What we can learn from the life of Richard ‘Dick’ Winters. Immortalized in the book by Stephen Ambrose and the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. His quotes about being a hero and being a leader are worth reading and thinking thinking about. Here are a few words to help you start your own exploration.
Making decisions in the heat of a ‘battle’ often results in costly choices. The cost might only be time, but more than likely it is eroded trust, weakened relationships, and a shift from we thinking to me thinking. Seth Godin calls this lizard brain thinking. So how do we avoid it?
Vulnerability is a powerful tool for mentoring and building relationships. All to often we skip over the uncomfortable questions to handle the easy ones. Here are some career questions that we should all be ready and willing to share.
Teams come together around a task to complete. An inability of team members to own and complete work on time will destroy trust. Explore the origin of this TrustBUSTER and what leaders can do to ensure it does not become an issue on their team.
The question is – In this new virtual world, how does the role of the leader change? This trU Tips explores this question and how the answer can help evaluate the strength of a leadership team.
The success of a team rests on the shoulders of the team members, not the leader. The leader has a role, but the people have to see their role for it to work. Here is a story about a group of offensive lineman from the Michigan State University football team and what they did to build a great team. They did it without consultants and ropes courses, which is significant.
TrustBUSTER™ #8 – Shows little concern about me a person How does this become an issue when most leaders really care about their people? Explore how this perception starts and what three moves a leader can make to make this go away (or at least move to the bottom of the list).
TrustBUSTER #8 is about creating more joy in our workplace as leaders. A slow recovery means that the place from which we lead will not only sustain us, but provide energy for our organizations. There are also some very simple things that we can do as leaders to share and build that joy in others.
This explores TrustBUSTER™ #7, which is valuing individual success over team goals. This is an issue largely for people who see focus first on getting the work done. Explore this TrustBUSTER™ and learn three things a leader can do to help make this problem go away.
TrustBUSTER™ #6 is about criticizing decisions AFTER the team has discussed them and the decision has been made. This happens for different reasons, but the outcome is the same. Teammates getting frustrated with each other and future decisions becoming more ‘political’ discussions versus open and honest dialogue. Learn the three most common scenerios and what a leader has to do to ensure that it does not happen again.
This should not be a surprise, but here is some good research what makes people happy. Their conclusion - being able to focus and complete things. The next question - How focused are you feeling? Let the conversation begin . . . Unhappy? Focus on the Present.
Listening at growth companies – avoiding TrustBUSTER™ #5 using some wisdom from author Verne Harnish.