Keith Ferrazzi talks about “radical interdependence” – the idea that we need to engage in “deeper, richer collaborations with people we often have no control over to fulfill our mission.” Lots of these people may be on your team, but others may be on other teams or outside the organization. The key question is: who do you need to work with to achieve the desired result? And then treat that group like your team. Which means you’ll spend time aligning behaviorally, building trust, and clarifying the proximate goal. Leaders know how to do this with their own teams; work today requires that we extend these practices to a broader set of collaborators.
Relationships must be authentically developed with the people on our teams – in the radical interdependence model of teams.
Action: Take a look at your “team” and ask yourself: can this group accomplish our goal or are there others we need to include to increase our chances for success? Start building relationships with all those whose input will make an impact.
“Leading without authority doesn’t have to be hard.” – Keith Ferrazzi