1: The team is known as the “Dream Team.” The original version.
The 1992 US Men’s Olympic basketball squad had a roster for the ages, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, and Karl Malone.
“All were consummate professionals with a track record of not only being all-star players but also playing on all-star teams,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
And yet, in one of their first scrimmages, they lost by eight points to a group of college players.
Michael Jordan said afterward, “We got killed today, we’re out of sync, we have no continuity.”
Scottie Pippen commented: “We didn’t know how to play with each other.”
Behind the scenes, however, Coach Chuck Daly was pleased.
Chuck had been chosen as Head Coach due to his reputation as someone who could manage personalities and egos.
During the game against the college players, Chuck didn’t make any adjustments one might have expected.
“He knew what he was doing,” recalls assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski. “He threw the game. Not many people would have done it and he did it.”
Why?
Because from that moment on, he could tell the team, “You know, you could lose.”
Mike comments: “It was brilliant on Chuck’s part to orchestrate that.”
The “psychological wake-up call” was just what the team needed. “Any arrogance or complacency was replaced by teamwork and hunger,” Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram note. “The next day in training camp the tables were turned as the dream team soundly beat the college players.
“Fast-forward to the Olympics,” they write, “and the Dream Team scored more than a hundred points in every game and easily took home the gold.”
2: Yet, in the corporate world, many executive teams operate like the Dream Team did while losing the scrimmage.
Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram observe: “Only 6 percent of top HR executives, those whose job includes helping to ensure good teamwork takes place, agree with the statement that ‘Our executive team operates as a well-integrated team.’
“Further, when executives are asked to assess how effectively their top team works together versus its potential, they rate it only a five on a scale of ten.”
DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma comments: “Based on my experience, in principle, it’s right to say you need to have a team with the right people. But the notion that you can fire the weaker people in the team, just hire good people, and now you have a good team is too simple.”
Instead, he explains, “What really makes the team successful is the way the individuals, whatever their nature, deal with each other. It’s not only the bricks but also the cement! That has an even bigger impact on results.”
But getting high-powered teams of executives to work together is not always easy.
“Group dynamics are complex and full of contradictions,” Dr. Kenwyn Smith and Dr. David Berg argue in their pioneering book Paradoxes of Group Life.
Here are three examples:
o “People feel pressure to conform to the group, yet the power of the group comes from leveraging the individuality of its members.
o “A team leader must ask success-oriented people to risk failure.
o “The work of those in power positions is to create the conditions in which others are powerful.”
And, beneath these realities is the fact that “executives tend to be alpha leaders and competitive,” Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer observes.
The bottom line: “It’s easy to see why a high-performing top team is not a foregone conclusion,” Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram note, “even when it’s made up of highly talented individuals.”
3: Gail Kelly faced many challenges upon being named CEO of Australia-based Westpac.
“Australia was in the early stages of the global financial crisis,” the authors write, “which meant that she couldn’t compose her team the way she wanted to. Too many issues needed immediate attention, and the level of uncertainty put a premium on retaining the institutional knowledge and expertise of the old guard.”
She was also only the second CEO in the firm’s two-hundred-year history not to rise up through the company’s ranks.
“As such,” they write, “employees viewed her with a degree of skepticism—especially members of her team who felt they, not she, deserved to be CEO.”
Moreover, the prior CEO had managed through one-on-one conversations with leadership team members, so there was no sense of “team.” The organization operated in silos with a top-down leadership model.
“Without a high degree of team trust and collaboration,” the authors write, Gail “knew progress toward her vision would be stifled, and that making it through the crisis would be far more difficult.”
So what did she do?
She took her group of twelve direct reports and built them “into a high-performing team through a series of off-sites, having them do the work of the transformation together,” they note. “The purpose of the top team was clarified, behavioral expectations were set, and trust was built through facilitated sessions that broke down barriers between individuals.”
In time, the firm roared back as the global financial crisis receded. The company’s overall value doubled from $38 billion to $79 billion, and Gail was recognized as one of the world’s best and most influential leaders.
“In the end, she attributes a significant portion of her success during her seven years to having placed high demands on teamwork,” Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram write.
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: Am I part of a well-integrated leadership team? How effectively does my team work together versus its potential?
Action: Lead a discussion with my team.
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