What Geese Can Teach Us About Teamwork

 

It's Fall in Vancouver, WA. One of the many delights of the season is hearing the beautiful call of the Canadian geese which alerts you to look up in the Autumnal sky. The first image of the skein (or flock) of geese reminds me of a floating black ribbon or the tail of a kite. 

In October and November in the Pacific Northwest the sky is alive with ribbons of geese gracefully swooping and looping sometimes bearing left and sometimes right. These maneuvers seem to give the stray birds time to catch up to the throng. 

When you watch the flock closely you realize that the geese are all leaders and followers each taking a turn. Alternately leading and following creates a perfect rhythm which enables them to get to their faraway winter destination. 

I believe there are several lessons in teamwork that we can learn from the goose. Geese are intriguing creatures and while considered pests in certain situations, they also have an incredibly strong sense of family and group loyalty. Probably one of the most phenomenal geese facts is that their desire to return to their birth place every year is so strong that they will often fly up to 3,000 miles to get there. 

Lesson #1: Empowering Others to Lead

When the lead goose in the front gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and allows another goose to take the leadership position. 
  
The lesson here is to empower others to also lead. It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. 
As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities, and unique arrangement of gifts, talents, or resources.

Lesson #2: Staying Committed to Core Values and Purpose

The geese migration routes never vary. They use the same route year after year. Even when the flock members change, the young learn the route from their parents. In the spring they will go back to the spot where they were born. 
  
The lesson to learn here is to stay true to our core values and purpose. 
  
Strategies, tactics may change in order remain agile, but great struggles always stick to their core purpose and values, and preserve them with vigor

Lesson #3: Offering Support in Challenging Times

When a goose gets sick or wounded, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. 

They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock. 

The lesson here is to stand by each other in difficult times. It’s easy to always be part of winning teams, but when things get difficult and people are facing challenges, that’s when your teammates need you the most. 

Lesson #4 Encouraging and Recognizing Other’s Contribution

The geese honk to recognize each other and encourage those up front to keep up their speed. The lesson here is to make sure we praise people and give them the recognition they deserve. 
  
Lack of recognition is one of the main reasons employees are unsatisfied at work and quit. 
  
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. 

In groups where there is encouragement, the production is greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. 

Lesson #5 Sharing a Common Goal

As each goose flaps its wings it creates “uplift”, an aerodynamics orientation that reduces air friction, for the birds that follow. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock achieves a 70% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone. 

The lesson we can learn here is that people who share a common direction and goal can get where they are going quicker and with less effort because they benefit from the momentum of the group moving around them. 
  
Make sure your team is aligned towards a common goal. 

Lesson #6 Having Humility to Seek Help

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the friction of flying alone. 
  
It then quickly adjusts its mistake and moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it. 

The lesson we can learn here is to be humble to admit the challenges we face and to seek help as soon as we get stuck. 
  
This humility will enable you, your team, to move faster and achieve more. 

A Story About Geese 

A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. 
  
One of the flock had been captured by a gardener, who had clipped its wings before releasing it. 

When the geese started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift itself into the air. The others, observing his struggles, flew about in obvious efforts to encourage him; but it was no use. 

Thereupon, the entire flock settled back on the pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong within them. For several days they waited until the damaged feathers had grown sufficiently to permit the goose to fly. 

Meanwhile, the unethical gardener, having been converted by the ethical geese, gladly watched them as they finally rose together and all resumed their long flight.                                                                            --Albert Schweitzer 

[Epilogue: And so, as the geese soared off into the sunset, the gardener waved goodbye, vowing never to underestimate the power of teamwork—or the tenacity of geese. Legend has it that from that day forward, whenever the gardener tried to plant anything, there was always a mysterious feather nearby, just to remind him to always stick with the flock—or else prepare to be thoroughly out-honked. 😉]

Remember, Together-Everybody-Achieves-More

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

          Take the Next Step...

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services and maintenance, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Microsoft CEO Says What Separates Successful People From Others Comes Down to 2 Words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Satya Nadella was appointed as Microsoft CEO in 2014, he wasn't one to boast about IQ points or intellectual achievements. He understood that being an effective leader wasn't just about knowing all the answers; it was about knowing yourself and building meaningful connections with others.

To be effective and separate oneself from the pack, Nadella pared it down to two words: 

Emotional intelligence.  (EQ)

So, what does it mean to have emotional intelligence? Much has been written about this idea. However, no one ever asked what it means to have emotional intelligence until 1995, when psychologist, Daniel Goleman, wrote his landmark book, Emotional Intelligence.

In this post, I won’t try to summarize or overly simplify all the EQ principles. Instead, I'll share five things that you can do today to become more emotionally intelligent and become happier and more successful in your interactions with others.

5 Components of Emotional Intelligence

When you Google the phrase or pick up the book, you can learn far more about these components. I include them here only as the reference point for the practical suggestions that follow. The five components of emotional intelligence as outlined by Goleman are:

•     Self-Awareness
•     Self-Regulation
•     Motivation
•     Empathy
•     Social Skills

An Observation

While each of these are important to the overall concept of emotional intelligence, if you ask most people to talk about what this idea means, they will most frequently talk about the last two components – the outward focusing components. While empathy and social skills are the outward manifestation of emotional intelligence, trying to focus solely on those two is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken arm – you haven’t treated the root cause of any problems that might exist.

Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence

Given that observation, perhaps not surprisingly, my five suggestions focus on the first three components.

1. Slow down. When interacting with others, slow down so that you can respond rather react. If you want to get better at anything, you must recognize where you are and then consciously work on changing your approach. This certainly applies to emotional intelligence. Recognizing the power of this approach then choosing to do it can immediately improve results.  If you have ever instantly reacted to someone’s comment or action, you know that doesn’t always go so well.

2. Self-reflect. If you want to get better at anything, being willing to learn from your past actions. This requires that we reflect. When we look back at what we did and how it went, we will learn something. When we recognize our role in those results, we may become more self-aware and better able to adjust our behavior in a similar situation the next time.

3. Question yourself. Effective reflection includes asking yourself (and then answering) questions like:

•     What worked?
•     What didn’t work?
•     What did I do to create the results?
•     What could I have done differently to create a better result?
•     What could I have done to be more interpersonally effective?

Notice that these reflective questions focus on us and our role in a situation. Until we are ready to take responsibility and understand our accountability for our results, we can’t become as emotionally intelligent as we might wish to be.

4. Manage your stress level. Few would argue that there is a level of stress above which their ability to effectively interact with others is diminished. That should be reason enough to monitor our stress level. Once we are aware enough to monitor it, we can then take steps to reduce it if necessary. At the very least, we can reduce our personal interaction until our stress level is reduced. What you say or do in a moment of high stress will be later regretted. At least recognize you could have done better. When you adjust your behavior because you are aware of your stress level, you will become more emotionally intelligent.

5. Change your focus. The most emotionally intelligent people are other focused. They have better social skills because they want others to be successful. For example, it is hard enough to be a good listener, but to do it when your focus is completely on yourself is nearly impossible. Interpersonal skills are nurtured by a focus on helping, understanding, and valuing others, and wanting the best for them. As you switch your focus to the needs of others, you begin your path towards greater emotional intelligence.

Although these five actions are simple to state and easy to understand, getting good at them is a lifelong practice. That practice will help you become a more emotionally intelligent person.

Click here to read my post about self-awareness, the foundation of emotional intelligence: The Super-Skill of the 21st Century.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Quotes From 12 Athletes About What It Takes To Win

 

 

 

 

 

There can only ever be one winner. The whole point of athletic competition is to determine who is the fastest, strongest, or most skilled in their athletic endeavor of choice, but victory is never guaranteed, and records are made to be broken. All athletes suffer defeat from time to time. The ones who return to the top of the podium over and over are the ones who get up after every fall, who train harder, practice longer, and push themselves further than they ever thought they could go.

In the pursuit of victory, mental toughness is just as important as physical fitness. In every competition there will be a critical moment when an athlete’s mind has more influence on their performance than their bodies do. Thankfully, mental endurance and strength can be fostered just as sure as our bodies can be trained to build muscle and flexibility.

Here are 12 quotes from athletes who have seen the lows, the highs, and everything in between.

1) "The person who can drive themselves further once the effort gets painful is the one who will win."

  ~Roger Bannister, first person to run a sub-four-minute mile

2) “You must always strive to be the best, but you must never believe that you are.”

  ~Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver

3) "People say to me all the time, 'You have no fear.' I tell them, No, that's not true. I'm scared all the time. You have to fear in order to have courage. I'm a courageous person because I'm a scared person." 

  ~Ronda Rousey, UFC fighter and WWE wrestler

4) "For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream."

  ~Emmitt Smith, football player

5) “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

  ~Wayne Gretzky, hockey player

6) "Winning is fun … Sure. But winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you’ve done is the point."

  ~Pat Summitt, head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team

7) "An endurance challenge is a lever for personal growth. What’s most critical is how you evolve and grow as a result of the attempt."

  ~Rich Roll, ultra-endurance athlete

8) "I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."'

~Muhammad Ali, boxer

9) "Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams."

   ~Laird Hamilton, big-wave surfer

10) "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” 

   ~Babe Ruth, baseball player

11) "Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before."

   ~Bonnie Blair, speed skater

12) "It doesn’t matter what other people think. Not everyone is going to always support you 100% but as long as you are doing you and you know that you’re becoming a better person then that’s what’s important."

  ~Gwen Jorgensen, triathlete

One of the most important parts of mental training is positive self-talk. Seasoned athletes know that the words “I can’t” can be just as crippling as a twisted ankle, and the ones who persist replace that dreaded phrase with something else, such as “I’m getting stronger” or “I’ve got this.” Every athlete begins, in this way, by supporting themselves, but as they gain some skill and expertise, many find they have words of wisdom to share with other athletes traveling on that same path toward victory.

Click here to read a related post: Understanding Your Limiting Beliefs to Reach Your Full Potential

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

What's Your Work Cadence? Five Ways Cadence Impacts Your Culture and Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cadence.

Maybe it makes you think of a marching band or soldiers, the percussion section of an orchestra, or the drum solo in your favorite classic rock song (Read: Led Zepplin's Moby Dick by John Bonham or Rush's YYZ by Neil Peart). After reading this post, I hope you have a new hook for cadence – a connection to the culture you have and the culture you want to create for your team and organization.

There is a cadence to most everything in life. It’s a rhythm that runs through our lives, our work, our relationships and more. We can learn more about our work culture when we recognize its cadence. Adjustments to the underlying cadence can add value and desirability to our work culture more quickly than we think.

The Five Cadences

The Cadence of Meetings. How frequently your team meets depends on the nature of the work and the size of the team. Some teams have daily huddles, others meet weekly or even monthly.  Are your meetings helping you reach your desired results? Do you need more or less of them? At what frequency and type will they be most helpful?

The Cadence of Collaboration. Some teams need to collaborate often and frequently – others perhaps less so. Quantity, frequency, and effectiveness of your collaboration can have huge impacts on your culture and results. How frequently are you encouraging or expecting the team to collaborate in brainstorming, problem solving, decision making, and priority reassessment? This could be with or without a formally scheduled meeting. Would having more (or less) frequency here favorably impact communication, empowerment, engagement, or accountability?

The Cadence of Coaching (and one-on-ones). I’ve asked hundreds of leaders about the frequency and quality of their one-on-ones with their team members. And there is a direct correlation between the frequency, quality and the effectiveness of the leader and the team. If your results aren’t where you want them to be, consider increasing the frequency and quality of your one-on-ones. They give you a real chance for formal and frequent coaching (among other things), contributing to an engaged, improving team. What is your current cadence of coaching and one-on-ones?

The Cadence of Interactions. Communication is something that most everyone – even in highly effective teams – feels could be better. But it isn’t just the need to transact business and share information. Usually, there is also a need for more interaction. Interaction provides the chance to build relationships and trust, increasing the cohesion and foundation of the team. How much time are you providing for interaction in group settings? Are your team members comfortable talking with their colleagues about more than just the work and the weather? If your team is short on interaction (especially a team operating at a distance), think about your cadence of interaction.

The Cadence of Learning. The cadence of learning relates to how much and how frequently people are learning. Yes, this includes training and coaching. But it is also information sharing, mentoring, book clubs, cross training, and so much more. Do people see learning as a part of their role? If so, is there time regularly available and set aside to support that learning and development?

How to Use These Work Cadences

Five work cadences – all in areas that impact the results you achieve and the current culture. Think about your current and desired cadences – the frequency, richness, and effectiveness of each across your team. You can use these in three ways:

As a diagnostic tool – How do our current work cadences affect our results?

As a coaching tool – If one or more of these are significantly different across team members, it may be a source of varying results.

As a communication tool – Work with your team to identify and define the current cadences. Use that as the starting point to build and maintain the culture you want, yielding the results you need.

 Cadence in Nature

When you watch a flock of geese migrating south for the winter you realize that the geese are all leaders and followers each taking a turn. Alternately leading and following creates a perfect cadence which enables them to get to their faraway winter destination. 

Click here to read our post titled: What Geese Can Tell Us About Leadership and Teamwork (5 min read)

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services and maintenance, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

5 Strategies for Shifting from a Blaming to an 'Owning' Culture

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to promote curiosity, experimentation, and learning – without the blame

Blaming is a natural human reflex. When things go wrong, we feel the impulse to defend ourselves from repercussions. However, playing the blame game – the urge to find a scapegoat – overshadows the need to address systemic issues.

Blaming has become pervasive in the corporate world. Finger-pointing is an easy way to deflect responsibility, even for minor mistakes. Organizations need to replace blame with inquiry to promote learning, accountability, and innovation. They need to build a blame-less culture.

Organizations can’t get rid of a blame culture without understanding the root cause. Blaming is a knee-jerk defense mechanism. Instead of admitting our faults, blaming someone else for our mistakes is always easier. 

We're hardwired to use blame to release negative feelings, especially guilt. Author Brené Brown describes this human tendency to blame others as "a way to discharge pain and discomfort." It’s a quick escape route to resolve tensions and protect our self-esteem.

Our propensity to blame can be influenced by personality traits and context. 

The Fundamental Attribution Error suggests that we often blame others due to their intrinsic characteristics while attributing our own actions to external circumstances.

Blamers tend to have difficulties with emotion regulation. Studies have found that employees who are satisfied with their jobs are more likely to be good "corporate citizens," while receiving blame for something they didn't do can lead to withdrawal from work.

A culture of blame can lead to reduced collaboration, impaired emotional well-being, and increased turnover rates. Instead of learning from mistakes, blame encourages employees to hide their errors.

Scapegoating often gains momentum when leaders evade personal accountability. By using blame to hide their inadequacies or errors, a culture of blame quickly spreads toxic behaviors across the organization.

 

 

 

 

 

What Is a Blame-Less Culture?

Blame-less doesn’t mean the absence of blame but replacing blame with inquiry. It’s about stopping finger-pointing to avoid systemic accountability.

In a blame-less or "just" culture, the spotlight shifts from individual fallibility to systemic improvement. Blame might never go away completely, but it shouldn’t be the default reaction.

The underlying belief of a blame-less culture is that mistakes are typically the result of faulty organizational cultures rather than the fault of one or more individuals. Addressing systemic issues requires tackling the root of the problem rather than finding a culprit.

A blameless culture doesn't mean a lack of accountability. On the contrary, when teams own their mistakes, they learn from them, increasing ownership and responsibility.

Receiving criticism after a poor performance may not be pleasant, but it's better than receiving no feedback at all. If someone makes a significant mistake and no one says anything, they may think something’s wrong – or even feel paranoid.

How can your team or organization transition from a blaming to an ownership culture?

Five Strategies for Building an Owning Culture

 1. Focus on the System, Not the Individual

Organizations often react to a mistake with a judgmental mindset, looking to find a culprit. However, individual errors are often just the tip of the iceberg. Shift from 'Who messed up?' to 'What in our system allowed this mistake to happen?’

Toyota's 5 Why's practice encourages digging deep to uncover the systemic issues that give rise to mistakes. Repeating “why” five times means the nature of the problem, as well as its solution, becomes clear.

The technique was initially developed by Sakichi Toyoda, who stated, "By repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.

"This idea underscores that a punitive environment sees errors as symptoms, while blameless cultures consider systemic issues as opportunities for improvement.

Check out a related post:  The "5 Whys"-- Getting to the Root of a Problem Quickly

2. Make it Safe to Raise Issues

Creating an environment where employees are comfortable speaking out about issues is pivotal for robust problem-solving and innovation. Feeling secure about bringing up concerns, errors, or uncertainties will help prevent larger problems.

Volkswagen’s Diselgate resulted from an authoritarian management style that fostered a climate of fear. Many executives believe that the culture of silence resulted from pressure to solve problems quickly rather than doing a thorough analysis.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Bernd Osterloh, a VW supervisory board member, reflected: "We need a culture in which it’s possible and permissible to argue with your superior about the best way to go."

Reward people for raising issues and sharing what they learn after a mistake.

Check out a related post: The Best Leaders Make it Safe to Tell the Truth

3. Build a Culture of Compassionate Caring 

Compassionate caring refers to a sense of warmth, connection, and affection between employees. It can lead to significant increases in team collaboration and job satisfaction. This is not about office friendships but rather a more profound, emotional tethering that includes caring for others' well-being.

This could include starting the day greeting co-workers, asking about their family, or getting coffee before work begins.

Compassionate care is shown when colleagues who are together day in and day out, ask and care about each other’s work and even non-work issues,” Professor Sigal Barsade says. “They are careful of each other’s feelings. They show compassion when things don’t go well.”

Southwest Airlines places a great deal of emphasis on building a culture of 'LUV' among its employees: How staff interact with each other and customers leads to exceptional customer service.

Check out a related post: Empathy: An Essential Leadership Skill

4. Conduct Blameless Postmortems

While postmortems have become more common in many organizations, the concept of a "blame-less" postmortem is relatively revolutionary.

Companies like Etsy, Atlassian, and Google have implemented this method to discuss and learn from failure – without the blame.

In a blame-less postmortem, the emphasis is on identifying what went wrong systemically, not who messed up. Etsy’s CEO, Chad Dickerson, wanted to shift the conversation from “Who’s the CEO going to fire?” to learning from mistakes. This practice has helped Etsy employees take more risks and move faster.

As Dickerson told Business Insider, “One of the things I allowed people to do is make mistakes more freely. The best way to learn to ride a bike is to ride the bike and fall down.”

Check out a related post: Calling a Timeout and Getting Aligned is an Essential Skill for High-Performing Teams 

5. Promote Autonomy and Ownership

Accountability is important, but ownership creates a more profound impact. A culture of ownership replaces blame with questions.

Managers often expect people to become more accountable without giving them the power to make decisions. With freedom comes accountability. By distributing decision-making rights to those closest to the work, teams often benefit from increased speed and better outcomes.

Amazon has adopted the principle of Toyota’s Andon Cord, giving support agents full authority to "pull the cord" when they suspect a problem with the inventory. This has helped prevent issues from escalating – without involving managers.

Check out a related post:  Developing Accountable People By Building a Culture of Ownership

6. Criticize in Private and Praise in Public

 Handling blame privately preserves an individual's dignity and keeps morale high.

Kim Scott, author of the book Radical Candor, explains: “A good rule of thumb for feedback is praise in public, criticize in private. Public criticism tends to trigger a defensive reaction and make it much harder for a person to accept they've made a mistake and to learn from it.”

This rings true for how criticism is best managed: privately. Direct, private conversations preserve individual dignity and avoid poisoning team morale.

Managers are human and sometimes lose control of their emotions, especially when things go wrong. However, smart leaders know how to manage their anger. Instead, they ask powerful questions to turn issues into something constructive rather than blaming.

Check out a related post: 9 Tips for Building a Feedback Culture 

7. Reward Collective Accomplishments

Companies often encourage individualistic, bad behaviors – usually to achieve short-term results. For example, only a few A performers get all the praise, even though the whole team contributed to the results, creating a cutthroat environment.

Organizations get what they reward: Blame is often a defense mechanism for people to protect themselves from inequity. To shift your culture from blame to blameless, the team should be equally accountable for victories and failures.

Research shows that group-based reward systems outperform individual or mixed incentives, producing more collaborative behavior. Rewarding team accomplishments reinforces the idea that collective success is more important than individual glory. This encourages shared accountability and lessens the impulse to blame other teammates when things go wrong.

By following these strategies, organizations can shift from a blame culture to one of learning and ownership. Although this transformation is not immediate, resisting the urge to blame others is always a wise first step.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.