Shows
David Burkus PresentsHow Can Teamwork Fail?Teamwork is a constant in organizational life. You will work on teams for the majority of your career. Some of those teams will be an uplifting, engaging experience—but most will be an average or even a draining experience. Because most teams aren’t high-performing ones. Most teams fail to achieve a level of performance above the average of each individual’s capabilities. Most teams lack what Stephen Covey would call “synergy” but what organizational psychologists call “collective intelligence.”
Collective intelligence happens when a team’s performance on tasks exceeds what would be predicted by averaging the capabilities of...
2023-12-1108 minDavid Burkus Presents6 Tips For Effective TeamworkTeamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results. However, effective teamwork doesn't just happen; it requires careful planning and implementation. This episode provides six tips for effective teamwork that will help you build a high-performing team. These tips are not just theoretical concepts, but practical strategies that have been proven to work in real-world settings. They are designed to address the common challenges that teams face, such as lack of clarity, poor communication, personality clashes, fear of taking risks, lack of diversity, and lack of motivation. By addressing these issues, you can create a team that...
2023-12-0410 minDavid Burkus Presents3 Tips To Improve Leadership SkillsGreat leaders aren’t born, they’re made. While it’s tempting to look at stories of great leaders and just assume they’re received some divine or genetic gift that turned them into exemplars, the truth is much more nuanced. Leadership is a skill that can be honed and improved with practice and the right guidance. This episode will explore three key habits that can significantly enhance your leadership skills: creating clarity, establishing safety, and speaking purpose. These habits are not just theoretical concepts but are based on well-researched findings on what constitutes an outstanding team culture.
Creati...
2023-11-2007 minDavid Burkus PresentsBuilding Psychological Safety At WorkPsychological safety is the bedrock of a high-performing team. It's more than just trust; it's about fostering a climate of mutual trust and respect. Building psychological safety at work is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires conscious effort and commitment. It's about creating an environment where everyone feels safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and be themselves without fear of judgment or punishment. It's about creating a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusivity.
In this episode, we'll explore four key strategies to employ when building psychological safety at work. These strategies include...
2023-11-1308 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Ways To Motivate Your TeamEvery team leader knows the importance of keeping their team motivated. The more motivated your team, the more productive they are, and the better results they deliver. Research suggests that the more powerful form of motivation is intrinsic, flowing from an individual’s desire to do the work or achieve the outcome for their own reasons—not bonuses, awards, or other extrinsic motivators leaders often use. But that doesn’t mean leaders are out of options.
While your team will still be best motivated through reasons that are individual, there are still a few tactics you can use to...
2023-11-0608 minDavid Burkus PresentsTrust In High Performing TeamsTrust is the bedrock upon which successful teams are built. High-performing teams are characterized by an elevated level of trust. This trust in high performing teams manifests in four distinct ways: teams trust each other to deliver, they trust that they can share new ideas, they trust that they can disagree, and they trust that they can make mistakes. Each of these aspects of trust contributes to the overall success and productivity of the team.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to set the tone and model trust within your team. This involves creating an environment...
2023-10-3011 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Types Of Team ConflictConflict on a team is inevitable. On diverse teams, where individuals come from varying backgrounds and possess differing opinions, those opinions will clash often in the form of disagreements and conflicts. Understanding the types of team conflict that can arise in a team setting is crucial for effective management and resolution.
In this episode, we will delve into the four types of team conflict: relationship conflict, task conflict, status conflict, and process conflict.
Each type of conflict has its unique characteristics, causes, and potential solutions. By understanding these conflicts, leaders can respond appropriately in the...
2023-10-2312 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Foundation of High-Performing TeamsHigh-performing teams are often perceived as having extraordinary talents and capabilities, but they are not that different from regular teams—at least in terms of composition. Research indicates that high-performing teams are not just about having exceptionally talented individuals. Instead, they excel in understanding how to collaborate effectively and harness the diverse talents within the team.
In other words, talent doesn’t make the team. The team makes the talent.
The foundational quality that turns everyday people into members of a high-performing team is common understanding, sometimes called shared understanding or collective intelligence. Common understanding enco...
2023-10-1610 minDavid Burkus PresentsBest Icebreakers For Team MeetingsIcebreakers are not just games or frivolous activities. Many people have memories of cringeworthy and awkward games played under the pretense of “team building.” I was one of them. But the research on icebreakers is pretty clear. Icebreakers are powerful tools that can help teams find uncommon commonalities and build strong connections.
Icebreakers can be the key to unlocking a more collaborative, understanding, and high-performing team. However, the effectiveness of an icebreaker hinges on its relevance and comfort level. They should be personally meaningful and not make team members uncomfortable.
In this video, we’ll cover...
2023-10-0909 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Single Best Team Building ExerciseTeam building and understanding each other's behavior are crucial elements in creating a strong team culture and creating a high-performing teams. But many leaders struggle to find and deliver effective team building exercises. There are many too choose from, and many fall short. Because so many exercises focus on getting teammates to understand each other’s differences—often expresses as personality, identity, or experiences.
But for team building exercises to work, teams can’t just understand each other. They need to understand each other’s behavior.
And that’s what makes the “manual of me” activity the s...
2023-10-0211 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Great Managers Do DailyManagers make the difference. Middle managers especially play a crucial role in employee engagement and performance. However, many managers lack proper preparation for their role, and companies often fail to invest in robust leadership training. Great managers understand that their actions have a direct impact on their team's success. In particular, great managers improve their team through four daily actions.
In this episode, we will explore four things that great managers do daily to separate themselves from poor bosses. By implementing these daily practices, they not only improve team performance and development but also...
2023-09-2512 minDavid Burkus PresentsOne-On-One Meetings With EmployeesOne-on-one meetings with employees are a crucial aspect of effective leadership. Organizations spent countless hours, money, and other resources trying to find the most qualified talent on board, and then spent more money to keep that talent motivated and engaged. And yet, the single most time time-efficient and effective way to invest in the growth and development of employees is a simple feedback session with their direct supervisor.
In this episode, we will delve into the three main sections that make up a successful one-on-one meeting: expectations, feedback, and growth and development. By following...
2023-09-1810 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow Does Diversity Affect Teamwork?It’s often said by teams that “diversity is our strength.” We take for granted the idea that diverse teams bring more lived experiences, ideas, and solutions to the table. When asked, “How does diversity affect teamwork?” most leaders assume that teams composed of individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives are more likely to approach problems from various angles and come up with innovative solutions. And hence most leaders assume that diversity is a source of greater performance.
And while that’s true—it’s not as clear cut as we assume.
When you look at the rese...
2023-09-1112 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Skill of Active ListeningAre you a good listener?
You may think you’re a good listener—maybe someone even told you were a good listener. Or maybe not. As a leader, this is a very important question. So much of your ability to solve the problems your team is bringing to you depends upon your ability to understand them. And in order to help your team feel heard and listened to when their pitching possible solutions depends on being a good listener.
No matter what you answered to the opening question, there’s good news for al...
2023-09-0409 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Earn Respect As A LeaderMargaret Thatcher once famously quipped that “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” As a leader, the same could be said about respect. If you wonder if you’re team respects you, they probably don’t.
Being a leader is not just about having authority and power; it's about earning the respect and trust of your team. Your title may have made you the boss. But your team’s respect makes you the leader.
In this episode, we will explore how to earn respect as a leader t...
2023-08-2808 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Great Leaders DoIn a world of growing complexity and seemingly constant crisis, we need great leaders more than ever. But when you look at the stories in the press or check the staggering numbers of burnout and disengagement in surveys, it seems like fewer and fewer leaders are rising to the challenge. It starts to seem like becoming a great leader is too complicated and nearly impossible.
But when you survey people on what makes them appreciate and follow leaders, it turns out there are just a few simple habits that set great leaders apart. Simple, but not necessarily...
2023-08-2110 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow to Make Employees Feel RespectedLeadership is about relationships. And the cornerstone of just about every relationship is respect.
When employees feel respected, they are more engaged, motivated, and productive. But many managers struggle to convey their respect to team members. Consequently, colleagues often experience a sense of being undervalued, disconnected, or even inferior. It is difficult to envision individuals who harbor such sentiments being able to their best work ever.
In this article, we will outline how to make employees feel respected through five actions leaders can take to build a respectful work environment.
0:00 Introduction
1:05...
2023-08-1411 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Overcome Resistance To ChangeEmployee resistance to change is one of the most perplexing and challenging issues that business executives encounter. Senior leaders have mapped out a change initiative and, in the process, gotten themselves excited about the future only to find the rest of the organization doesn’t share their enthusiasm.
What’s often overlooked is that employee resistance to change is most likely due to the emotions behind the change, not the change itself. And in examining those emotions, the late Carl Frost offered four key questions that people ask themselves when they’re being asked to change. The answer...
2023-08-0709 minDavid Burkus PresentsCreate A Sense Of Purpose On A TeamWith work and life becoming more intertwined than ever, people increasingly seek purpose through work. So, leaders are being called upon to create a sense of purpose on a team. When team members feel that their work is connected to a larger company-wide purpose, they are more motivated and perform better. This gives managers and leaders an opportunity to facilitate work environments that provide the sense of purpose people need to thrive.
In this article, we will explore five effective ways to create a sense of purpose on a team, ensuring that everyone is aligned and driven...
2023-07-3110 minDavid Burkus PresentsCreating Shared Identity On A TeamCreating shared identity on a team is crucial to building a high-performing one. Shared identity refers to the extent to which team members feel the same sense of who they are as a designated group. It indicates whether or not individual members truly feel like this is the team they’re a part of and most loyal to.
Decades of social science research have shown that individuals make sense of their world by applying categories and labels to their environment—including themselves and the people around them. “Team” is one such label, and it carries great importance, because...
2023-07-2408 minDavid Burkus PresentsCreate A Sense Of Belonging At WorkA sense of belonging on a team is crucial for its success and productivity. Belonging is that sense of acceptance and inclusion when people feel they can bring their authentic self to work. When team members feel included and valued, they are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and contribute their best work. And on a diverse team, belonging determines how much the team taps into diverse perspectives, opinions, and ideas. As a leader, you encourage that sense of belonging through the habits, norms, and behaviors that you model and that get mimicked by the rest of the team.
2023-07-1711 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Make People Feel HeardOne of the most common complaints among disengaged employees is about not feeling heard, not being seen or recognized for what they do, who they are and what they are experiencing. As a leader, a lot of this frustration may stem from you. When people approach you with their problems and you jump right to give advice, you may feel you’re helping their problem…but you’re not helping them feel heard. And if they don’t feel heard, they’re not really hearing your advice anyway. Other times people speak up to share a new idea and get met wi...
2023-07-1012 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Avoid Burnout At WorkDemands at work have been piling on in recent years. Including the demand on employees to continue to do more with less. And those demands come with a lot of potential burnout at work. Burnout at work is a series problem for most organizations. Burnout can lead to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and even physical and mental health issues.
It’s incumbent on every leader to be aware of and attempt to avoid burnout on their teams. But burnout isn’t always caused by asking too much of employees. Being overcapacity can be one elem...
2023-06-2611 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Get A Team AlignedSo much of the struggle of working on teams comes down to one key task: getting a team aligned. Aligned teams lead to better engagement, performance, and retention. Getting and keeping a team aligned is a key task for leaders at all levels. But recognizing the importance of alignment is a lot easier than actually getting everyone on the same page.
Team alignment means everyone contributes toward a shared goal, understands their assigned tasks, and sees how their work fits into the team's work. But teams are composed of people and people bring their...
2023-06-1912 minDavid Burkus PresentsBuilding A Culture Of Trust On A TeamTrust is the foundation of any successful team. Without trust, team members will not feel comfortable sharing their ideas, taking risks, or admitting their mistakes. Building a culture of trust on a team is crucial for achieving better results, higher levels of engagement, and less stress.
But first, we need to confront a brutal truth up front: trust alone is not enough. What teams need is a culture of psychological safety. When team members feel safe to express their opinions and ideas without fear of judgment or retribution, they are more likely to take...
2023-06-1210 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Surprising Benefits of Conflict in the WorkplaceConflict in the workplace is often seen as negative, but it can be productive if managed well. In fact, lack of conflict on a team is the real negative. When teams lack conflict, it means that either everyone on the team thinks alike or those who think differently are too afraid to speak their mind. Healthy conflict increases communication, trust, teamwork, and innovation.
In this episode, we will explore four surprising benefits of conflict in the workplace. And we’ll discuss how leaders can create a safe space for sharing diverse perspectives and model respectful debate to le...
2023-06-0611 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Makes a Team Smarter?One of the most fascinating concepts in the study of teamwork and collaboration is the concept of collective intelligence—the idea that when teams collaborate exceptionally well, they tap into a reservoir of knowledge and abilities that exceed the sum of each individual’s capability. Research led by Anita Williams Wooley helped solidified this theory with evidence that some teams truly did perform better than merely the average of the individual team member’s abilities.
Perhaps more surprisingly, teams who managed to achieve collective intelligence did so on a variety of tasks—even tasks for whic...
2023-05-3011 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Science Tells Us About Motivating Your TeamKeeping a team motivated is the one of the most important aspects of a leader’s job. It’s also one of the most misunderstood aspects of a leader’s job. Many organizations still equate “motivating your team” with “designing the right incentives.” But more than four decades of research into self-determination theory have revealed the limits of these types of extrinsic motivators and offers a wealth of insight into intrinsic motivation and how leaders can leverage it.
But even when expanding their perspective on motivation, many leaders still suffer from the misunderstanding of a binary choic...
2023-05-2213 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Makes Employees Happy At Work?As long as people remain the center of organizations, attracting, retaining, and motivating those people—keeping them happy at work—will be one of the most important elements of a leader’s job. Work is central to our lives. For most adults, work occupies the majority of waking hours. And being happy at work can make a big difference in whether those hours are a drain or not. And, by extension, whether those hours are productive or not.
But that job as become more and more difficult over time.
In recent years some of the circum...
2023-05-1511 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Habits Of High-Performing TeamsThe world runs on teams. Jobs that could have been solitary at one time or another happen more efficiently and at higher quality because we work in teams. The number of teams we form, and the size of those teams has increased exponentially since our ancestors formed teams to chase down prey.
And so has the importance of building teams that perform well together.
You’ve probably felt what it’s like to be on a high-performing team. You feel energized. Your brain is on fire with great ideas, and conversations with the team spur on e...
2023-05-0811 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhy Great Teams Embrace Failure (and How to Do It)Failure is feedback. And that maxim is nowhere more true than on teams. When individual team members or the whole team experiences a failure, how they respond can be the difference between a team that continuously improves and enhances performance, and a team that falls apart.
And research backs this up. One of the first studies of psychological safety focused on how teams responded to failure. Amy Edmondson examined the teams of nurses on various wards of a hospital and found that the teams with the highest rated leaders had a higher than average rate of reported...
2023-04-3009 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Common Mistakes Managers MakeManagers make the difference. Senior leaders set strategy. But middle managers and front-line managers make the difference in whether that strategy gets executed…and in whether or not people are engaged and motivated in an organization. According to Gallup, 70% of an individual employee’s engagement is determined by the manager of her team. In turn, this means that managers have a significant impact on an organization’s success or failure.
In this episode, we will discuss the four common mistakes managers make and how to avoid them.
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Talking First
3:30 Avoiding Confli...
2023-04-2410 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Simple Ways To Become A Great LeaderWhen you start out your career, you’re most often an individual contributor. And in that role your knowledge and skills are most important. But if you do that role well, you’ll likely be asked to consider becoming a leader. And in leadership, the methods you relied on to be a great employee don’t often help you become a great leader. Those skills will rarely help encourage and coach others to be great employees. Being a great leader requires a new toolkit.
As Marshall Goldsmith often says “What got you here, won’t get you there.”
2023-04-1710 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Be A Great Team PlayerOur world requires collaboration. Just about every job now requires collaborating on teams and every employee’s calendar is full of evidence of collaboration. In one study, up to 85% of participants’ work weeks were spent working in direct collaboration or a result of collaboration with a team.
But it can be difficult to collaborate with people whose perspectives, preferences, and personalities are different from our own. Still, getting what you want from your work and career requires being a great team player. And if you want to be a leader, you’ll need to be a great team p...
2023-04-1011 minDavid Burkus Presents3 Keys To Good TeamworkTeams are how work gets done most of the time. In a knowledge work economy, up to 85% of an average employee’s time is spent in collaboration with other people—on one team or on multiple teams. And that makes effective collaboration and good teamwork a top tier skill. Whether you’re currently a leader or looking to become a leader, focusing on developing your teamwork skills—and the level of teamwork on your team—is one of the highest returns on effort you can experience.
In this episode, we’ll outline 3 keys to good teamwork and offer a few...
2023-04-0311 minDavid Burkus PresentsBuilding A Positive Team CultureTeams are a central part of our work experience. Jobs that could have been solitary at one time or another happen more efficiently and at higher quality because we work in teams. The number of teams we form, along with the size of those teams, has increased dramatically in recent decades.
And much of a team’s performance comes down to its culture. Yes, the talents and skills of individuals matter. But without a positive team culture, those same individuals will fail to achieve the level of performance they’re capable of. The common set...
2023-03-2709 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Ways To Build Inclusive TeamsAt the core of teamwork is the need to solve problems. And when generating solutions, the more diverse a team you have, the more ideas you can generate. Sort of. The rationale behind diversity being a strength on teams is solid. When you’ve built a team of various perspectives, experiences, skills, and abilities, each person brings that variety into discussions and more diverse ideas get generated. More ideas mean a better chance of finding the perfect solution.
But that’s not always what happens.
It turns out that diversity alone is not enough to turn...
2023-03-2008 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Keys To Effective Team CommunicationCommunication is what makes a team a team. Otherwise, it’s just a group of individuals working away at their desks, handing work up to some unnamed boss. In reality, people don’t work in a vacuum. And much of one individual’s work requires coordinating with one or more teams. Effective team communication makes individuals and teams dramatically more productive.
But unfortunately, a majority of employees say poor communication is the reason they’re falling behind and missing deadlines. That means, as a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is helping the team communicate and collaborate effectiv...
2023-03-1309 minDavid Burkus PresentsCelebrate Small Wins On TeamsProgress is a powerful human motivator. But unfortunately, many teams mark progress only when projects are complete or big milestones are crossed. They don’t often celebrate small wins that build up to those big completions.
But recent research suggests that small wins celebrated regularly are a more potent way to keep teams engaged and motivated. In a landmark study from Teresa Amabile, participants were most energized and motivated not in the aftermath of a big celebration, but when they had little breakthroughs—when they found small wins to celebrate.
In this episode, we’ll outlin...
2023-03-0607 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Makes A Psychologically Safe Team?One of the most consistent findings in organizational behavior over the last decade has been just how significantly team performance is affected by psychological safety. A psychologically safe team is one where team members feel comfortable being themselves, expressing their ideas and opinions, and taking risks without fear of being punished or ostracized. Teams with high psychological safety learn faster, communicate better, and hence collaborate more effectively.
At its core, psychological safety is marked by a sense of mutual trust and respect. And these are two different things. Trust is how much teammates feel they can share...
2023-02-2709 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Makes A Team Great?Work is teamwork. And it’s no secret that some teams truly are greater than others.
A recent meta-analysis combined research conducted on over 200,000 teams in a variety of industries in order to answer that question. Across 274 dimensions of performance and over half a million individual team members, the researchers found that, in most fields, performance differences of teams followed a power-law—with a small number of high-performing teams achieving most of the results. In other others, high performing teams didn’t just perform a little better, they performed up to ten times better than normal teams.
W...
2023-02-2010 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Foster Collaboration On TeamsAs the world grows increasingly more complex, so will its challenges—both globally and for any given organization. To solve bigger and more complex problems, you need a bigger and more complex team. And to do that, you will need to foster collaboration in the workplace. But the enhanced need for collaboration brings a paradox.
According to a recent study summarized in Harvard Business Review, team success requires teams to be larger, more diverse, more virtual and more specialized. But those same four characteristics make it hard for teams to get anything done. Increased diversity, in and of...
2023-02-1310 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Build Trusting TeamsLearning how to build trust at work is critical if you’re going to be successful as an employee, a manager, or an effective leader. If you don’t have trust, it’ll be more difficult to communicate and coordinate with your peers or colleagues. If teams lack trust, it’s difficult to achieve true collaboration and create performance greater than the sum of each individual’s talent.
A team isn’t a team without trust. Without trust, it’s just a group of people who share the same boss—who they probably don’t trust either.
But with high...
2023-02-0610 minDavid Burkus Presents6 Leadership Myths That Are Ruining Your TeamWe all arrive at leadership with certain preconceptions about what makes a successful leader.
Sometimes we form an idea of what great leaders do based on historical leaders or modern-day leaders who are always getting media attention. Other times we form a picture of great leadership based on our own past experiences—both leaders we’ve worked under and even what attributes got us promoted into leadership. But those are often anecdotes.
And the plural of anecdote is not data. When you look at the data on effective leaders, pretty quickly you notice that some of th...
2023-01-3010 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Challenges All Teams FaceTeams face a lot of different challenges. Leading a team involves leading through many challenges. You’re given performance objectives. You map out a plan of execution with your team. But pretty quickly, you will run into challenges—both seen and unseen. And while most of these challenges are unique to the work being done and the team doing that work, some challenges are universal for teams.
These challenges all teams face are less about the work and more about teamwork and collaboration. That’s what makes them so common. But because they’re so common, they can be a...
2023-01-2309 minDavid Burkus PresentsDeveloping Emotional Intelligence As A LeaderWe’ve known about the importance of developing emotional intelligence as a leader for some time now, but there are still some misconceptions about exactly what emotional intelligence is (or is not) and how to increase it. Emotional intelligence isn’t just about having “soft skills.” And it’s not a set of mindfulness practices.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and control your own emotions and recognize and empathize with the emotions of others. Leaders with high emotional intelligence find their teams have better discussions and make better decisions. Emotionally intelligent leaders give better feedback and are bet...
2023-01-1610 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Questions Leaders Should Always Be AskingLeaders don’t need to have all the answers.
That sounds counterintuitive. There is a lot of pressure on leaders to have the right answers and to solve problems that team members can’t solve on their own. In fact, most leaders were promoted into a leadership role because they had many more of the right answers than others in the organization. And the further up the hierarchy you go, the bigger the problems and bigger the expectations for answers.
But the more complex work gets, and the more complex problems get, the harder it is t...
2023-01-0908 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Motivate The UnmotivatedMotivation can vary wildly on a team. At any given time, a few people might be highly motivated, while others are totally unmotivated. Ideally, there are times where everyone is motivated at once, but sadly there may be times when everyone is demotivated or burnt out. All this means that an inescapable part of a leader’s job is to motivate the unmotivated.
The good news is that leaders don’t have to rely on raw charisma or the inspirational words of a halftime speech from insert-your-favorite-sports-movie-here. Instead, motivation is less about the qualities of the leader and...
2023-01-0209 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Motivate Your Employees As A LeaderOne of the core tasks of team leaders is keeping motivation and inspiration high. This doesn’t mean all great leaders are charismatic and inspiring. In fact, the opposite is often true. Motivating employees isn’t about what you say to them, it’s about understanding what they’re seeking from work.
And while understanding the unique desires of each team member might take a while, there’s a proven model for understanding human motivation that just might help you uncover your team’s motivation mysteries faster. In the mid-1980s, researchers Edward Deci and Richard Ryan outlined a m...
2022-12-1909 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Build Resilient TeamsTeams today are asked to do more and more with less and less. The demands on their time have only increased. And so has their uncertainty. That leads to a lot of stress, potential setbacks, and failures. Overcoming these obstacles requires building a resilient team.
And that starts with understanding what a makes a resilient team. Resilience isn’t toughness. Resilience isn’t about continuing to take punches. It’s not about bouncing back. It’s about the ability to bounce forward. Resilience is the ability to assess, adapt, recover, and grow from challenges.
In this epis...
2022-12-1210 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhat Cover in a Team's Weekly MeetingOne of the great mysteries of the modern workplace is that we still assess performance on an individual level, when so much of one’s ability to produce results depends on their team. Work is teamwork. Which means that how well a team communicates and collaborates has a significant impact on how well individuals perform.
As a team leader, that makes coordinating collaboration a key part of your role. And the tool most team leaders use for coordination is the team’s weekly meeting. This is where teammates “work out loud” and communicate not just their status update...
2022-12-0510 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Secrets to High-Performing TeamsHigh-performing teams didn’t just perform a little better, they performed up to ten times better than normal teams.
And the explanations for it hint at more secrets. High-performing teams don’t get these results because they act a little different. They do several key things totally differently. In this episode, we’ll outline four secrets that high-performing teams know that normal teams tend to lack.
0:00 Introduction
1:28 Work Out Loud
2:37 Understand Differences
4:02 Build Trust
5:13 Reinforce Purpose
6:54 Conclusion
And while purpose gets reinforced on a regular basis, all of these...
2022-11-2807 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Skills Leaders Need To DevelopAnyone can be placed in a leadership role. In most organizations, the reward for being an outstanding individual contributor is to be promoted into leading a team of other individual contributors. But those leaders often find that the skills that made them great employees aren’t as helpful when leading great employees (or even mediocre ones). As Marshall Goldsmith famously says, "what got you here, won’t get you there."
Being successful as a leader requires developing a certain set of new skills. These skills that may or may not have been a part of any "leadership train...
2022-11-2109 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Develop Leadership SkillsLeaders are constant learners. Or rather, good leaders are constant learners. And aspiring leaders need to be consistent learners as well. Growing into a leadership role requires you to develop leadership skills. And growing from a new leader to a great leader requires you to continue to develop your leadership skills.
But development is often one of the first activities sacrificed by the needs of the moment. New problems to solve and new tasks to complete steal time away from developing your leadership skills. But many of those “urgent” activities also present opportunities to practice your leadership skil...
2022-11-1408 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Powerful Team Building ExercisesThe vast majority of work today is done in teams. And that makes collaboration and teamwork all the more important. But we have a tendency to think of team building exercises as one-and-done events—ropes courses or personality tests that happen every so often, usually if there’s extra budget that needs to be spent before the end of the fiscal year.
But team building isn’t an activity, it’s a habit. Team building happens every day as norms of behavior are established. Team building exercises, if they’re to be truly meaningful, need to take this reali...
2022-11-0709 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow Teams BondHave you ever worked for a team of strangers?
Not literal strangers. Outside of maybe being an extra on a film set, it’s highly unlikely you showed up for work day after day not knowing anyone. But a team of strangers meaning a team that just refuses to bond or hasn’t been given a chance to bond. It’s draining to work on a team that just doesn’t connect with each other.
How teams bond has a dramatic effect on how well they work. Research shows that team bonding significantly enhances the performan...
2022-10-3110 minDavid Burkus PresentsFeel Stuck At Work | 6 Tactics To Get Unstuck in Your CareerEverybody feels stuck at work from time to time. You feel like you don’t enjoy doing the work. You feel like you’re not growing, or like you’re not challenged anymore. According to a study by Oracle, more than 75% of people feel “stuck” personally and professionally. That’s led directly to a phenomenon called “quiet quitting” — what we used to call disengagement. Too many people have already quit but keep showing up for the paycheck.
And when you think about getting unstuck in your career, you might default to looking for new work. But there’s an alternative. Yo...
2022-10-2411 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Types Of Bad BossesThere are a lot of bad bosses out there. In a recent survey, the majority of workers reported they either had worked or currently work for a micromanager. And micromanagers aren’t the only types of bad bosses out there. So, it’s safe to assume a significant percentage of bosses are…less than ideal.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth about bad bosses. Most of them don’t know they’re bad. Most of them don’t think they’re bad. And in fact, most of them aren’t bad. They just need to shift their style a little bit...
2022-10-1708 minDavid Burkus Presents4 Ways To Improve Your Communication SkillsTeamwork requires communication. Communication is the lifeblood of a team. It’s how leaders and teams coordinate what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and how all those various tasks fit into the broad whole of collaboration. As a leader, communication skills are arguably the most important skills to develop. And if you’re an aspiring leader, you’ll need to improve your communication skills before you even find yourself in a leadership role.
In this episode, we’ll outline four ways to improve your communication skills and hence 4 ways to grow in your ability...
2022-10-0908 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Make New Employees Feel WelcomeOnboarding has become a rather sterile term. It began as a recognition that how employees start in a new company, or a new role, can have a dramatic effect on their performance, engagement, and even their tenure. But gradually more and more demands started to be added to the process—legal requirements, mandatory trainings, pages after pages of employee handbooks. And without warning what started as a cause for celebration turned into a cascade of contract signing.
But a growing body of research suggests that what employees truly need to for successful onboarding is to prioritize connection to...
2022-10-0309 minDavid Burkus Presents5 Tricks To Stay Motivated At WorkIt’s difficult to stay motivated at work in almost every job. In some ways, fading motivation is inevitable. Research on flow states and eustress suggest that humans are highly motivated when there’s a perfect balance between the skills they have and the demands of the job. But getting into that balance is tricky.
When you’re starting a new job, the demands are high and your skill levels are likely not suited to it. You’re overwhelmed. But as you grow and develop in the role you grow toward that balance of being challenged, but challenge...
2022-09-2510 minDavid Burkus PresentsAre You A Micromanager?Do you know if you’re a micromanager as a leader? Do you know if your people consider you a micromanager? The tricky thing about micromanagement is that its universally frowned upon, but not universally defined or acknowledged. In other words, everyone agrees micromanagers are bad—but no one is willing to admit they are one. A recent poll found that 55 percent of employees surveyed believed their boss was a micromanager. If the majority of people believe they’re being micromanaged, there’s a good chance most bosses have micromanager-like tendencies.
So, are you a micromanager?
In thi...
2022-09-1209 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Step Down From A Leadership PositionIf you’re doing your job well as a leader, then you’re going to grow your team and yourself. That means that people are going to grow out of your team into new roles on new teams. And one of those people will eventually be you. You’re going to grow out of that leadership role.
But how well you handle the transition—how well you step down from a leadership position and enter the new one—is going to have a big effect on your future leadership.
In this episode, we’ll outline how to step d...
2022-09-0511 minDavid Burkus PresentsWhy Leaders FailJohn Maxwell famously said, “everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Although research offers a more nuanced picture.
For an organization to succeed, it takes a variety of contributions from talented individuals at all levels. But when leaders fail, the whole organization can indeed fall.
In this episode, we’ll review several reasons why leaders fail. Failure is feedback. Failure is a great teacher. And for current and aspiring leaders, the failures of leaders past can be a great teacher at discounted tuition. It’s popular and easy to study successful leaders, but you learn a lot mor...
2022-08-2912 minDavid Burkus PresentsIntroverts Are Great LeadersThere is a misconception about leadership that just won’t seem to go away. It’s the commonly held belief that the best leaders are charismatic and inspiring and hence, the best leaders are highly extroverted. Too many people still seem to believe that extroverts make better leaders than introverts. In a survey of senior corporate executives, 65% viewed introversion as a barrier to leadership. And in what I am sure is a total coincidence, that same percentage is also the number of extroverts in senior leadership roles.
But introverts are great leaders too. Introverted but well-regarded leaders incl...
2022-08-2208 minDavid Burkus PresentsThe Future of TeamworkThe future of work is teams. That’s a trend that’s been around for a long time.
Jobs that could have been alone at one time or another happen more efficiently and at higher quality because we work in teams. The easy problems in work and in life that could have at one time been solved by a lone genius are gone. Only complex problems that require creativity at the team level remain.
So, if the future of work is teams, it’s worth examining the future of teamwork. And here, there are several trends...
2022-08-0809 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Build A Team CultureCulture is a huge factor in the success or failure of a team. There are cultures so focused on performance and talent that they leave everyone drained. And then there are cultures where individual members, no matter how talented, put the needs of the team over their needs and, as a result, everyone wins.
But there’s a lot we misunderstand about culture. When you hear many people describe their culture, they point to easily observable elements like symbols, slogans, dress code, foosball tables, or free food. But going all the way back to Edgar Schein’s init...
2022-08-0110 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow Great Teams CommunicateTeamwork is impossible without communication. Teams have to share information; they have to share ideas. Without communication, teams can’t coordinate tasks. They can’t help each other; they can’t do anything other than work alone in silence.
Since communication is so vital to teamwork, it’s no surprise that the quality of communication affects the level of performance of a team so strongly. There’s a big difference between communication on an average team and communication on a high performing one. So, it’s worth examining what high performing teams do differently in terms of communicatio...
2022-07-2507 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Communicate Effectively At WorkCommunication is the lifeblood of any relationship. And that’s especially true for the leader-teammate relationship. How well leaders communicate with their subordinates affects how motivated and productive they are. And how well leaders communicate with their entire team affects how the team members communicate with each other…as well as how motivated and productive they are.
So, if you want to be effective as a leader, you’ll need to communicate effectively at work.
But a big obstacle to achieving that is misunderstanding the nature of communication itself. Effective communication isn’t one problem to solve...
2022-07-1810 minDavid Burkus PresentsTwo Types of Trust on TeamsTrust makes a massive difference on the performance of teams. And that fact has been found in research on teamwork over and over. For example, a 2011 study of nearly 200 teams from the United States and Hong Kong, found that when trust went up, so did performance. In a way, trust on a team acts as a social lubricant. When teams trust each other, the social frictions are reduced, which makes it easier to collaborate and easier to share one’s true perspective on any challenges the team faces.
Without trust, people hold back their brilliance. They don’t sha...
2022-07-1110 min
David Burkus PresentsHow To Think Strategically As A LeaderThere’s a lot to think about as a leader. There are goals to pursue. There are people to manage. And every day new problems arise that make pursuing those goals or supporting those people more difficult. Amid all these demands, it can be difficult to think any more deeply than just reacting to the moment.
Leaders know they need to think strategically, but often don’t know how to find the time to do so.
But strategic thinking isn’t about carving out large blocks of time to ponder problems. Instead, often it’s about re...
2022-07-0509 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Create A Teamwork CultureTeamwork may indeed make the dream work, but teams that lack a teamwork culture can be a nightmare. Pick your sport, and you can find a professional team that focused on acquiring talented players but failed to get the results their bulging salary budget should have brought. And the reason teams of star players fail more often than they should most often comes down to culture. Or at least, that those star players don’t want to be part of a team-oriented culture. Instead, they want to shine on their own.
The same is true of many or...
2022-06-2710 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Conduct Stay InterviewsIn a time when most organizations are struggling to attract and retain talent, one simple intervention can help reduce turnover dramatically. Despite their infrequent use, stay interviews are a powerful tool for helping managers keep top talent on their team and keep everyone engaged. In one study, conducting stay interviews in the burnout filled halls of a hospital was found to reduce turnover by 40 percent.
Stay interviews are modeled after exit interviews—a common practice in large organizations where departing employees are interviewed about their experience by someone from Human Resources (or occasionally their manager). But exit in...
2022-06-1308 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Conduct An After Action ReviewFailure is inevitable. Projects fall apart. Clients leave. Sometimes circumstances outside of the team’s control doom them to failure. But every failure creates an option. Teams can take the loss at face value. Or learn from it and get better.
Reflection on failure can be a powerful growth tool for individuals and teams. In one study, having participants spend just 15 minutes a day reflecting on their work increased performance by 20 percent compared to just spending the same 15 minutes working. And for teams, the benefits compound.
So, in this episode, we’ll explore how to refl...
2022-06-0608 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Get A Leadership PositionYou don’t need a title to be a leader. But, it helps.
And for many aspiring leaders, getting noticed and seen as a potential new leader in an organization can be difficult. There are ways to demonstrate leadership skills outside of a formal leadership role, but those skills won’t necessarily bring the position unless noticed. Some organizations have “high potential” programs to identify and develop new leaders, but others don’t—and instead rely on individuals to prove themselves by creating their own development program.
To help with your personal development program, in this article...
2022-05-3109 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Rebuild Trust On A TeamOne of the biggest factors in helping a team collaborate optimally is the level of trust on the team. The extent to which team members feel safe to express themselves, believe their colleagues will deliver on promises, and trust their leader to lead can have a massive effect on their ultimate performance.
And as we know from research, trust is a reciprocal process. When one person acts with trust, the other feels trusted and responds with greater trust. But that virtuous cycle can turn into a vicious one when trust is broken. When trust is broken, either...
2022-05-2408 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Lead Creative TeamsCreativity is a team sport. It’s been that way for a long time. But the level of teamwork required to solve problems and find innovation has increased over the last decade and even century. Most of the simple problems of the world have been solved, and the ones that remain are too often too complex to be solved by any lone, individual genius.
But not all teams fair equally when it comes to creative tasks, because many team leaders are better prepared to lead teams where the work is simple and easy to define. When reaching te...
2022-05-2409 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Fire An EmployeeIn this episode, we’ll outline how to fire an employee in a way that is specific, but humane. Research suggests that the boost in productivity from releasing a poor employee is larger than the boost gained from hiring a star player. And sometimes it’s not even about releasing a poor performer, there’s economic or industry specific reasons for having to lay off valued teammates—and it must be done gracefully.
0:00 Introduction
1:21 Do It In Person
2:31 Bring A Third Party
3:31 Lay It All Out
4:44 Offer Help, if applicable
6:03 Be Available Afterwar...
2022-05-0910 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Build Team AlignmentTeam alignment can make or break the success of any team. But many leaders struggle with how to build team alignment and so just assume that smooth running meetings and responsive teammates means team alignment. But that can be a big mistake, because even a small misalignment in the beginning can compound and create a devastating project breakdown.
Team alignment is a bit like the flight plan created by airplane crews before takeoff. Being a few degrees off course when leaving New York for Los Angeles might not seem like much, but over time those few degrees...
2022-05-0208 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Love Your Job AgainAccording to the Gallup organization, only about 20 percent of adults report being highly engaged in their job. In the United States, the number rises slightly to about 30 percent. But that is still 7 out of 10 people who are missing out on an essential element of a positive working life.
And for many of this unsatisfied majority, the easiest solution seems to be quitting and trying again at another job. But there’s a lot more methods to attempt before going that route.
In this episode, we’ll outline how to love your job again through four prove...
2022-04-2509 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow Leadership Influences Organizational CultureIn this episode, we’ll outline the six ways leaders influence organizational culture. Leaders and researchers have engaged in a constant dialogue about the importance of culture, the ways to build culture, and the differences between a positive and toxic culture. But surprisingly little has been said about how leadership influences organizational culture.
It’s not that no one talks about it.
It’s just that most attempts at building a positive culture focus on visible artifacts or perks and benefit programs. But culture isn’t a foosball table in the office and it’s not your fl...
2022-04-1810 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Ask For Help At WorkThere aren’t a lot of jobs left that people can do in complete isolation. There aren’t a lot of problems left that can be solved by lone geniuses. Performance is a team sport, one that requires we help each other.
You shouldn’t be hesitant to ask for help, and you can’t escape having to ask for it. So, in this episode, we’ll outline how to ask for help at work in a way that boosts your chances of getting it.
0:00 Introduction
2:00 Don’t Fear Rejection
2:47 Be Specific
3:39 Ask One Pers...
2022-04-1109 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Deal With Toxic LeadershipBad bosses are a sad reality of working life. Hopefully, you’ve never had to deal with toxic leadership. But if you’re reading this, you probably have. It seems like toxic leaders are far too common in organizations of all sizes. So in this episode, we’ll outline six ways to deal with toxic leadership—and we’ll save the most obvious tactic (leaving) for last.
0:00 Introduction
1:33 Set Boundaries
2:52 Document Actions
4:10 Build Support
5:06 Avoid Drama
6:15 Step Up
8:12 Leave
9:31 Conclusion
//DO YOUR BEST WORK EVER
If you liked this...
2022-03-2810 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Manage High PerformersHigh performing talent can make or break a project’s success—or an entire organization’s success. Recent research suggests that high performers aren’t just a little bit more productive, they are drastically more productive than average. One study found high performers created 400 percent more value than their average counterparts.
But it’s not enough to merely attract high performers and set them loose. Even the best employees need support and supervision from their leaders.
In this episode, we’ll outline how to manage high performers with six tactics any leader can apply that make a big d...
2022-03-2110 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Measure Employee EngagementEmployee engagement has been a hot topic for several decades. And for good reason. Business teams with highly engaged employees have a 59 percent lower turnover rate than those with less engaged staff. Highly engaged teams are 17 percent more productive. Engaged teams receive 10 percent higher customer reviews. And yes, businesses with engaged employees have higher profit margins than non-engaged competitors.
But getting employees to feel engaged is no small feat. Even how to measure employee engagement can be a difficult question to answer for many leaders. But there are good reasons to try. Measuring employee engagement helps identify cu...
2022-03-1411 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Deal With A Difficult EmployeeDealing with difficult employees is unavoidable. But the good news is that taking the time to deal with a difficult employee can have a dramatically positive effect on the team. According to Harvard Business School professors Michael Housman and Dylan Minor, the productivity boost gained from removing toxic employees is greater than any boost gained from adding a star performer.
In this episode, we’ll lay out a five-step process to help deal with a difficult employee.
0:00 Introduction
1:57 Identify The Problem
3:46 Examine It Closer
4:51 Give Direct Feedback
5:45 Explain The Consequences
6:55 Doc...
2022-03-0710 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Build A Positive Team CultureMost leaders agree on the importance of building a positive organizational culture. Positive organizational cultures come from the accumulation of positive team cultures. Most employees’ experience of work is really the experience of working with the teams they serve on. So, teaching team leaders how to shape team culture will have the largest impact on creating a positive organizational culture overall.
In this episode, we’ll review four actions team leaders can take to build a positive team culture.
0:00 Introduction
1:47 Foster Connection
3:14 Show Empathy
4:19 Offer Help
5:38 Encourage Candor
7:15 Conclusion
Th...
2022-02-2808 minDavid Burkus PresentsKeep High Performers MotivatedIn this episode, we’ll review five methods leaders can use to keep high performers motivated and achieving.
0:00 Introduction
1:10 Sharing Meaning
2:30 Building Connection
3:53 Creating Safety
4:56 Giving Autonomy
6:11 Providing Growth
7:30 Conclusion
What all five of these methods have in common is that they require a mindset shift. Just as organizations need to recognize that high performers don’t need organizations as much as organizations need them, smart leaders recognize that high performers don’t “work for” them. Instead, high performers—and all their people—work with them. Leaders’ core job is to get their...
2022-02-2108 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Think More CriticallyCritical thinking is one of the most critical skills for leaders. When it comes to making decisions, crafting strategy, or even just solving smaller problems, leaders are called on to think more critically than those they lead. And as the world becomes more complex, thinking critically has never been more important.
In this episode, we’ll outline four ways leaders can think more critically.
0:00 Introduction
1:17 Borrow Diverse Brains
2:32 Question Your Assumptions
3:45 Find The Right Question
4:41 Consider The Implications
5:48 Conclusion
When you consider all four tactics listed above, you st...
2022-02-1407 minDavid Burkus PresentsLet's Talk About The "Great Resignation"David Burkus reacts to reports of a coming "great resignation." What is the great resignation and what can leaders do about it? Should employees quit their job? What can leaders do to prevent employees from quitting? And what happens after they quit as part of the great resignation.
//DO YOUR BEST WORK EVER
If you liked this video and you want to help your team do their best work ever, check out the free resources we've compiled at https://davidburkus.com/resources
//ABOUT DAVID
One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David Burku...
2021-07-2708 min
David Burkus PresentsHow Strategic Relationships Power Your Growth with David NourDavid chats with David Nour, author of the new book "Curve Benders: How Strategic Relationships Can Power Your Non-linear Growth in the Future of Work" about the role of networking and relationships in your personal and professional growth AND how recent events have changed that role. This episode will help you Gain insight into the value of your current strategic relationships and how they help you achieve your work and life goals.
Learn more about David Nour at https://nourgroup.com
Check out "Curve Benders" at https://amzn.to/3dVPZBj
//ABOUT DAVID
One...
2021-05-0426 min
David Burkus PresentsManaging Anxiety At Work By Leading With Gratitude with Chester EltonManaging Anxiety At Work By Leading With Gratitude with Chester Elton | David Burkus Presents | 02.13
David chats with Chester Elton, the co-author (with Adrian Gostick) of Anxiety at Work and Leading With Gratitude. David and Chester explore the causes of workplace stress and anxiety and the management practices that have proven successful in reducing tension and cultivating calm. Moreover, the talk about how gratitude provides the antidote. Showing gratitude to employees is the easiest, fastest, most inexpensive way to boost performance. And in this interview, Chester outlines simple and easy ways to do it.
Learn more...
2021-04-0632 minDavid Burkus PresentsCan Motivation Be Increased?Can Motivation Be Increased? | David Burkus Presents | 02.09
In the modern economy, motivation is a tricky thing. But in this episode, we'll outline the findings around motivation that come from the realm of Self-Determination Theory. Self-Determination Theory essentially argued that people are motivated when they can determine for themselves what to work on and how to work on it. In other words, Deci and Ryan and many other pioneers in this field of research, asserted that incentives could actually decrease motivation because incentives take away a sense of power to determine the work for oneself.
But...
2021-03-0108 min
David Burkus PresentsWhy Efficiency Is A Risky Strategy with Roger MartinWhy Efficiency Is A Risky Strategy with Roger Martin | David Burkus Presents | 02.08
David chats with Roger Martin, author of the new book "When More Is Not Better" about our obsession with efficiency in organizations and how that can be a very risky strategy. Roger makes that case that, rather than the natural ecosystem that it is, too many leaders have treated the economy (or their organization) as a machine that can be fined tuned to optimal efficiency. That's great when things go well, and can turn out horribly when they go wrong. Roger also outlines a path...
2021-02-2335 minDavid Burkus PresentsHow To Get Remote Teams To Work TogetherHow To Get Remote Teams To Work Together | David Burkus Presents | 02.07
In this video , we’ll cover a simple and easy way to get your remote team to work together. It all revolves around three easy questions:
• What did I just work on?
• What am I working on?
• What is blocking my progress
These questions help your team work out loud. Working out loud means that the team has developed a system to keep track of what everyone is focused on, what’s getting done, as well as a system for asking for...
2021-02-1610 min
David Burkus PresentsHow To Build A Courageous Team CultureHow To Build A Courageous Team Culture | David Burkus Presents | 02.06
David chats with Karin Hurt, author of "Courageous Cultures," on how to create a team with psychological safety, where people feel safe enough to speak up and teams and leaders are smart enough to leverage their insights.
In this interview, we covered:
-What is a "courageous culture" and how do you build one.
-How do you build that culture on your team, when you don't have it in your organization.
-How to present your idea so it won't get rejected (too...
2021-02-1327 min
David Burkus PresentsHow To Create A Remote Team Working AgreementHow To Create A Remote Team Working Agreement | David Burkus Presents | 02.05
A team working agreement is a living document drafted by a team that outlines the ground rules for communication and collaboration. It outlines how teammates will keep each other updated, how they’ll give each other feedback, and how they’ll communication—both in what medium and with what frequency.
Creating a team working agreement—or at least the first draft of a team working agreement—is a simple activity that shouldn’t take an average-sized team more than an hour to create. But it will save...
2021-02-0212 min
David Burkus PresentsHow Leaders Eliminate Red TapeHow Leaders Eliminate Red Tape | David Burkus Presents | 02.04
David chats with Martin Lindstrom, author of the "The Ministry of Common Sense" about how great leaders work to eliminate bureaucratic red tape, bad excuses, and corporate BS. Martin argues that the biggest reason for all this red tape is a lack of common sense, and that the lack of common sense stems from too many organizations not creating opportunities for empathy. And he offers some practical ways to bring back empathy and common sense and finally cut the annoying red tape.
Learn more about Martin at...
2021-01-2627 min
David Burkus PresentsHow To Run A Virtual Team MeetingHow To Run A Virtual Team Meeting | David Burkus Presents | 02.03
In this episode, we'll cover the best practices around running a virtual team meeting. Virtual meetings don’t work” is the most common response I hear when speaking to leaders at all levels about remote teams. But let’s be fair: in-person meetings rarely ever worked, either. So, whether it’s your first virtual meeting with your team, or your forty-seventh weekly meeting, here are the steps to follow to make it the best one ever:
1. Plan With Purpose
2. Pick The Right Attendees
3. Build Th...
2021-01-1912 min
David Burkus PresentsHow To Find Your Team's MotivationHow To Find Your Team's Motivation | David Burkus Presents | 0202
David chats with Todd Henry, author of The Motivation Code: Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work about how to motivate your team by learning what drives each individual's motivation. Understanding the core motivational driver is the key to having better team conversations, making better decisions, and even better choosing career paths that lead us to experience engagement and fulfillment. Once we know how to activate our inner drivers, we can transform the work we do into work we love.
//LEARN MORE
Learn...
2021-01-1323 min