Posts with the ‘Teams’ tag
What does good look like? That is what many companies do a poor job of defining when it comes to their core values. What follows is one company’s core value of Excellence. I was fortunate enough to help them develop all four of their core values: Excellence, Integrity, Teamwork and Service. The team that developed […]
“I met the standards. What is the problem?” There are likely two problems here. Problem #1 is the attitude. Problem #2 is the standards themselves. I have either caused or witnessed both of these problems. Some people believe the first problem is with the follower and the second problem is with the leader. This is […]
My team didn’t trust me. It was my first leadership role outside the Army. I had been in charge of this team of 10 sales representatives for almost 6 months. I believed I was trustworthy, but the truth was a hard pill to swallow. I thought just being a good guy would make my people […]
Busy. Overwhelmed. Strapped for time. Barely keeping up. I have felt that way as a team leader. Those feelings seem to be more common than ever for leaders. Most leaders feel pushed to the limit, yet they all want to focus on building stronger teams. It is the tyranny of the urgent…the urgent day to […]
Most corporations claim to have core values. Most of the values that organizations claim are lousy. They stink. They have no meaning! Integrity – Lousy. Teamwork – Lousy. Service – Lousy. What does integrity mean? What does teamwork mean? What does service mean? A corporate value like integrity doesn’t work. It is just another word […]
For a leader, inertia is both a friend and a foe. In 1687, Isaac Newton published his famous theory on inertia. Summarized it simply states, “A body at rest tends to stay at rest while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.” For a leader, understanding the theory of inertia is critical to […]
I had no doubt they were wrong. After over an hour of discussing our marketing plan, the leadership team decided to adopt a strategy I had argued against. I truly believed there were better ideas on the table. At dinner that night with two of my peers, we revisited the decision. Bob was against the […]
On multiple occasions during my 20 year career with a Fortune 50 behemoth, I lobbied to change the job titles of the leaders in our sales force. We were all called Managers. I thought our titles should be Leader not Manager. But, no matter my title, I always believed I was leading. Now in the […]
My baby boy did not begin walking on his first try. He took a step and fell. He pulled himself up and tried again, and he fell. He repeated this over and over until he successfully navigated the family room. There was no fear in him then, just determination. Now he runs sprints at practice […]
If everything is a priority then nothing is. I sat in hundreds of meetings in the twenty years I spent in the corporate world where we discussed our need to focus. The irony is we developed new areas for focus at each meeting, but we never eliminated a thing from our to do list. We […]
