Creating a high performing team is part art and part science. First, you must combine the right mix of skills, knowledge, abilities, experience, and personalities. Then, you must ensure they’re all moving toward the same goal and motivated by the same vision. When one person struggles, it can drain the energy of the whole team and create a distraction that impacts performance. One of the most difficult issues to overcome is when one team member lacks self-awareness. In a team environment, when one person is unaware of the impact their have on the organization or their colleagues, correcting the issue … Read More
One Activity Managers Should Never Overlook
In pursuit of efficiency and energy preservation, managers are often in search of ways to do more with less. Working smarter, not harder is a universal goal, but the execution of that goal often involves cutting corners. While there’s a very necessary time and place for saying “no” to requests, there’s one activity that should never become a low priority. Onboarding new employees can be exhausting. From the complex tasks such as explaining layered strategies to time-consuming needs like giving access to key resources, it can be tempting to cut corners or delegate responsibility. However, the investment in time spent … Read More
8 Tips for Effective Meetings
In a culture where busyness has unfortunately become an indicator of importance, boasting about a completely packed calendar has become fashionable. Leaders run from one meeting to the next with barely enough time to grab coffee, let alone reflect and absorb any information from the last meeting. Then, once the day is done, they spend their evenings catching up on their “real” work and sacrifice any hope of work-life balance. It can be difficult to disrupt a corporate culture that relies on long meetings to communicate and collaborate, but the disruption is absolutely essential. Leaders should abandon the madness within … Read More
Strategic Networking and Relational Leadership
For highly skilled sales people, networking and identifying strategic relationships often come easily. These individuals tend to gain energy by meeting new people, create meaningful connections with ease, and quickly assess evidence of that person’s value within the network. This is part skill, part experience, and part art. But networking and building relationships is not a skill reserved for sales people. In fact, most models of High Potential include some combination of emotional intelligence and the ability to identify, develop, and leverage meaningful relationships. At the leadership level, exerting influence in the absence of formal power often comes down to … Read More
Thank You Note Controversy: Lessons Learned
Last week, Jessica Liebman (managing editor of Insider, Inc) wrote a controversial article on Business Insider declaring that the number one mistake an employment candidate makes during the selection process is failing to send a thank you note after the interview. She even went so far as to say, “As a hiring manager, you should always expect a thank-you email, and you should never make an offer to someone who neglected to send one.” She backed this claim by highlighting the hundreds of people she has hired over the last 10 years. Unsurprisingly, readers responded strongly to her arbitrary standard … Read More
Everyone Needs a Work Spouse
While many companies discourage romantic office relationships and have policies that prevent family members working together, there’s one form of employee relationship that delivers tangible benefits to the organization. The concept of a “work spouse” is becoming more common and less taboo. It’s important to establish exactly what a “work spouse” is and what it isn’t. A work spouse is one coworker with whom you connect on a deep level. You may have experienced an immediate connection with them or share similar interests/perspectives. The relationship is likely very low maintenance in that there are rarely disagreements and there are low … Read More