--- title: 3 Teamwork Lessons from Barack Obama and Joe Biden description: As we reach President Obama and Vice President Biden’s last day in office, it seems fitting to reflect on teamwork in the context of their time in office. image: https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/obama%20biden%20teamwork%20quotes.jpg --- [![Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/logo_kinton_black.svg)](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/) [![Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/logo_kinton_black.svg)](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_search_black.svg) - Product Product![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_plus.svg)![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_back.svg) - Product ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_plus.svg) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_back.svg) - [Intro to Kintone](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/intro/) - [Why Kintone](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/why-kintone/) - 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[![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-white.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-grey.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-red.png) Business with Heart \<3](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart) - [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-white.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-grey.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-red.png) Company + Product](https://blog.kintone.com/company-news) - Business with Heart \<3Operations for the Digital First Team - [Company + ProductLatest News from Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/company-news) - [Business with Heart \<3Operations for the Digital First Team](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart) ![obama biden teamwork quotes.jpg](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/obama%20biden%20teamwork%20quotes.jpg) [Improving Teamwork,](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/tag/improving-teamwork) # 3 Teamwork Lessons from Barack Obama and Joe Biden Jan 20, 2017   |   by [Travis Hill](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/travis-hill) [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) As we reach President Obama and Vice President Biden’s last day in office, it seems fitting to reflect on teamwork in the context of their time in office.  We often joke about the “bromance” shared by President Obama and Vice President Biden, but there are some powerful teamwork lessons to be learned from the these two extraordinary leaders.  ## **Trust** > *Mr. President, you have more than kept your commitment to me by saying that you wanted me to help govern.  The President’s line often -- other people don't hear it that often, but when someone would say, can you get Joe to do such and such.  He says, I don't do his schedule.  He doesn't do mine. Every single thing you've asked me to do, Mr. President, you have trusted me to do.  And that is -- that's a remarkable thing. - Vice President Joe Biden* There is an important distinction about team trust in this quote. Obama trusts Biden to carry out the tasks that he asks him to do, but he also trusts him to have his own schedule because the two are responsible for the larger task of governing. Often in teams we might feel that we, above all others, have the clearest insight as to what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. When that happens, it can feel like our agendas are top priority and anything else is a distraction. But in teams, we commit to a rare combination of independence (to contribute what we can uniquely provide) and shared vision (to achieve a common goal that we couldn’t achieve alone). By asking Vice President Biden to help govern while insisting that “I don’t do his schedule, he doesn’t do mine,” President Obama eloquently demonstrates that they are two individuals bringing their talents together for the sake of governing well - not for the sake of either person’s agenda. ## **Unity** > *The reason why when you send me around the world, nothing gets -- as my mom would say, gets missed between the cup and the lip, it’s because they know when I speak, I speak for you. - Vice President Joe Biden* It may seem like a no-brainer that good teamwork requires unity, but the mistake that teams often make is thinking that it is necessary to acquiesce to a team member with a strong personality or that it is acceptable to let external parties dictate the team’s direction. In some cases, one team member might go so far as to undermine the efforts of another and occasionally an external party might try shopping around for a second opinion because one team member didn’t give them the answer they wanted. Good teams understand that these departures distract them from being able to move forward in the right direction or take them off course, while unity makes the team stronger and makes the goal more likely to succeed.   ## **Honesty / Candid Communication** > *Behind the scenes, Joe's candid, honest counsel has made me a better President and a better Commander-in-Chief.  From the Situation Room to our weekly lunches, to our huddles after everybody else has cleared out of the room, he's been unafraid to give it to me straight, even if we disagree -- in fact, especially if we disagree. - President Barack Obama* > *We've disagreed, and we've argued, and we've raised our voices, one of which we made a deal we'd be completely open like brothers with one another. - Vice President Joe Biden* For the most part, teams will agree that honesty is vital to success and yet so few are actually candid or disagree with one another in practice. In reality, honesty and candidness require an upfront commitment with consistent reminders over time. When we work together with others there are so many considerations that we make with our communication and actions. We might love and respect our teammates like family, so it can sometimes just seem easier to hold something back, and in more troubling cases where the team doesn’t get along very well on a personal level, honesty might fall through out of spite or personal agenda. Regardless of whether the love is there or not, without honesty problems don’t crop up until it’s too late and by that time they can grow out of control. For teams that are serious about accomplishing a shared goal, the setbacks and damaged relationships that come from a lack of candid communication are far worse than small squabbles along the way. **[Read more posts on teamwork.](https://blog.kintone.com/topic/teamwork)**   [![why projects fail cta](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1857320/3bdfd1aa-4261-4ffe-8a5f-efa15f4f7ea4.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1857320/3bdfd1aa-4261-4ffe-8a5f-efa15f4f7ea4) [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Travis.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/travis-hill) About the Author [Travis Hill](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/travis-hill) Product Manager Recommended Posts Up Next [3 Must-Have Features of Business Databases](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/3-must-have-features-of-business-databases) Previous [Corporate Managers: Business Process Automation Made Easy](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/company-managers-business-process-automation-made-easy) [Back to Business with Heart \<3 Blog Page](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart) ### Subscribe to Blog #### Recommended Posts [![Illustration of a woman at her desk picturing a request moving between three colleagues, with one item flagged as incomplete and a loop that sends the request back before it reaches approval.](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Blog%20Files/workflow-intake-process-hero.webp)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/workflow-intake-process) Improving Teamwork ##### Why Do Cross-Departmental Processes Break Before They Start? A purchase request reaches finance without a cost center. A new-vendor setup request reaches procurement without the vendor's tax ID. A customer escalation reaches engineering without the steps to reproduce the problem. In each case, the receiving team stops, ... [Read More »](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/workflow-intake-process) [![Operations manager navigating a tangled spreadsheet-based process with disconnected records, approvals, handoffs, and communication paths that fail to reach completion.](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/What%20Operations%20Management%20Software%20Should%20Actually%20Do%20for%20a%20Growing%20Company%20Hero.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/what-operations-management-software-should-do-for-a-growing-company) Digital Transformation ##### What Operations Management Software Should Do for a Growing Company At some point the spreadsheet stops being a tool and starts being the job. The request tracker has seventeen tabs. The approvals column tracks who said yes, but not whether the handoff happened. The weekly operations meeting opens with twenty minutes of everyo... [Read More »](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/what-operations-management-software-should-do-for-a-growing-company) [![Illustration of a healthcare operations coordinator managing prior authorizations, records requests, referrals, follow-ups, and billing tasks while clinicians talk in the background.](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Blog%20Files/healthcare-operations-work-beyond-ehr-hero.jpg)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/managing-the-work-your-ehr-doesnt) Improving Teamwork ##### Managing the Work Your EHR Doesn't When a medical record request goes out, someone has to track when it was sent, whether the records came back, what reference number was assigned, and what the follow-up process looks like if nothing arrives. When a prior authorization is pending with a payer, ... 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