Building Teams Blog Series: 1 of 3

I have previously written about my experience evaluating leaders and military units in military exercises at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, LA. The two-week exercise places units in a non-stop, free-play, competitive exercise in near real-world conditions. After the training and evaluation rotation, many leaders have said they prefer real-world combat than the stresses of this combat simulated environment.

Being the evaluator of the senior military commander was a laboratory of leadership. We observed some of the best leaders in the Army – many of whom went on to the most senior levels of leadership in the Army – and we observed other leaders who, quite frankly, should probably not have been in that position in the first place.

Nevertheless, some of the greatest lessons of leadership I observed over the time I was there were how to build teams, how to be a team player, and how to be a dynamic follower. In other words, great leaders were great at building teams, regardless if they were in charge of a team, a member of a team, or a subordinate on their boss’ team. I quickly learned that the best leaders built the best teams, were the best followers, and were the best teammates.

Over the next couple of blogs, I’d like to discuss each of these three aspects of team building, beginning with how leaders built the best teams. Quite frankly, there are many books written on this topic, but for this three to four minute read, I’ll just highlight what I’ve observed in combat and during these stressful training environments, and what I’ve personally tried to practice in my personal leadership experiences. But knowing there are so many lessons on “team building”, I welcome your thoughts and your own experiences as well.

The best way to describe the best teams are those that create the best learning environments, where everyone feels they have a genuine and productive job and that they are contributing to the organization’s overall mission, that they are working in a culture that encourages initiative and out-of-the-box thinking, and that they are treated by everyone in the organization with dignity and respect. In other words, they are tough, tight, cohesive, high standard, disciplined, high performing, learning organizations, that underwrite risk and reward initiative and mission accomplishment, and where everyone feels they are valued members of that organization. So, how do you create an organization like that?

As an evaluator, when I first walked into the organization’s headquarters at the beginning of the exercise, I knew right away if it was going to be a productive training rotation or not, simply by the organization’s climate. Within learning organizations, I saw formal communication, informal communication, members running around with meaningful work, and junior staff officers asking senior officers questions, and the senior officer would stop what they were doing, and listen to the junior officers. And when it came time to brief the boss at the end of the day, the staff officers were falling over each other wanting to be the one to brief the boss and to proudly highlight his or her work or project. But what really was telling was how the boss reacted to each of these updates. He would edify, and uplift each briefer, while at the same time challenging them to stretch and to reach into areas they were uncomfortable and unfamiliar, knowing that when they went into these areas, they were likely to make mistakes. The boss would underwrite the risk of the error knowing that learning, growth, and productive progress took place only when the staff started dealing with the tougher, more murky issues. But what was the key outcome in all of this was that the staff did not necessarily “feel good” about the boss; rather they “felt good about themselves” within the environment created by the boss. It was a simple, but highly effective take-away that great leaders seemed to have learned to execute.

On the other hand, when I first walked into the headquarters of units that struggled throughout the rotation, there was a distinct difference between these units and the previous learning organizations. When I walked in, the climate was cold like ice. There was no one walking around; everyone seemed “glued” to their computer screen on their desk. There was none of the formal and informal communication going on. There was hardly anyone walking around. And when it came time to brief the boss, I knew exactly why the climate was so sterile, simply because no one wanted to brief him. When it was the staff’s turn, only the senior staff officer did the brief. When the staffer briefed the topic, it seemed it was never right. He or she was constantly corrected, and often humiliated, and being humiliated in a public environment in front of your peers and subordinates was not a productive way to build a healthy learning climate. In that type of environment, subordinates did only what they were told and nothing else out of fear they would make a mistake and receive a public thrashing as a result. There was no initiative, no moving into unfamiliar areas, and as a result, no learning and no growth.

One other big take-away from a leader who builds tight, cohesive and productive teams is a leader who leads from the front. We have all heard this before, but in the computer age, where it is easy to give orders behind a computer screen, it is something we unfortunately often forget. But leading from the front creates shared hardships that build bonds of trust and compassion. It is these bonds that bring teammates together, where they go to extremes for each other simply because they don’t want to let their teammate down. So many medal of honor recipients, when interviewed why they did the heroic act that earned their recognition, simply would say “I did not want to let my teammates down.” They were all serving in harm’s way to serve their country, but in the end, it was their loyalty and brotherhood bonds that motivated them to do what they never thought was possible.

This is where leaders belong. Being in the crucible with your teammates allows you to know their strengths and weaknesses, what they are capable of and what they are not, and it builds those bonds of trust that can never be broken. When subordinates are asked to do what they would normally see as impossible, and then they do it because the leader is there with them and they never want to let him or her down, then you know why leading from the front is such an important leadership trait that builds great teams.

The bottom line of building a tough, tight, cohesive, high standard, disciplined, high performing, learning organization is to lead from the front, underwrite risk and reward initiative and mission accomplishment, and build a climate where everyone feels they are valued members of that organization.

I’ve previously mentioned the three aspects of team building: building a highly effective team, being a great teammate, and being a dynamic follower. This reading highlights what great leaders do in building a highly effective team. In my next blog, I’ll address why being a great teammate is so important in being a part of a highly effective team, and afterwards, I’ll address why leaders who are “dynamic followers” are also “great leaders”.