(From Linkedin Today)--Over the years, I've had the privilege of leading people who are creative, smart and high functioning. The challenge of leading exceptional people is… well… exceptionally challenging. They can work together in harmony and make rapid progress. Or they can compete and bring progress to a halt.

One key to helping great people make rapid progress in teams is to understand that most want to continually grow and learn by working on new things that are interesting, challenging and even fun, and that they are committed to.

This idea is at the very core of Peter Senge’s characterization of “a learning organization,” whose advantage is the ability to adapt and change to remain competitive. In Senge’s own words, a learning organization is “people working together collectively to enhance their capabilities to create results they really care about.”

A culture driven only by achieving performance goals and metrics through rigid structures and processes might succeed in spite of conflict within teams. A learning organization ends the fights before they begin because every person feels personally engaged and committed to the work and to their teams.

So the leader’s challenge of managing exceptional people can be simply stated this way: create a culture that enables people to connect individually and emotionally to the organization’s goals while connecting socially and positively with each other as the way to achieve them.

What does it take to create this kind of culture? Over the years I’ve reflected on what I’ve learned and organized it into four key strategies:

**1. Share information far and wide****.

**Most creative and smart people want to be “in the know.” Information freely shared within a team builds trust. It provides context and a sense of higher purpose by letting people know that the work they are doing is important. It allows good ideas to be rapidly duplicated and implemented by others. It promotes buy-in and minimizes gossip and speculation. The flip side of sharing is accountability. It’s everyone’s job to know what can be shared, how to share appropriately and accurately, and when not to share at all.

2. Encourage ownership of each other’s success_.

_A sense of ownership for each team member’s success by every other team member leads to higher quality work and maximizes the opportunity for contributions. Inclusion in the entire process – from ideation to decision making to implementation – ensures that the overall project is in everyone’s best interests. In any one case, a particular team member may be on point, but collaborative problem solving promotes the possibility of success in all cases with all projects in an organization.

**_3. Respect and embrace diversity.

_**This includes not only accepting and understanding communication styles, but also taking care to nurture and hear ideas from all members. When I was at the U.S. Department of Education, I saw this value repeatedly demonstrated by Secretary Arne Duncan. One memorable moment came in a meeting when a staffer spoke up with an idea, which was immediately and discounted. The group moved on. A few minutes later, Secretary Duncan circled back and repeated the staffer’s comment word for word, giving credence to the idea, the person and – most important – to the process of inclusion. The lesson was not lost on anyone in the room.

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