*This is a guest blog post authored by Melvyn Payne, Commercial Director at Advanced People Strategies. I am privileged to work on a regular basis with leadership teams from a wide variety of backgrounds – both public and private sector. The big question that is usually being considered is “how do we become a high… Read more »
*This is a guest post authored by Rob Field, Learning and Development Director at Advanced People Strategies. Every business I know is working to measure engagement. After all, the difference between good and great lies in discretionary effort. Drive higher engagement and get better results. What could be simpler? How to make it happen and… Read more »
The demanding nature of today’s globalized markets has forced organizations to be ever reliant on teams for breakthrough solutions that keep them ahead of the competition. While effective teamwork is still necessary for success, today’s teams face far bigger obstacles than teams of the past. Stumbling blocks of late include the modern team’s makeup, which… Read more »
*This post was authored by Dr. Gordon Curphy, Managing Partner of Curphy Leadership Solutions. Teams are fundamental structures for getting work done, and tens to thousands of teams can be found in organizations. Despite the prevalence of teams, research shows that only 10-20 percent are high-performing, which means most have room for improvement. There are four… Read more »
Building the perfect team isn’t about assembling an all-star squad of archetypes. It’s about find- ing contributors who are generous and respectful, but confident and charismatic, too— and picking the right leader who can pull them all together. IF CLASSIC CARTOONS like Scooby Doo, Captain Planet, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have taught us… Read more »
“Why can’t they just act like adults!” “It’s like herding cats!” Although teams are our default organizational unit, team leaders often struggle to get individuals to cooperate and coordinate. Partly, that’s down to the fact that each individual has their own agenda for getting ahead, which they balance with getting along with everyone else. Getting… Read more »
Groups are the default human working unit. For most sorts of jobs, people tend to cooperate and collaborate to get the work done. Even when the job doesn’t need collaboration we still prefer to do it in proximity with others – think brew clubs or cruise ships. When the job requires cooperation, people are selected… Read more »
If you went to a concert to see Lorde and instead Ed Sheeran emerged on stage, you might be pleased to see him, but disappointed because Ed Sheeran is not Lorde and is never going to do the version of Green Light you thought you’d be watching. The fact that Ed Sheeran is not Lorde… Read more »
When the GeneBank (fictional company) board of directors demanded its new CEO double the global supplier of dairy and beef genetics’ revenue to $1 billion, the first thing he did was develop a new executive team.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of self-directed work teams, it’s a shift away from a typical top-down organizational structure, where one or a group of leaders set strategic direction and comes up with solutions to problems, then delegate tasks. In lieu of a traditional organizational structure, many companies are flattening their hierarchies and decentralizing… Read more »