Leadership Insights
from the Untangle Doctor®
Blog Post Archive
- AIG 1
- Captain Sullenberger 1
- Hush Hush Tangle 1
- Introduction 1
- Jangle Tangle 1
- Lominger 1
- Marcia Ruben 1
- Meg Wheatley 1
- Strangling Tangle 2
- Tangle 1
- Twitter 1
- VUCA 17
- accountability 1
- adult development 1
- air cover 1
- ambiguity 1
- anger 1
- assessment 2
- backbiting 1
- blame 1
- brain based leadership 2
- cascade tangle 1
- catastrophize 1
- change management 1
- chaos 1
- coach qualifications 1
- collaboration 7
- commitment 2
- communication 4
- competence 3
- complexity 3
- conflict 1
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- consultant qualifications 1
- corporate gridlock 1
- courage 4
- crisis 1
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- culture 6
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- emotional contagion 1
- emotional intelligence 5
- emotions 4
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- executive coach 3
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- executive leadership 11
- executive leadership coach 4
Backbiting, Leadership Tangles, and the State of the Union
Last night during his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke about the special forces who worked as a team to "take out" Osama Bin Laden. His point was that every member of the team was singly focused on successfully completing their dangerous mission. They relied on each other for communication, air cover, and support. When one of the rescue helicopters crashed, they didn't stop and point fingers and blame each other. They covered for each other. They helped each other up the stairs and made sure that every one got out alive. Every member of the team operated with mutual trust.
You Can’t Hurry Trust… You Just Have to Wait
There is an old song first sung by the Supremes, and later by Phil Collins and others, called “You Can’t Hurry Love.” The lyrics often run through my mind when I am working with leadership teams. Only the problem isn’t love. It is trust. You really can't hurry trust. As an organizational consultant and executive coach, I have often been hired to help teams who are struggling to perform optimally. More often than not, I find that there is a fundamental trust issue within the team.
When Leaders Have Each Other’s Backs, Teams Have Less Tangles
Jake Pavelka, the Bachelor (yes, I secretly watch the show—I am a romantic at heart) said that he wanted to find a mate who “had his back.” I have facilitated dozens of team effectiveness offsites, and invariably, participants will claim that they either want to know their teammates have their backs or recall that their highest-performing teams were those with members who “had their backs.” I am not sure when or how the term entered the lexicon. I know that it is permeating the language now and particularly in team settings.
Leaders: Avatar, Differences, and Organizational Tangles™
There’s a buzz in the air about the movie Avatar. My husband and I trekked over to our local IMAX theater (www.imax.com) this past weekend and were not disappointed. The movie truly sets a new standard for moviemakers and moviegoers alike. I was transported to Pandora, a totally different world, light years away. My senses were delighted with lush landscapes, new animal species, and an indigenous population of 9 to 12-foot-tall blue inhabitants, called the Na’Vi. With the 3-D glasses, I truly felt like I could touch and feel the distant future, 2154.