Introduction

How it started

Hi and welcome! I’m Bill Fox.

I’m the creator of this course and the author of The Ideal Team Member Is a Leader of One: Themselves.

In early 2022, the editorial team for the Amplify journal at Cutter issued a call for papers on Teams in Tumultuous Times. Frankly, I had not paid any attention to this call for articles because I didn’t think I had much to contribute.

But then Christine Generali, Editorial Manager at Cutter, contacted me and asked if I might write an article for this particular issue. I told Christine I didn’t think I had anything to contribute, but I would think about it overnight and get back to her.

That night I awakened in the middle of the night with an unorthodox idea that might be just right for today’s tumultuous world. We need every team member to step into their own leadership.

Drawing from my inner leader journey and work at Forward Thinking Workplaces and Space Beyond Boundaries over the past 13 years, I proposed the following thesis for the article I published:

The ideal team member of the 21st century is a leader of one — themselves. Capable of leading themselves and others in every interaction they have with another team member regardless of location or circumstances.

The survey

Because I wanted to validate many of my ideas and thinking on this topic, I created a survey to accompany this article.

This course will be much more meaningful if you take the Teams Leadership Survey before you begin this course. The survey only takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete.