I had never been in his office before. Honestly, I didn’t know that he had one and certainly not in the locker room. Coach Merino invited me, a scrawny high school junior averaging 10 points a game into his white board covered office. As I sat down I wasn’t sure if there was film he wanted me to see, if he was going to reprimand me for my careless turnovers the previous game, or if he wanted to talk about my crap performance on my physics test (he doubled as my science teacher).
“Your roll of captain begins now,” he said.
That made little to no sense. We had senior captains. I was a junior. Not to mention there were much more talented people on the team. We were just days away from beginning the state tournament, but my coach was talking about next year.
“Next year you will be the senior captain of this group. If we have any chance at getting deep into this tournament, your team leadership must begin now.”
Wait. I thought the Coach was the leader of the team. And what did he think I knew about leading a team? Our team was a group with people older and more experience than me. Most of us didn’t get along. We were a team that had under achieved to this point and had a huge challenge ahead of us.
I replied to him, “I thought you were just going to tell me to play better.”
Up until that moment, I’d thought predominantly about “me” – my performance, my stats, my future in the sport. Now I was told it was my responsibility to think about all of us, and that by doing so, “we” could all do better. Regardless of what would happen next year when I was actually captain, for the remainder of this year, and tournament, I was charged to think about the entire team. I’d like to say it changed how I saw everything, but remember, I was only a pubescent high schooler. Years later, now as a coach to corporate teams, let’s just say that I wish I knew then what I understand now.
Management trends ebb and flow. During the 80s as the size of the modern organizations skyrocketed, sprawling traditional hierarchies with many layers became the norm. In recent years agile teams and flatter organizational structures are desired, where teams form and disband as project needs demand. But regardless of what the model is, one tried and true component remains – teams. Their benefits and limitations have been touted and cursed for decades as exactly how to make them work effectively remains agonizingly elusive.
Teams are highly interdependent groups of individuals who plan, solve problems, and execute work in a coordinated manner. They exist because there are organizational tasks that are either too large or complicated for an individual to do. And because we do most of our work, not autonomously, but with others, teams are a source of meaningful connection and a context for humans to support each other. But while teams have the potential to achieve more than individuals, they are also full of drama. Interpersonal tensions, triggered emotions, unnecessary competition, passive-aggression, and political games show up on all teams. Study after study shows how difficult it is to have high performing teams, trumpeting any number of factors that make or break success – trust, sufficient challenge, psychological safety, clear goals, open feedback exchanges, and humble leaders – just to name a few from the last year or so. Some studies report how a top performer’s presence on a team can often hurt group performance rather than help it, while others insist that keeping low-performers is the cardinal sin of teams. All of us have been on a team that falls sway to group think rendering them directionless and paralyzed in fear. On top of all of that, many of today’s teams operate virtually, so you have the added complication of trying to build deep connections via technology rather than over drinks after work.
And this is the conundrum. Teams are the place where we suffer and soar – where we display our best, most productive selves and our worst. Teams are the place we spend most of our time at work and are full of potential. But most often our organizations do not create the conditions for a team to thrive. Be it a lack of clear purpose, the wrong membership, unclear roles, a toxic vibe, or weak leadership, there is a strong likelihood that a team will be less than the sum of its parts and that the parts will despise each other by the end of it all.
And no amount of teambuilding events will ever fix it.
This is why we wanted to focus our NQ19 on TEAMS. We believe that our organization’s potential, and yours as a leader, lies in our ability to create teams that have clear purpose, clear structure, and the chance for meaningful contributions made by all members.
So while it may be easier to just take a hold of what you are individually responsible for, we hope that you embrace the invitation that my coach gave me – your team leadership begins now.