In each of the three books I have written for the Every - body Paddles movement, I have emphasized the im - portance of teamwork. This is something I learned firsthand in my role as CEO of a not-for-profit organization. To geth erness is one of the five key values we embrace to re main focused on the mission at hand. In my or - ganization we like to say we value each other and believe no one’s role is more important than others.

 

I write about that in greater detail in my third book – Everybody Paddles: A Leaders Blueprint for Creating A Unified Team, where I provide six principles for success in managing organizations.

 

Principle Six - Every Crew Member Matters, the final of my six principles, may well be the most important. A favorite saying of mine is “Everybody is required for Everything.” Every single person in the boat plays an integral role, from the CEO to the person handling maintenance late at night.

 

In our organization, the Family Support program is a smaller department that doesn’t necessarily generate as much funding as we would like. But it is still a critical part of the whole piece and I make a point to highlight the importance of their work at every opportunity.

 

Every member of staff must have specific and measurable responsibilities. The job of the captain is to clarify their expectations and respond effectively to both obstacles and shortcomings. All leaders want the same thing – a committed workforce. Because we are all truly in the same boat.

 

There is an additional aspect to consider beyond these guidelines, and it’s maybe the most difficult. That’s because it involves instilling change in ourselves. As leaders, we must move from a mindset of self-interest and toward serving others.

 

The paradoxical truth is that we often do better for ourselves when we are working in harmony with our teams. For a long time, my life and career was simply about me. Looking back, I can see now that the more I focused on where I wanted to go, the less I focused on my real purpose of helping teams build unity. The less I focused obsessively on myself and the more I focused on helping others, the more successful I became as well.

 

There’s a wonderful African saying that I am fond of…“if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” As leaders, we can grow frustrated when we can’t translate our will into immediate action. But the truth is that fostering ownership and pride and buy-in is what can make our organizations not just effective, but sustainable. The mark of leadership should be to honestly answer this question: could your organization carry on without you? Have you prepared the leadership and skills the organization needs in your staff so that they could step up in your absence? When you can feel confident about knowing everything would be in good hands after you step away, then you know you’re doing something right.

 

All too often, we only see real unity in the aftermath of tragedy – in my city of New York, I think of what it was like in the days following September 11th or during the clean-up and rescue efforts following Hurricane Sandy. In those days, the arguments that we squabble over seemed far too petty, too insignificant, to stand in the way of our common goal. We were focused on pulling together and rebuilding. We saw politicians from both parties set aside their partisan bickering and band together to direct resources to first responders and disaster relief. We saw strangers lending a helping hand to neighbors they may have never met and charitable donations flow in from distant states, from people who may have never visited New York City. We were rowing in sync.

 

What if we could harness that unity and shared sense of purpose more often? We did get a glimpse of it during the World Cup, when Americans of all walks of life and vocation paused from their day, all at once, to cheer on their fellow citizens. It was a beautiful sight, especially here in New York, when so much of the city would pour into Times Square to watch the games on the big screen. Wouldn’t it be something special to cheer each other on more often? To build each other up instead of tearing down and searching for flaws?

 

We really need to understand that we are in the same boat and we need to act together out of common interest.