May you be inspired to make a difference in the lives of people around you!

So imagine the obstacles facing these new supervisors. They are likely supervising former peers, some of whom applied for the same position. They are expected to deal with performance issues and problems. They know they should coach their employees but may have only a general notion of what that means. They may feel more comfortable contributing through their technical or operational skills (at least that gives them a sense of mastery!) than attempting to influence or direct the work of a team.

The #1 reason employees leave organizations is the relationship with their supervisor or manager. At the first level (or frontline), it is these new supervisors who have a tremendous impact on the productivity of their work units and the retention of employees. And yet many organizations expect them to "get it" through osmosis.

If I sound a bit rabid about this topic, it comes from personal experience. I was promoted into my first management role in the human resources department of a bank. With no real skills, I set about mandating compliance from my team of employees. One of them quit within four months of my promotion. I was humbled to read her exit survey. From a list of 20 possible reasons for leaving the bank and the direction to "check all that apply," she had boldly checked one reason alone: my supervisor.

That response set me on the path to developing my own managerial skills and lead to the creation of NetSpeed Leadership. I want to thank one of our consultants, Dan Kennedy, who asked me the question: "Why do you do what you do?" as he evaluated whether to partner with us. His question allowed me to articulate, once again, why this work is so important.

If you share this passion for developing the new leaders in your organization, then contact us. We'd love to help you...and we're pretty darn passionate about it.

You're also encouraged to begin to acknowledge and appreciate your existing customers for the qualities that make them your perfect customers. And, of course, if a customer is less than perfect, you're encouraged to release them. I love the idea that we want to serve customers that are a perfect fit for us and let go the ones that should be working with other consultants.

It's been a pleasure to reflect on the characteristics of my perfect customers and I thought you might be interested in knowing what they are:

My perfect customer (in no particular order):

Laughs with me about life.
Shares feelings and thoughts openly.
Trusts me and my experience.
Appreciates the creativity and innovation of our products and services.
Collaborates with us to accomplish their goals.
Is honest and open about challenges and rewards.
Wants to have a relationship with me and my team.
Takes risks and tries new things.
Cares about our business success.
Use our consulting services and our training services.
Pays us on time every time.
Enjoys paying us what we're worth.
Pays upfront and in full.
Refers us to others often.
Has a balanced, healthy orientation to life and work.
Wants to work with us from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Makes decisions confidently and easily.
Returns emails and phone calls promptly.
Sings our praises to others.
Appears in case studies and testimonials.
Thinks of me as a friend who cares about their success.
Values my insights and my perspective.
Plans carefully and thoroughly before launching a new training program.
Uses the tools we offer (e.g. our Best Practices Guide)
Is committed to succeeding through collaboration.
Recognizes the value of facilitated, adult learning.
Believes in post-class, web-based reinforcement as a way to increase retention and behavior change.

I could go on much longer and, in my own notes, I have! But I think you get the idea. I'm delighted to say that my clarity about who want to serve has attracted some marvelous new clients who are just perfect for us! If you'd like to be one of them, please call me at 877-517-5271, or email me at cclay@netspeedleadership.com.

As technology has evolved, my thinking has evolved. First, we embraced shorter classroom training sessions with learning delivered and practiced in bite-sized chunks. (Each NetSpeed module is about 3-hours in length.) Then we paired instructor-led classroom training with practical, post-class reinforcement tools, and finally we built in a level III assessment tool to make it easy to gather data about how people are using what they learned on the job.

The move to web conferencing took several years for me to make. We began by using a web conference platform tool as way to bring groups of people together across the country, whether they were our own consultant partners, prospective clients, or new clients who needed to learn how to apply our tools.

This week we launched the NetSpeed Leadership Webinar Subscription Series. I'm excited because I think this program is going to meet the needs of many organizations that have new managers and supervisors who just don't have the time to attend training delivered in off-site, all day sessions. We've combined 11, 90-minute webinars with 2 coaching sessions, our web-based reinforcement tools, and a personal needs assessment. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about this dynamic approach to training your supervisors and managers.

So, every Saturday, after my daughter's ice skating lesson, I have been dutifully practicing. It's been three months so I would estimate I've skated for 1 1/2 hours on ten Saturdays. That is about 15 hours of practice. And, what do you know, this past Saturday, I pushed off from the wall and found that I could skate backwards. I'm not yet confident or fast, but I am managing to glide along without falling.

I love the feeling of mastery that comes with persevering through those basic, foundational steps. How often we want to skip the basics and zoom straight to the top. My daughter is learning to knit. She has been working on her knitting for, oh, about one week. As she worked on each stitch this weekend, she struggled to keep the yarn on the needles. I had to laugh when she held up her three rows of knitted stitches and announced, "Mom, I'm going to make a blanket now."

It can be challenging to support our employees through the learning curve when they want to gain experience and skill at the snap of a finger. My daughter wailed when she had to tear out her first three knitting rows and start over. To help, praise incremental progress toward those bigger goals and constantly remind your staff that the road to mastery take time. Be there to support them when they are learning and applaud them when they experience small successes. I gotta go now. I want to see if I can skate backwards just a tiny bit faster.

Keywords: coaching others, coaching employees, achieving goals, skill development

Think of extrinsic or external motivators as those incentives outside of the employee. In organizations, these motivators could include compensation and benefits, reward and incentive programs, and company or department goals. If an individual has family responsibilities, then, perhaps their economic needs motivate them. Physical security needs are also considered to be external motivators. How much control do you, as a team leader, have over these external factors? If you're thinking “very little” then you are right on target.

Internal Motivators

On the other hand, intrinsic or internal motivators include less tangible factors as personality and work ethic. Attitudes about authority, personal goals, and even the level of self-esteem that an employee exhibits are all an “inside job”. Each employee's psychological needs drive their behaviors and choices. If you're thinking “I don't have much control over those internal factors either” then you may be missing an opportunity to motivate your team. In truth, you are able to influence individual performance by attending to each person's intrinsic motivators. You help to create the conditions through which each team member satisfies their internal drives.

Typical Motivators

In the NetSpeed Leadership training session, Coaching Smart People, we conduct an exercise in which participants identify their main motivators. Here is the list of motivators from which participants select their biggest driver (you can have your team do this exercise as well):

Now, imagine for a moment that an individual on your team selects the motivator get appreciated. If you were to ask “How do you know when you're appreciated?” you might hear him say, “I like working in an environment where people sincerely thank each other. I don't have to be told every day that I'm appreciated but I do like to feel like what I'm doing contributes to the success of the team. If I work hard on a project, I want my boss to acknowledge that hard work, even if she needs to delay the project or have me change some of the results. I would rather get that feedback one-to-one than in a big group. I feel better having a personal conversation with my team leader about my value to the team. If she does it in front of the big group, I actually get pretty embarrassed and it's not a pleasant experience.”

If one of your team members selects the motivator get connected to others, you might ask her, “What does it mean to be connected to others?” You might hear her say, “To me, it's the personal relationships that make work satisfying. I always say 'the more the merrier' when there's a chance to get something done—let's just roll up our sleeves and get it done together. I love to work with other people on important goals. I love the give-and-take and the sense that we're all in this together. I would hate sitting at my desk alone all day without that human interaction. It just fires me up and makes me want to run into work everyday.”

Perhaps one of your team members selects the motivator get recognized and rewarded. You might ask, “How do you like to be recognized or rewarded?” and he might respond, “I'm constantly tracking how I'm doing against my own goals and, frankly, against others. I guess you could say that I'm a little bit competitive. But, hey, life and work are a game to me. If you throw me into a contest to see who can make the most sales calls in 24 hours, I'm hooked. When I make the highest number of calls, I want my boss to put my name out there as the guy who topped the list. I like that kind of public recognition. If you just take me into your office and say, 'good job' I feel miffed. If I did such a great job, why aren't you telling everybody?”

To give one last example, imagine that someone on your team selects get educated. You might ask her, “What does it mean to you to get educated?” And she might answer, “I guess you could say that I'm a life-long learner. I have a couple of college degrees and I hope to get started on my Ph.D in a few years. I read constantly. If you want to make me feel good, send me to a really good training class, or give me your favorite business book. In fact I can't wait to go home and dig in to the latest research on the process improvement tools we've started to use here. I guess I like to be the expert on the team.”

These are just four examples of the way individuals might describe their main motivators. And their descriptions should give you some ideas about how to motivate them.

Get Appreciated

Ensure that you end every one-to-one meeting with a positive affirmation of his worth to you and the team. Send a simple email or write a thank-you note. Consider posting a stick note on his computer that he sees when he arrives at his desk first thing in the morning. Be specific, sincere, and generous in your praise. You might want to take him out for coffee or lunch and have a private conversation about how things are going and what you can do to support him on his current projects.

Get Connected to Others

It's all about the relationships. First, pay attention to your relationship to her. Clean up any miscommunication or confusion that may be preventing you from spending time with her. Tell her how much you value the fact that she is a team player. Keep her in the loop about goals, objectives, obstacles, and challenges. When ever you give her a task, ask her who she'd like to work with to get it done. Invite her to drop in to talk through problems or issues when needed. Introduce her to possible mentors and other champions. Praise her for the quality of her relationships with customers, co-workers, and colleagues.

Get Recognized and Rewarded

In many ways, he's the easiest kind of person to recognize. Do it publicly and do it often. He probably values certificates, plaques, and “employee of the month” awards (as long as they're seen as legitimate accomplishments). If his job includes regular reports on deliverables, make sure those reports are reviewed at team meetings. If you send out an email praising him, make sure that your boss is copied on the email. Feature him and his results in the company newsletter.

Get Educated

The best motivational tool for her is the opportunity to gain more knowledge and share it with others. Often seen as “the smartest person in the room”, she shines when asked to update the team on the latest information. Freely share your favorite books. Forward ezine articles. Ask her opinion as you are developing project plans. Praise her depth of knowledge in the topics that she is interested in. Give her the opportunity to do background research. And, if she can write well, ask her to write up her findings.

No matter what motivators the individuals on your team may choose, there is an opportunity for rich conversations that will tell you just what you need to know about how to engage them. So here's your action plan:

keywords: motivating employees, motivational tools, building the team, team building, recognition

It doesn't have to be a complicated process to begin to identify communication style differences. You've probably seen some patterns in yourself and the people you work with. For example, do you:

It's interesting to notice that it doesn't really matter how or why you developed these preferences. It's only important to realize that you have preferences or habits that you tend to rely on make your way in the world. Of course, we all have the capacity to do whatever the situation requires of us but, let's face it: there are some behaviors that simply feel more comfortable to us than others.

Let me give you an example: When a member of my team drops a problem in my lap, my first instinct is to ask questions and gather facts. When I have enough information, I can begin to evaluate my options. When I've thought those options through, I may then recommend a trial solution. Would it surprise you to learn that I prefer an analytical communication style? (We call this style Analyzer at NetSpeed Leadership.)

Now let's think about the team member who has dropped the problem in my lap. Perhaps she is actually a little upset that she didn't catch an error that created the problem. Let's imagine that she feels pretty badly about the issue and hopes that I will take a few minutes to empathize with her discomfort and reassure her that we will work together to fix things. Perhaps she is more concerned about her relationship with me, her boss, at the moment, than she is about solving the problem. Would it surprise you to learn that she prefers a relationship-oriented communication style? (We call this style Anchor.)

As you imagine this scenario, you can probably guess that we would be like two ships passing in the night. Faced with my questioning and fact-gathering, she would probably dissolve into tears, convinced that she had really blown it. If I recognize that she needs empathy and support before she can move to problem solving, we'll probably make greater headway on resolving the problem together.

Without an appreciation of these kinds of style differences, team members can also misunderstand each other, react badly, and experience unnecessary frustration. One member of my team is extremely deadline driven. He has a never-ending task list and gets most of his daily satisfaction from plowing his way through that list. The more activities he accomplishes each day, the better he feels. When he leaves at night, his desk is neatly organized and ready for him to tackle the next day's challenges. It's probably no surprise to hear that he prefers a results-oriented communication style. (We call this style Achiever.)

Now imagine this Achiever working with another team member who loves the creative process. In fact, brainstorming, playing with ideas, and researching creative solutions consume a good portion of her day. If you look in her office, you wonder how she can find anything on her desk. There are stacks of paper everywhere, magazines open to interesting articles, sticky notes with ideas, a collection of books, and a steno pad with notes, lists, random thoughts and important phone numbers. She delights in popping into the Achiever's office and brainstorming ideas with him. You can guess that she prefers a communication style that is creative, and certainly not deadline-driven. (We call this style Adventurer.)

If I want to develop synergistic teamwork, then I must not only select team members who exhibit these differing styles, but I must also make sure that they value these style differences in their teammates. Otherwise the team will waste a good deal of time disagreeing over style differences rather than negotiating good working strategies that meet everyone's needs.

At NetSpeed Leadership, we offer a three-hour training module called Working with Communication Styles to help organizations develop the awareness of style differences, the language of appreciation, and the ability to capitalize on these differences. As each team member begins to understand his or her own preferences and moves from judging others who exhibit different styles, to appreciating and building on those style differences, your team begins to mature. And your job as team leader becomes just a little bit easier.

Keywords: team building, communication styles, personality style, communicating at work, team communication

Shared Purpose and Direction

On a high-performing team, everyone on the team is committed to the team's purpose. They know exactly what that purpose is because the team leader keeps them focused by constantly communicating that purpose in team meetings and regular updates. The team leader helps each individual team member meet his or new own needs while serving the overall purpose of the team.

Motivating Goals

The team leader ensures that everyone on the team has clearly defined goals and targets. In some organizations, the strategic goals and departmental objectives are determined by senior management. In that case, the team leader makes sure that these goals are clearly discussed. Team members should understand how their jobs support the achievement of the defined goals, and, if possible, have the opportunity to develop individual goals and action plans that spell out how they will contribute to the success of the organization.

Commitment to Individual and Team Roles

On a Total Team, team members have clearly defined expectations but they also understand how each of their roles is linked to every other role. Team leaders ensure that team members are cross-trained in other responsibilities so that everyone can back each other up when needed. The team leader makes sure that individual job responsibilities are fulfilled, but, at the same time, works to help the individuals develop a common language, processes and approaches that allow them to function as a team.

Multi-Directional Communication

On the best teams, team members solve problems, communicate with each other, and keep the team leader updated on current challenges or emerging issues. On low-performing teams, communication is one-way (from team leader to team members) or two-way (between the team leader and individuals). Skilled leaders focus on developing multi-directional communication, avoiding the trap of communicating with individuals members of the team.

Authority to Decide or Act

No doubt about it, new teams may have to earn this authority by demonstrating that they understand the team's purpose, processes and priorities. However, effective team leaders work toward pushing authority for the team's outcomes to the team members. Team members know how and when to get approval for decisions and, in the best of cases, are charged with making on-the-spot decisions when a customer is facing them. On low-performing teams, team members have to constantly get approval before taking action, significantly reducing their effectiveness and negatively affecting their sense of engagement on the team.

Reliance on Diverse Talents

Savvy team leaders pay attention to helping team members understand their unique strengths, talents, and weaknesses. No individual team member can be good at everything. The best team leaders assist everyone to develop an appreciation for individual style differences, natural gifts, and personal experience. Teams are encouraged to use the language of acceptance and appreciation, rather than criticism and judgment. Team leaders consciously hire team members who bring complementary skill sets, unique experience, and diverse perspectives.

Mutual Support and Trust

The seventh characteristic may be the most important, and frankly, is probably the most elusive. The team leader can't force a team to be supportive and trusting—it's a natural result of shared responsibility, shared success, and mutual respect. The high-performing team achieves mutual support and trust because they have a history of working together to achieve grand dreams and results. They have met challenges, overcome obstacles, backed each other up in good times and bad. The Total Team has earned each other's trust.

Building a high-performing team is not an easy task. However, if you're a team leader that is up to the challenge, then consciously focus on developing these seven characteristics. Bring them to your next team meeting and ask team members to evaluate them. How do you know whether each of these characteristics is present or absent on your team? What is the team willing to do to develop these seven characteristics? Then ask the individuals on your team to commit to 3 to 5 specific actions they will take in the next 60 days. Revisit these commitments regularly and see what develops. I guarantee a rewarding journey to high-performance.

If you'd like to learn more about team-building, register for our free one-hour webinar about Building the Total Team, coming up on Tuesday, January 16 or Thursday, January 18, register today.

keywords: team-building, building teamwork, high-performing teams, high-performance teams

I remember that situation and his comment whenever I'm tempted to blame someone else for the consequences of my own actions. To avoid that, I find it useful to ask myself: How have I contributed to this outcome? What would I do differently if I could do this over? The next time I face this problem what will I do?

When we lead others, we are in a position to help them develop this habit of taking personal responsibility for their part in a difficult outcome. The trick is to do it without blaming them or ourselves. We can lay the foundation by talking through the issue or challenge with phrases such as:

• As I think about what happened, I can see that I contributed by....


• We all share responsibility for this outcome. For instance, I wish that I had....


• The next time we handle this challenge, I plan to....

• Looking back, how do you think you played a part in this?


• If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?


• What steps do you plan to take the next time you face this situation?

• I really appreciate your ability to look at this challenge objectively.


• I think your assessment of this situation is right on target.


• I trust that you will succeed next time. These are great ideas.


• Thank you for talking this problem through so that we can work together to get better results.

So what will it be? A team that is at the mercy of lunkheads in other departments? Or a team that is confident in its ability to meet any challenge? It's your choice.

Keywords: building teamwork, team building, working as a team, leading others, team collaboration