Knightsbridge Blog

In my last Knightsbridge blog post, I gave you some tips on what to do when a teammate gets fired. Today, I’m focusing on the other side of the coin. What if a teammate quits?  It can feel really terrible—like you’re being dumped. “No really, it’s about me, not you.”  Yeah, right!  Here are some...

It’s an unpleasant reality of the modern workplace—at some point, you will probably have a teammate who gets fired. We get uncomfortable and awkward in these situations and that’s not helpful to anyone.  Here’s some quick tips for what to do when a teammate gets fired. 1. Stop speculating: In my...

You’ve bonded with your teammates; built trust and established open lines of communication. You’re a model of modern teamwork.  That is—until the playoffs pit your favorite team against the favorite of your colleague.  Whether it’s the NHL playoffs and you’re embroiled in an original-six rivalry,...

An executive asked me a really interesting question in a team session recently: “Which should be our first team?” What he was talking about was the divided loyalties of leading one team (your team of direct reports) and participating as a member of another team (the executive team).  It’s a great...

  Imagine this scenario. You gave a presentation at your team meeting today. It was a progress report on your big project. Around the table, heads nodded. Then this afternoon, you were walking down the hallway when you overheard a conversation between two teammates. One was complaining loudly about...

I read a great blog about what to do if you’re feeling under-utilized on your team.  The article was by Career expert Chrissy Scivicque.  You can read it here. One of her useful suggestions (after making sure you’re doing your current job to perfection) was to make a specific request of your boss...

The biggest mistake that teams make is not answering the question “Why are we a team?” It seems the time has finally come when organizations are taking seriously the role of teams in productivity, growth, and innovation.  I’ve been busier than ever.  That means I’ve been meeting new teams and asking...

I had a great week last week taking our crusade to end the misery of bad teams to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.  As I always do when I get the privilege of standing in front of an audience, I asked about the local customs around team building. (The recovering scientist in me can’t resist the chance...

We've had a few new hires on the team recently and it's inspired me to share some tips for doing a great job of welcoming them and contributing to team effectiveness from the first moment on the job. Most of us have joined a company only to find no desk, no computer, or no one to eat with on day...

A while back, a client of mine asked if she could buy me lunch and get some ideas about how to handle a prickly situation on her team. I shared a few ideas that were simple, but I think they were helpful. As we got up to leave the restaurant, she said to me “you always have the right words to say!”...

In my previous post, I argued that teams should stop trying to reduce tension and start using that tension to propel them forward. Doing so requires that you focus on the tension between what is today and what needs to be for the future. I call this vertical tension. To be effective, the vertical...

How do you reduce the tension on your team?  You don't: you redirect it. I was standing in front of the Executive Team of a large hospital.  We were in the midst of an intensive leadership development program when a member of the team asked “should there be tension on a healthy team?” What a great...

Teams are about relationships. Relationship are about communication. Communication is the sender AND the receiver. If there is one fundamental concept that you can apply to making your team more effective, it's to get really good at understanding intent and impact in communications. I see situations...

Don't do a team building session that will make things worse! Most team building methods dive into the “juicy” issues at the first session—sometimes on the first agenda item. This is a dangerous approach and makes it just as likely that your team will leave the session more bruised, more hostile, or...

Some teams just weren’t dealt the hand of cards required to win. Teams exist to achieve a certain job. They innovate, they manage risk, they coordinate the activities of multiple groups…and so on.  These mandates require very different skills from team members—everyone knows that. But they also...

If you’ve been treating people the way they treat you, you might be causing a world of unnecessary stress on your team. I think most of us who have been working for a while have realized that the Golden Rule doesn’t work in organizations. You know—that old gem “do unto others as you would have done...

Team building is for new teams and healthy teams. If you’ve got a Toxic Team, it will just make things worse! I’ve often been called into a truly toxic team only to hear that their attempt to fix issues of competence, trust, or decision-making consisted of a two-day offsite where they went...

Meetings are much maligned, but I bet you hate them because you’re talking too much about the wrong things and not enough about the right things. According to the website EffectiveMeetings.com, most business people spend about 25% of their time in meetings. These percentages get worse the higher you...

You might know what they eat for lunch or how they answer the phone, but you probably don’t know what you need to about your teammates. When I work with teams to help them become more effective, I always start with alignment. I shared the Knightsbridge approach to creating alignment in a six part...

Your organization is counting on your team to deliver. Doing so will probably mean changing the way you operate. This is the final post in a six part series on enhancing team effectiveness through better alignment. Step 1 is to connect your team to the outside environment. Step 2 is to orient to...