It Takes a Team

Ready — Between 1504 and 1508, Michelangelo labored to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It’s a masterpiece! When you picture that event, what do you see in your mind’s eye? If you’re like most people, you see Michelangelo working alone, lying on his back day-after-day on the scaffolding high above the chapel floor. But it’s a myth. In truth, thirteen people assisted him in painting the work.

Set — Was Michelangelo a genius? Yes! Part of his genius (often missed) was an ability to collaborate with companions, incorporating their ideas, insights, and suggestions. Great work is often done by solitary workers; but, as leadership expert Warren Bennis declares, “None of us is as smart as all of us” (Organizing Genius, 1997). Let me put it this way: Great Leaders Build Great Teams To Accomplish Great Work. As you gather your team, consider that great leaders recruit team members.

• Who have delusional confidence, believing “if they dream it they can do it.”

• Who have “fire in their bellies, grit in their eyes, and a never-say-quit attitude.”

• Who are curious, playful, and creative, viewing failure as a means to learn.

• Who are mavericks, believing “it’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

• Who desire to be insanely great in accomplishing a tangible vision.

Grow! — Genuis like that of Michelangelo is rare, but the ability to work together in creative collaboration with a team is available to us all. Italian writer and film director, Luciano De Crescenzo, suggests, “we are all angels with only one wing, we can only fly while embracing each other.” Great leaders working in a fertile relationship with great team members can and DO accomplish great projects.