• Hi, I’m Brad Abare

  I'm a make-it-happen guy working with big idea people. I design teams and orchestrate strategy so that great ideas I believe in get done.
  
  I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
  
  
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As I participate in and observe various leadership contexts, I’ve been noticing an odd occurrence as it relates to the principal and pursuit of unity. I think most people would agree that unity is valued among leaders and their teams. Some I suppose would argue that a team isn’t really a team unless it has some sense of unity. (My use of the word unity is meant in the collaborative, coordinated, communal sense and not meant to imply unison or oneness of thought or ideas.)

In my observation–and I’m sure this is nothing new, just new to me–it seems as though leaders see unity as the measuring stick for success instead of the starting point for reality. In other words, if everyone is unified at the end of a conversation, meeting, project or pursuit, success has happened. I may be wrong, but this feels backwards. It seems to me that unity should be the place where everyone begins. With unity in place from the beginning, a leader would not be focused on making sure he ends at unity but that he ends with a clear and shared understanding of the new reality everyone worked toward. Unity may not be possible at the end because the outcome may not be desired by some on the team.

With unity in place from the beginning, trust has been established and people will feel greater freedom to contend for their perspective to be heard. Otherwise, if everyone feels like unity is the ending point, trust has not been established and people will be less inclined to contend for their perspective to be heard.

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