This is a written Transcription for the Leadership Hustle episode about How to Build a Successful Team and Why it’s Important, from Season 1 Episode 4.

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How to build a successful team: FULL WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

Andrea Frederickson: You've hired the right people, you've put them on a team and things are not going as planned. That's your fault. In this episode, we'll show you how to make your team work. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle. For executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. Welcome back to the next episode of The Leadership Hustle, a podcast for executives whose whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. I'm your host, Andrea Fredrickson, and I am here with my co-host, Michelle Hill.

 

Michelle Hill: Hello.

 

Andrea Frederickson: And today, we're going to tackle the topic of teamwork. And it's so interesting today. I recognize that as we are recording this, that today is Michelle's 18th Ravella anniversary. She's been a team member with us for 18 years. I mean, I remember when your daughter was just a baby. I remember the whole thing. But I digress. We can go have a whole episode on that. But we're talking about teamwork and what I thought would be really interesting to talk about here is the fact that, you know, over the course of time we have learned to be a team. We've had people come and go in the organization. We have had people who have been really true team members. But one of the things that not only for our own organization, but in the organizations that we work with, people come to us and say, Yeah, I have a team, I lead a team. And then the reality is the next minute that they come talk to us, they're saying, But this person doesn't do this and this person doesn't do that. And I don't trust this person and I don't have that person. I'm like, Yeah, most people, in our opinion, do not lead a team. They lead a group of people. So I want to I think what we need to do is break that apart and talk a little bit about what's necessary to truly believe in a team. Right now, we're also in the midst of March Madness, and madness is what it is this year. So we're talking about teams and teamwork. So what what do you think is maybe one of the main components that in order to build a solid team, not just a group of people who are working together, which is what most leaders have, what do you think is one of the most important things that we need to work on intentionally to build that team?

 

Michelle Hill: Well, I think there's several. You're going to make me narrow it down to one annoys me, but then I'll let you go next. Okay? I would say my initial is the clarity of the expectations of how this team works together, how we treat each other, what do we tolerate, What do we not tolerate? Where is that line? And if someone crosses that line, if we tolerate it, then now we've changed the lines moved. Right, Right. But the real critical piece is it's the first as that leader understanding what what does that look like? What are those behaviors? How do we interact? And then identifying and being able to communicate that in a very clear, articulate way and get buy in. That's the next piece, right, of getting buy in that people believe that this is important and demonstrating it too. We have to model those things. Right. So what do you think so?

 

Andrea Frederickson: Well, let's let's add on to that before I go to another one. One is we may set the expectations that in one of our previous podcasts we talked about accountability. It's like, well, we need to hold each other accountable. And what happens is when when somebody doesn't meet an expectation or somebody doesn't agree with someone, they take it to the leader to have some conversation. And so, Michelle, if you had an issue with a coworker and you came to me and you said, Hey, so-and-so is not doing what they're supposed to, that accountability, and I say, okay, I'll take care of it. Well, now I've just become a micromanager, correct? Okay. Which is a whole nother conversation. We'll address another episode. But what we're not doing then is creating team teams need to be able to say, Michelle, you need to go talk to your coworker and have that conversation to create clarity and create understanding. So what are the expectations? I absolutely agree. How are we going to behave? Are we, you know, we can disagree and still go have a beer later and that's fine. But are we clear about what the expectations are related to how we're going to behave years and years and years ago? Because I've been doing this for decades, right? I used to ask leadership teams, who should your loyalty be to this team or the team that you lead? And they would look at me like I had three heads and I'm like, No, I'm serious.

 

Andrea Frederickson: Which one? And they always said the team that they lead, like, Well, that's team two, because we all we're on lots of different teams, whether it's a team, we lead the team, we're a member of a committee that we're on. There's all different kinds of teams, right? But long, long ago we talked about Team one and Team two. Team one is the leadership team. And your loyalty should. Be to that. And does everyone on that team understand that what we're looking for is we set the direction, we set the pace, we set culture, we set expectations, and then each of the individual departments, business units, whatever you want to call it, right. That that then is our responsibility to make sure they are aligned with Team one.

 

Michelle Hill: Correct, working towards those common goals.

 

Andrea Frederickson: Working toward those common goals. And so, you know, what kind of experience have you had as you're working with leadership teams or teams as we're talking about Team one versus Team two, Any feedback or pushback?

 

Michelle Hill: I don't think that's changed through the years in the sense that people's beliefs, people believe if I manage a group, that's my team. And first of all, we don't own those people, but they don't think about the impact of looking at their peers in a different way and how that helps take the silos down. It helps bring, you know, it helps bridge those departments and those areas to work better and stronger together, not against each other. But they don't think that, though initially they really do. I mean, it's one of those, oh, you know, kind of moments that people have because they initially will think that, no, this is the team I run. That's my number one team. But it really is if you pull back, it's got to be that that group of your peers, that leadership team that's making things happen.

 

Andrea Frederickson: Well. So that team is set up of individual folks, but it's all galvanized around what's the purpose, what's our strategy, where are we going? What are how are we trying to get there? And it's not a group of individual teams that are siloed. And so now we have to protect my budget or well, my team does this. In fact, words matter. And I think what we have to recognize when we talk about my team, it is the team, it is the accounting team, it's the marketing team. It's not my team because now it is like I have I have to protect them. Correct. There may be things that we have to go to bat for because we have to help people understand the impact or the relationship that's going on between what we're trying to accomplish across departments. But too often what we find is that senior leadership team is is more is are using those words in ways that that segregate as opposed to galvanize. And you know, I think about I mean I was a I'm a sports fan right? I played sports as a kid. Softball was my thing. But we recognized that if any one of us was trying to to outshine the other without lifting each other up, it was we were going to lose. We were going to lose. Like I might have to do a sacrifice bunt in order to advance somebody on onto a base versus I was going to increase my batting average, right? It's like I'm going to take one for the team because it's for the betterment of the whole. It's not about me. It's about us, right? So stop and think about what what kind of words are you hearing or what kinds of words get in the way of us having a true team versus a department or a business unit that we're trying to put our arms around and just, you know, like protect them from somebody else? You think Are there any things that come to mind that you can think of besides mine?

 

Michelle Hill: Well, there's yeah, there's helping the my team and there's a your team. It's the, you know, it is when they refer to the other teams as holding them back. So what they say about their peers and that their number one team also influences it influences how their team views the other departments. They may not know a lot of people in those other departments, but they have an opinion about them. And a lot of times that opinion is driven through their manager's words and what that what that manager is saying. So I wouldn't say necessarily specific words in that case, but it is how we percent or how we share information. Are we sharing it as a collective? We're all working together towards this or are we sharing it that there this other person, this other department is getting in the way or that they're causing problems or they're just difficult to work with and that type of thing.

 

Andrea Frederickson: Just had a group of executives. They were they were talking about an initiative that they were working on. And you could hear people having these meetings outside the meetings. Right When we went on break, they would have this conversation. And I would say, you know, as they were explaining what the other department, other person was, was talking about, that they were in this blaming them and protecting us. Well, if they would just do that, we could do this. This is not helping. These are these are things that are over. People are overhearing and they can't unhear. And so what you hear and what you think, what you believe you become and so you start acting on those things. And so now we are. Not only ourselves, distancing ourselves from Heisman Trophy. Right. We're distancing ourselves from another department, but we're also taking those people that are in our charge and helping them become distance as well, as opposed to how do we become and not or and so looking at kinds of words that you're using that unintentionally create division between between departments or.

 

Michelle Hill: I would also say like that the things that we're not doing, you know, in the sense of encouraging our team members to get to know, go to lunch or Hey, why don't you we've got this project, why don't you meet with so-and-so and marketing and so-and-so and sales or, you know, other areas and get some feedback on how things are going? I mean, do we as a leader encourage our people to build those relationships as well?

 

Andrea Frederickson: Right. One exercise that I love to invite people to to do between meetings, so there might be a month or two between our meetings and I will ask them to meet with everybody on the team and identify two things that you believe this person should do to continue because they it makes a great impact on the team, how well they get along, how how smoothly things work. Some gift that they bring to the team. But the other is that they get a get permission to say, okay, if you would do these two things differently, this would have an impact that maybe you didn't even understand. And so I had I had us do that exercise a few years ago. And and so what was the impact of you going through that exercise with with folks when you identified? Yeah, here's some things that are your gifts, but here's some things that if you could just do them different and you remember any of the things that.

 

Michelle Hill: Yeah it's well I think a couple of different things that came to light. One, there was an opportunity to just really understand their the people that we work with, their lenses and how they view my actions, right? So that impact, right, where sometimes there's misunderstanding, right? And you I don't realize it or they think something might still be going on and I'm like, I don't that was done a long time ago. I didn't even know we were still talking about that. It just helps kind of create that clarity. Sure. But then at the same time, it also helps you have an opportunity just to kind of share again what you appreciate. But could these little things could be different, would help. Right. And ultimately you end up working better together. I think it builds trust. Again, though, when we're respectful, when we are you know, it's part of it's how we go about doing it. You know, the words we choose to say and managing our emotions, not taking it, not taking initially what they say personal, but it's like, okay, what does that mean exactly? And having to ask for some examples, too. I know. I do remember that of okay, let's narrow this one down a little bit because I could make assumptions if I didn't ask some clarifying questions as well. But overall, I think it's a great activity. I encourage I've got some groups that I work with as well that they will do that. They do that. I know sometimes you'll call it the hot seat. There's another another one you can do, which is is a little different, but still similar in that sense.

 

Andrea Frederickson: So I remember some of you were talking about the idea that's like I had my intention was to do something good. The reception was You're making my life harder. And so just creating those clarities of of scenarios where even with the best of intentions, sometimes we do things that are not helpful or have unintended consequences. So I think that just making sure that we're having those conversations is truly helpful. You know, creating a creating a team is an intentional activity for all leaders. And I think that just the fact that we bring people together, we call them a team, we call them the senior leadership team or in a department that they are automatically a team. And I'm not a believer that that's the case. So making sure that we are clear about what those goals and expectations are and clearly identifying what's a priority, that these are the things that we're going to do and anything else related to that is secondary to those things too, is making sure that we understand what and how we're going to how we're going to behave under certain circumstances. If we disagree, we don't need to use a two by four upside the head and say, you're an idiot. Why did you say that? Right. But how do we have those healthy conversations and recognize that people's intentions are good If we understand we're all playing for the same team and making sure that the the goal of the game is to win? Yes. Right. Yes. And then making sure that we understand that that this team is the team the senior leadership team is the is team one. From that our goals and expectations are identified. What our priorities are that we set the culture and then all the rest of the teams are organized to support those those different teams.

 

Michelle Hill: So I think creating a common message that leaves that leadership room as well.

 

Andrea Frederickson: That when we walk out of there, we all agree we are on the same page, conversations outside the conversation, outside the.

 

Michelle Hill: Meeting. So we're able to have those discussions in there because what we then take to our team is going to have a huge impact on how we're able or not able to get buy in and move things forward as well.

 

Andrea Frederickson: Almost every team, senior team that I work with has an issue with somebody else in that room every every single one. And that's to be expected because we have human beings that we're working with, right? Correct. The understanding of do you believe that person's intentions are good and that their behaviors are just showing up in a way that doesn't make sense? Or maybe you don't believe that person's intentions are good, But regardless, have you had that conversation? And part of truly being a team is having those tough conversations and making sure that we are clear in our understanding about where we're going?

 

Michelle Hill: Well, and I would say it's recognizing when we have those feelings because we're going to act on them. So if I don't recognize it, if I'm not picking up, I mean, if I'm not if I'm not getting a red flag. When I say that, I mean, I may recognize that this person is driving me crazy or whatever, but if I'm not seeing a red flag that, well, this is this is going to get in the way of us working together because it will get in the way of you working together. That's having developing that self-awareness and being able to say, you know what, I feel this way and I know if I continue this feel this way, it's going to cause conflict. It's going to it's going to get in the way of us working on things one way or another. I can't you can't fake it all the time. So we need to have a conversation. And it's not a difficult I mean, I know people say difficult, but then that's again, a belief system and then they they get too nervous to do it. Clarify. It's just a clarifying conversation. Let's just chat. Let's get on the same page. Let me understand what you have going on. Let you understand what I have going on and how are we going to work better together because we both choose to be here, right? So since that's a choice, right, let's make it better while we're here, because we spend a lot of time together.

 

Andrea Frederickson: So as the leader, don't let team happen by accident because it won't be a team. Create those opportunities where people get to know each other, work through personality assessments, work through how you're going to solve this problem together, put people together as opposed to having one off conversations, but do the things that are intentional to help create those teams. Yes. Thanks again for joining us on the Leadership Hustle. Hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.