One of the questions we always ask our guests on the podcast involves how they turn a group of individuals into a high-performing team whose members share more than a business card with the same logo. We asked Infosys Consulting CEO Andrew Duncan the question and his answer was game-changing, a lesson any leader would do well to remember.
“When you look at dysfunctional teams, you begin to wonder what each of the members really knows about the others,” he said. “The answer is usually, ‘Not very much.’ I’m talking about knowing something about your teammates beyond their roles on the team. And when you look at highly functioning teams, you see people who know one another on a deeper level. They know what makes their teammates happy. What makes them sad. What makes them tick. And what motivates them.”
Duncan has helped a lot of individuals become teams in his more than 25 years in the consulting realm, where his clients have included Amazon, Google, and Microsoft and has received international acclaim as a leading figure in his world from Consulting Magazine in 2022. In the podcast, Duncan explains that high performing teams don’t materialize magically just because you happen to have the right talent. It falls to the leader to create the conditions and expectations that will help others come together in trust.
One way he does this is through leading by example rather than pulling rank. “For me, it’s very important to never ask someone on your team to do something you’re not prepared to do yourself,” he noted. Once, leading a team working with a client in Memphis, Tennessee, Duncan volunteered to be the one who pulled an all-nighter to test a critical system. The next morning, when his team and their client asked whether the system worked, Duncan replied, “Of course it works. I tested it.”
The point of leading by example isn’t to be better liked by your team, says Duncan, but rather to build trust within your team. It also removes an artificial barrier – namely, rank – that can prevent leaders and their teams from getting to know each other better. Duncan says you may have to walk a fine line, but “start by building greater trust, and then raise or lower the bar on expectations, and delegate based on what you see.”
Listeners to the podcast will enjoy a “consultant’s eye view” of Duncan’s team-building expertise, including:
Duncan says one of his greatest sources of professional pride comes from leading people to do something that they didn’t think they could do before they started the journey with him. “For me, the measure of success is seeing people at the end of a project say, ‘Wow, I had no idea I could do that!’ That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.”
"Don is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. I’ve known him for a long time and every time we talk I walk away wiser and more inspired. He is the best in the business at teaching you a skill – storytelling – that will last you a lifetime.”
“The ability for athletes to get hired is carried on through you because you are putting out the message that lessons learned from sports are important in life. It is embedded in this podcast, what you’re doing is significant.”
We speak the same language. I am inspired by the stories you tell, the people you have met, and the things you’ve done. Those of us that are competitors like to follow others that have been down that journey, so it is always fun talking to you!”
“Many of the leaders I have worked with were excellent athletes, and I think there is a direct correlation. You’re one of the few people that really has pursued this study, Don. Keep up the great work. What you are doing really makes a difference.”
“Don, you have mastered the skill of interviewing and asking great questions. That is a great skill all leaders need in order to understand their team members’ thought processes.”
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