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Talent, Teamwork, and Winning the World Cup
Too many talented people on your team could actually hamper performance rather than improve it. This is the finding of new research due out in the journal Psychological Science. The findings come from...
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Increasing diversity on your team
I had six different conversations about diversity this week. Of all the methods I use to come up with content for this blog, I take the synchronicity rule most seriously—if six different people want...
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Are you starving for a useful meeting?
One my favorite books is a healthy eating book called In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. It’s part nutrition guide and part history book on the evolution of industrial food production. The most...
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How to make a meeting more useful
In my previous post, I drew a parallel between our society’s consumption of empty calories and the prevalence of useless meetings. You can read that post here. The idea is that when you have good...
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Killing your busy culture
The “busy” epidemic has received significant attention and much has been written about how to prioritize to keep one’s workload at a manageable level. In my book, You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow...
View ArticleHow to disagree with your boss
Just the thought of disagreeing with your boss might make your heart race and your palms sweat. You imagine how things could play out and every daydreamed scenario ends with proof that disagreeing was...
View ArticleHow to start a meeting
It’s been a while since I posted a new Right Words to Say video, but I’m back with a few new answers to questions sent in by members of the Change Your Team Community. In this post, I answer a...
View ArticleHow to end a meeting
In my previous post, I gave you some tips on how to start a meeting to set it up for success. Today, it’s the other bookend—how to end a meeting to capture the value that was created. Take a look at...
View ArticleIn the mirror: Are you the tortoise or the hare?
The Knightsbridge Vital Teams™ process helps team members understand their styles and needs and the impact they have on team dynamics. We use the Birkman Method® as our tool in this process. This is...
View ArticleIt gets harder before it gets easier
I’m just working on a speech I will give to a large group of leaders next month. It is about what it takes to build high performing teams. Actually, not just about what it takes to create separate,...
View ArticleIs your team prepared for conflict?
I was working with a really great leadership team last week. The team is full of smart, friendly, collaborative individuals who each have the best interest of the business in mind. The opportunity...
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Everybody Hurts
Do you have moments when you feel that one of your teammates doesn’t appreciate you? Do you feel disrespected, undervalued, or misunderstood? Have you thrown up your hands, rolled your eyes, or lost...
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Why your volunteer team sucks and how to make it better
“How do I break down barriers and encourage a group of volunteers to strive for higher performance?” That is the question Ingrid posed recently on the ChangeYourTeam Community. Having experienced a...
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Virtual teams and how to give feedback from afar
Every time I give a speech these days, I get at least a couple of questions about how my techniques apply to virtual teams. Given that my team at Knightsbridge is a virtual team across two countries...
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How quickly do you trust?
Trust is one of the most critical factors in building a high performing team. Without trust, things move slowly (often one step forward and two steps back), redundancy and rework increases, and...
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Be proactive in building your trust in others
After several audience members at my recent speeches have asked about the role of trust on their teams, I decided to dedicate a few posts to the topic. You can read previous posts in the trust series:...
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5 practices that bolster trust on your team
Several questions from audience members at recent speeches got me thinking about trust and what can be done to increase trust on teams. This fourth post in the series moves away from my normal focus...
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What stresses you out?
Are you aware of what stresses you out? Quick, when I say “stressful situation at work” what comes to mind?
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Quick steps to improve your decision making
What are we solving for? Do your meetings go off on tangents so that two hours later you’ve covered a wide swath of territory but made no decisions? Do you find yourself at cross purposes with...
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When discussions get heated
Frequently, I watch teams trying to solve an issue that seems straight forward while observing that their behavior says it’s anything but. I see people interrupting, I hear yelling, I notice tears...
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