Teamership: You do you.
"You do you" requires something different of leaders - and of individuals in the team. Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
I am noticing a trend in high performance environments (particularly elite sports) in which individuals are expected to better manage their own preparation. Here are a few examples:
Current Australian cricket coach, Andrew McDonald has taken an approach along these lines. A recent article suggested that the understanding for players is that they "prepare the way you want, and you're responsible for your own performance".
My mate, Juan has a friend who is a physiotherapist with an elite sporting team. He has shared a similar story about that team where there is a phrase used about preparation - "you do you".
It's worth noting that this approach isn't universal in sports. McDonald and others have been criticised for their approach. My view is that it is the way that elite sports teams are increasingly heading and will become the norm. In support of that, one example comes from Steve Kerr, Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA (US basketball league) is hugely successful and describes the evolving way that coaches are required to operate in this article and describes the role of a coach across sports as trying to "galvanise a group and communicate with individuals and get the best out of them individually and collectively".
The "you do you" individualised approach is a shift from what many of us have come to know as high performance - where every individual was expected to adopt the established behavioural norms. A common approach has been that individuals need to "fit in or fly* off". The discipline of doing exactly what you have been told to do - and fitting in - has shifted to individuals choosing to prepare when and how they see fit - and belonging.
"You do you" requires something different of leaders - and of individuals in the team.
Leaders, no longer dictate how or even what gets done. They lead through context and connection. The context is beyond just winning, it is about how they want the team to play, the roles that players are expected to fulfil and the collective commitments that have been made. They lead through connections, managing relationships with and between players, ensuring that specialist and support staff are available and engaging with players to develop their individual plans. Perhaps most importantly, they pay attention to developing the interpersonal dynamics of the group.
For individuals, good players are not just the ones who follow their instructions and do as they are told. The level of freedom for each individual in this approach is matched by the responsibility that each individual has. "You do you" places a big responsibility on each individual to know what it takes for them to perform at their best - and then make that happen. In a sporting context, some players thrive on lots of practice leading into matches while others prefer to stay fresh and do low volumes of practice. "You do you" also means that if you don't perform, there is less opportunity to point the finger towards others.
"You do you" also comes with a few caveats, like:
You do you - as long as it doesn't impact others being able to prepare and perform.
You do you - as long as it makes a positive contribution to collective performance (it's not about being self indulgent)
You do you - and meet our collective commitments (there is a time that the game starts and it's not much use being late for that!)
In our teams, there is an opportunity for us to adopt some of these principles. Much like it may be impractical to adopt all of the technology of a Formula 1 car for school drop off, we may not adopt all of the principles of elite sporting teams. There is, however, room for us to move in that direction.
Over the next five weeks, I will dive a bit into five questions that I have been sharing with clients to help them contribute to collective performance.
For this week, here are a few different questions for you to consider:
As an individual, are you willing to take responsibility for your own preparation and performance?
As a leader, to what extent are you able to allow individuals more freedom to take approaches of their choosing?
Across your teams, is the environment supportive of both individual and collective performance?