Getting the Right People on the Rowboat - The Key to Machete Leadership

This is the second installment in a twelve part series on applying Machete Thinking™ to your organization. Click here to read or revisit The Case for Machete Thinking.

In this installment, I'd like to discuss the keys to building a Machete Leadership Team.

With all due respect to Jim Collins and his book, "Good to Great" (one of my favorite authors and favorite books), I'd like to embrace his concept of getting the "right people on the bus" and change it slightly to "getting the right people on the rowboat."

You are probably thinking bus, rowboat..........who cares Derrick! I get the concept! I'd like to make the case that your leadership team needs to act more like the members of a rowing crew team than just having the right people on a bus.

The members of a crew team are the rowers and the coxswain. The rowers provide the power to move the boat and the coxswain sets the direction and coaches the rowers as a team to achieve the end goal. Although they have different roles, they all must work together in order to be successful in achieving their end goal.

Simply put, a Machete Leadership Team should function like a winning crew team. Let's break down the six key components:

1. Committed and Aligned to the Mission, Vision and Values - Just like a crew team needs to agree to their mission as a group and the vision for future, they also need to decide on their team philosophy and rules. If they are not committed and aligned as a group, their ability to function successfully is severely limited. Success can have many different looks and personalities. Some teams are aggressive while others are calm and reserved. They both can be successful. The key is the team needs to be intentional in putting together members that connect and align with each other on these agreed upon fundamentals. A simpler way to describe this is team chemistry. Success is difficult without it.

Questions to Answer: Are you sure that everyone on your leadership team is connected and aligned to your mission, vision and values? Your team philosophy and rules? If you interviewed everyone separately, would they have the same answers? Do you have excellent team chemistry? If you answered no to any of these, you may not have the right team. If your leadership team is not properly aligned, it will trickle down (in a negative way) throughout the organization.

2. One Shared Goal - There is no individual success on a crew team. There is only team success. You can't win by yourself. In fact, if you try to do more than your role, you are actually hurting team results. The team must agree on the one shared goal that unites them and they can push each other to achieve it.

Questions to Answer - Do you have one shared goal that the entire team can rally around and work towards together? Are most of the rewards and recognition tied to the overall shared goal or are there significant individual incentives? If there are, the individual rewards may be put ahead of the team rewards and that's when problems occur.

3. A Humble but Committed Leader - The coxswain understands they set the direction and guide the team but FULLY understand its the rowers doing the work that makes the team succeed. Their job is to inspire, encourage, guide and coach the team to meet their goal. They know when to step in and push the team or a team member and when to back off. If the team fails, they take responsibility. If the team succeeds, it's all due to the rowers commitment and effort. There's no ego that gets in the way of team success. 

Questions to Answer - Does the leader/CEO understand that nothing gets done without an inspired and aligned workforce? Does the leader/CEO understand that leading is getting things done through other people and the key to that is inspiring, guiding and coaching the leadership team and employees to achieve the shared goal? Does the leader/CEO create a positive environment that helps people succeed? Does the leader see themselves as failing the team if they do not achieve the team goal?

4. Continuous Adjustments to Stay on Course - The coxswain is not looking two feet in front of the boat, they are looking much farther ahead to make sure the boat in moving in the right direction. Their job is to make small, timely adjustments before the boat gets too far off course. They understand that waiting until the boat is way off course before changing is catastrophic. Too much time and energy is needed at that point to get the boat back on course and your competition will definitely win due to your wasted effort. 

Questions to Answer - Does your leader sense or see small things that take the organization off course and make quick adjustments before they become big problems or do they only react when things get way off course, costing the organization valuable time and resources?

5. Self Policed & Quick Resolution to Under-performing Members - A crew team knows when they have a member that is not doing their job or is not committed to the team's mission, vision and values. As a group, they will address the issue with the under performer and if it doesn't change, they will remove the member. This dynamic tends to only occur if there is a shared goal that defines the teams success. 

Questions to Answer - Do your team members hold each other accountable for a shared team goal or does each member function independently to achieve individual, department or functional goals? Will the team go together to the leader/CEO if they think someone is not "pulling their weight" and ask for them to be replaced?

6. Rewards for Team Success - The only reward for a crew team is achieving the shared goal. They fail as a team and succeed as a team. The rewards for team success are more significant than any individual reward because it was done together and everyone knows how difficult it is to win as a team. 

Questions to Answer - Does your leadership team TRULY value team success over individual success? Is there the one shared goal that all parties rally around? Does the team celebrate together when the shared goal is achieved? 

Even though intelligence, competency and experience are important when putting together individuals on a team, that alone will not make the team successful. There have been many individual "all stars" put together in both sports and business that have failed miserably as teams. 

Consider these six key components, ask yourself the tough questions and make the hard decisions. When you do, you will be well on your way to having a Machete Leadership Team, just like a winning crew team.

The next installment in this twelve part series is defining your Machete Edge in the marketplace.

If you'd like to be notified when the next installment in the Machete Thinking™ series is published, please hit the "Follow" button above. For more information on applying Machete Thinking™ to your organization, please contact dstrand@derrickstrand.com.

Derrick Strand is the founder of Machete Methods™, a research, advisory and training firm focused on creating organizational success by 1) cutting through barriers, 2) clearing paths and 3) creating your edge. He is also certified as a DISC Behavioral Analyst for both individuals and teams.

His recent book, Trigger, helps organizations learn how to Design, Align and Deliver Intentional Results. Follow him here on LinkedIn.