What Can Your Organization Become?

We close our series on considering some of the pivotal moments in our lives with lessons about leaders enabling greatness.

It began on my first day on Coach Bo Schembechler’s football staff at University of Michigan. As a meeting was about to start, Bo took a phone call. He stormed back into the room, furious, and demanded to know which coaches had told a quarterback recruit he would start as a freshman.

I had just arrived from New York City and was still learning Michigan Athletics’ culture. As Bo’s voice filled the room, I remember thinking, This is when you get very small, hide under the table, and wait for the shrapnel to stop flying.

Instead, two coaches stood and addressed Bo directly. Each said, “Let me tell you what happened.” Bo listened. After hearing them, he returned to the principle that had upset him: “No one is given anything in Michigan Athletics. Everything must be earned. Am I clear?”

What struck me was not merely that the coaches spoke up. They felt safe enough to challenge Bo, and Bo, even in his anger, was secure enough to listen. The standard was set, yet the conversation remained open. That combination of high standards and mutual trust is a foundation sustainably successful organizations are built upon.

From Individual Greatness to Team Greatness

In the first blog post of this series, we shared how Bo introduced me to leadership in service of the team. In the second, we explored the greatness within each of us. This final blog brings those ideas together: What becomes possible when leaders create an organization where individual greatness can flourish in service of something greater?

Bo understood that he had one perspective and that his coaches might have another. He sometimes took a side in an argument, then changed sides when too many people agreed with him. It was about finding what was best for the team, not defending his position.

He also understood intrinsic energy. He wanted every coach and player fully engaged in the game, bringing their gifts and their energy to preparation, practice, and competition. Alignment occurs when everyone brings their best to create and sustain something bigger than themselves, not from everyone thinking alike.

Discovering an Organization at Its Best

At FS/A, we help organizations discover their best by asking people to share stories about moments when they felt most energized and proud of the team they were a part of. Again and again, those moments involve people being transparent, respectful, and collaborative as they accomplish something none could have achieved alone.

We have watched rooms change as these stories unfold. Titles and departments fade. This past summer, one participant described initially herself as introverted and reluctant to speak up. Yet the stories she heard energized her so deeply that, by the end of the session, she had become one of the group’s strongest contributors.

The team then articulates what those stories reveal: its purpose for today’s work, its vision for the future difference it hopes to have made, and the Guiding Principles that define how people will work together. This becomes the organization’s Core Identity—a shared understanding of what it looks and feels like at its best.

The Leadership Test

Clarifying that identity is the easier part of the journey to greatness. The true test is whether leaders will hold all responsible for honoring the team’s desired identity. When behavior falls outside the agreed standards, a leader must be willing to ask, “Help me understand the perceived deviation.” That question leaves room for another perspective while making clear that there is a team standard that comes first.

Some people will inevitably test whether the standards are real. If leaders repeatedly tolerate behavior that violates the organization’s identity, the standards quickly lose their meaning. Sometimes, despite honest conversation and support, the fit is simply not right. Not every plant can thrive in every garden. Helping someone find a place where they can flourish can be an act of care for both the person and the organization.

Bo taught me that greatness is never given. It is discovered, developed, and earned, by individuals and by teams.

Every organization has moments when it catches a glimpse of what it could become. A leader’s responsibility is to recognize those moments and help people put words to their feelings, whether in or out of line.

There is greatness in each of us. Are we creating organizations where that greatness can fully come to life?

Questions for Reflection

• When has your organization been fully energized and operating at its best?
• What was present in those moments that needs to be honored?
• What difficult conversation might help your organization reach its full potential?