A Team of Leaders summary

Imagine you’re at the office and it’s midday. After 4 hours of typing and staring at a computer screen, how do you feel? In all likelihood, you’re bored stiff.

You probably have moments when you’d like to forsake your computer and incite your coworkers to join you in revolutionizing the office. You’d like to be part of a team, not a hierarchy. You want to be a member of a team of leaders.

But, as in most offices, your boss has all the decision-making power. What do you do?

Well, your workplace may simply be in the first of five stages in the team development model. Stage one is that hierarchical model we’re used to; there’s one leader and a team of subordinates following orders.

So how do you move past that stage?

First, it’s important to know what the next stage looks like.

Imagine an organization that’s agreed to strive toward developing a team of leaders. There’d no longer by one executive adjudicating on all work-related issues. Rather, every member of the team would have an equal say.

This is the stage during which change really begins. The following stages are just the ideal consequences of that initial shift.

Stage three, for instance, is when new leaders begin thinking about creating and taking responsibility for their own team, perhaps by recruiting new members.

In stage four, the transition continues as more and more team members step up to the plate and take on leadership roles. For instance, instead of waiting for an assignment from your management, you’d approach HR yourself, learn the ropes and start selecting candidates to fill open positions.

By stage five, the goal of completely shared leadership is realized, and each employee is filled with a greater sense of engagement. Because everyone now knows how to recruit people according to the company’s processes, each team is able to self-manage.