You have to build trust among team members so that people feel free to admit what they don't know, make mistakes, ask for help if they need it, apologize when necessary, and not hold back their opinions.
— Patrick Lencioni
At the heart of every great movie is conflict. It's the same with a meeting. There should be conflict and tension.
Team synergy has an extraordinary impact on business results.
If you want to lead, you better love people. Even if you don't like them, you have to love them enough to tell them the truth.
Teamwork requires some sacrifice up front; people who work as a team have to put the collective needs of the group ahead of their individual interests.
I'm kind of a reluctant guru.
Home is most important in the long run.
A lot of times, people find themselves in a meeting where the primary purpose is to receive information, and that's a poor use of people's time. Those meetings can be easily dispensed with and can be an email instead that people read in their own time.
I never accepted the premise that meetings themselves were bad.
The best kind of accountability on a team is peer-to-peer. Peer pressure is more efficient and effective than going to the leader, anonymously complaining, and having them stop what they are doing to intervene.
Whether we're talking about leadership, teamwork, or client service, there is no more powerful attribute than the ability to be genuinely honest about one's weaknesses, mistakes, and needs for help.
Where there is humility, there is more success, and lasting success.
Hungry people are always looking for more. More things to do. More to learn. More responsibility to take on.
If you're not willing to accept the pain real values incur, don't bother going to the trouble of formulating a values statement. You'll be better off without one.
Enron - although an extreme case - is hardly the only company with a hollow set of values.
I coach soccer, and my wife and I are very involved in our kids' lives. Our family is busy with doctor appointments, soccer practice, school, work, travel, vacation... life.
Failing to engage in conflict is a terrible decision, one that puts our temporary comfort and the avoidance of discomfort ahead of the ultimate goal of our organization.
We learn by taking action and seeing whether it works or not.
I work with CEOs and their executive teams... and very few of these people are really indifferent about their employees or their customers.
The kind of people that all teams need are people who are humble, hungry, and smart: humble being little ego, focusing more on their teammates than on themselves. Hungry, meaning they have a strong work ethic, are determined to get things done, and contribute any way they can. Smart, meaning not intellectually smart but inner personally smart.
Team members need to learn to leverage one another, and that doesn't happen over a golf game or on a phone. It happens by getting together and taking the time to know each other.
Teamwork is a strategic decision.
The best leaders over the long term are those who have a sound home life.
If you don't know what your family stands for and what your life situation is, you're in trouble.
Meetings are the linchpin of everything. If someone says you have an hour to investigate a company, I wouldn't look at the balance sheet. I'd watch their executive team in a meeting for an hour. If they are clear and focused and have the board on the edge of their seats, I'd say this is a good company worth investing in.
You can go to work and actually make someone else's job less miserable. Use your job to help others.
Team members need to be able to admit their weaknesses and mistakes, to acknowledge the strengths of others, and to apologize when they do something wrong.
Sometimes you're going to have someone on your team who's just not comfortable with being open. You have to ask yourself, 'Is this person going to allow us to be a real team?' Maybe they're not right for your team. You have to be willing to lose someone sometimes.
What clients are really interested in is honesty, plus a baseline of competence.
For organizations seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, I'm convinced that 'the right people' are the ones who have three virtues in common - humility, hunger, and people smarts.
Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values - and sticking to them - requires real guts.
Trying to design the perfect plan is the perfect recipe for disappointment.
Even though I wrote 'The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family,' my life is as chaotic as most people's.
Conflict is the pursuit of truth.
Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.
Make sure that the people at the top are working together and there aren't divisions of labor. Don't have people working in silos; have them working across the team.
I know that any group of people can become a team if they do the right things, but I came to realize over time that if you acquire or develop the right kind of people, that process of building a team is going to be much more effective and easier.
Team members have to hold each other accountable. If there's a meeting, all members have to commit to be present and to help one another; they can't just check out when they feel they're not getting any benefits.
I hate touchy-feely things.
People who have a sense of peace that their priorities are in the right place also have a sense of humility and a realistic view on life.
The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.
The problem is too often they are boring, and boring in a meeting happens for the same reason as in a book or movie - when there is not enough compelling tension. Meetings should be intense.
Members of great teams confront each other when they see something that isn't serving the team.
Great teams argue. Not in a mean-spirited or personal way, but they disagree when important decisions are made.
Anybody, and any company, can have a big run of success once, but if you're going to repeat that over time, you need to be aware that you need to keep learning.
Hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder, because they are self-motivated and diligent. They are constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity. And they loathe the idea that they might be perceived as slackers.
Meetings are usually terrible, but they shouldn't be.
Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, and undermine managerial credibility.
Life is full of surprises: new opportunities come up; that's part of the fun - the adventure of life. The thing is, chaos doesn't allow us to enjoy the adventure.
Conflict is always the right thing to do when it matters.
