Stop Calling All Groups of People Teams!

Every year I work with companies on organizational health and building strong teams. One of the fundamental issues is distinguishing between groups and teams.

Managers often place high performing individuals together and expect them to work well together. Then they are usually disappointed when those same individuals fail to reach even basic goals and objectives. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are countless examples of high performing individuals fighting one another to reach the top of some mountain while happily sacrificing others around them.

Welcome to the dynamic of a group versus a team.

The late motivational speaker and sales guru, Zig Ziglar, liked to share a story about Belgian Draft Horses. As he told it, one Belgian Draft Horse can pull around 7,000 pounds (think high performing individual). Harness him to another Belgian Draft Horse and together they can pull over 15,000 pounds (think a group of two high performing individuals). But—and this is the difference between groups and teams—teach them to work together and the team can pull up to 25,000 pounds.

Teams leverage individual strengths and work with agreed upon operating procedures to accomplish a common goal.

How teams work versus groups:

1. Leverage individual strengths—I often tell people it’s important to embrace the OCD in others. Let them obsess in their own areas while you obsess in yours. Groups of people tend to try to establish their boundaries and gain positional advantages. Great teams don’t do this. They work to the strengths of those around them and outproduce their counterparts by exponential factors.

2. Agreed upon operating procedures—Strong teams are clear what’s expected, how they are supposed to conduct themselves, and who is responsible for getting things done. I’ve run into plenty of companies that seem to believe groups will make up their own rules and somehow those rules will work out. That hasn’t been my experience.

3. Accomplish a common goal—The best teams know what they are trying to accomplish together. I have found that good teams can fall apart when the goals aren’t clear. It’s as if you lined everyone up on a starting line, fired the starter’s pistol and everyone ran to a different destination. That’s chaos. Make the goals clear.

Building strong teams is critical to building healthy organizations that can consistently tackle big challenges and change the world. They don’t happen by accident, and they often don’t happen by themselves. The deliberate guidance of executives and managers to leverage their strongest players can have a profound impact on how well their company performs—or whether their best performers decide to leave the company for greener pastures.

Need help building healthy teams and a company culture? Let’s talk.

Does anyone really care about core values?

I work with clients every year on vision, mission, core values and culture challenges. When we get to articulating core values, executives often defer to a standard list of behaviors like Integrity, Accountability, Responsiveness, Empowerment, etc. But this random list doesn't do anything for anybody.

Enron's core values were Communication, Respect, Integrity and Excellence. Most would agree that these values were anything but core to the company.

The culture was corrupt. And that's where I find executives get confused. Your core values emerge from the culture. They don't drive it.

If your culture is dysfunctional, it doesn't matter how many core values you list or how you word them. If the leadership doesn't demonstrate the kinds of behaviors you want, TELLING your employees how to act will fall on deaf ears.

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying”

So, no, core values don't matter. Core behaviors do.

If you want to change a company, or help guide an organization to a positive new future, focus on the behaviors. Start at the top and cascade down. Once the leaders get it right you can consider making posters and t-shirts. Until then, no. You're just asking for trouble.

You are undeserving!

Try that phrase again and remove the "un". You are deserving.

Or this way: You. Are. Deserving.

When I work with companies with unhealthy cultures I often find people who have been beaten down over time and feel like their best their ideas have been killed by the system. When this happens often enough, people simply lose faith in who they are, what they can do and why they come to work each day.

Management's job isn't to beat people into submission. It's to lead them with a focus on a greater good, a bigger goal that will require everyone on the team bringing their best ideas every day. You deserve to have your best ideas heard.

You deserve to be recognized for contributing to the greater good. You deserve to know you have value in your role every day and that the company you're in is better because you are there.

You. Are. Deserving.

It's tough out there. Making a difference takes a lot of work. We need you to bring all the goodness that makes you uniquely you. And you deserve a company that will celebrate you. You are deserving.

"That's not the problem we told him to solve."

When working with executives to document their core Behaviors (Values) I often ask them to name an employee or two who represent their ideal staffer and then unpack what makes them great.

In one particular exercise the attributes included: can-do attitude; takes initiative; passion; courage, etc. Sounds like the kind of people who could move a mountain, right?

In the next exercise we did the same thing only with employees who don't embody the culture we want. One employee was named but there was some concern in the room because one exec said the guy had really come through on an issue.

"But that's not the problem we told him to solve," came an exasperated reply. And then the room fell awkwardly quiet.

On one hand they wanted people like themselves who took initiative and conquered big challenges. At the same time, they felt threatened by that behavior. Managers who live like this destroy good people and derail careers. They kill cultures and companies from within.

You want your best people solving problems on their own. You NEED your best people solving problems on their own. You also need people to solve problems you don't see or understand.

Strong managers get this. Weak ones never will.

Unleash The Power Of Your Organization With Bottom-Up Leadership

Taking a bottom-up leadership approach can positively shake up your company and help bring some of the best ideas out of the shadows and into the market.

Most companies operate under a top-down management approach, in which visions and business plans are set at the highest levels and passed down through the organization. This can be great in theory, but it can also leave some of the most innovative and breakthrough ideas locked inside the people on the front lines. When those people feel disconnected from or shut down by leadership, the company can be doomed to irrelevance, especially in an era that demands innovation.

Build A Strong Core Team

W.L. Gore & Associates, a company known for its innovation and made famous for Gore-Tex, uses sponsors to help new hires untangle the system and find their place in the organization. They help make connections and find links so people are set up to succeed from the beginning. The company further allows employees to choose their assignments and follow their passions. Once an employee selects a project or team, they’re pretty well locked into the commitment. From that point on, their accountability is to their teams, not to their bosses. But great ideas often come from passionate individuals and strong teams.

Listen. Repeat. Act.

When current General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, first started at GM, she was an 18-year-old student co-op full of new ideas. She had the good fortune of working with mentors and managers who helped her learn and grow—and who listened to her ideas. As she moved through the company she saw the value of staying in touch with and open to the ideas of those on the front lines.

With a father who worked as a die maker for Pontiac for 39 years, Mrs. Barra fully understood what could be learned from those who touch the product every day, even in adjusting minor details that affect the people on the front lines. In an interview recently with Business Insider, Mrs. Barra proudly stated how as VP of Global Human Resources for GM, she shortened the unwieldy language of the dress code to just two words: Dress Appropriately. While something like this might seem trivial to some, it can be a sign of respect to those who feel patronized by the language passed down by managers who have lost sight of what life is like in the trenches.

Remember That Great Ideas Come From Anywhere

Passionate people with their hands in the work have a better chance of making connections between seemingly disconnected dots. Many people are familiar with how 3M’s Arthur Fry used an experimental light adhesive to create a better bookmark and thereby invented Post-it Notes. Mr. Fry’s inventiveness was evidence of a 3M culture where ideas, even ones that aren’t immediate successes, are shared in order to make the collective output even better.

The same can be said of the Gore Company. Dave Myers, an engineer with Gore’s medical teams, thought the company’s technology being used on mountain bike cables to block out gunk might work on guitar strings as well, since guitar strings lose tone and quality over time due to oils in the skin. After a bit of of exploration, Mr. Myer and his team introduced Gore’s industry-leading Elixir guitar strings.

In these and myriad other examples, success comes from sharing ideas and staying open to contributions from all areas of the company. Keeping employees locked into silos significantly diminishes the organization’s chances of regularly discovering breakthrough ideas.

Watch Out For Management Bias

Far too often managers miss the great ideas generated on the front lines. NPR host and author Shankar Vedantam believes he knows why.

In his book The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives, Mr. Vedantam’s research shows that managers often put more weight behind ideas from distant sources than ideas from their own employees. Simply put, it’s easier—and often more attractive—to hire high profile consultants than to ask for ideas from within the organization.

Vedantam goes on to discuss how managers can rush forward with “confirmation bias”, seeing only the ideas that support their own theories while discarding proof that their idea isn’t the strongest one on the table. This can be a culture killer because employees quickly see their ideas being pushed aside in favor of hierarchy and management. When this happens morale plummets as key employees face a cruel choice: stay with a company that undervalues their contributions or take their ideas elsewhere.

Be Wary Of Superstars

In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, Google’s Senior Vice President of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, talked about the problem with shooting stars. “Successful bright people rarely experience failure,” he said, “so they don’t learn how to learn from that failure.”

Bock continued: “They, instead, commit the fundamental attribution error, which is if something good happens, it’s because I’m a genius. If something bad happens, it’s because someone’s an idiot or I didn’t get the resources or the market moved.”

By contrast, “We’ve seen that the people who are the most successful here, who we want to hire, will have a fierce position. They’ll argue like hell. They’ll be zealots about their point of view. But then you say, ‘here’s a new fact,’ and they’ll go, ‘Oh, well, that changes things; you’re right.”

Ask Yourself: What Could Bottom-Up Thinking Do For Us?

Far too many management programs today emphasize action over listening, and title over experience. Most tend to prefer the sanitary approach of using consultants because writing a check is easier than building forums. When this happens, we communicate to our employees that they and their ideas don’t matter.

Management has to listen and act.

We think using these simple ideas can make a big difference. What do you think?

Why You Need Change Management Bread Crumbs

In the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel, two small children are led out into the woods to fend for themselves and with expectations that they won’t survive the night. However, the kids have the evil plan all figured out and leave a trail of pebbles and bread crumbs to find their way back home so they can eventually slay the witch.

Managers Are Evil Until Proven Otherwise

For many employees involved in change management initiatives, the story of Hansel and Gretel is far too close to their own experience, minus the bread crumbs. We hear it all the time: employees feel like they’re being led into the woods to certain doom while senior managers feel like they’ve done their jobs in telling their staff that big change is coming, that they shouldn’t be worried and that everything is under control.

These broad and vacuous statements do nothing but reinforce the idea that upper management is trying to “change” employees right out of a job.

Upper management must understand that the prevailing attitude with line employees is that change is going to end badly for them. It’s survival mentality. In his book Leaders Eat Last, author Simon Sinek discusses at length how the brain fires up a dose of the hormone cortisol when we sense danger. The human body doesn’t wait until we can see the danger, it takes care of business ahead of time. Cortisol helps focus our attention on getting out of dangerous situations.

In change management initiatives, employees tend to sense that change is happening even if nothing has been announced in the company. Keep in mind that bad news travels faster and is, frankly, more exciting than good news. So given the chance to leap to conclusions, most of us leap the wrong way. Managers have a responsibility to their direct reports and to their companies to over-communicate what’s happening and help overcome human nature. No shady language, no duplicity, no dodging the hard questions.

This steady stream of communication can be considered the bread crumbs out of the woods for employees. The biggest difference here is that the trail leads to a new, hopefully even better, destination instead of back to the original starting point.

Error Increases With Distance

It’s easy for managers to be lulled into complacency when communicating change issues. Many believe that since they delivered a clear message once or twice, then everyone should be on the same page. Others believe that since they heard a message from their managers then everyone else must be getting the same message. This isn’t even close to reality. With one client, we found up to 10 degrees of separation from line employees to the C-suite, which made those at the senior executive level appear to live above the clouds. They were for all intents and purposes untouchable to the average employee.

But the CEO leading the change worked very hard to shorten the distance between his office and the people making products every day. He communicated clearly to his senior leaders and expected them to help cascade the same language, using the exact same terms, to the people below them. And he got regular reports on who was doing the communicating and how the messages were being received.

This seems like such a simple concept, but many of us forget that with every level in the organization comes a greater chance for error, for key messages to be twisted and altered to fit the personality or agenda of the messenger.

Whenever possible, we suggest that senior leaders shorten the gap between the top of the company and the bottom. Deliver messages directly and in person to the broadest range of employees. Expect managers to do the same, and measure both participation and impact. This enables executives to manage the chaos before stories get too far off the desired path.

Go Far Together

One African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The same is true of change management.

Change doesn’t happen fast nor should it, in most cases. It takes time and planning to get the messages right and help everyone get on board. Organizational change is about setting up the company to go the distance. You can’t do that by racing alone.

Build a solid platform, communicate the end goal and how the company plans to get there, and recognize that most of the workforce won’t believe the messages until they see them lived out in and through management. With these bread crumbs the rest of the organization will make their way back to safety and join the rest of the company in reaching new goals.

Are Middles getting in the way of your progress?

It’s been my experience that many of the major blocks to change, growth, innovation, and more are tied to Middles: middle class and middle management.

The problems of having just enough

Middles tend to have just enough, so they fear risk that might cause them to lose what they have. Rags to riches stories don’t come from Middles. This group has a hard time seeing the potential gain because the potential loss is so overwhelming. You rarely hear Middles saying they are willing to risk it all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’m a huge fan of small bets and what Jim Collins described as firing bullets before cannon balls. But Middles can struggle even with firing off bullets unless those bullets are fired in incredibly safe territory.

Middles also can’t afford bigger bets, so the adage of “it takes money to make money” serves as a roadblock. Because risk is such a major inhibitor, Middles can have problems taking the steps they need to make a major impact in their communities, churches, businesses, etc. When you have enough to be comfortable, but not enough to be carefree, comfortable is like living within giant walls covered in razor wire surrounded by a moat filled with crocodiles. No one is getting in, but no one is getting out, either.

Don’t screw it up!

Middle managers who share this risk aversion can kill progress in companies. They often live by the mantra “just don’t screw it up!” So they passively block innovative thinking, change within the company and new people with new ideas. The Middles don’t like new. They like big, comfortable, proven and safe.

We’re not in a safe economy. With innovation being the buzz word for companies of all sizes, having a culture filled with the Middles mindset can passively kill whatever progress upper management has in mind.

The absence of yes

One of my favorite statements related to the passive aggressive behavior of Middles came from a 2015 episode of the TV series The Good Wife. I’ll spare you the details of the show, but the line “The absence of ‘yes’ times time equals no” is a brilliant representation of the Middles code of compliance.

Think about it. You’re in a company that desperately needs to change to stay relevant and gain the best new talent, plus you need to innovate and offer up something new for your audiences. Upper management develops new foundations with a vision, mission, values, purpose, building a positive culture, etc. The Middles don’t say “no” to the change. They just don’t say “yes”, either.

Then it’s time to get innovative. Upper management is now under the belief that their teams are on board. Since they didn’t get much push back on the change initiatives, they believe everyone on the boat is rowing in the same direction and now will embrace innovation as well. The absence of no does not mean yes. Middles don’t like to say no, partly because saying no means they will have to defend their reasoning—and their reasoning may mostly be centered around the fact that they don’t like change. Especially in a culture where upper management is driving to a new destination, Middles don’t want to be seen as the boat anchors.

But don’t think for a minute that Middles agree with or support the progress. The absence of yes can be seen as passive agreement. That would be a mistake. Middles know that when it comes to organizational change and innovation, usually they just have to outlast the idea of the hour and then they can get back to managing their comfortable worlds. Thus, the absence of yes times time equals no.

So what can you do? Here are five suggestions for dealing with Middles and the Middles mindset.

Overcoming the Middles

1. Use Middles to strengthen the core. Middles aren’t all bad. They just don’t like risk and change. Middles might be excellent at managing the core of any organization and keeping the company on track. Embrace their strengths and focus on strengthening the middle.

2. Don’t ask Middles to lead change and innovation. In his excellent book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, author Clayton Christensen recommended moving disruptive innovation outside the core of the company. Why? Partly because the Middles often treat innovation like a virus that needs to be attacked, passively or actively, by the body. Do your organization a favor and let the Middles focus on their strengths while enabling the Innovators in the organization room to move and grow.

3. Help Middles see the future. Middles need time to embrace change. Middles want the company to continue doing what it’s always done and, in some cases, get back to the glory days the company once enjoyed with its legacy products and services. Because they tend to not be early adopters, this is going to take more time than most organizations want to recognize. Understand this. Schedule time, training and work to get buy-in before all the decisions have been made so the Middles can see themselves as part of the future.

4. Get verbal agreements. If you’ve ever sat in an exit row on an airplane you’ve been asked by a flight attendant to give him or her your verbal acknowledgement that you know you are in an exit row and have the ability to manage the exit door in an emergency. They don’t take a chance that you might be able to do the job, because if the plane goes down, you managing that exit door could be a matter of life or death. You need that same kind of agreement within the company to know everyone will do what you think they will when the time comes. Don’t let the Middles passively kill progress with an absence of yes.

5. Be willing to make the change they can’t. Just as important as getting the right people on the bus is helping the wrong people find a different ride. Once the vision and expectations are set, the coaching managed and programs initiated, it’s time to keep an eye on progress. If key metrics aren’t being met—and this tends to be consistent over time—and team frustration grows, it may be time to help some Middles find new roles inside or outside the company. In some cases this is just a factor of the company taking a new direction and needing new skill sets, so coaching people out of the organization doesn’t mean they are damaged goods, simply that they may not fit the future as well as they did the past.

The truth is we need both Innovators and Middles in most organizations. Just know that they can cancel each other out and see each other as the problem. Knowing where the company needs/wants to go will help, but things can’t end there. Upper management has to keep an eye on progress and people who are truly part of the program. Embrace those who join the efforts to move forward. Coach those on the fence. Help the others find success somewhere else.

The Copy Paper Syndrome: why selfish behavior is killing your company from the inside out.

What difference can a few sheets of paper make?

We’ve all been there: you head over to the office copier, one that’s shared by a dozen or several dozen other employees who all bear the same responsibility for keeping it stocked with paper, only to find that the paper trays are empty. You look around for the spare reams of paper and find that those, too, are somehow missing.

Here’s where the syndrome kicks in: what’s your next move?

A) Walk to wherever the boxes of paper are stored and bring a whole box, or at least several reams, back with you and fill the paper trays while stacking up the extra paper for others to use later?

B) Walk to the paper storage area and retrieve a ream of paper so you can completely fill the tray you need?

C) Walk to the nearest other copier, grab a handful of pieces of paper based on what you need and return to your copier to finish the job?

D) Walk to the nearest other copier and take care of your task there, since that machine apparently has paper?

If you chose options A or B, you’re already in rarefied air in today’s me-first company cultures. Unfortunately, it is far too common to find employees and managers alike who focus on taking care of themselves and their needs rather than looking out for the good of the company and their fellow associates.

The perils of looking out for you versus looking out for us

Companies are made up of a variety of moving parts, all working together to make a product or offer a range of services. It takes everyone on the team to make that happen. When employees fill their days with only those items that are important to them, or are listed on the scorecard they are held accountable for, they miss the ‘working together’ principle of teamwork. If it’s always someone else’s job to do the little things, then the organization begins to break down. Things that are left for others invariably end up never getting done.

Short-term outlook negates the long-term vision

The Internet is filled with disparaging articles on Millennials and their give-it-to-me-now approach to work and life. But it’s not just Millennials. This is a systemic issue. Many large organizations promote managers on regular two- and four-year intervals, as long as those managers don’t screw things up. As a result, those managers avoid long-term solutions and instead focus on what will help them get promoted to their next station. We have found brand and marketing managers who recognized larger issues with their brands and that someone, eventually, would need to address them. But why worry with the big picture when grabbing the low hanging fruit will get you to the next level?

Upper management rarely sees the problems—because selfish behavior is like a cancer in the corporate body silently killing the company from the inside out. By the time upper management gets wind of the problem the cancer has spread and now manifests itself as missed orders, shipment delays, product quality issues, facility breakdowns, budget overruns, etc. The systematic dysfunction comes about because people are looking out for themselves. And because many companies reward the behavior, they only have themselves to blame.

The boy who saved Holland, but couldn’t save the corporation

There’s an old tale about a boy in Holland who was walking along one of the dykes and noticed a trickle of water coming out of it. Knowing that water coming through a dyke could eventually lead to a catastrophic failure of the dyke and therefore imperil the country, the boy stuck his finger in the hole and thus saved the Holland.

The same story could happen across many manufacturing plants today—but it doesn’t. In the name of budget cutting, companies neglect to make basic repairs to their facilities.

For example, in one large manufacturing plant we found in our research, the facilities stretch across tens of acres and require constant maintenance and repair to withstand the intense weather outside. Now no site manager wants to fork over their entire budget to repair 40 acres of rooftop, so you do what you have to, and you divert the water. Short-term fix for a long term issue. No need to repair a small hole or two in the roof when those dollars could be conserved or used elsewhere, right? The mentality shifts to just putting a tarp up to block the drip when it rains.

But little holes add up. And since employees are looking after themselves, remember here that no one is rewarded for plugging the hole, the drips and tarps keep coming. As a result, on rainy days, this manufacturer’s facilities look like they’ve hung circus tents inside to deflect the water. Deflect is the operative term here. Because the tarps aren’t solving the problem. No one is solving the problem. In terms of the Copy Paper Syndrome, they’re just getting a few sheets of paper for themselves and leaving the larger problem for someone else.

Be the one who breaks the cycle

It is important that we look out for the needs of more than just ourselves to ensure that all areas of the company are tended to. Don’t leave a task for that unnamed person—who probably doesn’t exist anymore anyway. Make the time to look out for the person behind you. Be the one who gets the extra paper even when you only need a few sheets. Be the manager who, even if you can’t solve the larger problems, makes sure upper management is aware of them and has line of sight on the issues. Sure you’re busy. Everyone is busy. It takes the entire team to win the game.

Want help breaking the cycle and moving your organization to a healthier culture, let’s talk. Join the conversation here or reach out directly.

The Goose Code: Lead, Follow and Encourage the Whole Journey

In the world of geese flight everyone has a shot at being a leader, all are followers at some point, and everybody is expected to cheer.

My house is apparently in a flight zone. Let the weather turn even slightly cool and geese fly over in any number of formations, from long lines to deep Vs. I see them and think of all the motivational posters I’ve seen and speakers I’ve heard who used the geese in formation analogy to talk about teams. I may be piling on here, but after a discussion with some students a few weeks ago, I thought it might be worth repeating.

Leaders Wanted
It’s interesting to see a flock of geese take to the skies. At first the group can seem disorganized and chaotic. But soon enough a pattern emerges with one goose in front and the others taking up the various positions behind. In his excellent book Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek discusses how people are hardwired to let the Alphas lead, giving them the best of the spoils with the expectation that those same individuals will provide protection and assistance when needed. I don’t know if that’s exactly what happens in the goose world, but it’s clear someone has to step up and lead the way. Without this leader, the whole flock is doomed to chaotic and inefficient travel, which could jeopardize the community.

The same thing is needed in organizations all over the world. Even if everyone in the group doesn’t believe fully in the exact path to the goal there needs to be some alignment that someone will lead and others will take up positions behind to help the group get there. Intel invokes their Disagree and Commit slogan to signal that once the decision has been made to move, it’s time to get moving.

Your Turn!
I worked in an agency once that liked to use team analogies. A lot. But they were almost always focused on being the ideal leader, or being the perfect soldier behind a great leader. I knew when I got criticized as a senior manager for not always having the winning idea that it was time to leave.

Geese have a better grasp on this leader and soldier rotation concept. They recognize that the lead goose is taking the full force of the wind in order to make life a little easier for the rest of the flock. But they also recognize that being in front wears on a guy. So when the time comes to give the lead goose a breather, he or she is able to coast back in to formation and recharge so he or she can lead again when the time comes.

It’s irresponsible to think that any leader can always have the best idea, and all the answers. It’s much healthier for the organization to surround the leader with a strong team that can step in and give the leader time to recharge.

Honk. You’re Doing Great! Keep it Up!
I don’t speak goose, but those who study these things say that one of the fundamental reasons geese honk during flight is to encourage each other, from the guy in back trying to keep up to the lead goose setting the pace. Their constant pep talk helps the whole group do a better job. When’s the last time you worked in that kind of organization?

It’s much easier to sit behind the leader and criticize. When you’re not getting beaten by the wind, when you don’t face the same pressures every day, it’s easy to judge the person ahead of you. Don’t. Find the leader guilty of doing well. Send her a note. Tell her you appreciate what she’s doing. Don’t do to it to suck up to her, that won’t help anyone. But you benefit when she does well. And when your time comes, you have every right to expect her to be your biggest supporter.

I talk to company leaders all the time who tell me how isolated they feel at the top—because people guard their words, both good and bad. In healthy organizations, a foundation of trust means anyone in the building can give a honk out to the leaders around them. And when those leaders need bit of a breather they should expect that people won’t hyper analyze the pause as failure, but only a respite in a long journey.

Lead, Follow and Encourage the Whole Journey
What is your team’s approach? Are you celebrating the best of each member and encouraging people to lead in their moments? Or do you burn through leaders when they’re not perfect at all jobs? Do you welcome new leaders and new ideas? Or push out whomever and whatever doesn't conform?

One last thought: migrating geese set big goals to reach destinations far beyond the reach of one or two birds. Yet when they work together, encourage each other, and let each bird lead when he or she is in peak form, the whole community reaches the goal.

Maybe it’s time we finally recognize that we are better together. You lead, I’ll encourage. Then I’ll lead, and while you rest a bit, how about giving a few honks every now and then?