As a leadership coach, I observe a lot of teams. These can be at the CEO level of a company or the lowest working levels. Their performance varies greatly. Some seem to have…
Teamwork
I recently had the driveway at our new house paved. I was curious to see the process. It is not every day you get one of those large asphalt laying machines driving up…
The biggest work related impacts of the pandemic are behind us but the topic of where employees should work is far from resolved. The hybrid work model is becoming very common and a…
A week ago I attended the annual meeting of our homeowners association (HOA). In past years it has been a controversial affair but this year it was noteworthy for a different reason. It…
A recent climb of Mt Baker taught me a lot about teaming. It is the practice of working together as a team to achieve an objective. In our case it was to climb…
I worked with a leadership team this week to help them understand their team personality. I’ve seen many teams do this as a fun team building exercise. It can be fun but make…
I shared Amy Edmondson’s four key leadership behaviors for managing extreme teams in a recent blog post. They are: Build an engaging vision Cultivate psychological safety Develop shared mental models Empower agile execution…
I’ve talked a lot about the importance of developing a shared purpose for any team. A good shared purpose energizes and binds the team together, defining its reason for being. I believe there…
One of the most important things a team needs to succeed and thrive is commitment to a shared purpose. On paper this sounds pretty simple. Pick a meaningful purpose, talk about it as…
When working with others our default action is to form a team. After all, teamwork is good and everyone works in teams. It is interesting to compare this idealized view to the reality…