The Gratitude Attitude

The end of November is upon us and that moves us to gather with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. An amazing feast with our families and friends is just one of the tangible benefits of the Thanksgiving holiday. However, don’t overlook some of the intangible benefits we enjoy when we celebrate with an overall mindset of gratitude.

Be grateful for what you have.

Recent studies have established that when people take time to identify specific positive attributes in others or their actions, and take time to record them in some way, they tend to:

• Have a relative absence of stress and depression
• Make progress toward important personal goals
• Report higher levels of determination and energy

Using imapMyTeam® makes it easy to find and document positive attributes of your team and other co-workers.

Take a few minutes to read about what your colleagues contribute to the team by running their “Things You Contribute to the Organization” report. Just login to imapmyteam.com click on their name to move them to the center pane and select that report to view it. Consider their contributions and how they add to the team’s overall success. Perhaps write down a few notes to solidify your appreciation.

We hope you enjoy some time away from the demands of work and your return from the holiday comes with a renewed attitude of gratitude!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Relationships Make You Smarter!

Recently Fast Company ran an article that listed ‘Five Surprising Science-Backed Things That Make You Smarter’. One item on the list caught our eye; it was about how relationships make you smarter. The science behind this is called transactive memory systems.

In short a transactive memory system consists of the knowledge stored in each individual's memory combined with information regarding their different teammate's areas of expertise.

A transactive memory system provides teammates with information regarding the knowledge they have access to within the group. Group members learn who knowledge experts are and how to access their expertise through communicative processes. In this way, a transactive memory system can provide the group members with more (broader) and better knowledge than any individual could access on his own.

The important lesson to be learned and applied? People with diverse connections have better ideas than people with homogenous connections.

In imapMyTeam.com you have the MY TEAMS section to make sure you are leveraging the diverse transactive memory system at your disposal. Your team, as structured in the organizational chart is automatically built into the system. However you can create any number of teams by using the create teams or even the “my meetings” functions to build diverse groups for the purpose of problem solving.

It ought to be a ‘red flag’ to you when any of the four quadrants are empty. In those cases you are missing a critical piece of your transactive system and may be failing to fully leverage the diversity at your disposal.

Get diverse and get smarter today. 

Get Personal

“It’s not personal; it’s just business.”

Heard that phrase lately [Other than from watching any of the movies in the Godfather Trilogy]? Yes you have. Maybe even used it yourself once or twice.

Great leaders understand nothing is more personal than leadership, and they engage accordingly. The best leaders understand a failure to engage is in fact a failure to lead. Average leaders remain aloof and distant – great leaders look to know, understand and care for their people.

That realization shows up in many ways. We are often reminded that there is no “I” in team, and that all great achievements come at the hands of people working together. We read company value statements that say something to the effect of, “People are our greatest asset.” That IS a personal approach.

www.imapMyTeam is your link to quick insight on how to “know, understand and care” for other people. Here are a few of the many imapMyTeam reports that will help you engage others more effectively:

• How to talk to him/her
• What to avoid with him/him
• How to Best Use Interests

Peak performance is never built on the backs of others; but by helping others become successful. Treat your people as if your career depends on it – after all- business is personal. 

imapMyTeam’s New Home Page is Here!

Effective Friday November 22^nd there will be several changes to the site when you open http://www.imapmyteam.com in your browser. You’ll notice a new look right away and see we are expanding the usefulness of the imapMyTeam landing page.

Since the inception of imapMyTeam, the main page has served a single purpose; for users to login to their personal and team information.

That has not changed; you will still login from this page. However, the location of the login has moved to the upper right hand corner of the screen and is clearly marked:

USER Login

Click on the User Login button and enter your username and password as you always have to access your personal home page. 

Thank you for being an imapMyTeam User.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H your comfort zone

It is very easy to fall into a pattern of treating every person and situation similarly based on our own set of strengths. Because our strengths serve us well so often, we undertake the next ‘thing’ with the same approach. Sometimes this works fabulously, sometime it falls short.

Are you self-aware enough to fairly evaluate the times your strengths fell short?

The willingness to allow your positions and opinions to be challenged is a sign of strength, not weakness. People who are never willing to change their mind/position/skills ensure only one outcome – a lack of growth and development.

We once worked with a president of a healthcare company who exhorted his senior team to be “more comfortable being uncomfortable”. While this is not easy to hear and takes practice to master, he was on to an important insight. He understood that everyone -not just the senior leaders he was managing - needs to be willing to look inside, to learn who they are, so they can better manage [stretch] themselves.

www.imapMyTeam.com is a tool that will help you gain the self-awareness you need to move beyond the behaviors of your comfort zone. You will find helpful insights necessary to expand your existing comfort zone and discover new behaviors leading to a new zone of effectiveness.

When you learn to intentionally change your usual approach in the best interest of the team or the task at hand you’ll find your comfort zone expanding. You’ll also put yourself and your team one step closer to success.

Coaching Matters - A 40% Improvement

Coaching to Win: The World Series is in full swing [this is not a ‘sports’ post; non-sports fans stay with us] and one of the teams competing for the championship is the Boston Red Sox. Last year the Red Sox won just 69 of 162 games. This season, after a change in their field manager, whose primary responsibility is to get the most out of each of his players, the Sox won 97 games. That is a whopping 28 game improvement; 40% more wins than last year!

In addition to the field manager’s role of inspiring best performance, it’s also critical for the players themselves to be leaders in the clubhouse (locker-room) and on the field. When players make great plays on the field, it fuels momentum on the team. It’s exciting to be a part of a team with winning momentum and everyone’s performance seems to improve.

This is also true in business. When everyone on the team, managers and team players alike, take responsibility for coaching and inspiring others, it creates a winning business atmosphere. When everyone in the organization has a good idea about what they and others need to be successful, it’s a lot easier to coach, inspire and achieve world class performance.

ImapMyTeam.com is filled with resources to assist you in gaining insight into what your team needs to perform at its very best. Mangers will find the “Coaching” and the “How to Inspire for Best Performance” reports when clicking on the icon next to their direct reports. Team players will find the “Coaching” reports for their teammates in the “My Teams” window and clicking on “My Peers”.

Commit to be an inspiration to others, and improve your team’s performance today!