“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”
— Jane Addams, First Woman to Win the Nobel Peace Prize (1931)
VIM Executive Coaching has been doing a lot of thinking about “work teams” as of late. Of course, our coaches are experts in working with teams as well as individuals, however we are concerned about trends taking place in 2026 group dynamics.
The first trend, if you will, is the assumption that a group of dissimilarly trained individuals automatically know what to do when faced with executive leadership challenges.
Benjamin Tarshis, writing for Workforce, recently said:
“Teams-in-name-only are groups that claim to be a team, but lack emotional commitment and shared purpose. They are like working groups, but without the efficient processes and individual responsibility.”
Teams are not the opposite of individual responsibility, rather they are enhanced in situations when individuals are aware and authentic enough to appreciate the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, there is a huge disconnect in today’s workplace when it comes to people working together.
The human resources organization People Hum, identified (April 23, 2025) the five reasons why teams seem to fail: “Poor communication, lack of trust, unclear roles, weak leadership, and unresolved conflict are among the most common reasons.”
But wait! Hadn’t we all heard that executive leadership was fast moving toward the model of “team first?” Teams appear to be falling apart despite claims that “the team” was far and away the best form of leadership. In fact, the same reasons efficient teams were supposedly encouraged over individual leadership and their decision-making processes, appear to be what is driving team members apart. In other words, many executive teams devolve into a group of silos (fiefdoms if you prefer) where no one knows what to do; no one communicates; the leader is disinterested or absent, and conflict rather than cooperation become the norm.
Was has happened to the almighty team?
The Jane Addams quote from above is a good place to begin to answer the question of modern-day team failure. The first, and most basic disaster in many executive team failures is that no team members see themselves in term of role. Despite all of the promises that team dynamic will lead to a healthy work environment, few in the executive leadership team trust the process. It is more than ego driven, but a failure to understand where a shared group experience can lead.
Catherine Cote, in her Harvard Business Review article (June 3, 2025), “What Is Dynamic Teaming & Why Is It Important?” Cited a recent Deloitte study and found: new technologies, the pace of change, and evolving employee and customer demographics and expectations are considered the top reasons leadership today requires a unique skill set.
VIM Executive Coaching obviously can’t teach groups “new technologies or customer demographic demands” now, anymore than Jane Addams could have done so in 1931.
However, we do know that numerous executive teams are indeed in a precarious and uncertain state because no one in the team quite knows how to incorporate authenticity, mindfulness and even mutual compassion into daily corporate life. This incorporation is teachable. Executive leadership knowledge is never automatically granted but can certainly be cultivated.
Unfortunately, leaving the team to its “own devices” is, at most a hit or miss process, on the other hand, guiding team members can, as Jane Addams perceived, lead the team to better outcomes regardless of the industry.