How Tight is Your Team?
/When I was interviewing leaders I admire for the (Un)shakeable book, several phrases stood out. Jodi Cant, then Director General of the Department of Finance said “There’s no daylight between us” to describe how united her executive team were once a decision was made. It's a great example of Commanding the Narrative and Mantras . The Mantra is visual and clearly sets intent for unified behaviour. No daylight = not even the tiniest gap. For me it conjures an image of the team standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the future, filled with courage and shared commitment.
You only get alignment like that when the discussion, data and dispute leading up to a decision are robust. The minimum standard is that each member of the team can live with the decision. The gold standard is that each member of the team wholeheartedly agrees with it. It takes courage, solid culture and huge commitment.
If the process is not robust, the gaps between the team are huge. Often they show in undermining behaviour like:
Leaders agreeing when face to face, but voicing disagreement to subsets of the team behind the scenes. This is a really fast way to reduce trust. It’s one of the key tactics that reality shows like Survivor use to create factions on their shows.
Leaders going back to their team and blaming the decision on other members of the leadership group.
Leaders not communicating the decision to the people they lead.
And a host of other more subtle ways of undermining either each other and/or the decision.
Robust leadership cultures can be confronting. The courage, vulnerability and work involved in “No Daylight” is not for the faint hearted. There’s no room for passengers. AND if you take the time to build a culture like that you can achieve incredible results.
How much daylight is there between members of your team?