Essentials: Building Great Teams Part 3 - Ambition

In my last article, we discussed the second of four essentials: Passion. This week we’re going to explore what the third element, ambition, entails and how it’s a necessary ingredient to build dynamic, high performing teams. If you missed the first two parts of this series, you can read them?here?and?here.

Much like the other essentials, there is no singular definition of “ambition”. It’s inherently intangible and, inevitably, one of those “you know it when you see it” esoteric concepts. Oxford defines ambition as?“desire and determination to achieve success.” That’s a decent definition, but it doesn’t really strike at the heart of what success means, nor does it envelop the “why” behind the desire or determination. Interestingly, the root of the word “ambition” comes from the Old French?ambire – to go around canvassing for votes. This is probably a more accurate description, as it paints a word picture with a purposeful outcome. The purpose of “going around”? To get votes. Ambition is something that requires a high level of intentionality. It’s a drive. Patrick Lencioni would call it “hunger”. Given that, I define ambition as “the intentional, relentless pursuit of achieving a goal”.

Equally important, then, is to define what ambition is not. Too often, the word becomes conflated with societal ideals and workplace psychology. Ambition is not climbing a corporate ladder. It is not getting a title, a salary, a promotion, or a bonus. These things are?byproducts?of ambition, but not ambition itself. Ambition is also not a categorical comparison between colleagues or employees, nor is it a measurable quantity. Which, of course, prompts a very pertinent question: If we can’t see it or measure it, how on earth do we find and lead people that have it?

Returning to the definition above, intentionally and relentlessly pursuing the achievement of a goal, leaders bear the responsibility of both modeling that ethos and drawing it out of the teams we lead. That means several things must be true:

1. We must understand (not merely know) the goal.
2. We must be able to clearly communicate the goal and how it’s achievement will impact our teams.
3. We must align the “work” with the goal – that is, we need to make sure our teams are doing the right things, not simply doing things right.
4. Above all, we must commit to being closer to achieving the goal tomorrow than we are today, and closer today than we were yesterday.

This last item is often the most difficult, but it is the most critical. Ambition is about?motion. As Bryant McGill said, "Ambition without action is fantasy". It’s a continuous improvement mindset. Cultivating (because it requires care and feeding) this mindset is the leader’s responsibility because it takes a person to model it. This can’t be a hollow, philosophical approach that is good fodder for a meeting agenda but lies forgotten upon dismissal. It must be a practical one. It must be repetitive. Simply put,?someone must lead.

In my career, one of the simplest (yet most effective) forms of cultivating ambition has been employee training programs. I’m not talking about the rote compliance, managerial, or harassment training everyone does annually and usually flies through without deep consideration, but of the true, deep, employee-selected training that improves vital skills, fosters new ones, and drives critical thought. Asking people what they want to learn is a powerful and simple way to identify not only the ambitious, but the non-ambitious as well. Employees that gravitate toward self-improvement are showing the signs of being driven. Those who either don’t want to learn or believe they don’t need to are the red flags. Simply put, cultivating a culture of ambition comes down to one of my tried-and-true beliefs about employees: To create engaged employees, give them an opportunity to be excellent at something.?

Inside or outside of work, in both leadership and non-leadership roles, I have yet to meet anyone who is excellent – truly excellent – at something they hate. Now, I’m sure this could invite a firestorm of commentary, and I’m sure there is an exception or two?somewhere, but the point remains. Improvement typically begets the desire for more improvement. Think of it as the difference between potential energy kinetic energy. As a leader, your job is to tap into the potential – the human element – and unlock that improvement. Once done, you convert that potential energy (energy possessed by virtue of state or position) to kinetic energy (energy defined by virtue of motion), and once an object is in motion, it stays in motion until acted upon by a greater outside force. You, the leader,?are?that outside force, and your actions and decisions will either start, foster, or stop ambition in, on, and for your teams.

Of course, that implies a tremendous responsibility. Ideally, you have employees who already have the hunger, the ambition, to pursue achieving the goal relentlessly and intentionally. If not, you have two options: Train them up, or move them out. You cannot allow the non-ambitious person to repress the desire for improvement and growth. Ambition cannot exist (or be permitted to persist) in the same space as apathy.?

There are no shortcuts here. Ambition is essential. Leaders need to insist on people who are committed to relentless and intentional pursuit of achieving a goal, and more importantly, embody it themselves. Remember back to the root word,?ambire? There’s movement implied in “going around”. As a leader, you need people who are willing to move. Train them. Coach them. Explain the goals. Then explain them again and again and again until it becomes a mantra in your organization. Make sure the tasks your teams are performing actually fulfill the vision you have. Cultivate your people’s drive. You’ll find that your goals become easier to reach, and your successes are more impactful. And you just might create a few more future leaders along the way.