The 3rd Dimension of Leadership: Team Leadership

If self-leadership is the foundation, and people leadership is the framework, then team leadership is the architecture that enables lasting impact.

At this stage in your leadership journey, it’s no longer about just influencing individuals—it’s about uniting people around a shared mission, building cohesion, and cultivating the kind of synergy that wins together. Transformational Team Leadership isn’t about being the hero—it’s about building one in the team.

In this third dimension, we’ll explore timeless truths that help us understand what it really takes to lead teams that perform, persevere, and ultimately win.

Then, we’ll layer in Working Genius, a practical tool that helps leaders build balanced, high-performing teams based on where people find energy, joy, and fulfillment in the work they do and how they are naturally wired to contribute.

1. Leadership Is Influence, Nothing More, Nothing Less

Leadership doesn’t scale through authority—it scales through influence. And nowhere is this more visible than in a team.

When leading teams, your influence determines how aligned, motivated, and committed people are to the collective goal. If you’re not influencing at the team level—creating buy-in, modeling the values, and setting the tone—your team will default to confusion or competition.

Team Insight: If your team isn’t aligned or engaged, it may not be a performance issue—it may be an influence issue.

Reflection Questions

• What’s the source of your influence with your team—your title or your character?

• When was the last time you intentionally strengthened trust, communication, or buy-in?

Action Step
Schedule a 1:1 with each team member in the next two weeks. Ask them: What’s one thing I could do to support you more effectively as your leader?

2. Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand

High-performing teams don’t just work hard—they connect deeply. Great team leaders know that connection precedes collaboration.

Before people give their effort, they must feel seen, valued, and understood. That means listening. That means learning each person’s unique communication style, personality, and motivations. Without connection, you get compliance. With connection, you get commitment.

Team Insight: Do your team members feel like they matter to you—or just their output does?

Reflection Questions

• Do your people feel known beyond their roles or responsibilities?

• What does your team need more of—recognition, conversation, or empathy?

Action Step
Block 15 minutes in your weekly team meetings for non-work connection. Invite a personal check-in question like, What’s something you’re looking forward to this week (personally)?

3. Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others

A team can only rise to the level of trust and authority it’s given. Insecure leaders create bottlenecks. Empowering leaders create breakthroughs.

When you empower your team—through ownership, autonomy, and trust—you multiply leadership. You free up capacity. And most importantly, you signal that your team is trusted, not just tasked.

Team Insight: Where are you hoarding control that your team is ready to handle?

Reflection Questions

• What decisions do you regularly make that someone else on your team could own?

• Are you equipping your team—or micromanaging them?

Action Step
Choose one recurring decision or responsibility to delegate fully this month. Set clear expectations, give them authority, and follow up with coaching—not control.

4. The Goal Is More Important Than the Role

Teams fall apart when individual roles matter more than the shared mission. As a team leader, your job is to constantly remind everyone that they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

People want to know their contribution matters—but they also want to be part of a cause that’s worth contributing to. This helps your team stay focused on the mission, not just the mechanics.

Team Insight: Does your team know the “why” behind the work—or just the “what”?

Reflection Questions

• Have you clearly communicated the vision and how each person contributes to it?

• Does your team feel like they’re part of a movement—or just a machine?

Action Step
At your next team huddle, take 5 minutes to restate the big picture: Here’s where we’re going. Here’s why it matters. And here’s how each of you helps make it happen.

5. Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win

When the stakes are high and pressure rises, real team leadership shows up. Do you keep the team together? Do you find a way forward? Do you instill the belief that we will win—even when it’s hard?

This isn’t about perfection—it’s about resilience, grit, and belief. It’s a reminder that your team’s mindset is shaped by your leadership. If you show up confident, clear, and committed to finding solutions, your team will follow.

Team Insight: In moments of adversity, does your team look to you for answers—or to blame?

Reflection Questions

• How do you respond when things go sideways?

• Do you model resilience or react with pressure?

Action Step
Identify a recent or upcoming challenge your team is facing. Share a short message that communicates: We’ve got this. Here’s the plan. Here’s what winning looks like together.

How Working Genius Transforms Team Leadership

If you want to build a team that’s aligned, effective, and fulfilled, you need more than good intentions—you need a framework for how people work best.

Working Genius, developed by Patrick Lencioni, identifies six types of “genius” that every healthy team needs to get work done effectively:

1. Wonder – sees possibilities and asks big questions

2. Invention – generates new ideas and solutions

3. Discernment – uses intuition to evaluate ideas

4. Galvanizing – rallies people to move forward

5. Enablement – helps others bring ideas to life

6. Tenacity – pushes projects to completion

Each person has:

• 2 Geniuses (they love and are great at)

• 2 Competencies (they can do but don’t love)

• 2 Frustrations (they struggle with and drain energy)

When your team is out of alignment—too many people in their frustrations and not enough in their geniuses—you see delays, burnout, and breakdowns.

But when you structure teams around complementary geniuses, the results are powerful:

• Projects move faster
• People feel energized
• Strengths are fully leveraged
• Communication improves
• Engagement skyrockets

As a team leader, your job is to put people in positions where they can win. Working Genius gives you the map to do that with clarity and confidence.

Team Insight: Is your team structured for performance—or just convenience?

Reflection Questions

• Do you know what energizes and drains each member of your team?

• Are the right people doing the right work—or just available work?

Action Step
Book a Working Genius Workshop with your team. We'll map everyone’s geniuses and frustrations. Then, realign projects and roles to leverage their strengths more strategically. Let's connect about it here.

Great Leaders Build Great Teams

You can’t build a great organization without great teams. And you can’t build great teams without transformational team leadership.

The 3rd Dimension of Leadership is about scaling trust, alignment, and ownership across the collective. It’s not about doing more—it’s about equipping others to be more together.

Ready to Build a High-Performing, Aligned, and Empowered Team?

If you're a business owner, executive, or team leader ready to elevate how your team performs and collaborates—I’d love to work with you.

Through my Business Leadership Coaching and Team Development Programs, I use frameworks like DISC, Working Genius, Emotional Intelligence, and more to help you understand your team, unlock hidden potential, and create a culture of ownership, trust, and results.

Apply now for Business Leadership Coaching
Let’s build a team that wins—and wins together.