When team members openly and passionately share their opinions about a decision, they don't wonder whether anyone is holding back. Then, when the leader has to step in and make a decision because there is no easy consensus, team members will accept that decision because they know that their ideas were heard and considered.
Interpretation
Open communication within a team fosters trust and acceptance of decisions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and active participation in a team setting. When team members feel free to express their opinions and know their input is valued, they are more likely to support the final decisions made by their leader, even if those decisions differ from their own preferences.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing a project strategy, you may use this quote to emphasize the need for open discussions.
I know that any group of people can become a team if they do the right things, but I came to realize over time that if you acquire or develop the right kind of people, that process of building a team is going to be much more effective and easier.
The truth is that intelligence, knowledge, and domain expertise are vastly overrated as the driving forces behind competitive advantage and sustainable success.
The kind of people that all teams need are people who are humble, hungry, and smart: humble being little ego, focusing more on their teammates than on themselves. Hungry, meaning they have a strong work ethic, are determined to get things done, and contribute any way they can. Smart, meaning not intellectually smart but inner personally smart.
Team members have to be focused on the collective good of the team. Too often, they focus their attention on their department, their budget, their career aspirations, their egos.
Teamwork remains a sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped because it is hard to measure (teamwork impacts the outcome of an organization in such comprehensive and invasive ways that it's virtually impossible to isolate it as a single variable) and because it is extremely hard to achieve (it requires levels of courage and discipline that few executives possess) - ironically, building a strong team is very simple (it doesn't require masterful insights or tactics).
Clients don't expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There is no better way to demonstrate this than by acknowledging when a mistake has been made and humbly apologizing for it.
The most important relationship a head coach has on his team isn't with the other coaches, the owner or the general manager. It's with the quarterback. He's the one who runs the show on the field; He's the ultimate extension of his coach. If there isn't a high level of mutual trust between them, both coach and quarterback will be doomed.
I have nothing to do with opinions. I deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors.
We cannot all ARGUE, but we can all PRAY; We cannot all be LEADERS, but we can all be PLEADERS; We cannot all be mighty in RHETORIC, but we can all be prevalent in PRAYER.
Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first, to put themselves at personal risk to open a path for others to follow.
One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.
The purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary humans beings to do extraordinary things.
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