There’s No “My” in Team Either

I come from the mindset were a well-run business or organization functions as a team. Not just with the mindset that all members work together for the goal of the organization, but there is as little separation and division among the members as possible. Mainly the leadership members of the origination lead by example, being shoulder to shoulder with their team members as much as possible.

One word used often in business that bugs me is “my.” You hear it all the time in meetings & phone calls and see it often in emails. For example, you’ll hear phrases like “my engineers are working on it now”, “the PO will be issued by my accounting department this week.” You’ll even hear that from sales reps and customer service people who are not even in a management roll.

For me, it's even more annoying to here that from a person who is not in a leadership role refer to anything in the company as "my" except for possibly their desk. Almost as annoying as the 24 year old intern say "back in the day."

I worked with a person who does this all the time. We have a weekly conference call with another company we are teaming with on a new product. He is constantly saying “my” this and “my” that. I really projects an arrogant image of him to the other is in the meeting.

Doing this gives the image of a company with ownership or a management team that is removed from their employees. To me, it appears as company without a soul; that treats its employees as mere parts in the corporate machine. While the company model of having the leadership separate from the rest does work, I strongly feel a true team structure is much better.

I’ve worked at companies that follow both methods of management. The places with the highest employee morale and the lowest employee turn around had the “hands on in the trenches with the rest of us” type of owners and or managers.

"To be truly effective, soldiers must bond to their leader just as they must bond to their group. Shalit notes a 1973 Israeli study that shows that the primary factor in ensuring the will to fight is identification with the direct commanding officer. Compared with an established and respected leader, an unknown or discredited leader has much less chance of gaining compliance from soldiers in combat." ~ Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

I came across the above quote today and it made me think “that is what true leadership is all about.” That mentality does not just apply to soldiers, but to any group that has a leader. Whether it be in the workplace or other group setting, a hands on leader will motive and get results.

One key thing to remember is to be a true hands on leader, not a micro manager. There is all the difference in the world between rolling up your sleeves and joining in the work, and standing over one’s shoulder to make sure they do the work.

Being a true team in the workplace is something that really can’t be faked. So if this doesn’t come natural to you, it may be something that you need to work on. But it will be worth all the effort you put into it.