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Tag: Teamwork

  • Olympic games a long time coming for Team USA curler Korey Dropkin

    I was born and grew up and raised at the Curling Club. That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, *** place with *** down to earth approach to the sport. It was so nice growing up there. Some curling clubs have more of *** commercial business feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have *** real homey feel, and Brimstones is top of the list in terms of. That home club feel, um, and that’s like one of the things, probably the thing I appreciate most about Brimstones. Dropkin learned precision, teamwork, and strategy there. Three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, *** bronze medal at the Junior Olympics. You know, it was that moment where I was like, wow, this is incredible. Like look at this medal. Now I want some more of this. Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. With his mixed doubles partner Corey Thiessen, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized would happen for *** very long time. It’s just knowing that if I keep my head down, if I keep working hard, and if I keep dreaming big, that one day I can get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t, if I don’t let up, if I don’t. You know, if I keep going, I can get there. And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiessen playfully use the nickname Corey and Corey to reference their team. On the road to Milan Cortina, I’m Fletcher Mackle.

    Olympic games a long time coming for Team USA curler Korey Dropkin

    Updated: 6:00 AM EST Jan 22, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The first curling club was founded in Scotland in 1716, but curling didn’t become an Olympic medal sport until the 1998 games in Nagano.As a child, Korey Dropkin watched Olympic curling on TV, and it was love at first sight. “I was born and raised growing up at the curling club,” Dropkin said.That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, a place with a down-to-earth approach to the sport.”It was so nice growing up there, you know, some clubs have a commercial, business-like feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have a real homey feel, and Broomstones is top of the list in having that home club feel,” Dropkin said.Dropkin learned precision, teamwork and strategy there, three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, a bronze medal at the Junior Olympics.”It was that moment when I was like, this is incredible, like look at this medal, now I want some more of this,” Dropkin said.Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. Teaming with mixed doubles partner Cory Thiesse, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized for a long time.”Just knowing that if I keep my head down and I keep working hard and dreaming big, I could get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t let up, if I keep going i can get there,” Dropkin said. And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiesse use the playful nickname “Cory and Korey” for their team.

    The first curling club was founded in Scotland in 1716, but curling didn’t become an Olympic medal sport until the 1998 games in Nagano.

    As a child, Korey Dropkin watched Olympic curling on TV, and it was love at first sight.

    “I was born and raised growing up at the curling club,” Dropkin said.

    That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, a place with a down-to-earth approach to the sport.

    “It was so nice growing up there, you know, some clubs have a commercial, business-like feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have a real homey feel, and Broomstones is top of the list in having that home club feel,” Dropkin said.

    Dropkin learned precision, teamwork and strategy there, three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, a bronze medal at the Junior Olympics.

    “It was that moment when I was like, this is incredible, like look at this medal, now I want some more of this,” Dropkin said.

    Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. Teaming with mixed doubles partner Cory Thiesse, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized for a long time.

    “Just knowing that if I keep my head down and I keep working hard and dreaming big, I could get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t let up, if I keep going i can get there,” Dropkin said.

    And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiesse use the playful nickname “Cory and Korey” for their team.

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  • Olympic games a long time coming for Team USA curler Korey Dropkin

    I was born and grew up and raised at the Curling Club. That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, *** place with *** down to earth approach to the sport. It was so nice growing up there. Some curling clubs have more of *** commercial business feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have *** real homey feel, and Brimstones is top of the list in terms of. That home club feel, um, and that’s like one of the things, probably the thing I appreciate most about Brimstones. Dropkin learned precision, teamwork, and strategy there. Three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, *** bronze medal at the Junior Olympics. You know, it was that moment where I was like, wow, this is incredible. Like look at this medal. Now I want some more of this. Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. With his mixed doubles partner Corey Thiessen, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized would happen for *** very long time. It’s just knowing that if I keep my head down, if I keep working hard, and if I keep dreaming big, that one day I can get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t, if I don’t let up, if I don’t. You know, if I keep going, I can get there. And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiessen playfully use the nickname Corey and Corey to reference their team. On the road to Milan Cortina, I’m Fletcher Mackle.

    Olympic games a long time coming for Team USA curler Korey Dropkin

    Updated: 3:00 AM PST Jan 22, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The first curling club was founded in Scotland in 1716, but curling didn’t become an Olympic medal sport until the 1998 games in Nagano.As a child, Korey Dropkin watched Olympic curling on TV, and it was love at first sight. “I was born and raised growing up at the curling club,” Dropkin said.That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, a place with a down-to-earth approach to the sport.”It was so nice growing up there, you know, some clubs have a commercial, business-like feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have a real homey feel, and Broomstones is top of the list in having that home club feel,” Dropkin said.Dropkin learned precision, teamwork and strategy there, three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, a bronze medal at the Junior Olympics.”It was that moment when I was like, this is incredible, like look at this medal, now I want some more of this,” Dropkin said.Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. Teaming with mixed doubles partner Cory Thiesse, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized for a long time.”Just knowing that if I keep my head down and I keep working hard and dreaming big, I could get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t let up, if I keep going i can get there,” Dropkin said. And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiesse use the playful nickname “Cory and Korey” for their team.

    The first curling club was founded in Scotland in 1716, but curling didn’t become an Olympic medal sport until the 1998 games in Nagano.

    As a child, Korey Dropkin watched Olympic curling on TV, and it was love at first sight.

    “I was born and raised growing up at the curling club,” Dropkin said.

    That club, Broomstones in Wayland, Massachusetts, a place with a down-to-earth approach to the sport.

    “It was so nice growing up there, you know, some clubs have a commercial, business-like feel, and then there’s curling clubs that have a real homey feel, and Broomstones is top of the list in having that home club feel,” Dropkin said.

    Dropkin learned precision, teamwork and strategy there, three core principles he mastered, resulting in early success, a bronze medal at the Junior Olympics.

    “It was that moment when I was like, this is incredible, like look at this medal, now I want some more of this,” Dropkin said.

    Unfortunately, international success eluded him until now. Teaming with mixed doubles partner Cory Thiesse, he’s headed to his first Olympic Games, something he visualized for a long time.

    “Just knowing that if I keep my head down and I keep working hard and dreaming big, I could get there, and it might not be smooth because it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but if I don’t let up, if I keep going i can get there,” Dropkin said.

    And now he’s there. Dropkin and Thiesse use the playful nickname “Cory and Korey” for their team.

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  • 7 Powerful Phrases That Turn Good Teams Into Great Ones

    You can’t do it alone. Successful leaders know that having a great team makes all the difference. No one person has all the answers all the time. The trick is learning how to build a high-performing team, which requires more than just delegating work. If you want to build a high-performing team, use these phrases to encourage a collaborative culture that will bring out the best in every member of your team.  

    1. Together we can do this. 

    Use this phrase to remind the members of your team that you’re in it together, and that together you are collectively stronger and more effective. 

    2. Can you think of a better way? 

    When you use this phrase, you will get people to think. It’s a way of saying that you are open to new and better ideas. You have a team of smart, capable people around you who will rise to the challenge if you give them permission. 

    3. Success depends on everyone working together. 

    As the old saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work. Keep your team’s focus on the importance of working together to achieve success. No one person can do it alone, and no one person is the hero. Every individual on your team is critical to its ultimate success. 

    4. I trust you’ll make the right decision. 

    When you trust your people, you encourage them to be high performers. This phrase is a way of telling others that you give them the freedom to make the right decision for the good of the organization, even if it is not what you personally would do. 

    5. What can I do to help? 

    As a high-performing leader, ask what you can do to help instead of waiting for people to ask you for help. This phrase is a great way of signaling that you are not going to get in the way of your team, and in fact, you are going to actively remove any barriers that get in their way. 

    6. I’ve got your back. 

    Organizations are political places where it pays to be savvy. As a leader, you know this, and this phrase is a way of telling others that you will have their back no matter what. This will help create the psychological safety your people need so they won’t be distracted with political posturing or self-preservation, and they can focus on results. 

    7. Thank you. 

    Being thanked for a job well done never gets old. Be consistent with your gratitude and remind others what a difference they make. This will set the right expectations, which in turn will inspire more of the same. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    Peter Economy

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  • 5 Ways Startup Founders Can Become Team Players and Grow Their Businesses | Entrepreneur

    5 Ways Startup Founders Can Become Team Players and Grow Their Businesses | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a seasoned performance coach with over two decades of experience working with business owners, I have witnessed how frustrated many business owners are that their startup isn’t growing as quickly as it should or seems to have stagnated in its growth. One common factor that often stands out for such entrepreneurs is their lack of the attributes of team players.

    Your business can only grow to the extent that your abilities as a team player grow, and my experience has shown that cultivating the following five attributes can make you a team player who is well-positioned to see your business grow.

    1. Welcome and build on your team’s ideas

    As a business founder, you may have the burning desire to bring your vision for the business to reality, but business success will not entirely depend on you alone. You need input from your team, and their ideas can be the difference between mediocre business performance and successful steering of the business to higher levels.

    Create opportunities for team members to share their ideas. Brainstorming sessions, weekly meetings and problem-solving sessions can be fertile grounds to get input from the team. Evaluate the ideas generated and find ways to implement those that show the potential to advance the goals of the business.

    2. Coach your team

    Google did a study and found that the best managers and leaders have coaching skills. However, most people confuse coaching with mentoring. Coaching and mentoring are not the same. Coaching is about unlocking the potential in your team. Mastering coaching skills enables you to do that.

    As the founder, you may also have the expertise and experience that your team members lack, which means you’re more likely to mentor or “tell them” how to do it rather than coach them.

    Coaching builds confidence, empowers your team to take on more responsibility, improves problem-solving skills and builds loyalty. The more you coach your team, the more your business will operate as a team effort rather than a one-person show. You’ll not only have a high-performing team, but you’ll also have a high-value team. Double win!

    Related: Be a Mentor: 4 Simple Ways to Change a Life

    3. Adjust your pace to accommodate your team

    This is where the rubber hits the tarmac! Many founders have a burning desire to bring their dream to life “yesterday” and are extremely impatient when their team isn’t moving at the pace they’d like. At this point, you ask yourself two critical questions: Did I hire the right people? Do I consistently share my vision and mission so everyone is clear about the direction of the firm?

    I often tell clients that it may not be possible for their entire team to move at the same blistering pace that the founder is wired for, and it might be necessary for the founder to pump the brakes a little so the team can move at the same pace. This is a hard pill for many founders to swallow, but reminding them that they are not a one-person army allows them to be more accommodating and better able to foster teamwork in the business.

    I am not advocating for letting your employees set the pace of the company. If you hire the right people and coach them regularly, chances are that while they may not move at supersonic speed, they will follow your lead and move at an above-average pace.

    I always give this incident, which I witnessed while visiting a client’s restaurant for a follow-up session. The assistant manager was always pushing her direct reports to work at a blistering pace. The manager had cautioned the assistant to always give a particular employee their tasks in advance so they can accomplish them within a spread-out timeframe. This particular employee was known to be very thorough in anything they do, but if pushed to work at a pace greater than they could manage, they were more likely than not to do extremely shoddy work.

    The assistant manager neglected this important piece of information and one time asked that employee to chop some ingredients and kept hovering over the shoulder of the employee nudging them to work faster. Pushed beyond their limits, the employee nearly lost four fingers when, in a bid to work fast, they ended up accidentally cutting through those fingers. I rushed in with the manager when we heard horrified screams coming from the kitchen, and after the ambulance left with the injured employee, the manager called the assistant to a private corner and gently reminded them about the caution of not pushing that particular employee to work at a faster pace than they were capable of.

    The message? Sometimes, it is helpful to slow down a little so that you can move with the entire team.

    Related: Are You Hiring a ‘Team’ Player – or Someone Just Looking out for No.1?

    4. Share recognition for any successes attained

    Another important tip I give startup founders is that they can become team players who enjoy more than decent business growth on an ongoing basis by sharing recognition for the successes they attain. When you put your team at the center of all success, their motivation and loyalty grow, and they become invested in achieving the firm’s goals.

    Related: Which Do You Need: A Coach or a Consultant or a Trainer? Here’s How to Know.

    5. Consult the team frequently

    Make it a habit to consult your team members frequently. This can be when there are challenges that need to be fixed, when opportunities arise or when planning the next steps or direction of the business. Don’t be the founder who keeps their cards close to the chest and only issues instructions without involving their team.

    As you implement the tips above, you will notice that your team will galvanize around the organization’s goals and mission, and your company will be better positioned to weather any storm. Teams always find a way to win.

    Jairek Robbins

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  • 5 music collaborations you should be doing in 2024 – ReverbNation Blog

    5 music collaborations you should be doing in 2024 – ReverbNation Blog

    There are many reasons why you should collaborate with other artists.

    When you partner-up on creative, promotional, performance, or business projects, the right collab can yield better results than either person might achieve on their own.

    Looking for specific ideas to move your music forward?

    Here are 5 types of collaboration to explore this year!

    1. The DSP-focused collab

    One of the most common kinds of collaboration is teaming up with another artist to record a track that gets distributed to big streaming platforms (DSPs) like Spotify and Apple Music.

    This places the track in both artists’ discographies, and positions it for algorithmic recommendation to both artists’ audiences. Of course you can both promote the release to your own followings via social and email too.

    These collaborations can take a few forms, including:

    • Premeditated (a new studio recording you create together)
    • Responsive (a remix or alternate version following an official release)
    • Preparatory (where you make stems available without a specific collaborator in mind)

    Whichever form your creative partnership takes — whether the other person is a primary artist, featured guest, remixer, etc. — you’ll want to credit your collaborator accordingly.

    Your music metadata matters. Especially for collaborations.

    2. Build a track in BandLab

    Music creation can be a social activity. That’s what the spirit of collaboration is all about.

    And with an app like BandLab, you can expand your roster of potential collaborators to… the whole world! More than 100 million musicians use BandLab, and they’re easily findable.

    You can use “forking” to post an idea, start a musical conversation, and then see what others do with that audio. Or you can build a track from the ground-up with collaborators, and be actively involved in all the creative decision-making.

    With BandLab, the creative process is a social activity. So your music-making can be about simple exploration, output, or both! There’s no correct answer.

    With AI music tools and all kinds of audio-inspo at your fingertips, you can get a tech-assist in your collaboration too. If you dig what you make, share it with everyone on BandLab. The social aspect of the app also means it can be a testing-ground for tracks. Then distribute the best stuff as “official” releases!

    3. The TikTok Duet

    Informal social collabs are… social. (Thanks, Captain Obvious).

    But that means they’re fun, usually don’t take a ton of time to produce, and have a slight advantage for getting further eyeballs.

    Here’s an absolutely epic “duet” example from a couple years ago:

    The “duet” format isn’t exclusive to TikTok, of course. Other platforms allow for responsiveness and interactivity between creators within the app. And you can always edit collaborative videos in Premiere, CapCut, or FCPX and then upload to any particular platform.

    But the power of these kinds of videos is you can, on the one hand, join an existing conversation, responding to a video that’s already going viral. Add your own take, vocals, humor, instrumentation, critique.

    The benefit here is that your audience will probably recognize the social moment or conversation you’re jumping into, while also being able to immediately identify what you’re adding to it.

    Conversely, you can also plant the seed of a new conversation.

    Rather than picking up on an existing moment, you make something new, leaving space for others to contribute or respond.

    John Mark Nelson has built an Instagram following using this exact technique:

    4. The co-bill, raid, or takeover

    Collaboration can also incorporate shared spaces, not just content and video output.

    In the realm of live performances, we’re familiar with co-bills. Where two acts share “headline” status, and can alternate the order they perform each night, if it’s a tour.

    This is different from the “opening act” and “headliner” arrangement, where no matter how lucky or excited the opening act is to have the slot, the pressure and responsibility to fill the venue ultimately falls upon the headliner.

    But you can take the mentality of shared responsibility online too, with co-headlined livestreams.

    You can also foster a culture of paying-it-forward via something like a Twitch Raid, where you wrap up your own event by directing viewers to another creator’s stream:

    You may also be familiar with the idea of a takeover. This is where you give another artist direct access to your audience, and they can post to your account, share Instagram Stories, curate playlists, tweet random thoughts,…

    It’s like exchanging editorial power and swapping fanbases for a limited time. Then you just have to be entertaining enough that you don’t burn any goodwill!

    5. Digital ad teamwork

    It’s not always about name and face recognition. Let’s not forget that collaboration can happen behind-the-scenes as well.

    If you have skills that another artist lacks, you can assist them — with promotion, editing, photography, recording, whatever else — and have them help you in return with some other effort.

    Now if you apply that kind of behind-the-scenes teamwork to a public-facing collaboration (a co-bill gig, a collaborative release, etc.), you’re really going into overdrive.

    Especially if you can coordinate digital advertising efforts, share lists and targetable audiences (as long as that usage is ethical, legal, and relevant to your promotion, of course).

    A shared budget, shared social efforts, and shared marketing coordination, will all increase the chances of your ad driving results.

    But don’t stop there. Make your ad content collaborative. Be together in the videos or photos, especially for shows and new releases.

    Conclusion

    We live in an increasingly instant and interconnected world. So it makes sense that online collaboration is an accelerating trend.

    The ideas above are just five kinds of musical collaboration you should try in 2024. There are many more, of course.

    How will you partner-up to improve your craft, build your audience, and move your career forward this year?

    Chris Robley

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  • From Idea to Delivery: How Upwork is Changing the Way We Work | Entrepreneur

    From Idea to Delivery: How Upwork is Changing the Way We Work | Entrepreneur

    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    In the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurship, adapting and scaling are imperative. A crucial element in this journey involves forming a team of top-tier professionals capable of transforming vision into reality. Upwork stands as a catalyst for entrepreneurial growth, offering access to unparalleled talent and cultivating an environment conducive to business flourishing.

    The Global Talent Hub

    At the core of Upwork’s appeal lies its expansive Talent Marketplace, featuring a diverse array of skills and expertise. Serving as a global talent hub, Upwork connects individuals navigating the intricate business landscape with top-tier freelancers skilled in Customer Support, design, marketing, AI and cutting-edge technology. This diversity empowers entrepreneurs & business owners to curate a team tailored to the unique demands of their projects, providing a competitive edge in the ever-evolving business terrain.

    Agility Through Efficiency

    In the fast-paced entrepreneurial world, success often hinges on speed. Upwork revolutionizes the hiring process, enabling users to post a job today and receive quality proposals from top-tier freelancers as early as tomorrow. This efficiency is transformative, allowing people to rapidly assemble teams and initiate projects without the delays associated with traditional hiring processes.

    Trust and Transparency

    Trust is fundamental to successful collaborations, and Upwork places a premium on transparency. Clients can explore verified work histories, gaining insights into the professional backgrounds of potential collaborators. Peer reviews offer a real-world perspective, providing glimpses into freelancers’ track records. This emphasis on trust ensures that Upwork’s clients can make informed decisions when selecting freelancers, laying the foundation for strong partnerships.

    Precision in Talent Acquisition

    Upwork empowers their clients to fine-tune their talent acquisition process with advanced search filters. The platform’s intuitive interface enables users to navigate a vast pool of freelancers, filtering based on skills, experience, and other crucial criteria. This precision allows entrepreneurs to assemble a team with the exact expertise required for their projects, eliminating the guesswork often associated with traditional hiring.

    Collaboration Beyond Boundaries

    More than a transactional platform, Upwork fosters collaboration without geographical constraints. The platform’s collaboration tools establish a virtual workspace where clients and freelancers interact seamlessly. Communication is streamlined, milestones are tracked, and ideas flow freely. This borderless collaboration not only expands the talent pool but also injects diverse perspectives into projects, fueling innovation and creativity.

    Upwork’s role as a catalyst for entrepreneurial growth is evident through its provision of access to unparalleled talent and the cultivation of a collaborative environment. Entrepreneurs leveraging Upwork find themselves equipped with the agility to swiftly navigate the business landscape, the trust and transparency necessary for fruitful collaborations, and the precision to assemble teams tailored to their project’s exact requirements. Upwork transcends being a mere platform; it is a dynamic partner in the journey of entrepreneurial success, where innovation knows no boundaries.

    Entrepreneur Deals

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  • A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Organizational Alignment | Entrepreneur

    A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Organizational Alignment | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a CEO, you put valuable time and effort into mastering your business strategy. It shapes your business structure and operations by providing life to your vision, purpose and values, driving the way you work.

    But no matter how solid your strategy, it’s only impactful if every team member is onboard, in sync and focused on the most important things.

    In my experience, achieving organizational alignment starts with me as the leader. The only way to do it successfully is from the top down.

    Related: ‘The Alignment Factor’: The Keys to Internal Alignment

    Why is organizational alignment important?

    Organizational alignment means that all employees have clarity about their roles and responsibilities, specifically in regard to how they contribute to the company’s success. It involves creating a sense of purpose and clarity around the individual tasks that they do each day.

    A business cannot scale without top-down alignment. The key is to create a unified front of team members working harmoniously toward the same goals.

    Achieving organizational alignment requires deliberate action and a systematic approach. Here are the key steps that CEOs can follow to build organizational alignment within their companies:

    Step 1: Build the right team

    Hiring the right people for the right roles may seem obvious, and yet so many companies get it wrong. Companies often hire people based on experience and skillset alone, but they forget about another incredibly important factor: culture fit.

    Should culture fit be the top priority when it comes to hiring? Probably not. But nonetheless, it can’t be disregarded because it has a high impact on organizational performance. Having people on your team who believe in and agree with your company values is critical to moving the organization forward. If an employee’s values are not in line with those of the company, they won’t be motivated to contribute to achieving the mission, and therefore, they are more likely to underperform.

    Step 2: Rally the team around a shared purpose

    Your purpose must resonate with all other foundational aspects of your business — vision, mission, etc. All team members should know, understand and commit to upholding the company’s purpose. It’s important to consistently remind team members of the “why” behind their daily work to maintain motivation. Attributing each goal to achieving a larger mission helps keep the larger mission in sight, even when narrowing it down to individual tasks.

    Step 3: Set and track collaborative goals

    With the broader strategy in place, break down the overarching goals by teams. Here you can enlist the help of your management team to break down the goals further into individual roles.

    In order to set and track goals properly, you must be on board with establishing a culture of transparency and accountability. Being transparent about individual responsibilities ensures that no two team members are stepping on each other’s toes, and everyone knows who is working on what.

    Furthermore, all employees should know how their teammates are progressing on targets. Making this data visible encourages team members to hold themselves and each other accountable. When employees encounter roadblocks, they should know who to approach for guidance and support.

    Consider using OKR software tools for optimal goal management.

    Step 4: Implement good communication habits

    We know that communication is often the root cause of workplace failures. It’s essential to not only strengthen the communication skills of your team members but also to establish systems and processes that will streamline effective communication.

    Teams should have daily stand-up meetings, also called huddles. Daily huddles are quick meetings structured to include updates on goals to keep everyone in the loop on the team’s performance. Managers should also have consistent one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to review targets on a more in-depth level and facilitate effective communication between managers and employees.

    In addition to tools like Slack and Zoom, you may also consider adopting an integrative workspace system with communication capabilities to streamline conversations.

    Related: Why Aligning Your Company Values is Crucial for Long-Term Success

    Step 5: Encourage teamwork

    By having employees work together to achieve goals, you yield better collaboration and faster results. Employees bring diverse perspectives, skills and experiences to the table, which can lead to innovative solutions and improved efficiency.

    In addition to being proven to boost morale, promoting teamwork in the workplace reinforces the concept of working together to achieve common goals, promoting alignment among team members.

    6. Focus on employee engagement

    Employee engagement is a key indicator of business performance and alignment. It’s important to consistently show appreciation to your employees and remind them that their contributions are meaningful.

    Consider using culture-building tools, like surveys and the Employer Net Promoter Score (eNPS), to gauge how well your culture is performing. These tools measure workplace engagement and satisfaction and can also provide insights into how employees perceive their work’s impact on the company’s mission, vision and values. By addressing any misalignments, CEOs can strengthen organizational alignment and improve performance.

    The common theme among all these steps is that they all involve the team. I would argue that in any successful organization, your people are your best asset. Refining, empowering and driving forward employees falls on the shoulders of the CEO. This is why it’s critical to get every step right and ensure you are actively working toward strengthening your team at its core.

    An empowered and aligned workforce is a productive one, and as the leader of the team, it starts with you.

    Related: How To Align Your Company Goals To Breed Success

    Doug Walner

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  • Why Successful Collaboration Comes Down to Proper Team Balance | Entrepreneur

    Why Successful Collaboration Comes Down to Proper Team Balance | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The wrong way to approach values is obvious: You’ve seen the movie Office Space when the boss calls everyone together to unveil a new banner on the wall asking, “Is This Good for the Company?” As far as that value exercise goes, everyone looks at the banner, but that’s about it.

    The “right” approach requires more nuance.

    Our company just welcomed five corporate cultures under its single umbrella. After nearly three decades of working alongside the company’s founders, most people could articulate our values very well. Only when our newly incorporated team members asked us to point to behaviors demonstrating how we live out those values in practice did we realize that we couldn’t point to anything concrete enough for them to “get it.” Employees want employers to represent their ethics and values to stay engaged. We knew we needed to fix this.

    Intentional values prevent misalignment around company non-negotiables and can guide employee action and collaboration in the right direction. Still, defining and aligning the various departments of a company around those core values is more complex than it sounds; the task is even more challenging when merging multiple companies.

    Related: How Collaboration Can Help Drive Growth and Propel Your Business to New Heights

    Over-communicate, then communicate again

    Part of my work in M&A is ensuring that our people’s experiences with the company are consistent. If I visited one of our offices in Australia or Japan, they would feel like part of the same world. Most of that came through working alongside the company’s founders and absorbing their approach to making decisions by osmosis. Sure, we articulated our values in onboarding materials. We offered some swag and other replicated forms of them in our recognition programs. Still, we mostly took that tacit learning from the company’s culture carriers for granted and developed little else to reference our values in action beyond that.

    This five-company merger was an “ah ha!” moment that made us reconsider how we communicated our values, and they still hold up after all this time. Without clear communication and explicit practical applications, it would be only natural that people bring their old ways of operating into a new company, even without realizing it. If we want to carry values forward as we merge companies or aim to break down silos, we need to embed them across the employee journey at every touch point in both words and action.

    Consider values in the hiring experience — how we describe the position in the job post and our interview questions for potential candidates. If one of our stated values is collaboration, we might ask them to describe when they successfully collaborated on a project and, more importantly, when it wasn’t. Seek to hire people who understand and appreciate those intrinsic values and spend time discussing them in all onboarding sessions globally. People can be talented but not always aligned, so figure out what’s non-negotiable and ask questions about what matters to them, and you’ll soon see if they “get it.”

    Related: 10 Simple Steps to Build an Exceptional and Efficient Team

    Live, not laminate

    It takes more than coffee mugs, posters and pieces of flair to align everyone around a company’s values: We need to be able to attribute behaviors to them. If a company says they’re “people-centric,” it should showcase this in an actionable way — performance evaluations that allow employees to tell their own stories rather than their performance review happening to them; benefits that provide coverage for the whole family; meetings that regularly represent that value as a theme or recognize someone who exemplifies them. At our company, we have a Kudos chat where, every week, people acknowledge when they have observed someone’s behavior that directly aligns with our values.

    Leaders must ensure people live, feel and see their company values repeatedly. In a 2022 survey of U.S. and U.K. employees, respondents were likelier to stay with an employer whose values align with theirs. Still, almost half would consider leaving a company if its leadership fails to act by them.

    When we give people examples of living our values, they have more reasons to discuss them. Over time, stories get retold and cement themselves into company lore. When a customer attempted to return two tires to the local Nordstrom retailer in Fairbanks, Alaska, the clerk called, researched tire prices and processed the refund despite Nordstrom never selling tires. Nordstrom’s legendary tire story demonstrates the brand’s dedication to living its value of customer service.

    Related: 3 Ways to Foster Trust and Communication During a Global M&A

    Evaluate and evolve

    After almost 30 years, our company has gone through many chapters, and what was right in the past needs to be constantly reexamined to ensure we are still true to our word.

    One of the companies we acquired had active and illustrative values, including “create success” and “be brave.” Their values were strong and actionable: Someone who needed to make a critical decision on a Friday afternoon with no one else around could recall the value “be brave” and go for it. So, we are taking this moment to evolve our values to match the company’s evolution. We’re reevaluating the original company values and if they still hold. The core ones, like respect and integrity, will remain, but in our 25+ years later, some values may not be quite right.

    Ultimately, most values aim toward the same ends — respect, integrity and a feeling of trust and belonging. Focus on four or five values that answer the question, “What do we believe in that will help us make better decisions?” Then, make leadership decisions that reflect them. Trust is built when people see their leadership standing by those values. Even when merging five companies into one, strong values enable a healthy culture that ensures that people are motivated, engaged and committed to work every day to deliver the results for the company.

    Victoria Maitland

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  • 3 Effective Communication Strategies That Will Transform Your Team | Entrepreneur

    3 Effective Communication Strategies That Will Transform Your Team | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Modern business society places a progressively greater emphasis on establishing a unified corporate culture as a way of boosting the performance of employees. Scaling your company takes both intelligent and skilled personnel and the right chemistry between them. Workers should be able to get along with each other and with the company’s management if they are to work towards the same goals.

    Surveys identified senior executives as the party that primarily influences an organization’s culture and development. 76% of respondents indicated that founders and CEOs impact corporate culture the most.

    From a C-level executive’s perspective, building a strong team is not only about hiring capable people who can be trusted to do their job in a quality fashion. It is also about properly communicating the company’s mission and values to these people.

    In this article, I will share some thoughts and tips on building and managing a strong team based on my personal experiences as a business and team leader.

    Related: 4 Expert-Backed Strategies for Improving Your Communication Skills

    1. Convey your strategy and motivate employees to reach transparent goals

    One of the first steps when it comes to communication with your workers is being open with them about where your company is going. When everyone in a team can share a common objective and an understanding of what they are working towards, it creates a sense of unity and purpose. It allows individual employees to put their efforts in alignment, fostering collaboration towards the same goals.

    Additionally, having a rational and well-defined strategy provides structure and direction to the team’s actions. Having a clear roadmap with outlined steps, responsibilities and timelines helps team members understand their roles and contributions, minimizing any potential confusion and conflicts. They can prioritize tasks and make collective decisions aligning with the objectives and target milestones.

    As such, communication with team members must always be open, and the company’s plans and strategies must be transmitted to everyone in a transparent fashion. It is crucial to foster mutual understanding between employees and company leadership.

    2. Trust your people to manage things without supervision

    When you are a business leader, you can’t afford to take the time necessary to keep a close eye on the day-to-day workings of your company. Nor should you, really. A crucial aspect of fostering healthy leader-employee relationships is being able to trust your people to complete the tasks you give them without oversight.

    When a team leader demonstrates trust in the abilities of his or her subordinates and provides them with autonomy, it promotes a sense of responsibility. It means the leader acknowledges their competence and expertise, thus boosting their confidence and motivation.

    From personal experience, I can say that if you don’t have that kind of trust, you will have to micromanage every little thing yourself, leaving you with little to no time or energy to focus on the more strategic aspects of running and scaling your business.

    A culture of trust also encourages open communication within the organization. When employees feel trusted by their superiors, they are more likely to reach out with ideas, share concerns and seek guidance when needed. This serves to cultivate a positive-minded work environment that promotes creativity and productivity.

    3. Promote relationship-building in your company

    Encouraging a sense of community and fostering deeper relationships among your employees can easily be a cornerstone for strengthening team bonds. When coworkers can connect personally, it helps build a sense of trust, empathy and collaboration.

    Organize team-building events, create spaces for informal interactions (physically or online) and strive for an environment where employees feel comfortable and motivated to build relationships with their colleagues. When they have established relationships with their peers, people are more likely to share ideas openly, ask for help when needed and work together, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.

    Not only that, but stronger team bonds also improve employee satisfaction and job retention. Workers who feel seen by and connected to their colleagues are more likely to enjoy their work environment than when they are simply considered cogs in a mechanism.

    Overall, fostering relationship-building within a company is a win-win situation as it encourages teamwork and can contribute to higher levels of engagement and loyalty within your company.

    Related: 4 Trends That Will Disrupt Your Communication Strategy

    Bottom line: Better communication supports individual and organizational success

    Effective communication is the foundation of pretty much everything that your team does. It is a fundamental part of any work-related activity, workforce performance and output your company demonstrates.

    This is why any leader who seeks to improve their business and push it towards greater heights must emphasize the people who support all their endeavors and take time to build mutual trust with them. Some of it might come naturally; some of it will take time and effort. But if you can get it right, the results will be worth it.

    Greg Waisman

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  • 10 Simple Ways to Build a Collaborative and Efficient Team at Work | Entrepreneur

    10 Simple Ways to Build a Collaborative and Efficient Team at Work | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the importance of building an exceptional work team cannot be overstated. A high-performing team can drive innovation, increase productivity and ultimately improve business outcomes.

    As someone who’s both built great teams and failed at doing so, I understand teamwork’s critical role in achieving success. In this article, we’ll explore solid factors that contribute to building an exceptional work team and provide actionable steps to help you create a winning formula for your organization.

    1. Establish a clear vision and purpose

    The foundation of any successful team is a clear and compelling vision. This vision should define the team’s purpose and inspire and motivate its members. To create a strong vision, consider the following:

    • Align the team’s goals with the organization’s mission and strategy.
    • Ensure that every team member understands their role in achieving the vision.
    • Communicate the vision regularly and consistently to maintain focus and motivation.

    2. Recruit the right talent

    An exceptional team consists of diverse individuals who bring unique skills, experiences and perspectives to the table. When recruiting team members, focus on the following:

    • Look for candidates with complementary skill sets that will enhance the team’s overall capabilities.
    • Consider cultural fit and how well a candidate’s values align with the organization’s.
    • Don’t be afraid to hire people who may challenge the status quo, as they can often drive innovation and improvement.

    Related: Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits and Why You Need It

    3. Cultivate a culture of trust and mutual respect

    Trust and mutual respect are essential elements of a high-performing team. To foster these qualities, consider the following:

    • Encourage open and honest communication among team members.
    • Create an environment where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities rather than failures.
    • Recognize and celebrate the achievements of individual team members and the team as a whole.
    • Address conflicts and disagreements promptly and constructively.

    4. Emphasize effective communication

    Clear and open communication is vital for any team to function at its best. To promote effective communication, consider the following:

    • Provide regular opportunities for team members to share updates, concerns, and ideas.
    • Implement tools and processes that facilitate efficient communication, such as project management software or team messaging platforms.
    • Encourage active listening and ensure every team member feels heard and understood.
    • Foster a culture of feedback, both positive and constructive, to help team members grow and improve.

    5. Encourage collaboration and teamwork

    Exceptional teams excel at working together to achieve their goals. To encourage collaboration and teamwork, consider the following:

    • Assign tasks and projects that require cross-functional collaboration, allowing team members to learn from one another and build stronger working relationships.
    • Create opportunities for team members to socialize and bond outside of work, such as team-building events or informal gatherings.
    • Recognize and reward collaboration and teamwork in performance evaluations and promotions.

    Related: Six Tactics To Improve Collaboration For Remote Teams

    6. Provide opportunities for growth and development

    To maintain a high-performing team, investing in your team members’ professional growth and development is essential. Consider the following:

    • Offer training and development programs that align with the team’s and the organization’s needs.
    • Encourage team members to pursue new skills and knowledge through conferences, workshops, and online courses, provide regular performance feedback and create individual development plans to help team members reach their full potential.

    7. Set clear expectations and hold team members accountable

    A high-performing team requires clear expectations and accountability. You can do this by clearly defining each team member’s roles and responsibilities and establishing measurable goals and objectives for the team to work towards.

    Related: Set Yourself Up for Success By Setting Expectations

    8. Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement

    Exceptional teams are always looking for ways to improve and innovate. To foster this mindset, consider the following:

    • Encourage team members to experiment with new ideas and approaches.
    • Provide resources and support for team members to pursue innovative projects or initiatives.
    • Recognize and celebrate successes, as well as learn from failures.

    9. Be adaptable and resilient

    Adaptability and resilience are crucial for any team in today’s fast-paced business environment. To develop these qualities, consider the following:

    • Encourage team members to embrace change and view it as an opportunity for growth.
    • Develop contingency plans to help the team navigate unexpected challenges or setbacks.
    • Foster a culture of optimism and positivity, even in the face of adversity.

    Related: Resilience Is One of the Most Essential Entrepreneurial Traits. Practicing This Can Help You Build It.

    10. Lead by example

    As a leader, your actions and behaviors set the tone for your team. To create an exceptional work team, lead by example and embody the values and attributes you want to see in your team members.

    Building an exceptional work team takes care, emotional intelligence, and time. By focusing on these key factors and implementing the actionable steps outlined in this article, you can create a high-performing team that drives innovation, increases productivity and ultimately leads to better business outcomes — and better still, you’ll have amassed a group of genuine allies and collaborators.

    Christopher Massimine

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  • Ways of Increasing Employee Productivity And Boost Morale | Entrepreneur

    Ways of Increasing Employee Productivity And Boost Morale | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Business owners and managers are always looking for ways to boost productivity in the workplace. A company can’t succeed unless everyone is motivated and willing to work hard to achieve shared goals. Being hyper-critical and micromanaging your team often backfires and makes employees feel more stressed and resentful.

    Instead, you should work toward creating a happy workplace, relaxed environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated. Happiness and productivity are known to go hand in hand. So, if you want to see revenue increase and goals met at a faster pace, don’t just look at the bottom line but also consider the attitudes and mindset of your team. Here are a few tips to help you do so.

    Give colleagues positive feedback

    When a colleague does something that makes your day, be sure to let them know. Everyone loves to feel appreciated, yet far too many people neglect the simple acts of kindness that make others feel like their effort is being valued.

    Related: Simple Techniques for Boosting Morale That Many Leaders Miss. Are You One of Them?

    It could be work-related or any simple gesture that helped you out. They may have offered to chip in on a project to help you meet a deadline or met their work goals for the month. Any positive action, no matter how small, should be acknowledged with positive feedback to encourage similar behavior in the future. If it’s something small, a simple thank you may suffice, but if it’s more significant, you may consider sending them a card or a modest gift. Just be sure to be specific about what they did and how it affected you.

    Congratulate colleagues on their wins

    In addition to providing positive feedback, you should also congratulate colleagues on any wins or achievements. No one wants to feel like their hard work is going unacknowledged, especially in the workplace. So, take the time to give recognition for employee achievements — large or small. Maybe they exceeded their monthly sales goals or brought in a new client.

    Related: 50 of the Best Work from Home Jobs That Pay Well in 2023

    No matter what the victory, make sure to acknowledge it and encourage them to keep it up. A simple email may suffice, or if possible, congratulate them in person. You may even consider hosting a regular meeting to acknowledge staff accomplishments. But don’t sandwich it in between feedback and requested improvements – let the kudos stand on their own and find a different way to address improvement if necessary.

    Create shared plans

    Humans are social creatures, and we thrive when working in groups. So, make an effort to create shared plans and communicate goals and expectations. Employees can quickly become frustrated and stressed out if they feel they need a clearer sense of what is expected from them, or they can’t effectively communicate with colleagues and management. So, creating shared plans helps to ensure employees aren’t wasting time trying to figure out how to best serve the company or team. It also helps encourage teamwork and collaboration so that no one feels isolated or left out of the decision-making process.

    Encourage an open dialogue

    Communication is essential to a happy, productive workplace, so encourage open dialogue between employees, management, and other key partners. Have regular conversations about the team’s progress and get feedback on what works well and what can be improved.

    Set aside time at your regular staff meetings to answer a few questions:

    • How can we help each other use time more efficiently
    • What are our biggest time wasters as a group? (Email, chatting?)
    • What types of breaks are essential to help us focus longer?

    Keep in mind that email and conversation are essential aspects of a healthy work-social life, but too much socializing can reduce focus. Also, remember that breaks are scientifically proven to improve focus in the long run. However, you must be strategic about when and what types of breaks you employ to improve productivity and avoid creating unnecessary distractions.

    Related: The Next Time Someone Intimidates You, Here’s What You Should Do

    When creating this open dialogue, try to center it around how the group can improve and not single out particular individuals. That will make it easier to provide constructive criticism without feeling like you’re chastising anyone in particular.

    Set clear goals for productivity and happiness

    Finally, you should also prioritize discussing goals for productivity and happiness in the workplace. While it’s essential to set objectives related to earning or completing tasks to keep everyone on track, this shouldn’t be your only concern. Also, discuss ways you can improve the workplace’s overall happiness and comfort level by eliciting feedback from your staff.

    You could set a goal of hosting one pizza party per month or regularly recognize one person in the office for their hard work. Once you realize that happiness and productivity go hand in hand, you’ll start making a consistent effort to improve the mindset and well-being of your team. Everyone will be more productive if they feel their personal source of happiness is being recognized and fed.

    ReadWrite.com

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  • How To Show Humility as a Leader Without Apologizing for Your Success | Entrepreneur

    How To Show Humility as a Leader Without Apologizing for Your Success | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Usually, when somebody sees a successful person, they want to spend time with them and be like them. But if the person who’s made it to the top behaves arrogantly, all bets are off. That leader can quickly lose respect.

    This sequence happens all the time in organizations. But if you can demonstrate humility even as you take your spot on the winner’s podium, success will keep on coming.

    Point out others who put in effort

    Name one leader who does everything in their organization completely on their own. I’ll wait.

    Even if you’re a solopreneur, other people have likely lent you a hand, whether investing in your idea or just bringing you lunch while you hustle. And in a typical company, there’s simply no logistical way for a leader to be everywhere, know everything, or have every skill. So if you’ve found success, it’s because a lot of great people around you have contributed just as much as you.

    I stay grounded about the contributions of others by not letting our marketing department use the word “I” in our content. If we announce an award I’m getting, I insist on celebrating it as a team win. We’ll share that I’m accepting the award on behalf of the company and highlight the larger business framework when announcing awards. When we sold the company and people acknowledged how I’d led the deal, I thanked the employees for their compliments but insisted that the result wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t been such a great team. And trust me, when you do this your team can smell whether it’s authentic or not, so be genuine!

    Of course, people genuinely want to see that you’ve accomplished something — so you shouldn’t mute yourself as a leader. But people also want you to acknowledge them and admit that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Plus, if you’re successful, it’s already assumed that you’ve done great. Learn how to absorb compliments without constantly shining your trophies.

    Related: Why Executives Must Remain Humble in the Face of Critical Feedback

    Be available and personable

    Recently, I texted somebody I’d gone to high school with. They texted back and told me not to worry about them because they knew I had enough going on and that I was “super busy.” I replied and told them there’s never so much going on that I don’t have time for them.

    It’s true that I’m busy. But if I neglected to reply, my friend would have had the impression that I’m not available anymore. That kind of perception can have big consequences for a career. Suppose my friend comes across someone who potentially could do business with my company. Do I want my friend to see and portray me to others as grounded enough to text back if they send over someone’s contact information? Or do I want to send the message that I’m out of reach?

    Balancing humility and success is ensuring you’re available and personable. If you don’t write the narrative that people can come to you, people will write an alternate narrative for you, and it won’t be nearly as pretty. And if you are responsible for your company’s business results, you always want people to feel you are available.

    Openly own your flubs

    Like other companies, our team has decided to think critically about recruiting, hiring and succession planning. Recently, we made a new hire and I was quick to note to their manager that I didn’t think they were a good fit based on a few poor showings in meetings. A few weeks later, I plopped down in that person’s office and admitted that I’d been wrong — the new hire had proven to be a great fit for the company. The manager told me how much he appreciated my honesty and how we could be open about the improvement we saw in the employee.

    Aside from hiring, you’ll make plenty of blunders, and owning them can be scary. But when you’re honest, then when you have to stand up and declare a decision, people trust you. They’ll have seen plenty of moments where you were open, so they won’t question your judgment or leadership overall.

    Related: How to Cultivate Humility as an Entrepreneur (and Why You Should)

    Act like it’s not your first race

    Early in my career, when I was about 24 years old, I was working for a Fortune 100 company. I had the opportunity to ride the company helicopter to get on a private jet. The security guard could see my huge smile from a mile away. He turned to me and said, “Son, act like you’ve been here before.”

    I couldn’t help but remember that advice throughout my career — most recently when I was in a meeting with somebody who’d just had some success of their own, I saw them bragging about the new condo they were building and showing everyone dozens of pictures from their phone. Even though I understood that they were excited and proud of what they were able to do, they didn’t realize it made them look like a chump who’d never had a big win. The security guard’s words came to mind immediately.

    Related: How Adopting a Humble Mindset Can Make You a Better Leader

    It’s an ongoing wrestling match, but balance is attractive

    I’ve been fortunate to have people early in my career who reminded me that, for all of my success, I needed to get over myself and let people see my real journey. Even so, the balancing act between humility and success is still a daily wrestling match for me. It likely will be for you, too. But your choice won’t change — every day, you can invite people to see both your struggles and wins. My experience has shown that doing that makes you significantly more relatable and likable, so don’t be afraid to take pride in where you are while showing warts and all.

    Brendan P. Keegan

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  • 7 Not-So-Soft Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs | Entrepreneur

    7 Not-So-Soft Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Soft skills are a bit of misnomer when considering the hard implications of not demonstrating them.

    Mastering these seven soft skills can help you thrive in a 24-hour, boundaryless world regardless of what hard or technical skills an entrepreneur might possess. These skills are the foundation of empathy and creativity, which we all need as we divine new ways to manage the increasingly blurred lines between personal and professional life, and still meet our business objectives.

    Entrepreneurs will find that soft skills are essential tools in their toolbox, which are invaluable in almost all industries.

    1. Be a master communicator

    A leader’s message is only as good as their ability to share it. Entrepreneurs must be consistent, clear and concise. Their messages must be able to translate across different cultures and languages. Everyone on the team must understand and embrace common goals and expectations. Further, all team members should feel they have an open communication channel with their leader.

    Related: 9 Best Practices to Improve Your Communication Skills and Become a More Effective Leader

    2. Be innovative

    Technology is constantly evolving. This allows us to work remotely globally, but we must determine which tools are best for team activities. Entrepreneurs will need to stay on top of the situation to ensure that tools are simply tools, not cumbersome obstacles to overcome while getting work done. Teams should be able to concentrate on a project — not on learning yet another complicated new platform or system.

    Related: Is AI a Threat to Remote Work? Here’s How to Understand the Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Business

    3. Be creative

    Entrepreneurs should consider how they can mix things up to keep teams’ ideas fresh and plentiful. How can they ensure talent stays motivated and productive? What new or different tactics can inspire people to meet goals and employ some creativity in their daily role? Innovation is important. Even routine, necessary tasks may need to be retooled to fit a remote, tech-centric workplace.

    4. Be collaborative

    No person is an island — even if someone is working from one. Each of our colleagues has valuable expertise that we can use to enhance our own work product and meet business goals. Entrepreneurs in particular need to know how to collaborate effectively, especially across diverse and geographically dispersed teams, and actively encourage and facilitate collaboration wherever possible.

    5. Be emotionally intelligent

    Empathy is one of the most critical — yet unsung — entrepreneurial attributes and soft skills there is. It enables one to be mindful of teams in new ways. For example, now it’s important to consider the “whole person” not just who we see at work. Why? Working remotely poses challenges most of us haven’t consistently had to deal with before. Also, it’s important to maintain balance. In certain situations, the in-person workers may have an advantage when it comes to face time with a leader. So, make sure other team members have equal representation, opportunities, and voice.

    Related: 4 Reasons Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Impact the Bottom Line

    6. Be culturally aware

    It is imperative that entrepreneurs are culturally aware when leading a global team. Be mindful of different customs, languages, nuances, rituals,and important dates in each team members’ culture. Lead respectfully, and appreciate the benefits cultural diversity can bring to a team and to the business. It’s easy to offend when unaware, so make an effort to learn, leverage cultural differences to advance goals, and where appropriate, bolster the organizational mission.

    7. Understand the power of etiquette

    At its core, etiquette is about treating people with kindness and respect, two nouns that all entrepreneurs should acquire as they promote and “live” their company’s values. When they develop and consistently deploy etiquette, entrepreneurs can reap myriad benefits. For instance, they can foster a collaborative company culture where diversity and inclusion flourish by ensuring everyone is treated fairly, with dignity, and respect.

    A diverse team deserves to feel safe — even when working remotely — to voice their opinions and suggestions. Even better, that diversity of thought can promote innovation, process changes, and other efficiencies that can improve workflow, operations, and even create new products and services. Everyone on the team should feel included, heard, and valued.

    Mastering these seven soft skills can empower an entrepreneur to reach new business heights. Using respect, gratitude and other soft skills as fuel, entrepreneurs can build happy and productive teams and advance their businesses.

    Under30CEO

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  • 3 Ways to Unlock Your Team’s True Potential by Creating a Team of Leaders | Entrepreneur

    3 Ways to Unlock Your Team’s True Potential by Creating a Team of Leaders | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a business owner or leader, you know that success comes from having a solid team. But what if you could take your team to the next level? What if you could go beyond a “Team with a leader” and create a “Team of leaders” that helps your business grow and pushes it to new heights?

    That’s the power of a team of leaders. In this article, we’ll explore what a team of leaders is and why it’s crucial for your business to jump the curve.

    What is a team of leaders, and why is it crucial for business success?

    A team of leaders is a group of ordinary people who learn to lead their own contribution and lead those who report to them — this includes those who have no one reporting to them. They lead their contribution to the organization, and they often lead customers or vendors too.

    This means using a power best practice of developing leaders throughout the organization — not just at the top. When a team of leaders is established, it can lead to significant increases in productivity, innovation and employee engagement.

    A team of leaders helps to distribute inventiveness, workload and responsibilities, allowing the business to operate more efficiently and effectively. This mechanism of unleashing a new culture of innovation and ownership causes team members to feel fully alive in their jobs. This translates to considerable gains in productivity and profitability.

    Related: How Successful Leaders Communicate With Their Teams

    The benefits of creating a high-performance team of leaders

    First, creating a high-performance team of leaders fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation, which can lead to new ideas and solutions. When each team member starts to think: “What would a great leader do in this situation?” leadership growth becomes part of the culture.

    When team members are taught how to take risks, reimagine processes, innovate and think for themselves, they are upgraded from workers to leaders. This concept creates a sense of ownership and accountability, which translates to increased engagement and motivation.

    Second, a team of leaders can help businesses stay ahead of the curve. By constantly seeking out new information and trends, they can anticipate changes in the market and adapt quickly. This can help the business to remain competitive and grow.

    Finally, a high-performance team of leaders can help to develop the next generation of leaders. By investing in leadership development, businesses can create a pipeline of talent ready to take on new challenges and opportunities.

    Jumping the curve is a concept that refers to businesses that can leapfrog their competitors by creating new products or services that are significantly better than what is currently available. A team of leaders is the best way to achieve it. When team members are trained to think as leaders, they can create new products or services that are disruptive and game-changing.

    Related: 5 Essential Things Employees Can Teach Leaders About Growth, Success and Happiness

    The characteristics of a power team and how to build one

    There are three keys to building a team of leaders. These three keys have to become part of the organization’s culture, which means it takes time. It is typical for these three keys to take 12-18 months to become institutionalized into the organization’s fabric.

    1. Weekly leadership training throughout the organization. This will not be achieved by an offsite meeting, a webinar or short-term training. Think of a block of ice that needs to become water. Culture is about small weekly training that raises the temperature slightly every week. After six months, change begins to set in, and that process will cause the ice to melt automatically. Keep it up for a few more months, and the water turns to steam. Focus on the process of small weekly changes, and the results will be automatic. These weekly training can be simple 30-minute sessions in which you begin to permit to work differently and provide practical tools to develop how they work. Introducing concepts like deep work or helping team members understand how you make money. It is inspiring to understand how their actions contribute to the bottom line.
    2. Normalizing the new behavior. The training needs to become the new way you do things. Raising expectations that everyone needs to participate because “This is our New Normal.”
    3. Creating a trust culture. This means a “no blame culture.” We know that when team members feel safe, their brain chemistry changes into the mode that allows them to be innovative and feel a sense of belonging. When they continue to fear the consequences of bad outcomes, their brain chemistry remains defensive, and they will not adopt the New Normal. Nothing will change.

    Related: Master These 5 Leadership Skills to Increase Your Results Tenfold

    The importance of trust in a team of leaders

    Trust takes time. Many leaders have broken the trust of their teams. In these cases, humility is the power option. Recently, I was in a meeting with a company’s leadership team, and the CEO said, “I want to take a moment to address a serious issue that has held us back as an organization. I have broken your professional trust. I apologize for that. We are all learning. We are creating a new 2.0 version of the company – as a team of leaders. I am still learning how to lead a team of leaders. This is new to me too.” This immediately impacted the team, and productivity and morale improved.

    To take the first step towards building a team of leaders, businesses should focus on weekly leadership development for the whole company and create a new 2.0 culture – the new normal.

    Dionne Van Zyl

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  • How to Align With Your Team to Solve Any Problem

    How to Align With Your Team to Solve Any Problem

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I see it every day, all the time: different perspectives, power struggles and personalities out of alignment. In any industry, leaders and managers are constantly solving problems and making decisions of all sizes that often require team collaboration. While one solution may not be able to consider every single dimension of a problem, we can come to a decision that considers enough dimensions to satisfy as many stakeholders as possible. That step, however, is easier said than done.

    How do we overcome the obstacles of different perspectives and create alignment to make better decisions as a team? By aligning each individual piece in the same direction.

    With everyone aligned around scope, criteria and mentality, no matter how different our roles, we all know the right direction to row. An effective team effort depends on this alignment.

    Related: ‘The Alignment Factor’: Collaboration Is the Backbone of Alignment

    Align scope to focus on the problem

    To start a productive conversation that results in effective solutions, the first place where a team should be aligned is on the scope. To do that, we need to align our perspectives on the scope of the problem. Different people could perceive the scope of a challenge differently. Until the scope is aligned, any discussion is unlikely to help solve the problem.

    A couple evaluating their dog’s diet, for example, might have different scopes: One partner might be talking about the dog’s diet for the animal’s health, while the other is concerned with how much it affects the monthly budget. Both topics are important, but they need to be addressed separately. Once they identify which is of greater importance, budget or diet, they can align around that scope and have a meaningful discussion.

    Address scope first to draw a boundary around the intended purpose within which to find an applicable solution. This anchors team brainstorming to a focal point while allowing for as many divergent ideas as possible that stay within that scope. Let everyone contribute their perspective, but throw out anything that diverges.

    Align criteria toward results

    After the scope is defined, we need to align around criteria — which can be used to judge a solution as good or bad — to help narrow down those possible solutions with consensus among the team.

    A CMO and CFO may have very different problems to solve, for instance, market share for the CMO and profit margin for the CFO. This may result in an argument when making decisions, even when examining the same scope, like a branding budget. To work together on this decision, they need to establish the criteria they will use to evaluate the value of their solutions: Higher profit margins for the year or brand building for the long run? Then, management teams can align and focus their solutions around what brings the most value to the company. Both the CMO and CFO may make their own decisions in operations as long as such decisions have a positive impact measured by that shared set of criteria.

    By successfully setting this type of shared criteria among team members, you’re creating a general standard that can be used to measure results. The criteria act as guardrails, minimizing the possibility of team members making counter efforts and eliminating arguments over the final results.

    Related: Why Team Building is Essential for Your Business Success

    Align interests for a common benefit

    For effective problem-solving as a team, all parties need to be able to see the transition from our own perspectives to that of others, and each party involved should benefit at least in some perspective(s). If I go into a decision feeling like I have to win a battle, this transition of perspectives is not likely to take place. The mentality of winning or losing is a zero-sum game — I win at the cost of your loss. Instead, we need to start on the same side of solving the problem.

    Of course, some people may be unwilling to move from their own perspective. This means the scope can no longer be a simple matter of solving the problem. We have to first stretch our scope in a slightly different direction — in this case, to my relationship with or the team dynamics around that person — before coming back to that original one.

    First, I try to evaluate that person’s motivation to win. Is this related to this person’s personal interest? Or is it just a personality issue? If it’s related to personal interest, I focus on aligning this person’s interest with the team’s. This way, the individual can realize the personal benefit of the team achieving their goal. If it is just a matter of personality, I would help them understand the damage of their personality, at the expense of the team failing to reach their goal.

    In some situations, no matter how much effort you put in, people may not be able to change. Is it worth putting in more effort? This judgment call is based on the criteria and a return on investment (ROI) concept. When your efforts can no longer be justified in reaching the team goal, you may have to make the tough choice to leave that particular person out of the decision-making process for the sake of achieving the overarching objective. Once you resolve this divergent scope for the team, everyone can return to aligning around solving the original problem.

    To effectively solve any problem, we must consider all possible solutions at that time by analyzing which factors are within our control and which are unavoidable obstacles. This will allow you to focus your time and effort on actions that ultimately result in progress.

    Alignment is built on team effort

    When the team moves as a whole and works in unity, they become more powerful than any individual on the team. If the team works sporadically and is out of alignment, it might be better to have a single person on the job. Rather than fighting to find solutions, everyone in alignment can work together to find better ones more efficiently.

    Related: The 4 Levels of Organizational Alignment

    Align interests around solving a problem so the team can work as a whole. This is one of the most instrumental steps you can take toward solving the problem. Of course, there may still be arguments, but the foundation of interest alignment in a problem makes it easier to align the scope and criteria for solving it. Even two different departments with different agendas and scopes, like sales and accounting, should be able to find a common denominator in their alignment with the company’s scope and interests. When we get all parties on the same side, we find more and better solutions. The framework of this process is universal and applicable to any problem-solving scenario, from agreeing on dog food brands to aligning board-level initiatives or anything else in between.

    Simin Cai, Ph.D.

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  • 3 Ways to Meet the Needs of a Divergent Workforce

    3 Ways to Meet the Needs of a Divergent Workforce

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Mental health, well-being and stress management will rise to priority status as workers demand a work-life balance. This is good news for disabled employees, but how will business leaders rise to meet this need? Executives will work harder than ever to create a more inclusive, welcoming, and accommodating environment to attract and retain these creative and productive workers. Learning to listen, communicate effectively and make changes in how teams work together can go a long way in creating an environment where everyone feels safe and respected.

    Rather than a “sink or swim” approach, leadership can meet workers where they are. This is where a business leader with a limitation can use intuition, see areas for improvement and change the dynamic in the workplace so that needs are understood and met. Business leaders should focus on three main areas to meet the needs of a divergent workforce.

    1. Empathy

    When a worker with a limitation applies for a job in the business world, they often fear the staff will not accept them. They are often worried they will not be heard if they ask for an accommodation. They may be concerned that what seems easy for everyone else will be difficult — or impossible — for them. Empathy is the quality of compassion that allows us to feel what it might be like to be in someone else’s shoes. It is the action-oriented part of compassion.

    It’s not about the number of divergent employees a company has on the roster; it’s about the employee work experience. Executives can show they are aware of the unique needs of the staff and are willing to meet those needs. Managing with empathy means understanding that someone in the office or on the other end of a remote call might have a disability or a limitation they are unwilling to share. It means taking the time to get to know the staff member on a more personal level and responding to their needs in a meaningful, timely way.

    Related: Why Empathetic Leadership Is More Important Than Ever

    Being open about diverse abilities begins with the company website, the company’s reputation on the web and the interview process. From the beginning, a potential candidate with a limitation can tell whether a company will be open to discussing their needs, the accommodations that might be required, and the way a limitation might change aspects of the work experience. A leader with a disability intuitively asks the right questions. Does a new employee need to communicate differently than other employees? What about physically navigating the building? How can the team best work with a staff member’s condition?

    For executives without disabilities, learning to be open and accepting of workers with limitations, striving to communicate more effectively and helping staff members feel safe will benefit not only disabled workers but will also improve the work experience for everyone.

    As an executive, you may feel uncomfortable asking questions or looking for feedback from disabled employees. The truth is that empathy is as uncomplicated as being a good listener, a good observer and a good mentor. When you create a culture that celebrates workers’ contributions with limitations, they may open up about their needs. An employee with dyslexia might need a team member to enter data on an excel sheet. A staff member with PTSD might have to schedule telehealth visits on breaks. If these workers are hiding their needs from you, the cost can be overwhelming stress for them. The company’s stakes are also high: rising turnover, absenteeism and low productivity.

    Related: 5 Ways Employees With Disabilities Help Maximize a Company’s Growth

    2. Accessibility

    A business leader with a disability has the edge when it comes to creating an environment that is equally accessible for everyone. Chances are that a wheelchair-bound executive has circled the parking lot looking for a ramp or dealt with oncoming traffic in a parking garage attempting to make it to the elevator. A legally blind business leader has experienced more than a few meetings where important information was presented only on PowerPoint. If you are an executive without a disability, you may have never considered how many potential candidates might have found your building or information inaccessible; they may have made it to the parking lot, quietly leaving without pointing out how their lack of access left them feeling helpless and excluded.

    A leader with a limitation will look at the corporate space from a perspective of challenge. A disabled executive will ask, “What hurdles will a disabled person meet attempting to work here?

    Do your meeting spaces accommodate divergent needs? Ramps, elevators, the width of doors and aisles between desks, lighting and closed-captioning are just the beginning. If an employee with anxiety issues needs a peaceful place to calm down, or if a worker needs to keep moving to improve chronic pain, is there a place for them to go? What about transportation? Could the company offer a car service or a monthly stipend to cover a ride share?

    However, it isn’t just about disabled staff. The need for accommodations can arise at any time. Workers without disabilities can break limbs, have painful surgeries, be wheelchair-bound or use crutches. Leaders can anticipate how the workspace might become a burden for staff and make adjustments.

    Beyond the physical environment, corporate heads can embrace technology to assist divergent employees in reaching their potential. Technology has moved beyond closed captioning and voice accessibility. Consider how you can make technology more accessible for your staff. A simple solution might be making transcriptions of meetings. These could be emailed out to staff, including those who are hearing impaired.

    Some apps allow people to take pictures and have documents read to them. There are apps that magnify text for those with impaired vision. Young engineers are working with AI to create more effective communication between the hearing impaired and people without that limitation. Executives can fund training and innovations that meet employees’ needs. Both staff and business leaders will be challenged to find different ways of doing things, working together to find solutions so that everyone can be more productive. Simply delivering material and information in a variety of ways will enable everyone to have better access.

    Related: Employers Need Workers. Now They’re Realizing The Untapped Talent of These People.

    3. Team building

    Even if business leaders grow in their understanding of divergent staff, the next step is even more critical: Management can bring employees together to learn from one another. If staff members hide in cubicles or a remote office without fellowship, mutual understanding can’t occur. One of the most innovative ways to find common ground in the workplace is to use team-building exercises.

    What if the office meeting wasn’t just the usual grind? What if part of that time was spent on team building? This can be done online or in the office. A manager can help staff clarify the team and individual goals. Employees can share their hopes or their vision for their lives. Leaders can go around the room, asking the same question, such as, “What are you most proud of?”

    Another option is to bring in a corporate trainer to build synergy. This can be done across departmental lines to bring a fresh perspective. Trainers may give the teams “assignments,” such as a project to complete, a problem that needs solving, or a set of tasks that force them to rely on each other and pull their own weight. Members of the team are pushed out of their comfort zone. They learn how to accommodate diverse abilities in their group using resourcefulness, recognizing strengths and weaknesses, and filling in the gaps when needed.

    A corporate retreat is a chance to get workers out of the office and into an environment where they can open up and share things they wouldn’t ordinarily reveal in an office setting. Staff members can relax, share their fears, and get vulnerable. Whether the retreat lasts a couple of days or a week, they can get to know each other. After a retreat, employees often feel they have gained trust, respect, and a sense of purpose where they work. They may feel they have a better grip on leveraging their team and workplace’s diverse abilities.

    Final thoughts

    An executive with a disability may have the edge in anticipating the needs of staff members with diverse abilities; however, leaders without limitations can find ways to maximize the potential in all staff members by making empathy, accessibility, and team-building a part of the corporate culture. Celebrating your team’s unique skills while working to meet their individual needs will create the kind of environment where the most talented candidates will thrive.

    Nancy Solari

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  • 5 Reasons Why Effective Delegation Is Crucial for Successful Entrepreneurs

    5 Reasons Why Effective Delegation Is Crucial for Successful Entrepreneurs

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Being an entrepreneur is challenging and requires a wide range of skills and abilities to be successful. One of the most crucial skills entrepreneurs must possess is effectively delegating tasks. This means identifying the right tasks to delegate, selecting the right people to delegate them to and providing clear instructions and expectations.

    This article will explore why entrepreneurs need to be great at delegating tasks and how it can help them achieve their business goals while scaling their companies.

    Related: 7 Rules for Entrepreneurs to Delegate Effectively

    1. Focus on your core capabilities

    One of the main reasons why entrepreneurs need to be great at delegating tasks is that it allows them to focus on the most critical aspects of their business. As an entrepreneur, you are responsible for various charges, from managing employees and finances to developing new products, features and services. It is impossible to do everything yourself and still be effective.

    If you do that, you will soon hit a ceiling of productivity and be unable to scale. By delegating tasks to others, you can free up your time and energy to focus on your business’s essential and strategic aspects, such as developing new ideas, expanding into new markets, and building relationships with key customers and investors.

    2. Allocate work efficiently for better outcomes

    Another important reason entrepreneurs need to be great at delegating tasks is that it allows them to build a more effective and efficient team. If you concentrate all the necessary work on yourself, you preclude yourself from doing more of what you are best at and spending time on things others could do faster and better.

    By delegating tasks to the right people, you can ensure that the right skills and expertise are applied to the right tasks. This can help improve the team’s overall performance and productivity and increase job satisfaction and employee engagement. Additionally, delegating tasks can help develop team members’ skills and abilities, providing them with new opportunities for learning and growth.

    Related: Why you can’t delegate — and how to fix it – BBC Worklife

    3. Delegation is the essence of successful teamwork

    Great delegating also builds trust and confidence among your team members. When entrepreneurs delegate tasks, they demonstrate their faith in the abilities and capabilities of their team members. This can help build more robust and more effective relationships between your team members and between you and the team.

    Additionally, by delegating tasks effectively, entrepreneurs can help create a culture of accountability and responsibility within their organization, leading to better performance and higher levels of employee engagement. A great example of this principle can be observed in professional sports: A coach never steps onto the field to play but leads the game from the outside, trusting the team while the team trusts the coach.

    4. Effective delegation can lead to better decision-making

    Entrepreneurs often face many decisions which require a great deal of expertise and knowledge. By delegating tasks to others, you can tap into the expertise and knowledge of your team members, who can help you make more informed and balanced decisions. By delegating tasks, you can benefit from your team members’ diverse perspectives and ideas, leading to more innovative and creative solutions. In addition, by being less inundated with work, you will have more bandwidth to think deeply about problems and challenges. Having extra time to think is essential to making solid decisions.

    Related: Should You Delegate That? A Comprehensive Guide

    5. Make yourself obsolete

    Finally, effective delegation is essential to scale your business exponentially. As your business grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage all aspects yourself. By delegating tasks to others, you can ensure that the company continues to run smoothly and efficiently, even if you are unavailable or unable to perform at total capacity. Also, delegating tasks can create new opportunities for growth and expansion as team members take on new responsibilities and develop new skills and capabilities. While it might sound counterintuitive, the best leaders don’t work much. You would have all the people needed to run your business in an ideal world without you.

    In conclusion, entrepreneurs must be great at delegating tasks to achieve their business goals and scale their companies. By delegating tasks effectively, entrepreneurs can free up their time and energy to focus on the most critical aspects of their business, build a more effective and efficient team, build trust and confidence among their team members, make better decisions, and scale their business without being the bottleneck to growth. Effective delegation is a crucial skill that entrepreneurs must develop to succeed in today’s competitive business environment: Mastering task delegation will enable you to step back from day-to-day operations and focus on strategic thinking.

    Roland Polzin

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  • 6 Ways to Foster Teamwork in Your Business

    6 Ways to Foster Teamwork in Your Business

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Teamwork is essential to any successful business, as it allows employees to pool their skills and knowledge to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. But, just having a team of employees is not enough to guarantee success. To get the most out of your team, you must encourage successful teamwork within your organization.

    Let’s discuss six ways to do just that. With these tips, you can foster an environment of collaboration, trust and understanding that will help your team reach their potential and drive success for your business.

    Related: The Importance of Teamwork and Collaboration

    1. Define roles and responsibilities

    When it comes to successful teamwork in your business, one of the most important elements is having clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Each team member must understand their role and how they fit into the bigger picture. Having well-defined roles will allow each team member to take ownership of their own tasks and understand how their work fits into the collective success of the entire team.

    Before any work can begin, it’s essential to identify each team member’s skills and experience and assign specific roles accordingly. Make sure each team member is aware of their duties and responsibilities, and don’t be afraid to give them room to explore their talents and use them to benefit the team. This will help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal and promote collaboration and camaraderie amongst team members.

    When defining roles and responsibilities, it’s important to consider how individual skills can complement those of other members. This can mean assigning more complex tasks to those with more experience or expertise while giving simpler tasks to those needing more time or guidance. By doing this, you are ensuring that everyone can contribute to the team’s success in their own way.

    Finally, ensure that you create a system for tracking progress and providing feedback. By setting deadlines for tasks and providing regular feedback to each team member, you are ensuring that everyone is held accountable for their work and helping them improve their skills. By defining roles and responsibilities, you are laying the foundation for a successful team that will help your business thrive.

    Related: How To Increase Employee Responsibility — Regardless of Where You’re Working

    2. Set clear goals and objectives

    Teamwork is essential for any business to succeed, but fostering collaboration and cooperation among your employees can be difficult. Set clear goals and objectives that the team can work towards together. Doing so helps give everyone a sense of purpose and direction while also helping them stay on track and avoid getting sidetracked by other tasks. When everyone understands what they are working towards, they will be more likely to collaborate and come up with creative solutions to any problems that may arise. Establishing clear goals and objectives can also help to motivate the team, giving them something to strive for and measuring their progress against.

    3. Encourage creativity

    Teamwork is essential to any successful business. To foster an atmosphere of collaboration and success, it is important to encourage creativity in your team. Here are a few ways to get your team thinking outside the box:

    • Brainstorming sessions — Use brainstorming sessions to develop new ideas or solutions to existing problems.
    • Promote healthy competition — Creating friendly competitions between teams or departments can help stimulate creativity and drive employees to think of creative solutions.
    • Support risk-taking — Encourage employees to take risks and suggest creative solutions without fear of failure.
    • Set a good example — Lead by example and show your team that you are open to new ideas and willing to take risks.
    • Celebrate successes — Celebrating successes will motivate team members to continue striving for success and take more risks.
    • Provide resources — Give employees access to the tools, resources, and training they need to create innovative solutions.
    • Create an inspiring workspace — A clean, organized, and inspiring workspace can help increase creativity.
    • Reward creative efforts — Rewarding creative efforts will show your team that you value their creative input and encourage them to keep coming up with new ideas.
    • Invest in technology — Invest in the latest technology to give your team access to the best tools for creative work.
    • Involve everyone — Involving everyone in the creative process will ensure everyone can contribute their ideas and benefit from the team’s success.

    4. Celebrate successes

    Teamwork is essential to the success of any business. Encouraging successful teamwork starts with celebrating successes and recognizing individuals and teams for their contributions. Celebrating achievements, big or small, helps to create a positive and productive atmosphere in the workplace and will help to motivate and engage employees.

    • Share success stories with the team — Take time to recognize individual and team successes by highlighting them in meetings or emails.
    • Give out rewards — Reward employees for their hard work and accomplishments by providing bonuses, gift cards, or other incentives.
    • Showcase success on social media — Let your audience know about the great things your team has achieved by posting about them on social media.
    • Have team celebrations — Celebrate team successes by throwing an office party or team-building activity.
    • Say thank you — Make sure to take the time to thank each individual for their contributions, no matter how small.
    • Share recognition — Encourage team members to recognize each other’s successes and praise each other publicly.
    • Hold competitions — Give awards or prizes to teams or individuals who have achieved a particular goal or milestone.
    • Use public acknowledgment — Acknowledge successes in a public setting like a company newsletter or blog post.
    • Celebrate the little things — Don’t just focus on the big wins, but also take time to appreciate smaller successes along the way.
    • Set achievable goals — Create achievable goals that everyone can strive towards together as a team. This will encourage collaboration and support amongst team members and foster a spirit of success.

    Related: How to Set Goals and Celebrate the Successes

    5. Encourage healthy conflict

    When building a successful team, encouraging healthy conflict is essential. Healthy conflict encourages team members to think critically and view issues from multiple perspectives, which can lead to innovative problem-solving. To promote healthy conflict in your team, provide an environment where everyone can express their ideas without fear of being judged or attacked. Encourage active listening to ensure everyone feels heard, and consider setting ground rules for respectful communication. Inviting an outside facilitator to lead the discussion can also be beneficial in ensuring that dialogue remains constructive.

    6. Learn from failures

    Regarding teamwork, it is crucial to recognize that failure is essential to learning and growth. If a team works together to complete a task but fails, it can be a valuable opportunity to learn from mistakes and to try something different. Leaders should encourage the team to discuss what went wrong and brainstorm ways to do better the next time. This dialogue will help build a culture of open communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.

    Additionally, when a team experiences failure, leaders should provide recognition for any hard work and contributions made by individual team members. Doing so will help ensure that even when projects don’t end up as expected, everyone can still feel a sense of accomplishment for their effort.

    Finally, take the time to reflect on what was learned from the failure and use this knowledge to inform future tasks. With this approach, teams can move forward with greater confidence, knowing they have the tools and strategies necessary for success.

    The key to successful teamwork is open communication and collaboration. By leveraging these tips, you can encourage effective teamwork in your business and promote a culture of trust and respect. With the right tools and strategies, you can help create a positive environment for teams to achieve success.

    Let Hana Retail be your POS system and experience the power of teamwork! Our innovative technology allows multiple users to access the system simultaneously and collaborate on tasks, streamlining customer service and increasing efficiency. With us, you’ll have a POS system that works with your team, not against it.

    Murali Nethi

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  • 5 Ways You Can Build a Strong Leadership Team

    5 Ways You Can Build a Strong Leadership Team

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Laying the foundation for a powerful leadership team starts with a business assessment and a self-assessment. What does the business need to achieve, and how can our leadership teams get us there?

    I tend to look at things globally, but while I can see things in a micro way to determine the next steps, I like to lean on my teams to dig down into the details as they come up with a knock-out marketing and sales strategy, stellar creative, rock-solid and accurate financials and innovative thinking that are all informed by five guiding tips.

    Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

    1. Determine what goals and priorities the business needs to focus on

    When determining the base needs of the business, you have to look at who’s already on your team. Here’s a good example. I have a person in a manager’s seat right now, but I’m mentoring him to be a director because what I’ve identified in him are many of the key personality qualities that a leader and a leadership team need.

    Intelligence is key. I refer not only to business intelligence but also to emotional intelligence. This includes understanding how to interact with people and the business requirements. They are two different things, but both are required of a leader. You need to be organized, and you need to have really good communication skills.

    You also need to be able to say no. I want my leadership team to be strong enough to know the difference between what we should say yes to and what we should say no to because I’m relying on them to run their parts of the business and then report to me. Therefore, I need to have trust that they understand what it means to say no — and they can only know that if they understand the business as a complete operation.

    For example, if there’s a need for someone to jump in the warehouse and pack boxes, then so be it. The fact that my warehouse leader was packing orders on a Monday shows the rest of his team and me that he’s not going to ask anyone to do something that he’s not willing to do himself.

    Related: Setting Measurable Goals Is Critical to Your Strategic Plan (and Your Success). Here’s Why.

    2. Never forget the importance of “right people, right seats.”

    Do they get it? Do they want it? Do they have the capacity to do it? And then there are measurables that give us an idea if they are meeting those criteria. We’re a little obsessed about this, but it’s important.

    One thing that guides a strong leadership team foundation is the establishment of core values. What does the business stand for, and what are those values?

    In our business, one of the things that we really believe in is customer relationships built on trust. Another one is minding the small details. Little things matter. This can be the little nuances of contract manufacturing or providing more service to our customers.

    You want to go out and find a leadership team that lives the core values every minute of every day that they are in the building, hybrid or remote — because it is through their leadership, their belief in those values, and how they exemplify them that provides the blueprint of how an employee should act.

    Remember that every employee, not just leaders, builds a company’s reputation and goodwill.

    Related: As a Leader: Never Compromise Your Core Values

    3. Leaders should be able to pivot, make adjustments and change course

    If you’re going to be in business and think things are going to stay the same, you’re not in the right field and should do something else. There’s an excellent quote that I read recently from Jeff Bezos, where he said that “every day needs to be day one.”

    He said that day one is when you’re entirely customer-obsessed and constantly looking to grow the business. On day one of a business, you’re asking what we can do to wow our customers. How can we provide value? You never want to leave day one because, once it becomes day two, it’s now on a path to stagnation.

    I agree with that. Part of day one thinking is understanding that things change. It’s being resilient enough to change course, evaluating things on the fly, knowing what’s working and rapidly driving resources to what’s working.

    How do you bring the best out in your teams? In baseball, it’s catchers that have a unique perspective. They’re managing the pitcher and see the game from a perspective only they can see.

    They’re watching the game unfold in front of them. Nine innings, 162 games a year for 20 years, or however long they’re behind the plate. They’re great leaders in the sport because they understand the game at a level that other players can’t.

    I think that that’s a big part of when you’re looking to develop a quality leadership team. Those are the kind of skills that you want to see.

    Be like a catcher.

    4. Knowing that honest mistakes, smart risk and bold action are often needed

    What I believe in is that you want to give people smart authority. You want to let them understand the guardrails within their sphere and encourage people to own things. You give people a chance to accept responsibility, take full responsibility for something and give them goals for what you want them to accomplish. Then set them free to go out and do it.

    When they make mistakes, they learn something. It’s through honest mistakes that real learning happens. We grow up in a culture where everything has to be mistake-free and perfect. In reality, however, the best and most successful entrepreneurs are founded out of risk. If you remove the risk from your business as you’re operating it, how can you ever grow? How can you ever move to the next level?

    You want to allow your team and leaders to grow and make what I call “smart mistakes” — honest mistakes that are not due to carelessness or recklessness. It’s okay to make a mistake when you’ve gone through the process of making a good decision.

    I also believe in “smart risk,” — where you think more outside the box. Smart risk is, for example, taking a reasonable chance on a well-thought-out opportunity.

    In marketing, there’s the whole theory of test and rest. Try something, give it a time frame, and look at the results. Did it work? Yes, then throw more at it. If not, what did we learn, why didn’t it work and what could we tweak?

    Related: 7 Mistakes Leaders Make When Managing a Remote Team

    5. Blending diverse talents can create a force multiplier effect

    The best example that I can give is a hockey team. There are usually four lines on a hockey team, and traditionally, you have the top six that score. You have two lines of forwards that go out there, and their job is to generate offense and control the puck in the other team’s zone. But if you have four lines like that, then who’s playing defense?

    So, you complement those lines with somebody who’s maybe a bit more physical, somebody who likes to agitate. While you certainly need to score goals, you also need the passers, the players who keep the team spirits up, and the enforcers where necessary.

    Same thing in business. You have to have a leadership team that’s not an echo chamber. In echo chambers, there are no divergent views or solutions. When you look at things like marketing and sales, you want different opinions so you have the best chance to make a decision that helps the business move forward.

    Related: Ensuring Diversity Is Not a Distraction to Leaders

    While values can be shared, talents should be unique. People should be able to work together and respect each other’s aptitudes and viewpoints because I believe that creates a high tide in which all boats can float.

    My feedback about our vice president of sales from her employees is that “She is the best manager I ever worked for because she empowers me to own things and do the best job I can.”

    That’s what I call great leadership.

    Vincent Tricarico

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  • An Inspiring New Technology Generates and Sustains Team Spirit.

    An Inspiring New Technology Generates and Sustains Team Spirit.

    Church attendance continues to decline – especially amongst millennials; a ‘technology of teaming’ offers a chance to rebuild.

    Press Release
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    updated: Sep 20, 2017


    PHILADELPHIA, September 20, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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    It’s a fact: technology has not always been a friend of the Church. 

    For all of its benefits, technology is also a distraction, an amplifier for troubling influences, and a competitor for time that might otherwise be spent in reflection, fellowship, and worship. Dr. Janice Presser, CEO of The Gabriel Institute (TGI), based in Philadelphia, believes that TeamSpirit® — a ‘technology of teaming’ — can re-invigorate communities of faith, by restoring the sense of fellowship, and of meaningful contribution, that have always been key motivators of regular church attendance.

    Experiencing Teamability for myself has forever changed my sense of what it means to be a team player. It is deeply satisfying — even healing — to discover your own particular way of serving team needs, and how it harmonizes with other, different ways of teaming.

    Whitney Johnson, Author, ‘Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work

    “Teamability, our core technology, was engineered to restore employee satisfaction and engagement, and to support leaders in creating positive team collaboration,” says Dr. Presser. “The secret is in aligning people with work that they find intrinsically meaningful.”

    The new TeamSpirit® technology was born when Rev. Darryl King, a longtime friend of Dr. Presser’s, expressed interest in using Teamability to align churchgoers with church responsibilities and activities that would produce a more deeply-felt feeling of accomplishment.

    As Pastor King describes it, “Believers are expected to use their gifts in service to the church. Stated another way, spiritual gifts are given with the expectation that their collective expressions define the church body. This second concept is teaming — and Teamability’s modes of team contribution align very closely with traditional Gifts of the Spirit.”

    But before TeamSpirit becomes available, it has a big hurdle to cross: it can’t be launched without a major technology overhaul, so TGI is seeking funding via the popular Indiegogo.com crowdfunding platform. As Dr. Presser points out, “Crowdfunding itself proves that people will happily do good in the world, when it makes them feel good!”

    The campaign, “TeamSpirit: Discover Your True Spiritual Gift,” continues on Indiegogo.com until Oct. 13, 2017.

    Launched in 2012, Teamability® is delivering extraordinary benefits in business, institutional, and educational organizations of all sizes and kinds. For example:

                • In one of the nation’s largest integrated health insurance/health care providers, 80% of those who received Teamability reports and coaching reported significant reductions in workplace stress. 

                • Using Teamability information to guide new employee selection, a fast-growing company completely eliminated its longstanding 30% rate of new-hire turnover.

                • Student teams at Middle Tennessee State University were “more coherent in function” and team members were “more understanding of how their colleagues approached tasks, and how to apply that knowledge to achieve team objectives.” 

                • Teamability-based Team Analysis resolved dysfunctional team relationships in a post-merger company, producing dramatic and lasting improvements in internal teaming, as well as interactions with vendors and customers.

    For information about The Gabriel Institute, Teamability, or TeamSpirit, call TGI at 215.825.2500 or send an email to inquiry@thegabrielinstitute.com.

    Source: The Gabriel Institute

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