It Starts with Curiosity About What Is Possible: The Power of Asking, Not Telling
This month, we will share how and why leadership curiosity enables teams to achieve greatness. This blog is an annotated version of the introduction to this concept in our book, The Shift from Me to Team.
On our journey to unleashing greatness, we ask you to challenge some commonly held beliefs about what it means to lead. Many misguided beliefs have deep roots in historical practice.
Traditional Me-Centered Leadership
The impact of thousands of officers coming home from WWII to lead corporate America influenced how outstanding leadership would be viewed and conducted. Leadership in war was about control, displays of authority, and expertise over generally young, immature soldiers. Experience of that leadership methodology was brought home both by military officers and the 18-25-year-old soldiers guided in this fashion. This top-down leadership style remains common today because it is easier and familiar. But this does not tap into resident energy, passion, and creativity for ownership of productivity. When not in a do-or-die situation, top-down leadership creates de-energizing stress, resulting in a lack of engagement by team members. This kind of stress shortens lives. Me-centered leadership—control leadership—focuses on the leader’s greatness at the team’s expense.
The Possibilities Inherent in Shifting to Team-Focused Leadership
Team-focused leadership taps into the root of how humans are meant to work together. We are wired to be emotionally moved and energized by the fulfillment of team success more than individual success. After all, we are the product of our ancestors, who thrived because they developed communities of interdependent people who supported each other and had each other’s backs. Team leadership capitalizes on that human desire to succeed as part of a team or a community.
Early in my career at Michigan Football, our recruiting coordinator, Jim Mandich, who had been the captain of the 1969 Big Ten Championship team I had played on, spoke at a recruiting dinner for top prospects. He shared that he had won three Super Bowl rings as a pro. However, he was never again part of a team that cared about each other like our team at Michigan; the Super Bowl wins may seem more significant on the outside, but the much smaller Big Ten Championship ring will always mean more to him.
To lead by enabling individual greatness in team members, the leader must be genuinely curious about how they may better serve the organization. Leaders must ask questions and take in the answers, allowing decision-making to flow from the bottom up, with enhancing guidance. This process will not be as quick as telling others how to execute the plan. However, team-focused leadership creates a learning culture for producing extraordinary future results.
This is only possible when a leader acknowledges that a team’s collective intelligence, talents, and gifts are more significant than their own, especially if they are in the game too! Ultimately, leaders who move to team-focused leadership enable the possibility of sustainable greatness and experience a deep sense of fulfillment in their work. The enablers of sustainable greatness can surface once the leader—and each team member—embrace their roles for achieving one team with a shared vision. We refer to this as the Shift from Me to Team.
Most leaders climb the ladder by capitalizing on their talent and skill to deliver results. Now, they are tasked with leading others to deliver results. This will require a shift from focusing on what the leader wants to what their team needs. This shift enables leaders to create a thriving culture capable of unleashing their team’s greatness.
The shift from me-to-team leadership means leaders no longer demand that their team serve them. Instead, they are responsible for leading their team members in service of their shared purpose.