Inspiration by Simon Sinek, Brene Brown, Patrick Lencioni, Rob Goffee, Gareth Jones, Mahatma Gandhi & Johnny Cupcakes

Recently, I gave a presentation to my leadership team on the best way to achieve results.

I referenced Patrick Lencioni's very well known "5 Dysfunctions of a Team", citing that all good teams are built on the foundation of trust.  The absence of trust (the first dysfunction of a team) leads to a fear of conflict (the second dysfunction of a team).  The fear of conflict leads to a lack of commitment.  A lack of commitment feeds avoidance of accountability, which fosters inattention to results.

To help reinforce the importance of this concept, I diagrammed the inverse of Lencioni's "5 Dysfunctions".  Vulnerable trust between teammates leads to constructive (healthy) ideological conflict.  Healthy conflict fosters commitment which leads to peer accountability within the team towards the collective results.  The most important part of this entire flow is taking the time to build vulnerable trust.  If at any point in this journey, the team starts to experience "dysfunction", it is important to start back at the beginning with building vulnerable trust.

According to thought leader Dr. Brene Brown, the leadership trait that fosters vulnerability and trust is empathy.  Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling.  There are various stages of empathy, from apathy (knowing what someone is feeling and not caring) to compassion (overwhelmed with what someone else is feeling to the point that you are driven to act on their behalf).

Feeling safety is essential for one to lead empathetically and foster vulnerable trust with others.  Safety can be determined by one's immediate environment, but is also greatly determined by one's self-confidence and/or inherent security or insecurity.  This is one reason why truly great leaders continue to grow themselves at every opportunity - to build their courage to lead authentically and vulnerably.

Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones are noted thought leaders, authors, and tenured professors at the London Business School.  They have written a few books on leadership, and a very well known HBR (Harvard Business Review) article called "Creating the Best Workplace on Earth".

In the article, Goffee and Jones identify the 6 ideal traits of a "Dream Organization" through their extensive research, including survey responses from thousands of employees across hundreds of businesses over the last 5 years.  They simplify these 6 traits (above) into the 4 values of Community, Authenticity, Significance, and Excitement, and call this the CASE for Leadership.

I took a few minutes to survey my team on their evaluation of our organization, based on Goffee's and Jones' criteria.  The majority admitted that we were not currently reaching our best potential as a Dream organization.  I admitted that I was not reaching my best potential as a Dream organization leader.  

"Now is the time for us to be the change we wish to see in our organization".  

Imagine, with every interaction, in every meeting, providing safety for all, actively listening, being empathetic, growing vulnerable trust, engaging in healthy conflict, forging commitment and group accountability to the collective goal.  I know no better way to achieving any result.

Matt