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There’s no shortage of sports metaphors in leadership and team theory. I was personally reminded of why those stories resonate so strongly during a training session last week...So what is it that makes a team work well?
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I have become mildly obsessed (is there such a thing?) with exercise - running to be precise. Our group, known to those on the inside as “the crazy running cult” meets 3, sometimes 4 times each week for a training session, followed by the all-important caffeine-induced recovery session.
Last Friday we had a session designed to give us a baseline on our current fitness level. It involved a series of different activities including a 1km time trial, wall squats, push ups, sit ups, the pilates plank and hopping up and down a curb as many times as you can in 1 minute.
Once the exhaustion began to subside and the stars were no longer circling around my head, I began to consider the way our team functions.
We received clear communication of the goal for the session overall, and for each activity. Granted the goal was quite simple, e.g. run as fast as you can to the top of the hill and back again, but that doesn’t make the communication any less important.
Every goal required a significant degree of challenge for each team member, regardless of their fitness level. The challenge was largely self-regulated - we each got to decide when and how to push ourselves to deliver the requirements. Equally, our leadership (in this case our coach Louise) knows us all well - both strength and weaknesses and motivation - and was able to determine the most appropriate method and timing to push each of us to achieve better results.
Nobody was good at everything, but everybody was good at something. It’s something we all intuitively knew - but it was an important reminder that the best teams play to the strengths of each individual to create the best outcome.
Each member of the group was driving themselves hard to succeed, but not at the expense of anyone else. There was genuine trust, support and encouragement for each other which combined with good humour to create a safe, comfortable environment and produced results we could all be proud of. Most importantly, we were able to celebrate together at the end and recognise our success.
So what’s missing? It all sounds great - but is it really that simple? Well, I suppose you could argue that the scenario described above isn’t really a team, rather a group of individuals who just happen to exercise together. That the interdependence is missing. In theory you might be right.
In practice, while the act of exercising is predominantly individual, the interdependence and commitment no doubt exists when it comes to the decision to get out of bed at 5:15am in the middle of winter. I would stay in bed of I didn’t know the others were there waiting for me. I depend on the group for encouragement, motivation and pace setting. It’s a different kind of interdependence - but it’s no less real. If your team operates today as a series of silos, perhaps consider the opportunities you’re missing to help each other drive better results.
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