Six different teams that reflect the different kinds of relationships a leader must attend to in order to bring transformation to the whole organizational system.
1. Allies. An ally is anyone who is convinced of the mission and is committed to seeing it fulfilled.
2. Confidants. To be a confidant, a person must care more about you than they do about the mission of the organization.
3. Opponents. Potential opponents are stakeholders who have markedly different perspectives from yours and who risk losing the most if you and your initiative go forward.
4. Senior authorities. As I have said from the outset, leadership is not the same thing as authority. Authority is your role, your position of formal power, but leadership is a way of functioning.
5. Casualties. In any transformational leadership effort there will be casualties. You can’t go into uncharted territory without risk.
6. Dissenters. In true adaptive change there are no unanimous votes. Someone, usually a significant number of people, will say no, no matter what. These voices of dissent are extremely important at every step of the way. They will help you see how opposition will take form and will raise the arguments that eventually will come to full volume. Dissenters have the uncanny capacity for asking the tough key question that you have been unwilling to face up to yourself or that others have been unwilling to raise.
