Tag: collaboration
These Are Tried and Tested Ways to Make Better Team Decisions
When leaders make decisions skillfully, everyone on the team wins. But when leaders are poor decision-makers, the team’s performance and culture suffer, and individual team members can lose confidence and become disengaged. Unfortunately, though, team... Continue reading
Some Direct Advice on How to Make an Effective Case to Senior Leaders
I just heard from a middle manager who vented about her senior leaders’ lack of response after she made them aware of certain problems. She wondered if there were better ways to explain challenging circumstances... Continue reading
How to Screen Out a Star to Save the Team
In the Harvard Business Review article “How Facebook Tries to Prevent Office Politics,” Jay Parikh, Facebook’s global head of engineering and infrastructure, advises against hiring “empire builders, self-servers, and whiners” -- even if they’re also... Continue reading
Why You Need to Communicate Decisions Clearly and How You Can
In business, as in politics, I’ve watched many decision-makers accept simplistic solutions, seduced by promises that, based on either evidence or logic, aren't at all likely to turn out nearly as well as they sound.... Continue reading
When Being Strategic Is a Weakness
During a recent visit to a client company, I spent time with two different leaders whose initiatives weren’t progressing satisfactorily. The first leader was chatty and made sweeping motivational statements. Her team was deeply committed,... Continue reading
Leading from the Middle of an Indifferent Leadership Team
A newly hired VP called me the other day, expressing frustration with her indecisive and apathetic colleagues. My unspoken response was: “They’re not even strong enough to be a Team of Rivals.” When a leadership... Continue reading
The Surprising Truth about Consensus
Consensus sounds so nice: Everyone agrees and moves forward together. Kumbaya! Seems like a good thing, right? But here’s how one client described the way his company practices consensus (with my italics): “We have to... Continue reading
It’s Not Easy for Leaders to Be Successful Bringing in New Team Members
Bringing a new person on to the team almost always takes more work than expected. No matter how senior your team is, it can take significant effort to get the new person integrated with the... Continue reading