Tips, ideas, techniques and general musings on the theme of how to build a high performing team
How do we give feedback that works and is effective? Ideally, feedback is meant to be a gift. It’s a way for someone to be better and to do better. But as we all know, it doesn’t work this way in real life. People sometimes get triggered by feedback, positive or negative. So the question …
The world of performance management is changing. The latest thinking suggests that we shouldn’t have one (or 2) big performance reviews with our team every year, but an on-going conversation about performance all throughout the year. This is a change I completely agree with. The amount of time taken up with meaningless appraisals which go …
5 radical but much needed changes to the current performance review process Read More »
Improving team performance is a great idea, but sometimes the team is struggling – or maybe it’s your team leader who can’t quite get her team going. This article is about improving team performance, whether it’s your team, or you need to help your supervisor. So, the team are struggling and you’re not doing as …
Making partner is more than just proving you can win work. You also need to prove that you can build and develop a team. As a ‘team leader’ you will be playing multiple different roles. In this article, based on an extract from Poised for Partnership, I look at the 5 different roles team leaders need …
In this article, Jon Baker, talks about how you can lead your team so that they can free you up to build your portfolio to make partner (or full equity partner) It is possible to make partner just by your own merits. However, if you want to successfully take the step up to a …
What is the biggest priority as a team leader? You may be surprised Read More »
Motivating your team, particularly when the going is tough, is hard work. In this extract from an interview with Errol Williamson in Spring 2015, I talk about how to get your team onside and motivate them to higher levels of performance. EW: In your book ‘How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life’, Part …
How to construct a speech which inspires a team to improve its performance Read More »
When you get made up to partner, either through a promotion or a lateral move, it is not uncommon to inherit a new team, or a dysfunctional group of people who happen – more because of a HR structure chart – to belong to the same team. Your long term success as partner is driven …
Inheriting a new team – how to decide which team members to keep? Read More »
One common conversation I have with my clients is how to get the message through to a poor performer in the team. Whilst the intention is always there to have the difficult conversation, very often this intention is not acted on. After all, there are always more pressing client matters to attend to than having …
7 no-nonsense but effective ways to tell a team member that they are not performing Read More »
In last week’s blog post I talked about the need for partners to successfully manage and lead their team. However, what happens if you inherit a dysfunctional team? After all, the professions are full of dysfunctional teams and non-team players. In this article, Jon Baker discusses how to fix the team, once and for all. …
Most popular (and effective) tactics to fix a struggling team Read More »
No-one said that being in the professions would be easy! However, when you get to manager in a practice you get given the equivalent of a ‘hospital pass’. On the one hand you need to keep your clients and partner happy. Then you also need to keep your team happy and motivated, often by asking …
How to keep your team happy when they are stressed out with tough deadlines Read More »
