Last week I talked about leadership and described leadership styles.  This week I am narrowing that topic by bringing focus on leadership through team work.  A common image of a leader is that they are very busy which I feel is an accurate depiction.  Despite their full calendars, some leaders reluctantly delegate duties to accomplish tasks; while others seem do it naturally.  A particular experience that I had chairing a committee involved the more reluctant type.

Since it was my first opportunity to chair this particular kind of committee, I wanted to make a great impression.  The first step of selecting committee members was done at the outset.  Accordingly, the next step was to call the team together and let them know that we would be working together, and to schedule the first team meeting.  I prepared a meeting packet which included a synopsis of the task and team tentative assignments with calendar due dates.  Subsequently, as the meeting date drew near, I sent out a meeting reminder.  Therefore, when the meeting day came, I went to the conference room early and started the meeting on time with those who came on time.  I didn’t think anything of the fact that the leader was not there because I knew how busy she was and figured that she had another meeting.  It never occurred to me to remind her again or to go to get her, until she showed up late and stated that she had forgotten and asked why I didn’t send for her.  She then took a seat toward the middle of the room and I was positioned in the front thinking that I was leading the meeting until everyone else had their backs turned toward me to listen to her.  Since I am not stupid or especially slow, I got up and moved behind her to listen also.  As you can imagine, this was truly a humbling and challenging experience, but I decided to suck it up and to move forward with the task at hand.  

During the meeting the team assignments were adjusted; I revised the chart and emailed it along with the meeting invitation for the next scheduled meeting.  I learned my lesson; when the next meeting came, I did not presume that I was leading anymore.  I took a seat next to the leader, who I went to get to walk with her to said meeting.  We had a great team discussion about the projects and got clear about what each person would be responsible to submit on our target date.  The team came through with timely draft submissions.

Consequently, when we held the final meeting, we had everything that we needed except a document which had been requested from an external entity which by the way they did not deliver until days after the deadline.  Thankfully, we had requested the same information from a back-up agency and they came through on time.  We had come together to work as a team and met every goal within our control.  Remarkably, the day before the deadline the leader went out of town for a conference which meant that she had to trust me to submit the application on time, and I did with much stress on both of us.

Over time when I thought about this experience, I believe that it helped me to grow in spite of the pain that it caused me.  Also, the take away lesson is that there are times that a collective goal is more important than an individual accomplishment.  I laid my ego, ambition, and need to shine aside for the greater good of working together as a team.  Trust me – my sacrifice has been and will be rewarded.

Now, share your experience with team work in the comment space below.  Happy speaking everyone!