The Secrets Of High-Performing Teams

According to Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, authors of the book, The Collaboration Imperative, high-performing teams have the following characteristics:

People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas.
Everybody is working toward the same goals.
Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks.
Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected.
Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts.
Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed. Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles.
The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executive sponsor, after which little second-guessing occurs.
Each team member carries his or her own weight and respects the team processes and other members.
The leadership of the team shifts from time to time, as appropriate, to drive results. No individual members are more important than the team.

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10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How To Play Bigger And Be A Category King In Business

"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book, Play Bigger . They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become category kings . Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA. Play Bigger is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at category design : Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king. Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come." Key traits of category design...

Decision-Making Lessons From History

As seen on Public Television, the book, Decisions , by Robert L. Dilenschneider , features vignettes on 23 individuals who made decisions that shaped the world. Each chapter offers practical thinking on how these women and men made decisions. You can use their decision-making skills as guidance at work, in your leadership role, and in your daily life. You’ll learn decision making tips from Harry Truman , Margaret Thatcher , Mohammed Ali , Rachel Carson , Pablo Picasso and others who made decisions during war and peace, and in fields of science, commerce and invention. Author Dilenschneider suggests takeaways about decision-making from each featured historical figure. Some of my favorite decision-making lessons from history and from the book include these: Own your decisions . Be responsible for them and for their implications. Do not be reactionary—that is, making decisions to spite others or because of outside pressure—but do be r...

Book Review & Highlights: Leadership Conversations

When I read business books, I turn the corner of every page that has something I really like, want to remember and easily reference in the future. Halfway into the 300-page book, Leadership Conversations , I had turned the corners of nearly every fifth pages. So, you can see why I believe this is such a good book. There is so much to learn from Leadership Conversations . It's a must read for today's business leaders. Leaders who are leading multi-generational workforces. And, leaders who want the skills to get promoted and move up the corporate ladder. Authors Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz wrote the book because they believe that a leader's most powerful skill is the ability to hold effective conversations . So, in their book, they detail the four types of conversations every leader must effectively master . Conversations that: Buil...

Book Review: The Elephant In The Room

Diana McLain Smith's new book, The Elephant in the Room , explains how relationships make or break the success of leaders and organizations. It's not a light right. For those who really want to understand relationships, however, this book, based on Smith's clinical research and a wealth of in-depth observational studies, is both insightful and worth the effort. Smith explains that when people click or clash, we typically chalk it up to chemistry and leave it at that. But, she knows there are many dynamics within that relationship that need understanding by a leader to create success. In fact, she says it's possible to identify and analyze the seemingly mysterious ingredients that go into the makings of a relationship. And, given the right tools, it's possible to understand what happens when a relationship forms, and then to actually anticipate what might happen next . That anticipation is critical, claims Smith. Smith also shows read...

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

70 Simple Rules For Sensational Service

Flavio Martins ' book, Win The Customer , teaches you 70 simple rules for sensational service . "These can be used as a top-down resource in organizations looking to develop or enhance a service culture," explains Martins. "They can also be used as a resource for individuals who want to transform the way service is handled from the ground up, even when lacking the full commitment and support from organization-wide training and change efforts." To deliver sensational customer service, you need to have the right culture . Martin says that the right culture: Inspires -- Culture isn't a mission statement; it's a statement of action. Fosters -- When united in a common goal, people contribute to an environment where everybody willingly comes to work each day and pours their best efforts into doing what they believe will make the greatest difference. Transforms -- When working toward a higher purpose, the right culture has a real, positive effect...

How To Design A Purposeful Organization

"The challenge for the organizational architect is to systematically create the blueprint for an organization that consciously connects everything to purpose ," explains author Clive Wilson , in his book, Designing the Purposeful Organization . "The product of doing this are measurable results and, importantly, a felt sense of success." Wilson's book is packed with case studies and activities that help you put to practice in your organization the learnings from the book. Clive Wilson One of the activities that I found most interesting and revealing is Wilson's " Where Did They All Go and Why? " Think of the household names of just a decade or so ago that are no longer with us, write their names on a sheet of paper, then make brief notes on what happened to them and why. Then, ask yourself, to what extent was it to do with their purpose (e.g. a lack of purpose, an unclear purpose, an uninspiring purpose or purpose being so...

How To Manage Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid meetings are becoming the new norm. Making hybrid meetings work well requires planning, preparation and know-how – skillsets that are different from managing traditional face-to-face meetings. Fortunately, the new book, Suddenly Hybrid: Managing The Modern Meeting , supplies leaders a practical guidebook that clearly outlines what works and what does not work when planning and managing hybrid meetings. “We encourage you to not read the book passively but rather to actively engage with it by using its tools to assess yourself and your organization,” share the authors Karin M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen, PHD . Those tools include checklists and chapter takeaways . Hybrid meetings, the new norm for many companies, are much more complex in terms of how people are connected versus the traditional face-to-face meeting. Hybrid meetings are where some people are in the same room, and some are linked in remotely. Some are face-to-face while others are connected via ...

Leadership Lessons From Abraham Lincoln

Did Abraham Lincoln really say, " Get out of the office and circulate among the troops ," back in 1861? He did. But, not in those exact words. What he said, according to author Donald T. Phillips , is this: "His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with." Lincoln made this statement when describing his reason for relieving Gen. John C. Fremont from his command in Missouri (September 9, 1861). Phillips writes that for Lincoln, casual contact with his subordinates was as important as formal gatherings, if not more so. Phillips, includes many more leadership lessons from Lincoln in his fascinating book, Lincoln on Leadership , where Phillips presents 15 of Lincoln's leadership statements in today's vernacular . Another leadership lesson from Lincoln is to: Influence people through conversation and storytelling Phi...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

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