Remember when you were growing up and your Mom said, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Has that carried over into your leadership style? Requiring team members to behave differently than what you demonstrate is like asking them to row upstream without a paddle. It just won’t work.
Consider this scenario:
The Zeedle Company has 160 employees. There is one leader at the top with four direct reports. Each director reporting to the leader has one primary area of responsibility.
The leader meets with her direct report team once a month to talk about major issues and “hot” items. This is the only time the leadership team members communicate with each other. After the monthly meeting, each team member goes their own way to address the issues that were surfaced at the meeting.
During the course of each month, the top team leader may contact any one of the directors to present additional issues for resolution. Many times at follow on meetings, each director will come back with a solution to the same problem. The top team leader uses this information in the meeting to build walls between the directors and promote peer-to-peer competition.
The company has scheduled the bi-annual “All Hands” meeting. One of the main items on the agenda is teambuilding. The top leader wants each team member in the organization “on the same page” and “rowing in the same direction.” She is excited about this meeting and feels as though once it’s over the company will work as a more cohesive team unit.
Will the company be successful in achieving this goal?
No. Not if the behavior of the leadership team doesn’t change. A siloed and competitive management team that expects their employees to work as a team will be quite disappointed. The leadership has lost sight of the primary objective — to produce their product as a company.
What actions can the leadership team take to demonstrate that working as a team is critical to the success of the organization?
- Communicate openly, often and with each other
- Collaborate on issue solutions
- Establish a method for cross-functional interaction on a regular basis
Does your organization promote do as I say or do as I do? The next time you hear someone say, “They don’t work as a team,” or “I don’t understand why they don’t communicate with each other,” examine the leadership team’s behavior first.
Denise O’Berry (aka ‘Team Doc’) provides tools, tips and advice to help organizations build better teams. Find out more at http://www.teambuildingtips.com
Reprint Guidelines: This article may be published online or in opt-in ezines or newsletters as long as the resource box (above) is left intact with an active link to http://www.teambuildingtips.com
About Denise O'Berry
Recent Comments