Lessons For Building Collaborative Culture From 4 Leaders Of Amazon, Target, IKEA And Navy SEAL

Many leaders often divide their teams into smaller groups in order to delegate tasks clearly and effectively. However, the key factor that can lead to the success of a team is how well the team members can work together. Here are some stories from the most famous leaders about how they collaborate with teams in their respective businesses.

1. Gregg Steinhafel – Target’s former CEO, believed that the best collaborative environment can be fostered by a “coaching leader” 

Steinhafel explained that in his former company (Target), the primary key to make something happen is having a large and collaborative group of employees. Instead of being a decision-maker in the group, a leader should be a “coach” who helps employees to collaborate with each other. During his time at Target, Steinhafel often organized one-on-one meetings with other employees in order to discuss with them openly. He also encouraged employees to connect with others in different company’s offices by using video communication or social media channels.

2. Anders Dahlvig – IKEA’s former CEO, recommended that creating a culture where teams can cross-collaborate is very important at the early stage.

Dahlvig said that in businesses, teams were divided and developed with sales, marketing, and product along the time businesses are running. However, the business development teams sometimes struggle with the difficulty in creating an effective cross-collaboration with other teams while running the companies. 

During Dahvig’s time at IKEA, it would not be easy for a person to be promoted although that person was a high performer if he/she couldn’t work with the team well enough.

Dahlvig said that many people are good at developing by themselves but cannot collaborate with anyone. And he also added that if leaders don’t get rid of people that can’t work with others, then there will always be a risk from those people.

3. Jocko Willink – former Navy SEAL commander, now turned to best-selling author, pointed out the common sense between a team in war and in business

Willink said that in every meeting that he attended before, he never joined a meeting like a guy that got a perfect plan. Since each team (Navy SEALs, Army, and Marines) has its own unique skills and advantages, they sit together to make the most suitable approach that can advance each team’s capabilities to bring the best outcomes. 

However, in order to collaborate with three elite teams together, it will need lots of effort by having a huge modesty from each side. Willink explained that all the leaders in the three armies are extremely ambitious, however, all of them knew that the top priority is the whole success of the teams. Therefore, Willink brought this experience into his own business, and to him, the best way to deal with difficult clients is to put your ego aside and build good relationships.

4. Jeff Bezos – Amazon’s CEO, treats his top executives like family members

At Amazon, there is S-Team – a group of Bezos’s top executives who are not from the board of management. In a report of Franklin Foer from the Atlantic, the members of S-Team can almost read Bezos’s mind as they know him so well, and that is because he always treats them like “familial affection”.

Bezos always encourages his S-Team to indicate any issue that they found in order to come up with solutions that can enhance Amazon. Therefore, they often have discussions related to the company’s business and management decisions. 

James Thomson, a manager of Amazon, said that at Amazon, the top concern is on asking the right question, and so executives are always the ones that crave to show how much they know the most. 

According to Business Insider

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In addition to the 4 leaders mentioned above, which stories of how to build a collaborative culture from brilliant other leaders that you know? Please share with us by leaving your comment in the section below.

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