I have been researching and applying responsible leadership, teamwork, and change for 26 years all over the world, and I often get asked the same questions. This is the first post of a 5-part series in which I will address the most basic, and the more involved, questions that I am frequently asked about teams, teamwork, and leadership. Here are...
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I provided the opening keynote for the May 24 Path to Agility annual conference in Columbus Ohio to an appreciative audience. The slides are in my presentation archive. Dante Vilardi (profile) of Pillar Technology contacted me with an interesting follow-up: (more…)
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Which is the better strategy, cooperation or competition? Look out, it's a trick question. Both strategies can add value. Cooperation allows for synergy while competition fosters invention and choice. But many people think of cooperation and competition as mutually exclusive opposites. (more…)
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Rallying a team to beat a "common enemy" is a frequent and intoxicating business tactic. It's also a cheap trick. What makes it cheap is that results are temporary and ultimately backfire as well. Leaders choose "common enemy" strategies because they rapidly point people in a common direction and excite people into action And, yes, these are two critical measures...
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Christopher Avery: Leadership Gift Skills – Recognizing Mental States in the Responsibility Process
How Do You Know if Your Team is Built? I can tell from a distance if a team is built, and you can too -- if you understand what "built" means. Stand back, so you can observe the team as a whole. Then ask yourself these two questions: (more…)
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Is it easy for you to grant a small favor to someone you've just met? Are you just as willing to ask a favor of someone you've just met? Most people are much more willing to grant a favor than to ask for one. However, when I teach people about the Leadership Gift, I let them know that asking for...
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One of the leadership team members participating this week in a private Creating Results-Based Teams workshop took me at my word when I invited doodling with the color pens I placed on the tables. He drew a flow diagram around the edges of his agenda as a way to integrate the content. (more…)
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Observing diplomats, international delegations, ambassadors, and other dignitaries can teach us an important lesson regarding our innate Leadership Gift. When one dignitary visits another, they arrive bearing gifts. And what do the gifts symbolize? Our late 20th century cynicism can tempt us to see them as "bribes," but this isn't fair. Open with a Gift The gift celebrates a new...
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“I thought 'as soon as you get a team together, half of the job is done and everything else will systematically fall into place'… until now it never occurred to me that everyone in the team must take responsibility to make the project a success.” Had I known this was one of my students, I would have contacted Christopher Avery...
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