Leaders, You Are Only As Good As Your Team

Marshall Goldsmith posted a great article  that is as relevant for executive leaders as it is for their coaches. It was interesting to hear feedback Marshall received from one of his most successful clients, who said:

“As a coach,” he said, “you should realize that success with your clients isn’t all about you. It’s about the people who choose to work with you. In a way, I am the same. The success of my organization isn’t about me. It’s all about the great people who are working with me.”

There is a big difference between achievers and leaders. I use the Actualized Leader Profile (ALP) to assess an executive on a motivation scale and a maturity scale which measures self-actualization. The ALP provides scores for each of the three motivators (Achiever, Affiliator, and Asserter) and, most importantly, a score on how well the person is living their best life narrative. It also uncovers the executive’s shadow side (often referred to as the “dark side”), which often gets in the way of some leader’s development. In Dr. Sparks’ words, helping clients understand their shadow and the underlying issues and challenges it causes, a targeted program or intervention is designed to achieve measurable results. In addition, the ALP helps understand what the client needs to improve performance, enhance engagement, and increase satisfaction.

In the case of Marshall’s client, he wasn’t one of the “It’s all about me leaders” who are self-serving to reach individual goals. For Marshall’s client, whom he says is one of the most outstanding leaders he’s ever met, leadership is all about “his team” and “their success.” The client truly exemplified the oft-quoted proverb that says: “The best leader, the people do not notice. When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”

Instead, most leadership literature exaggerates, even glamorizes, the leader’s contribution. The implication is that everything begins with the leader, that she is responsible for your improvement, she guides you to victory, and there is no navigator without the leader. So much for the conventional wisdom of leadership.

Truly great leaders recognize how silly it is to believe that a leader is a key to an organization’s success. Instead, the best leaders understand that long-term results are created by all of the great people doing the work — not just the one person who has the privilege of being at the top.