One of the first disciplines I outline for leadership teams when I begin working with them is a weekly leadership team meeting. Oh, I can hear what you are thinking right now! Meetings are a waste of time. We rarely accomplish anything meaningful. We’re too busy to meet weekly, on and on. I guarantee with a little guidance, you can alter your experience of meetings — for good.

Leadership team meetings are essential. To have a pulse on the health of the company, regular leadership team meetings are essential. These meetings help your leadership to maintain focus on your quarterly priorities, ensure you know who needs attention and solve obstacles to our progress.

Holding the meeting on the same day each week, starting and ending on time, and following a standardized agenda, help make all the difference.

How else can you change the structure of these meetings to support your health and happiness?

Be Prepared

Prepare for your Leadership Team Meeting in the same way you prepare for your most important prospect or client. Your colleagues and the company deserve the effort.

• Review your Scorecard numbers; progress on your Rocks; if you followed up on last week’s meeting outcomes; and if you have new obstacles for the team’s consideration.
• Review your past week’s calendar. It may trigger issues you want to discuss.
• Think through your goals for the meeting and be focused and clear about getting what you want.

When everyone prepares, your meeting will run more efficiently, leaving more time for solving issues.

Be Energized

Your Leadership Team Meeting is the most expensive meeting you have. Think about it. You have the most senior minds at the table, ready to solve issues and work on the business for 90 minutes. This is worth your energy!

• Show up as if it matters to you, and, if things are off track or not working, be brave enough to enter the danger and have the tough conversations.
• Be passionate about solving issues, especially if you disagree with another leadership team member. Your Leadership Team Meetings are only as good as your attitude, so come to the table committed to the greater good.
• Preparation and energy are linked. If you’ve prepared well, you’ll be excited and ready to tackle issues. If you haven’t prepared, you will wait for others to run the meeting. It’s your meeting. Act as if you own it. Because if you don’t, who will?

Are you ready to energize your leadership team and create meetings people want to attend? Let me support your journey! Fill out the consult form below and take the first steps towards your organization’s fullest potential.

Which are we – a team or an organization?

My friend and colleague Walt Brown makes the case in his book, The Patient Organization, that an organization is a fiction. Brown argues that organizations are only given meaning and power by people who buy into the reality they strive to reach.

So, what is buy-in and how do you access it? You will see buy-in when you and your leadership team achieve alignment – meaning you create so much clarity and consistency that there is little room possible for confusion, disorder, and infighting.

You create buy-in when everyone in the organization understands the journey and is committed to that journey. In addition, people who recognize their role in that journey will actively contribute.

Leaders create a team fueled with buy-in by leading and coaching their people, rather than “managing” people. You create an organization that is resilient, committed, and cooperative.

Which sounds like more fun?

Productivity that yields consistent outcomes by a group of people who show up every day and go through the motions?

Or, a cohesive unit working together, moving the company forward, and bringing their unique contribution to the endeavor?

Yeah, I thought you’d say that.

True teamwork requires patience, collaboration, and ingenuity. It requires taking the time to discuss issues and coming to decisions for the greater good, investing in the humanity of each team member, and creating systems that allocate space for feedback. Achieving buy-in is not some sort of magic, but a deliberate combination of a few key ingredients, consistent dedicated effort, and that sweet, sweet essential: time.

Looking to gain the support of your employees and unsure where to start? Let’s talk. Fill out the consult form below and I’ll connect you with the expertise and resources you need to accelerate your business.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, lack of space for collaboration, tight deadlines, and poor communication can make it feel like there is little room for informed decision-making. Teams large and small often begin to execute an idea before concluding crucial discussions.

How much consideration do you and your leadership team give to how you settle and execute big decisions in your company? When was the last time you sat down to consider your methodology? 

There’s an old riddle that tells a story of five frogs sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Take a moment to think about your answer. We’ll come back to it.

If you’re struggling with decision-making in your organization, you’re not alone. These days, we’re asked to make decisions faster than ever, which can leave us feeling like… a lonely frog on a log. If you’re interested in inspecting your company’s decision-making structure here are a few questions to ponder:

1. How do you promote teamwork across organizational divisions or departments?
2. What systems are there to provide mutual support?
3. How can you lead with openness, trust, and a growth mindset?
4. What does it mean for your organization to ensure that decisions are made for the greater good, rather than to foster silos?
5. What protocol do you have for making certain everyone on a team is heard when making decisions?

And, once you have made a decision, what happens next? 

Here are five steps you can take to execute your team’s decisions effectively and equitably.

1. Determine who is affected by the decision
2. Identify the planned content you will share about the decision
3. Decide who will communicate the decision, and to whom
4. Choose how you will communicate the decision (recommendation: in-person is always best)
5. Schedule when you will communicate the decision (another recommendation: as soon as possible)

Let’s go back to the five frogs – What’s your answer? Take your time. No rush. How many are left?

The answer is five.

Why? Because four “decided” to jump off. That’s all they did. And there’s a big difference between deciding and executing. 

Coming to a resolution as a team before moving into action can change the spirit and feel inside your company while ensuring no one feels like they’re left behind. 

Interested in changing your process and systems around decision-making? I can help. I come with over  4 decades of organizational experience and proven strategies to help your team get on the same page. Let’s start a conversation. Give me a call today, or fill out the form below to help me learn about your needs. 

I recently heard Dan Sullivan, founder & president of Strategic Coach say “Our biggest breakthroughs as entrepreneurs come from things that don’t work.” Dan is masterful at summarizing complex situations in one sentence.

Think about that for a moment. Think back to a project or concept you and your team worked on only to discover that it wasn’t as great as you initially imagined.

What did you do when that happened? Did you toss the project aside, and lament the fact that it didn’t measure up to your expectations? Or did you gather the team together to sit down and analyze the event without allowing judgment to cloud your perspective?

Though it may feel better at the time, the first approach is reactionary, and ultimately won’t move you forward. The latter approach is responsive and will help propel you toward something in the future by providing insights and discoveries. You might identify additional skills you and your team can acquire that would’ve enhanced one aspect of the project. Or maybe there was a technology gap you can address that would have added value to the final product. Perhaps someone didn’t have the confidence to actually implement the project or the idea, easily solvable by investing professional development and training services into that member of the team. 

Failed projects show us a myriad of potential challenges, but they also reveal to us the action steps we can take to ensure better the next time around. 

Analyzing the process, systems, and steps you and your team used to develop the project is exactly how you will develop new capabilities for the team. What you identify may feel like an obstacle; however, I encourage you to recognize obstacles as presentations of the raw material you and your team need for the next project.

Moving from reaction mode to response mode after a perceived failure doesn’t have to be tough. I’ve guided teams from a vast array of industries towards seeing their business’s biggest challenges as their greatest potential for change. I can’t wait to lead the way for you. Contact me via the form below for a free, no-obligation consultation on how I can help you maximize the future of your company. The road to success is just a phone call away. 

Each of us has a superpower – it is your unique talent, an ability no one else in your company routinely exhibits, that one thing that always makes your brain dance. What I find interesting is the number of people who have not identified or downplay their superpower.

So, how do you know what your superpower is? I’m glad you asked! Here are five ways to do so:

1. Question what you’ve always done well. We all come with batteries included. Believe it or not, you have had this superpower since you were a little kid. You may have exhibited it in different ways throughout your life, but it has always been there.
   
2. Examine how you interact in new environments. You automatically bring your superpower to every situation, every activity. There is a theme to how you participate in the opportunities and activities you seek out – your superpower is evident in each of them.
   
3. Ask yourself — what comes naturally to me? You may not think of your superpower as all that distinctive because it just happens – there is no conscious thought behind it. Your superpower may feel dull to you; however, when you recognize it, you will understand what drives you.
   
4. Consider what people count on you to do. Everyone else recognizes your superpower and they seek you out because of it. They are naturally drawn to you. Think about what people regularly ask you to do.
   
5. Think about what you love. You love to use your superpower no matter where you are. It shows up in your personal life, your professional life, and all your relationships. 

Once you recognize your superpower, you can strengthen it by using it to become the best version of you. Your superpower is you – celebrate it and wear that cape proudly!

Interested in how to harness your natural talents and interests to advance your organization’s success? My superpower is asking the right questions at the right time. Fill out the consult form below to get in touch for a free consultation — your best self is waiting on the other side.