When you think of business leaders, who comes to mind? There’s Jobs. Bezos. Elon Musk. Zuckerberg. Warren Buffet. Bill Gates.
All of these are great answers, but they hardly show the full picture of real leadership. The fact of the matter is that these charismatic, high-performance innovators are rare. We aspire to be like them, but they don’t provide us with a picture of modern leadership.
As FastCompany puts it, the cult of personality in leadership is dead. Businesses don’t thrive because of the “singular genius” — one changemaker who holds all of the keys to the kingdom. No, today’s businesses aren’t about remarkable individuals. They’re about teams.
I don’t know about you, but for me? That’s a huge relief!
You don’t have to have all the answers to be a great leader. You don’t have to be the most magnetic personality in the room. What you need are the right tools to lead teams with purpose and intention. And make no mistake — every business leader mentioned in the beginning had a team. They didn’t do it all alone.
Here’s why team-oriented leadership works better than businesses fueled by a cult of personality.
4 Reasons Teams are Key to Great Leadership
Cartoons of the bygone era were all about teamwork. The team might have had a leader, but the whole was always more powerful than the parts. Remember Voltron? Captain Planet?
There’s something about the idea of working “with our powers combined” that works in the modern business world.
1) Your Perspective Widens
When leaders surround themselves with powerful, diverse teams, they gain perspectives they never would have had otherwise. This perspective not only creates room for innovative solutions that you may not have considered, but it makes way for more nuanced conversations, customer service, and product development.
We all have blind spots. Our life experience and upbringing mean that we haven’t been exposed to every walk of life, every problem and challenge, or every consideration that someone else values.
When we have a great team on our side, they’re able to point out the pieces that we’re missing. What’s important is that we, as leaders, value these perspectives and their diversity. Beware of dismissing someone just because their experience (and insight) doesn’t line up with your own.
2) Your Failings Don’t Break Everything
Putting anyone up on a pedestal is a problem. Not only can the whole thing come crumbling down because of a bad business decision, a moral failing, or a leader leaving the business, but it puts so much undue pressure on you in your leadership role.
While you might be the last line of defense and the person responsible for the standards set, you shouldn’t bear the full burden of company performance on your own. When you have a team that is aligned with your standards, goals, and values, you are better able to avoid unnecessary failures.
It’s not on you to make the right call. Instead, you benefit from a wealth of experience and intelligence to inform decision-making. If one person slips — even if that one person is you — a well-equipped team can come together to save the day.
3) Your Clients Benefit
No matter what product or service you offer, your business always benefits from teamwork. Not only can a strong team increase your capacity to serve, but they offer a wealth of experiences that can inform necessary changes. Different positions within the company experience different strengths and shortcomings of your business model. When you’re at the top, you don’t see it all.
When you allow these diverse experiences to come together, you can better address customer needs and concerns. We might say we value the customer, but unless we pay attention to each touch-point along the way, we’re missing out on valuable feedback...feedback that can take your customer service to the next level.
4) You Make Smarter Decisions
You don’t know everything. Just like I don’t know everything. As much experience as we may have as business leaders, we’re never going to know it all. Part of being a great leader is surrounding yourself with people who fill in your gaps of knowledge and expertise. When you hire people who can outdo you, it’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength.
Rather than being threatened, you leverage their skills to add value to your company. You don’t try to do it all yourself. Instead, you allow decisions to be informed by the experience and knowledge of your team.
You get a better picture of problems and potential solutions. And in the end, you make far better decisions than you could have made on your own.
How has teamwork transformed your leadership perspective? Share in the comments.