Expand your horizon to influence and motivate others to actively build cohesive teams.
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 [...]
By Michael Holland - Great leaders learn the art of crafting the story in which employees can place themselves. The story has historical underpinnings, heroes, villains, a bit of drama, obstacles to overcome and a goal to be achieved that is just beyond the capabilities of the team but is within reach. Great [...]
by Michael Holland - In 1994 I made a classic management mistake. It involved a very stressful job, a struggling team, and two bags of marshmallows. The short version of the story is that a consistently tardy team member to critical team meetings received a barrage of marshmallows when he arrived late, yet [...]
By Michael Holland - During a summer evening on the Magothy River, one of the large rivers feeding the famous Chesapeake Bay, I witnessed a beautiful sailing race: 40 or 50 sailboats tacked back and forth along the river, each one maneuvering to catch the wind perfectly and take advantage of a competitor. [...]
By Michael Holland I worry at times that the gap which exists between leaders leading well and those who won't is growing wider and deeper. Recently I re-watched the TED Talk "Why Good Leaders Make Us Feel Safe" by Simon Sinek. In the talk, Sinek inspires with stories of how true leaders provide a circle [...]
By Michael Holland Three months. That’s all. Then you can retire or start the new role in the division in CA or go to the blah, blah, blah opportunity. You’ve been laying low and avoiding all conflicts within the team you lead. No sense addressing a problem with so little time left. No sense wasting your precious [...]
By Michael Holland - Your leadership mantra challenge for the rest of 2023 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 things out, [...]
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 a spot [...]
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 tremendous success [...]
