Getting your team off on the right foot is critical to its success. This guidebook tells managers and team leaders how to address four critical points during the launch of a team: setting purpose and direction, defining roles and responsibilities, designing procedures and practices, and building cooperation and relationships. Understanding and implementing these key elements is key to a team's achieving the goals the organization has set for it.

As individuals, we can be creative and ambitious in our personal lives and in our professional lives. But individual efforts can't always match the energy and productivity of a group. Cultures, societies, clubs, schools, and militaries arose out of our need to band together for mutual support. Organizations were created to deal more effectively with the environment--both the natural world and the world of work. But there is a trade-off when we move from individual contributions to group efforts: the relationships necessary for working together can spawn conflict.
In organizations,...

If you are a manager or executive who is beginning a coaching engagement or who is considering a developmental plan that calls for an executive coach, you need more than a desire to improve your leadership capabilities. You also need to understand how to get the most from your work with a professional coach. This guide can help you to understand the unique nature of a coaching engagement and to assess your readiness to embark on this method of professional development. The book describes the three main elements of a coaching engagement--assessment, challenge, and support-- and provides...

Team success doesn't start with results. It starts with the building of an effective team that can deliver on its promise. This book is for managers and leaders who have responsibility for the creation and success of teams. If you are a department head or project manager, or if you are the senior-level champion or sponsor of a proposed team, this guidebook will help you understand the five factors critical to building effective teams and show you how to use those factors to lay the groundwork for successful teams.

Managers attend leadership development programs for any number of reasons. Sometimes an organization will nominate a specific manager for a program, or send all high-potential managers through a series of development programs. Some managers seek out development programs on their own as part of their personal career objectives. If you're scheduled to participate in a leadership development program, or if you're considering such a program, you can substantially increase the benefits to yourself and to your organization by preparing for the development experience. This guidebook will show you...

It's widely accepted in organizations that experience gained from job assignments and formal training helps managers develop their skills in such areas as implementing agendas, working through relationships, creating change, and increasing personal awareness. If you are a manager who has set developmental goals for yourself, you will be able to achieve those goals through skills you learn and practice both on and off the job. This guidebook shows you how experiences from family relationships, friendships, volunteer work, and personal avocations can enhance your professional growth and...

This book provides you with the means to set development goals and to track your progress on achieving them. It can help you efficiently gather and make sense of information about your progress and avoid common pitfalls that can block your development. Tracking your development can be captures in a few steps: articulating your goal, creating an action plan, gathering information about your behavior, indentifying barriers and support, and revising your action plan. Taking these steps will greatly increase the likelihood of achieving your goals.

Almost all managers regard job experiences and the lessons they provide essential for their development as leaders. But not all of those managers are successful at learning those lessons. That difficulty is often related to a manager 's relying too much on one preferred learning tactic--a tactic that might not be suited for gleaning the lessons of a particular job experience. By increasing the number of learning tactics and becoming a more versatile learner, managers can better position themselves to take advantage of the lessons that job experiences offer and contribute to their leadership...

Mentoring is an intentional, developmental relationshiop in which a more experienced, more knowledgeable person nurtures the professional and personal life of a less experienced, less knowledgeable person. Both mentors and mentees realize many benefits from mentoring, as do organizations that encourage, structure, and support mentoring. Effective mentors develop the leadership capacity of their mentees while increasing their own skills. They transfer their knowledge and expertise back into their organizations. They nurture the alignment between employee aspirations and organizational...

It may be human nature to resist change--particularly when it's delivered as a hardship, disappointment, or rejection. But by developing resiliency managers can not only survive change, but also learn, grow, and thrive in it. In fact, for leaders, developing resiliency is critical. Resiliency helps managers deal with the pressures and uncertainties of being in charge in organizations today. This guidebook defines resiliency, explains why it's important, and describes how you can develop your own store of resiliency. It focuses on nine developmental components that, taken together, create a...