of challenge are as a big a risk to any team as low levels of cohesion because you’re simply storing up resentment and ill will until they build into a bigger issue further down the line.
“The goal of a great discussion isn’t to land on the same page. It’s to explore different views. Nods and smiles stroke your ego and close your mind. Thoughtful questions stoke your curiosity and stretch your thinking. Consensus makes you comfortable. Dissent makes you smarter.” Adam Grant
The behaviour types we all need in our teams
In the book Surrounded by Idiots, Thomas Erikson shares four different behaviour types he believes are needed in any team for it to work well:
- Blue = analytical
- Red = dominant
- Green = stable
- Yellow = inspiring
Understanding these different types means you can begin to understand why some people find it harder to connect with others and how certain team dynamics arise. For example, a team of reds might “repeatedly trample on people’s toes” and could result in people fighting for control, whereas a team of greens could be “wishy-washy and unclear”.
He sums up his main argument in this quote:
“The most important lesson that you can walk away with is that the idiots who surround you are, in fact, not idiots at all. Instead, they are individuals worthy of respect, understanding, and being valued.”
If we take this learning, we may approach things differently as a leadership team. Just as we need a mix of extroverts and introverts, we also need our blues, reds, greens and yellows. We need to become intentional about creating diversity in our teams.
Matthew Syed also focuses on this idea in his book Rebel Ideas. He states: “Groups have an inbuilt tendency to become clone-like… collective intelligence emerges not just from the knowledge of individuals, but also from the differences between them… When executing a plan, dominance can be crucial. But when deciding on a new strategy, or predicting the future, or finding new innovations, you need to hear diverse perspectives. This is where dominance can be disastrous.”
Agree on the big things
While disagreements can be productive and shouldn’t be shied away from, there are inevitably some situations where agreement is critical. For example, if you have to share bad news like impending redundancies these discussions all require an element of tact, empathy, listening and clarity.
If you don’t agree on the best way to do this as a leadership team, this will be extremely difficult to get right. It’s important to agree on the right words to use and what they mean in your organisation; make time to find consensus on what important keywords really mean.
Building relationships
To work as a team, you must take the time to build relationships.
As a member of the leadership team, it’s likely you’ll be in meetings and conversations with “two hats” – one for your department, and one for the organisation as a whole and your responsibility to it as a director or senior member of the organisation. This can be conflicting, so take the time to build strong relationships.
Make sure when you listen you are aiming to really understand (without judgement) and be clear where you’re prepared to compromise. These are both important aspects of self-awareness and self-development. To be part of a team, we must know what skills we bring, and what skills we need to develop.
Dealing with a leadership team that’s in conflict
Getting the balance right within a leadership team is not an easy feat and, at some point, we all need to have difficult conversations with fellow team members.
Some people will actively shy away from this, in a bid to avoid confrontation, while others may be more forthcoming!
If it looks like discussion is shifting to unproductive conflict these four steps can help to remove emotion and keep you on track:
- State the facts – be specific and state your point in a factual way. Don’t elaborate unnecessarily; simply give an outline of the situation.
- State your feelings –explain clearly how you feel. Be genuine and don’t exaggerate for effect. No one can argue with how something made you feel.
- State your thoughts – be concise and describe your thoughts to help the other people in the leadership team understand more about where you are coming from.
- State your preferred course of action –describe your proposed way forward or approach.
If you really struggle to find consensus as a leadership team, particularly if it’s a difficult issue, you might need to consider a facilitator to support your conversations.
As well as the books I’ve already mentioned, I would also thoroughly recommend Ego: Get Over Yourself and Lead by Mary Gregory, and you may like this piece I wrote for Forbes Business Council.
If you’re struggling with a lack of unity in your leadership team and would like an objective perspective email our info@redefiningcomms.com to arrange a chat about how we could help.
