1 | Welcome to Team Clarity Month!

Welcome back. This month we're shifting into our final leadership series - leadership of teams. We've covered leadership of self over three months, then leadership of others over three months, and now we're diving into the culmination of it all: leading teams effectively.

Over the next three months, we're going to focus on three principles that will transform how your team operates: building team momentum through clarity, building team momentum through culture, and building team momentum through rhythms.

But before we dive into those specifics, I want to establish the foundation that everything else will build on. And that's momentum.

I want to start by clarifying what momentum is. Momentum is the opposite of relief.

Let me explain, because this distinction will change everything about how you approach team leadership.

Momentum is created when every single person on the team plays a part in advancing the mission forward. Key theme here: every. single. person.

Relief is created when one person starts carrying the weight of driving the mission forward.

Now, relief is great for certain moments - maybe a few times per year when you need someone to step up and carry extra load. But any more than that and you're creating what I call a consumer culture, where the majority of the responsibility is carried by one person and the rest of the team are acting more like consumers rather than contributors.

Momentum, on the other hand, is created when every person on the team is contributing in some meaningful way.

Here's where I learned this lesson, and it comes from one of my favorite stories about team dynamics.

Reid Priddy - 4x Olympian, entrepreneur, father, and community leader - told me this story a few years ago about his 2008 Olympic team. He shared that the culture of that team was one of momentum, not relief.

I asked him to explain that a bit more, and here's how he broke it down:

"Relief happened when our top server went to the service line to serve. Whenever that happened, the rest of the team seemed to all relax a bit because we knew we were about to go on a 2-3 point run. However, that was never our strategy.

Our strategy was creating momentum moments. And those moments only ever happened on the rallies where everyone on the court touched the ball at least once and contributed to scoring the point."

He described that their team culture and overall strategy was to make sure everyone contributed. There was never too much reliance on one player. Their superpower was how they performed as a collective.

And that paid off. They came into the Olympics as the underdogs but left with a gold medal.

So here's the challenge for your leadership: create momentum by creating a culture that relies on every person on the team showing up and contributing to the mission.

This doesn't mean everyone does the same thing or carries equal responsibility. It means everyone has a meaningful role in moving the mission forward. Everyone knows how their contribution matters. Everyone feels ownership in the success.

When you create this kind of momentum culture, amazing things happen. People stop waiting for someone else to solve problems. They stop coasting because they know the star player will carry the load. Instead, they lean in, they contribute, they take ownership.

Over the next three months, we're going to get into the practicalities of what this looks like. We'll cover how to create clarity so everyone knows their role in building momentum. We'll talk about building the culture that sustains momentum over time. And we'll establish the rhythms that keep momentum consistent rather than sporadic.

But it all starts with this mindset shift from relief to momentum. From depending on one person to empowering every person.

Because here's what I know for sure - the teams that change the world aren't the ones with the best individual talent. They're the ones where every person knows they matter, every person contributes, and every person plays a part in the collective success.

That's momentum. And that's what we're building.

On that note, that’s all for today! Welcome to Team Clarity Month!