Articles on 360 Degree Assesssment, Culture/Team Alignment, Featured Articles
Go to All ArticlesSkin in the Game – What’s in it for Me in the Workplace
Who’s skin is in your game–really? In any event of life we are spectators, watching the outcome with little to lose, or we have a great deal personally on the line–we have skin in the game.
Creating False Expectations
Has anyone ever created a great expectation for you–then totally blown up your hope? Was this a person who had the resources to do something life-changing for you? Did they systematically lead you to believe they’d do what they promised–but never came through? Then they gave no explanation whatsoever for why–nor expressed any regret. This happened to Benjamin Franklin, 18th century American Founding Father, inventor, and diplomat. Franklin as a young man formed a friendship with the Governor William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania, who took[…]
Handling the Loose Cannon
Have you ever dealt with a “Loose Cannon?” He or she can be one of the most dangerous threats to your career. Simply defined, the Loose Cannon on your team is the person who is apt to do anything or say anything that causes devastating and immediate damage to your team. Their blasts don’t come from behind enemy lines–they fire at point blank from within, right at you and your team. Often the Loose Canon doesn’t give you a hint of what they are capable[…]
Building Teams on Transparency
Getting teams right is critical to organizational success. Nothing is more important. I recently sat down to talk with Matty Wishnow, founder of Clearhead, headquartered in Austin, Texas to talk about Matty’s model of team success. Clearhead began with less than a million dollars in annual revenues and sold to Accenture, a large International consulting firm. Matty has developed an effective team model for 21st Century organizations. Getting teams right is not only not easy, getting teams wrong has sunk many organizations with large burdensome employee headcounts and ambiguous[…]
WHO GETS UNDER YOUR SKIN?
How do you create a workplace where people don’t get under your skin? It’s really interesting to research the reasons people creep each other out at work. Complaints generally range from messy desks, condescending manners, goody two shoes suck ups, employees who don’t care, and many more. The ways we get under each others’ skins are endless. Sometimes we just can’t deal with a person we work with because they’re untruthful, deceptive, and conniving to their very cores. I have only dealt with a handful[…]
A Band Together -Who Do You Want on Your Team?
Who do you want on your team? There is no more fundamental question. That’s the question the NFL, the military, business, and every group asks that wants to get something done. This question–who do you want on your team–tops business fundamentals like sales and revenue. With the right team, every problem can be solved except those like hurricanes and tornados. Even well -funded organizations with everything going for them fail because of dysfunctional teams. Putting together a great team with effective team members often seems[…]
Escaping the World of the Chronically Unemployed
Few people navigate the world of employment today without at some point finding themselves jobless. Companies fold, they’re acquired, reorged, and downsized. Sometimes you find yourself over your head in a project or on the wrong side of politics–bottom line is you’re out. People get fired—it’s what happens.
Do Your Meetings Drive You Forward – or Dog-gone Crazy?
I really don’t even hate to admit it–most meetings I attend, I wish I were somewhere else. I’m the guy you’ll find looking at my phone, staring at the clock, emailing people about a pending project. Meetings can be invaluable in driving the progress of an organization, but mostly they just drive you crazy. People are fond of saying that meetings are pointless, and that’s just not true–there’s a point to the meeting or nobody would be there. The point of the meeting is often[…]
Decision Making – Sound or Scary?
Decision Making Skills–Your Most Important Tool One of the most important skills you’ll ever possess is your ability to make good decisions. Decision making is something we all struggle with– yet it makes us or breaks us. How do you feel about your decision making process? Can you make a decision–business or personal–and be happy with it? Can you move on quickly and not look back? Decisions Then and Now–How Decision-making has Changed As a child decisions were easier–they were based on a few fundamentals: […]
Getting on the Same Page – The Power of Team Alignment
I think all of us have felt like the Aflac Duck, quacking our bills off about something really important–if only we could get someone to listen. A great example of a voice that people didn’t listen to was W. Edwards Deming, inventor of process improvement, rejected in the U.S. that catapulted Japan to dominance in the auto industry. Several years ago Carol Kallendorf, PhD and I created a system of alignment that is the key component in organizational success. In those years executives often told us they[…]
