Serve the Team First

I have had the opportunity to lead in a variety of roles serving both the for-profit and non-profit communities.  I've also had the opportunity to do what I love the most, coach basketball, for over twelve years.  In each context, I continue to see the organizational paradigm of serving the team first as paramount to success.   

To build corporate culture, promoting "pillars of culture," where the team believes that if they consistently aim to display behaviors reflecting these "pillars," the kind of service-oriented culture they envision will evolve.  I believe one such "pillar" is to "serve the team first."  This embodies a desire to show up everyday with a mindset to out-serve one another.  In a similar vein, author Andy Stanley says an ideal marriage is a race to the back of the line.  It is putting aside our need to be first, to be right, and to win and instead focus on serving others well.  Its an intention to exceed the expectations of co-workers which ultimately leaks into the experience of those being served.  

This tenet has roots in an approach made famous by Southwest Airlines who places employee happiness above customer satisfaction.  Southwest, who has been named among the top performers by the US Department of Transportation, says, "We believe that if we treat our employees right, they will treat our customers right, and in turn that results in increased business and profits that make everyone happy."  

Additionally, serving the team first helps create a context to shift  to a more positive mindset.  In any team, there needs to be a rooting out of the negative approach where serving each other only when it's deserved to one where there is delight in helping others be successful.  

In 2015, Kari Leibowitz, a PhD student at Stanford University studied the seasonal effects on mental health in Norway.  In an environment of long winters, their rates of seasonal depression were relatively low.  As she began asking people, "Why don't you have seasonal depression," the answer was, "Why would we?"   In Norway, "people view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured," and that makes a difference.  This mindset of seeing the winter as something to celebrate not just tolerate is important.  "One of the things we do a lot in the States is we bond by complaining about winter," says Leibowitz.  "It's hard to have a positive wintertime mindset when we... [speak so] negative[ly] about winter." (Vanderkam, Fast Company, 2015).  In the same way, teams that see challenges as opportunities they engage together more traction toward success.  Teams that bond over serving each other and their communities well, in spite of the challenges that may arise have deeper roots to not be swayed by the storms.    

Finally, serving the team first is inspired the Christian faith. The apostle Peter wrote to the early church, "God has given each of you a gift... use them well to serve one another."  I believe that serving each other well is how God designed us to live in community with each other.  Service originating from what God did for us, not on how it's earned among our relationships.

Serving the team first is integral to creating the type of culture hoped for in many organizations.  In the teams on which I've had the opportunity to serve, we've found this to be true: on our best day, we exceed the expectations of our team members by going above and beyond to serve them well.  And that spills over to those we serve as they receive an experience that builds a relationship rather than simply processes a transaction.  It's a mindset.  A practice.  A deep-rooted way of viewing others that shapes how we see the world, including what it means to be successful.