I’ve learned so much from Mark and Mike at Manager Tools. This is one of the best distillations of a major leadership obstacle: When we lead, by virtue of our title or position in the organizational structure, we have built-in authority and power. This is Role Power. The problem is, if this is the only way … Read more
A colleague recently shared a success story with me. She said, “We’ve finally addressed the problem we had with people being ‘violently polite’. Once we put this label on the passive-aggressive talk, and the avoidance of speaking up, we started to get more engagement.” How cool! I immediately fell in love with this term. Asking people … Read more
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, the need for vulnerability-based trust is considered foundational for any team to be successful. When this trust is developed, we can have healthy conflict. Once healthy conflict occurs, even when there’s disagreement, team members are more likely to show commitment to group decisions. Then, because … Read more
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, the need for vulnerability-based trust is considered foundational for any team to be successful. When this trust is developed, we can have healthy conflict. Once healthy conflict occurs, even when there’s disagreement, team members are more likely to show commitment to group decisions. Then, because … Read more
Are individual team members slow to execute tasks which they may not be in agreement with? Does the team lack passion for their goals? If so, there may be an issue with commitment. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, the need for vulnerability-based trust is considered foundational for any team to … Read more
When you hear “conflict,” do you a) think of healthy and open conversations around ideas, issues, and concepts? or b) recall disputes between and about people? Do you have a) interesting meetings where big tactical and strategic issues get disagreed about, but resolved? or b) meetings loaded with artificial harmony, followed by “meetings after the meeting”? If … Read more
Do you have “meetings after the meetings?” Can you see people holding back their true thoughts the first time around? Would you face resistance if you asked people to be open and vulnerable with one another? In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, the need for vulnerability-based trust is considered foundational for any team … Read more
I hit “send” on an email, and immediately regretted it. It was to a friend and colleague. We had a touchy business situation going on, and I realized that I was way too cold and formal in the email, and she was likely to misinterpret it and/or be offended. Below is how I handled the … Read more
I confess to a pet peeve – I cringe when people say some version of this: “If you’re just going to complain, you’d better have a solution. Otherwise you’re wasting my time.” If you say this, you may be ignoring the fact that there are two kinds of naysayers: Type 1: The ones who never … Read more
In previous posts about the Four Levels of Maturity, we’ve explored the notion that Level 2 (Independent) is the most dangerous. At Level 2, people are generally: This is a dangerous place for a team member to be, because they’re not really working to be in sync with others. They tend to find reasons to … Read more