Step Up, Step Back, Step Together: The Habits of Leaderful Teams
Aug 22, 2025
One of the most practical and memorable lessons from Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Kathy Hagler and Robin Graham is the concept of the conscious habits of thriving: Step Up, Step Back, and Step Together. These three habits, inspired by the flight patterns of starlings, are simple to understand but transformational when applied to teams and organizations.
Step Up means having the courage to take initiative when you see a need. It’s about speaking up with a new idea, addressing an emerging challenge, or offering your skills when the moment calls for it. Importantly, stepping up is not about seeking credit or control—it’s about acting in service of the shared purpose.
Step Back is about making space for others to lead. It requires trust, humility, and the awareness to know when your role is to support rather than direct. In a murmuration, a bird that has taken the lead will slow its pace or shift position to allow another to guide the flock for a time. In human terms, this habit creates room for diverse perspectives and fresh energy to emerge.
Step Together is where trust and alignment come to life. It’s the ability to move in harmony with others without forcing uniformity, responding to each other’s movements and adjusting as needed. Step Together is what makes murmuration so captivating—thousands of individuals moving as one without losing their individuality.
Practicing these habits builds leaderful teams—teams where leadership is a shared responsibility rather than a fixed role. This shift breaks down silos, encourages collaboration, and builds resilience.
To start applying these habits:
- Identify moments where you can Step Up to advance a project or conversation.
- Look for opportunities to Step Back, especially if you hold formal authority.
- Practice Stepping Together by staying present, listening actively, and aligning your actions with the group’s shared goals.
When these habits become part of a team’s culture, the result is a group that can adapt quickly, solve problems creatively, and thrive in uncertainty—just like the starlings in flight.
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