Winning in Collaborative Environments

Competition limits potential when it blocks collaboration.

I love competition. But, I’m wondering about the damage it causes within teams. Don’t expect competitors to collaborate.

Would you help a teammate beat you? What if the winner receives a raise or bonus and you don’t?

Leadership:

Leaders don’t compete against team members. “We” environments leverage diversity. “I/you” environments build protective self-preservation.

Leaders help others win.

Two assumptions:

The first rule of winning is defining it. Helping others win assumes you know what winning looks like.

Second, helping others win assumes you know what helps.

Two questions:

Build the team by asking two questions:

How can I help you win?

How can you help me win?

Team mates always, unreservedly help each other win.

Two statements:

Make serving observable. Complete these statements with each member of your team.

I help you win when I ….

You help me win when you …

Collaborators help each other win.

How can leaders help others win?

What helps you win?

Five Ways to Find and Tap Potential

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Leaders fail when they think too much about things they want and too little about things others want. Immature vision-driven leaders flounder when they believe it’s all about their vision.

Think of leadership as helping others win. But, what is helping and what is winning?

Leader as helper:

The first step toward winning is defining it.

Describing wins always comes before achieving wins.

Successful leaders help others define their wins. They awaken others. Sleep-walkers haven’t defined winning they just walk around doing stuff. Leaders provide new definitions of winning that awaken possibilities and align with potential.

Potential:

Leaders help people paint themselves into pictures of what’s around the corner in the universe of “not yet”.

Potential is always untapped. That’s why it’s called potential.

Potential is in them not you.

Winning in leadership:

Winning in leadership is helping others do things they aren’t doing yet; things they define as winning. Leaders clarify and align pictures of winning.

Potential moves toward reality
when separate pictures of winning align.

In order to help people win, align their picture of winning with organizational wins.

Result:

Passion ignites when people see their potential in new pictures they help paint.

Suggestions:

Leaders awaken potential.

1. Keep them talking when their eyes light up. Then find alignment.
2. Avoid locking people in. Help them see themselves in new ways.
3. Push through resistance with them. Every significant change faces resistance.
4.  Explain organizational wins in terms that align with their wins.
5. Call them to step up and make a difference.

How can leaders help others paint themselves into new pictures?

Flipping the Switch that Develops Leaders

I asked Barry Posner, bestselling co-author of “The Leadership Challenge” if he was a leader. In a quiet, unassuming voice he said, “I’m a leader, follower, and a colleague.”

I asked Barry when he realized he was a leader? He said, “I can’t recall a specific time.” He thought while I waited,

“My parents always asked for my opinion.
They let me know my opinion mattered.”

I thought immediately of the first chapter in “The Truth about Leadership”. Posner, along with his colleague Jim Kouzes writes,

“Leadership begins when you
believe you can make a difference.”

The gift of listening ennobles and enables others.

Flipping the switch:

If leadership begins when you believe you matter, leadership development begins when you help others believe they matter.

Once you believe you matter
help others believe they matter.

Asking and listening helps people know they matter. Posner said, “Think of your worst boss. What made that boss the worst? They never asked for your opinion and when you spoke up, they didn’t listen.”

Helping others feel they matter:

1. Follow them. Lead others into leadership by following them. Give them authority and follow their lead.
2. See excellence as a process not a destination.
3. Withhold insignificant criticisms.
4. Train them.
5. Celebrate progress.

Inspiration on helping others feel they matter from Facebook:

1. See potential. Potential lies just below lack of confidence.
2. Assign or elect to new positions.
3. Look to them for their opinion.
4. Give responsibility.
5. Express gratitude for them.

The most powerful leadership
development tool is belief.

When did you realize you mattered?

What comes after believing in someone, in the leadership development process?

Must reading: “The Leadership Challenge“ 

How Leading Changed John Maxwell

I sent a note to John Maxwell. This is part of his reply.

How has leading changed you?

That’s almost like asking how breathing has changed me. Leadership has impacted every aspect of my life.

Early in my career, I discovered that everything rises and falls on leadership, and it changed the way I led. My focus turned to growing as a leader and helping others become leaders as well. I also worked on intentionally leading myself better. (I’ve discovered that the hardest person I ever led was me.)

The biggest change:

But the thing that leadership has changed the most about me is the realization that leadership is all about other people. Good leaders can’t be selfish. They’ve got to put other people and the organization first. Sometimes that means doing unpleasant things and making sacrifices.

Most people think of leadership as privilege. But I’ve come to see leadership as service. And now that I’m in my mid-60s, I’m more focused on legacy and what my leadership can do for others during the prime years I have left, as well as after I’m gone.

Thoughts:

Maxwell challenges leaders to take responsibility when he says “everything rises and falls on leadership.” It’s a daunting statement that demands we understand core principles of leading. In one sense everything depends on you, in another, everything depends on them.

5 Ways to bear the responsibility of leading:

1. Develop yourself and rely on others.
2. Leverage your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
3. Never pretend you are all-competent. You’ll be crushed by stress.
4. Build a team of competent individuals who take ownership. “The team with the best players wins,” Jack Welch.
5. Believe that leading is about developing and enabling others.

More from John Maxwell on next week …

I shared some of my responses to Maxwell’s comments. What are yours?

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Part 2 of John’s reply: “How John Maxwell Navigates Leadership“

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John’s latest book: “The Five Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential,” is written in John’s typical style. You’ll find it easy to read, practical, and actionable.