Leadership In A New Age

The pandemic pivots point to personal persuasion

The devastation wrought by a global pandemic and the need to manage remote work teams have opened a deceptively simple leadership tool: create a collective sense of unity and purpose beyond profit. 

One of the fastest ways to create a cohesive team is to form a community super organism through a common, overarching goal. Psychologists call this a superordinate goal, a goal achieved only by strong cooperative teamwork. Think of the teams that were created following natural disasters like Katrina, the tsunami that hit Japan, or 9/11. How about TOMS shoes or Timberland? They pulled teams together because it was more than a product. These are social justice companies capable of big picture-thinking.
 

(1) Create a larger-than-self picture of what would be the desired state that everyone feels passionately about. I just had a client team pull together a superordinate goal: “We are a unified, diverse and strategic community, passionate about delivering superior medicines to patients.” It’s not about dollars made or the number of medicines. It’s about patients served.

(2) Develop a collaborative or common identity. Example: Springboks, the South African rugby team, the very symbol of apartheid, became World Cup contenders and also a focal point of pride for South Africans emerging as a new country. Thanks to the wisdom of Don Beck, American management consultant and co-author of Spiral Dynamics, the Springboks’ coach followed Beck’s advice in how to help the team become not only a World Cup team but to also be a rallying point of pride for the new nation. Watch INVICTUS and you will see it all played out. Literally.

Beck suggestions were followed: green and gold colors of a team shirt and a team song with a Zulu drum to lead and arouse the crowd. 

Think about the Chilean miners trapped for 70 days. The shift leader Luis Urzua created a collective identity by a strict sharing of resources: a one-man one-vote decision-making process, and a unifying name Los Trenta y Tres—The Thirty-Three.  

(3) Use tangible items that reinforce the all-for-one identity as well as the larger vision. Example. Urzua hung up the Chilean flag and frequently led the men in singing the national anthem. Survival wasn’t just good for them—it was good for the country. 

When I was involved as a senior manager taking over a very discouraged workforce that needed to produce immediate results for military families, we became known as the STRAWBERRY team. The prior management had treated staff like mushrooms: keeping them in the dark and covering them with you-know-what. The strawberry became our emblem. We wore it. We created Strawberry Shorts- an instant email that told of anyone’s accomplishment as soon as it happened. We served strawberry ice cream when we celebrated. And we made sure that every division was highlighted when it promoted another division’s programs. We were in this together.

Be warned. This can’t be just meaningless words. The leader must live and breathe what the team aspires to create. It is “all for one and one for all.”

The other thing a leader must do is to sincerely underscore what works well. The words of philosopher Howard Zinn highlight the need to seek the uplifting and hopeful: 

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness…If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”^*

Remember, it is not one huge initiative but small actions, repeated, encouraged, highlighted and underscored by all. And, errors and mistakes are opportunities for education and growth. It’s a new and very different model being created.  

“If we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” Howard Zinn.^*

* You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times published 2002 by Beason Press.

Author Bio

Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE is the CEO (Chief Energy Officer) at The Resiliency Group. Since 1980, Eileen McDargh has helped organizations and individuals transform the life of their business and the business of their life through conversations that matter and connections that count. She is known as a master facilitator, an award-winning author, and an internationally recognized keynoter and executive coach. In 2020, Global Gurus International, a British-based provider of resources for leadership, communication and sales training, also ranked her third as one of the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals following a global survey of 22,000 business professionals. Her newest book, Burnout to Breakthrough: Building Resilience to Refuel, Recharge and Reclaim What Matters has been generating great response and interest.  Visit www.theresiliencygroup.com  Follow @macdarling Connect Eileen McDargh