A Recipe for Leading Teams?

It’s October, and in our Extraordinary Leader Program that means a month of talking about Teams. As well, this past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada. It is different than the American holiday in that we don’t have a day of football, and different in that there is no big shopping day to follow it. However, it’s much the same regarding the food.

There is something about making soup after Thanksgiving. Yesterday I opened the fridge and started pulling things out. Leftover turkey, carrots, celery, onion. Then lots of stock, some herbs, spices, and a few noodles. Plenty of tasting and adding extras, and then somehow, it becomes soup. Here’s the thing: I don’t think I’ve ever made turkey soup the same way twice.

This got me thinking about leading teams. That sounds like a stretch, I know, but stay with me.   

After years of working with leaders and teams in the club industry, I’ve come to believe that there is not just one recipe for creating a great team. Every team is different and every club is different. In fact, every leader is different. Then every year or season brings something new. Sometimes it’s a new board president, a new department head, or a key employee that leaves. Then expectations change. Life happens.

You can’t always take the recipe from one successful team and recreate it somewhere else or repeat it the next season. But just like turkey soup, while there may not be one perfect recipe, there are some essential ingredients as a leader that are critical to success.

1. Presence
   
   As coaches we often remind leaders that people are watching. Yes, for the obvious, are you physically there. But they are also noticing how you be. Great leaders are present—without phones, computers, and distractions. They notice, they listen, they pay attention, and they ask questions. They know what is happening with their people. And their presence makes a difference. It adds value, lifts others up, and engages teams.

    

2. Clarity
   
   You can have world class players, but if they aren't clear about where you're going, what matters, and what is expected of them, they are likely not going to achieve their best results. And the same holds true for your non-world-class players.

   We notice that great leaders are great communicators. They are clear, concise, and consistent. They constantly repeat the direction and the why. They talk about it way beyond the season opening meeting. They repeat it in team huddles, one-one check-ins, and dozens of times throughout the day.
   
   Does your team know the answers to these questions?

   • What are we trying to accomplish?
   • What matters most?
   • What does success look like?
   • What is my role?

   Clarity reduces confusion, creates confidence and it gives people something to rally around. It also strengthens trust.

    

3. Trust
   
   To understand the impact of trust we often use the late Stephen Covey’s metaphor of the emotional bank account with trust being the currency. It’s simple. When the trust balance is high, people and teams flourish. People speak up, ask for help, make honest mistakes, challenge ideas, give and receive feedback, and have difficult conversations in a productive way. When the trust bank balance is low, people become guarded, defensive, afraid of making mistakes, avoid growth opportunities, less team-focused and less engaged.

   Trust isn't built through a team-building exercise once a year. I remember a few decades ago leading “trust falls” with teams. The exercise was eye-opening at the time, but the impact weened off if our team couldn’t trust and count on each other every day on the job. Instead, trust is built in hundreds of small interactions (deposits).

   As a leader do you do what you say you'll do? Give honest feedback? Tell the truth? Help people own their accountability? Acknowledge and give credit regularly? Do you address issues instead of letting them fester?

    

4. Care

   As Maya Angelou so brilliantly said: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

   Have you ever noticed that not to be true?

   We know this for sure: People want to know that they matter. They want to feel appreciated. They want to feel that the work they do has meaning and that the people they work with care about them.

   And caring about people doesn’t mean we lower the standards. It’s the opposite. You can care deeply about people and have high expectations of them. The best leaders do both.

    

So, what’s the recipe for a great team? I think it changes. What I do know is that the core ingredients matter.

Maybe your team needs you to be more present. Maybe they need you to clearly articulate this season’s vision, or the “why”. Maybe you need to make some trust deposits. Maybe you've got a great group of people who simply need a leader to bring them together around something bigger than themselves.

And just like my turkey soup… It will turn out to be a unique experience—perfectly imperfect each time.