Monthly Archives: August 2016

The Great Eight: Trust

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Bird on hand by Luca Venturi Oslo

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

As I write this post, there are 6,289 books on trust available under the Business and Money category on Amazon. What can we possibly add to all that wisdom? Maybe nothing. But please keep reading anyway.

Trust is foundational to great teams, and so far—even in those 6,289 books—no one has developed the magic, one-size-fits-all formula to create trust on a team. Every team is different, but the need for high trust in order to be a high-functioning team is a constant.Continue reading→

The Great Eight: Communication

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Hear Speak Say no Evil by Japanexperterna.se

(Today’s post is written by Rodger Price, owner of Leading by DESIGN, where I am a team member. It was originally shared on the LbD blog and is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Communication is truly one of the key characteristics of great teams. Effective communication is rarely identified as a strength in the teams I’ve had the privilege to observe over the past twenty years. In fact, when doing a cultural assessment, most of the teams I’ve worked with rank it as one of their top five weaknesses. I’ve also heard that it’s the number one reason marriages fall apart. (Not sure if that’s true, but I do recall hearing it from a marriage expert.)

Communication is a pretty simple idea: someone wants to (or should want to) send a message of some sort, and someone else wants to (or should want to) receive that message. It’s simple to understand—and really challenging to do.Continue reading→

The Great Eight: Commitment

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Baby Hand by Daddy-David

(Today’s post is written by Jeff Boersma and was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where Jeff and I are team members. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

In Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he lists five characteristics of a dysfunctional team. One of those five is the lack of commitment. When people have not had the opportunity to air their opinion or challenge others, they often do not have the buy-in necessary to move forward with the rest of the team. The important role of the leader in this—your important role—is to force clarity and closure. Let’s talk about how you can grow in this important leadership role of developing commitment.Continue reading→

The Great Eight: Common Goals

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Arrow by cogdogblog

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Imagine you are running a race. All the runners gather together, stretching muscles, bouncing on the balls of their feet to warm up, drinking a last few sips of water, popping in their earbuds. The loudspeaker fires up to give the final warning, the starting gun goes off, and all the runners take off.

But in this race, there is no marked course. The race officials believe that the course the runners should take is obvious. Why mark it? They emailed the course to the runners a few months ago. The runners all do their best, but as the race continues, different people turn off on different roads, each one sure they are following the correct course.

The race officials are baffled as few runners trickle into the finish line, some right away, some hours later, and a whole lot not at all. Didn’t the runners read that email outlining the course?

Continue reading→

The Great Eight: An Introduction

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Jazz Band by TheodoreWLee

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Throughout our year together in LEAD 365, we focused on three “buckets” of leadership—three areas that great leaders need to focus on:

  • Being a person worth following
  • Creating clarity around purpose/mission, vision, and values
  • Building a great team

In our building a great team sessions, we introduced you to a list of eight characteristics of great teams. Remember the details? No? The eight characteristics are what we believe the very best teams have, and what are necessary to build an amazing team. Here they are again to jog your memory:Continue reading→