Extraordinary Team Tips

Team goals provide the team with needed focus and direction. An all-encompassing vision or simple, well-defined goal statements provide the team with a unified sense of what is important.

One clue: No agenda, no attenda! Follow these five strategies and you'll see your meetings be much more productive.

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares techniques for active listening in order to enhance teamwork.

The next time you go to your team meeting, take a few moments to observe the team functions and roles. At any particular moment, someone is leading, taking notes, keeping on track and on time, as well as participating in the meeting. Watch closely who is performing each function.

The team leader may be working very hard at all of these functions — not only leading the meeting, but keeping notes on a yellow legal pad, steering the agenda and the timetable, and answering questions without a whole lot of participation.

If that leader is you, well then my friend, you are working too hard!

Of all things about strategic planning, it drives me crazy when the plan has a number of strategic objectives. How many are too many?

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares fun and creative tips for how to start a meeting.

All teams need a team leader to focus their efforts, set guidelines, and deliver results. How you go about selecting your team leader depends largely on the mission, management, organizational culture, and development of your team.

When you watch a high-performing team in action, you realize that they have some habits, rituals, and ceremonies that support the team's work. Here are some examples that I have seen effective teams establish to create a certain purpose and put them in a different mindset.

Measure your teams effectiveness on an ongoing basis with these metrics.

There are myriad formal and informal team assessment tools that you can purchase "off the shelf." In the event you decide to use one of these instruments, follow these steps to maximize the experience.