We all have them. Some can’t see them at all. Some of us have more of them than others. Some of us try to deny them. Some of us try to work around them. Some of us try to work with them. Some of us see them, work to reduce them, and help our teams do the same. Do you or your team fit any of these categories?
Using “the little gray cells” is an expression the legendary detective Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie, was often fond of using. A more “modern” example of this comes from management consultant, the late Peter Drucker, “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process…” So, if we know that we should keep “the little gray cells” active and that learning is important, what difference does it make whether that learning comes via training or development?
Simply put, high performing teams (HPTs), need members who are high performers. While this may appear to be a blinding flash of the obvious, what may not be so obvious is ensuring that your hiring system has the components it takes to attract high performers. High performers are not just going to come beat your door down. The truth is that high performers are not that easy to find and finding them will become even more difficult because the United States population growth is dropping. The fewer people, the fewer high performers. What can your organization do to help attract the best of the best out of a dwindling supply?
Teambuilding,, High Performing Teams
Read more: 4 Hiring Strategies for Building High Performance Teams
Building high performance teams isn’t rocket science, but high-performance teams don’t just appear out of nowhere, nor are they built overnight. Any type of team building requires effort but building high performance teams takes even more effort, dedication, and commitment. No, it’s not rocket science, it’s more of a combination of art and science. Just how does the blending of these two working together result in building high performing teams?
Many of you who read this will associate the term situational awareness (SA) with either military operations or security concerns. In terms of military, SA is knowing for example, the location, speed, direction, and fire power of hostiles. In terms of security, SA relates to being familiar with your surroundings, having a heightened sense of awareness of events unfolding around you and being at the ready to take any necessary actions. In today’s society we all need to take a certain amount of personal responsibility for our own safety. But what place does SA have in business?
People say the one constant in life – and business is change. However, there really are two, the other is conflict. While you strive for diversity in your culture, anytime you put a group of people together working with one another daily who have diverse thoughts, experiences, beliefs, ideas, talents, backgrounds, skill sets, and levels of skill sets, you’re going to have conflict. No where is this truer than on high performing teams. Let’s face it, these are competitive people otherwise they would not have made it where they are. Conflict is inevitable and a natural part of their DNA. As a leader don’t you have enough to do without having to manage team conflict?
When researching literature about strategic thinking, every author has his/her own definition for what constitutes strategic thinking. Indeed according to a report by the United States Army Research institute for the Behavior Sciences, the definition for strategic thinking has been changing through the decades to fit trends in business and management strategies. Modern literature offers a veritable smorgasbord of definitions. So how do people know if they are engaging in strategic thinking or not?
CEO, Strategic Planning,, High Performing Teams, Strategichinking
Read more: What is Strategic Thinking and Why is It Important?
People think that other people’s jobs are easy. “Oh, anyone can do that job.” “ I Could do that job with my eyes closed.” This is particularly true about jobs such as facilitating, teaching and training - especially training. Making matters worse, in Corporate America during a layoff, downtime, or economic turndown, training is the first position to go and the last position for rehiring. Adding insult to injury, trainers often garner the least respect of their co-workers. In short, Corporate America is not treasuring its trainers. So, this begs the question, “Can training really be that easy?”