Extraordinary Team Tips

Merry Christmas! Whether you're looking to energize meetings, solve challenges, or unlock your team's full potential, I'm here to help. To help you get in the holiday team spirit, here's my take on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, for teams!

Ground rules are like the "rules of the road" for your team. They tell us how we should function, how to handle distractions, and what to do when things get off track. Without them, it's easy for even the best-intentioned teams to lose their way. Think of these rules as your team's "Constitution," guiding your work and keeping things running smoothly. And just like any great Constitution, it can and should evolve over time.

Here are 13 specific ways to help your team members connect with their purpose and keep their focus on the customer.

The gap between knowing and doing is often the culprit. Smart teams don't falter because of a lack of expertise, resources, or good intentions. They falter because of an inability to transition from strategy to execution. Here's how can you help your team shift from knowing to doing.

Do you ever get a meeting invite that doesn't have an agenda, objectives, deliverable, or anything that tells you what the meeting is about?

A client of mine calls that a "Naked Meeting." Here's how to avoid that.

Project teams are typically commissioned to implement a specific project or plan. To set your project team up for success, follow these steps to success.

Here is why you should evaluate your strategic plan at LEAST once every year.

Self-directed teams are formal, permanent organizational structures. They operate with fewer layers of management. Due to the nature of the work, team members learn all the tasks that need to be performed. Here is what they specifically do and how you could work toward a self-directed team.

By providing one or a few of these pre-work tasks, you can ensure that your teammates come to the meeting well-prepared, leading to more focused discussions and quicker, more robust decision-making.

The success of your team meeting is directly proportional to the amount of planning you have invested in that meeting. You can't just show up and expect magic to happen without a little bit of forethought.