The Pack Mentality: Dogs, Humans, and Effective Leadership

We can learn a lot from dogs.

Training a new puppy can be challenging, especially when new owners make mistakes around behaviour. Dogs are pack animals - they need to understand the pecking order, or they end up feeling entitled and confused.

Humans, despite all our progress, are still creatures driven by emotion. While I’m definately not directly comparing people to dogs, it’s striking how our own animal instincts influence our emotional responses and behaviours. I was reminded of this during a conversation with a client who inherited a team that came with its own set of dynamics.

When stepping into a new leadership role, there's often a natural urge to engage the team and foster connection - and rightly so.

A well-facilitated team-building process can surface all the nuances of both spoken and unspoken communication. It also helps establish what I can diplomatically call a "pecking order" - a necessary clarity of roles that allows teams to thrive.

In this client's case, the team was delivering results, but there was resistance beneath the surface, similar to the confusion a dog might feel without clear guidance.

The potential gains from this team working better together could mean a £15 million+ benefit.

Yet, there was a reluctance to invest in team building from HR, citing "no budget."

This often happens when someone short-sighted is in charge of central budgets - focusing solely on inputs, rather than the return on investment.

The truth is, no CEO would turn down a chance to invest £1 and see a return of £1500.

The ROI here could be as high as 150,000%.

Sometimes, helping a team understand the dynamics at play - whether it's clarity of roles, better communication, or simply addressing underlying tensions - can lead to massive gains.

Have you faced a similar challenge, either in leadership or team dynamics?

I’d love to hear how you approached it and what worked for you.

If you want to discuss your challenges and want some expert advice on how to take your team from functional to high-performing, let’s have a no-cost 20-minute chat.

Send me a DM and let's supercharge your team performance

And if this resonated with you, please like and comment - your insights might help others too!

As always, let's continue levelling up our connections together.

#Leadership #TeamDynamics #ROI #EmotionalIntelligence #PackMentality #TrustBuilding #HighPerformance