Why Excited Teams Soar Together Like Hawks
Catching thermals: How private energy creates better lift
Out for my walk recently, I looked up and saw something incredibly rare. Seven, maybe nine, massive birds circling high above. Their wings stretched straight across, gliding silently but steadily.
They moved with eerie ease, like they had all the time in the world. When I consulted ChatGPT, I found out they were likely red-tailed hawks. Given I’d recently encountered one, I knew that had to be right.
I stood there for the longest time, watching. They just kept circling in tandem, letting the thermals carry them. There was something strangely mesmerizing and majestic about it all. I had a hard time pulling away to continue with my walk.
It reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I still love that book. He wanted to master flight, and was cast out for pushing limits. But eventually he found others who wanted to go as high as he did. None of them wanted to follow. They caught the same air and let it take them wherever it would, together.
Not everything needs to flap. It's a lot easier to soar when you're not doing it alone.
But most hawks don’t glide together
These raptors tend to be solitary in flight and as hunters. I watched one tear into a squirrel in my neighbor’s tree a couple months ago. I was lying in bed when I noticed this big blur of movement in the branches. At first, I thought a raccoon had gotten stuck up there.
Nope. It was a red-tailed hawk. In full predator mode. That thing was ripping apart a squirrel like it was opening a granola bar. All while balancing on a bare tree limb high off the ground.
Solo, focused and brutal as it tore into its lunch.
That’s how most of us think teams are supposed to work. A bunch of ambitious individual contributors. Smart, capable, and goal-driven but completely disconnected.
Or worse, competitive.
Some of these setups end up functioning as pseudo-teams where everyone’s assigned to work together, but no one’s aligned. They don’t have the same goals, and they certainly don’t build any momentum. They end up being groups with shared space and common deadlines.
The result? Miscommunication, duplicated effort, and a whole lot of frustration disguised as busyness. You don’t get collaboration. You get parallel workstreams held together by a calendar and a mandatory weekly team-building meeting that goes nowhere.
The best teams catch the same current
Teams that mesh and glide together perform better. They just do.
Organizations with highly engaged teams are 21% more profitable and more productive.
On the flip side, Gallup’s 2025 report shows that global employee engagement dropped from 23% to 21% in 2024, costing the world economy US$438 billion in lost productivity.
Programs like Atlassian’s ShipIt have been linked to notable increases in employee engagement and satisfaction, highlighting the power of self-directed innovation sprints. ShipIt is a 24-hour event where employees work on passion projects outside their usual duties, experimenting and collaborating across teams.
This space for creativity and autonomy empowers people to solve problems, spark innovation, and feel more connected to their work. Over time, ShipIt has become a cornerstone of Atlassian’s culture, driving both collaboration and a stronger sense of purpose.
These teams aren’t micromanaged. They’re not herded. They just find the groove together, sync up, and rise. I’ve never been on a perfect team like that. But I’ve had glimpses.
Beyond the job description
Once, I worked in an office where a colleague and I ended up becoming an unofficial problem-solving unit. No titles, but two people who were sick of complicated documents that were confusing and bottlenecked workflows
We dealt with it, cleaned up the mess on the backend, and simplified all the forms. And you know what we found: errors in the system that had been there for years. We didn’t have meetings about it. We talked, passed ideas back and forth, then fixed what we could.
We weren’t just solving problems. We were co-regulating. Our shared rhythm kept us focused and steady in a chaotic environment. There was a lot of turmoil and chaos in the office. Without a strong leader, tension started to build. We all eventually felt that trickle-down.
But when you’re part of a team you can actually rely on, where you’re working together and getting things done, it creates a sense of calm you can’t get when you’re just bracing against the environment alone. My colleague and I bounced ideas off each other, made decisions together.
And ironically, because our leader was so hands-off, she let us run with whatever we wanted. The same absence that created the problem gave us room to solve it. That wasn’t a team on paper. But we were riding the same thermal. And just like when I watched those hawks in flight, it felt amazing.
The right combination makes the difference
It’s not just having some random team, either, but choosing the right individuals for the work. In higher ed, the same handful of names end up on committee after committee, year after year. It becomes an echo chamber. And sometimes, someone gets tapped for a role not because they’re a good fit, but because they haven’t done their service work yet.
As you can imagine that’s exactly where things go wrong, and here’s why.
One time two undergrad students came to me after learning the annual departmental award ceremony had been canceled. It had low attendance the last few years and had basically become an afterthought.
Honestly, it had been poorly managed. The chair had delegated it to a faculty member who didn’t care and made sure everyone knew it. The admin assistant tried, kind of, but not really. So the event fizzled.
The students were disappointed. They were supposed to be honored that year. I told them, if they could get the chair to sign off, I’d bring it back, but only if they helped.
They got the green light, and we had weekly meetings for two months. They handled logistics and outreach. I designed certificates and coordinated catering. And I personally invited every faculty member and every student getting an award.
The result? The best attendance in the event’s history.
And this is why who you choose matters. The previous faculty member wasn’t picked because he was the best fit. He was essentially voluntold because someone above him thought he needed something to do.
That’s how you get a hawk in a tree chewing a squirrel alone.
Our team worked because it became an autotelic experience. The doing was the reward. None of us were chasing recognition. We just wanted to do something that didn’t suck.
Kotler and his team (2022) explain that certain chemicals and brain areas linked to motivation and reward light up during these moments. That is why teams who catch the same current and genuinely enjoy their work tend to keep their energy and focus going strong.
The best lift isn’t managed
When leaders micromanage, hoard credit, or create competition disguised as motivation, no one gets off the ground. Everyone just flaps harder. They may not control the thermals, but they sure can ruin the air for everyone.
What helps?
Give ownership over outcomes, not just tasks. Let them shape how the work gets done, not just check off boxes.
Be clear about what matters most right now. Priority confusion kills momentum. Spell it out and keep it visible.
Protect focus time. Block out space where everyone can actually work without interruptions or context switching.
Respond to misalignment early. If two people are pulling in opposite directions, don’t wait for it to explode. Step in and reset.
Track progress with signals, not surveillance. Use quick check-ins, shared docs, or dashboards. Skip the micromanaging.
Ask your team what’s blocking them. Then actually remove it. This is the simplest leadership move and the most ignored.
Give people the chance to opt in, not just be assigned. Letting individuals choose projects or roles they care about leads to better energy and outcomes.
And then get out of the way. Let your team do their thing and I promise you the achievers will rise.
You don’t need to be some enlightened spiritual bird. Just pay attention. Are your employees soaring or are they perched alone, protecting their branch?
Because there’s a difference between flying and flailing. One of them goes somewhere.
© 2025 Bette A. Ludwig: All rights reserved
👉 Don’t Forget to Evaluate Your Leadership Approach with This FREE Diagnostic
If you're getting value from Involved Leadership 📈, I'd truly appreciate it if you could tap the like ❤️ button and share or restack 🔁. Thanks for reading and for your support! 🙌
I’ve been on those teams that appear functional from the outside but are just a group of individuals floundering on the inside. And then every once in a while, you land in a rhythm with a colleague and get things done.
P.S. No squirrels were hurt during the writing of this article :(
Happy Friday eve, Bette.
This is hitting all the three aspect of motivation as popularized by Daniel Pink: Autonomy, Purpose, Mastery. Having the trust of your manage, a drive to bring something good and accumulated experience over time... All the things you want to soar together 🙂. Thanks for the post!