I'd like to describe a concept that I call teen number one it's very simple but it's also very important let's say this is an org chart of an organization and this is the CEO or the head of a division and these are his or her direct reports maybe the head of Finance the head of Human Resources operations sales IT marketing whatever they are team number one means that these people have to make this team their number one priority and that these folks down here cannot prioritize their subordinates or their teams over this one let me
explain why this is an issue let's call this the head of marketing and these are his or her direct reports if I were to ask many executives what their number one priority is this team up here or the one that they manage many of them with really good intentions would admit you know as important as this team is to them this is the one they consider their most important priority because they sit near these people they hired them they really are interested in the subject matter and they feel a sense of duty to them and
they like being their leader now as as natural and common as that is it's actually very dangerous because when these people prioritize this group down here this team becomes like the United Nations or Congress where people are coming to meetings and lobbying for their constituents rather than looking out for the greater good what has to happen instead is all of these people have to make it very clear that they will do what is right for the company or the organization more than their direct reports now some people will say well where does that leave these
people well the fact of the matter is the people who suffer most when we don't have team number one working correctly are these people who are left to fight bloody and unwinnable battles with their colleagues and other departments because their leaders are not working together so team number one not only serves the greater good but it allows these people down further into the organization to have a clearer sense of what they need to do and an opportunity to succeed
