If as a CEO or senior leader you are building your leadership team
Don’t build a team “below you”, with you on a kind of pedestal and team members following in your footsteps.
Don’t build a team around you, with you as the centre of attraction and team members sacrificing themselves for you.
Build a team beside you, with team members walking beside you; empowered, aligned & engaged and willing to challenge your decisions and ask the questions you do not want to hear.
Regardless of the organisational chart and people’s position in the organisation, nothing is stopping you to create a team of “besiders”.
There are few specific techniques or methods required; however, it does require a “collective” attitude.
If your attitude is that you are the brilliant & intelligent hero that the organisation (political, business, charitable, …) has chosen to “turn a losing battle into victory” then you have quite possibly got it all horribly wrong.
If on the other hand you have the attitude that your job is to unite and empower all those brilliant & intelligent team members into “the winning team”, then you may well be on to something.
You may need to be the “out in front” leader, showing the way in the early days, you may need to be the “referee leader”, getting into the ring when the first conflicts arise, you may need to be the “coach leader”, on the side-lines as the team starts to align, however …………. however, your objective should be to become a “leader among leaders”.
“Don’t follow in my footsteps, walk beside me”
If you are interested in creating “real” leadership teams and becoming a leader among leaders, do not hesitate to contact me at boblarcher@boblarcher.com
I help people to develop their interpersonal skills, usually within a leadership or teamwork context. If you are looking to develop your leadership, I might be able to help. I’ve been doing this for 35 years; roughly three and half thousand days of seminars, workshops, conferences, coaching, offsites, etc. – put back-to-back that makes almost ten “full” years.