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The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable

Want to create a high-performance team? Want to limit the amount of time you spend settling squabbles between team members? It turns out those two issues are closely related: Our research shows that on top-performing teams peers immediately and respectfully confront one another when problems arise. Not only does this drive greater innovation, trust, and productivity, but also it frees the boss from being the playground monitor. I first saw the connection between high performance and peer accountability years ago when consulting with a very successful financial services company. It had an unparalleled return on capital, breathtaking sales growth, and the highest customer renewal rate in the industry. In my first face-to-face meeting with the CEO, whose name was Paul, and his direct reports, I committed a major faux pas. I discovered halfway through the meeting that I was calling the wrong guy, “Paul.” It was an innocent mistake. When it was time to begin, one member of the executive tea

Use Data to Accelerate Your Business Strategy

Thirty-five years after Robert Waterman’s observation in In Search of Excellence that companies were “data rich and information poor,” little has changed. For sure companies are “data richer,” having exponentially more data at their disposal. But they are still information poor, even as leaders have implemented a wide array of programs aimed at exploiting data. Most still struggle to build data into their business strategies and, conversely, to align their data efforts to the needs of the business. There are a host of reasons, from lack of talent to unreasonable expectations to culture. Solving these problems is essential for those that wish to unleash the power of data across their organizations. It should come as no surprise that data is not yet strategic for many organizations. Business is already complex enough: When setting a company strategy, there are customers to satisfy, competitors to fend off, uncertain regulatory environments to accommodate, and skills gaps that must

Why Team Input Is the Key to Successful Benefits Planning

To understand what benefits fantastic employees truly value, why not just ask 'em? Every entrepreneur knows how important employee engagement and retention are to the success of any growing company. You’ve probably read the data yourself about how much time and effort go into replacing a good employee; surveys describe a cost equating to  six to nine months  of that employee’s salary. You're probably aware that countless factors come into play in an employee’s decision to stay or move on -- including benefits and perks. In my experience growing my  content marketing agency , I found that benefits and perks themselves weren't the main reason employees choose to stay or leave to pursue other opportunities. Instead, what contributes significantly is the satisfaction they feel about their work, their long-term career-development opportunities and the support, respect and appreciation they receive from managers and co-workers. But the benefits offered matter, too. An

How to Handle the Pessimist on Your Team

Turning Negativity into Productivity Dealing with a pessimist on your team can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Attempts to ignore or counter frequent negative comments may simply incite further negativity. Good news: by being proactive you can help the pessimist change his behavior and enable your team to achieve greater productivity. What the Experts Say The first step is to figure out what is causing your team member’s negativity. Roderick Kramer, William R. Kimball Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, says that it is the role of the leader to understand the underlying cause of the pessimism before acting. “Some people are dispositional pessimists whose knee-jerk reaction is to see the negative in everything, while others may be expressing a pessimistic point of view based upon informed logic,” Kramer says. Some common sources of pessimism include resentment at not having been promoted, a need for attention, or a

Management: How To Bridge The Generation Gap In Your Marketing Team

The generation gap can be a problem on a marketing team. This is often because it might be difficult to communicate with team members who are not of the same age range. Many people are not aware that there are simple things you can do to  bridge the generation gap  in your company. If you are wondering what you can do to help bridge the generation gap, continue reading to learn some useful tips and tricks. Setup Team Gatherings If you have a marketing team, you should be proactive and begin setting up team gatherings. These  team gatherings  can be workshops or social events that can help people from all age groups come together. This could be a creative learning project where you give your marketing team lessons on new skills or information that none of them really are familiar with. Team gatherings will help your marketing team come together and work together. Regardless of the age range of your marketing team, the team gatherings can create work-related bonds since every

4 Ways to Cut Production Costs Instead of Your Team

When money gets tight, find solutions that don't cost jobs. For the first time in its brief-but-bountiful history, Silicon Valley is  pumping the brakes . In response to an increasingly conservative investment climate, major startups such as Evernote, Jawbone, Hootsuite and Snapchat are cutting staff. That may work for powerhouse tech startups, but what about entrepreneurs? When funds run thin, can you afford to chop the one and only staff developer or the account managers? With a limited budget and a small team, the best solution may be to limit production costs. But how? Entrepreneurs can’t be like  Apple , which leverages volume discounts to offer pixel-perfect screens and stainless steel hardware at low costs. And they don’t want to be like streaming service Grooveshark, which launched in 2006, the same year Spotify was developed. It didn’t pay for licenses from rights holders and was forced to reactively juggle legal battles while Spotify soared. The key is to be