The Price to Develop a Team

What price are you willing to pay to develop your team?

See, to lead a team successfully the rugged individual approach to leadership will always limit you and the team.

• The rugged individual is the manager who believes she is the one who makes things happen.
• The rugged individual is the manager who finishes or corrects other employees’ work because it’s not done to his satisfaction.
• The rugged individual is the manager who fails to share employees’ ideas up through the hierarchy

Hopefully you get the point. In each examples above the manager is at the center of the team. This is not the price a manager in the 21st century wants to pay. What price, you’re asking?

• The deepening of employee apathy
• The waning loyalty to a manager, to the team, to one’s work
• The pervasive mediocre results
• The delusion that it’s an employee problem

The price to develop a team in the 21st century is remarkably obvious; the reason why it’s elusive – we’re looking to hard in the wrong places.

The price to develop a team is different for each manager. But at the core is selflessness. It’s the belief that the team is more important than any person, including you. It’s doing what’s needed not what you want.

But I must offer up a few possible prices to pay. After all, I’m never short of insights or opinions.

Perhaps the price to pay is discipline. The discipline to listen and observe more and participate less based on reaction: participating more based on what you’ve learned from listening and observing.

Paying the price isn’t a negative or placing you in some managerial skill-deficit. Paying the price to develop a team is positioning you to be more adaptable as a manager. It’s uncomfortable. But the influences on business don’t care about comfort.

The 21st century leader is willing to endure constant learning curves. She is willing to remain relevant by leading her team to be solid in the face of rapid dynamics that force organizations, teams, and, thus, individuals to rely on each other.

In the end, the price you pay to develop a team is discovering and exploiting the summation of talent emanating from their collaboration, and learning when and where to direct it to do good things at work. The price you pay is joy from watching engaged employees generate results far greater than the rugged individual manager ever could.

 

Graphic by Shawn Murphy