Team Growth

One-on-One Meeting Template and Guide

Early in my career, my boss recommended that I meet regularly with each of my direct reports. In other words, I should do a one-on-one meeting with my team. He knew it would both improve their productivity and improve my relationship and influence with my team members.

I thought it was a great idea! And since I wanted the time to be as productive as possible, I spent weeks trying to figure out how to structure the meetings and when to schedule them.

Looking back – I wasted a lot of valuable time trying to set up and agenda for the “perfect” meeting. Which was a futile effort from the outset – because I was going to be part of the meeting – and I’m far from perfect!

So I did the one thing that I knew would get me going. I asked my assistant to put the One-on-One Meeting on my calendar. She scheduled them so I would have two weeks to get ready for my first meeting. So, here’s what I did…

Developing Vision With Your Team

My team had experienced significant change and growth. At the same time, I realized that the speed of change within our organization and our team was taking it’s toll on the team. We were focused on keeping up with day-to-day projects and current growth while neglecting developing vision for future growth.

While this approach was productive in the short-term, I knew that it was not sustainable. So I began assessing ways to clarify priorities. And unify the team around common goals and objectives.

5 Essential Character Traits of Great Team Members

The 5 Essential Character Traits of Great Team Members is a guest post by Rebecca Livermore. Rebecca is the founder of Professional Content Creation and the author of several books including the new book, Blogger’s Quick Guide to Working with a Team.

I’ll admit straight-up that I’m a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of person. My mantra has long been – Take initiative! Just do it! You’re responsible for your own success!

While I still believe that initiative and hard work are incredibly important, I had to own up to the fact that my do-it-myself personality impeded my growth and the success of my business.

Herbert Hoover beat the drum of rugged individualism during his presidency. He believed that the government’s involvement in the financial affairs of ordinary citizens would impede their growth. His fear was that if the government bailed people out during the Great Depression, people would lose initiative.

And if you’re trying to build your business or blog all on your own, it’s time to accept the fact that alone you’ll only be a fraction of the success that you could be with the help of others.

I know – the challenge is that it can take up to three years to fully integrate new members to the team. So it’s essential to hire the right team members.

One of the best ways to do so is to hire people of character. Here are 5 essential character traits to look for when hiring team members for your team…

Work Less – 3 Ways Smart Leaders Do to Get Better Results

The Work Less – 3 Ways Smart Leaders Do to Get Better Results is a guest post by Victor Prince. Victor is co-author of a new book, Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide their Teams to Exceptional Results. He is a consultant and speaker who teaches strategy and leadership skills to clients around the world. You can find him online at victorprince.com.

At the core of leadership is change that leads to better results. Some leaders try to get more out of their teams and organizations by simply working harder and longer. Smart leaders, however, have figured out that they can get better results by reducing efforts in a few key areas.

In their new book, Lead Inside the Box, Victor Prince and Mike Figliuolo offer 3 Ways that Smart Leaders Work Less to Get Better Results…

Job Description – 5 Reasons Your Team Needs It

The Job Description – 5 Reasons Your Team Needs It is a guest post by Dr. Ryan Hartwig. Ryan is co-author of Teams That Thrive and associate professor of communication at Azusa Pacific University. Find him online at ryanhartwig.com and on Twitter.

What if every team in your organization had a job description? What if every team had clarity about the team’s purpose, and how that purpose was different from other teams and individuals in the organization?

In today’s world, it’s common for most positions in organizations to have a written job description. The job description provides focus, clarifies expectations, delineates qualifications for job candidates, and outlines the criteria for performance evaluation.

But what about teams?