Up, Down, and Sideways
Most of us focus on managing up and down. To realize true success, look to your left, look to your right (and diagonally) to collaborate with your peers.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” — African Proverb
I did not become fully aware of the importance of peer-to-peer relationships until I became a Vice President and managed a team of directors. Sure, I had peer relationships earlier in my career as a marketing manager and later as a director. However, I had not made a conscious effort to cultivate these lateral and diagonal connections. I was focused more on managing my boss and my few direct reports. As a VP, I began to see how important it was for my directors to view each other as their “first team” versus managing within their siloes. This realization (more like an epiphany) hit me the first time I employed Patrick Lencioni's “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” field guide at an offsite with my team of directors. Lencioni's five-stage pyramid model starts with addressing the absence of trust. This initial stage requires that a team (in this case a team of peers) build trust by viewing themselves as their “first team” collaborating sideways versus only up and down. Once this peer trust is established, the team can move up the pyramid to focus on healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.
This shift in thinking does not dictate that you stop managing and advocating for your direct reports or managing your boss’s expectations (or ego). Rather, it requires that you expand your view or mindset to include your peers. This effort is both strategic and selfish, and in some cases, altruistic. Strategic because you need to collaborate with peers to advance your organization’s goals. Selfish because being a good collaborator helps you reach your own goals and get recognized for being a team player. The altruistic element comes into play when you help a peer succeed and advance.
Depending on the nature of the peer relationship — formal or informal, title or tenure, perceived influence — roles can shift. Your role as a peer can vary from leader to follower, similar to members of a cycling team who rotate positions from the front to the back of their peloton during a race. Or, you or one of your peers based on a mix of title, tenure, or level of respect/influence, may assume a “first among equals” role.
Directional peer relationships align with directional communication channels in organizations. These channels flow in four directions: downward, upward, horizontal, and diagonal. Peer-to-peer communication happens across the horizontal and diagonal channels. Unlike the more formal downward and upward communication channels, the burden of managing the horizontal and diagonal flows rests with individual managers and their peers. As organizations have shifted to more emphasis on teams, we have witnessed the emergence of communication “nets” where peers are the core drivers. The traditional “net” is the Wheel or Star Net with the manager at the center or hub. The greater reliance on cross-functional teams has given birth to a new model — The All Channel Net — which is a de-centralized, free-flowing, multi-directional approach to team communication (no manager at the center or hub). This phenomenon demonstrates the need for managers who are skilled at peer-to-peer collaboration and communication.
Peers can be competitors, confidants, or sounding boards. Sometimes they are mentors (or mentees). Regardless of the relationship dynamics, in the majority of today’s workplaces, peers are essential to your success. You have no doubt witnessed some great peer-to-peer relationships. They may take the form of a partnership between the CMO and CIO in introducing a new customer-centric digital technology or the CFO and the CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) working together to identify new revenue sources. Done right, peer-to-peer relationships elevate your game by complimenting your skills, filling in skill gaps, and expanding your mindset through a mix of humility and empathy. I will admit that in some organizations, I learned more from my peers than from my boss.
One of my great mentors from early in my career, the president of a regional advertising agency, had a plaque on his desk that read — “Maybe He’s Right.” He surfaced this mantra often in referencing a client’s differing point of view about a strategy or an ad. I have repurposed and evolved this mantra (incorporating “she/he” into it) to apply to peer relationships. I see this practice as an element of my ongoing attempt to embrace a growth mindset where working with, learning from, and elevating peers is a form of “lateral/diagonal” thinking.
I will close with a quote that encourages us to view peer relationships more from their collective and personal benefit than as a competitive threat.
“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it, it simply blooms.” — Anonymous
References
Konopaske, R., Ivancevich, J.M., Matteson, M.T, (2018), Organizational Behavior & Management, 11th Edition, McGraw Hill Education, p. 345
Leoncioni, P., (2005), Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, A Field Guide, Jossey-Bass
David R. Perry is Principal & Founder of Perry IQ, a marketing and strategy consultancy, and a former CMO in the healthcare and higher education sectors. He will be a member of the 2021 cohort in Bowling Green State University’s doctorate program in Organizational Development & Change.
