“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”
Peter F. Drucker
What is it that distinguishes successful leaders from others? How come that some leaders succeed in creating a well-oiled team, where the target profit is obtained and colleagues enjoy coming to work, whereas other leaders are confronted with disappointing losses, burnouts, and job losses? Recent research points to the talent of leaders to cultivate a strong team identity — a sense of 'we' and 'us' — in their team.
“The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.”
Good leaders (whether it is the CEO, the manager, or the leaders within the team) succeed in making their colleagues think, feel, and behave as members of one team (as 'we' and 'us'), rather than as a group of individuals (as 'me' and 'you'). This sense of 'we' and 'us', in scientific terms referred to as a joint social identity, leads employees to go beyond what is strictly expected from them to help their colleagues and their organisation. After all, these highly identifying employees perceive the success of their team or of their organisation as a personal achievement. Moreover, by cultivating this team identity, both formal leaders and leaders within the team create a leverage to foster the team's effectiveness and their resilience as a team, as well as colleagues' satisfaction and well-being.
To guide CEO's and managers on the one hand, and the leaders within the team on the other hand in cultivating and strengthening this joint team identity, we developed two programs; the 5R Program solely focuses on the cultivation on this joint team identity, whereas our all-in 5RS Program starts with implementing a structure of shared leadership and then combines the strengths of both the formal leader and the leaders within the team to strengthen a sense of 'we' and 'us'.
On the following pages, you find more information on each of these programs: