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Leading and Building Teams
What Customer Complaints May Really Mean
Customers complain. It’s a fact of business life. Sometimes they have a valid complaint, but often they’re just cranky, having a bad day, or upset because they can’t find what they’re looking for. Whatever has set them off, they are likely to take it out on an employee. But if… Read More »What Customer Complaints May Really Mean
Clothes Don’t Make the Team
“Bring your team together with these team shirts.” The commercial showed groups of happy, smiling people, all wearing the same shirts with the company logo. The narrator explained that teams would be more productive when they wore the same clothes because they would feel more like a real team. Nice… Read More »Clothes Don’t Make the Team
What Does it Mean to be a Success?
Does someone who has a healthy bank account seem like they are successful? Perhaps you see famous people or someone who has made it to the top of their profession as successful. How do you define success? That might seem to be an easy question to answer at first. But… Read More »What Does it Mean to be a Success?
Is Your Team Headed Out to Sea?
The beach was getting farther and farther away. My arms were starting to hurt, but no matter how hard I swam, the beach continued to get smaller and smaller. I realized I was headed out to sea and panic was beginning to build. There’s a phenomenon in the ocean called… Read More »Is Your Team Headed Out to Sea?
Introvert and Extrovert: Labels, Not Capabilities
Introvert or extrovert. Most psychological tests apply this label and in popular definitions, extroverts are seen as outgoing, fun-loving, and gregarious. Introverts are seen as inward-focused, quiet, and maybe even standoffish. The Daedalus Group uses the My HardWiredâ„¢ Leadership Styles Assessment and like most such instruments, it identifies introversion and… Read More »Introvert and Extrovert: Labels, Not Capabilities
Shhh…It’s a Secret
Do you keep information from your team? How much should you share with them? It’s a topic that always generates lively discussion in our workshops. Many leaders lean toward sharing minimal information; or at least sanitized information. I’ve always appreciated bosses who will tell me what’s going on. I remember… Read More »Shhh…It’s a Secret
Responsibility and Accountability: They’re the Same, Just Different
If you look up the definitions of responsibility and accountability you’ll find they are used interchangeably. But there is a subtle yet important difference between the two words. A good way to separate them is to consider responsibility as ownership of a task, and accountability as ownership of the results.… Read More »Responsibility and Accountability: They’re the Same, Just Different
A Word to the Recent Graduate’s New Leaders
Most of the graduation ceremonies and celebrations are over now. Young people, and some not so young, have rightly celebrated great achievements and are now looking forward to the start of the next phase of their lives. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of speakers have taken to stages around the nation to… Read More »A Word to the Recent Graduate’s New Leaders
A Difficult Subject
In a recent leadership workshop, we had deep discussion about diversity. Participants were looking for answers to an issue leaders face that seems to have no good answer. The conversation centered on two questions: how should a leader view diversity and why does this seem to be such an explosive… Read More »A Difficult Subject