We all make mistakes -- in our private life and in our professional life. Everyone makes them, no one escapes mistake making, but few people know how to fix mistakes and recover well fast. Here's the secret. Let go of denial, blame, excuses, and castigating yourself to earn their pity. Instead, acknowledge mistakes quickly so you can move to resolution....

Stand for Something When I kick off product teams, one of the many things I do with them is play a game called Product Tree. Product Tree is a game created by Luke Hohmann (Innovation Games®) where you use a metaphor of a tree to envision the different aspects of a team or product. You start by drawing a big...

All it takes is one person to invite a group to be a team. One person can ask for shared clarity about the collective task before members assume individual assignments. One person can ask others "What's in it for you to be on this team this time?" One person can request personal promises that support performing as a team. Are...

In the last few blog posts I've have been addressing difficult behavior and how to change it. How Do You Deal With a Difficult Person On Your Team Who…? Leadership Skills: Become an Observer of Difficult Behavior Leadership Tips: Choosing to Deal With Difficult Behavior Now we come to the point where you're annoyed. You've decided to deal with the...

In my recent post I suggested that when someone's behavior drives you crazy, you might ask yourself if he or she is a traitor (How Do You Deal With a Difficult Person On Your Team Who…?). I mentioned that most people who's actions drive us crazy are not traitors at all. Instead, they are well-intentioned folks who are exhibiting difficult...

Do you have a team member who drives you crazy? When I speak to groups, I enjoy Q&A sessions and often ask people to tell me about their biggest leadership challenges. Invariably, many questions start with, "How do you deal with a person on your team who ____________(fill in the blank with difficult behavior)?" (more…)

Everyone says they want to be on a winning team. And nobody ever says they want to be on a lousy team. So how come we end up on frustrating teams much of the time? Here are the steps you can take to make sure that being on your teams remain the worst, most frustrating experiences ever. Master each of...

When I ask business leaders and IT professionals about their experience of teamwork effectiveness -- and I've asked thousands in 20+ years as a consultant and speaker -- I get a consistent "so-so" response. So what will it take to create consistently more effective teamwork across the board? First, it requires a hard look at what doesn't work. Then it...

I developed the following model to communicate the essence of partnering between any two entities, whether people or groups, and whether external or internal to an organization: Partnering = Exchange + Expansion + Integrity Let's look at collaborating across boundaries -- or what is frequently called partnering -- and the first of three keys to sustainable partnering across any boundary:...

In my post How to Build Effective, Successful Management Teams a few weeks ago I mentioned that project teams are the most straight-forward teams in which to develop high-performance dynamics because they fit the classic laboratory definition of a team. Today, I want to talk more about why motivation is more important than technical skills in predicting team effectiveness. My...