The secret of effective teamwork
It’s one of those days where I didn’t have an idea of what to write about so I started Googling random things. Just for fun, I keyed in “secret of effective teamwork.” I read a bunch of articles before...
View ArticleWhen the problem is outside your team
It can be extremely frustrating when one of your teammates isn’t cooperating. But at least when it’s one of your own teammates that’s behaving badly, you have some recourse with your mutual manager....
View ArticleMake work projects
“We’re smart people, we kick off a lot of ideas.” This was a quote from a participant in the Cascading Strategy workshop we delivered last week. We were in the midst of a discussion about clearing out...
View ArticleHow to get a juicy conversation
When working with senior executives, one of the most common requests I get is to help create “juicy conversations.” What they mean by “juicy” is deep, probing, uncomfortable, novel, productive...
View ArticleRead the damn pre-read people!
I was talking with someone this morning about the sorry state of meetings. We spend so much time in the weeds and waste a precious opportunity to have valuable conversations about stuff that really...
View ArticleSurviving a succession race on your team
A few experiences recently triggered me to start a series on changes in team leadership. In the first post, I talked about the decision to vie for your boss’ job and how to behave while you’re in the...
View ArticlePractices that inhibit good talent management
I got all excited in my last post about the shady dealings that plague team’s efforts to manage talent effectively; hiding, protecting, hoarding, and stealing good people. As I was writing, I realized...
View ArticleHow smart is your team?
Since the seminal work of Charles Spearman at the turn of the 20th century, we have been studying, measuring, and eventually selecting for, individual intelligence. If you want to, you can find out if...
View ArticleDealing with a hold out
When we get invited to help a team become high performing, occasionally, there is a team member who doesn’t want to participate in the process. It all starts innocuously; the team leader starts by...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with balance
At least once a day I hear someone talk about the importance of balance. Balance is the elusive state of having two or more things in the right proportion or the right emphasis, amount, or weight....
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