Most teams don’t fail because they lack talent. They fail because they haven’t changed how they work together. That’s the idea behind Teamship. It’s not about being a better individual leader. It’s about how the team actually operates: how they challenge each other, make decisions, and own outcomes together.
When I spoke with LinkedIn CMO Jessica Jensen, she shared a simple practice that gets at this. She calls it the “Love Letter / Santa Letter.”
Here’s how it works. One leader leaves the room. The rest of the team writes two things:
Then the leader comes back, and the team reads it out loud.
It’s quick. It’s direct. And it surfaces something most teams avoid: The gap between what people say privately and what they say in the room.
The important part isn’t the exercise. It’s how she frames it. She tells people: this is input, not instruction. Also it is a chance to share love and admiration with your partners. That matters. Most people hear feedback as judgment. Something they have to defend or fix right away. She takes that pressure off. It’s just data. A point of view. That’s what allows people to actually listen.
This isn’t just about feedback. Done right, it does three things:
That’s the shift: From “my performance” to “our performance”.
The real issue most teams have isn’t communication. People don’t hold back because they don’t have opinions. They hold back because the environment hasn’t proven it’s safe or useful to speak up. Jensen solves that by removing ambiguity. Everyone participates. Support and challenge are both expected. And it all happens in the open.
She also makes something else clear to her team: Her goal is to build the smallest, highest-impact organization possible. That’s not about cutting people. It’s about focus. What actually drives value? What work matters? What roles are essential?
If you’re leading a team, don’t just copy the exercise. Understand the principle. If you want better performance then design how your team works. If you want alignment then create moments that force it. If you want honest input then you must make it part of how you operate.
Why this matters now is simple. Work is getting more complex. AI is speeding everything up. The advantage will go to the team that can think together, align fast, and execute. This is one small way to start.
Originally published at Forbes