Tag Archives: Winning Teamwork

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Humor – A Vital Leadership Skill

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th President of the United States) Having humor in the workplace is crucial to leadership success and … Continue reading

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5 Key Interpersonal Skills for Leaders

“Abraham Lincoln said that people think that the real test of a person’s character is how they deal with adversity. A much better measure of a person’s character is to give them power. I’ve been more often disappointed with how … Continue reading

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Three ‘Cheats’ of the Ethical Leader

An ethical leader is someone dedicated to always doing the right thing for the employees, the business, and all stakeholders.  Alas, this ideal for the selfless and driven leader clashes with the reality of who most of us really are. … Continue reading

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The ‘Crack Cocaine’ of Leadership

Crack Cocaine has three distinguishing features: It gives the user a short – lived, intense high It is highly addictive It inevitably leads to the user’s downfall These exact three characteristics are found when business leaders feed their egos. Let’s … Continue reading

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Lead With Questions

As leaders, we often have an employee come to us with an issue or problem. As “make it happen” managers, we then focus on getting the problem solved and getting it done as quickly as possible. Thus, we take charge, … Continue reading

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Get to the Front Lines

Undercover Boss has become a hit TV series by showing big corporate bosses going undercover and discovering the reality of the work lives of their employees. As leaders, we do not need to go undercover; we just need to get … Continue reading

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Calm the Rhetoric…Make Molehills

Today, exaggeration and hyperbole are ever-present. Listen to any sports event… tune into any news program…Speak with many of your friends and/or employees… What do you hear? Amazing… incredible… unbelievable The meeting was a disaster…this is crazy… what a collapse … Continue reading

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New Year Resolutions for First-Time Managers

Happy New Year! For first time managers struggling to move their business units forward in 2015, now is the time to take a step back and focus unwaveringly on the fundamentals of managing and leading others. As such, I offer … Continue reading

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We Need to Spend “Alone Time” With Our Skip Levels

As leaders, we need to spend time on a regular and consistent basis with our skip levels.   What is a Skip Level? As we move up in our organizations, we become ‘managers of managers’ with both direct reports and … Continue reading

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Empathy – A Crucial Leadership Skill

Henry Ford said it well: If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own. This … Continue reading

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We Need to Deal with Our Non-Performers Today

Dealing with non-performers is likely the most uncomfortable (yet necessary) task in building a winning team.  Truth be told, few of us enjoy disciplining, remedial coaching, and terminating employees, especially those that we may work with on a daily basis. … Continue reading

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Instilling Passion Back Into Our Businesses

For many companies, the last few years have been a long, hard slog for the leaders and employees alike. Raises and bonuses have been minimal. It is more difficult to make good profits and win. Anxiety is high as there … Continue reading

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