Season 2, Episode 1
cto.coffee podcast is back! And I’m re-starting the podcast with a truly special guest!
First Teams and Why Leaders Need One with Lena Reinhard
In this episode I talked to Lena Reinhard, a VP Engineering, leadership coach, mentor, and organizational developer.
She hosts the Leadership Confidential Podcast and
shares leadership guides on lenareinhard.com/articles.
We discussed the concept of “first teams” for leaders - what they are, why they’re important, and how to implement them
effectively.
Some key points from our conversation:
- The first team concept comes from Patrick Lencioni’s work on organizational health. It suggests leaders should prioritize working with their peer group over their direct reports.
- First teams can help leaders grow, utilize expertise across the organization, and optimize for the business as a whole
- Implementing first teams can be challenging due to incentives, time constraints, and the long-term nature of the investment
- Practical ways to start include diagnosing current challenges, having leaders collaborate on specific projects, and facilitating regular communication
- First teams should be seen as both a value/principle and a tool for organizational effectiveness
Some of my favorite quotes from the episode:
On why first teams can be challenging to implement (~5 min):
“Most things in leadership work in theory. And if you’re reading it in a book or in a blog post, you say, oh, this is– of course, this makes so much sense. It’s really straightforward. […] But then applying it to my mental frame of reference is always Monday morning at 9 AM when you open your laptop. And then you have your Slack messages, your team stuff, your emails, and whatnot. And that is a challenge that so many of us– and I just wanted to pull that up because, honestly, it’s one of the things that a lot of leaders also beat themselves up about.”
On the benefits of working as part of a first team (~17 min):
As a leader, being part of such a first team is a very different experience. It makes the work so much more fun because you have peers you can go to. You learn from each other. You hear different approaches for how they do things. It’s way less of an isolated experience of leading than a lot of leaders, unfortunately, are experiencing.
On taking action to implement first teams (~37 min):
Resist the temptation to over-define how this is going to work. Because a lot of it will become much clearer when you make it practical.
On the benefits of a first team of leaders for the organisation (~54 min):
“What is good for the organization is if you have a strong first team of leaders at all levels, where those folks learn from each other, build things together, and are able to grow through that as well, and ultimately cultivate an organization that is higher performing and higher performing than it currently is.”
So, lots to take away from this. It’s filled with loads of Lena’s wisdom leading teams and orgs over a long time.
I hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as Lena and I did while we recorded it!
Listen
You can also listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast on the show’s Spotify or Apple Podcasts page.
This episode was recorded on 04-July-2024.
Transcript
You can also read the transcription of this episode.
Show Notes
Follow Lena on Linkedin, listen to her podcast Leadership confidential and check out her website.
~2min Origin of “First Team”: In a business and management context the term is indeed usually attributed to Patrick Lencioni. Lencioni introduced this concept in his 2002 book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” While Lencioni definitely popularized the term in business literature, it’s possible the concept existed in some form prior to his work. However, his book is widely credited with bringing the “First Team” idea into mainstream management thinking.
~2min Defining the concept of “first teams”
~4min Why implementing first teams can be challenging
~13min The impact and benefits of working as a first team
~20min Cross-functional leadership teams
~27min Practical approaches to introducing first teams
~37min Example workshop for building team cohesion
~47min First teams as both a value/principle and a tool
~55min Encouragement to try implementing first teams
The intro/outro music in the podcast was made with Sonic Pi from this code.