When I work with executive teams, the greatest challenges almost always come back to people, even when the strategy and process are solid. Over and over, I see that how individuals show up for each other determines the speed, the trust, and the overall health of the team. One framework that consistently makes a meaningful difference is Patrick Lencioni’s Ideal Team Player model: Humble, Hungry and Smart.
The most strategic advantage you have right now is your willingness to be wrong. This is the new paradox of leadership. We’ve all been trained to believe that the right decision requires perfect information, yet volatility has stripped that certainty away. Markets shift overnight, teams restructure faster than the org chart, and data seems to contradict itself weekly. The leaders who win aren’t the ones chasing certainty. They are the ones who have mastered the art of deciding in the dark.
Every executive team I coach works hard to align on strategy. They debate priorities, refine ROCKS (quarterly priorities), and finally walk out of the room confident they’ve nailed it.
Yet a few months in, progress feels uneven. Teams are stuck in old habits. Projects stall. Strategy looks great on paper, but it isn’t fully alive in day-to-day work.
When growth slows, most leaders look outside for answers—market conditions, competition, talent shortages. But in my coaching work with executive teams, I see a different pattern. More often than not, the bottleneck isn’t out there. It’s in the leadership team itself.
In our always-on world, disconnection feels counter-intuitive. Leaders often believe constant presence equals constant impact. We're wired to think "always on" means "always productive." But what if this mindset is actually holding you and your leadership team back?
The truth is, genuine disconnection is a strategic necessity. It's the deliberate act that unlocks clarity, fuels innovation, and builds a more autonomous, resilient team.
We’ve touched on the concept of the Working Genius in previous blogs (See: Trust. The Antidote to the Great Resignation and The 3 Questions to Build Your Dream Team), but we haven’t discussed the model in full detail and, frankly, it deserves its own spotlight. The Six Types of Working Genius is a very powerful assessment that, in my opinion, is superior to any personality test as it focuses on how on the natural talents within a team can enable us to get things done in the most productive way.
I get particularly excited when an opportunity arises for us to combine an important topic and a powerful exercise into one. In this case, I’m referring to employee engagement and the Flywheel Effect. For those of us who aren’t familiar, the Flywheel Effect, a term coined by author Jim Collins, describes the momentum gained from small wins that accumulate over time and generate growth and improvement. Each turn of our “flywheel” builds upon work done previously and when we stay focused on core concepts that power our flywheel it can lead to tremendous success.
Teamwork.
The power of this two-syllable word can dramatically change the way our organizations operate and its ability to both survive and thrive.
In honor of the 20th anniversary since the book’s original publishing, author Patrick Lencioni recently hosted a webinar on his bestseller, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. Throughout the presentation, Lencioni not only shares how to overcome the 5 dysfunctions, but also discusses the ‘Teamwork Trifecta’. This focuses on how to create a high-performing team and addresses the most critical questions around teams within an organization. I have found these to be tremendously helpful resources and useful tools as I coach leadership teams.
Many of us struggle to effectively handle high-stakes conversations when we encounter them. I’m talking about the ones that we don’t necessarily plan for or know that are coming, such as giving feedback to an employee whose behavior does not align with the company’s core values, terminating a difficult customer or dealing with someone who has hijacked your meeting. Because these can be emotionally charged and highly impactful to the future of the relationship, we can all benefit from polishing up our communication skills for these crucial conversations. Lucky for us, there is a way to handle these conversations so we can accelerate our connections and deepen our relationships.
Are you ready to scale faster, develop your team, and improve your business performance while simultaneously freeing up time in your own life?! You may be thinking, “that sounds impossible. How can I improve my business and not add more to my plate?” Well, many leaders are not applying the essential skill of delegation and we are most definitely suffering as a result.
The Great Resignation. We’ve heard of it. Maybe some of us have even become part of it. I think most of us would agree that our workplace and even our worlds look a lot different today than they did three years ago. Instead of looking back at what it was and trying to get things to the way they “used to be”, let’s adjust to the cards we’ve been dealt and do what we do best: move forward with a plan.
Are you familiar with Dr. Stephen Karpman’s Drama Triangle involving the roles of victim, persecutor, and rescuer? Do you often find yourself or those around you getting caught in one of these roles? These unproductive mindsets may be the obstacle preventing you and your team from operating with trust and alignment. The good news is, there is a way out.
