Transforming Leadership Into Teamship: The Power Of Co-Elevation

For decades, business has elevated the role of the leader. But our research with more than 3,000 teams reveals a stark reality: traditional leadership approaches leave leave billions of dollars of shareholder value on the table. When teams adopt what I call "Co-elevation" – a commitment among teammates to win together and push each other higher – they see dramatic results. A 79% increase in candor, a 46% increase in collaboration, and a 44% increase in accountability. Yet only 15% of teams achieve this standard. As my new book "Never Lead Alone" reveals, when organizations need to transform, the solution isn't more leadership – it's shifting from leadership to teamship.

The impact can be immediate and dramatic. One venture capital CEO I worked with recently recovered 30% of his time while pursuing a moonshot 10x growth goal. The breakthrough came when he shifted from hub-and-spoke leadership to Co-elevation. This isn't just delegation or empowerment; it's a fundamental reimagining of how teams work together, combining new behavioral commitments with modern collaborative processes and tools. As he put elegantly described, he had hired a team of stars, he needed them to work like a constellation.

Co-elevation is achieved through simple, targeted practices that turn culture change from an abstract goal into clear daily assignments. These high-return practices – from "Stress Testing" initiatives to uncover unseen risks, to "Sprint Reviews" that create peer-to-peer accountability – become team habits that sustain the transformation. When paired with modern collaborative technologies and agile processes, these practices create a new operating system for teamwork.

The shift to Co-elevation is gaining momentum across industries. At IBM, teams achieved in six months what veterans said couldn't be done: abandoning a forty-year sales divide between software and consulting to create a more effective go-to-market model. Comcast has created a culture of candor that's improving operational results. iHeartMedia has made constructive dissent a corporate value. PG&E is putting relationships at the heart of operational culture. Companies like Dropbox, Guild Education, Cisco, Salesforce are showing how combining new team behaviors with modern collaborative tools can deliver breakthrough performance. And e.l.f. Beauty, a remarkable business that has disrupted the cosmetics industry, has a constant feedback culture which sees everyone committed to each other's professional growth.

What winning teams share

Our research shows that the highest-performing teams – the 15% who have mastered Co-elevation – share several key characteristics:

• They fight united to achieve audacious goals
• They find unexpected growth and decrease unsuspected risk
• They share the load of leadership to achieve extraordinary results
• They leverage modern tools and processes to accelerate collaboration

The transformation to Co-elevation isn't theoretical – it's achieved through specific daily practices that any team can adopt. Never Lead Alone provides a practical roadmap of these high-return practices, from personal-professional check-ins that build trust, to asynchronous collaboration techniques that accelerate decision-making. Each practice is designed to turn abstract cultural goals into concrete assignments that become team habits.

The results speak for themselves. Teams that adopt these practices consistently report:

• Reduced meeting time through better asynchronous collaboration
• Faster decision-making through enhanced trust and candor
• Improved innovation through broader inclusion
• Greater resilience through shared accountability

The choice facing leaders today is clear: continue with traditional hub-and-spoke leadership and accept its limitations, or embrace Co-elevation and unlock your team's full potential. In today's volatile business environment, the latter isn't just an option – it's an imperative.

The organizations that will thrive are those that can harness the collective wisdom, energy, and capability of their teams through both behavioral transformation and modern collaborative tools. The era of the lone leader is over. The future belongs to those who never lead alone.