Team “Swing”

Beyond Paddling in the Same Direction

by Jim Solomon and Bruce LaRue, Ph.D.

“All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were, in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades.” 

-Daniel James Brown

The term “swing” was the theme of Daniel James Brown’s epic book The Boys in the Boat about the University of Washington’s 1936 winning Olympic rowing team. An assembly of individuals who through the coach’s leadership and the grit of each member, overcame all odds to stand on the Olympic stage as the world looked on in disbelief. Attributable primarily to their common purpose, commitment, and coaching, the team achieved “swing”. This is the characteristic of high-performance teams – whether in sports, work, or non-profits – that sets them apart from others.

“There is a thing that sometimes happens in rowing that is hard to achieve and hard to define. Many crews, even winning crews never really find it. Others find it but can’t sustain it. It’s called “swing.”

It only happens when all eight oarsmen are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action by any one is out of sync with those of all others. It’s not just that the oars enter and leave the water at precisely the same instant. Sixteen arms must begin to pull, sixteen knees must begin to fold and unfold, eight bodies must begin to slide forward and backward, eight backs must bend and straighten all at once.

Only then will the boat continue to run, unchecked, fluidly and gracefully between pulls of the oars. Only then will it feel as if the boat is part of each of them, moving as if on its own. Only then does pain entirely give way to exultation. Rowing then becomes a king of perfect language. Poetry, that’s what a good swing feels like.” ― Daniel James Brown

According to Sigval (Sig) M. Berg, “The success of a high-performance team is often attributed to its leader. but it is the team that matters most – the team with a distinctive kind of leader.” In his book Swing: Elite Leadership for High Performance Teams, he helps readers to “reframe their thinking about leadership from an individual concept to a team experience”. Imagine the success of your organization if your team could achieve “swing”.

Common Purpose

“The wood…taught us about survival, about overcoming difficulty, about prevailing over adversity, but it also taught us something about the underlying reason for surviving in the first place. Something about infinite beauty, about undying grace, about things larger and greater than ourselves. About the reasons we were all here.” ― Daniel James Brown

Integrator Leaders promote “swing”. They inspire others with fresh visions of the future, integrating and aligning their efforts to accomplish their mission. They see possibilities where others see obstacles, channeling the collective energy of their organization to make this shared vision a reality.

A common Purpose (What and Why) defines what is to be accomplished, and as such, it serves as your compass heading or your strategic direction. It must be be clear, concise, and compelling.

Begin with a focus on the purpose (What) with a compelling rationale (Why). Then ask the team for input as to how best to accomplish this. The sequences are nearly always the same: What, Why, then ask How. That is, after providing the purpose, ask the team for their input, their insights, what is working, and what is not; then help integrate what they have proposed into a course of action. Ultimately, we want to create teams that can self-organize behind your intent to accomplish their mission.

By asking first, and then listening carefully to their responses, you will have insight as to how they are thinking. This window into your team’s psyche is invaluable as it allows you to calibrate your leadership accordingly. Your goal, having provided your team with its purpose, is to guide them to their own solution. The more they own the solution, the less you will have to lead them, giving more room for desired outcomes.

Commitment

“They were now representatives of something much larger than themselves – a way of life, a shared set of values … But the things that held them together – trust in each other, mutual respect, humility, fair play, watching out for one another.” ― Daniel James Brown

Committed teams require a devoted leader with teammates loyal to each other and who are dedicated to their purpose.

Highly capable leaders earn trust and gain commitment from their team when they are authentic, open to feedback, empower subordinates, and incorporate input from their team into decisions. To earn trust, leaders must give trust. From trust comes commitment. For your team to buy into this type of organizational culture and to genuinely own it, leaders must first demonstrate their commitment through their actions and behaviors. Team members can easily tell if the boss is truly “walking the talk”. Frankly, it’s all about “deeds not words”.

It has been said that we should lead people and manage processes. We look at this a bit differently: our goal is to lead people and allow “them” to manage processes. Treat your workers as the eyes and ears of your operation. Give them a clear strategic intent and rationale, and then ask them how best to get from here to there.

Leaders who try to maintain authority by leading with a command-and-control style are often found to be the most insecure. To compensate, when they feel challenged, they are quick to remind everyone who’s boss. These leaders tend to have difficulty recognizing and rewarding others’ accomplishments, may try to limit information and communication flows within and between teams (creating knowledge silos), and frequently take credit for the ideas of others.

If allowed to go unchecked, these leaders create a dysfunctional culture of dependency where all roads lead to the boss’s desk, effectively making the leader a single point of failure for the organization. This leader is not trusted, is not inspirational, and effectively has a negative influence on the team. Unfortuantly, there will be no commitment from this team.

Everyone Needs a Coach

“George Pocock learned much about the hearts and souls of young men. He learned to see hope where a boy thought there was no hope, to see skill where skill was obscured by ego or by anxiety. He observed the fragility of confidence and the redemptive power of trust.” ― Daniel James Brown

Just like professional athletes, behind the best leaders are great coaches. Leaders throughout government, the military, private sector, healthcare, and non-profits today follow a similar philosophy. They know that in today’s competitive world, to be the best they can be, they must engage with a top-performing leadership coach. Everyone needs a coach!

Leadership Coaching has a positive impact on you as a leader, while also impacting your team, your organization, and your customers.

To assist leaders in becoming more effective, coaches engage with them one-on-one, in a tailored approach based on the complexity and challenges unique to the leader. This includes feedback – from subordinates, peers, your boss(s), and others – a powerful way to see through the lens of others to better understand how you and your decisions are perceived, and to allow you to adjust your leadership style accordingly, to become most effective.

Our expierience suggests that leaders at all levels are open to coaching. We work with leaders at the strategy and policy levels, as well as with middle managers who are responsible for implementing this strategy. Coaching helps leaders align strategy and action at individual, team, and organizational levels. Part of this expierience involves bringing awarness of thier own behaviors and learning how these can have an impact on peers, team members, and the organization as a whole.

Integrator Leaders, in turn, serve as mentors and coaches, helping their people to learn, grow, and achieve their personal best. By sharing your time to listen, ask questions, and challenge thoughts or ideas, you demonstrate that you care. Make introductions and help with networking. Share about books, podcasts, or your other sources of insight. As a leader, you are responsible for developing the next generation of leaders.

As a client once said, “you don’t have to be sick to get better”. Coaching assists leaders to move them from where they are, to where they want to be.

“Swing”

“When you really start trusting those other boys, you will feel a power at work within you that is far beyond anything you’ve ever imagined. Sometimes, you will feel as if you have rowed right off the planet and are rowing among the stars.”  ― George Yeoman Pocock

Leading designer and builder of racing shells and “coach” to the UDub crew coach

The best leaders believe and practice a philosophy that it’s all about their team, not themselves. They unify their team by providing them with clear purpose and a compelling rationale for why. They gain commitment from their team by first demonstrating thier commitment through trust. They seek coaching to become the best version of themselves, and in turn, coach and mentor their team to assist each to perform at their best. It is teams with leaders such as this that are more likely to achieve “swing”.

Integrator Leader Reflections

• Has a clear and compelling purpose been shared with your team? Is it your team’s primary focus?

• Is your team committed – to each other? To your purpose?

• Through your leadership coach, have you grown as a person and leader? Have you learned to see in new ways? Are you regularly performing as the best version of you?

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