Team Building, Teamwork

Earlier this week, someone told me that “they are more efficient when they multitask.” Yeah… right. This will be a short post today, because the efficiency of multi-tasking is a complete myth. And there is tons of detail to prove it, including this recent spot on NPR. In last week’s post, I pleaded with you […]

Have you ever listened to yourself speak to your colleagues or customers? Have you ever just recorded yourself in a standard, nothing-special conversation, and actually listened to what you sound like? Try this. Record yourself in a typical conversation or phone call and listen closely to what you sound like. More specifically, count your pronouns. […]

One of the themes that comes up in all of our leadership communication workshops is the concept of “how to be a good teammate.” People always seem interested in the steps towards being a better leader and a better teammate. First do this… then do this… then do this… People like specific steps, and information […]

A little more than a year ago, I wrote a short post here about the importance of instilling confidence in the people around you. I used a vignette about my son to make the point — a little story about how he was still young enough to not care about what other people thought. And […]

I spoke at my former university recently, as part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the school’s sailing team, which I’d been part of at one time. The organizers asked me to say a few words about team building and team culture, as they know it’s a subject I’ve been spending a lot of time […]

This, the last component in our ARROW equation on strong team alignment, is probably the easiest to grasp. On an aligned team, the members of the team are all willing to roll up their sleeves and actually do the hard work to get a positive outcome. It is one thing to understand roles, be respectful, […]

This is the first “R” in our ARROW equation on team alignment.  And this is where alignment starts. Clarity on roles and responsibilities is critical. Without clarity in this area, team members may waste time and energy on duplicated efforts and leave other areas of the project untended. The team members on an aligned team […]

“Respect a man. He will do the more.” – James Howell The second “R” in our ARROW equation for team alignment is “Respect.” An aligned team has respect—lots of it, for lots of things. An aligned team respects members’ roles and responsibilities, confidences, and decision-making processes. The members of an aligned team don’t have to […]

“No one washes a rental car.” An aligned team does more than “punch the clock” and show up for work. The members of an aligned team care about the outcome and care about doing whatever they can to contribute to the team’s success.  They contribute to the planning and want to add value. The members […]

We’re working hard here at TLG on our second book, entitled “Sharing the Sandbox: Building and Leading Great Teams in the 21st Century.” Our goal with this project is to give you concrete and easily applied concepts and steps towards building better, more functional, more successful teams. At the heart of this project is a new […]