High Impact Leaders

The best team-building ideas for 2022 may surprise you. As teams come back to the office, we are experiencing never-before-seen team challenges.

For instance, let’s say that you started a new career during the pandemic. It took a while to get into the swing of things since you were working from home for the first year. But now, you understand your job role. You have also gotten to know some of your coworkers (at least virtually.) You also know who you report to, who is responsible for what, and what you need to do to advance.

Things finally seem to be going well. Then, the boss throws you a

 curveball. The entire corporate team is now scheduled to come back to the office.

Over the past two years, more people started working from home than ever before. For some, this was a spontaneous adaptation to the job they already held. Others, though, started new jobs with new companies for the first time, remotely. Going back to the office whether full-time or part-time will now be a major adjustment.

This is causing stress and anxiety for those who were starting to get their groove. These feelings may be more common than most realize. Forbes reported on the subject citing a study conducted by The Adeco Group which revealed that “49% of leaders and 42% of non-managers said they have felt, or are feeling, anxiety about returning to the office.”

So keep this in mind as you begin to schedule your first meetings with your returning team. In this post, we will give you a few ideas on how to use philanthropic corporate events to relieve some of that stress for both your leaders and your team members!

For full show notes, visit Best Charity Team Building Ideas for 2022

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/best-charity-team-building-ideas-2022-fun-philanthropic-corporate-activities/

Want to build leaders from within?

If you own or run a business you have two choices. You could search for leaders in the marketplace and try to convince them to join your team. Alternatively, you can build leaders from within your organization. When you do the latter, you have the potential to create enthusiasm within your team. You are creating a culture of growth and energy. (It is actually cheaper for your company and more rewarding to you if you do this, by the way.)

In this episode, I’m going to cover the seven best ways to build your next generation of leaders. If you are interested in building leaders from within, these tips can really help. This is the final episode of our six-part series on developing highly effective teams. If you create a formal training program for your high-potential employees using these management skills you will create a leadership pipeline in your company.

How to Influence People in a Positive Way and Help Your Team Grow.

Before I get to the seven best ways to build new leaders within your team, let’s start with why these skills work. Although every human being is different, most of us want specific things from our leaders. For instance…

• People will do things for and follow people who they know, like, and respect.
• Every person wants to feel important.
• Leaders who make those people around them feel important build confidence in those people.
• Confident people who feel that their job is important will trust and respect those leaders.

Many people think that a good leader has to tear people down and build them back up. This is a huge mistake. For some reason, we believe that the way to get people to be productive is to kick them in the pants. Typically, that will get you the opposite effect. Your team may comply out of fear, but they will not grow in confidence. As a result, you will have to order them to do every little thing for it to get done.

For full show notes, visit Building Leaders from Within
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/building-leaders-from-within-the-7-best-ways-to-build-your-next-leaders/

The fourth stage of team development is to build team cooperation and team collaboration. This is part five of a six-part series on how to develop highly effective teams. Just like previous stages of developing teamwork, this stage of leadership development is progressive. So, you will get the best results if you have already spent some time on steps one and two.

As a review, the first phase was to focus on your organization’s goals to create a shared vision for your team. When your team focuses on a common goal and sees the big picture, a collaborative environment will begin to form. The second step is to establish trust and effective communication within your team. Next, we showed you how to reduce conflicts among team members.

You will have a difficult time motivating your team if they don’t trust you or each other. In addition, you will also have a difficult time getting others to cooperate if there is a conflict. So first, make sure to spend some time building more of a team culture using the tips from the other three episodes.

f you have never read about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is a fascinating study in psychology. Dr. Maslow theorized that we have five levels of needs. The needs range from physical needs like food and water to more altruistic needs. In this theory, we all are most concerned about the lowest level of needs until those needs are satisfied. For example, if a person is thirsty and dehydrated, he or she won’t have much concern for anything else.

Over the years, psychologists have argued about the levels in the hierarchy. The actual levels and order of each level aren’t as important to this discussion as the agreement that we have a hierarchy, though. As leaders, we have to know the hierarchy of our team members and what level they are currently at. For instance, one team member may have been entirely motivated by recognition and appreciation. However, if this person’s child gets sick, the priorities change in an instant.

The point is that the tips below are time-tested ways to build a cooperative team. If the trust is high and conflicts are low, these tips should work very effectively. So, if you find some members of your team to not be as cooperative, it might be that something has happened to move them to a lower level in Maslow’s Hierarchy.

Your goal as the leader of your group of employees is to build a cooperative workplace where staff members are consistently at the highest level of this hierarchy.

For full show notes, visit Team Cooperation-How to Build a Collaborative Team.
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/7-valuable-ways-to-build-a-cooperative-and-effective-team/

Conflict resolution in the workplace can be challenging if the trust level is low or your team is under stress. In this episode, we cover seven turnkey strategies that you can use for conflict resolution in your workplace.

This is part four of a six-part series Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams. Last week we covered how to build trust and a team culture within your group. The focus of this session is on conflict resolution strategies and dealing with difficult people. Remember that these principles are cumulative. The strategies to resolve conflicts work much better in an environment of teamwork is already present. If you find that your team members are experiencing a high level of conflict, back up and work on building the level of trust.

7 Turnkey Conflict Resolution Strategies for Your Office Team

1. Be proactive instead of reactive.
2. Be slow to anger-especially over petty issues.
3. Instead of telling people they are wrong, point out mistakes indirectly.
4. Look for some type of common ground as soon as possible.
5. If you find that you are in the wrong, admit it.
6. Admit one of your own poor decisions before pointing out a similar error by others.
7. Mend fences whenever possible.

The first three principles are ways to avoid conflict before the disagreement even occurs. Numbers four through six help you resolve conflicts. Finally, the last principle is there to help make sure that the conflict doesn’t return. Let’s cover each principle in a little more detail.

For full show notes, visit 7 Strategies for Conflict Resolution in the Workplace
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/7-turnkey-conflict-resolution-strategies-for-your-office-team/

Team Trust is the most important step in building a highly effective team. In this episode, we cover 7 expert ways to build trust in your team. This is part three of a six-part series on the Five Characteristics of High-Performing Teams. In each of the sessions, we will cover one of the component steps to creating a team culture.

In the first part, we gave an overview of each of the five steps to create a highly effective team. Then, last week, we covered the value of creating a great vision and mission for your company. Here is a review of this employee engagement process.

Five-Step Process to Build a Culture of Teamwork in Your Organization and Improve Team Success.

The five-step leadership development process is as follows.

1. Highly Effective Teams are Mission-Oriented.
2. Build Trust and Rapport with the People that You Want to Lead.
3. Resolve Conflicts and Create an Environment Where Disagreements Do Not Cause Personal Conflicts.
4. Gain Enthusiastic Cooperation from Your Team (Even When You Are Not Looking).
5. Build Confident Leadership Teams Around You.

Each of these steps is progressive. For instance, if we have a lack of trust within a group of individuals, we will likely have more conflicts. If we are in conflict with our team members, it will be difficult to gain cooperation. The point is that the better we do in the early stages, the easier it is to have success in the latter stages. In this session, we will focus on Step #2: The Seven Best Ways to Build Team Trust.

For full show notes, visit 7 Expert Ways to Build Trust in Your Team 
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/7-expert-ways-to-build-trust-in-a-team-that-you-can-do-today/

This week is part two of a six-part series on how to Create Highly Effective Teams.

On this episode, we will go into more detail on the value of vision statements, value statements, and mission statements. Between you and I, this is one of those exercises that when I first started my company, I thought was a complete waste of time. It seem like an academic chore that really had no value. Then,  as I kept beating my head against the wall over and over and making really bad hiring decisions, I realized that all of these challenges were a result of my team not having a roadmap to get to the next level.

Once I figured that out, my company (and my team members) grew exponentially in a short period of time. So, if you are an entrepreneur, pay close attention to this episode. And if you are an executive in a big company and the organization's mission and values aren't known by every single person in the organization, this episode can also be very helpful to you as well.

By the way, as always, if you like the sessions, don't forget to subscribe to the High Impact Leaders Podcast. Also, make sure to rate the podcast and leave me a review wherever you download the show.

For the full show notes, visit Mission, Vision, and Values Statement Templates with Examples
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/mission-vision-and-values-template-and-examples/

This week We are starting a six-part series on how to create highly effective teams. This week, I give an overview of the entire process and show, step-by-step how to create the system in your own organization. Then, over the next five weeks, I'll go into each component in a little more detail.

The Five steps to creating a Highly Effective Team

1. Highly Effective Teams are Mission-Oriented.
2. Highly Effective Teams Build Solid Trust.
3. Highly Effective Teams Debate Positively.
4. Highly Effective Teams Cooperate with Each Other and Gain Cooperation from Others.
5. Highly Effective Teams have a Culture of Leadership.

For full show notes, visit 5 Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/5-characteristics-highly-effective-teams/

To contact Doug Staneart, dial (800) 872-7830 or Tweet him at @dougstaneart

This week I interview another High Impact Leader. Karen Zaderej who is the CEO and Chair of the Board for Axogen. Her company specializes in helping surgeons complete very advanced high-tech and microscopic surgery.

In the interview, she gives us some fascinating creative solutions to how they tackled challenges during the Covid crisis. For instance, part of what they do is train surgeons to be able to use new procedures, and they had to shut down their entire training center during Covid. How her team solved that challenge was revolutionary, to say the least.

If you want to be a leader in your industry, listen to some of the fantastic things that she tells us that she did along the way.

You can find out more about Karen Zaderej and Axogen at https://www.axogeninc.com/management/karen-zaderej/

Looking for a great way to build the holiday spirit and morale in your workplace? These Christmas team building activities can help. I’ve broken these fun team-building activities into three main categories to make it easy to find the perfect team event for your group.

First, we’ll talk about Christmas team building events for small groups. Next, I’ll share some of my favorite activities for larger groups. Finally, we’ll cover a few virtual holiday party ideas. Let’s start with the easiest — the small group activities.

For full show notes, visit Christmas Team Building Activities to Build Morale and Fun at Work

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/christmas-team-building-activities-to-build-morale-and-fun-at-work/

This is the third of three episodes about how to build wealth. This time, we cover how to create multiple streams of income and get your money to work for you. (Even if you don't have any money right now.)

Here are a few excerpts from the episode...

Broke people work for money. Wealthy people get their money to work for them. The old adage is “You need to have money to make money.” That is misleading. For instance, in the modern world, you can create a business without any real capital investment. For instance, when my daughter was in High School, she created a t-shirt company. She designed the t-shirt styles (images) on Canva. Without ever creating a store (and only adding a website later,) she took orders through social media and Etsy. Her customers paid her upfront for the shirts. When she got enough orders, she’d send the design (Canva image) to a local screen-printer. Only then did she send out shirts to her customers.

This company was a stream of income that she created without any money being spent until she had collected revenue from customers. Granted, it took a lot of time and the income wasn’t significant. However, she built up a client list that loved her style and her products. So, anytime she had a new idea, she had a list of potential customers. As time went on, the customer list grew and grew. Each new t-shirt style became more lucrative.

In the beginning, she worked very hard to make a single sale. Back then, if she added up her time, she was likely making much less than minimum wage per hour. However, as her client list grew, the number of work hours per sale dropped significantly.

Basically, if you have more income than expenses, you can invest that money to generate additional streams of income. If you don’t have more income than expenses, you need to invest some of your time to generate the additional streams of income.

Interest that You Pay to Other People Is a Negative Stream of Income.

Along those lines, if you spend more money than you make, you will always be poor. However, if you make more money than you spend, you can easily generate wealth from day one. Interest for debtors is your biggest obstacle to wealth. However, interest to creditors is the biggest source of wealth.

For the full show notes, visit 

Step #3 to Build Wealth Is to Create Multiple Streams of Income. (Get Your Money to Work for You.)

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/how-to-build-wealth-in-three-simples-steps-wealth-strategies-for-any-age/