Dear Madeleine, My team is losing it. I have eleven employees, all of whom are used to coming into the office daily with the occasional WFH day for doctor appointments, big deliveries, that kind of thing. When we all were told to WFH a few weeks ago, I thought getting everyone set up with the…
Dear Madeleine, I got a new boss about six months ago and I have been watching and waiting to see how he is going to pan out. So far, so good, I think—except for one thing that is really burning my toast. Literally the first thing he did was to put a stop to all…
I recently watched a UK talk show where Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were guests. Howard, director of many of Hanks’s most successful films, was asked what he liked about working with Hanks. His response was that he appreciated two qualities in Hanks—confidence and creativity. This got me thinking. What makes us want to work…
Have you ever stayed in the office longer than productively necessary, gone to work while you were sick, or put in overtime when you were already exhausted simply to impress the boss? If yes, you might be suffering from presenteeism—and it may be harming both you and your business over the long term. Traditionally, this…
I recently had an opportunity to sit in on a webinar conducted by Ken Blanchard, Eunice Parisi-Carew, and Jane Ripley, coauthors of the new book Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster. As they talked about the book, the three authors shared five key ingredients for creating a collaborative culture on a team, department,…
Can’t we just get to work? Why do we have to spend time getting all touchy-feely about how we will work together? If you lead or assist virtual teams of engineers, programmers, scientists, or technical experts, you have probably heard similar comments. The most effective virtual teams have a clear agreement—often called a charter—that spells…
Differences are inevitable when passionate people work together. Eventually, after a team gets through an initial orientation with a new task, members usually come to the realization that working together to accomplish a common goal is tough work. This occurs in the “dissatisfaction” stage of team development when the team recognizes the discrepancy between what…
Most virtual teams are organized for cut and paste work, or what I like to call quilting. Each team member creates a part of the project—sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially—and the parts are sewn together. Each person operates independently, performance evaluations are based solely on individual work, and meetings are opportunities to share progress reports. This…