The best team leaders are not bashful about good ideas. They don’t care where a best practice originates. They see their role as finding the best solution or process from anywhere, even those used by competitors. Leaders then incorporate such practices into the everyday approaches of their own teams.
Good leaders believe introducing a best practice and mastering it is what makes teams rapidly better. A new and effective best practice can energize the team and encourage team members to recommit to continuous improvement. As a result, the best leaders and teams never stop looking for new and better practices.
However, those same leaders seem to rarely look across the aisle for best practices or share what they learn and implement with other teams. Curiously, new practices and procedures commonly don’t get shared across teams, divisions, and businesses in the same organization.
This makes little sense and puzzles those who believe the organization would greatly benefit from the cross-collaboration. Why on earth would leaders resist sharing best practices with others that would make the larger organization more effective?
As it turns out, the underlying reasons teams are protective of best practices usually involve everyday motivations. Leaders and teams want to stand out and be recognized for their work. They sometimes believe sharing their best practices undermines their ability to distinguish themselves.
Once this competitive jealousy takes hold, leaders keep their mouths shut and focus inward and not outward. This attitude is compounded in organizations where teams and units are siloed and don’t have a reason to communicate on a regular basis.
As hard as this problem appears, a simple solution often breaks the logjam and gets leaders and teams to share best practices. The best organizations place an emphasis on collaboration by expecting and rewarding it. By establishing a frequent forum where leaders and teams are given credit for introducing a best practice across the organization, people quickly learn that the best way to stand out is to be an exemplar and to spread the word.
Setting aside even 20 minutes each quarter to announce what best practices have been recently introduced by which exalted team galvanizes collaborative effort. Soon, leaders and teams compete to find and launch best practices across the enterprise in a surprising show of goodwill and partnership.
It just goes to show that whatever is emphasized and rewarded has a profound effect on team behavior, as well. If innovation is inventing tomorrow, then today must be about recognizing leaders and teams that share best practices. That is what pushes an organization collaboratively forward.
I often say the following at work, "I just need someone to stand on the other side of the court and hit the ball back to me." The better the person standing on the other side of the court is, the better game you'll end up playing, regardless if you win or lose. In the long run, you end up winning more even if you lose every single game to the better player. There will always be somebody better than you at something. Find them, compete with them, learn from them. Then pay it forward when someone you're better at does the same. In the long run, there are more win-win situations in life than there are win-lose.
Good morning,
There are many reasons individuals keep it to themselves (as I imagine you have researched/seen). Off the top of my head they can be due to the culture of the C-Suite aka corporate. The few leaders and managers that exist give it away. Since they don't necessarily take credit for it (Why would they? A lot of strategy and change management comes from wisdom literature, that they certainly didn't come up with), they are merely dismissed come promotion time. One way to avoid this is by seeking feedback from the men and women who have worked with that individual. In a corporation, someone who shows up, works hard, and is competent is really all one generally needs (unless we're talking about specialists).
Thanks for your time.