Posts Tagged ‘the great eight’
The Great Eight: Wrap Up
I’ve served on a whole lot of teams in my life, some great, some not-so-great, and I can say without hesitation that the team I work with at Leading by DESIGN is the best, healthiest, most connected team I’ve worked on. I think the four of us (Rodger, Jeff, Gerald, and me) actually hit all eight…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Chemistry
Chemistry is the last of our eight characteristics of great teams. This is the most difficult of the eight characteristics to write about as it’s the one I understand the least. I believe we can teach you how to grow the other seven characteristics
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Grace
Grace is a unique aspect of great teams. It’s also something that is seldom talked about by experts in team performance. Do you remember what we meant we used the term “grace” at our offsite where we explored the eight characteristics of great teams? The definition we used was “undeserved favor.” There are two basic types of undeserved…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Knowing Yourself and Others
If everyone were just more like me, the world would be a better place—or at least my organization would be—or at least my team would be. Besides being an entirely narcissistic statement, it would not be the case that if our teams simply had more uniformity, they would be better. But when are differences valuable? When are they…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Talent
(This post is written for alumni of LEAD 365, although all are welcome to read it.) In order to be a great team, there are specific tasks that need to be done very well. The word “talent” describes what is required in order to achieve each of these tasks with excellence. Great teams have the…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Trust
(This post is written for alumni of LEAD 365, although all are welcome to read it.) As I write this post, there are 6,289 books on trust available under the Business and Money category on Amazon. What can we possibly add to all that wisdom? Maybe nothing. But please keep reading anyway. Trust is foundational to great…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Communication
(This post is written for alumni of LEAD 365, although all are welcome to read it.) Communication is truly one of the key characteristics of great teams. Effective communication is rarely identified as a strength in the teams I’ve had the privilege to observe over the past twenty years. In fact, when doing a cultural assessment,…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Commitment
(This post is written for alumni of LEAD 365, although all are welcome to read it.) In Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he lists five characteristics of a dysfunctional team. One of those five is “the lack of commitment.” When people have not had the opportunity to air their opinion or challenge others,…
Read MoreThe Great Eight: Common Goals
(This post is written for alumni of LEAD 365, although all are welcome to read it.) Imagine you are running a race. All the runners gather together, stretching muscles, bouncing on the balls of their feet to warm up, drinking a last few sips of water, popping in their earbuds. The loudspeaker fires up to give…
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