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Leading and Building Teams

That cold shoulder just might be feedback…Are you listening?

Your teenage daughter walks in to the house after school looking sullen and without her characteristic after school greeting. You ask, “How was school?”  “Fine” is the answer. But a few seconds later the slam of a bedroom door indicates to you that everything, indeed, is not fine.  The silent treatment continues into dinner despite your efforts to find out what the problem is. Thank goodness at work you get to deal with mature adults where nothing like this ever happens, right? Right.

You’ve noticed that Bill, one of your team members, isn’t his usual self. In fact, it seems like he is being downright rude. He’s doing the work, mostly, but he’s not being as punctual and you are finding more than the usual number of errors in his stuff. He also has been kind of sarcastic in meetings. Not to the point of open insubordination, but still, it’s getting annoying. You finally ask, “Bill, everything OK?” “It’s fine.” Sound familiar?Read More »That cold shoulder just might be feedback…Are you listening?

How to Prevent a Team Disaster

January 13, 1982 was a cold day in Washington DC. The temperature hovered at 24 degrees and heavy snow was falling. At 4:00 PM, after waiting 1 hour and 45 minutes for Washington National Airport to reopen, Air Florida Flight 90 took off bound for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Boeing… Read More »How to Prevent a Team Disaster

The Glass is Always Full

You’ve probably heard the question before; is the glass half empty or half full? It’s the wrong question. It’s better to ask, what the glass is full of. Unless it’s in a vacuum, the glass, or any container, is always full of something. Even the glass that is filled halfway with liquid is still full. The rest of the volume is taken up with air, dust, and other things you can’t see and probably don’t want to think about. People are like that too.Read More »The Glass is Always Full

Leaders, Check Your Ego at the Door, Please

steve-cockpit180x“Lead, do you have the target in sight?” Those words coming over the radio from my deputy flight lead, the third aircraft in our four aircraft formation of F-16’s, caused immediate consternation in the lead aircraft, of which I happened to be the sole occupant. It took just a few seconds to realize I had made a navigation error; I had inadvertently selected a navigation point beyond our target. Correcting the problem revealed that I was indeed overflying our assigned target. Now, what to do about it?Read More »Leaders, Check Your Ego at the Door, Please

The Wright Way to Collaborate

In 1901, most people believed that man would never fly. Wilbur Wright, who had already begun investigations into heavier-than-air flight with his brother Orville, thought that the achievement could be as much as fifty years in the future. Yet, on December 17, 1903, just two years later, he and Orville… Read More »The Wright Way to Collaborate