To Be A Great Leader, You Must Be A Great Teammate

My thanks to Rebecca Johnson, a natural and highly effective leader, who sent me a link to Abby Wambach’s recent commencement address to the graduating class of Barnard College, which is an all-women’s college and part of Columbia University. Abby was one of the great athletes of the past few decades, having scored more goals in soccer than anyone in history, male or female.

There are many gems of wisdom and challenges in Abby’s messages, e.g., accept our failures as gifts which we can learn and grow from – thus, fail up.

My favorite of her messages though is lead from the bench, and if we cannot lead from the bench we will not be a leader on the field. 

This is a wonderful principle for us in business, to me – we must be a great teammate if we are to be a leader.

And what are the principles and practices of a great teammate?

• Be humble, we are all equals
• Help others do their best and succeed
• Be encouraging
• Respect people’s time, and always try to be early
• Do not seek personal credit, rather share credit
• Admit our mistakes
• Never complain, speak negatively behind people’s backs 
• Treat everyone – everyone! – with dignity
• Root for our team members
• Establish and maintain positive working relationships
• Celebrate successes, even small successes
• Know that kindness is motivating
• Request and offer timely and helpful feedback
• Address a problem promptly
• Be all about the team

There are other and similar qualities and principles of being a great teammate – and these qualities and principles apply to being a highly effective leader. 

So, as Abby Wambach offered, we must lead from wherever we are, on the bench or on the field, and in business, if we are to be a leader we must be a great teammate.

The entire speech is terrific. Her message about leading from the bench begins at about 13:30 minutes.