Team Warfare: Good teams fight together: Not with each other!
Here is a wonderfully good example. A group of US Marines were attending a military training. During their recreational time they went to a paintball range to enjoy some downtime fun. If you have ever been to a range like [http://www.paintball-junglegames.com] you know that there are several fields of battle to choose from. Participants informally group together to challenge other teams on one of these fields of battle. These Marines formed their own team and defeated every challenger. It was amazing to watch.
Although there was no one main leader for the group each Marine shared common experiences, had an understanding of common tactics, and held common values. And they all were focused on a common goal. With no formal leader each Marine took control, as appropriate for the situation, and made decisions based on their situational awareness. Their success, as a group stemmed from their willingness to support each other’s leadership.
Alignment versus conflict. As you can imagine, the civilian opponents failed. Their failure was not so much for their lack of military training as much as their inability to share leadership. There was more conflict and confusion on the civilian team because of the second guessing and delayed implementation.
The USMC is formally embracing this level of team leadership and shared ownership even on the battlefield. This is a topic discussed in a recent article published in the Marine Corps Gazette.
“Traditional military models of leadership represent a vertical process of centralized power and influence within a single hierarchical leader. … shared leadership may act as an effective complement to vertical leadership team frameworks within the military when the power from hierarchical structures fails to achieve leadership effectiveness alone.”
“Additionally, investigations of shared leadership have found significant links to other positive outcomes such as increase team potency, trust, and sustainability.”
It is encouraging to see military using best practices leadership principles. In the modern warfare, and within our business environments, it takes everyone [fully committing their individual abilities] to be successful in these dynamic, chaotic circumstances.
Fear of empowerment is a major obstacle to [military and business] team success. Many business leaders fear empowering others to lead. They ask, “What if I lose control of the situation?” or “What if I lose [my personal] power?” Fear and lack of self-confidence are major obstacles to successful leadership. When they fail to empower, they limit their own ability to powerfully lead and inspire others to achieve.
Risk conservatively but plan aggressively. Step out. Enable and empower your team. Allow the opportunity for failure, but guard against catastrophic failure. Use team mistakes as learning opportunities. As a leader learn where your limits are. Use failures as learning lab opportunities for your team to learn, progress, and grow their own maturity. Growth happens over time. Begin the process today!
Mark McCatty, Leadership & Team Advisor
Leadership Results through People
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As a leadership and team advisor, I have helped numerous organizations, through speaker presentations, group training, and individual coaching, to meet the challenge of creating engaging and purposeful work environments.
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