Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 8 Tips for Building an Effective Team

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose groundbreaking scholarship and keen insights have reshaped the way we view the American presidency. Her bestselling books about presidents in times of crisis reveal how innate ability, learned experience, humility, empathy, and a flexibility of mind have shaped our greatest chief executives. Here’s are some of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s leadership insights:

1. 1. Assemble a team you can trust. You don’t need to be president of the United States to build a successful team to aid you in decision-making, problem-solving, and identifying big-picture goals. No matter their leadership style, great leaders cultivate groups of people they can rely on in scenarios both simple and complex. If you assemble good team members who unite around shared goals and team values, there's no limit on how far your organization can go.
2. 2. Accept that you can’t be an expert at everything. Acknowledging your own limitations and appreciating the abilities of others can guide the development of a team by adding strengths that complement your own. It may seem counterintuitive to consider your own weaknesses as you begin building and leading a team. But, it’s crucial to identify those areas in which your experience, skillset, and know-how may be insufficient to get the entire job done—and to then find collaborators who can fill in the gaps.
3. 3. Delegate responsibility. As an effective leader, you should have enough confidence in your own abilities that you won’t feel threatened by your collaborators’ capabilities. Learn to delegate tasks to capable team members who can report results back to you.
4. 4. Demonstrate that you trust your team. Let your team members excel at what they do best, and encourage them to share their thoughts and perspectives, especially when they may vary from your own. By considering your teammates’ perspectives and accepting their criticism, you show that you trust in their abilities.
5. 5. Reward success and forgive mistakes. Sometimes building the most efficacious team possible means forgiving past slights and grievances. Ascending to the presidency as the nation was engulfed by civil war, and lacking executive experience himself, Abraham Lincoln staffed his cabinet with his challengers from the 1860 presidential election. By putting aside their differences, Lincoln’s “team of rivals” saw the country through one of its most precarious times.
6. 6. Set clear ground rules. As the team’s leader, you must set the course of discussion and keep it focused on the task at hand. Nonetheless, keep an open mind to new ideas. That’s part of the point of team consultation.
7. 7. Own your decisions. As Franklin D. Roosevelt told his staff members: “You and I know people who wear out the carpet walking up and down worrying whether they have decided something correctly. Do the very best you can in making up your mind, but once your mind is made up, go ahead.” Once you’ve solicited the opinions of your team, consider their input, then make an executive decision.
8. 8. Accept blame for mistakes. Sometimes things will go exactly as you planned, but chances are you’ll end up making the wrong call at some point in your life or career. If a decision goes awry, then you must own responsibility for it. As long as you put integrity and character first, you’ll be able to offer an honest and compelling defense of your position.

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