My daughter Anna is a senior in high school and is participating in a yearly event for seniors only called “senior assassin”. Basically, you compete against another student by tagging them out using a nerf gun. Each senior is told who they need to tag, but not who is tasked with tagging them out. You’re not only hunting, you’re being hunted as well.
Anna immediately rallied her softball team members who were underclassmen or not participating in the event to help. This was her senior assassin team! Some were focused on offense, getting the target and some were on offense, making sure Anna was not the target. From softball, Anna knew the value of a strong team where everyone knew and executed their role to the overall betterment of the team. On the second day, Anna and her teammate Gianna hid out at her opponent’s house and tagged him before school. The team had succeeded!
Leaders know, as Anna did, that difficult tasks are often better handled with a team. The old adage is true “two heads are better than one”. Leaders know that even more heads could be even better. Just like “senior assassin”, in business we are trying to eliminate rivals and there are those trying to eliminate us.
So, what value do teams bring to Leaders:
– Diversity (of ideas, cultures and best practices)
– Shared responsibility (delegation to our teams helps everyone become involved and share ownership of the overall task)
– Shared experiences (teams bring a wealth of experience getting the job done)
– Growth potential (we grow our teams by letting them lead and fail without fear of repercussions)
– Shared reward (it’s nice to celebrate a win as a group and builds our team even stronger)
The bottom line; when we engage our teams as leaders, we all benefit!