How to Build Team Culture One Test at a Time
We all recognize that building team culture is important We know a strong team culture can have a huge positive impact on team effectiveness, employee engagement, and overall productivity. The question is, where does it come from? How do we build it? To me, the short answer is that culture is shaped most powerfully by […]
Book Notes – Sea of Glory: The 7 Habits of the Highly Insecure Leader
Lacking confidence in your leadership? Are you an insecure leader? Sometimes the things we are tempted to do to compensate for insecurity are the worst options, as Lieutenant Wilkes, United States Navy, found out the hard way in 1838. Here’s what happened, how you can avoid these seven deadly habits, and build the confidence you […]
Burning the Pancakes: 7 Steps to Empowerment
“I will let your son burn the pancakes.” This is what I tell visiting parents who are trying to decide if their boy should join our Scout Troop. What I’m really telling them is that we do our best to empower the boys, and that the process can be messy. Here’s my thinking on that […]
Book Notes: The Right Kind of Crazy
“How do you build a close-knit innovative team under high pressure?” Imagine being put in charge of leading a team to do something that man has never been done before. You have about ten people with widely differing backgrounds and personalities to work with. You have tight budgetary limitations, a rapidly shrinking timeline and high […]
11 Key Rehearsal Techniques to Keep Your Plan From Getting Torpedoed
In 1914, a German U-boat off the coast of England fired a torpedo that sunk the British passenger liner Lusitania. Even though there were plenty of life vests for every passenger and more than enough seats in the available life boats, most passengers did not survive the encounter. One key reason was that they did […]
How to Get Kicked Out of Leadership School: The Spotlight Leader
Do you have what it takes to get through the Army’s toughest leadership school? Those who attend the U.S. Army’s Ranger School prepare months in advance in the attempt to pass this grueling leadership course. Even so, the failure rate is high – anywhere from 40-60% of this select group still don’t make the grade […]
Snake Bit! A Case Study in Making Haste Slowly
In the heat of a crisis, as leaders we tend to want to jump in and start making decisions. The situation calls for boldness, decisiveness; now is our chance to rise to the occasion. To fail to act immediately may be interpreted as weakness. But if we act hastily we risk making bad decisions and making things worse […]
How to use the EDGE Technique to Lead Your Team
Did you know that organizations have a life cycle? In this video, we’ll talk about what the stages of that life cycle are, and how you can adjust your leadership approach to successfully lead your team in every stage.
Joining the Team: What the New Guy Won’t Tell You
We’ve all been there, but it’s funny how quickly we can forget the “New Guy” experience. Yet how you bring a new person onto the team will have a lot to do with how long they stay, and how productive they’ll be. Here are four things that the new guy won’t tell you, and what […]
The Abilene Paradox: When Agreement is Bad
Not sure where your team is heading? Wonder what will be waiting for you when you get there? Sounds like you might just be on the Bus to Abilene. Here’s how to recognize if you’re on that Bus and how to get it turned in the right direction.
After Action Review: Is There an Elephant in the Room?
After every major event, good organizations and teams take a moment and very deliberately review what happened in an After Action Review. In this way, they can keep getting better. It’s a great process, but there’s an elephant in the room that can keep it from working. Today we’re going to talk about what that […]
How to Train the New Guy
Being the leader is a challenge, but it can be even more challenging when you have new people join the team who don’t yet know how to contribute. In the next two minutes I’m going to show you a way to pull the new guys on to the team and quickly turn them into productive […]