“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
– Peter Drucker
You might have the perfect plan, but without mutual trust, teamwork, and a clear sense of “this is who we are,” your chances of accomplishing it are pretty slim. On this page, look for posts that tell you how to build a positive, resilient team that magnifies the abilities of its individual members.
I’m building a new team; who should be on it? Often we just inherit the teams we lead, but occasionally we have the opportunity to build a new team from scratch. How do you know who to pick? Here are five action steps you can take when building a …
Who’s in Your Canoe? 5 Things to Consider When Building a New Team Read More »
What kind of virtual team building can I do with my distributed team? We all know that teamwork is critical to getting things done through people. Building cohesive teams is already a challenge when everybody is face to face. But developing trust, communicating well, collaborating readily, and problem-solving effectively become …
“How can you optimize a system that’s error-prone?” As humans, we are fallable. In our efforts to achieve, produce, and progress, we make mistakes, we misjudge, we stumble. Any enterprise that involves humans will, by definition, be imperfect. But is that really such a bad thing? When it comes to …
Optimization: Surprising Lessons in Efficiency from the Ant World Read More »
Could you be guilty of micromanagement? The micromanager has been called the bully of the business world, and micromanagement is responsible for killing motivation, eroding trust, and leading to waste and inefficiency. Yet the last person to recognize that they are a micromanager is the micromanager themselves. Could you be …
Micromanagement: 7 Signs You’re a Micromanager and What to Do About It Read More »
Could your efforts to lead actually lead to demotivation? A team’s spirit means everything when it comes to productivity, engagement, and satisfaction. But sometimes, despite our best intentions, the way we lead can become a source of demotivation. Here are seven things you might be doing that deplete your team’s …
Demotivation: 7 Ways You Might Be Killing Your Team’s Spirit Read More »
How do you lead people who aren’t on your payroll? Since moving to Minnesota, I’ve wanted to get engaged locally as a volunteer. Last month I signed up to help at a local agency, and it was a great experience. The way they worked with the volunteers made it fun, …
Leading Volunteers: How to Keep Them Coming Back Read More »
How do you lead a team that’s not there? It’s hard enough to be a good leader when your teammates are in the same room. But what about when they aren’t even in the same time zone? When you can’t look someone directly in the eye, things get much more …
Leading Virtual Teams: 12 Powerful Ways to Lead a Team You Can’t See Read More »
What is reflection for leaders? Reflection sounds like a passive exercise you do by yourself. It seems to involve sitting in a chair in a darkened room and journaling about the meaning of things. Maybe that’s part of it, but I think for leaders there is much more to it …
6 Powerful Ways Leaders Reflect, and how Reflection Makes Your Team Great Read More »
How come 1+1+1 does not equal 3? You would think that the more people on a project, the greater the output. Sadly, that’s not always the case. A phenomenon called Social Loafing leads some team members to do the minimum possible. They drag down group productivity like a boat anchor. …
Stop Social Loafing: 6 Ways to Get Everyone Working Read More »
What happens to performance if someone is watching? The answer might surprise you. Performance isn’t just about the players, it’s also about the audience. Today we’ll unlock the power of social facilitation and show you how you can use the audience to get the best out of your team.
[Guest Post*] Everyone loves an underdog story, but much of the time, we only perceive the underdogs as such because we are overlooking the strengths that really matter. In the story of David and Goliath, the fact is, much of David’s unexpected win boils down to the fact that …
Creating Unexpected Wins: Leadership Lessons from “Team Short People” Read More »
Of plants, tomatoes seemed the most human… – John Updike If what John Updike says of tomatoes is true, my neighbor is reminding me of an important lesson about working with people.
