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.