Forget the QB. Here’s the Real Leadership Lesson in Denver.

A few thoughts on leadership and the Denver Broncos, without a single mention of You Know Who (SEO be damned).

The Broncos brass just held their year-end press conference, a couple of weeks earlier than they might have liked, but certainly later than they had any right to expect.

Seated at the table fielding questions were EVP of football operations John Elway, GM Brian Xanders, and head coach John Fox.

Sports execs and coaches are notorious egomaniacs. I can’t recall a single other instance where three of them shared the stage so easily. Can you picture Bill Parcells, Jerry Jones, Mike Holmgren or Mike Shanahan giving their subordinates (or even their bosses) this kind of equal treament?

Here in Denver, Elway, Xanders and Fox all took questions. They never interrupted or contradicted each other. They never even added to what a colleague had to say, letting each other's words stand on their own. Each repeatedly acknowledged where their own responsibilities end and someone else’s begin. They were complimentary and complementary. 

It was extraordinary.

To say that organizational alignment begins at the top is almost a cliché. But this presser strikes me as a particularly helpful example of what that really means. Alignment is about something much deeper than mere agreement. It is not only about wanting the same things, but about wanting to achieve them together. Alignment begins with an admission that we cannot do it alone, that command and control gets us nowhere, that we need to be surrounded by smart, experienced people. 

I spent a couple of days last week with the owners of a company that is about to shake up the beverage industry. Know why I'm confident they'll succeed? Because they are approaching their business the same way Elway, Xanders and Fox approach theirs. The lines of authority are clear, but they are not what makes the organization run. It is a business aligned around a commitment to shared goals, and to each other.