Great teammates are always willing to learn. They are curious about how others do things so they can learn new methods and paths to success. The willingness to learn or the ability to be curious requires just enough humility to not require every idea to originate from myself. The path to success is most often found outside
People often mistake favor for influence. Leaders do this all the time when they think too much about how a decision will affect their popularity. If a leader has a track record for making solid decisions, they probably have the influence to lead people through the impact of a tough decision. Will people like it? Probably not
People often confuse respect for popularity. This is especially true of leaders. Great leaders understand that people can respect someone without liking them or agreeing with them. This creates a sense of freedom to lead a team where it needs to go without taking a poll of what the team wants to do. Polls are often taken
We always find reasons to exclude people because some of the darkest parts of human nature seek to define us versus them. This allows us to create a sense of safety by closing the acceptable circle of people we trust. This is ordinary and not great because small circles of trust never lead to greatness. Teams that
In person, one-on-one meetings are important for personal follow up discussion about the topics in the feedback loop. Larger group meetings are important because they allow everyone to hear the same thing at the same time. Everyone also gets to look around the room and be reminded of who is on the team. In a day where
Leaders should never underestimate the value of a face-to-face interaction. I would normally say that physical presence is essential, but after Covid-19 I have learned that while physical presence is ideal, it’s not essential. Teams need an opportunity to talk about the topics addressed in the weekly feedback loop. While emails and other communication can deliver information,
Many people say they like teamwork but they don’t really like to trust people. Too often trust is withheld until there is a reason to trust and that game of purity tests just results in lost time for the team to actually get to work together. People who withhold trust until “___________ happens” may just be holding
Teams should grow together in their efforts or they limit their potential and collaboration. Collaboration requires that we work with someone else though it’s not always natural for people to share their ideas with others. When we know each other, it becomes easier to share because we develop trust but when we don’t know something, we tend
One of the lessons that I learned from firsthand experience is that compensation is one of the most powerful ways to communicate value. People who we value should be compensated in a way that accurately communicates how much we value them. When you pay someone the market rate for their services, that can seem fair. If that
Since we all have insecure moments, we must also have triggers that cause them. Insecurity is usually wrapped up in a perceived threat to our image. When does our image become the most important to us? If we can identify those moments, we can know when we are most vulnerable to entering into an insecure state. I