One of the most interesting things about executive teams is that no two are alike. When someone reaches C-Level, they have a unique set of experiences, skills and attributes that has a big impact on how they work with others and achieve results. Often C-Level responsibilities blend – especially with different groups that share a focus on the customer. So a natural give-and-take can happen that if not acknowledged and directed can sway a company culture in an unintended direction and even create competitive silos.
Remember that teams are made up of individuals
It’s important to understand how your team works individually and as a whole. Being a person with a core value of fairness, it was a surprise to me when I learned that being fair meant that you don’t treat everyone on a team the same way. To get the best performance from individual team members, you have to understand how they function independently as well as in the team.
Explain – Direct – Honour – Connect. For me, these are things that great business team leaders do
This morning I flicked on CNN over breakfast I heard political advisor John Avlon say that Trump too often uses as strategies behaviours that Distract, Deflect or Discredit. Anchor John Berman added to this list – Divide. For me, business leadership is best served donig the opposite – Explain, Direct, Honour and Connect.
Creating Consensus
Every leader has their own unique style of leadership that is developed out of their personality, experience, successes, and failures. There is no cookie-cutter one size fits all how-to answer on how to lead. There are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Leadership is not a quality; it is more of a mindset […]
Is Culture at odds with Diversity
I’ve been struggling with whether or not to write a post on culture. I usually try to make my posts be positive and forward looking. And yet, I can’t write an article on culture without first doing a small rant on what I consider the dark side of culture. The sometimes use of culture to exclude people that don’t “fit”. Even when they might have relevant skills and can add value. As a woman in technology, and now an older woman in technology, on the surface I don’t always look like I “fit”. Though, I guess I’ve been lucky. The teams and environments that I have worked in have been diverse, just by virtue of me being on them. And now, I’m at a point and level in my career, where I can positively impact a culture, not just “fit” into one.
Delighting the Customer should always be the higher goal between corporate Silos
Problems occur in the gaps between people. Often issues occur between individual people, teams and silos, companies and customers because of miss understood lines of responsibility and unmet expectations. How often have we all heard the expression that a problem arose because “things fell through the cracks” He then went on to explain that the ideal solution to these problems is not reorganization or rewriting of agreements, but in finding the higher goal that the separate sides would benefit from, and forge a joint resolve to accomplish that goal.
