100th Episode - The Most Important Characteristic of Great Leadership Teams
Watch/Listen here or on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts“I believe as the leadership team goes, so goes the rest of the company. So if you don't have that consistent and significant sustainable growth, you've got some work to do.” — Mike Goldman
In this 100th episode of The Better Leadership Team Show, I take a moment to reflect on the journey of this podcast and celebrate the milestone with something truly special. I’ve compiled insights from 32 incredible guests, all answering the same question: "What is the most important characteristic of a great leadership team?" The answers are as diverse as they are inspiring, ranging from the importance of trust, open communication, and psychological safety to the value of alignment, empathy, and humility. These perspectives highlight just how multifaceted great leadership truly is and remind us of the critical role collaboration, clarity, and respect play in building successful teams. Listening to this collection of wisdom feels like a masterclass in leadership, and I hope it inspires you as much as it has inspired me. Here's to strengthening our teams and continuing to make an impact!
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Mike Goldman: Welcome to the 100th episode of the better leadership team show. It feels like I started this yesterday and somehow this is the 100th show actually started back in March of 2023. And I'm, I just love doing this podcast. So thankful to all of my guests talking about. Everything from self leadership to structuring a leadership team, to finding the right people for a leadership team, to building a resilient culture, executing with discipline, coaching, developing, making the tough decisions to coach people out of the organization.
We've covered everything. Uh, well, almost everything. We're still gonna have more episodes, so hopefully not everything, but we've covered a lot on. How to build and how to strengthen a great leadership team. From early on, not episode one, I forget which episode it was, but at some point early on, I started asking all of my guests and about half of our episodes or our guest episodes started asking all of my guests the same question to start the podcast.
And that question was, from all of your experience, what's the number one most important characteristic of a great leadership team. And for this hundredth episode, I wanted to do something a little special. So what we did is we actually edited together all of the answers to that question. So what we've got and what you're about to listen to.
Is 32 different guests giving their answer to that question? How cool is this podcast? When have you ever listened to a podcast that had 32 guests on the same podcast? I'm pretty, pretty proud of me. Anyway, here's the answer to the question. What's the number one, most important characteristic of a great leadership team from 32 guests.
Here it goes.
christina-howard: It's really the ability to have kind and candid conversations.
In an emotionally neutral way so that they can get better results.
Marc Gross: I think the big C communication, if the team can feel free to communicate with each other without fear, rejection, reprisals, mockery, you're going to have a great team. When the members of your team are able to provide different opinions, communicate that,your leadership team will generate decisions and take actions based on.
All different opinions of your team. And I think that's always helpful in terms of moving a great business forward in the right way.
Chris Seifert: I think I would have to say the most important characteristic is that they're good, effective decision makers. and by that, I mean, they can make decisions quickly, efficiently, and their decisions, you know, more often than not have good outcomes, right.
They have positive return on investment.
joe-mull--he-him-_1_10-21-2024_140308: A commitment to safety. And let me tell you what I mean by that, Mike.
when you encounter a leadership team who has a commitment to safety, to protecting people, not just from becoming injured. But to protect people from being excluded and to create an employee experience that doesn't perpetuate suffering around their quality of life. I think there's nothing that team can accomplish.
Jordan Burton: I will say this one is important by virtue of its rarity. I would say that if you got this one right, is the most differentiated quality of a great leadership team. And that is that the leadership team views job number one as bringing in and developing top talent that they view themselves first and foremost as a talent machine.
Mike Goldman: drop the mic right there.
Wayne Turmel: The most important thing is candor. And I don't mean, you know, brutal honesty, although it might be that. you can be very candid and very honest and still kind and fair and those types of things. But if you are sacrificing what you really think or what you bring to the table on the altar of collegiality, or, you know, just so we all get along, and I don't want to upset Bob, you are not working as a team at your highest possible level.
Carla Fowler md phd: The first thing is that, I think it's really important when a leadership team can be very clear and articulate how the team wins.
Right. and so you could think about that as like having real clarity that is shared with the team and also people like who, roll up under that team, like where everyone knows what are our objectives, like, what are we trying to accomplish if we're all playing a game together, how do we score and, and also how am I contributing to that?
And so that piece about really team clarity and providing that clarity, because. again, often the leader is the person who needs to do that, or that leadership team needs to be in alignment on that, but, the other piece that I said, okay, well, but where does that come from? Because this is something I think about a lot.
And, I think the characteristic is it's often leadership teams that take time to think. That are not just always, in meetings executing as leaders, but they are, really working to say, I need time to independently get mental clarity so that when I'm showing up with the leadership team, with the teams that roll up under that, that I'm really clear.
John Register: And I think for your question, you know, what I look at for great leadership teams is the It really comes down to one word and that's trust.
it's trusting with inside of your team members to have your back your, we call it in the military, you know, have my six, you know, you, you're looking at my blind spots, things that I can't see. And you can see those things for me. And that takes a trust on both levels. Right? So I have to trust that you're back there.
Seeing the things that I can't see. And you have to trust me that I'm seeing the things that you can't see as well. And believing that if I see something that might cause you harm, cause you danger, or that might be an opportunity for you, that I'm trusting that to the point of, I'm not even questioning it.
I just move out on that, on that endeavor, that opportunity, that might be there. So I think trust is really one of the biggest things for teams.
Grace Gavin: This is a tough question, Mike. I think for me, it might surprise you with our company being called Know Honesty, but I think the one most important thing for leadership teams to develop and cultivate is openness. And I'll give you the definition really quick because we often get it wrong, but openness is listening without reservation.
Putting your needs and wants on pause for someone else. To me, that's what it means to be in a team is to put my needs, my wants on pause, at least for a moment so that we can collaborate together. And it's not just always me trying to get what I want for my team or for my department, whatever it might be.
We're here together, I said, a team. So we have to be able to be open to each other. And actually in the clients that we're working with, this is, this is the often the deficit when we look at what are the skills that the teams need honesty versus openness. We often struggle a lot more just as human beings in general, but especially in teams with openness.
So that's my thoughts.
Mike Goldman: Excellent. Ken, what do you think, what's the one most important characteristic of a great leadership team?
Ken Bogard: she took it right out of my mouth. But if I were to cheat, I'm going to say real communication is taking place on that leadership team, which is both openness and honesty taking place.
Adele Gambardella: I think mitigation is one of the most important parts of a leadership team because if people feel like when they fail, they will be punished or they can't try something new or they can't maybe disagree. I think if you don't allow them that mitigation to do that, then I think your leadership tems fall apart.
Chip Massey: It's about, being comfortable in your role. And one of the things that the FBI does really well is that it's set up for crisis work and everyone, when they go, whether it's the working a case or they're working a terrorist event or whatever, every agent. knows their role. Every agent knows what they're supposed to do, and they stay in a lane, but they're also concerned about the wider team.
Rich Armstrong: Well, I think if you had to nail it down to one, it would absolutely be trust and belief in each other. We can count on each other. We trust each other.I think that, I mean, any of the teams that I've worked with the great leadership teams that I've worked with is. They always had that they could have conversations with us that you and I as outsiders could come in and we are like, do these guys like each other today?
I mean, it's the way they just challenge each other. And but in the end that they have each other's backs
Robyn Hatcher: The number one is
diversity, and I'm not talking D.E.I. Here. I'm talking diversity of thought, diversity of communication styles and diversity of their psychological safety, their makeup, their culture, because when you have a diverse leadership team, you've got all of these great perspectives.
You've got all these different styles, and if you've got different styles in there, then they can counteract and also help drive the creativity, the innovation, the everything. It drives everything to have not just a one size fits all type of person who's on your leadership team
Dan Gingiss: I think it is the understanding that it's not all about them and that the people who work for them are the engine of the company. And I think what happens so often in corporate America is that the wrong people rise to the top. And in part, that's because the people that rise to the top tend to not be very good people managers. And so in that, they're often forgetting the fact that people doing real, the real work underneath them are the reason for their success. and so I find that's probably the thing that is missing the most. So I would say that you asked for it. I think more positively, what is a characteristic of Great leadership teams. It is understanding that it is not just about them
Jeremy Huish: Well, if you're thinking about a team and I've observed and seen and been part of many different ones, I would put two traits there. One is trust. And the second is to be unselfish. And let me clarify both of those points.
You trust that everything's going to be taken care of, or you trust what role that you're going to play is important and everyone does that.
The second is unselfish is that we all can't be in charge and we all have to work really hard. And it means that as a leader, you're going to be spending the long time, the long hours, what needs to be done, and you're not going to be upset if someone else gets some benefits.
Betsy Allen Manning: I would say, so one of the quotes my dad taught me years ago is the quality of a leader is found in the quality of their team. So I can literally walk into any office and I can look at the team and I know exactly who the leader is and what type of person they are by looking at the people on the team, if the people gossip on the team, that's the type of leader you have.
If the people are negative on the team, guaranteed, that's the type of leader you have as well. And for me, the number one characteristic, I think it's something we cannot live without as leaders, and that's integrity. It's integrity. You, I mean, it's walking the walk. People trust you when you're actually able to do what you say you're going to do and you become that person that they can rely on in your character and in your work
Sunny Vanderbeck: So the one most important characteristic is fit for the situation and the opportunity. let, let me unpack that a little bit. every company has a different situation they're dealing with and a different set of objectives, right? To, to get to an answer like that, you've got to be able to define, what does success look like for this particular company
Tia Graham: The one most important characteristic to me and research supports it is psychological safety, where the leader and everyone on the team creates an environment of authenticity and trust and people know each other as the human beings, know aspects of their lives outside of work. People are able to communicate when they're okay or not okay, including the leader. And it's again, very, very open and, um, yeah, a cultural psychological safety
Treena: I think the extent to which teams can be great is a direct reflection of how good they are at being able to tolerate uncomfortable conversations
Meg Poag: This one's easy for me. Right away, I thought trust. Very high levels of trust. I think sometimes people answer that question with communication, like, good, proactive, direct communication. and usually when people say they have communication issues, they have trust issues. Trust is kind of underlying factor a team that truly has faith in each other, knows what to expect, meets each other's expectations and shows up consistently. That, I think is the cornerstone of a great leadership team
Owen: They gotta refer to each other with the word WE. And when I talk to teams, as soon as I hear they. I know there's fractures and there's problems. I think the most important thing would be the ability to collaborate and influence each other effectively. So to inspire each other, to be able to work well with each other and to be there for each other. To me, when we talk about a leadership team, that's the most important element.
Cait: I'm gonna go with trust. The leadership team characteristic as trust, Owen you said something within your words that I agree with heavily and in that trust is part of like, everybody knows that somebody's got their backs.
It doesn't mean that the whole team has everybody's back, but it means if we're looking at a team of five or six people, each of those people has another person within the team that's going to support them, that there are studies, loads of studies that tell us that when we have that one person on our team, the entire team becomes stronger.
So when everybody has that person and everybody can lean into that trust, then we open up the doors of creativity. We have creative problem solving. We have clear and transparent communication, etcetera etcetera
Paul Epstein: Well, you always hear setting the tone as something that whether we're talking leadership or culture. So let me take that a step further. Owning your temperature is the responsibility of every leader and every leadership team. And here's exactly what I mean by that. I was doing consulting for one of the top airlines in the world.
They've got 120,000 employees. They've got 6,000 positional leaders. And so I did training workshops over the course of years with all 6,000. People in my network asked me, so what's the culture of the airline like to which I responded. Who's the leader? What location? What department? What floor of the building?
That's the culture.
So you asked me what the greatest leadership teams do when every single leader. Within that team owns their temperature because when we walk in a room or we hop on a zoom meeting or whatever we do, we could either warm it up or we could cool it off. The question is, are we aware of our own temperature?
If I was going to lean into one thing, it would probably be relationships.
Brett: And I know that can cover a lot of ground. I think having relationships where team members know one another personally, but also trust one another.
Howard: I think having empathy, empathy for each other, empathy for the people that they serve. I think it's core to any great leadership. I think probably one of the most common traits that not the most common characteristics of a great leadership team is every individual on the team understands their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Chad Hymas: And they surrender, and allow other people's strengths to compensate for where maybe they might be lacking a little bit.
Allison: The most. Okay. There's so many that are important, but I would say the most important characteristic for a great leader. It's for them to understand and leverage the talent that they have on their team. So it's really, you understand those unique talents that each team member brings and knowing how best to leverage those talents
Ryann: What comes to mind as the most important thing for a team is that those people coming together have a shared vision and shared values.
Pam: I've found that the most important aspect of a leadership team that makes them truly successful is what I call humble collaboration. And that is when you are able to sit at the table with your peers with your other leaders. Set ego aside and get to reasonable. Get to a reasonable answer, a reasonable solution and the the best solution the company that isn't about you. It is about what's best for all.
Jeannie Walters: I think it's alignment. I think you have to have alignment around what you're all doing and what you're really aiming for. And if you don't have that, it makes harder
Tammy Barlette: Well, I think that hands down it's empathy. I think it's really important that we try and understand that our leaders try and understand their people and our people try and understand our leaders. And we, you know, care about what's going on inside their minds because, people will often work much harder for someone who they know cares about them and cares about their perspective, even if they don't take their perspective and their ideas all the time, just that concern for what people think is important.
Trey Dunavant: I think what comes to my mind is alignment. And it needs to be alignment around a vision. So, right, if we're going to be aligned to something, there has to be a prerequisite of some type of vision, some type of North Star, some type of, you know, center place that we're all looking at. But I think the alignment to that is what I have found to really drive great leadership teams.
They can be very diverse. They can be very different leadership styles within an executive team or leadership team, but man, when you're centered on the same vision and you're aligned and committed to making that vision work. It sure makes things a lot easier and a lot more effective.
Jim Johnson: Well, there's certainly a lot, but the one that always jumps out to me, because one of my core values is one of the things we really spend a lot of time with our players on. And that is respect I don't think you can have a great leadership
team and a great group in any type of team. If you don't have a great respect for each other, which will develop two other words. I think love is a really important word. And when you can build that where people are really caring, which leads to, I guess, the other word that I always jumps out to me is, how do you build trust?
Mike Goldman: Wow. 32 guests, almost as many answers to the question. What's the number one most important characteristic of great leadership teams? 32 guests, almost 32 different answers. Uh, I want to thank you for being a part of some part of the first 100 episodes. If this is the first one you're listening to, then go back and listen to the first 99, but I want to thank you for being part of the better leadership team show.
And I'm looking forward to the next hundred.