How Do Leaders Drive Team Unity?

Perry Holley:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I’m Perry Holly, a Maxwell Leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:
And I’m Chris Goede, executive vice president with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. Excited about today’s topic? One of my top five values is teamwork. And I think that what we’re going to talk about today is essential when it comes to teamwork. Before we get there, I want to encourage you to go to MaxwellLeadership.com/ExecutivePodcast and there you can download the learner guide. You can leave a comment, we’d love to hear from you in regards to leadership challenge and we will work that into an upcoming episode and we’ll just leave your name, company, and your leader out of it when we talk about it. But today we’re going to talk about how do leaders drive team unity? And because teamwork is a top five value of mine, I think this is a so important, I would call it a make or break leadership skill for people that really value teamwork and thinking about the team rowing together in one direction. There’s a great movie, came out a couple years ago, Boys in the Boat.

Chris Goede:
It’s a fantastic leadership.

Perry Holley:
Just watched recently.

Chris Goede:
Yeah. And if you’re not rowing in the same, you know, direction, man, it can be exhausting. And, and there’s a lot of that happening. You think about the engagement levels of teams and you go, okay, I know in domestic in the United States, for us here, it’s the highest of everywhere and that’s at 31, 32%, but around the world it’s at 21%. Right. And so we’re like, oh, that’s great. No, it’s not great. There’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Chris Goede:
And so unity doesn’t mean that we all have to agree on everything, every detail. It actually means that we will align around what we’re doing as a team. Are we in a place to where we have each other’s back? Like I love a statement where we say people just want to be seen, valued and heard. They don’t need to be right. It doesn’t need to be their opinion. But when that happens, then we will all be rowing together and be in alignment. And so one last thing here before I throw it to you to get us started, John Maxwell has a way of saying where he says one is too small a number to achieve anything Great. And man, you can’t win alone, but you can’t also win with a team if you guys are just all over the place.

Chris Goede:
There’s no unity and, and each is doing their own direction. It’s actually probably more frustrating than if you were alone.

Perry Holley:
I was doing a lesson a while back about the we, you know, show the picture of the boat and some people are rowing, some people are watching, some people may be trying to sink the boat.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And we talk about engagement, that sort of thing. But one guy yelled out, he said, perry, everybody in my boat’s rowing. I said, you know, rock on. And he said, well, they’re rowing in different directions, but they’re rowing. Okay, that’s not good.

Chris Goede:
That’s not good.

Perry Holley:
That’s another lecture. We’ll be back next week for that. But this topic came up to me with coaching, group coaching call. And it happened to be a topic in the study we were doing. And I wasn’t planning on deep diving on it, but the group around the room kept going off about, oh yeah, this is so important. And I was asking about unity on their leadership team and then the unity on their individual teams. They led. And so I think it’s a two way, you know, leading unity down and unity across and with their team.

Perry Holley:
And they were all positive and all this and all that. It was just, okay, we’ll move on. And I wanted to say more about it, but they just kept, yeah, oh yes, you know, we got it, no problem. So right after we have the group call, I had a call with the leader and I said, how’d you think the call went? He goes, that was the biggest bunch of bunk I’ve ever seen. I go, what? He goes, all that talk about unity. I said, right after the call, two of them came in my office and complained about two other people on the team. And they’re always backbiting, they’re always doing this. I go, okay, wait, wait, wait.

Perry Holley:
Everything rises and falls on leadership. What are we going to do about that? So how do you, what is it, the tone we’re setting. So then I decided I would ask him. I said, can I, can I develop you a unity reflection guide for personal. The team unity and then individual unity with your other, because that’d be great. So that’s where this lesson came from.

Chris Goede:
Amazing.

Perry Holley:
I produced that and got it over to him. I’ll look forward to the next call to see if it’s had any legs.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, but what I love about you’re talking about is that it, it does start with the leader?

Perry Holley:
Yes, Right.

Chris Goede:
Like the team is missing it and he is confessing that to you and help. Asking for help through it. But as a leader, that unity starts with you. And it starts actually, ironically enough, in one on one conversations. And so that’s the beginning step of driving unity with teams is making sure that the leader is emphasizing that and what behaviors and conversations are allowed. All of those type of things come when there’s importance on unity in a team. And so I was thinking about what we would call a sack race back in the day, or three legged, you know, race. And you got, well, you got two people, right? And if it’s just like growing in different directions, you got one that begins to go a different direction than the other.

Chris Goede:
And they’re on the ground, no doubt about it, like they’re stumbling. I mean, I do that when I’m walking by myself. I can’t imagine, you know, being in a sack race and going on the ground. Well, in the corporate environment, what does that look like? That looks like the team’s not performing. You’re not hitting deadlines. Maybe the margins aren’t there. The team doesn’t trust each other. All of those things that the team feels erodes at the culture.

Chris Goede:
Remember, we talk about culture as how people think, act and interact. Okay. And so we are going to, you know, put, put on the wall. This is about the unity, this is about the team. This is where we’re going. And then as a leader, you just got to make sure that everything is focused in that direction.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, I’m actually thinking as I’m hearing you talk, I, I don’t, I didn’t put this in the notes, but how much of unity that’s, that’s experienced on your team between your teammates is cultural? It’s your cultural. Because you said something before the mic’s turned on. You said that he should have put a stop to that in his office. Yeah, I went, yeah. Actually, the culture, what does our. You’re in here, you’re in here backbiting one of your colleagues. What does our culture say we should do to do that? So let me tell you what I told the leader to do. This kind of was in this, this guide that I gave him on a reflection guide for them to either talk through as a team or for each individual to reflect, reflect on.

Perry Holley:
It was, number one, was to tell this leader to paint the vision, which is what got me thinking about the culture aspects of that. But can you define what unity looks like in behavior? What are some things that I would see to do that. So, you know, it might be things like supporting each other publicly. I notice on our team, we had a team call yesterday and people were talking about other people positively and supporting them and solving disagreements directly. Go to the person to do that. Speaking well of each other behind their back, you know, when they’re not in the room, speak well of each other. And these types of things start to build that. And I don’t think leaders can assume that everybody on your team defines unity the same way.

Perry Holley:
I would actually be surprised if they did. And you have to set that shared expectation. It kind of goes in, how do we do unity here? And what does it mean? What does it look like?

Chris Goede:
That’s a good question. I think I actually was just making a mental note, man. It’d be interesting for leaders to actually ask the individuals, what does unity look like for you on a team? And there’s going to be a lot of overlap, which is great, because then as a leader, you know, that’s a priority that you need to lead that team on. So I really like that question that leaders should be asking.

Perry Holley:
Yeah. It’s not a word we use a lot.

Chris Goede:
No, it’s not.

Perry Holley:
Are you a unit? Are you. Are you expressing unity and, you know, defining that?

Chris Goede:
I think, yeah.

Perry Holley:
Wonderful.

Chris Goede:
So we talk about this at. Again, we’re going to come back to the five levels of leadership and we’re going to talk about where at level two, the connection and the trust happens and the kind of the unification of a team. But it does show up at level three, when we’re in the production and we’re in go mode and what does that look like? But it is all about the fundamentals of trusting each other in the team and trusting their leader. Right. So that they don’t fear having a tough conversation. What’s interesting about the example that you shared was everybody was posturing in that meeting.

Perry Holley:
Yes. Yeah.

Chris Goede:
And no one. Were they fearful of the conflict that potentially was going to happen? Were they fearful of what it would make them look like? Did they not want to have a tough conversation? And that’s why I’m also super excited about something you’re working on. Matter of fact, as of this recording, you’re getting on a plane the next day and going up and we’re looking at some content, really seriously, about how to have critical conversations and firm feedback that’s based in our DNA. Because this has to happen and do it the right way, you keep the trust, because if not, then what ends up happening, it’s just fake. It’s like oh, we all love each other. Right. And it’s that artificial harmony. And what is going to then the team’s just going to begin to resent each other.

Chris Goede:
There’s going to be back channel complaints. They’re going into the leader’s office complaining about so and so again. I’m going to go back to turnover and engagement. Right. Like this is a root cause of what shows up in these horrendous engagement and turnover numbers that are out there around the world.

Perry Holley:
I told the leader, I wish you’d have said something in the call, said, hey Perry, this is an interesting topic. One that I don’t think we do well.

Chris Goede:
Wink wink. Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And let you do we talk about it a little more. And then I would have but then he might have thought it was so bad that he didn’t want to open that can. In a one hour call we will be opening that can again. I can’t let it go. Sorry. I’m just that way.

Chris Goede:
Way.

Perry Holley:
Another thing leaders can do to jump start this trust I think is facilitating what we talk a lot about here, facilitating vulnerability is that I’m finding that most people when this in this situation I know a lot about, they, they’re not everybody’s a little too perfect. Everybody’s a little too on their game. Then nobody shares any struggles, nobody asks for help, nobody says I made a mistake to do that. So I thought one of my reflection question was have the team, everybody on the team share a strength that they think they bring to the team. What is something you bring to the team? You did a little bit of this on our call this week. You ask what is your influence? Like what are you doing?

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
Another question you can have everybody in the go round said what’s one area that you’re working to improve and getting them to, you know, I think I’m too humble. No, that’s not good. Yeah. I want something you’re really trying to improve on and then maybe have them share a personal story that shaped who they are. Some of our men and women on our coaching team used the defining moment exercise. You know, what defines you, what really shaped who you are as a person and what this does is it kind of humanizes each other that we might lower our defenses a bit and unity starts to grow. Because I said, wow, you have some strength. I recognize that and I appreciate that about you.

Chris Goede:
Wow.

Perry Holley:
I appreciate hearing that you were working and growing on something.

Chris Goede:
Wow.

Perry Holley:
That happened to you as a kid and that’s what, what caused you to get into this line of work. And now. Now that I know more about you, that level comes down. And now unity begins to blossom, to happen.

Chris Goede:
Another story comes to mind is. And you’ve read this book, too, the American Icon. Right. I’m thinking about. I want to say those that haven’t read it, I want to encourage you to read it. It’s how Alan Mulally turned around Ford. I want to say it’s chapter five and 12, because I really studied it. And it.

Chris Goede:
They call it the business plan review. And what I was just thinking about was, you got all these executives, and it’s Alan’s first meeting, and he tells a story, and they’re losing billions. Billions. You heard me say billions a month. And he asks everybody to, I guess, hold up a card, right? Red, yellow, green, on where your business unit is. And they go around the room and there’s greens, all greens, all greens. And he’s like, maybe I didn’t ask the question the right way, but here’s. Here’s what I want to tell you.

Chris Goede:
They all were in their own little subculture protection. First one to put up a red. All of a sudden, the team jumped in and helped him solve one of his major problems within, like, minutes.

Perry Holley:
Yeah.

Chris Goede:
And the unification, right. That was happening in that moment because they kept their walls down.

Perry Holley:
It reminded me of. That’s funny.

Chris Goede:
And so I would encourage you to read that story.

Perry Holley:
The story you said. The guy said, I told his team, I’m going to put up a yellow. And they said, nice knowing you.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, no, I’m going to do it.

Perry Holley:
And then he did it. Malali came out of his shoes going, outstanding. Tell me more about that. And then the team came around him.

Chris Goede:
And. And it was the tipping point of turning around was. So the power of that as a team is something that we don’t want you to take lightly around this. This unity. Team unity. The other thing is we were talking a little bit about gossip, and we’re talking about water cooler talk. And how as. How as teams, do you replace that with direct conversations? I was with an organization a couple weeks ago, and this is amazing.

Chris Goede:
One of their values, one of their organizational values is no gossip. I was like, yeah, really? And so we walked into a room and they had all their values painted up on a wall. Sure enough, right in the middle, no gossip. And he’s like, listen, that’s just not up on the wall. We have let people go for gossip. Like, we had a direct conversation. We made notes, we gave him a couple chances. And then it.

Chris Goede:
That was termination. Because that’s how detrimental it is to the UN the unity of the team. And so, man, if we, we want to always encourage. If you have an issue, you know, go directly to that person, not the leader or the teammate. First, like, go, go to the person, say, look, here’s, here’s. And again, use the language that we’ve taught you on these podcasts, which is, man, my, you know, my perception is this, that may not be your intent. Can we talk about it? But it’s a way to have a common language around having tough conversations. But as leaders, we also need to model this with our people.

Chris Goede:
And when you do that, you’ll see a major culture shift in your team. And so here’s a more to come on this. We’re going to have frameworks and things that we’re going to help dive into, you know, having direct conversations. But here’s a. Here’s a simple conflict resolution framework. It’ll be in your learner’s guide that you can download that Perry put together for us. Number one, describe the behavior, the facts of the behavior, not the assumptions. Like, hey, when you did this, I felt that, like, was, you have a lot of specifics around it, share the impact that it had on you or, or the team’s work, by the way, not you personally.

Chris Goede:
And then ask for their perspective on what they were thinking and then come to an agreement on the way forward, coming out of that direct conversation so that there’s unity in the team.

Perry Holley:
You know, you might take it another step forward. You could create a team agreement like that or, you know, a unity charter. That may sound a little over the top, but it’s not handed down from the top. Not from you. I don’t think you. You can direct that. You let the team come up with that, co create it with you. But it would cover items that would say, how do we speak with one another? Just agreeing that we’re going to have a certain way that we communic.

Perry Holley:
How do we handle disagreements? So we have a. And this is not uncommon to disagree on something. But what is our method for handling that? How do we. How do we. Respectfully. And this is coming to my mind as I’m speaking that John talks around. One thing really affected me was connection over content. Connection over content is that I have something.

Perry Holley:
I disagree with you, I have something hard to say to you, but I’m going to protect my connection with you. And I use this at home a lot. Is that don’t ruin the relationship because you think you’re right or you want to be heard or you want to win? I’m going to say what I say, when I say it in such a way as to protect our relationship. And then how we support each other when we’re not in the room. That’s so true that people that we look out for each other, we watch each other’s back, we don’t let somebody gossip behind and do that kind of thing. When they create it, they own it. So I like the idea of this starting to be the glue that holds this unity together.

Chris Goede:
That last comment where you just said how we support each other when we’re not in the room. Periodically, as a leader of a team, if someone comes in and supports, let’s say they come in and support you. I won’t share all the details, but the next time we’re, we’re together, I’ll make a mental note. I’ll be like, man, listen, Jason was in my office the other day and he actually said, hey, man, Perry did that with the content.

Perry Holley:
I do that too. I love that.

Chris Goede:
So you don’t have to share all of the details, but just a piece of that I think goes a long way. So here’s another idea to be able to practice as a leader and what this looks like positive recognition. Now I want to encourage you though, to do this with specifics, do this authentically. Do not do this in a way that it’s just ho hum, because what ends up happening is they then begin to not to believe you. Right?

Perry Holley:
Yeah.

Chris Goede:
And it begins. And so this is something that I think really will rewire the team’s attention towards appreciation of each other instead of criticism. Let me give you an example. Perry was talking just a minute ago about a team meeting that we had yesterday. And we were going around, we have a team member that just doesn’t like. It’s just, it’s okay. It’s how she’s wired. She doesn’t like to verbalize how she’s feeling.

Chris Goede:
Very quiet. And we were talking about some things around some recognition, different things teams were doing. And Perry jumped up and he said, well, let me tell you what I see in her leadership. And it was just about, it was beautiful. It was about, about a minute and a half of the things, specific things that he sees in that way. By the way, I was watching not you because we’re all on zoom. I was watching her body language. And while she was a little uncomfortable because she has one attention herself, I did kind of see her just kind of roll her shoulders back a little bit, sit up A little bit higher, with a little bit more of a grin on her face.

Chris Goede:
Because we all want to have some type of.

Perry Holley:
Everybody wants to be appreciated, for sure. To do that, well, you’ll need to be accountable, hold people accountable for this. If you don’t, unity is just kind of a wish that you have. You know, if someone comes to you with a complaint like this leader told me I that you. You got to redirect them. Yeah. Have you taken that to the other person yet? Sometimes. That’ll be.

Perry Holley:
I’ll help you. Let’s go talk about it. But you’re. You’re modeling, I think, as leaders. If you don’t model this, you’re the example. You set the tone for the team standard, and then you’re the one that’s going to hold us to this new culture. This. This how we do things here when it comes to the glue that holds us together as a team.

Perry Holley:
And I will tell you, there is a lot in the. In the environment, in this, in the marketplace, in the today that can break a team apart. Lots of things that can cause dissension, lots of distractions. So this, I love this lesson about, are there things as a leader that I can do that can help keep that team strong and together and that we watch each other and we care for each other to do that? Go ahead and wrap it up.

Chris Goede:
So as I wrap up, look, as a leader, okay, remember, we define leadership as influence. This is everybody on the team, right. We’ve got to build trust with each other, with our peers, with those that we lead, with those that we report directly to. I want everybody to. To adopt the no gossip rule.

Perry Holley:
Right.

Chris Goede:
The fact that company that I shared, that I visited, had it painted on the wall in big letters and actually made employment decisions off of that, so strong, they don’t put up with that. Right. I love your idea. How do we create agreements? Let the. Let the team look at creating agreements, how we recognize wins. What does that look like when you begin to put all this together, These little things, it’s going to drive and fuel performance. Gallup says that, man, if the team is unified, their. Their profitability and their team’s Profitability is up 21%.

Chris Goede:
Productivity is up 17%. And that’s just doing the small things to get a team to feel like they are. The unity is there in that team. So one last thing. You and I were talking about this right before we started, and I’ll just leave you with this as an additional resource to this podcast. Is the team of Rivals. The. The Lincoln.

Perry Holley:
Right.

Chris Goede:
It’s a fascinating read of how you bring a team together and that unification of a team with different thoughts, different background, different skill sets, different beliefs, all.

Perry Holley:
Of different political parties.

Chris Goede:
All of that. All of that. And so remember today, this was about leaders. How do you drive team unity? And by the way, this is not, this is not a soft skill. We don’t talk about soft skills. We talk about them as essential skills. And if you figure out how to do this with the team and it’s going to drive your Profitability up by 21%, that should be all you need to hear as a leader to be able to want to do this. So make sure you dig into these small but powerful principles and be intentional about the change.

Perry Holley:
I love it when you bring statistics. It just makes my day. Yeah, terrific. If you reminder, if you want to get the learner guide, which probably have some of those statistics in it, you can get that as well as learn about our offerings or the podcast offerings. You can get all that at MaxwellLeadership.com/ExecutivePodcast. You can also leave us a comment or a question there. We love hearing from you. Very grateful you’d spend this time with us.

Perry Holley:
That’s all today from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.

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