Compounding Impact: The Divine Origins of Teamwork
A dilemma facing executive leadership is learning how to be the kind of leader that empowers staff to become highly effective, moving from executive leadership to effective leadership. One key component is to build team-mindedness rather than merely rely on the disjointed contributions of individual members. Highly effective leadership compounds the power of individual units on a team.
Team-mindedness is a necessary component to make staff exponentially stronger. The gifts and natural abilities of every individual on the staff should complement one another. Their association should be supportive and cooperative instead of competitive. According to G. Willis Bennett, an effective staff will reproduce team-mindedness within the organization, which will lead to enhanced overall service to their clients. How can teams achieve this? It begins with a look at the Divine…
Believe it or not, reflecting on the nature of the Godhead will lead to a deeper understanding of teams and teamwork and will aid a person’s incorporating of team-mindedness among staff. God’s intent to establish community [teamwork] within creation is a central theme of the entire biblical message. Exploring these characteristics will lay the foundation upon which executive leaders can compound service and growth.
The Triune God of Scripture reveals Himself as a social Being and as One who creates humans to live in community and work together in teams. Within the nature of God, there is community. God the Father, Son, and Spirit are in relationship with one another, yet are one God in essence. Community is rooted in the nature of the Godhead and the creation of humankind in God’s image. Donald Guthrie explains, “The oneness of God is not the oneness of a distinct, self-contained individual; it is the unity of a community of Persons [Trinity] who love each other and live together in harmony.” The Trinity models how teams of individuals ought to function in relation to one another.
Puritan Jonathan Edwards’ writings provide a good basis for understanding how the doctrine of the Trinity and the concept of community and teamwork are eternally linked. Edwards explained that God, in His fundamental being, is relational. For all eternity He has existed in a team relationship, or in community, with perfect unity between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is, in a sense, a team. The Triune God is a community of three Persons. Each subsists for the other and is in a social relationship, demonstrating unified teamwork to accomplish a divine purpose. Interesting to consider, isn’t it?
While often overlooked and undervalued, God’s social nature reveals key components of successful team-mindedness and activity. Effective executive leaders who consider and explore these observations can better display these insights within their own teams through humble collaboration, partnerships, and team-mindedness. This trickles throughout the whole organizational population, leaving positive effects inside and outside the company.