How to Build Teams Like the Justice League

I’ve always enjoyed building teams in my career—small and big, local and global, permanent and transient, functional and cross-functional, strategy and execution, and more. What I love about building teams is the challenge of putting together the ideal mix of expertise to achieve the best possible outcome. The journey along the way presents many learning opportunities for all and the results, if done right, can exceed goals as well as be career and life changing.

I don’t believe that there is a bulletproof formula that all must follow to a T in assembling teams. In fact, despite years of experience, coaching from my mentors, and understanding people's strengths, I continue to learn and tweak on a daily basis. For me, the dynamic process is a unique combination of art and science. It requires a vision, strategic thinking, a thoughtful yet agile approach, self awareness, and open-mindedness. The big payoff is when the vision and possibilities turn into reality, recognizing the team for what they've accomplished for their company and customers as well as seeing how people have progressed in their careers and in their personal lives. In the business world, not too many things are more energizing than this!

This reminds me of the Justice League, a movie where six superheroes work together to protect Earth from being terraformed into the enemy’s underworld. Batman worked methodically and diligently, overcoming many obstacles (including bringing Superman back to life) and rejection, to put the right team together to fight a powerful evil force. He recruited Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, and Superman one at a time. He used each superhero to help recruit the next, ensured good teamwork and dynamics, empowered them, and drove them to combine their superpowers to save the world! Interestingly, Batman’s approach has parallels to what has worked for me (and maybe for you as well). I’ll share some insights on the following:

• Understanding the mission
• Assessing what we need
• Embracing diversity and inclusion
• Overcoming unconscious bias

Understanding the Mission

Before we can build or optimize teams, it all starts with understanding the mission and envisioning what success looks like.

Is the mission to enter new markets and the measurement of success is acquisition of key beachhead accounts? Maybe it’s developing and launching a new innovative product to improve the company’s competitiveness and strategic position in the industry? Or it may be improving the company’s overall reputation by ensuring better customer experience and providing more comprehensive support? Of course, these are simply examples. The main point here is that with this foundational information, it sets us up to assess what resources and expertise we need on the team to be successful.

Assessing What We Need

We will most likely need a variety of expertise or superpowers to accomplish the mission. In some situations, we’ll be deadlifting something off the ground and starting from scratch in building a team. Or, we may have a few resources in place but still have gaps to fill. It’s important to understand the superpowers of the people we currently have on the team and our own superpowers as leaders to determine what expertise we need to bring in to complement what we already have.

Be prepared to constantly assess along the way. People's personal situations, behaviors, motivations, and career aspirations change. Upwardly mobile employees continually reinvent themselves. We have to be cognizant of these changes.

Furthermore, the market and customers, the business model, the functions, and the goals and strategies may also be evolving, like in digital transformation. Building and leading teams through digital transformation require us to turn traditional beliefs on its head, keep a consistent pulse on the mission, and adjust accordingly. On top of that, this level of agility needs to persist as we evaluate and integrate new talent into the team, from within and/or outside the company.

Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

Find complementing superpowers to get the job done. It’s rare to need a team of people with all the same superpowers. The Justice League is more of the norm.

If we believe that we each have unique superpowers, then it makes a lot of sense to look for people who aren’t just like us.

Batman recruited someone who can communicate with marine life and manipulate water, someone whose golden lasso compels others to tell the truth, someone whose fast movements are undetectable to the human eye, someone who can launch missiles out of his robotic arm, and someone who flies and has superhuman strength! Batman didn’t want or need five Supermen or five Wonder Women. He knew exactly what he needed, masters of their domains that in combination created the ideal complement to his superpowers to accomplish the mission successfully.

Interestingly, one can argue that Batman doesn’t have superpowers unless being extraordinarily rich with a lot of amazingly cool toys counts. I think it's a superpower. Funding is a must and it has to come from somewhere. But in all seriousness, in my opinion, Batman's main superpower is leadership.

This is a perfect illustration of the power of diversity and inclusion in building high functioning teams. There have been many studies about the positive impact of diverse teams on financial performance, innovation, employee loyalty, corporate culture, morale and productivity, career advancement, and so much more. The people who conducted these studies are better equipped to backup these claims with data moreso than me. (Here are some prominent studies from LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, PwC, and Deloitte.) But I’ve experienced first-hand the profound impacts that diversity and inclusion have had on companies, my teams, and on me. Likewise, I’ve also experienced the downside of lack of diversity.

At Pure, we continue to work hard on diversity and inclusion. We have six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that are led and operated by employees with passion for the cause.

1. Women. Inspires the success, advancement and sponsorship of women. March 8, 2019 is International Women's Day. Let's celebrate women's achievements and call for a gender-balanced world. #BalanceforBetter
2. Pride. Strives to raise the visibility and inclusion of Pure’s LGBTQ+ employees, as well as connects them and their allies to support LGBTQ+ and human rights initiatives.
3. Coalition. Advances Pure’s efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive employer by creating programs and partnerships that lead to attainment, development, and retention of the most talented minority employees in enterprise technology.
4. Rise. Aims to provide a platform and voice for those early in their careers in the company.
5. Veterans. Builds an inclusive community of veterans at Pure and promotes community outreach.
6. Able. I’m incredibly proud to be the executive sponsor for Able. Able instills confidence in people with differing abilities, visible and invisible, and inspires inclusion and advancement of these employees.

Overcoming Unconscious Bias

Who would’ve thought that the mild-mannered and introverted Clark Kent with the nerdy black-rimmed glasses, combed-back hair, and a slight slouch possesses the power of flight, x-ray vision, and supersonic speed? It’s also hard to imagine that the na?ve and innocent Diana Prince is the omnilingual, super healing, and telepathic Wonder Woman who pilots an invisible jet. Barry Allen is an unassuming police chemist with a reputation for being very slow and frequently late. That’s quite the opposite of the Flash we all know. I suppose Bruce Wayne has successfully trained himself to overcome unconscious bias, allowing him to spot the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

However, for most of us, being open-minded and overcoming unconscious bias doesn’t come as easily mainly because it’s unconscious and ingrained based on years of experience. In fact, because we have a functional brain, we all have unconscious bias. It helps us protect ourselves, find our tribe, and make decisions quickly. Unconscious bias is our reflexive reaction to some basic inputs and we don’t realize that we’re doing it. It’s one thing to be aware of unconscious bias – from others as well as our own – but it’s a whole other dimension to think proactively, plan, and execute to overcome that bias. Here’s an article that I wrote that highlights some ways to overcome unconscious bias.

When we allow ourselves to not fear and look at people as equals with complementing superpowers to us, we free ourselves to consider differing points of view, debate openly, collaborate and solve problems together, and innovate better than we ever had before. Moreover, it allows us to lead generously--abundantly giving ourselves so that others may be and do their best.

The Justice League’s tagline is: You can’t save the world alone. However, I would also say: You can’t save the world with people with the same superpowers. Let's build our teams with these key insights in mind. Expect rather than be surprised by the outcomes. Learn and enjoy the journey.

If you found this article helpful, please feel free to share it with others or click the thumbs up icon below and let me know! Share in the comments section your thoughts, your approach in building teams, key learnings, and results.