In the rapidly evolving business landscape, creating continuous growth is a challenge. Success hinges on building the right team—a winning team adaptable to daily challenges. This requires a new broad array of competencies in managers, something that we didn’t look in mangers in the past and it is array that need to be build and cultivate in manger in the present and for the future as it is essential for guiding companies toward growth. Inspired by Daniel Coyle’s “The Culture Code” and Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead,” we explore a suite of skills crucial for effective growth leadership.
The Competency Array for Growth-Oriented Leadership
· Building Safety (Coyle): True safety in a team extends beyond mere comfort; it’s rooted in an environment where trust and vulnerability are integral to team dynamics. Managers are key in cultivating this culture. They encourage open sharing of challenges and collaborative problem-solving, much like players on a basketball team who bring unique skills yet unite for a common purpose. Such dynamics nurture a sense of belonging and mutual respect, where taking risks and learning from failures are part of the journey. This approach transforms teams into cohesive units, not just excelling individually but collectively striving towards shared goals.
Imagine a marketing team working on a high-profile campaign. The team leader creates a space where each member feels comfortable sharing ideas and expressing concerns with no cynical or criticize attitude, all ideas and concerns are valid and are been discussed and addressed equally. Encouraged by the leader’s supportive attitude, they share their idea, which leads to a lively and productive discussion. This open environment, where creative risks are welcomed and everyone’s input is valued, not only leads to a successful campaign but also fosters a sense of unity and trust within the team.
· Embracing vulnerability: Embracing vulnerability in leadership involves fostering a culture where openness and learning from failures are encouraged. For instance, a manager might share a past mistake and the lessons learned from it during a team meeting. This act of sharing not only humanizes the manager but also sets a precedent for the team: it’s safe to discuss failures and learn from them.
Sharing Vulnerability (Coyle): Embracing vulnerability as a strength is key. Leaders openly addressing challenges and uncertainties can inspire team members to do the same, fostering trust and connection. Building teams that complement each other’s skills is crucial for collective success.
Rumbling with Vulnerability (Brown): Engaging in honest conversations and welcoming feedback transforms challenges into growth opportunities. Debriefing failures and reinforcing a culture of constructive feedback strengthens team resilience.
A practical example could be a tech company encouraging its engineers to present “failure case studies.” These sessions, where team members discuss projects that didn’t go as planned and the insights gained, help in normalizing vulnerability. Such practices reinforce the idea that acknowledging and learning from mistakes is a valuable part of the growth process, fostering a more innovative and resilient team culture.
· Establishing Purpose (Coyle): Establishing a clear purpose is crucial for aligning team efforts with the organization’s broader goals. Managers play a key role in translating the company’s mission and values into actionable objectives for their teams. It’s essential for every team to understand how their specific roles and tasks contribute to the overarching company goals. This approach ensures that each team member is not only aware of their individual responsibilities but also sees the bigger picture of how their work fits into the company’s success. By fostering this sense of shared purpose, managers can cultivate a more engaged and motivated workforce, driving collective achievement.
· Living into Our Values (Brown): Beyond simply having values, it’s important for companies to actively embed these into every aspect of their operations. This requires integrating values into decision-making, company culture, recruitment, and training processes, ensuring they are not just aspirational but actionable.
For example, Google has long championed the value of ‘Innovation.’ They don’t just state this value; they embed it into their work culture through practices like the ‘20% time’ policy, which encourages employees to spend 20% of their time on innovative side projects. This policy has led to the development of key products like Gmail, showing how deeply ingrained values can lead to tangible outcomes and drive growth.
· Braving Trust (Brown): Building trust within teams using Brown’s BRAVING framework (Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability, Vault, Integrity, Non-Judgment, Generosity) is essential. Managers need to establish and maintain trust to create a cohesive and effective team. It is about building a foundation of trust within teams. This involves establishing clear boundaries, ensuring reliability, holding oneself and others accountable, safeguarding confidential information (Vault), maintaining integrity, practicing non-judgment, and showing generosity in assumptions about others.
Expanding trust beyond individual teams, especially in cross-functional and inter-managerial contexts, requires a nuanced approach. Here, it starts with senior managers and need to cascade down as inherent DNA particle of the organization, trust-building involves understanding and respecting the different priorities and agendas of various departments. Managers can facilitate this by promoting open communication channels, encouraging collaborative projects, and fostering an environment where differing viewpoints are valued. This approach helps in creating a broader organizational culture of trust, where cross-functional teams work together seamlessly, respecting each other’s objectives and contributing to the company’s collective goals.
Conclusions: The Competency Array for Growth-Oriented Leadership offers a multifaceted approach to leadership, essential in today’s business world. In most companies you will find several parts of the array, and truly in a lot of companies it is enough, the array is an approach where we recognize that building a “good company” has critical fundamentals beyond, an amazing founder or a CEO, product or service because at some stage your competition will close the gap, to build continues growth and to keep your competition at a safe distance from you, you will need “A Wining Team” that will own, build and cultivate the Competency Array for Growth-Oriented Leadership. By developing these skills, managers can effectively lead their teams, nurture a growth culture, and drive their organizations towards sustained success. This skill set goes beyond individual development; it’s about building resilient, adaptable, and thriving enterprises.