What It Takes to Lead a Great Group
Photo Credit: Nik Schmidt via Unsplash
The five elements that help teams stay connected and build community at work
Warren Bennis spent much of his life studying what makes leadership and collaboration work. He once wrote, “There are groups, and then Great Groups that come together and accomplish the extraordinary.”
Most of us have been part of both: groups that are technically assembled but not really connected, and those unusual groups where something different happens. People are aligned around a purpose. They trust one another enough to be honest. They bring energy and creativity to the work. They can recover from setbacks and do the hard work of coming together around a shared goal. This is what community can look like at work: not just a friendly culture, but a group of people connected by purpose, trust and the willingness to keep learning together.
These rare groups do not happen by accident. They are shaped by leaders who understand that collaboration is more than a value. It is a leadership practice.
Over the many years we have been doing this work, we have discovered that leading a Great Group, and building real community at work, takes five essential elements:
1. Stay connected to a compelling purpose.
The purpose reminds people of the bigger aspiration they’re part of. Teams flounder when members are unsure why they’re doing what they’re doing or how it fits into the larger scheme of things. When well-crafted, a compelling purpose has a powerful and irresistible effect. Team members feel like they are on a mission, so they’re driven to put their talent and creativity into the tasks at hand. Leaders of Great Groups remind team members of why, and for what, they are giving their time and energy.
2. Cultivate a culture of trust and respect.
Co-workers don’t have to like each other to work together, but they must trust and respect each other. Cultivating trust and respect begins with hiring talented people and putting the right person in the right job. When the person and the task are well matched, great things happen.
Sometimes, this requires tackling the tough stuff — addressing underperformance or disruptive behavior. Great team leaders devote much time to cultivating trust, creating a culture where conflicts can be resolved in healthy ways.
3. Increase competence in three dimensions: emotional, physical and intellectual.
Emotional competence is about increased self-awareness, authenticity, empathy, motivation and social skill. It’s what enables people to handle impulses and emotions well and choose how to act and react.
Physical competence is about paying attention to physical well-being and encouraging those you work with to do the same. If you’re tired, worn out or stressed, you can’t contribute or collaborate. Physical energy helps people manage their emotions, sustain concentration, think creatively and maintain focus on a shared purpose.
Intellectual competence isn’t just about being smart and having skills. It’s about bringing our best thinking to a project. The team must think and work creatively and collaboratively, engage in shared problem-solving, sustain focus, maintain optimism and access both the left and the right brain, taking in sensory data — sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, and feelings — without boundaries. This is what opens up possibilities. Because there is no association to the past or the future, people can think big thoughts.
4. Persevere in the face of breakdown and failure.
As difficult as failure is, it is inevitable for teams that are stretching and growing and trying to make a difference. How that failure is dealt with speaks to how successful a team will be in reaching its goals, as well as its ability to cultivate a Great Group.
Failure suggests that we must try another way. At the moment of failure, we gain access to new levels of creativity. This is why, when faced with a setback, Great Groups lift themselves up, get back on track and keep going. They fail, and they don’t dwell on the failure except as something to learn from. They stay focused on fulfilling their compelling purpose and venture into the unknown, learning along the way.
Leaders who acknowledge failure, look past it without trying to lay blame and choose to learn from it gain a powerful relationship to failure. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
5. Engage the power of appreciation.
Bennis notes, “Appreciation makes everyone feel that they’re at the heart of things, that they matter. Then, people feel they are making a difference.”
Most people leave their jobs because they feel under-appreciated. Appreciation is a powerful leadership tool for cultivating Great Groups, and it doesn’t cost you a dime!
These five elements take practice, reflection and intention. No leader does all of them perfectly, and no group becomes great all at once.
The invitation is to begin with one. Reconnect your team to its purpose. Build a little more trust. Pay attention to what people are bringing into the room. Help the group learn from a setback. Offer appreciation that is specific and sincere.
Great Groups are not created through one inspiring speech or one perfect offsite. They are built in the everyday choices leaders make to help people stay connected, keep learning and do meaningful work together. That is how leaders help community take shape at work.
Five Questions for Building Community at Work
Where does your team feel most connected to a shared purpose, and where has that purpose become less clear?
What helps trust and respect grow on your team, and what gets in the way?
How does your team make room for people to bring their emotional, physical and intellectual best to the work?
When your team experiences failure or breakdown, do people move toward learning or toward blame?
Who on your team may need to feel more seen, valued or appreciated right now?
