You see, if the conditions are wrong, we are forced to expend our own time and energy to protect ourselves from each other, and that inherently weakens the organization. When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally combine our talents and our strengths and work tirelessly to face the dangers outside and seize the opportunities.

How does this statement (and Sinek’s discussion) affect your approach to team leadership and facilitation? Will you lead/facilitate differently? Explain.

Sinek talks about creating a “circle of safety”. And within that circle of safety are the things that we can control. While we tend to think of leaders at the top of an organization, he points out that they are at all levels. Leaders are the people who “look after the people on their left and on their right”.

After hearing Sinek’s discussion on the environment that a good leader creates, has made me think through the way I manage, and hopefully lead, my team. In what areas do I exert authority? In what areas do I show leadership? How can I improve?

One of the things I take great pride in as a manager is growing my team. Fortunately, I work with junior staff who sees their current role as an entry point to their future career. I have a blast talking to them about their career aspirations and search for opportunities where they can build up their skills in a way that would translate to their future path. I help them seek out opportunities where they can share their knowledge with an audience outside of our team.

Sinek says that leaders look after people on their left and right, these would be the people outside of direct reports, these would be the people with who I’m on a team or work alongside day to day. How can I be a leader to them? And what can I do in my role as facilitator to create an environment of safety?

Yesterday I led a brainstorm with a small group of people who represented different areas across our organization. Initially, the meeting was to be a one-time event, but with all of the areas of need that we uncovered, we realized that there is a lot of work to be done and that coming together more frequently could have benefits that cross the organization. As a facilitator and leader, I can send each person a note thanking them for attending and contributing x idea, ask if any additional thoughts came to mind and if they’d like to spend more time on a future topic at the next meeting.

This would make people feel recognized for their ideas and contributions, provide a platform where people can continue to contribute to the conversation and help form an agenda for the next meeting. Additionally, it would begin to create a safe environment where people feel listened to and heard.

So, how do you facilitate a team in a non-team-oriented environment? Great question. A few years ago I managed two employees. One was our customer service representative. She helped to manage our student workforce and was the face and voice of Alumni Relations. If someone reached out to us, there was an 80% chance that they would hear from Emily.

This was Emily’s first job out of college. She was eager to learn, make an impact, and grow within the organization.

I also managed Susan. Susan had been working at the university for forty-one years. She had worked for both faculty and staff. She had worked in the schools and colleges and in various positions in the administration. Susan started working at the university as her first job out of college. Susan was getting ready for retirement and said daily, “I don’t want to make any waves, I just want to show up, do a good job, and go home knowing that I did my best.” Susan was focused on balancing the budget. She only spoke with a customer if they mistakenly dialed her number.

I struggled in our team meetings because after a while they turned out to be a report out of what people were doing. There was no glue holding us together, other than the act that they both reported to me and we all got paid by the same place.

Although we all wanted each other to succeed, Emily’s work didn’t impact Susan and vice versa.

I decided that one week, we would just have coffee and talk. No more reporting out or progress reports. We would just talk. It went well. I did it the next week, and the next, and the week after that. And what happened was that we grew even closer. There were times when Emily was out and Susan would offer to cover for her. There were times when Susan was out and Emily offered to pick up the work Susan missed. Neither was formally trained on what the other did, but through our coffees,  they learned enough about each other to get a sense of where and how they could best support each other’s work.

It took time, but eventually, two members of the same team, who had very different jobs were able to support each other, not only by figuring out how to do each other’s jobs but also on how best to support each other in life.

Susan has since retired and Emily is still around, but they stay in touch and have developed a deep trust and respect for each other.

I think that Gratton and Erickson would say that I facilitated a strong sense of team by stumbling onto it – it was through coffee. I gave up being a task-driven leader and turned into a relationship-oriented leader, and it turned out to be just what we needed.