Why would you want to optimize your collaboration with other divisions, functions, or companies?
Because it will feel good, reduce your workload, and give you leverage for the future!
Feel Good
For most of us, working with others, getting inspiration, being appropriately challenged, and having fun makes a big difference. How could you do all this alone? – Collaborating can be challenging at times, but in productive relationships, the reward is much higher than what you are putting into… Read the full article >
5 Questions to Turn Around Your Executive Team, Today
Whether it is a pharma company, a software company, or any other kind of company trying to get ahead of the competition, teams get off course. It happens. Even with good people and the best intentions.
Based on helping dozens of teams in dozens of countries, these 5 questions will give you everything you need to know to transform your team and start moving towards a team of distinction.
1. What is… Read the full article >
Should you organize your sales approach by putting client before product? Of course!
As I’m typing this blog at a Princeton coffee shop, I’m with a friend named Sean who is trying to regain his footing. The startup he was involved with recently crashed. He says he could have used my consulting services, which he thinks this would have prevented his failure. But could consulting have saved Sean?
Sean is a talented technology expert and innovator. He worked for successful… Read the full article >
Everybody wants to be on a high-profile team. Should you?
Why you should:
• It gives you exposure. People will recognize you as a “can-do” person.
• You’ll be around ambitious and smart people, and you can learn from them.
• Helps create a strong network for your future.
• High velocity and high expectations are invigorating.
Why not to:
• It’s risky. What if the project fails? Will… Read the full article >
Executive leadership is not as simple as doing what you did in the last job. If it was simple, I wouldn’t see so many people over the past 15 years who were promoted to CEO and suddenly can’t perform. I have come to the conclusion that success at these top levels is very personal. Let me explain.
When you reach the highest levels of any organization, you’re there because you are smart and capable and… Read the full article >
Many leaders are seeing things that aren’t there. Many teams are teams in name only, and their executives are under illusions which prevent them from acting in sync, as one, to win.
Team Illusion #1: Team performance is cumulative.
I have had the same surprising conversation repeatedly through the years with executives.
I ask, “Do you have a high-performing team?” The executive says, “Yes.” I reply, “How do you know?” They invariably say, “Well, I have… Read the full article >
Functional teams – or those with mediocre leaders – are generally focused on performing a set of carefully proscribed functions and getting compensated for doing so. Teams of distinction are those that are energized to move forward by aspirational goals and have a determination to prevail over all expectations. How can a team make the leap from the former to latter?
Ask your team this one question:
“What one thing can we do, that if… Read the full article >
Teams of distinction dedicate time for hygiene. Hygiene literally means practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease. This applies to teams just as it does to people.
Without regular time set aside for the team to work through issues, the team gets toxic. The issues and problems build up. The team energy turns negative. And the team gets derailed.
Teams must schedule in time regularly to hash out the differences, and plan for success. Here are my recommendation for good team hygiene and staying in top team shape:
Daily: Appreciate. People are great at finding problems but its… Read the full article >
Moving past dysfunction to function is one thing. But to move from a functional team to a team of distinction is another. The Team Diagnostic is a great place to start in either scenario. It gives the leadership of a team key insights into how to raise the team’s results. By looking into the level of collaboration, coordination, and commitment, you can understand what levers to pull to move the team to the next level.
Our clients leverage a Team Diagnostic when:
* Launching a new high-stakes initiative that will require high levels of commitment across the… Read the full article >
The Lumina Team profile shows exactly where you fit in your team and the team profile of traits. It is perfect as its own workshop or as part of a team breakthrough session.
In a snapshot you can see the distribution of personality preferences. You can see at a glance the strong traits and characteristics within a group as well as potential blind spots. Patterns start to emerge, revealing both potential strengths and development opportunities within the team. At an individual level, you can then see where and how you fit in the team.
Lumina is the next step… Read the full article >
