Some leaders act like the Lone Ranger. They make all the decisions themselves, and the organization moves in lockstep with them. Other leaders understand the benefit of multiple opinions and seek to build a team whenever possible.
I’ve worked for both kinds of leaders, and to be honest, I’ve been both kinds myself at different times in my career.
In my early years, I was a Lone Ranger leader most of the time. I made the decisions for my team, set direction, and issued instructions without consulting my employees, vendor partners, or customers.
When I matured as a leader, I realized how much my employees, partners, and customers, could contribute to complex problem-solving. So, I became somewhat of a hybrid leader. I relied on my own judgment at times, and at other times I depended on the expertise of my teams.
When the stakes were low, I often made the decision myself. When an emergency struck, and immediate decisions were needed to avoid a crisis, I made decisions myself.
However, when a major project came along (like a significant product launch), I relied on the strength of a diverse team with different skills and expertise to accomplish our goals.
Without the diverse experience and expertise of teams, I would never have achieved sales or marketing breakthroughs.
5 Reasons to Build a Team
In their book, Leadership in Christian Perspective, authors Justin Irving and Mark Straus provide five reasons leaders should build and nourish teams.
1. Teams are more helpful for bigger projects over a longer period of time.
Any leader faced with a huge project needs to build a team. Leaders should break down big projects into manageable pieces of work and assign work across the team. As the idiom goes, “Many hands make light work.”
2. Teams provide a context for better ideas and increased insight.
The collective brain power of a team will accomplish more high-quality work over the long term than a single person, no matter how talented, can achieve on their own. A team tackling a complex problem is more creative than a single individual. Additionally, a team will produce more ideas, which leads to better ideas, and ultimately to better solutions.
3. Teams provide increased courage to face challenges.
Teams can face and deal with greater challenges than an individual. Where one person may feel intimidated by the complexity of a major project, the unity of a team will bring strength and the courage to take heightened risks.
4. Teams provide a natural presence of peer support.
One of the most significant benefits of a team is the mutual encouragement of team members. If one team member feels down or discouraged, another is there to encourage and lift them up. This increased peer support and accountability keep individuals and the team focused on the bigger goal.
5. Teams provide a context for mentoring and training.
Teams are an ideal environment for the formal and informal mentoring of less experienced team members. Modeling preferred leadership styles and organizational behavior occurs naturally in a team environment.
Formal vs. Informal Teams
Some of you are leaders or members of formal teams. You are already in a position to leverage the power of your team.
However, some of you are working as individuals without the benefit of a formal team. You may think, “if it is to be, it’s up to me.” You may be envious of folks with formal teams, wishing you had your own team, but I argue that you, too, can and should build a team.
An excellent example in my career came when I was in a position where I developed and presented major proposals to senior executives of some of our largest customers. There was no way I could do the work myself. I didn’t have the capacity or the expertise to do it all.
So, I built my own informal teams. We were a group of experts in logistics, product supply, finance, sales, and sometimes, outside designers. The members of the teams varied depending on who the customer was. We came together for the express purpose of developing and presenting the proposal. Once the proposal was made, the informal teams disbanded and moved on to other work. I’m happy to say our informal teams had a 100% success rate. Every presentation was accepted and implemented by every customer we worked with.
This work and these results would never have been possible had I remained a Lone Ranger leader!
More Articles
I have written many articles on our team building. You can find them by typing “Team Building” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are several of my favorites.
- #420: Two Surprisingly Easy Ways For You to Spot Effective Managers
- #271: What Are the Essential Elements You Need to Build A High-Performance Team?
- #276: What One Thing Do the Best Leaders Do More Than Anyone Else?
- #250: Is Mentoring A Rewarding Strategic Choice Today?
- #219: Can Feedback Really Help Drive Growth in My Business?
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. What experience have you had leading either formal or informal teams? Do you agree that teams are more effective over the long run than leading as a Lone Ranger?
I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because people like you share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?
Category: Skills | Team Building
I agree about the value of teams. I had an inner team of top managers, and a broader team that included supervisors. I engaged with both, and collectively, the decisions were consistently strong.
I think the two-tiered strategy is a good one! We utilized narrow and broader teams in a similar way in my career. I found you get more/better ideas, and it’s a chance to develop the next generation of leaders.