By Mike Kehoe | Leading Through the Algorithm™
There is something fascinating about watching a skilled potter work with clay. What begins as an ordinary lump of earth gradually becomes something purposeful, functional, and sometimes extraordinary. The transformation does not happen through force alone. It requires patience, awareness, experience, and an understanding of how the material responds to every movement of the artist's hands. Apply too much pressure, and the developing piece may collapse. Apply too little, and it may never take shape. Move too quickly, and the structure can become unstable. Yet with the right preparation, steady guidance, and an understanding of the process, something remarkable begins to emerge.
I have often thought that building an effective team requires many of these same qualities. Throughout my career, working with individuals from different backgrounds, experiences, and skill levels has reinforced one of my strongest beliefs about leadership: the greatest responsibility of a leader is not to shape people into what we want them to become, but to create an environment where they can discover what they are capable of becoming.
Consider how many promising employees have lost their confidence, creativity, or ambition, not because they lacked potential, but because of the leadership environment in which they were expected to grow. How many talented individuals have stopped contributing ideas because their suggestions were repeatedly dismissed? How many capable employees have become hesitant to make decisions because every mistake was met with criticism? How many future leaders have remained undiscovered because no one took the time to recognize their abilities?
These questions reveal something important about the relationship between leadership and human potential. We often evaluate managers by the results their teams produce. Revenue, productivity, efficiency, and operational performance certainly matter, but perhaps we should also consider what happens to the people responsible for achieving those results. Are they becoming more confident, more capable, and more collaborative? Are they developing skills and discovering strengths they did not know they possessed? Or are they simply becoming better at following instructions?
The answers may reveal more about leadership effectiveness than any performance report.
Seven Lessons from the Potter's Wheel
The art of pottery offers a surprisingly meaningful framework for understanding how effective teams are developed. While the analogy is imperfect, because people are certainly not passive materials waiting to be shaped, it illustrates how preparation, environment, guidance, and patience influence the development of something valuable. More importantly, it reminds us that successful leadership is not about exercising constant control. It is about recognizing potential and creating the conditions necessary for that potential to emerge.
Lesson One: Preparation Comes Before Formation
Before a potter begins shaping clay, the material must be prepared. Its consistency, moisture, and condition all influence how it will respond to the process. Without proper preparation, even the most experienced artist may struggle to achieve the intended result. Team development begins with a similar responsibility, yet organizations sometimes overlook this foundational stage in their eagerness to achieve immediate results.
Too often, teams are assembled primarily around job descriptions, professional qualifications, and operational requirements. While these considerations are necessary, they reveal relatively little about the individuals who will ultimately determine whether the team succeeds. Understanding what motivates someone, what experiences have shaped their perspective, and what strengths they possess beyond their formal responsibilities can reveal opportunities that would otherwise remain undiscovered. A résumé may tell us what someone has done, but it rarely tells us everything they are capable of becoming.
One of the most effective approaches to team building is to begin by understanding individuals before attempting to establish how they should function collectively. This means taking a genuine interest in their professional aspirations, recognizing their preferred communication styles, and identifying the conditions in which they perform most effectively. It also means understanding that employees arrive with different levels of confidence, experience, and expectations. Some may be comfortable accepting responsibility immediately, while others need encouragement and opportunities to develop confidence before taking on unfamiliar challenges.
Preparation also involves establishing trust, clarifying expectations, and ensuring employees have access to the resources necessary to succeed. Leaders who overlook these responsibilities may eventually discover that what appears to be an individual performance problem is actually the result of inadequate preparation. Just as a potter cannot expect poorly prepared clay to respond predictably, a manager cannot reasonably expect consistent performance from employees who have not been given the foundation necessary to succeed.
The lesson is straightforward but frequently overlooked: before asking people to perform at their best, leaders must first create the conditions that make their best performance possible.
Lesson Two: Too Much Pressure Can Destroy What You're Trying to Create
A skilled potter understands the relationship between pressure and control. Their hands must maintain enough contact to guide the clay, but excessive force can cause the developing structure to collapse. Leadership requires this same delicate balance, particularly in organizations where performance expectations, deadlines, and operational demands create constant pressure to deliver results.
Every successful organization needs accountability, clearly defined standards, and measurable expectations. Without these elements, even talented teams can lose direction. However, there is an important distinction between establishing accountability and creating an environment where employees feel constantly controlled. Micromanagement is often justified as a necessary response to performance concerns, yet excessive oversight can unintentionally communicate that employees are not trusted to exercise judgment, solve problems, or take responsibility for their work.
Over time, that message can become deeply embedded in workplace culture. Employees may stop offering suggestions because they assume their ideas will be dismissed. They may hesitate to make decisions because they fear criticism. They may begin concentrating more on avoiding mistakes than identifying opportunities for improvement. Eventually, the organization may find itself with a workforce that follows instructions but rarely demonstrates initiative. The manager may believe they have established control, when in reality they have restricted the team's potential.
Effective leaders understand that accountability and empowerment are not opposing philosophies. They are complementary responsibilities that must work together. Employees should understand what is expected of them, how success will be measured, and where their decision-making authority begins and ends. Within those boundaries, they should have opportunities to exercise judgment, contribute ideas, and develop ownership of their responsibilities.
This requires a thoughtful approach because different employees may need different levels of guidance. Someone learning a new responsibility may benefit from frequent coaching and structured feedback, while an experienced employee may perform best when given greater independence. Applying identical levels of oversight to everyone can create unnecessary frustration and limit development.
The objective is not to eliminate pressure, because reasonable expectations and meaningful challenges are essential to growth. It is to ensure that pressure provides direction rather than eliminating possibility. A leader's influence should strengthen an employee's ability to stand independently, not create a permanent dependence on supervision.
Lesson Three: The Environment Determines What Is Possible
Clay is sensitive to its surroundings. Too little moisture makes it difficult to work, while too much can compromise its structure. Temperature, timing, and handling all influence the finished result. People are equally influenced by the environments in which they work, although the consequences are far more personal and can extend well beyond the workplace.
An employee who performs exceptionally well in one organization may struggle in another. Someone who demonstrates initiative under a supportive manager may become withdrawn under a leader who responds to every mistake with criticism. A naturally creative individual may stop suggesting improvements when previous ideas have been ignored, while an employee who initially appears reserved may become a valuable contributor once they feel respected and included.
These differences should cause us to question how quickly we attribute performance problems exclusively to individuals. When a team begins to struggle, the first leadership response should not always be to identify who is failing. Sometimes the more productive approach is to examine whether the environment is allowing people to succeed.
A healthy workplace requires more than positive messaging and occasional recognition. It requires clear expectations, consistent communication, fair treatment, and leaders who demonstrate the behaviors they expect from others. Employees need to know that they can raise concerns without fear of embarrassment or retaliation, that their contributions will be evaluated fairly, and that accountability applies throughout the organization rather than only to those with the least authority.
In The Positive Culture Playbook™, I emphasize five foundations of a healthy workplace: trust, empowerment, communication, accountability, and belonging. These elements are interconnected and must remain in balance. Trust without accountability can become complacency, while accountability without trust can create fear. Communication without genuine listening becomes little more than instruction, and empowerment without adequate support can leave employees feeling abandoned rather than valued.
One of the most revealing ways to evaluate an organization's culture is to observe what happens when something goes wrong. Do employees immediately begin looking for someone to blame, or do they work together to understand the problem? Are concerns openly discussed, or are they concealed until they become impossible to ignore? Do leaders respond with curiosity and constructive guidance, or with frustration and intimidation? The answers reveal the culture employees actually experience, which may be very different from the culture described in corporate communications.
Creating a positive environment does not mean eliminating difficult conversations or lowering performance expectations. It means establishing conditions where people can be challenged, held accountable, and encouraged to improve without sacrificing their dignity or confidence. Just as the environment surrounding clay influences what can be created, workplace culture influences what employees believe is possible for themselves and their teams.
Lesson Four: Every Piece of Clay Has Different Possibilities
Imagine entering a pottery studio where every artist was instructed to create exactly the same object, using precisely the same techniques, regardless of their individual abilities or creative interests. The studio might produce consistent results, but it would sacrifice much of the creativity and discovery that make the art meaningful. Unfortunately, some organizations approach employee development in much the same way, establishing an idealized version of what a successful employee should look like and attempting to fit everyone into that model.
Effective teams are rarely built from identical personalities or interchangeable abilities. Some individuals possess exceptional analytical skills, while others have an instinctive ability to build relationships. Some excel at developing new ideas, while others bring the discipline and attention to detail necessary to turn those ideas into operational reality. There are employees who naturally step forward during uncertainty and others whose greatest contributions come from quietly identifying problems before they become serious.
Each of these capabilities has value, and recognizing them is one of the most important responsibilities of an effective team builder. Rather than concentrating exclusively on job titles and assigned responsibilities, leaders should examine the capabilities that exist within the group. Who naturally brings people together? Who challenges assumptions constructively? Who recognizes operational weaknesses? Who remains calm under pressure? Who can translate complicated information into something others understand?
These informal strengths often reveal opportunities that traditional organizational charts overlook. Someone with strong communication skills might help facilitate a team discussion, while an analytically minded employee could contribute to evaluating a process improvement. A developing leader might benefit from coordinating a small project, and an experienced employee might discover an interest in mentoring others. These opportunities should be intentional and supported, rather than simply becoming additional responsibilities without recognition.
One creative approach to team development is to allow employees to participate in identifying their own strengths and the strengths they recognize in their colleagues. This can produce valuable conversations about how individuals approach challenges differently and how those differences might be used to improve collaboration. It also gives employees a voice in their professional development rather than leaving every decision to management.
When team members understand why someone else approaches a problem differently, they become less likely to interpret those differences as obstacles. Instead, they begin recognizing them as resources. This shift strengthens mutual respect, encourages collaboration, and helps employees appreciate the contributions of colleagues whose abilities may be very different from their own.
The objective is not to turn everyone into the same type of employee. It is to create a team where individual capabilities complement one another and contribute to a shared purpose. The strongest teams are not built by making everyone alike. They are built by helping different people become exceptional together.
Lesson Five: Imperfections Are Part of the Process
One of the most interesting characteristics of handmade pottery is that small variations in shape, texture, or finish often become part of its identity. Not every unexpected result represents a failure. Sometimes an unanticipated development creates an opportunity to adjust the original approach or discover something new.
Employee development follows a similar path because no individual enters a workplace with every skill fully developed. People make mistakes, misunderstand expectations, experience setbacks, and occasionally struggle with responsibilities they have not yet mastered. What happens next often reveals more about the organization's leadership culture than the mistake itself.
In a fear-driven environment, employees may attempt to conceal errors, shift responsibility, or avoid situations where failure is possible. In a healthy environment, mistakes can become opportunities for learning, provided individuals are willing to acknowledge them, understand their consequences, and take responsibility for improvement. This is where psychological safety and accountability must coexist. Employees should feel comfortable admitting that something went wrong, but they should also understand their responsibility to help make it right.
A leader's response during these moments can influence future behavior throughout the team. A harsh reaction to an honest mistake may accomplish little beyond ensuring that the next problem remains hidden longer. A constructive response can strengthen judgment, reinforce expectations, and build confidence. This does not mean serious errors should be minimized or repeated performance problems should go unaddressed. It means accountability should focus on understanding what happened, correcting the issue, and reducing the likelihood of recurrence.
I believe one of the most useful questions a leader can ask following a setback is not simply, "Who made the mistake?" but rather, "What can we learn from this, and what needs to change?" That question encourages responsibility without automatically creating defensiveness. It also communicates that improvement is a shared organizational priority rather than an opportunity to assign blame.
Leaders should also recognize that some of the most valuable professional growth occurs when employees are allowed to work through challenges rather than having every problem immediately solved for them. Providing guidance while allowing individuals to participate in developing solutions builds confidence and strengthens independent judgment.
The goal is not to create a team that never makes mistakes. It is to develop a team capable of recognizing mistakes, learning from them, and becoming stronger through experience. A workplace that encourages thoughtful experimentation and responsible learning is often better positioned to adapt than one where employees are rewarded primarily for avoiding risk.
Lesson Six: The Strongest Results Require Patience
Pottery is not an art that can be rushed through every stage. The clay must be prepared, centered, shaped, and allowed to dry. Depending on the intended result, it must then undergo carefully controlled firing to develop its final characteristics. Each stage contributes to the finished piece, and attempting to accelerate the process without understanding its requirements can undermine the result.
Developing an effective team requires a similar appreciation for time and progression. Trust is not created simply because a manager announces an open-door policy. Confidence does not automatically appear after a training session, and strong professional relationships do not emerge solely because employees have been assigned to the same project. These qualities develop through repeated experiences, consistent leadership behavior, and opportunities for individuals to demonstrate reliability to one another.
Trust grows when leaders follow through on commitments. Confidence develops when employees receive opportunities to exercise judgment and experience success. Collaboration strengthens when individuals learn that they can depend on one another. Over time, these experiences establish a foundation that allows teams to navigate challenges more effectively.
This principle becomes particularly important when organizations introduce change. Whether implementing new technology, restructuring responsibilities, or introducing artificial intelligence into established workflows, leaders sometimes underestimate the time employees need to adjust. A new system may be operationally ready before the people expected to use it feel professionally prepared, and that difference can have significant consequences.
Employees may need training, opportunities to practice, reassurance about changing responsibilities, and time to develop confidence in unfamiliar processes. When organizations focus exclusively on implementation timelines while neglecting the human adjustment process, resistance can emerge. What leadership interprets as unwillingness to change may actually reflect uncertainty, inadequate preparation, or concern about future expectations.
This is one reason I believe employee development should be viewed as an ongoing investment rather than a series of isolated training events. Learning becomes more meaningful when employees have opportunities to apply new knowledge, receive constructive feedback, and gradually accept greater responsibility. Leaders who remain engaged throughout this process are more likely to recognize when additional support is necessary and when individuals are ready for new challenges.
Patience, however, should not be confused with avoiding difficult decisions or accepting a lack of progress. Effective leaders establish milestones, provide feedback, measure development, and adjust their approach when necessary. The objective is purposeful growth rather than indefinite waiting.
Just as a potter understands when clay is ready for the next stage, leaders must learn to recognize when employees are prepared for greater responsibility, new challenges, or additional independence. People develop at different speeds, but every individual deserves the opportunity to develop with purpose.
Lesson Seven: Eventually, the Artist Must Take Their Hands Away
There comes a point in the pottery process when the artist must stop shaping the piece. Continuing to manipulate it indefinitely does not necessarily improve the result. At some point, the work must be allowed to stand on its own. For me, this represents one of the most important lessons in leadership because it challenges the traditional assumption that effective management requires constant involvement.
A manager who must personally approve every decision, resolve every disagreement, and provide direction for every task may feel indispensable. But that dependence should raise an important question about how effectively the team is being developed. Are employees becoming more capable, or simply more dependent?
Strong leaders measure success not only through immediate operational results but through the growing abilities of the individuals they lead. Can team members make informed decisions without constant supervision? Can they work through disagreements constructively? Can they recognize opportunities for improvement? Can they support one another when leadership is unavailable? Most importantly, are they developing the confidence to lead themselves and eventually guide others?
Empowerment becomes meaningful when employees possess both the authority and the ability to act. This requires trust, but it also requires preparation. Leaders cannot reasonably expect independence from individuals who have never been given the information, experience, or decision-making opportunities necessary to develop it. The process must be intentional, beginning with coaching and demonstration before gradually introducing greater responsibility.
As employees develop confidence and competence, effective leaders should create additional space for independent judgment. They remain available to provide guidance, but they resist the temptation to intervene unnecessarily. This can be difficult, particularly for managers who have built their professional identities around being the person with the answers. Yet one of the most rewarding moments in leadership occurs when an employee successfully navigates a difficult situation without needing the manager to intervene.
That moment demonstrates more than individual competence. It reflects the effectiveness of the development process and shows that the leader's investment in another person's growth has produced something lasting.
The ultimate objective is not to make leadership irrelevant. It is to ensure that the team's success is not entirely dependent on a leader's constant involvement. The greatest leaders do not create followers who need them forever. They develop people who become confident enough to lead themselves and, eventually, others.
Centering the Clay: Bringing Individual Strengths Together
There is another element of pottery that deserves attention because it connects all seven lessons. Before a potter can successfully shape a piece on the wheel, the clay must be centered. Without a stable center, the material may wobble, become uneven, or collapse as the shaping process continues.
Organizations face a remarkably similar challenge. A team without a shared sense of purpose can possess extraordinary individual talent and still struggle to accomplish meaningful results. Employees may work diligently but move in different directions. Communication becomes fragmented, priorities compete, and individuals begin concentrating on their own responsibilities without understanding how those responsibilities contribute to the larger objective.
In team development, the equivalent of centering the clay is establishing a common purpose. People need to understand more than what they are expected to do. They need to understand why their work matters, how it connects to the contributions of others, and what success looks like when the team achieves its objectives together.
This is where effective leadership moves beyond assigning responsibilities and begins creating alignment. A shared purpose does not eliminate individuality. It gives individuality direction and provides a foundation for collaboration.
Consider a team composed of individuals with different technical abilities, personalities, and professional experiences. Without a clear understanding of the objective, those differences can become sources of frustration. One person may prioritize speed, another accuracy, and another relationship building. Each perspective may have merit, but without a shared understanding of the desired outcome, those priorities can compete rather than complement one another.
When everyone understands the mission and recognizes how their particular strengths contribute to its success, those same differences can become competitive advantages. Employees begin looking beyond their own assignments and identifying opportunities to support one another. Collaboration becomes less about coordinating separate tasks and more about contributing to a common achievement.
The strongest teams are not necessarily those with the most talented individuals. They are those that have learned how to bring individual talents together around something meaningful.
Great Leadership Is Not About Controlling People
There is an important distinction in this analogy that every leader should recognize. People are not clay. They are not passive materials waiting for someone else to determine their purpose, identity, or future. Every employee brings independent thought, personal ambition, lived experience, and the ability to influence the direction of the team.
That is precisely why the most effective leadership approaches emphasize collaboration rather than control. A potter works to shape the material, while a great leader works to shape the conditions in which people can develop themselves. The distinction may seem small, but it changes the entire philosophy of team development.
Instead of asking how to make employees conform to a predetermined model, leaders begin asking how to help individuals contribute their strengths toward a shared objective. Instead of relying on constant supervision, they invest in developing judgment and independence. Instead of viewing differences as problems to correct, they explore how those differences can strengthen collaboration and improve outcomes.
This becomes increasingly important as organizations navigate technological change, evolving employee expectations, and the introduction of artificial intelligence into everyday work. Technology may change how responsibilities are performed, how information is processed, and how operational decisions are supported. But it does not eliminate the human need for purpose, belonging, encouragement, and meaningful professional development. If anything, those needs become more important during periods of uncertainty.
The leaders who successfully guide teams through change will not necessarily be those who exercise the greatest control. They will be those who build cultures strong enough to adapt, encourage people to participate in shaping their own futures, and recognize that human potential cannot be reduced to a standardized process.
This is also why I believe team building should never be viewed as a one-time exercise. It is not something accomplished through an annual retreat, a motivational presentation, or a collection of activities intended to improve morale. Those experiences can have value, but lasting team development happens through everyday leadership behaviors.
It happens when employees are invited to contribute ideas, when managers take time to listen, and when individuals receive opportunities to develop new skills. It happens when accomplishments are recognized, challenges are addressed fairly, and people understand that their contributions have meaning. Most importantly, it happens when leaders demonstrate through consistent actions that the people they lead are more than resources assigned to accomplish organizational objectives.
They are individuals whose development contributes directly to the organization's long-term success.
A Final Reflection: What Are Your Hands Creating?
Imagine, for a moment, that every interaction you have with an employee leaves an impression, much like a potter's hands leave an impression on clay. Every conversation, every moment of recognition, every correction, and every opportunity provided or withheld contributes to the experience of being part of your team. Some impressions build confidence, while others create hesitation. Some encourage creativity, while others teach people that remaining silent is safer than contributing.
Over time, these experiences accumulate. They influence how employees view themselves, how they interact with colleagues, and how they approach the responsibilities entrusted to them. That is how workplace culture is formed, not exclusively through mission statements, corporate values, or carefully written policies, but through the everyday behaviors of the people responsible for leading others.
Throughout my career, I have found that the most rewarding part of building a team is not watching everyone become a reflection of the leader. It is watching individuals develop strengths, confidence, and capabilities that may eventually exceed anything the leader originally imagined. There is a particular satisfaction in seeing someone who once hesitated to make decisions begin demonstrating sound judgment, or watching an employee who lacked confidence discover that others value their ideas and perspective.
These moments remind us that leadership has consequences extending far beyond immediate performance metrics. The way we lead can influence how people view their own abilities, the opportunities they pursue, and the confidence they carry into future roles. A leader may forget a conversation that an employee remembers for years, whether because it inspired them to grow or caused them to question their potential.
A truly effective team is not a collection of identical pieces arranged neatly on a shelf. It is a collection of individuals whose different strengths, perspectives, and contributions come together to accomplish something meaningful. The leader's role is not to erase those differences, but to create the trust, alignment, and opportunities that allow them to become collective strengths.
Perhaps that is the greatest lesson the potter's wheel can offer. Great leadership is not about how tightly we hold on. It is about how thoughtfully we prepare, how carefully we guide, and how confidently we allow others to stand on their own.
The next time you evaluate your effectiveness as a leader, consider looking beyond the performance reports, operational metrics, and objectives achieved. Think about the individuals who have worked alongside you and the professional journeys they have experienced under your leadership. Consider whether they have become more confident, more capable, and better prepared for the opportunities ahead.
Then ask yourself a question that may reveal more about your leadership than any performance evaluation ever could:
"Who have the people on my team been able to become because of the environment I've helped create?"
The answer may ultimately be the most meaningful measure of your success as a leader.
Mike Kehoe is an author and leadership advocate whose work through Leading Through the Algorithm™ explores the intersection of human potential, organizational culture, emerging technology, and effective leadership. His publications and practical leadership resources emphasize trust, empowerment, accountability, and the importance of developing people in an increasingly technology-driven world.
Explore more leadership insights, publications, and free resources at www.leadingthroughthealgorithm.com.