How to Build Team Culture From the Ground Up
Every team will develop its own distinctive culture. A good team culture can be positive, supporting, and contribute to greater productivity, employee engagement, and satisfaction. A bad one can have the opposite effect. The thing is, you don’t have to leave it to chance to see which way your team culture will go. If you […]
Who are the Real Stars?
We like to focus on the star – the one person who always seems to get it done. But if we zero in too closely on one star, we lose sight of the other points of light in the sky. The Chicago Bulls put five people on the court, not just Michael Jordan. Somebody has […]
No Car, No Phone, No Clue: 10 Life Lessons from a Treasure Hunt
It was anything but a normal way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. But despite many unexpected trials, it was also one of the best days we’d had together in a while. Here’s the very unusual way we spent our anniversary, and ten Life Lessons we’ll be sure to keep mind for the next 25 […]
Book Notes: “Chains of Command” in Jamestown
Unity of command is crucial for the success of an organization, yet the colonists settling Jamestown seemed to be actually trying to make it hard on themselves. In fact, the colony nearly failed several times as a result of their strange approach to establishing leadership. Here’s what they did, and what we can learn from them […]
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 […]
9 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid
In a recent online poll, about 1,000 U.S. workers were asked what their biggest complaints were about their leaders. Today we’ll talk about the top nine of these complaints, how they are connected, and what you can do to avoid being one of the leaders they are complaining about.
How to Respond to Crisis: Four Steps for Leaders
As a leader you will have to respond to crisis. The plan will get off track, a key person will not show up, the weather will change, key assumptions will be proven wrong. It’s inevitable. How you respond will determine whether you overcome the crisis, or become a victim of it. Today we’ll talk about four […]
How to Delegate on the Fly
To get the job done as a leader, you have to delegate. There’s no other way around it. Often, we are in a big hurry too. But if you are moving too fast, you are liable to forget something important. Today I’ll give you a simple tool you can use so that when you delegate […]
How to do Team Building the Fun Way
Trying to get off the ground with a new team? Looking for a way to get some bonding going sooner rather than later? Want to make it fun? Developing a sense of team within your group is critical to do early on. If you dive right into a project without building the team, you may […]
Eight Ways to use Reward Power that Don’t Require Cash
Reward Power is one of the best ways for leaders to influence people to move in the direction they want. Most people tend to think of this power of reward in terms of money, and money can be a good tool. But often there isn’t much to give, and surprisingly, it is often not the […]
Motivating with a Kitchen Utensil: The Golden Spatula
It was frosted toaster pastries and sugar-coated sugar bomb cereal for breakfast. Again. We have to do better. We were camping with the Scout troop, and while the outing was a lot of fun, the meals had become pretty uninspiring. Everyone knew we could do better, but the enthusiasm just didn’t seem to be there. […]