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| Greetings!
Happy New Year!
I hope you enjoy this month's Newsletter and that you get a tidbit or
two that can make a real difference in growing your business to help
you make your Impossible Future possible.
The theme for this month's Newsletter is "Teamwork". The lead article, the book review, and the Tip of the Month will all revolve around the development, benefits and need for a strong team.
Good Luck in 2008 from all of us at Impossible Futures.
Thank you, JJ
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Create A Cohesive Team -
Built on the Foundation of Your Dream
By Don Ingram
 "No
one person has all the answers and can do it all - not in any
industry. Build a team and define the culture of your organization.
Your team may include your family, your friends, your employees, a
Business Coach, a CPA, an attorney, or anyone else that commits to
help you reach your goals. Each member of your team, including you,
needs to clearly know what they do, what they don't do and what is
expected of them and that they will be held accountable - not to you,
but to the team."
Happy New Year everyone, I hope your aspirations for the new year are
forming in your business mind, and that the optimism for the New Year
is guiding your thoughts! This month's feature article continues
to build on the seven principles we brought to you in October 2007,
and I believe strongly that this third principle, Creating a Cohesive
Team, is one of the most critical, if not THE most critical
principle of all.
Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, describes how important it is to
build a team first in order to move your business from being good, to
achieving greatness. Collins writes "The executives who ignited
the transformation from good to great did not first figure out where
to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they
first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the
bus) and then figured out where to drive it." In fact, Collins
wrote " the main point . . .is not about assembling the right team -
that's nothing new." Rather, the main point is that great
leaders assemble their teams before they decide where to go. If you
can begin with "who" instead of "what" you can adapt to
changing conditions.
This transformation, or cultural change, is vitally important to any
business large or small. Assembling the right team engages people to
a vision that is aligned with the mission, vision, and goals of the
business. They are more likely to be committed, accountable, and
engaged if the culture of the business is defined by the expectations
of the team. This is the essence of accountability in business, and
so I want to spend a moment talking about the importance of
expectations.
Read the Full Article
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This Month's Book Summary
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick M. Lencioni
Patrick M. Lencioni has a unique style of writing business books -
a style that is both invitingly easy to read and very educational.
He engages the reader and teaches them about a simple topic, in this
case building a functional team, through storytelling.
In Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni uses a fictional story
(based on real-life situations) to invite the reader into a deeper
understanding of the problems that teams face and the solutions he
feels work best. The story is a great way to understand the concepts
as it puts actual usability to the model and explains the concepts
through very real situations - ones that most team leaders have had
to deal with, regularly.
Specifically, the book is broken down into two parts. The first
part (nearly 75%) of the book is a story of a newly appointed Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of a fictional IT company in the height of
the IT boom. The company, in spite of having some of the best minds
in the industry and more financial support than any of its
competition, is struggling and on the verge of imploding.
Although explaining the five dysfunctions throughout the book, the
second part of the book, the last few chapters, Lencioni describes
his model, provides a self-assessment questionnaire and offers
suggestions as to how to overcome the five dysfunctions.
Broken down, the Five Dysfunctions of a Team are:
Absence of Trust: Members
of great teams trust one another on a fundamentally emotional level,
and they are comfortable being vulnerable with each other about
their weaknesses, mistakes, fears and behaviors. They get to a
point where they can be completely open with one another, without
filters.
Fear of Conflict: Teams
that trust one another are not afraid to engage in passionate dialog
around issues and decisions that are key to the organization's
success. They do not hesitate to disagree with, challenge, and
question one another, all in the spirit of finding the best answers,
discovering the truth, and making great decisions.
Lack of Commitment: Teams
that engage in unfiltered conflict are able to achieve genuine
buy-in around important decisions, even when various members of the
team initially disagree. That's because they ensure that all
opinions and ideas are put on the table and considered, giving
confidence to team members that not stone has been left unturned.
Avoidance of Accountability:
Teams that commit to decisions and standards of performance do not
hesitate to hold one another accountable for adhering to those
decisions and standards. What is more, they don't rely on the team
leader as the primary source of accountability, they do directly to
their peers.
Inattention to Results: Teams
that trust one another, engage in conflict, commit to decisions, and
hold one another accountable are very likely to set aside their
individual needs and agendas and focus almost exclusively on what is
best for the team. They do not give in to the temptation to place
their departments, career aspirations, or ego-driven status ahead of
the collective results that define team success.
To get a printer friendly version of this summary, click here. |
Five Dysfunctions of a Team Seminars
Impossible Futures provides team-building seminars based on the Five Dysfunctions' Model.
The seminars are fully interactive and the curriculum is tailored to your needs - lasting from four hours to two full day sessions.
Contact JJ or Don at 888-439-6843 to find out more about
the seminars or to schedule one for your team today. |
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Tip of the Month
Start building trust amongst your team.
If you were to ask most people sitting around a table if they trusted the people they work with, most would say yes - at least publicly. And most people believe it.
But I'm not talking about trusting someone will do what is asked of them or trusting that they are competent at their job. I am talking about trusting someone enough to be ourselves around them - to volunteer ideas and opinions without the fear of ridicule or retribution.
How many of us are actually willing to say that we don't understand something to our peers or fellow teammates? How about admitting that you made a mistake? Ask for help? Or the most difficult for many of us, hold a peer or your boss accountable for something they either did or failed to do and not have it blow up in our face? This is the trust that I'm talking about. This is the trust that is the foundation of a solid team.
Building trust among teammates doesn't only occur during a crisis. It happens every minute of every day, in the way we conduct ourselves doing out daily activities. It happens in the way we "walk our talk" each and every day. And it is most effective when it starts with the leader.
So here is the tip. If you are the leader of a team and want to build more trust amongst your team members, stop and ask yourself, "Am I modeling the behavior I want others to emulate?" If not, over the course of the next month, show some vulnerability to your team members. Tell them when you don't know the answer the problem or that you don't understand what they are doing. Be honest with yourself about the mistakes that you made, the commitments that you haven't followed up on, and the accountabilities that you've missed - and then share them with your team. Odds are, they already know them because others are usually more keenly aware of our foibles than we are - our lack of honest self evaluation gets in the way of our credibility as a leader. And by admitting your vulnerabilities, your team members will gain new respect for you and more importantly will become more willing to be vulnerable as well.
Finally, ask for help. Let your team be your team - let them be your support structure. That is why you hired them in the first place.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at 888-439-6843. We would be more than happy to help you build your team to become the best that it can be. |
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