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Welcome Project Team Leader!
This is a blog specifically targeted to you, the Project Team Leader, to enable joy in work in your team. You are in a unique position…you aren’t the boss, but you have authority. The people working on the team do not have to give you 100% (because they report to someone else) AND they are vital for the team to succeed. Ooof.
The goal of this blog is to equip and encourage you for the journey. You and your teams are workhorses of progress. Most new products/services started because of a cross-functional team. Everyone wants innovation, and these teams and team leaders make it happen. Our goal here is to help you, the Team Leader, build a team that wants to work together and succeeds.
Leading in Uncertainty During the Coronavirus Pandemic
How You Can Be A Leader Right Now The coronavirus has affected us all. For the first time in over a century, we are affected by what can be truly called a pandemic. This has led to all of us feeling a bit unsettled in this new uncertainty. Events that were considered...
Learning to Lead by Stepping Back
What Does It Mean To Lead By Stepping Back? Recently I read The Servant as Leader by Robert Greenleaf as part of the Greenleaf Center’s Foundations Certification course, which I took with my friends at Third River Partners. In the essay, Greenleaf proposes how one can...
Bringing Risk Management Home!
Understanding Risk Management No matter who you are... you are taking risks on a daily basis. When you get out of bed, there's a chance you could trip on one of your dog's toys. When you start your car and pull out of your driveway, you are taking a risk. When you...
Teammates on the Bench? Contribute Value Despite Roadblocks
Navigating Team Roadblocks Great Ideas Going Stale While No One Implements Them? We’ve all been there. A great meeting of the minds with a flurry of ideas and possibilities ends with the hopeful expectation of all that can be done to improve the team’s situation. Then...
The Best Multigenerational Teams Do This
The Workplace has changed. The Marketplace has changed. Leadership needs to change. We now have five generations in the workforce, with more age diversity than ever before! Multigenerational Teams are seeing that the dynamics of how to work together are changing....
4 Principles for Meaningful Team Values
Does Your Team Know What You Value? Over the years, I have used organizational value statements in helping executives clarify their strategic vision and put it into a plan. Too often, when drilling into their values, I find that even the Execs aren’t really sure what...
Think Twice Before Calling Your People… “Resources”
Still calling your team members "resources"? It's time to stop. So, what do I mean by that? It means that if we want to be better serving leaders, leaders who legitimately care about the people on their team, we are not well served by language that lumps people into...
Where Is The Super Bowl Talent On Your Team?
Talent Lovers: Are you ready for the Super Bowl? I can tell you that living in the Pittsburgh area means Super Bowl Sunday celebrations. This is true even on the years that the Black & Gold faithful begrudgingly accept that Steelers are not playing (like this...
Don’t Let Anyone Take That (VALUE) From You
How To Retain Your VALUE “Don’t let anyone take that from you.” Those were the words of advice to me from my dear Grandmother on my graduation day from Kansas State University (go Wildcats!) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. With my fresh-faced naïveté, I...
What Gets Measured Gets Done…or Does It?
I recently had a senior manager in charge of continual improvement share with me how important metrics were, (as if I hadn’t heard that before) and she ended her pitch with the very firmly stated "Because what gets measured gets done." That is one of the most...