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How to Create a High-Learning Team
Center for Creative Leadership, Aug. 2010 Putting the right people on a team doesn’t guarantee success. The most effective, high-performing teams are committed to learning. As work and the working context become increasingly complex and ambiguous, teams and individual team members must be able to learn and adapt. This includes learning how to work together as a team. Teams become high-learning teams when they implement four practices, according to Dennis Lindoerfer, author of “Learning Mode: Adapting and Innovating is Crucial for Teams.” The four practices are: Establish a climate for learning in the team. Taking time to establish the environment and the processes for learning is the prerequisite for rapid learning and effective team performance in the future. Team members must actively ask questions, discuss errors, engage in experimentation and reflection and seek external feedback. In “high learning” teams, mistakes are analyzed for how improvements might be made; and feedback,
IT Careers – A Little Humility Goes a Long Way
Concepts from “Start with Humility: Lessons from America’s Quiet Leaders on how to Build Trust and Inspire Followers” (by Hayes & Comer) are used by CIO Insight to identify what to look for in staffing of leaders. IT Careers says “Humility is not the first character trait that generally comes to mind when one thinks about what it takes to rise up the corporate ranks. Yet, some of America’s most successful executives are those who cultivate a quiet strength to create a winning corporate culture. The book Start With Humility: Lessons from America’s Quiet CEOs on How to Build Trust and Inspire Followers” Read the full article
New Book By Hayes Group Offers Important Leadership Lessons
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Arriving on the market is a new book that redefines the characteristics of great corporate leaders and suggests that humility is the secret to success. Start with Humility: Lessons from America’s Quiet CEOs on How to Build Trust and Inspire Followers offers a refreshing perspective on a key contributor to building successful organizations. Read the full article on marketwatch.com »
Lessons of the Geese – Teamwork
In the fall when you see Geese heading south for the winter flying along in the “V” formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following.By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. Quite similar to people who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way. Whenever a Goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the
Listening For Results
Listening is a skill which can be developed like any other skill. Good listeners are aware of the barriers to good listening, are motivated to listen well, spend a lot of energy listening, and take full responsibility for the communication process. Listening is not always recognized as a skill. Many of us assume listening is automatic, that if we are within hearing range, listening will occur without any special effort on our part. Yet we are confronted on a daily basis with evidence that people do not listen well. Parents do not listen to children. Students do not listen to teachers. Managers do not listen to employees. Unfortunately, we often do not listen to those who are most important to us. Poor listening can create problems caused by lack of information and misunderstanding. Good listening is important in dealing with people. It helps us know whether or not our instructions
Evolution not Revolution: Do People Really Change?
It was early Monday morning when we received a phone call at our office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina from a major corporate leader in Zurich. His dilemma was familiar. There was a senior engineering manager who was a top performer in terms of meeting deadlines, bringing in revenue, and completing projects under budget. However, according to this vice president, his style was such that he “leaves dead bodies.” He meant that junior engineers refused to work for him (often leaving the company), his arrogance had turned off customers, and his style of speech with his administrative assistants had resulted in three leaving in just one year. Could he be salvaged and coached to change the bad behaviors while maintaining the good ones? Learn about people, organizations, and change from an excerpt of “Start With Humility” by Mike Comer and Merwyn Hayes.
