Having successful teams involves a clear, agreed upon approach as to how the members of the team work together to achieve their goals as well as a clear understanding of what those objectives are.  It’s also important to have both individual and group accountability for the team’s performance.  Team success also requires a strong, positive working relationship between the Department Manager and the Team Leader.  We cover why these are all important in this week’s episode.

In the first episode on working with teams, we discussed the importance of trying to keep working teams smaller than 10 to 12 staff people. We also talked about the importance of establishing the mission for each team as that will impact how the team is comprised. In this episode, we will talk about how to assign staff to each of the teams based on its “mission” and to maximize efficiency and probability of success.

In our last episode, we talked about the importance of talented staff to the success of a manager and how leaders should effectively manage them.  In this week’s encore episode, we explore, in greater depth, what talented staff look for in a position – the kind of working environment they want and how they want to be treated.  By understanding what they are looking for in a job, the good manager is better able to keep talented staff motivated and productive – as well as on the team.

You can’t be successful unless your talented people are successful. In this encore episode, we discuss some key aspects of managing your most talented staff.

A team is a small group of people with complementary skills who work with a common purpose, goals and approach for which they are mutually accountable.  Teams hold greater long-term potential than staff working individually because greater incremental value is achieved when team members work together. Two critical aspects of putting together effective teams are their size and their staffing.  In this episode, we discuss optimizing both.

In its January 24th issue this year,  Inc. Magazine published an article entitled “The 7 Skills That Will Define the Next Generation of Leaders”.  The article was based on data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and from other research organizations that have done studies on leadership for a number of years.  In a past episode we discussed the first skill, emotional quotient or “Social Intelligence”.  In this episode, we’ll discuss the other six skills they identified along with some of our own thoughts on leadership.

In its, January 24th 2025 issue,  Inc. Magazine published an article titled “The 7 Skills That Will Define the Next Generation of Leaders”.  Using data from studies on leadership by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and other research organizations, the article described seven skills that the authors say will be key to the success of managers in the coming years. In this episode, we’ll discuss what the authors identified as the most important skill – that of social intelligence – sometimes called EQ or one’s “Emotional Quotient”.  In this episode, we’ll discuss EQ, what it is, why it's important and how to strengthen it in yourself.

Continuation of our interview with Jim Carlough, author of "Six Pillars of Effective Leadership"

Jim Carlough is the author of "Six Pillars of Effective Leadership" Part 1

Many companies and departments don’t get maximum effectiveness and efficiency from their staffs because managers don’t address the issue of how people with diverse work styles and perspectives will mesh with each other.  Knowing how to approach the issues of different – and in some cases, conflicting -- work styles allows a manager to understand how best to optimize staff working together as a team