The Manager - Edition 50 - Seed new teams with positive behaviours - by Rob Lambert
Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
Hope you've had a good weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead.
I've been working a lot of growing new teams and it reminded me of a complaint a member of my team kept making many years ago when we grew a team from 8 to 100+.
"You keep disrupting stable teams as we grow"
And this team member was right. We did indeed disrupt stable teams and reset them back through the whole forming, norming, storming and performing. One of my core principles is to build stable teams. But here in lies the dichotomy of Leadership. Because to form new teams who live and breathe the behaviours you need in your teams, you seed them with people who already live and breathe these behaviours - the very people who are already part of stable teams.
Leadership and Management is a balancing act.
Build stable teams and flow work through them is a core belief of mine. So too is seeding new teams with people who are torch bearers for the right behaviours. After all, the culture of your department is nothing more than what people do every day.
And so yes, as we scaled 100% year on year we had to break up stable teams to seed new teams with the right behaviours. And it worked. It was painful. But it was necessary.
If you're growing, find torch bearers and seed them in the new teams so new employees can emulate them.
If you're not growing, build stable teams and flow work through them.
Go forth and seek balance.
Rob
My week in pictures
This week I spent more time in London than expected but did attend a wonderful networking event. Here's a picture of The Shard, London.
Cool Stuff To Click On
1 - I love basketball. Properly love it. And I learn a lot from reading about how Basketball teams come together and play. So it's great to learn some more management ideas from The Celtics. If you're interested in learning more from Basketball coaches - I would heartily recommend "Wooden on Leadership". Brilliant book full of ideas from John Wooden on leading teams. It took about 8 weeks for the book to be shipped to me, but well worth the wait. It's the life of a leader in a book - ideas, inspiration and insights.
2 - Chatbots are the next big thing in Customer Experience, apparently, but here's some insights in to the usability aspect of Chatbots.
3 - 90% of coaching is self coaching. Couldn't agree more.
4 - Apparently there isn't the "right" thing to say when you're being supportive. Sometimes just being there is all it takes.
5 - NPR list of best books of 2018. If you'd like to see my recommendations - they're here.
6 - LinkedIn has launched its own version of Instagram Stories. Oh dear.
7 - It's that time of the year again - Annual Review - I'll be doing mine - you doing one this year for yourself?
8 - Rules for online sanity.
9 - Scary how much data is being collected about our kids.
10 - Meditation is about reduction.
11 - 105 Experts share what worries about them about the future.
12 - Your smartphone might tell you if you're depressed.
Book Of The Week
The Way Of The Wolf - Straight Line Selling
I'm pretty much at the end of this book by the man they made the film "Wolf of Wall Street" about - Jordan Belfort.
He's cocky, self assured, confident and brash, but he does know what he's talking about. The book covers a methodology of selling that is straight forward and easy to implement. I'm trying lots of these ideas in my own work and business.
It's not just useful for those of us trying to build a Training and Coaching company, but also for us in the workplace as we sell ideas, try to persuade people to support us and try to influence other in our industry.
Well written, easy to read, simple to follow. No doubt in a year's time I'll be a millionaire and can conclude the ideas in this book work. Or maybe I'll still be wading through my To Do list hoping for a good wind behind me :)
The Way Of The Wolf - Straight Line Selling
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
Thanks
Rob..