There Is No ‘I’ in Team – But in a Perfect Team There Is a Big ‘R’
Responsibility is the bridge from dependence to independence.
There’s an old saying:
There is no ‘I’ in team.
It’s meant to remind us that teams succeed collectively rather than individually.
Fair enough.
But after decades of working with individuals, leaders and teams, I’ve become convinced there’s another letter that matters rather more.
A big R.
Responsibility.
Because without responsibility, individuals remain dependent.
Without responsibility, leaders become bottlenecks.
And without responsibility, teams struggle to become genuinely interdependent.
I learned that lesson particularly powerfully through one person I worked with more than a decade ago.
SHE WAS STUCK
When I first met her, she was struggling.
Her career wasn’t going where she wanted.
She lacked confidence and direction.
And much of her attention was focused on everything outside herself that was preventing her from moving forward.
The circumstances.
Other people.
What had happened.
What hadn’t happened.
In the language I’ve used for years, she was at the effect of things.
Things happened.
She reacted.
Something had to change.
I WOULDN’T GIVE HER THE ANSWER
During one of our early conversations, I explained the difference between dependence and independence.
Dependence looks outside ourselves.
Independence begins when we recognise what we can do ourselves.
I told her there was one thing she needed to change.
But I wouldn’t tell her what it was.
Instead, I kept asking questions.
For around 25 minutes, she searched for the answer.
Eventually, the penny dropped.
“Take responsibility.”
That was it.
Not responsibility for everything that had happened to her.
Not the pretence that external circumstances don’t matter.
Something much more useful:
Responsibility for what she did next.
RESPONSIBILITY CHANGES THE QUESTION
This distinction matters.
Responsibility doesn’t mean:
Everything is my fault.
It means:
What can I do about it?
Those are profoundly different ideas.
Blame looks backwards.
Responsibility creates the possibility of moving forwards.
Instead of:
Why has this happened to me?
the question becomes:
What can I do now?
Instead of:
Why won’t somebody give me an opportunity?
it becomes:
How can I create one?
Instead of:
Who is going to fix this?
it becomes:
What part of this can I influence?
That change in attention can change behaviour.
FROM DEPENDENCE TO INDEPENDENCE
Soon afterwards, she secured an interview for a finance role in the City of London.
She got the job.
It was a relatively junior position.
But she kept progressing.
Years later, she had become a divisional Chief Operating Officer within a major City organisation.
Her achievement was hers.
But that conversation about responsibility had become an important part of her development.
She had moved from waiting for circumstances to change towards taking responsibility for what she could change herself.
That’s independence.
BUT INDEPENDENCE ISN’T THE END
This connects directly with the ice, water and steam metaphor I’ve used elsewhere.
Dependence is like ice.
It requires external energy to move it.
Independence is like water.
It moves under its own momentum.
But the most capable teams go further.
They become interdependent.
Independent people take responsibility for themselves.
Interdependent people take responsibility for what they contribute to others.
That’s an important distinction.
Independence says: I can.
Interdependence says: We can.
And responsibility is essential to both.
THE BIG ‘R’ CHANGES TEAMS TOO
Now imagine a team in which responsibility is concentrated in one person.
Every decision goes to the leader.
Every problem goes upwards.
Every uncertainty requires permission.
The leader works harder and harder while everybody else becomes increasingly dependent.
Then compare it with a team in which people ask:
What can I take responsibility for?
What do I recommend?
What can I solve?
What does the team need from me?
Suddenly, responsibility begins moving through the organisation.
And with it comes greater capability.
RESPONSIBILITY AND CAPABILITY REINFORCE EACH OTHER
There is an important relationship here.
You cannot simply tell somebody:
Take more responsibility.
They also need the capability to carry it.
Give responsibility without capability and people can become overwhelmed.
Develop capability without responsibility and it may never be exercised.
The two reinforce one another.
Responsibility creates the opportunity to develop capability.
Capability enables people to carry greater responsibility.
That’s how people grow.
And it’s how organisations grow too.
LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT RELEASING RESPONSIBILITY
One of the traps leaders fall into is believing that leadership means taking responsibility for everything.
Initially, that can work.
Particularly in a small business.
But as an organisation grows, the leader’s job increasingly becomes creating other people who are capable of carrying responsibility.
Otherwise, everything continues flowing upwards.
The leader becomes the constraint.
So perhaps one measure of leadership capability is this:
How much responsibility can the people around you carry without you?
That’s a very different way of looking at team development.
RESPONSIBILITY CREATES FREEDOM
There is another consequence too.
As the woman I worked with discovered, responsibility creates greater agency.
The more capable we become of taking responsibility for our choices, decisions and contribution, the less dependent we become upon somebody else making things happen for us.
That creates independence.
And independence creates greater freedom.
The progression is simple:
Responsibility → Capability → Independence → Interdependence
Not everybody travels through it in a straight line.
And none of us is independent in every aspect of life.
But the direction matters.
SO, WHERE IS THE BIG ‘R’ IN YOUR TEAM?
Who takes responsibility?
Who waits?
Who solves problems?
Who passes them upwards?
Who needs permission?
Who exercises judgement?
And perhaps most importantly:
Are your leaders creating greater dependence — or developing people capable of taking responsibility themselves?
Because there may be no ‘I’ in team.
But in a capable, interdependent team there is definitely a big R.
Responsibility.
Nobody is perfect.
But your team can be.
You can’t download capability.™
How much responsibility can your team carry without you?
Perfect Teams® helps leaders understand their people, develop greater individual and collective capability and build stronger, more interdependent teams.
Originally published 16 February 2022. Updated August 2026.
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