Why Leading a Team and Voting are Similar

Extra edition of the Better Skills and Tactics Letter

Its election time again in the United States, but don’t worry, this isn’t a political commentary.

Recently, I was speaking with a young woman who said she would be voting for the first time this year. Our discussion moved from whom to vote for to how to determine whom to vote for. As the conversation progressed, it occurred to me that there are parallels between a leader’s responsibility when assuming leadership in a new team and a citizen’s responsibility of selecting the best candidate in an election.

What does leadership and voting have in common?

As a leader, you must know as much as possible about your new team. As a citizen, you must also know as much as possible about the candidates seeking office.

When stepping into leadership of an established team, you will probably hear various opinions about the team and/or the people on the team. Some of those comments may be well-meaning, and some may not. You may hear opinions from peers, your boss, and even members of the team themselves. All of those comments will be affected by some sort of bias. Comments from peers may be based on nothing more than hearsay or distant observation. Your boss will have a view based on team results, but probably not be aware of the actual inner workings of the team. Team members may have an axe to grind. You shouldn’t ignore any of this input, but you must analyze who is saying what and why to find the truth. Take nothing at face value.

Do your own research. Get out there with your team and find out what’s really going on.

Selecting a candidate to vote for is quite similar. There are many people; friends, family, strangers, and media who want to tell you, often with extreme certainty, that a particular candidate is good; our nation’s salvation, or that another candidate is the worst thing that could happen to the country. But, just like the leader of a new team, you must form your own opinion by doing your own research.

In this case the research is more difficult. You must get beyond the hype, the memes, the fawning, and the vitriol to learn what a candidate really stands for and what they profess to do once in office. You probably won’t learn that from memes on LinkedIn. (If you’re posting those, please stop) Again, take nothing at face value.

The leader of a new team has a serious responsibility go beyond the noise to understand their team and take the correct approach to leading that team. Likewise, a citizen has a serious responsibility to understand who the candidates really are and what they profess to do once in office.