Our Actions Have to Answer These Questions!

When we’re intentional about delegation and openness, especially in a way that truly develops the strengths of each team member we lead, we’re well on our way to providing them with the answers they’re already asking to three very important questions. Without answering these...

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Sweet Emotion? No, Managing Emotions!

We couldn’t argue the impact communication has as a team leadership skill if we really wanted to, but we’d need to be OK with being wrong! Since everyone I know who takes their leadership responsibilities serious doesn’t have time for such stuff, let’s push forward to what...

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Team Leadership Skills

To this point, we’ve dug into HOW teamwork really can make the dream work in our organizations and we looked at a few core competencies we’ll need to develop for effective team leadership. Now it’s time we really hash out exactly what skills we need to apply on a daily basis if...

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Life, Liberty, and Equal Treatment?

Before we turn the corner and begin working through some skills we can each hone to lead our teams more effectively, and in turn yield higher engagement and stronger profit margins, let’s circle back to where I left off last time after my time on the ole soap box about being countable...

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Are You “Countable”?

In The 17 Indispensable Laws of Teamwork, John Maxwell coined the idea of “countability” in chapter 9. He explains the Law of Countability by saying that “Teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts!” And if we ever want to be known as a bridge builder,...

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1,000 Bridges…

I closed last time with a less than stellar example of how influence, good or bad, can impact the overall direction of a team. And in that particular scenario I detailed, the person who had the influence and did more than his share of steering the ship carried no positional authority at all. If...

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Good or Bad, Teams Rally Around This…

If we were having this conversation face to face, I’m guessing you’d reply to what I shared last time by saying something like, “Alright Wes, if everything really does rise and fall on leadership, but you’re telling me it requires more than the carrot and stick status-quo,...

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Everything Rises and Falls On…

OK, so maybe teamwork can make the dream work with regards to helping drive profitability in our organizations… And maybe employee engagement and teamwork are directly correlated with one another… But how do these fairly fluffy ideas become reality and who’s responsible for...

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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work… But How?

A few years back, I did a series of lessons in our Leading At The Next Level program combining some things that stuck out to me when I re-read John Maxwell’s book, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, with several experiences I had lived through in my own career since reading it for the...

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Accountability; the “Something Extra”…

If we want the kind of accountability we’ve been looking at to this point to have a cascading effect throughout our organizations, and to completely avoid being part of the current social status-quo of unaccountability, leading by example and holding our teams to high (but attainable)...

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Focused on We, Not Just Me…

I closed last time by referencing one of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever heard from John Maxwell, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” I remember sharing that quote with the manager I reported to several years ago when he complained about an issue in the facility we...

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Personal Accountability Doesn't Equal Team Accountability!

Let’s think back to something that was part of what I shared last time from Lack of Accountability in the Workplace is Expensive, Fix It, “As a leader, it’s your job to create an environment in which everyone should come to work every single day and do what they do best.”

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