From Individual Genius to Team Brilliance

Hi Reader,

In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, researchers profiled what they call “super facilitators” - leaders who’ve stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room and instead create the conditions for their teams to think, decide, and execute together.

Rather than dominating the room, they guide it. They slow down to make space for many voices. They actively shape team conversations so that decisions and accountability aren’t just flowing from the top, they’re being built together.

It’s a powerful reminder: The best leadership doesn’t come from one individual genius. It comes from teams who know how to lead together.

But here’s the hard truth: most teams don’t know how to do that.

The Risk of Depending on the Genius Leader

In many organizations, leadership still revolves around a single heroic figure, or a few strong individuals who are expected to carry the weight of strategy, clarity, accountability, and performance. They’re the decision-makers, the problem-solvers, the emotional anchors. So much depends on them.

That model might work for a while, but it's a fragile arrangement.

The research behind HBR’s “Superboss” and “Super Facilitator” archetypes reveals that when leadership becomes concentrated in one person, the rest of the team often unconsciously defaults to a passive role. Instead of shared problem-solving, you get permission-seeking. Instead of proactive ownership, you get dependency. Instead of diverse voices, you get bottlenecks.

And it’s not just a performance risk. It's a human one. When too much is concentrated in a few leaders, those individuals burn out. Morale dips. Siloed thinking grows. And the organization becomes vulnerable to setbacks, transitions, or missed opportunities.

Even more subtly, these dynamics erode trust and collaboration. People stop challenging each other. They avoid raising dissenting opinions. They stay in their lanes, even when what’s needed is creative, cross-functional action.

That’s why shifting to a team-led model of leadership isn’t just a culture choice – it’s a resilience strategy. It’s what enables organizations to scale, adapt, and thrive together.

A Real-World Example: The Seattle Sounders

One of the most recent compelling examples of team-led leadership in action came from the soccer pitch.

The Seattle Sounders just captured the 2025 Leagues Cup title in front of over 69,000 fans without their top stars. Injuries had sidelined several of their key players. Their opponent? Inter Miami, the most star-studded roster in MLS history.

The final score? 3–0, Seattle. The Sounders didn’t win because of one superstar. They won because of deep trust, development, and belief in the team. They relied on homegrown players and their organizational culture to rise to the moment.

This isn’t just another nice story of a team overcoming odds. This would be like a bunch of college basketball players and a few NBA journeymen defeating a team with LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant. The talent disparity between Miami and Seattle was up there with the greatest gap in the history of sports.

As midfielder Paul Rothrock (home-grown player) put it:

"This game was very much a validation of the Sounders culture and who we are… That was an organizational win tonight. It was beautiful."

That’s what shared leadership looks like. It’s a system built for adaptability, where depth matters more than flash and where everyone knows how to contribute when it counts. Even more amazing is that when a couple veteran players were willing to return from injury for the championship game, the coach decided he would stick with the group that had got them there. He believed they could do it.

What It Looks Like to Truly Lead Together

Over the past decade, we’ve worked closely with over a hundred executive teams, and we’ve identified 10 Characteristics that separate high-performing leadership teams from the rest. These aren’t just behaviors, they’re patterns that signal when a team has moved beyond merely co-existing and into true shared leadership. The most resilient, high performing teams aren't relying on a genius, they are leading together. The first step to becoming a team that leads together is to align on a picture of what that looks like.

Team Foundations

Org-First Mindset. Leadership team members consistently make decisions that put the organization first, even when it challenges personal preferences or team-specific interests. We proactively engage the rest of the organization in top priorities, explain tough decisions and reinforce those decisions publicly.
Identity Champions. Our leadership team actively anchors its decisions, strategy, and communication in our organization’s core Identity (mission, values, beliefs, etc). We treat our Identity as a living, breathing source of purpose and meaning that centers and energizes our culture, guiding not only our vision and goals, but also the daily decisions.
Shared Ownership. Each leadership team member fully embraces responsibility for the organization’s goals, finances, culture, and performance. We solve challenges beyond our own areas, hold each other accountable to team priorities, and speak in terms of “we” because we see ourselves in it together.

People Dynamics

Trust and Team Psychological Safety. Leadership team members consistently and genuinely feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas, ask for help, and take risks, knowing they’ll be met with openness and support. We speak honestly, even when it’s uncomfortable, and admit when we’re wrong or unsure.
Peer-to-Peer Accountability. Leadership Team members regularly hold each other accountable to commitments, values, and shared goals, without relying on the CEO to step in.
Culture of Feedback. Feedback flows consistently across our team, reinforcing strengths, naming improvement areas, and supporting one another’s growth.
Conflict Competence. Our Leadership Team surfaces tension early and directly. We see conflict as a necessary part of high performance and regularly move from tension to resolution. When challenging conversations create strain, team members take time to repair and restore relationships and trust.

Systems and Structures

Intentional Organizational Systems. Our leadership team takes ownership of the systems that shape how we work, from our meetings and processes to our norms and expectations. We design and maintain these systems thoughtfully, diagnose their weaknesses, and make intentional adjustments to strengthen culture and performance.
Effective Goal-Setting and Prioritization. Our Leadership Team sets clear and meaningful annual goals and quarterly priorities that reflect what matters most. We use these goals and priorities to guide daily decision-making, and monitor progress in a deliberate, routine way. We protect our focus, saying no to competing demands and holding each other accountable to what we've agreed to focus on.
Disciplined Operating Rhythms. Our weekly Leadership Team meetings are focused and effective. We have a strong quarterly planning rhythm to learn, assess performance, and reset direction as a team. We also leverage asynchronous routines to strengthen cohesion and alignment, and we hold each other to high standards for honoring and showing up to all of our rhythms.

Where to Begin

Set aside some time with your team and begin assessing and discussing where you think you stand in each of the 10 characteristics. Consider:

“Where are we currently strong?”
“Which one or two would make the biggest difference for our team if we could strengthen our performance in them?”

We've created a Leadership Team Health Check to make this process even easier. You can take a quick survey to see how your team is performing in each of the 10 characteristics. Take the assessment yourself, or reach out to us if you'd like to take the assessment as a team.

From there, create a short-term priority or team agreement. Keep it simple, visible, and actionable. Maybe it’s a new way to open meetings. Maybe it’s a commitment to practice better follow-through. Maybe it’s how you give feedback or make decisions as a team.

Whatever you choose, name it. Practice it. Reflect on it together. Then choose the next one.

Because high-performing teams aren’t born. They’re built, one intentional step at a time.

And, of course if you need a guide, we are here. Just reply to this email and we can share more about the journey we lead teams through to truly lead together.

- Shaun & Joe
www.6levers.co

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Whether you're leading a small team or an entire organization, the insights from this book will equip you to build a resilient, purpose-driven workplace where teams thrive.