Effective Coaching in the Workplace
  As a leader of a group, a team or an organization you must remember to focus on the impact you have on the audience.  When you are coaching or evaluating your own interactions, do not focus on how you delivered the message (what you said or what you did), focus on the reaction you see.  That is the true test of a productive session. Regardless of the vehicle used to coach (a story, an assignment, a book to read), […]
Spotting and Hiring an Employee for Team Fit Is About Looking Beyond Personality
My friend Liz was worried about the future of her workplace. She was on the Quality Management Team at Gaskets, Inc. (not its real name), and the CEO wanted to expand the team. “We get along really well right now,” she explained. “We laugh a lot, we go out after work, and we don’t bother each other. We focus on our own projects and still get to socialize. It’s great!” “So why are you worried?” I asked. “It sounds like […]
Introverts in Your Logistics Team: How to Improve Teamship and Communication Skills
A local logistics company had hired a great team of very qualified drivers, engineers, and managers, but they had a problem, and that problem’s name was Dave. Dave was great at planning. He had the math skills of a rocket scientist. He could figure out routes, costs, weights and savings better than anyone else on staff. Dave spotted inefficiencies the way most people spot a twenty-dollar bill on the sidewalk. His face would light up as if he had found […]
Choosing Project Team Members: The Five Employees You Need on Every Team
Kaitlyn’s company had a big contract coming up and she wanted to put the perfect team together to finish the job. As a very involved CEO, her first step seemed obvious. She went straight to the resumes. She knew she needed a coder, a designer, a technical writer, a customer support person, and a manager. She’d just choose the best person for each job, and then she’d have her dream team, right? Wrong. As she compiled her list, Robert, her […]