Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
~ Maya Angelou
Selfish teams suck! They drain energy, stifle growth, and undermine our team’s culture and performance. But when we explore selfishness as a culture development opportunity instead of a character defect, we can begin to see it as the result of overdeveloped “muscles”—like competitiveness, focus, and discipline. These strengths have often led to personal success, but become a threat to collective success when they cause individuals to view everything as a game and everyone an opponent.
The antidote to selfishness on our team is magnanimity—or a greatness of spirit! We must develop our culture by intentionally strengthening the weak muscles of awareness and commitment to the team. In a selfish culture, people are hyper-focused on themselves and diminish others. But in a magnanimous culture, people are all in and magnify each other’s strengths.
Learn how to:
- Understand, name, and define our terms so we identify what we are trying to achieve and what we are trying to avoid in our teams.
- Create safe spaces to explore as a team why selfishness once worked for us but why we need to evolve beyond it to unlock the next level of greatness.
- Develop magnanimity—or a spirit of greatness in our team culture so that we grow, expand, and increase our individual and collective strengths.