The Science Of Dream Teams

Why do some teams succeed while others stumble? Because hiring, developing and engaging talent requires careful decisions that are too easy to get wrong without data. In The Science of Dream Teams: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness, author Mike Zani introduces the science of “talent optimization,” a new discipline that’s a far more reliable way to manage your employees than your gut instincts.

“Proper talent optimization lifts morale, builds teams, and turbocharges productivity,” explains Zani.

With simple steps, Zani (a former US Olympic sailing team coach) shows how companies of any size can collect and analyze voluntary data about their employees to purposefully align a company’s business and talent strategies.

The book explores how CEOs and management teams can collect and use data to:

Build effective teams of highly sought-after professionals while optimizing costs.
Create a company culture based on coaching versus dictating.
React and adapt to unpredictable or unprecedented crises.
Prepare their company and their team for the future of work.
Teach company leaders the key to developing strategies that bring long-term success.

Within organizations, Zani shares that there are four types of employees:

Explorers – those in the Innovation and Agility quadrant; outgoing and risk-taking.

Producers – those in the Results and Discipline quadrant; focused on beating the competition and generating new ideas.

Cultivators – those in the Teamwork and Employee Experience quadrant; collaborative, inward focused and focused on nurturing community.

Stabilizers – those in the Process and Precision quadrant; detail people, most comfortable with a steady, reliable, clear hierarchy environment.

Optimizing the talent from each of those quadrants is critical to your organization’s success.

However, Zani explains that as a leader of any enterprise the first step in talent optimization and management is to confront questions about yourself. Knowing how others see you is vital. You will need to discover your blind spots and your corrosive habits. So, the first key to building a self-aware organization is to bring leadership’s self-image into alignment with perception. Zani also shares that it’s okay and actually powerful to show a degree of vulnerability as you build your self-awareness. Because a degree of vulnerability bolsters power in that it communicates that everyone, from the bottom to the top of the company, is accountable.

Finally, Zani explains this valuable insight – a company is like an intelligent machine. It comes up with answers. It solves problems. It innovates. And, its collective strength is that each person knows and sees things that others miss.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

Top Five Factors That Drive Employee Loyalty

A 2010 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that job security is what matters most to employees. And, having that job security helps to keep employees loyal. Okay, that's really not too surprising during these times of high unemployment. Next on the list is benefits . The unstable economy, coupled with rising health care costs, make employer offered benefits more important than ever. Third on the top five list is an employee's opportunity to use his/her skills . When employees feel good about their jobs and their abilities, and clearly know they are contributing to their organization they remain engaged and loyal. In fourth place is an organization's financial stability . Compensation came in fifth on the top five list. Employee pay often is not the most important driver for employee retention. Despite study after study that shows pay is not the top reason employees stay with a company, research results like these often surpris...

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you. Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Use A Board Of Advisors

David Burkus often provides valuable comments to my various Blog postings, and he's a person who effectively uses a board of advisors, instead of mentors, to help him achieve success. "I've found that in my life, it was easier and more effective to set up a board of advisors," said Burkus, the editor of LeaderLab . "This is a group of people, three to five, that have rotated into my life at various times and that speak into it and help me grow. I benefit from the variety of experience these people have." LeaderLab is an online community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. Its contributors include consultants and professors who present leadership theory in a practitioner-friendly format that provides easy-to-follow explanations on how to apply the best of leadership theory. Community users can download a variety of research reports and presentations about leadership and leadership versus management. For example, a pr...

Reach Communications & Leadership Expert David Grossman Via His New App

If you haven't engaged with David Grossman's website, Blog and incredibly useful eBooks, make a point of checking them all out at his website for The Grossman Group. David just launched his new App, called " Ask David ." Via the App, David promises to bring his communications industry expert advice and wisdom right to your fingertips. Topics covered include: Employee engagement Internal communications Change management Leadership effectiveness Crisis messaging Diversity and inclusion

Great Business Quote

Here's a great quote from author and speaker Harvey Mackay : "When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience ends up with the money, and the person with the money ends up with the experience."

Do You Really Need To Read Leadership Books?

The answer is yes. And, fortunately, there are lots out there to select from. However, if you don't have time to read books about how to be an effective and good leader, you can select a few words from the list below and then practice what those words mean, as you lead your team every day. Leaders on the LinkedIn Executive Suite group came up with these nearly 50 words in answer to a discussion topic I posted in the group forum: " A Good Leader Is [insert one word]." A big thank you to that group for this valuable list. Accountable Adaptable Approachable Authentic Aware Bold Brave Candid Caring Clear Challenging Charismatic Compassionate Courageous Credible Decisive Dedicated Ethical Empowering Engaged Fearless Forward-Thinking Gracious Honest Humble Inclusive Influential Inspiring Intuitive Loyal Mindful Moral Motivating Objective Open Passionate Pro-active Receptive Responsible Respectful Skilled S...

How To Avoid 8 Common Performance Evaluation Pitfalls

As the year comes to a close it's likely time for many business leaders to tackle the annual performance appraisal process. So, here is a good reminder from author Sharon Armstrong about how to avoid eight performance evaluation pitfalls . These are in what I consider is the best chapter of the book The Essential HR Handbook , that she co-authored with Barbara Mitchell. 1. Clustering everyone in the middle performance-rating categories 2. Overlooking flaws or exaggerating the achievements of favored employees 3. Excusing substandard performance or behavior because it is widespread 4. Letting one characteristic - positive or negative - affect your overall assessment 5. Rating someone based on the company he or she keeps 6. Rating someone based on a grudge you are holding 7. Rating someone based on a short time period instead of the entire evaluation period 8. Rating everyone high, to make you look good There's ot...

Give Positive Feedback. Don't Praise.

There is an important difference between giving your employees positive feedback and giving them praise . Positive feedback focuses on the specifics of job performance. Praise, often one-or two-sentence statements, such as “Keep up the good work,” without positive feedback leaves employees with empty feelings. Worse yet, without positive feedback, employees feel no sense that they are appreciated as individual talents with specific desires to learn and grow on the job and in their careers, reports Nicholas Nigro, author of, The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book . So, skip the praise and give positive feedback that is more uplifting to your employees because it goes to the heart of their job performance and what they actually do. An example of positive feedback is : “Bob, your communications skills have dramatically improved over the past couple of months. The report that you just prepared for me was thorough and concise. I appreciate all the work you’ve put into it, as...

"Great Places To Work" Employee Perks

StLouis magazine is featuring in its January issue 60 companies that they deemed "great places to work". Helping those companies to earn that honor are the perks they give their employees, some of which you might want to consider for 2011. Here's a sampling of the perks that cover the vast range offered by the 60 companies: ARCO Construction Company -- Paid sabbaticals after every five years with the company Armstrong Teasdale -- Women's career-coaching program Bryan Cave -- Backup day-care/elder-care services Build-A-Bear Workshop -- Health Insurance for part-time employees Boeing -- Continuing education tuition support Centene Corporation -- Dry-cleaning pick-up/delivery; on-site car washes and oil changes HOK -- Paid paternity leave LarsonAllen -- Development coaches for employees Maritz -- Health fair Monsanto -- Lactation rooms Nestle Purina PetCare Company -- On-site tailor Ralcorp Holdings -- New jobs listed internally first Scottrad...

The Science Behind Getting Ahead At Work

Michelle P. King’s new book, How Work Works , is composed of ten years of her research examining corporate culture, which includes a review of more than three thousand academic journal articles, seventy-two original interviews with executives from two different organizations (in England and Australia), two surveys with over three thousand participants and much more. In other words, King knows what it takes to advance at work, and more importantly, how we derive fulfillment from what we do and contribute beyond a job description. How Work Works is a unique and revelatory guide to understanding and navigating the unwritten rules of the workplace—the key to achieving success, finding meaning, and staying true to your authentic self in today’s business world. Through all King’s research she discovered to get ahead in the business world, the most successful individuals do not rely on the often generic and outdated written formal rules that for a century have ...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog