Expand your horizon to influence and motivate others to actively build cohesive teams.
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 [...]
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 [...]
