Articles for category: Team

September 27, 2023

Greg Thomas

Where’s the List?

The team needs a list. The leader defines the list. The list is everything that needs to be done from now until the team reaches their goals. It starts off big with chunky milestones and then breaks it down into more manageable activities until it becomes tasks that the team can work on and understand the point where their effort, their contributions, contribute to and become something bigger than they could accomplish on their own. But first, it starts with a list, of what must be done, to succeed.

August 17, 2023

Greg Thomas

Frosh Week for New Teams

Imagine instead of being thrown into your jobs, your next project, or your work that the first thing you do with a new team is you get to know them. You spent some time getting to know them, talking to them about things they care about, figuring out their work ethic, what their strengths and weaknesses are, etc, etc. Putting together a plan with all of them contributing as to the direction the team should take, who they want to be known as, and where they want to go? Imagine if you did that BEFORE you started working and didn’t

August 16, 2023

Greg Thomas

The Regulars

The regulars are the ones that show up every day. When times are good, when times are tough, when you’re flying high, or when you’re at the bottom, the regulars always show up for you, each and every day. They can be your family, your childhood friend, or the co-worker that you have kept in touch with year after year. The Regulars get a bad rap for being boring because they are always “there”, but this could not be further from the truth – they are always there, waiting to see what happens next, ready to jump in and help

August 15, 2023

Greg Thomas

New Teams

Joining a new team is never easy. You don’t know all the “things” and “isms” that make the team work (or are holding them back). Whether it is formal or informal, the new team is always waiting for one thing to happen – the leader to emerge – not to assert their dominance or mastery, but the one that helps out team members, that leads by example, listens, takes their lumps, does the grunt work and pushes on. The Leader might not be the one first appointed, but they are there, somewhere, perhaps even you, just waiting to emerge.

Training your Team

Only you know the training your team needs and only you know the path it requires for them to get there. They might be able to see it on the first day and it’s up to you to figure out how to get them there. You can either hold it into the very last day, or you can start from the beginning, map it out, do bit by bit every day, week, or month and plan for the moment when they get there and go – “I know this”.  Because when training the team, it’s not today they are being