How to Create a “Team First” Culture
Elevate Beyond the Job Title to Create a “Team First” Culture
Reader Note: The following is a snippet from an interview with Maggie Brady, VP of HR at White Cap that will be incorporated into Darren Reinke’s upcoming book, The Savage Manager.
Job titles are specific by design. They describe our key tasks and goals. They dictate what we do day in, day out. They outline the scope of our efforts.
But, job titles can also limit us. They limit us by focusing solely on what’s within our job description and key responsibility areas. The result is a set of hyper-optimized fiefdoms focused on disparate goals and outcomes, that are not always directly aligned. Job titles can also be a drag on team chemistry.
Maggie Brady, VP of HR at White Cap, flips this around and encourages her team to be team first. Being team first means rising above individual job titles to focus on the broader HR team.
“I really encourage my teams to think about the function first, not just their job titles,” she said. “This is crucial for team chemistry. It elevates the thinking.”
By understanding each other's roles and how priorities are set, trust and appreciation are built. “The more they understand what each other is doing and how we've prioritized, it builds trust and appreciation,” Maggie explains.
This collective mindset fosters a sense of unity. “There’s an element of ‘we're all in this together,’ and we need each other to be successful. It shuts down the zero-sum mentality where, for me to succeed, I have to put you down or prioritize my deliverables over yours,” she explains. “Instead, it’s about ensuring a collective view of what we, as an overall team or function, are trying to do.”
Maggie acknowledges the challenge in getting people to think beyond their roles and focus on the collective whole. “People have good intentions, but they have blinders on and chase the shiny penny in their space. They think this will get them recognition because it’s cool, but they do it in a vacuum and miss the bigger picture.”
Focusing on “team first” helps elevate the team’s thinking while simultaneously building stronger team chemistry. It also allows her team to focus on their customers—the company’s employees.
“No one outside of HR cares if you are a specialist, if you're an HR partner, if you're in comp or if you're in talent development,” she notes. “All that they feel is that there's an experience that we deliver through our programs and the way we interact with employees that it's just HR.”
Put This Into Action
Help your team start to take a “team first” approach by doing the following.
Start with Why: With any behavior change, people need to know “why” it matters before they’ll consider changing what can be deeply ingrained behaviors. Explain the importance of prioritizing the team over individual roles. When team members understand the greater purpose and how it benefits everyone, they’re more likely to embrace the change.
Model It: Demonstrate the team-first behaviors you want to see in your team. As a leader, your actions speak louder than words. Show your team how to prioritize collective goals over individual tasks, and they’ll be more likely to follow suit. Lead by example to inspire and encourage your team to adopt the same mindset.
Make it Tangible: One mistake leaders make when trying to instill any change is being too vague. Provide clear, specific examples of what “thinking beyond your job title” looks like in practice. For instance, illustrate how team members can support each other’s projects or share responsibilities to achieve a common goal. Concrete examples make it easier for your team to understand and apply the concept in their daily work.
Coach to It: Behavior change can’t be a set it and forget it activity. Keep the team-first approach at the forefront of your coaching and feedback sessions. Regularly discuss the importance of this mindset in one-on-one meetings and performance reviews. Reinforce the behaviors you want to see, and provide ongoing support and guidance to help your team members stay aligned with the team-first philosophy.
Celebrate It: When you see the behavior in action, be sure to celebrate it. But, don’t just celebrate the action, tie it to a tangible business outcome, if possible. Share success stories and highlight how these behaviors contributed to real outcomes. Celebrating these actions reinforces their value and motivates others to follow suit.
Measure It: Establish metrics to track team-first behaviors. Use these measurements to evaluate progress and identify areas for improvement. By quantifying the impact of a team-first approach, you can provide concrete evidence of its benefits, making it easier to sustain and build upon these behaviors over time.
Incorporating these steps into your leadership approach will help foster a team-first culture, leading to stronger collaboration and higher performance.
About The Savage Manager
The Savage Manager will focus on the principles that are common to the most successful people leaders and how they apply them in their roles. Each chapter will address a pressing challenge facing managers. It will outline the issue they are facing, why it’s important, and most importantly, provide “how to” recommendations to address each of the challenges. Some of the questions it will answer are the following:
How Do I Motivate and Inspire My Team?
How Do I Create a Sense of Purpose within My Team?
How Do I Create Psychological Safety?
How Do I Communicate Effectively with My Team?
How Do I Increase My Team’s Performance?
How Do I Prevent Employee Turnover?
How Do I Manage Conflict More Effectively within My Team?
How Do I Develop the People on My Team?
How Do I Nurture the Wellbeing of My Team Members?
How Do I Give Feedback to My Team?
How Do I Create Strong Team Chemistry?
How Do I Create a Strong Culture?
How Do I Encourage More Creativity and Innovation?
How Do I Encourage Effective Risk Taking?
How Do I Get My Team to Think More Strategically?
How do I Lead My Team Through Change?