Dear Madeleine, I am a senior executive with a lot of experience who is on the leadership team of my organization. I have a problem I’ve never had before, which has been developing over the last year. Since we got a new CEO (my new boss), there has been a lot of turnover on the…
Dear Madeleine, I spent a decade of my career at a very sexy, high profile tech company and rose to a senior position. I worked 24/7 and my commute was a horror show. When my kids were little, my husband was traveling a lot for his job, and things started fraying around the edges, I…
High performing teams are a joy to watch, aren’t they? Team members are committed to the team’s purpose, each other, and work seamlessly together to achieve the team’s goal. Each person knows his or her role, is highly motivated, and will willingly sacrifice their moment in the spotlight if it helps the team win. Why?…
In a new article for Training magazine, Jim Diehl and I share the results of a 1,300-person study of teams in today’s work environment. The survey results reveal there’s much work to be done: only 27 percent of respondents said their teams perform at top levels a majority of the time. Millennials scored their team…
Most coaches work one on one with clients, but at times coaches are also hired to facilitate team performance when people come together to accomplish shared goals, make decisions, or learn new skills. Having a coach who is pulling for the good of not only the team but also each team member can help keep…
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast Chad Gordon interviews Patrick Lencioni, author of The Ideal Team Player as well as nine other books on teams and motivation—which have sold nearly five million copies! Lencioni describes leadership as a calling that requires putting the needs of others ahead of your own. That begins with identifying people with the right…
In this latest installment of the Blanchard LeaderChat Podcast Chad Gordon interviews Jon Gordon, author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus. Jon’s other books include Soup, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, and The Carpenter. Jon discusses how leaders can combat negativity at work through vision, purpose, and optimism. He explains how positive organizations…
This guest post is by Lynn McCreery. Managers sometimes have difficulty focusing on both people and results. They want associates to feel excited about their work, but also need them to perform. Many managers feel they have to choose—and most choose results, focusing on people only when improvement is needed. If organizations want to create…
I recently watched a UK talk show where Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were guests. Howard, director of many of Hanks’s most successful films, was asked what he liked about working with Hanks. His response was that he appreciated two qualities in Hanks—confidence and creativity. This got me thinking. What makes us want to work…
As strange as it may seem, a virtual workplace team can learn a lot from online competitive video games. For both, team members have set roles, clear and shared goals, and a designated action plan to achieve those goals. And also for both, communication is absolutely paramount. One such game that is wildly popular is…