I remember an announcer making a comment during the 2004 American League Championship Series about the Yankees having one of the best rosters he had ever seen on paper and his counterpart responding something about the Red Sox players actually showing up to finish the series on the field. Not only did I enjoy his sarcastic jab at the Yankees, I loved his point that a group of folks choosing to work as a team can perform so much better than even the most talented individuals working near one another but independently.

Think back to how things can go really wrong in an organization, whether we have articulate definitions for each value or not, when the people counting on us for leadership don’t see us deliberately walking our talk. Even if we’re fortunate enough to keep the talent on our roster, it’s highly unlikely that the individuals with that talent will have a reason to rally around a common goal. Without values serving as a foundation, those talented team members may actually put more energy into competing against one another than into collaborating together.

No Good Reason for Compromising Our Values

I’ll say it again: even the most talented individuals rarely form a great team without clear values serving as the foundation. For more than two decades, I’ve heard John Maxwell emphasize how “everything rises and falls on leadership.” When it comes to building a foundation on those values, those of us who accept the responsibility that comes with each of the most senior roles in our organizations will indeed be viewed as leaders - whether we’ve earned true influence with the team reporting to us or not. And our actions in those leadership roles most definitely set the tone for the behavior of each individual, which in turn determines what we have around us: a cohesive team or a group of individual performers looking out for their own best interests…

I can’t think of an organization that doesn’t place at least some level of priority on integrity, even if that’s not one of the core values painted on the wall. If we define that as doing the right thing, no matter what, but make decisions that directly conflict with that out of fear that a competitor may sneak in to take some of our business, how are our most motivated employees likely to follow suit? Let’s be honest, people do what people see. In every for-profit business I’ve ever seen, there’s a significant need for getting and keeping business; that’s how the lights stay on! If an executive twists the definition of integrity to justify how they’ve staved off potential competition while subtly crossing the line on what they’ve held up as integrous business practice, many folks reporting to them will see that as permission to push the envelope even more. While there will always be some people in the organization who will take the high road, regardless of any executive’s example, they’re level of commitment to engaging with the rest of the team will drop off over time.

All organizations, including those in government, have a responsibility to provide service to their customers and clients. As a quick side note, I suppose one could argue that most government organizations seem to view service more in veterinary terms (if you catch my drift). If that happens to be listed as one of our core values, defined as prioritizing others but our decisions in leadership roles are routinely based on what makes us look best while slightly, even if not openly or intentionally, undermining our partners, is it reasonable to expect others in our organization to follow suit? We both know the answer to that as well…

In an environment where individual performance is incentivized, even the most innocent cases of tip-toeing around what we point to as our core values to justify choosing the easy right over the harder wrong serves as permission for everyone else to wiggle the definitions around as they need to in order to fit their actions, especially when those actions yield immediate financial return. That kind of culture certainly attracts high performers who are willing to do anything for a buck, but that will not build a high performing team that gets results consistently long term. Even the slightest variances from our values, especially when exemplified by those in leadership roles, will eat away at any hope of creating a cohesive team and it’s what Simon Sinek referred to in The Infinite Game as “an infection that festers over time.” 

Before working through exactly what we need to do so our values help build a great team with top-tier talent, we need to have a clear picture of how talent alone doesn’t guarantee organizational results.

The Best Talent Doesn’t Equal the Best Team

Whether it’s because we’ve compromised our values, losing credibility with some of the best folks who had previously carried our team, or we simply didn’t put enough intentional effort into rallying everyone around a clearly articulated set of core values, the highest performers in our organizations will find a way to be part of a culture that lives out the values painted on the wall or listed in the handbook. In most cases, those folks are direct targets for our competition to lure away. But sometimes that disconnect between what’s listed as an organizational value and what’s seen on a daily basis is all an extremely talented employee needs to take a stab at starting a business of their own. In either case, a company that previously had some of the most skilled people in their field can find themselves ill-equipped to maintain a longstanding reputation.

I often share how I hired 225 employees during the last eighteen months I worked for a large manufacturing company, and how that only increased the overall headcount by about 20. At that point, we were using every option we could find to identify potential candidates and very few of those came through referrals from current employees. Just a few years prior to that though, and for all the years I was with that organization leading up to that point, employee referrals were the primary source. While that facility experienced several management changes in a short period, that wasn’t the biggest factor behind those referrals drying up. The more pressing issue was that the managers calling the shots at that point didn’t seem to align with the values that many of the longest tenured (and most loyal) employees shared. That, and the fact that those managers never put much energy into building relationships with the employees so anyone would have an understanding of what they did value, played a significant part in the recruitment and retention process for that company. And the folks who remained had little reason to band together as a tight-knit team.

Another example I’ve watched unfold over the years was a smaller organization that once had a world-class team. Each department head and many of the key contributors throughout the company were truly the best in their area. While the executive team in that organization didn’t necessarily compromise their stated values, they just didn’t place enough emphasis on them to provide the best employees with a reason to actively collaborate. In most cases, that only resulted in apathy, but there were a few occasions where some of the best on the roster were actively competing against each other - for jobs and for positions within the company. While all organizations have some level of turnover, even if that’s just due to retirements, losing extremely talented people is never easy to absorb. Not only did retirements have a bit of an impact, no less than six of those outstanding performers - several having been there for many years - started their own businesses actively competing with the company they had been part of together.

I’ll never pretend that simply listing a few words and definitions on the wall or in handbook is all it takes to build a great team, but I will say I’ve never seen a talented group of people work cohesively over a long period of time without have a strong foundation of values that are meaningful to them all. With that in mind, our next step will be to work through specific things we can all do to rally our teams around the core values of our organization!