Does Your Team Have The Ubuntu Spirit?

I want to share a story with you. Back in 2004, I had the opportunity to travel to beautiful South Africa for the first time, where I met with business leaders who were working to advance democracy worldwide.

While I was there, an unexpected, yet life-changing opportunity opened up. I got to meet Wendy, then CEO of the retail division of the largest bank in South Africa.

As we sat in her offices overlooking Johannesburg, Wendy explained to me that she had been charged with finding a way to unify the employees of their bank in a post-apartheid era.

Wendy, a soft-spoken yet confident leader, explained to me how under her leadership, they transitioned from a fear-based organization into one centered on freedom.

When I asked her how they did it. She said, “One word: Ubuntu.”

I had never heard of Ubuntu (not the software!) before, so Wendy further explained to me, “Ubuntu means, ‘I can be my best only if you are at your best, and you can only be your best if I am at my best, because we are one.’”

Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, explains  it like this:

“In Africa, there is a concept known as ‘Ubuntu’—the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world it will be in equal measure due to the work and achievement of others.”

Ubuntu is about promoting cooperation, unselfishness, mutual accountability, and teamwork, thus allowing Freedom-Centered Leaders to build high-performing teams.

Perhaps your team or organization is facing a similar challenge. You need to develop a strong sense of team unity, reinvigorate your culture, or infuse a sense of spirit into your workplace, especially during these challenging times.

Without the Ubuntu spirit, however, individuals don’t show up at their best, which can impact their teammate's ability to also show up at their best. This can hurt morale, innovation, and overall growth.

This is exactly what happened with Wendy and her highly diverse team.

But by consciously and intentionally practicing the spirit of Ubuntu, with each individual being clear about how they could show up at their best each day and committing to living it, they made a significant shift from a fear-based division to a Freedom-Centered Team – and it also had a massive impact on their bottom-line. They also became a role model for the rest of the company.

Within a five-year period, they grew by 100 percent, raised employee satisfaction to the ninetieth percentile from a previously negative score, and lowered overall turnover.

But the benefits of consciously living the Ubuntu spirit at their company didn’t just stop with their financial success. It also rippled out to impact their community.

Over 10,000 of their 22,000 employees, many of whom had never volunteered before, began volunteering in their communities in the spirit of Ubuntu.

As a result, Wendy was recognized for her team’s remarkable turnaround and was voted as South Africa’s “Top Woman in Business.”

Ubuntu is one of the three core attributes of Freedom-Centered Leadership in the Freedom at Work model that we now teach at WorldBlu to help leaders and their teams perform at their peak.

Here are three things you can start doing right now to cultivate more Ubuntu in your team or organization:

Ubuntu Is About Showing Up at Your Best

First, if Ubuntu is about showing up at your best so that everyone else can be at their best, then what exactly is your “best”?

Make a list of what you need to do each day to be mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally at your best.

Do you do these things consistently? If not, what can you change to show up at your best?

Who do you need to be around – or not be around! – to be at your best each day?

What boundaries do you need to set in order to be at your best?

For me, showing up at my best each day means I’ve had time for prayer and reflection in the morning along with a great workout (either inside or outside, but I prefer being outside!) before I get to the office.

It means I’m also spending the majority of my time doing what I love and what I excel at (executive coaching, writing, speaking, and developing leadership curriculum), which keeps me feeling happy because I’m living my purpose by making a difference and helping others.

It also looks like having healthy boundaries with my work and personal time, taking time for refreshment and renewal throughout my week and throughout the year.

And, as a lover of dark chocolate with sea salt, it also means eating some of that each day, too!

Ubuntu Is About Living Your Purpose and Vision for Your Life

Secondly, showing up at your best so that others can be at their best also means knowing your purpose and vision for your life, and intentionally living it. This is something we teach leaders how to discover in our Fearless Purpose course.

For example, everyone on the WorldBlu team knows their purpose and vision for their life. This allows us to make sure that every individual on our team is engaged in purpose-aligned work, which ultimately helps them be at their best while simultaneously giving them a sense of meaning and fulfillment.

Ubuntu is About Team Spirit

Once we know how to individually show up at our best, we’re ready to be on a team of people showing up at their best. Ubuntu shows us that we are all are interconnected and therefore interdependent, heightening the awareness of our mutual responsibility and accountability to each other.

An example of a team practicing Ubuntu comes from the world of sports.

Back in 2007, the Boston Celtics basketball team was massively struggling after coming in last in the NBA Eastern Conference season standings.

Their new coach, Doc Rivers, was searching for a philosophy that would bring his team together and get them on a path of success.

While at his alma mater, Marquette University, entirely by chance, he met Kita Matungulu, an expert in Ubuntu who is also the head of Hoops for Hope in South Africa. Kita asked Doc if he had ever heard of Ubuntu and he suggested that he needed to get his team to practice it.

“The definition of Ubuntu is I am who I am because of you. My shine is your shine. My success is your success,” explained Kita to Doc Rivers, who loved the concept and took it to his team.

Doc explained to the players that Ubuntu would be their new philosophy, ultimately unifying and guiding their previously fractured and failing team.

Everything they did was about Ubuntu. If there was a problem, they solved it with Ubuntu. If egos flared up, they solved it with Ubuntu. Before their games, their cheer was, “1-2-3, Ubuntu!”

The Boston Celtics’ embrace of Ubuntu led to a remarkable one-year turnaround that led them to win the 2008 NBA championship—their first title since 1986.

Their inspiring story is captured in the film Anything is Possible: The Story of the 2008 Celtics.

When a team is led by the Ubuntu spirit, individuals take accountability for showing up at their best so that everyone can be at their best.

It shifts our thinking from focusing on ourselves to recognizing our interconnectedness and how our actions impact the greater team for failure or success.

When we realize that your success is my success, and my success is your success, we don’t have to dim our light.

We shine so everyone can shine.