It’s probably one of the worst approaches to teamwork: assuming and stating that the group of people connected to a project is a team.

The idea sounds great. Everyone contributes to the project and once the project is done everyone is happy.

The reality is often a different one.

When it’s about their own anxieties and desires, everyone steps in and acts as if a leader. It means that they’ll act as if solving their issues was the priority of the project.

When problems arise, most of those who presented themselves as leaders seem to be busy elsewhere.

What people in the team lack, is someone they can refer themselves to, to validate their actions, confirm their authority, or understand the vision of what the team set out to achieve.

What the team lacks is someone who makes the knowledge available that is needed to know how to act. That is, someone who feels responsible to ask questions no one is asking to get the information needed, and someone who authorizes himself to commit, when needed, to acknowledge which answer of many is relevant for the team.

That person usually is a leader.

If he isn’t appointed by the team or known before to the team, he will emerge. If it’s the latter, the team may find itself subject to a situation that enforces a leader. They will have maneuvered themselves into a crisis in which a leader naturally emerges.