Technology continues to rapidly change the skills we need in the workplace to be successful. Coming applications of Artificial Intelligence is just going to speed that up. There is no way that your team or organization will meet its mission goals in the future if you do not have “learning” as a key part of your culture. A recent Harvard Business Review article* suggests … [Read more...] about Building a Learning Culture
Teamwork
Why CEOs Fail
Why does any leader fail? One could probably write many books on this, but research done by two top executive coaches and published in the book, Why CEOs Fail, identifies eleven different possible behavioral “derailers” that could sidetrack any of us. These are possible “traps” we could fall into – often because we use a “winning” behavior to an extreme. Check these out … [Read more...] about Why CEOs Fail
How Open-Minded Are You?
It was an honest and innocent enough sounding question. “Rob, do most people find themselves changing their minds during this exercise?” said Ron, “Should I be open-minded or stick to my guns!?!” This was during a teamwork simulation I was facilitating for our Beijing-based Executive MBA staff a couple of weeks ago while I was visiting them. It is one of those … [Read more...] about How Open-Minded Are You?
Managing “C” Players
You’d like to ignore them or just resign yourself to the idea that there is nothing much you can do, but one of your important responsibilities as a leader/manager is to address the “C” players you have on your team. If you don’t, you risk alienating your “A” players who want to be on a high performing team and tempting your “B” players to underperform. A recent article in … [Read more...] about Managing “C” Players
Healthy Team Debates
We know that “constructive conflict” is an important part of effective team decision making. If individuals within a team do not feel comfortable proposing alternative ideas to one another then the first idea suggested might be approved or, maybe worse, whatever idea the boss suggests will be adopted. Many authors, including Patrick Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), … [Read more...] about Healthy Team Debates