Expand your horizon to influence and motivate others to actively build cohesive teams.
by Michael Holland Imagine driving down a winding road with your team, each person in a separate car. The road ahead is uncertain, filled with twists and turns that require clear communication and decision-making. Some drivers are eager to lead, while others are cautious, hesitant, or even a little bit lost. At some [...]
By Michael Holland - Your leadership mantra challenge for the rest of 2025 should be Bring Me Problems. We have so often heard the opposite phrase of don't bring me problems, bring me solutions. We are too busy to solve all these problems and we want our employees to stand on their own, figure [...]
By Michael Holland - The Adirondack Mountains in Upstate NY provide a beautiful opportunity for hiking. There are 46 mountains that are higher than 4,000 feet. I’ve spent some time climbing a few of the "46ers" and one challenge appears often: the false summit. After a few hours of hiking you come to [...]
By Michael Holland - The team is not the problem. The team itself is not dysfunctional. The team didn't wake up today and say hey, I'm going to be a dysfunctional team. The team is simply a label being placed on a group of people who together create a entity that can enable [...]
By Michael Holland - I needed to re-set my clock in my not-so-new car and had forgotten which buttons to push in sequence to get the clock flashing and ready for change. Rumbling through my glove box I pulled out the thick, black canvass bag which contained the owner’s manual. Well, actually it [...]
by Michael Holland - Manager Matt is two years into his 1st tour of duty as a leader. He’s survived the dark days of learning to manage on the fly with new situations when everything was new to him. He’s been through handling performance reviews and slow staff meetings, handled performance challenges and [...]
By Michael Holland - 15-year-old girls have perfected the art of dual communication. They nod appropriately to their parents as key parental instructions are put forth. Then in a moment the 15-year-old girl turns toward her friends and dramatically performs the full eye roll communicating her true feelings and commitment to her parents. [...]
By Michael Holland - Looking back over the last three months, you can point to four specific times when you team was fully engaged, catching the perfect wave of energized synergy. The team was so productive during those times that the whole quarter was successful because of those highly effective windows. These are bright spots. [...]
by Michael Holland - In the movie Moneyball, Manager Billy Beane looks to rebuild his dismal baseball team with a limited budget and therefore limited opportunity to acquire expensive talent. He decides to gamble on a methodology to look deeply at what types of players and activity he needs to be successful, which [...]
By Michael Holland Picture this real life competition with a goal to build the tallest structure that can support a soft, fluffy, lightweight marshmallow using spaghetti, twine and tape within 18 minutes. First, there's a ballroom full of 100 co-workers. They are broken out into random teams of 4 to 5 and are [...]
