Building Teams Blog

Self-awareness drives success

Merrick Rosenberg — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:47:58 +0000

After more than eighteen years as a management consultant, trainer, and coach, if there’s one thing that I am certain of, it’s that the most self-aware people are the most successful. In fact, a recent study by TalentSmart revealed that successful people share one thing in common — they have an acute sense of self-awareness. They found that in the workplace, 83% of those who scored high on self-awareness were also rated as top performers. On the other end of the performance continuum, only 2% of bottom-performers were high on self-awareness.

Unfortunately, many people are out of touch with their core strengths. If you doubt this, spend an hour watching American Idol tryouts. Many superstar hopefuls have no sense of their singing ability…and this plays out at work as well.

It would make sense then that organizations should invest in increasing self-awareness, yet we rarely see courses title, “Increase Your Self Awareness at Work.” However, courses such as, Why We Click with Some and Clank with Others by Team Builders Plus offer participants the opportunity to gain insight into the strengths and potential blind spots.

This course is grounded in the DISC Behavioral Model and offers individuals an intensive glimpse into their behavioral style. By understanding themselves, individual can then better capitalize on their strengths. Further, they can adapt more effectively to situations and people.

With such a strong correlation between self-awareness and performance, organizations would be well-served to invest in increasing self-awareness.

If you’d like to learn more about the Team Builders Plus course, Why We Click with Some and Clank with Others, feel free to contact me.

Merrick Rosenberg

856.596.4196 x202

www.TeamBuildersPlus.com
www.TeambuildingInc.com
http://store.teambuildinginc.com
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Going to Bat for Leaders

Merrick Rosenberg — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:53:49 +0000

Owning a baseball glove doesn’t make you a baseball player any more than supervising a group of people makes you a leader. Far too often, people are promoted because they are a top performer in the area of their expertise. For example, the #1 salesperson advances to the role of sales manager. Unfortunately, managing a group of salespeople requires a completely different skill then selling the product or service itself.

If it were true that superstars make the best managers, all of every baseball team would be led by the superstars of the past few decades…and we know they are not. In fact, most baseball managers were mediocre players at best, yet they had something that set them apart.

These managers had vision. They knew how to rally the team when they fell behind. They knew how to mentor the younger players. Some of these mediocre players and future leaders were given a seat on the team, though maybe just on the bench, for this very reason, they were good coaches and could help build future players.

So the next time you need to identify future leaders in your organization, look to the mediocre players who have the something special, not just the superstars. You may find discover leadership potential that is yet to be tapped.

If you’d like to learn more about Team Builders Plus leadership development services, feel free to contact me.

Merrick
___________________________________________________
Merrick Rosenberg | President & Chief Learning Officer
Team Builders Plus
1873 Route 70 East, Suite 302 | Cherry Hill, NJ 08003

856.596.4196 x202

www.TeamBuildersPlus.com

www.TeambuildingInc.com

http://store.teambuildinginc.com

www.360-DegreeFeedback.com

Start talking and get back to work!

Merrick Rosenberg — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:15:08 +0000

Years ago, it wouldn’t be uncommon to hear a supervisor on the factory floor, barking, “Stop talking and get back to work.” After all, the formula for success was work equals productivity and talking equals wasting time.

I recall a study conducted by Robert Kelly of Carnegie Melon University asked people, “What percentage of the information that you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?” In 1986, the answer was 75%. In 1997, the answer was 15%. We can only imagine what that statistic would be today, but I’d guess it’s closer to 15% than 75%. This means that communication is more important than ever!

With the proliferation of communicating via email, face-to-face communication has become a thing of the past. When I founded Team Builders Plus in 1991, most of the team building programs that I conducted were for groups that all worked together on the same of floor of the same building in the same town. Now, groups are geographically dispersed around the world in places with different time zones, languages, and values. Is it any wonder that communication is typically identified as a major issue in organizational climate surveys?

People need to stop typing and start talking. The telephone is better than email, but face-to-face communication is best. How else are we going to get the information that we need to do our jobs?

Merrick
___________________________________________________
Merrick Rosenberg | President & Chief Learning Officer
Team Builders Plus
1873 Route 70 East, Suite 302 | Cherry Hill, NJ 08003

856.596.4196 x202

www.TeamBuildersPlus.com

www.TeambuildingInc.com

www.360-DegreeFeedback.com

http://store.teambuildinginc.com