Leadership U

Jim lost his voice this week, so Christina is joined by special co-host Coach James Bonds. Coach Bonds is a husband, father, and grandfather. He is the founder and CEO of WellDrivenLife.com an online environment for people to experience engaging, honest, and unbiased life-changing and motivational content. Using his past experience in senior management positions for companies like Sam’s Club, Best Buy, PepBoys, and CompUSA and as a Dealer Partner with Mercedes Benz, BMW & Audi car dealers. Coach Bonds encourages people to adopt a lifestyle that leads to health and wellness in every area of life. 

Today, Jim and Christina discuss continued learning with Dr. Claudine Bentham. Claudine has a Doctorate in higher education and policy studies from the University of Central Florida. She has worked in the field of education for more than 15 years in various capacities, from a reading instructor and middle school teacher to a tenured professor. She now serves as the director of the Teaching and Learning Academy at Valencia College. Her primary functions are helping faculty through the tenure track process by providing courses designed to improve professors' teaching approaches and produce action research projects to deepen student learning.

In the final part of our High Performing Teams series, Rodney Cox comes on the podcast to talk about commitment. In 2001, Rodney founded Ministry Insights International—a ministry dedicated to strengthening relationships in the workplace, in marriages, and in families. Since then, Rodney has become one of the country’s leaders in the Strengths Movement. His Leading From Your Strengths™ framework has impacted over one million leaders, teams, and couples worldwide. Rodney is also an in-demand speaker and author of the books, Leading From Your Strengths, Love and Money, and Different By Design. He also hosts the StrongTeams.com Podcast.

Another trait of high-performing teams is healthy relationships. This week Jim & Christina cover the rest of the traits of teams with healthy relationships. Learn more at www.VolunteerU.org

Another trait of high-performing teams is healthy relationships. There is cohesiveness between team members. Today, Jim & Christina discuss a few attributes of teams with healthy relationships. 

Multiple studies have found trust to be a critical quality of high-performing teams. We want to get our team to that level of synergy quickly so they can function at their most efficient. How do we get our team to trust each other?

What is a group-first mentality? There is a focus on the collective instead of the individual. And the team is more interested in getting the job done than looking good themself. Let's investigate how teams move into group-first mentality mode.

We talk a lot about mentorship, encouragement, and resourcing future leaders here at Volunteer U, but today, we want to look at equipping different generations. Longevity and technology have changed the work landscape for those in different age brackets. Jim and Christina talk about how leaders can have successful generational transitions.

While it can be tough to hear criticism of ourselves or our projects, feedback is necessary for growth. There are many reasons why feedback is essential. Today, Jim and Christina discuss four tips for using feedback to your advantage as a leader.

This week we are focusing on supporting a successful virtual team. Nowadays, all leaders are virtual leaders. Good virtual leaders are thoughtful and take good care of their crew regardless of location. Being remote doesn't interrupt their ability to add value and invest back in their people. Jim and Christina offer three simple strategies to be a good virtual leader.