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Kicking off this blog |
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This is the first installment of my leadership blog:
Hi everyone! Welcome to my own “leadership corner”. Hopefully, you will find a few nuggets you can use in this space to help you create, maintain, lead, and inspire your teams, wherever they may be and in whatever capacity they may exist. I thought I’d start out with a little bit about what we do and how we do it.
Over the past 10,000 years of recorded history, there has been an enormous amount of “leadership training” that has taken place. The vast majority of it, of course, has been ad hoc. Leaders have mentored other potential leaders in the school of hard knocks, for the most part. Formalized leadership training, on the other hand, is a comparatively modern invention. The advent of military schools in Europe in the 18th century began the trend we see today in the emphasis on formal leadership training. Having said that, it can’t be denied that ad hoc training was wonderfully successful. After all, Julius Caesar learned all he needed to know watching and emulating such figures as Marius, Crassus, Sulla, and others. By observing their success in creating high performance “teams”, Caesar absorbed the lessons, added some of his own, and was able to eventually lead the Roman Republic to greatness over 2,000 years ago.
Such ad hoc training however was, as a matter of course, spotty and reserved for those with money, power, and the personality to seek fame and glory. Most others who wound up in leadership positions in the merchant or artisan classes often did not have the luxury of emulating others by the lessons of written history since the literacy rate was not very high. Now, however, we are able to help a great many people, through formal leadership and teambuilding training, to competently lead and manage teams by learning and applying the lessons of history on a broad front.
Team Concepts has taken on this task, in partnership with other individuals and other teams, in a way that uses ALL the lessons of history to achieve the result of inspirational, competent, and effective leaders. Not only is such training desperately needed in this world of complexity, daunting technological advances and humanitarian crisis, it also happens to be a great deal of fun. Our goal at Team Concepts is to build high performance teams through the development of high performing leaders who understand and can apply the necessary steps to achieve a high performing team.
I look at the process of meeting that goal as a two part approach. First, we have to develop high performing leaders. That means we have to understand and teach those qualities that an individual should have to qualify as a high performing leader. These include integrity, resilience, courage, compassion, vision, and so forth. Once we have begun that educational approach, we then teach the step by step process of creating, maintaining, and enhancing a high performance team environment. An environment where “champions become inevitable”.
Education can seem like such a dull and plodding field. If you remember back to your own schooling in grammar school, high school, college, and so forth, how many times did you look at the clock hoping to get out of class early? How many really GREAT teachers do you remember? Education can be hard for teachers and students alike when we all forget the true purpose of education; To learn and to RETAIN the lessons taught. Those lessons can be of either immediate practical application or they can be lessons that help shape the character, outlook, predilections and perspective on the world that breeds a balanced approach to thought and decision making. Either way, it is the goal of education to BRING TO AWARENESS whatever is being taught. If that is not done, the educational process is not true education and time is wasted. Precious time.
At Team Concepts, we have combined the NEED for developing true leaders in today’s world with the methodology of education that ensures retention and awareness. It is called the “blended solution” or “integrated learning.” Duke University has recently termed our approach “metaphorical training”. In any event, it works like this. We teach leaders to lead by putting them in positions of leadership. We teach them to build high performance teams by having them create such teams. We challenge them by putting them in positions where they must be challenged. In other words we create “experiential” conditions where “teachable moments” are legion. We then mix those experiential moments with in class interactive seminars and breakout sessions where students learn to share best practices with their fellow students while charting out the course they will follow in applying the lessons to their own team back in the workplace. Finally, we sear the lessons to the brain with a powerful dose of inspiration and motivation led by people who have actually walked the walk.
The best way to learn is to do, and at Team Concepts, we develop great leaders by doing. We develop great teams by creating them. We transform cultures by inspiring them. There can be no greater joy for us than to see our method succeed. We are in a mentoring capacity with a slightly more formal approach than the great leaders of old, but we hope the results will be the same across a much broader front. Ultimately, great leadership is the number one key towards our human society surviving and thriving through the next hundred years of explosive change. We are proud to be doing our part.
As I continue our conversation, look for reflections on both history and current events. I’d like to link the two to draw applicable lessons we can all think about and learn from. Leadership is endlessly fascinating because it deals with taking people from one point to another. There is nothing more fascinating than what is possible! See you soon.
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Catalyst/Capstone Programs |
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