The Team Leadership Report

The following is from the book A Season in THEIR Words: Quotes From Coaches From The Preseason To The Postseason    One of the most important goals of any team sport is the formation of the team. Few things are as beautiful as a group of individuals that give up selfish desires and act as one unit. All successful teams have good leaders and players who accept their roles. Getting everyone on the same page is one of the coach’s biggest challenges, especially in a society that often preaches a me-first attitude. A coach is wise if he does a little something every day to help develop team chemistry. Here are a few quotes from coaches that may help. A team is a fist—not five fingers. --Mike Krzyzewski The strength of a team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. --Phil Jackson Some people believe you win with your five best players, but I found you win with the five who fit together best. --Red Auerbach Whether it’s in business, politics, ed

If you want to know what human beings really want, consider how Alice reacts to Wonderland. Lewis Carroll’s inventions are so entertaining, we tend to smile at how upset, vexed, and unsettled Alice actually is. Wonderland overturns our regular, orderly, and predictable life, which is what people actually want. The inhabitants of Wonderland aren’t just fantastic. They are unhappy. The White Rabbit is anxious enough to be a study in stress over a deadline. The Duchess’s cook throws dishes in a state of rage, and the Duchess herself hands Alice her squalling baby, which turns into a pig. Alice is very glad to get out of there. But Wonderland haunts us, and for good reason. We are shadowed in everyday life by fear. To assuage our fears, we have mentally constructed a picture of life that is reassuring, but wrong. There’s a kind of silent conspiracy to impose logic, reason, order, and predictability which actually isn’t there in Nature. As an Oxford mathematician, under his real na

Whatever your position, whatever field you’re working in, whatever type of organization, the fundamentals of strong leadership are the same. Here are the eight essential qualities to strong, effective, and successful leadership The competence in being positive . A positive attitude, especially from top management, can set a tone and signal others to be more positive—and, in turn, productive. When you’re optimistic about yourself and what you’re doing as well as about other people, you’re much more likely to inspire others to be and do their best. Positivity is contagious, and it’s a vital part of being a strong leader. The ability to be decisive. The ability to make difficult decisions based on the facts and circumstances of each specific situation is an important quality for effective leadership. To be a good leader, you need to rely on both your reason and your intuition and be able to pull everything you know together on the fly when a timely decision is required. Making d

Everyone is a volunteer. Control is an illusion. You don’t control anyone or anything except for yourself. Everyone you work with chooses what they’ll do and how they’ll do it. Yes, your team is paid and if they choose not to perform at a certain level, they can lose their job – but that’s still their choice. When you remember everyone is a volunteer you know that the effort you want your people to give is their choice. Sure, you get to influence that choice. When you recognize that everyone chooses what they do, it transforms their work into a gift, and that changes everything. You’re in the hope business . This is one of the most neglected truths about leading a team. Leadership is the belief that if we work together we can have a better tomorrow. Together we can do more, be more, and add more value to the world. That’s a big deal.  It might be the biggest deal of all. And some of the time your team will be stressed and discouraged, your job is to help them find the hope. Withou