Light The Flame

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

 Albert Schweitzer     

In what has become an imapMyTeam® Tuesday Tip Tradition, the Thanksgiving week tip focuses on gratitude.

As we wish you and your coworkers a Thanksgiving filled with abundance and bright moments, it’s fitting to reflect on the things we are most grateful for at work. At the top of the gratitude list are the diverse talents of our coworkers. Each colleague brings something different to help make your team, and ultimately your organization, thrive. Without their passion, strengths and commitment to reach your team’s success you would flounder.

It is in moments of darkness, when our minds or bodies can’t be pushed any further, that our team members light that flame.  Ideas flow again, energy is regained and our work becomes productive.  It is for each other that we should be most grateful.

Use imapMyTeam® to make it easy to find and document positive attributes of your team members. Consider their contributions and how they add to the team’s overall success. Perhaps write down a few notes to solidify your appreciation. The gratitude you offer will benefit you as well as your colleagues.

Studies have established that when people take time to identify specific positive attributes in others or their actions, and take time to acknowledge 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

We are grateful for the readers of Tuesday Tips and users of imapMyTeam®; we appreciate each and every one of you – without you there would be no us. We greatly value your trust and confidence and sincerely appreciate your loyalty to our business - you light the flame for us.

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!

Are You Suffering from ‘Change Fatigue’?

A phrase I read recently sticks with me – “businesses are operating in a constant state of whitewater.”

Anyone who has ever shot rapids in serious Class IV water or above can best understand that analogy. It’s experiencing constant and difficult churn, perhaps exciting and exhilarating while you’re in the middle of it, but also personally exhausting to control your raft (business) from danger. 

The need to be continuously evolving is a business necessity.   The need to change can leave your employees feeling ‘bombarded’ with one change after another. Some studies indicate that after extended periods of change employees develop apathy towards change. They lose energy to care; anticipating the next change and the next.

If you change a person's job, you change the department they work in. If you change their department, then you change the organization in which they work. If you change the organization, then the whole organizational culture is shifting and ultimately changed.

As change fatigue grows, the potential for employees to disengage grows. Disengagement is in full bloom when your employees come to work, but their commitment, contribution, and value doesn’t come with them.
An engaged employee asks, “How can I make a difference?  A disengaged employee asks, “Is it time to go home yet?"

Employees need time to get comfortable with change and how it impacts not just their immediate world, but how those changes may ripple into other parts of the organization. Most of all, employees need support all the while the changes are occurring. In a previous Tuesday Tip we likened this to changing trapezes.  It is scary to let go of a trapeze, hanging in the air waiting for the new trapeze to arrive. Don’t leave people hanging.

In imapMyTeam® there are reports to help. One is the Stress of Change report. You should be completely familiar with your own report and if a leader, those of your direct reports. Pay attention to the ‘whitewater’ of change swirling around and, if it is triggering any of these issues, take the prescriptive actions it suggests.

From Player to Coach

"A good coach will make his players see what they can become rather than what they are."                                                                                                             - Unknown It happens every day in companies across America. An all-star performer is promoted from team member or individual contributor to manager of a team. And, nearly every day, new managers struggle. They struggle because the job they are now doing is vastly different from the job they were doing, even though they stayed on the same team. I write about this for the Tuesday Tip because of a lengthy discussion with my son who completes his masters degree in sports management this semester. One person I pointed to during the discussion was Michael Jordan – who is acknowledged to be the greatest basketball player of all time and – would I be too harsh if I said, is largely ineffective as a basketball general manager?! The primary difference between being an outstanding individual contributor and moving to a frontline manager is the difference between personal and organizational productivity. Once a person moves into their new leader role, their primary focus must be squarely on developing expertise in others, not on doing the work yourself. “The most common cause of executive failure is the inability or unwillingness to change with the demands of a new position. Who keeps on doing what he has done successfully before is almost bound to fail.”                                                                                                             -Peter Drucker Your strengths and skills that created success as a team member may not serve you well in the new leadership role where the focus is to get the best out of each individual. In imapMyTeam there is a report to help you and others know where you need coaching. The “Coaching Conversations” report identifies your strongest behaviors – ones often the source of our success, and gives insight as to the possible barriers to success those strengths can present when overused.  Coaching conversations then gives prescriptive guidance to modify that behavior to succeed. Coach yourself, or help your new leaders, and first level managers see what they can become, rather than what they are. Turn those great players into great coaches!

Tired of the Fight?

Conflict has never been more front and center than in our current race to the election finish line.  We are surrounded by disagreement and discord in our schools, neighborhoods, communities and even around the dining room table.  Lots of discourse, not much resolution.

At work, we’ve learned that the strongest teams are diverse in how they approach their work.  The irony is that the diversity that makes a team strong also causes conflict; therefore, a team often is not at its strongest without the accompanying risk of conflict.  We just can’t go anywhere without having to deal with disagreements.

When the tension becomes counterproductive, people experience shifts in behavior that can get in the way of effectively working to resolve the differences.  The results are often hurt feelings, outbursts of anger, open hostility, lack of focus and, ultimately, an inability to work together.

The “Resolving Differences” Report helps us understand why working through those disagreements can be so difficult for us.  It gives practical suggestions that will help you work through any conflict you may be having with your colleagues.  Maybe we need to make it available to our politicians running for office!

Access your Resolving Differences report by going to the center pane of your www.imapmyteam.com ® home page and use the pull down menu of reports just above your name to find it.  This report helps you understand why working through disagreement can be so difficult and provides some helpful suggestions.

Review your report and consider one or two things you can do differently to head off the tension that comes along with conflict.  Do this before it gets in the way of your ability to work with others on your team (or around your dining room table!)

Sync Up!

Synchronize: to cause things to agree in time or to make things happen at the same time and speed

Most work groups express the need to work more collaboratively and the significance of that aspiration is hard to argue. If you recall our Dream Team Tuesday Tip, it emphasized that very point.

The notion of synchronizing that collaborative effort struck me recently as I reflected about the dancing lessons my wife and I took over the summer.

Dance partners need to gracefully move together; to be in synch. Several things became immediately apparent as we began to really learn how to dance together. While the music set the rhythm and pace, it was important for us to know and follow a specific pattern of dance steps. Being aware, responsive and adapting to each other’s movements required intense focus and seemed to be the key ingredient to our ability to dance gracefully together. Finally, having an awareness of other couples sharing the floor helped us navigate effectively within the larger group.

In business it’s also important for individuals and teams to be in synch. Some of the essential elements mentioned above are also necessary in successfully executing the business plan.  Individual initiatives and team projects all have rhythm, pace and require a specific application of skills. Being responsive and adapting to the priorities of the business and other key members of the team requires intense organizational focus.

How does your team stay in synch?

Whether you need some quick insight on interacting effectively with another person on the team, or you need to prepare to make the most of your next meeting with an important group, imapMyTeam will help.  The content is designed to provide you and the team resources to maintain intense organizational synchronization- essential to success and to make the collaborative effort pay off.  

How Do You Show-Up?

Learning and Growth is one of my favorite categories to follow on Twitter and it recently lead me to an article titled “The 6 Ways You Need To Show-Up At Work.”  The list included these suggestions:  dress the part, play the role, avoid BS, be candid, answer difficult questions and listen.  Okay, those make sense on some level, but we at iMap think there are really only two ways to show up at work that matter.

Your Team Player report tells you what these two possibilities are.  You can show up at work either in strength or in stress.   These are the visible, external behaviors that others see in you.  It is these behaviors that will be the basis by which others determine how you are showing up on the job.

When you are being most effective, it’s likely because you are using your strengths appropriately and operating in your usual behavior.  It’s also possible that you may actually be somewhat out-side your usual style or comfort zone because you’ve learned to adapt your behavior to the needs of the moment.  Either way, others love it when this version of you is who shows up.

On the other hand, it’s another story when stress strikes. Stress behavior is a counter- productive reaction and can result in damage to important relationships. When this person shows up at work, you lose the power of choice and your behavior will likely change to something that is viewed as far from positive by others. It causes meetings to go off track, projects to slow down, conflict begins and productivity drops.

When our visible behaviors are moving back and forth from our usual to stress reactions, we can appear to others as being inconsistent and unpredictable. I’m certain that none of our Tuesday Tip readers wants to show up as unpredictable! This Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pattern creates great confusion and causes other to be cautious in their interactions with us.

Using imapMyTeam on a regular basis will help ensure that the best version of you shows up much more often than then the reactionary version!  The positive, in-control you, rather than the out-of- control you also reinforces consistency and predictability – characteristics important to be able to build trust with others.

Dress right, avoid BS, listen and all of the things I read are ok – but none as powerful as self-awareness and self-management that comes from regular use of imapMyTeam.

The Privilege of Pressure

Pressure is a Privilege is the title of a book written by Billie Jean King. The genesis of the book is her epic ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match against Bobby Riggs in 1973. Ms. King’s reference to ‘pressure being a privilege’ is borne from the fact that as you progress in your field or position more is expected of you. She views the lofty expectations others have of you in your role, and the pressure to perform, as a privilege

.

Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state. When the challenges are great, and the skills are a match to the challenge, the pressure enhances performance. If the challenges are great and the skills are not developed enough, the pressure becomes too much and results in poor performance.

The fact of the matter is that pressure comes in multiple forms. There is ‘good’ and appropriate level of pressure that, when applied to our strengths, actually helps people perform well. It brings focus.  That’s the type Ms. King and Dr. Csikszentmihalyi refer to in their work. Appropriate pressure enhances performance. It reminds me of the old saying that “it takes pressure to make diamonds”.

There is also pressure that is big trouble and causes people to often fall apart.

Pressure, as defined in imapMyTeam, is that type of pressure. This pressure is created when the environment does not match our motivational needs. When needs are unmet it causes a reaction that feels like pressure to us. Our behavior changes, we react, and can lose control of our behavior.

In all cases, this type of pressure is counterproductive to our long term success. It is important to be self-aware and notice how changing circumstances can quickly surface this personal pressure – and how to make sure you are well positioned to recover and get back on track.

The Succeed Under Pressure report in imapMyTeam will give you guidance on how to recover, or even avoid, the negative consequences of the wrong type of pressure. This report prescribes ways to get back on track.  The ‘bad’ pressure goes away and then you can benefit from the focus of the right kind of pressure.

When you have the skills to match the moment, welcome the right kind of pressure.  Pressure applied to your strengths and skills allows you to grow and improve.  This is the type that that promotes focus and brings out your greatness.  After all, pressure is a privilege!

A Successful Finish in 2016

Last week’s Tuesday Tip challenged you to “Zone In and Take Off” as you head down the home-stretch of 2016. Today’s tip will continue on that theme but from a more focused, personal level as individual performance and execution is critical to team success. This may be especially true for smaller teams, yet applies to teams of all sizes.

Whether you are far ahead or making a move to come from behind on your individual and team goals, this is a very practical exercise that will help you make the most of the time remaining in 2016.
Go to imapMyTeam.com, log in and then please run your Getting Things Done Snapshot. It is a 2 page “at-a-glance” report that can be found using the drop down menu under your personal reports section in the center of your home page.

The first snapshot page concisely describes three strength characteristics that define how you typically move something from decision to completion.

· Your process of making a decision
· The speed at which you implement those decisions once made, and
· How you work all of the various to-do items you have on your plate.

The second snapshot page succinctly describes three conditions that you need in place in order to stay in your strengths, as described on the first page.
· How much time you prefer to think about a decision
· How you keep yourself physically ‘recharged’, and
· How to stay on top of your To-Do list.

Examine these pages as a quick, but powerful exercise in self-awareness. Compare this report with those of your colleagues to see where you have complementary strengths. Page 2 is the fuel that gets you to the finish line. It is important information for you to recognize about yourself and others and vice versa.

It’s not uncommon to discover some of the tasks you’ve been assigned do not fit neatly in your comfort zone of operation. Remember, having the ability to quickly recognize when your usual behavior is not working for you, and just as quickly making the choice to adapt and take a different approach will likely help you make the progress needed.


As you work hard to bring 2016 to a successful close, you can depend on imapMyTeam to give you the insight you need stay on track!

Zone In! Take Off!

Labor Day Weekend has long been associated with our final fling with summer before turning our attention back to school and business.

With the back to school part already well underway, most of us probably took advantage of the opportunity to squeeze out every last drop of summer we could over the weekend. Now that we’re ready to put away the bathing suits and flip flops, it’s time to diagram our personal strategy for the 2016 home-stretch run.

Whether September brings us new challenges, or we’re looking for a strong finish to an existing project; or both- it’s time to get focused, get organized, and get busy.

Where to begin? Let’s face it, just getting refocused after summer can be challenging for many so, a great place to start is by rallying around what is easy for you. It’s time for you to get back into your personal optimal performance zone.

What does the optimal performance ‘Zone’ look like? It is the convergence of the things you love and enjoy most, the ability to use the strengths that come to you naturally, and securing the support you need to leverage those passions and strengths. When those three elements come together you’ll be on the way to doing your best work right out of the gate. The same thing is true for your direct reports.
For you and your team to ‘get focused, get organized, and get busy,’ use imapMyTeam to help you figure it out quickly.


Go to your “Team Player” report. Once you navigate there, go to the last page which is the summary. It recaps what you need, and when those needs are met, how you can leverage both your passions and strengths to be back in an optimal ‘performance zone’ in no time. 

Sync Up!

Synchronize: to cause things to agree in time or to make things happen at the same time and speed

Most work groups express the need to work more collaboratively and the significance of that aspiration is hard to argue. If you recall our Dream Team Tuesday Tip, it emphasized that very point.
The notion of synchronizing that collaborative effort struck me recently as I reflected about the dancing lessons my wife and I took over the summer.

Dance partners need to gracefully move together; to be in sync. Several things became immediately apparent as we began to really learn how to dance together. While the music set the rhythm and pace, it was important for us to know and follow a specific pattern of dance steps. Being aware, responsive and adapting to each other’s movements required intense focus and seemed to be the key ingredient to our ability to dance gracefully together. Finally, having an awareness of other couples sharing the floor helped us navigate effectively within the larger group.

In business it’s also important for individuals and teams to be in sync. Some of the essential elements mentioned above are also necessary in successfully executing the business plan. Individual initiatives and team projects all have rhythm, pace and require a specific application of skills. Being responsive and adapting to the priorities of the business and other key members of the team requires intense organizational focus.

How does your team stay in sync?


Whether you need some quick insight on interacting effectively with another person on the team, or you need to prepare to make the most of your next meeting with an important group, imapMyTeam will help. The content is designed to provide you and the team resources to maintain intense organizational synchronization- essential to success and to make the collaborative effort pay off. 

A National Re-Charge!

With the end of summer quickly approaching, the upcoming Labor Day holiday is the perfect time for some recreation and re-charging. We are taking this opportunity to ‘mash-up’ imapMyTeam, a special anniversary, and the end of summer.

It just so happens that The National Parks Service had its 100^th birthday last Thursday August 25.  It was on that date in 1916 the NPS was officially founded when President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law to create the service to oversee many of the already established and growing number of protected areas.

Our National Parks Service offer us the opportunity to get away to relax, learn, discover and re-charge in a wide variety of interesting places. As part of the celebration the NPS has been running an initiative called “Find Your Park” encouraging everyone of all ages to find the national park that suits them for both inspiration and recreation.

How might a National Park inspire you to recharge as they have suggested in their campaign?

Experiment. Take your Re-Energize report from imapMyTeam and read all of the statements and consider how they would apply to a national park trip. What activities would you undertake that are in alignment with your report? What conditions for recharging are met?

If hitting a National Park is part of your plan, No problem. This exercise works as well if you are going to the beach or planning a Labor Day ‘staycation’ that takes you no further than your backyard grill.

If you are re-charging with family or friends remember that we all have very different ways of renewing our physical and social energy. One person’s chill is often very different from another!

However you spend the holiday, there are a couple of things to remember: down-time is not a luxury; it’s a vital requirement of mental, emotional and physical health. Also, the ability to know when to recharge your personal batteries is an essential element of staying on a winning pace.  You’ll want to be ready to face the challenges of finishing strong in 2016

The Re-Energize report in imapMyTeam will help you make the most of your time away no matter the venue. 

Blind to our own Blindness

My 2015 vehicle with just less than 9000 miles has a ‘glitch’.  My dashboard has started to go out from time to time. Visible one moment, black – or is it blank? – the next. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes ‘short’ sometimes ‘long’ it’s off, it’s on, and it’s off again!

This ranges from a being a small nuisance to highly annoying to me.

Yesterday I ran a few errands in my neighborhood without information. No problem. Later in the day I went to a friend’s BBQ – drove a 60 mile round trip with the dashboard being more off than on – I’m annoyed.

Now imagine me driving across the country without my dashboard working. How would I know when I was going to run out of gas or if any of the other trouble lights were signaling to me? Tire pressure/Oil levels/ Engine temperature and the like. I could be speeding and have no idea.

Would you run your business without a working dashboard? I doubt it. You need to know how you are performing and use that information to make necessary adjustments.

Relationships need a dashboard too – and you have it right in front of you. imapMyTeam®. While there is no “data” on the imap dashboard, it does call attention to, among other things, individual and team blind spots. Without accurate information and perspective we are as blind to those blind spots as I am to my vehicle speed.

I’m going to have to take my vehicle in for maintenance – when was the last time you took your relationships or team for some preventive maintenance?

I have a suggestion. Use the attached ‘Dream Team’ exercise to check to see if the team has all the blind spots covered – it will help you make the long distance drive you need to succeed. After all, your business success is a long term endeavor that deserves all the visibility you can get.

Delta Knows: Relationships Matter

When things fall apart, damage is done and the answers are not easy, sometimes all you have for survival is the strength of your relationships. Relationships matter.

Last week was not a good week for Delta Air Lines Inc. Despite a $150 million investment in system upgrades this year alone, a new chief information officer and a leadership team for information technology and infrastructure, Delta’s main computer system failed in the pre-dawn hours Monday morning. Result: 2100 flights cancelled over a three day period; travelers stretched well beyond “thank you for your patience.”

When individuals and teams perform according to expectations, it’s natural for others to have confidence in and be willing to extend trust to them. When there is a failure to perform, commitments are unmet or people do not do what they say they are going to do, trust can suffer. So it’s critical to recognize the way we perform on a daily basis can either build trust or blow it up.

All companies in every industry work hard to build loyalty and trust with their customers. Yet sometimes things go wrong; sometimes BIG things go wrong, and the loyalty and trust of customers is tested. If you were one of the Delta passengers impacted by this meltdown of services, perhaps your loyalty was compromised.

When failure strikes, it creates moments of truth for individuals and organizations. Each personal interaction between affected parties becomes critical in restoring the relationship and rebuilding trust.
Many imapMyTeam users do have customers or strategic partners as part of their larger imapMyTeam network. The relationships forged via this collaboration tool have helped them through some rough patches in the past and will do so again in the future.

Create your own relationship capital because you never know when your own ‘Delta Day’ may occur. If – or when - it does, you’ll be rewarded for having invested in relationships all along rather than playing catch-up afterwards.


Even if it is not practical for your organization to link to key partners with imapMyTeam as others have done, using the resources available to you will help you better understand how to invest in building loyalty with those you interact with on a regular basis. Build Relationships to survive the inevitable “Delta” moments

They Didn’t Get To the Podium Alone

The Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil were held last night.  As I watched country by country march into the stadium proudly representing their respective nations, I missed something; perhaps it will come later during the actual competition.

Backstories of many of the athletes were abundant. Mostly about what they did, where they came from. Perhaps the odds they defied – maybe a bit about their family from time to time. I didn’t hear a word about their coaches.

Although the coaches of these various athletes don’t throw a javelin, put a shot, sprint on the track, head one soccer ball, dive into a pool, those coaches produce influential contributions to their athletes’ success.  While I didn’t hear about too many of the coaches, the athletes will be depending on their real-time feedback and advice throughout the “Games” to give them the edge they need to win the Gold Medal.

I suspect any athlete marching onto that stadium would quickly give credit to the coaches who got them there. Of course most were blessed with athletic ability – the coach molded that gift and improved upon it, both mentally and physically.

These gifted athletes did not get there alone.
Organizations working to develop world-class leaders should pay notice to that.
Similarly to the athletes, gifted leaders do not get there alone.  Coaching is such an important and integral element of success that it is has to be considered a requirement for success.

imapMyTeam is your desktop coach. It is there to help you hone your skills and improve your performance so you too can stand on the podium and receive your organization’s equivalent of the Gold Medal.

Unlike an athlete that is trying to improve on a singular performance in a well-defined competition, the leaders reading this Tuesday Tip are trying to improve their responsiveness in a wider variety of situations and WITH a wide variety of different people.

It is not about total change – it is about adapting and creating greater range; being able to stretch ones-self to succeed.  The Coaching Conversations report in imapMyTeam will help guide you through those important coaching opportunities.

Grab the Gold Medal by tapping the insights of imapMyTeam and having frequent conversations with your coach about your performance.

‘StressBuster’

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” 

                                                                                               ~~ William James

Stress behaviors will look different depending on who we’re talking about.  For some, they look like rigidity, others it’s anxiety, and there are those where it’s visible pushiness while some will suck it all in and feel the pain privately.  The common denominator of all stress behaviors, no matter what they look like, is that they are a reaction to not getting something that we need.

When you shift into your stress behavior, you lose your power to choose how you want to manage a situation and run the risk of creating damage.  Full blown stress behaviors are counter-productive and they limit our ability to succeed. The stress initially begins by impacting our own ability to cope and quickly spreads to those around us. These unchecked stress behaviors are costly and can have significant organizational consequences such as:

·         alienated employees

·         interpersonal conflict

·         shift in focus from team to personal wins

·         a cycle of poor decision making

·         wasted time and resources

Stop the free-fall!

The quickest way to halt this free fall into stress reactions and avoid their damaging consequences is a StressBuster; a simple technique to help you regain self-control.  It uses the strengths that are opposite of the stress to create balance and control.

We have attached a one page pdf to this email that gives you two charts.  The first one describes stress behaviors and the second gives ideas of what to do should they occur.  To find out which quadrant you should be paying attention to, go to imapMyTeam and see what color your circle and square are located in.  This indicates what your needs are and how you will react if they’re not met.

Open the PDF and look at that same color quadrant for a description of how you may react. 

Now here’s the tricky part…..Your StressBuster comes from the diagonally opposite quadrant to where your circle and square are located.  Choose these behaviors when the stress reaction occurs to make sure that you don’t cause damage to yourself, other people or the work you’re responsible to deliver.

Are you running on the right fuel type?

Premium - Diesel- Compressed Natural Gas-Electric Battery- FlexFuel 85. There are all sorts of vehicles that require a special type of fuel to operate effectively. When you don’t give the vehicle proper fuel you end up with a mess. Try putting diesel in your gasoline engine and see what happens!

People are the same way. We are looking for the right fuel mix to get optimal performance.
When you set out on a segment of work that is extremely difficult, filled with potential roadblocks and critical to the success of the overall project, what properly fuels you to persevere and see it through?

Sometimes we get to pump our own fuel and we usually make the right selection. Often someone else is filling our tank…are they making the right choice? When others offer to support you, or ask how they can help, what do you tell them?

Your ability to “stay the course” and maintain an effective level of persistence is directly influenced by your own set of needs. When these needs are consistently met, you may not even notice; yet when they go unmet and things get difficult, you will likely notice right away that something’s not right.
The attached grid is designed to help you identify both your ‘fueling needs’ and how others may have different needs than you. This will help you influence your working environment to increase your ability to persist when the going gets tough.


Log in to www.imapmyteam.com and in the center pane you will see the four color grid. Identify the color quadrant in which your circle symbol lies. Then refer to document below this blog entry and look to the corresponding color quadrant for insights on how to remain persistent in your pursuit to achieve success.

The Beat and the Tempo; Who’s Your Drummer and What’s Their Rhythm?

On a recent drive from New York to Pittsburgh I had lots of time to think and listen to music. Earlier I had created a playlist called ‘Drum Fix’ and queued it up for the drive home. In listening to one great song after another I focused my ear on the drummer. If you’re passionate about music, I think you will agree – all great groups have a great drummer!

While most great drummers become well known for extreme precision in providing their creative and complex beat patterns, their first and foremost responsibility is to provide a solid tempo and rhythm for the rest of the band. A great drummer is always listening to the rest of the instruments (parts). They know when it’s time to slow down or speed up the tempo to either simply hold the band together, or to deliver a truly unique performance.

Companies typically have a corporate culture that creates an operating rhythm or beat and tempo that they like everything played to. Leaders are a lot like drummers. They have to understand the outcome (song) that the company wants to play, and then they need to lead their team by providing the beat and tempo to accomplish that.

Leaders, like drummers, have beat and tempo responsibility and set it for their team.

It gets interesting when the team is comprised of many people each of which has a beat and tempo that works best for them – and what works well for them may not be in sync with the beat and tempo that is being set for them.

How does the leader take a group of people, with varying capacity for beat and tempo, and make a beautiful song? The “Getting Things Done” snapshot report in imapMyTeam is a one good place to start!

There are 3 important keys to understand about the team when it’s important to move at the “tempo of business.” Unlike a band playing a song, not everyone tackles action items the same way or at the same pace and there is no “correct” approach. However, moving forward at an appropriate pace is essential.

• Process for making decisions,

• How they prefer to move those decisions into action and,

• How they are most comfortable working all of the various ‘to-do’s’ on their action lists.

The Getting Things Done snapshot helps the leader understanding each individual’s:




Have conversation with your ‘band’ about how you can best support them in the above three categories and soon you will be playing sweet music that meets the needs of the business. 

A Dream Team Takes the Field

This week Major League Baseball has taken a break from the regular season. Tonight the 87^th annual All Star Baseball game will be played in San Diego. The “Midsummer Classic” has been a fan favorite since the very first game played at Comiskey Park as part of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. (Fun Fact: It was intended to be a one-time affair to boost morale during the Great Depression but was so successful it was deemed the Game of the Century by newspapers across the country.)

The exhibition game matches the National League against the American League and features the best of the best at each respective position; a “dream team” as determined by the fans. It’s an exciting event for players and they are anxious to do their best. Even though this team is clearly made up of individuals that have distinguished themselves at their diverse positions on the field, they will need work together to align their talent and skills toward team success.

The same is true in business.

The strongest teams are skilled, coordinated, filled with energy, and diverse in what they bring to the table. So what are the key considerations to maximize the effectiveness of such a team? Use your Team Dynamics Report at imapMyTeam® and refer to the strength pages to consider:
A dream team effort starts with everyone on the team understanding exactly why the team exists. Without this initial team alignment, there will be frustration. Talk about and define the goals needing to be reached, why it’s important to the team and how it fits with the larger picture of the project or organization.

The whole team will need help understanding the individual strengths of the team so they can be fully used. Teams’ abilities are enhanced when they understand the strengths of each player on the team so they can utilize them when needed

Allow people to contribute from their individual points of strength. When people are allowed to operate from their preferred approach, they are at their best and may turn in the star performance necessary to move the whole team forward

Are the right people there? Having all your bases covered is critical and if the team is imbalanced it does not mean they cannot be successful. They just need to understand when they need to adapt to cover a perspective they may be missing.

imapMyTeam® is the right tool to ensure everyone on the team understands the strengths of the team and develops a respect for the diversity represented. Teams that learn to rely on the right strengths and take a balanced approach to meet the needs of the project or business are in an excellent position to achieve success.

There is a famous photo from that very first game that features Lou Gehrig greeting Babe Ruth at home plate after Ruth hit a two-run homerun. Those names should tell you the game was special. More special is a picture of team-mates supporting each other and acknowledging the other’s special strengths.


Enjoy the game tonight! 

Back to the Future: Pencil and Paper Meetings?

The headline from the business section of the Wall Street Journal got my attention last week. It read, “When Meetings Hijack the Workday”.

The article cites more and more companies are flattening their organizations and increasing demand for teamwork, innovation and collaboration. While these are key ingredients to success, many leaders and top performers are suffering from “collaborative overload”. A natural by-product of this increasingly common environment is more meetings.

Peter Drucker once said “one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”
So what can you do to enhance the efficiency of the meetings you lead? I recently considered the time commitment to prepare and run a meeting and have recently seen some scary statistics about what people are doing (or not doing) in meetings.

My number one suggestion for making meetings more efficient would be to ban electronic devices of any kind. If you are as old as me you remember when people came to meetings just with a pad and pencil – that didn’t necessarily mean everyone was intently focused on the meeting, but they did not have external distractions of looking at a smartphone every 30 seconds.

The shear focus of everyone discussing/interacting and deciding what to do without the urge (or is it addiction) to read/send texts/emails etc. will speed up meetings in and of itself.

Another suggestion is one I learned a long time ago – do not reward tardiness by reviewing what has happened for those that are late. It is inconsiderate to those that make it on time. People that are on time are creating contractual trust with the group or team by doing what they said they would; be on time. In line with this suggestion it is also good to end on time. You have a better chance of it when you ban the electronic devices and stop wasting time by reviewing things for the tardy.

If you participate in any regularly scheduled standing meeting, make sure the purpose has not drifted from being laser focused on point to something other than the prime objective. Also make sure that the right people are in the room so you haven’t fallen prey to participant creep.

To be most effective in a meeting, you should periodically review your Manage the Meeting report in imapMyTeam®.


People will never complain about a well-run meeting and, when you make that your goal, you will also go a long way to having enthusiastic participants.

Multi-Generational Workforce

A lesson from History for the 4^th of July

I have been struck by the seemingly never ending stream of articles and training made available declaring the best way to successfully manage in a multi-generational workforce – as if this is a new phenomenon. Multiple generations working together is far from new; after all, as long as there has been work, there have been workers representing multiple generations side by side in the workplace.

Sometime ago it became clear to me that the upcoming holiday weekend represents the perfect analogy for understanding the power of a multi-generational workforce

As a country we are preparing to celebrate our Independence Day – a prime example of a multi-generational work effort. 240 years ago on July 4^th, 1776 a group of 56 men aged 26 to 70 signed the Declaration of Independence. This group worked side by side to create something they believed in. They showed leadership and character in the face of serious consequences for their actions.

Fast forward to 2016 and we often have the same 44-year age spread coming together to work on something they too believe in, be it a product or a service.

Despite the aforementioned articles and training about how to ‘deal’ with multi-generation workforces and identified demographic differences among Traditionals, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials they still all have something in common.

All generations have motivational needs that must be met.  These needs will not be well defined by the demographic label applied to them based on their age bracket.

imapMyTeam.com helps you understand the motivational needs of others, regardless of whether they are 26 or 70 and we categorize them as a Boomer or a Millennial.

Your people want meaningful work.  Give that to them as well as provide them with the support they need to thrive.  Use the insights you have in imapMyTeam and, like those 56 men who signed the declaration of independence, you can accomplish great things with a diverse, multi-generational team!

Enjoy your 4^th of July weekend!

Disagreements: From Conflict to Consensus

‘No wine before it’s time.” It is an old line from an Earnest and Julio Gallo TV commercial – but it can be applied to conflict resolution too. How so? You won’t get the best outcome by jumping right into a solution before you really understand the person and the proper path to a resolution with that specific person.

Sometimes conflict is externalized and it is easy to observe. Tempers flare; two people thundering away at each other, neither backing down from their point. Other times the conflict can go underground, and everyone believes that people are in agreement, when in fact they are far from it.

Do you know who on your team does which?

One quick way to learn is by looking at the individual’s Team Player Grid. Locate the square symbol and evaluate its position against the vertical axis. The higher on the grid the more likely the conflict is externalized, the lower the more it is internalized. You might have learned this through an iterative process over the course of time- but there may be far more subtlety present that you can see.
Consider:

• Take time to evaluate all information – both the situation and the person or persons in the situation. A too-quick decision does more harm than good when it turns out to be the wrong decision and you further alienate the individual involved.
• Further – if you use a solution path that is less than optimal – while it could work - odds are the problem will resurface. Then, not only will you have the initial problem to deal with, but also the interpersonal damage that gnawed at your team throughout the process.

The “Resolving Disagreements” report in imapMyTeam® is your personal guide to dealing with disagreements quickly and effectively so that your team stays on track. It picks up the shades or nuance of conflict rather than the dominant characteristics we find by looking at only the Team Player Grid.

You will find the “Resolving Disagreements” report is an accurate blue print as to why disagreements are difficult, why you get stuck – and best of all – suggestions for how to get unstuck.

Once you digest that information, the conflict, just like the wine is ready for its time to be resolved. Use this imapMyTeam report to move from Conflict to Consensus with speed.

The Cure for the Summertime Disengaged Blues

In the late 50’s Eddie Cochran wrote a song that many have since covered, probably most famously by The Who and Alan Jackson, titled ‘Summertime Blues’.  The song included the line ‘sometimes I wonder what I’m a gonna do, cause their ain’t no cure for the summertime blues’.

Summer is sometimes the toughest time to keep people focused on their business goals and objectives.  The weather is nice, people are taking vacations, there are lots of family activities that draw our attention elsewhere, and it’s just nice to have more daylight.  Welcome to the summertime blues.

All of these great and positive aspects of summer often cause employee engagement at work to drop off.  Those summer factors just add to the already persistent engagement related issues that you read and hear about so frequently.

If we apply the old adage of ‘where there is smoke there is fire’ to this topic, there is a whole lot of smoke…so there must be a fire somewhere.  High turnover, sub-par performance, absenteeism, re-work, missed goals and objectives or even lots of grumbling and complaining are all indicators that you have a dis-engaged, under motivated team. Fortunately, imapMyTeam can help you find a ‘cure for the summertime blues’

There are two symbols on your Team Player grid that when combined produce a powerful motivational scenario. Those two symbols are the asterisk and the circle. Together they are what we refer to as the Motivation Equation.

The asterisk describes what people love to do and the circle describes what people need from their environment and others around them. Both have to do with motivation. When these two combined characteristics are united, doing what you love to do and receiving what you need, you are energized and when you are energized you will be engaged!

Pay attention to what the asterisk indicates and you'll get better at matching what people love to do with what the business needs. Understanding the circle and people’s needs allows you to customize your approach in support what is important for them to receive from you and others.

We can’t change the calendar, but we can help with the summertime blues! Save time – pass up all the engagement articles and instead apply the insights from the asterisk and circle, the Motivation Equation, for individual and team success. 

Who Moved My Team?

Most professional ‘teams’ have a training camp or off season to give the new and existing members a chance to know each other and get ready to perform as a cohesive unit.

For example:
· Major League Baseball, The National Football League, The National Basketball Association, and      the National Hockey League all have training camps
· The Military is perhaps the most critical and extreme with “Boot Camp”
· Any orchestra will practice and coach new musicians before their performance season starts.
· Broadway curtains don’t rise until the new actors and actresses get to rehearse their roles and understand who stands in for what role should someone be unable to perform

And in business we...well we don’t do any of that despite the fact that it is commonplace for people to transition on and off the team somewhat regularly.

The new teammate notwithstanding, the pressure for your team to perform well in the midst of the transition doesn’t cease. Customers and clients are not interested in any trouble you have due to changing teams. They want the service to stay the same. Your competitors would love to take advantage of your circumstances in any way they can.

When there’s movement on your team, there is no stopping the ‘season’ for practice, no rehearsal. Just dig-in, learn fast, and be productive. Wow!

One fundamental issue of new members joining an existing team is trust. Trust can and is built in a number of ways, most of which take time. Time is scarce and in our fast paced work environment people almost always react this way- “We/I don’t have time for that, I’m/we’re too busy”.

The “Trust” report in imapMyTeam® will help accelerate trust with your new team members. For any new addition to your team, make it a point to review the “Trust Requirements” report which will provide some quick insight to help you quickly gain their support and confidence.


Investing just a little bit of individual and team time to accelerate strong relationships thorough key imapMyTeam reports is a great way to welcome new team members and ensure team effectiveness. It will take some time to do that, but it will pay you back dividends later because you will really understand that new teammate better and faster.

Manager Time Management

One thing seems common to the workplace today; there is much to do and not enough time in the day to do it. Time is a precious resource in business. Time is important to you and it is just as important to your manager. So it’s essential to manage ourselves in such a way that we make the most of the time we get with our manager, especially if we have a virtual organization and time together is infrequent.

Communicating effectively is the key to maximizing your time with your manager. One definition of effective communication we like to use is: effective communication occurs when messages are clearly sent and accurately received. However, there are so many potential barriers to anticipate and navigate that can disrupt the sending/receiving process.

How do you know there is a barrier? – How do you know your message has missed the mark? One key indicator, either virtually or face to face, is you don’t get the reaction you expect!

The “Your Style with Your Manager” report from imapMyTeam will help you anticipate, navigate and manage your approach to delivering an effective message, and that might be just the difference you need to succeed in the short amount of time we have in today’s environment.

To access your customized report, go to the center pane on the www.imapMyTeam.com homepage and click on the drop down menu that says “Reports about you”. From the list of reports click on your “Style with Your Manager” report.

This report will give you some quick insight regarding “When you are at your best” with your manager and it will also give you some helpful ways to recognize when you “are not at your best”. Utilizing this report will help you develop a strategy for how you might change (manage) the way you interact with your manager next time.


Do your best to maximize the time you have with your manager; time used wisely is a precious and productive resource for both of you. 

Is Your Bench Strong Enough to Compete?

(If so congratulations; you are, however, in the minority)

One key to business success is your companies ‘bench strength.’ The following bench strength statistics caught my eye over the last few days:

·         15%: The percentage of companies that believe they have adequate mid-level bench strength to meet future business needs. That means 85% don't!  This data is from a recent global leadership evaluation and forecast.

·         22.3%: According to an article from the Wharton School of Business this percentage represents the astounding variation in revenue performance attributed to mid-level managers; while an earlier study revealed the impact of CEO’s and CFO’s explain less than 5% of the variation in firm performance among Fortune 800 companies.

In business, bench strength is critically important because organizations continuously go through turnover, restructuring, and changes in business strategy. Whenever a critical person leaves (whether in leadership, management, or line operations), the organization should have a "ready successor" or plan for a replacement in order to avoid business interruption.

So what steps should you take to build and protect your bench strength – and how does imapMyTeam® help you do that?

·        Take Care of Your Employees: Everyone talks about the importance of motivated and engaged employees — imapMyTeam® is a guide to treating your employees respectfully, building trust, coaching them to succeed.

·         Understand What You Have: You have the ability to evaluate your people individually and on a team level faster

·         Provide Strategic Opportunities:  Choose job assignments carefully

·         Relationships Matter: Embrace the link between great relationships and individual/team success; model it daily.

·         Communicate Organizational and Leadership Values: Use imapMyTeam® data to further ensure your message gets through

·         Observe the New Golden Rule: Remember treating people the way they need to be treated often works better than treating them as you need to be treated

Having adequate bench strength is an essential element to achieving sustained success. Make imapMyTeam®part of your plan to invest in the strength of your bench.