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The sad fact is that it would be fair to say that United is a generic, bureaucratic, tired company. A sort of DMV in the sky. No real culture. No real strategy. No real expectations for employees or customers. All of which is a shame.
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When team members openly and passionately share their opinions about a decision, they don't wonder whether anyone is holding back. Then, when the leader has to step in and make a decision because there is no easy consensus, team members will accept that decision because they know that their ideas were heard and considered.
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Meetings are usually terrible, but they shouldn't be.
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When employees feel anonymous in the eyes of their managers, they simply cannot love their work, no matter how much money they make or how wonderful their jobs seem to be.
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I've seen it again and again in my consulting: Most teams are too large to be innovative, despite their leaders' best intentions.
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Sometimes you're going to have someone on your team who's just not comfortable with being open. You have to ask yourself, 'Is this person going to allow us to be a real team?' Maybe they're not right for your team. You have to be willing to lose someone sometimes.
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Clients don't expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There is no better way to demonstrate this than by acknowledging when a mistake has been made and humbly apologizing for it.
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Too many executives I've met over the years have the mentality of a bodybuilder; they've come to accept the idea that growth is synonymous with success.
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The problem is too often they are boring, and boring in a meeting happens for the same reason as in a book or movie - when there is not enough compelling tension. Meetings should be intense.
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If you could get all the people in the organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.
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Team members need to be able to admit their weaknesses and mistakes, to acknowledge the strengths of others, and to apologize when they do something wrong.
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Conflict is the pursuit of truth.
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We learn by taking action and seeing whether it works or not.
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Great teams argue. Not in a mean-spirited or personal way, but they disagree when important decisions are made.
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Even though I wrote 'The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family,' my life is as chaotic as most people's.
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I work with CEOs and their executive teams... and very few of these people are really indifferent about their employees or their customers.
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Smaller groups of people can establish trusting relationships.
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Contrary to popular wisdom, the mark of a great meeting is not how short it is or whether it ends on time. The key is whether it ends with clarity and commitment from participants.
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I coach soccer, and my wife and I are very involved in our kids' lives. Our family is busy with doctor appointments, soccer practice, school, work, travel, vacation... life.
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The fact is, employees cannot make breakthroughs if they can't openly and honestly disagree with their peers and their leader. Indeed, great leaders don't just permit conflict; they actively try to elicit it from reluctant employees as well.
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Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values - and sticking to them - requires real guts.
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At its core, all authentic growth depends on more customers wanting more of what your company offers. Any other drivers - pricing gimmicks, heroic marketing efforts, forced acquisitions - are ultimately destructive.
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Having to re-recruit, rehire, and retrain, and wait for a new employee to get up to speed is devastating in terms of cost.
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You can go to work and actually make someone else's job less miserable. Use your job to help others.