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Category Archives: Team / People
Making IT Work
In today’s world, technology is everywhere, and we collect more data than ever before. But just having lots of data doesn’t mean we’re using it well. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.” E.O. Wilson That’s why good … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Actionable Data, Best Practices, Communication, IT
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Career Advice (For All Ages)
It is graduation season again. Having just come from my 35th reunion for business school, I feel inspired to offer some advice to recent graduates and some reminders to all of us (old and young) in the working world. “When … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Career Advice, Humility, Learning, Simplicity
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Be a Decision Architect
Good individual and group decision-making is key to being a successful leader and driving a successful business forward. But we are all subject to individual biases (such as Confirmation Bias) and group behaviors (such as Groupthink) that lead to poor … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Personal Success, Team / People
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Criticize Less
As leaders, we need develop and maintain a strong, positive culture within our companies. To help us do this, we need to stop criticizing so much!! “The first order of business should be to eliminate the negative, not accentuate the … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Criticism, Positivity, Winning Teamwork
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Don’t Be a Comfort Junkie
I just finished reading an excellent book, The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self. As written by Michael Easter, the comfort crisis results from each of us not doing anything uncomfortable: not exercising, never going … Continue reading
Why Be Humble?
Humility is vital as a business leader and for our teams in several different ways: Humility ensures stronger relationships: With humility, we put ourselves at the same level as those with whom we communicate. This is especially true with subordinates; … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Business Leadership, Do the Right Thing, Humility, Winning Teamwork
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Minimize Negativity
Negativity has been with mankind forever. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, we are all descendants of humans who scanned the horizon for negative (and dangerous) factors, acted to avoid these negative factors, survived, and reproduced. In today’s world, we … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Happiness, Negativity, Positivity, Winning Teamwork
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6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
In his book, Hidden Potential, Adam Grant offers insight into how we can realize our hidden potential and achieve greater things. This advice is relevant to us, as individuals, and as leaders of teams and companies. To give a flavor … Continue reading
Build a Great (and Good) Company
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton This well-known quote from the 1800’s rings true. As countless observers continue to remark, great historical leaders (in business, politics, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Business Leadership, Ethical Leadership, Good to Great
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Creeping Complexity
Anthropologist Joseph Tainter writes, “Complexity creeps up on you.” Today, complexity has been creeping up and overwhelming us. Within our companies and in our personal lives, we need to fight hard against this complexity to enable us to realize our … Continue reading
Upward Communication Makes Us All Better
In a previous blog, Communicate Upward, I discussed the need for upward communication and how to communicate upward. In this blog, I discuss upward communication and how it improves our employees’ understanding and capabilities. Upward Communication Good upward communication needs … Continue reading
Reject Equality… Embrace Fairness
In a previous blog, I wrote about Ideological Necrophilia, the continued love of ideas that have been tried repeatedly and proved (again and again) not to work. One failed idea that I wrote about is that we need to treat … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Equality, Ethical Leadership, Fairness
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Team Building
Winning teamwork is fundamental to the success of any organization. Winning teamwork requires trust, openness, communication, and respect among the members of the team. The purpose of a team building event is to deepen the bonds within the team and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Team Building, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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The Team is More Important than the Individual
At the height of the Great Recession, the CEO was focusing the company on production efficiencies to reduce costs. One regional president, by contrast, was driving forward to grow sales. This president’s region outperformed all the other regions. But the … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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Be Kind
One of our team asked their supervisor (a valued senior manager in our company) whether the supervisor had read an E-Mail that was sent. In front of a group of ten people, the supervisor responded: “I have seen that you … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Courtesy, Kindness, Leadership
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6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership Success, Simple Expressions
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The Challenge of Being Ethical
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Groucho Marx “There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‘Yes’, you know … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Ethical Leadership, Ethics
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Three Keys to Teamwork
The fundamental determinant of success on most projects and at most companies is teamwork. Volumes have been written about how to foster teamwork. My small contribution is to suggest that each of us, when part of a team, keep three … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Accountability, Humility, Simplicity, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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Don’t Get Angry
The Ancients knew a thing or two about anger: “Whom the Gods want to destroy, they first make angry.” Ancient Greek Proverb “Great anger is more destructive than the sword.” Indian Proverb “The angry man will defeat himself in battle … Continue reading
David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 