Does your heart sink when one of your colleagues mentions the words 'team-building exercises'? Do you have visions of having to create abstract constructions out of Lego in a crowded room? Here at Leaders Lab we build a strong case for demonstrating that such...
Does it sometimes feel as if you spend all day in meetings, yet any real work has to be done outside them? Here are four ways to turn this around and make your meetings more productive. The real problem is that your meetings aren't really snappy or productive enough....
One of the the most common questions we are asked by clients and potential clients is how to motivate people. When we explore their reasons for asking, it seems that they see ‘motivating people’ as the answer to issues as diverse as: People not doing what they are...
Do you sometimes wonder if you are talking to yourself? You give instructions or make requests. People say, ‘yes, I’ll do it’ – and then they don’t. Or they do something totally unexpected and not what you wanted at all. Assuming that most people come to work to do a...
One thing we’ve noticed in our work is that the pub (or the wine bar) seems to loom pretty large in amateur theories of management. Problems with someone’s performance? Have a chat over a swift half after work one evening. Someone seems to be upset and complaining a...
Thanks to Jackie Fitzgerald of Alchemy Business Coaching for today's post: Many years ago I shared an assistant with three of the other managers in the department. Sally was enthusiastic and very pleasant but she made a lot of mistakes (and I mean a lot). Because of...
For the vast majority of people, collaboration is a matter of willingness, not ability. And unless there is a fundamental wish to collaborate, it won’t happen. When senior people in organisations tell their team leaders to work together, it will only happen if ‘they’...
Mostly, the important work in organisations does not involve an individual creating something from nothing. Frequently it involves individuals and groups working together. So why is it so very unusual to see individuals and groups working really harmoniously together?...
Our perennial favourite blogger, Neil Crofts, has come up trumps again with this very insightful guest post on what a team really is: There is a lot of talk of team work and team building in businesses, but the reality of teams and teamwork existing in business is...
A term invented in 1972, Groupthink is a mode of thinking we engage in when we're deeply involved in a cohesive, task-centred group - or when our need for agreement supersedes our need for a decision based on rational information. Groupthink can lead to bad judgments...
Learn how you and your team can collaborate to raise your game, improving your results and your experience of working together.
Learn how you and your team can collaborate to raise your game, improving your results and your experience of working together.