This Is What Your Team Is Hungry For

Now, more than ever, your team is hungry. They are after something. They want your genuineness more than your skills, qualifications, product or service. They want an experience. They want an experience that is more authentic and real.

This means you need to stay in touch with the real you. You need to share the real you with your team. You need to share your authentic experiences with your team. This is a moment-to-moment decision. Your team needs to feel inspired. The more inspired your team is, the more you’ll prosper as a young leader.

Don’t make the mistake of creating distance between you and your team. The bigger the distance between you and your team, the greater the anxiety, and the more the opportunities for failure. You need to know who you truly are and live that you daily. Consistency is key.

This is true also for what you say. Don’t create distance between what you say and what you believe. I believe the bigger the distance between what you say and what you believe, the less credible you are. The “fake it till you make it” mantra doesn’t work anymore. You can fake it in the short-term, but in the long run, it’s not going to work. You need an authentic voice as a young leader. That is the open secret to building a high-performance team. You need to connect on a deeper level. That’s how you elevate your team above the competition.

Stop worrying about differentiating yourself from the competition. Differentiation is not the problem. The problem is you are busy running away from you. You are what you are looking for. You are the very thing that will give you the competitive edge or differentiation you need. You are the authentic voice you are looking for.

Your team is looking to connect with the real you. Your fears, your convictions, your passions, your beliefs, and your hopes. Your team knows you’re afraid. They’re just waiting to see if you have the guts to be honest about it. This is not about complaining or whining. It’s about being honest about how you feel. Your team is smarter than you think. Your team is more informed than you give them credit for. They’re socially-connected and empowered. They talk amongst themselves. You can fake it for a while, but sooner or later your team will find out.

I urge you to stay true to who you are and what you stand for. Building a high-performance team is not about manipulating people into giving you what you want. It's about working from your true self. It’s about operating from your actual felt experiences. Find the courage to connect deeply with your team. Have the audacity to convey your deeper experiences in everything you do.

There are a lot of great team builders and high-performance leaders you can learn from. These high-performance leaders used their authentic voices to inspire and ignite passion in their teams. I don’t mean to get carried away here, but these people have inspired me greatly – Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, and Kobe Bryant just to name, but a few.

These high-performance leaders did not water down their boldness. They used their art and craft to push the boundaries. They catered to their dreams not their doubters. No matter how many times they fell, they got back up and kept moving. They knew the difference between hypocrisy and authenticity. They knew the power of standing up for their own truth. They knew that other people’s opinions should never hold you back from pursuing you.

They knew that high-performance is not about diluting your voice. It’s not about appeasement, but peace-making. They knew that high-performance is not about the masses, but the message. As a young leader, stay true to who you are. That’s how you get big things done.

Build up the people around you. Don’t cave to threats or pressure. Don’t seek the crowds. Ponder wisely. Don’t dilute your potency. Pay attention. Give your team what it craves for. Be authentic. Be original. Be bold. Be genuine. Stay fresh. Be humble. But most importantly, stay humane.

I truly believe getting big things done is not about near-term profits. It’s not about mass-appeal. It’s not about adjusting to every critique. It’s about commitment. It’s about realness. It’s about truth. It’s about connection. It’s about mastering your craft. Don’t run away from what’s true to you. Ignore the noise. Don’t be a people pleaser. Embrace the discomfort. Be audacious. Be you. That’s how you build a great team and get big things done.