Below are some of the flip chart notes, from the section on the Team Performance Model.

Overview of this section – 7 Steps to Team Performance

• Explore the creation and sustainment of High Performance teams.
• Co-Create Solution Focused questions and methods for advancement of each step.
• Leave with a working model and application to your work and team lives.

Lessons Learned from this section – 7 Steps to Team Performance

• Knowledge of how to put this model into existing teams to improve effectiveness of people on the team.
• A series of question and tactics that can be used to move a stuck-team into motion and success.
• Examples and ways to implement this system into your organization, teams and individual contributors.

To learn more about this program and others like it…Click Here

Click on any of the photos to enlarge

michael cardus is create-learning

• click on the image to enlarge

Finding cooperation and determining how to make use of your team, management, resources, etc… is a constant task that we all face in our work.

Anything can be useful…if (in your context of work) you find things that are not useful then STOP DOING IT! and determine what is needed for it to be useful.

Once that step is achieved Plan:Do:Check:Act…find what worked do more of that.

Stop what did not work; Or determine what is needed for it to be useful, and repeat…

What do you think?

Is this model above useful? If so how? If not…what would make it useful?

michael cardus is create-learning

Contrary to popular legend, subordinates do not, as a rule, rise to position and prominence over the prostrate bodies of incompetent bosses. If their boss is not promoted, they will tend to be bottled up behind him. And if their boss is relieved for incompetence or failure, the successor is rarely the bright, young man next in line. He usually is brought in from the outside and brings with him his own bright, young men. Conversely, there is nothing quite as conducive to success, as a successful and rapidly promoted superior.

Peter Drucker ‘The Effective Executive’

How to increase your chances for a promotion:

1. Learn how to coach your manager

2. Find what your manager is good at; determine what you are good at. Then build both of your skill sets for improvement

3. Your manager is the most relevant customer of your work…determine how to meet their needs.

4. Make your manager look good in the eyes of his/her manager.

5. If all else fails, apply for a transfer.

Articles Mentioned in the Video:

• Are you a “Big Enough” Manager?
• 9 Indicators That a Manager is NOT Able to Handle the Complexity of the Work & some ideas of what to do about it.
• Before the Promotion he was nice & had potential
• How can we avoid poor team performance? Don’t Promote People who Can’t do The Work.

What do you think?

Do you have any stories of you being passed over for a promotion because your boss was incompetent?

What advice can you share on how to make your manager more successful?

michael cardus is create-learning

Enjoying a good discussion and when writing “Why should anyone be led by you? That’s a dumb question.”  there was hope that someone would respond, challenging the assertion that it is a dumb question.

Below is what was shared on the Organization Development of Western New York LinkedIn page.

The other person will be kept anonymous (unless I get their permission to share their name on the blog)

Other Person

• in response to the original blog post

Hi Mike! I found your comments to be interesting. A question: If “Why should anyone be lead by you?” is such a stupid question, why does it stump most leaders? You need competence as well as the ability to connect to be an effective leader. 47% of senior managers believe they are inspirational leaders, but only 8% of their followers agree!
Research also suggests that higher ratings of personal connection are more predictive of a high performing leader than competence alone. Leaders need to excite employees to extraordinary performance and without a connection, this is impossible (source: BlessingWhite).

My Response

Responses. - ‘Why does it stump most leaders?’

As stated in my title, it’s a stupid question. That has no basis in reality. "Leadership" of what? to where? in what context? If If I am sports team captain, then I am exercising leadership through my competence of the sport I am playing. You cannot take an excellent Soccer-Leader and place him/her into a corporate board room and expect their "leadership" skills to transfer.

The issue to rise is that all these character traits inspiration, good-listener, caring,etc… are only seen as positive character traits of Managerial-Leaders who have competence in their work. Once we notice competence in the work, then the mis-attribution of quality traits happens. You can most likely take this same person who is "inspirational" put them in front of a different audience that this person has no competence in, and they will not be seen as inspirational.

Additionally…leading people and Managerial-Leaders to believe that they must be inspirational only goes to further inflate the demagogue CEO problem. People are inspired by making progress on work that is meaningful to them. People are inspired when their manager sets broad enough goals to allow for a certain level of autonomy BUT not so broad to leave them confused; are supplied with the adequate resources to complete the goals; have confidence in understanding their role-accountability and authority within the team + organization; and have metrics to measure progress and regress on the their work.

An "inspirational" leader can inspire until blue in the face…if the manager does not have the competence to add value to someone’s work, they will not be seen as inspirational…

Now to your research…Having a connection with employees is part of every competent managers job…adding value to the work of subordinates. Managerial Leadership as I defined in the article – "Managerial accountability includes the use of leadership within the role of manager. you cannot be an effective manager without getting those you manage to move along with collaboration and enthusiasm with the Goals of your manager and you as a manager."

No one needs to excite employees through magical thinking and connection…if a manager is doing their work, they are held accountable for the output of subordinates plus responsible for the development of a team that work along with each other, the manager, the managers-manager and the organization to achieve the goals of the organization. The excitement ought to come from the person working to their full capacity, within the roles they can complete this in.

Returning to my original point…Why should anyone be led by you? is a dumb question because it creates a deeper disconnect between the supposed Leaders and the others. This will only work to achieve the opposite of what it seems you wish to achieve.

What do you think?

Alright, agreed it is a good question that all Managerial-Leaders should consider – Why should anyone be led by you?

Although is it enough to bring out competence in managers?

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Sim, youn jin

Network in Aging of Western New York, Inc.

Contacted by my friend Nancy Weil to lead a team building workshop for a group that she is a part of, The Network in Aging of WNY.

Mission

To help our members enhance their efforts to improve the quality of life for older persons and their families by providing them with opportunities for resource exchange, professional development, and stimulation of interdisciplinary collaboration.

outcomes from the Team Building Time:

• Increased trust and membership communication
• People got to know and learn from each other in an enjoyable environment
• Increased alignment of mission, vision and personal perceptions of the agencies mission and vision as it applies to the individual members, and the community at large.
• Created a shared understanding strengths and abilities of the people on the team.
• Awareness of the team and personal preference style for communication and information sharing.
• Take-Away information on improving their own work and Team performance.

Jeff Reed from Mount Calvary Cemetery Group was the contact person, and wrote this great testimonial about our time together. 

“My heart stopped pounding once Michael began to speak. Coordinating a team-building workshop for thirty people is stressful enough. Add to the mix that the thirty people attending are not co-workers or close personal friends, they are members of an organization you belong to and you are hosting the monthly event.

The stress started at our first meeting when we began to entertain the thought of a structured team-building program. Will people come? Might they be intimidated with the topic? Will they think, “Great another boring session of what not to do?” Will they even participate? We even thought of running the team building session on our own until one of my employees said she heard Michael Cardus speak at a retreat she attended and “he was amazing”.

Michael was engaging right from the start, he easily shifted us into groups where we did not know one another. Instead of telling us why team building was so important he walked us through an exercise that quickly opened our eyes as to how much we have in common as individuals.

A team was formed through our common bonds. No one was singled out or put into an uneasy position you could feel the positive energy within the room.

After a short break we returned to our tables only to find a black bag positioned in the center of the table. This test of connecting the varied lengths of plastic pipe and connecters made us one. As a group we had to work together, think through every suggestion that was made to complete the task and be flexible enough to change gears mid-stream when our best laid plan was going to fail us. While only one group completed the task, we observed and learned that there truly is strength in numbers.

The time we set aside for Michael’s program flew by, the bonding in the room generated by our interaction was infectious and the noise level kept rising as we moved forward with our assigned tasks.

We all walked away with a better understanding of what a “team” can be, how important communication is between people, and realized when pursuing a common cause or goal, having teammates to lean on makes the task at hand achievable.

The time spent with Michael was invaluable!”

Interested in similar results for your Professional Group, Organization and team? Contact Mike…and be the reason people stay with your team.

michael cardus is create-learning

We all have, a one time in our careers, had a manger who has less capable or as capable as us. While having a manager who has the same capability may sound nice, it creates tension.

Tension between the Manager and you, because the manager knows that s/he cannot offer and add any value to your work.

Tension between You and the manager, because you feel constrained and frustrated that you can out-think, out-plan, and out-value your own manager plus they are getting paid more than you.

It’s rarer, unfortunately, to have a manager who is “Big Enough” to fill the role of being your manager. This manager is able to truly attract trust and unleash the team and your creativity and best work.

This happens because, the manager who is “Big Enough” is comfortable doing their own work (as a manager) and is able to let you do your best, by setting the proper context of the goals, and leaving you to do your work.  

The importance of having a “Big Enough” Manager

• Inspired by Elliott Jaques ‘Executive Leadership’

What do you think?

Have you had a manager who was “Big Enough” to fill the needed level of work? What about your work was improved because of this? Have you ever had a manager who was “Too Small” to fill the level of work? What about your work was impeded because of this? If you are a manager…how do you know that you have the necessary Managerial-Competence to be “Big Enough”?

People join companies, and leave managers…

Be the reason people stay with your company

Contact Mike today to develop, recruit or train managers that are “Big Enough” to add value to your Organization, and work with each other to move the company and people to achieve their potential.

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Mohd Khomaini Bin Mohd Sidik