Tag Archives: Teams

Leadership Tricks that you Can Learn From the NBA

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

The sports industry is one of the biggest industries in the world with a global market of $390 billion in 2020, and it is expecting to grow to $440 billion this year. This shows that sports are more than just teams competing for prestige and money. In fact, they are so impactful that can change many people’s lives only by following the same principles.

We can learn a lot of things from sports that we can use in our everyday lives, especially from the NBA, such as:

  • Having a strong will
  • Be a team player
  • Networking
  • Having confidence
  • Overcoming mental health issues
  • And being a good leader

Having leadership skills is crucial in the NBA, especially if you want to be one of the top players in the league. With that said, the NBA can teach us many things about leadership and in today’s article, we will highlight some of the things that you should absorb from this sport in order to improve your life on every level.

Lead by Example

Being a good leader is all about taking responsibilities and holding yourself accountable before you can hold someone else. This is also the difference between a manager and a leader. Leaders will ask themselves before asking others, and managers only give out orders.

If you expect players to give 100% and always be on time, you should do that yourself. That is the best way to set an example that everyone follows. Continue reading→

Why Team Building is Necessary for a Good Working Culture

If you care about having a great working culture, Real Simple’s Maggie Seaver shares that you need to ensure that every employee feels a sense of belonging — and one great way to do that is through team building. And with everyone from the world’s largest corporations to the smallest of startups investing in team building, is all the hype about it justified?

What is team building?

At its core, team building is any action or process that aims to turn a group of employees into a cohesive team. It helps with the employees’ transition from having an individualistic to a collaborative mindset. And this is important because when employees focus on tasks and results on an individual level only, Forbes points out that the whole organization misses out in terms of productivity and effectiveness.

Team building ranges from small activities like bowling or a game night, to big activities like a sportsfest or a three-day retreat at the beach. However, it still has a bad rap for a lot of employees, many of whom see it as some mandatory “fun” activity where they must put on a happy-go-lucky face. But if done right, it doesn’t just serve as a stress reliever for the whole team. It also brings serious benefits and advantages to the whole organizational culture of the company.Continue reading→

3 Common Mistakes In Managing Virtual Teams

Contributed article in our business series. Originally posted here, and reposted with permission. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Virtual Teams are everywhere now – from home office workers to workers in offices in multiple locations and teams embedded in large global corporations.

According to Forrester Consulting 81% of Teams are distributed across multiple locations.

Often when a Projects team is dispersed they suffer delays and sometimes complete failure. International investments are put at Risk due to the intercultural issues or simply because the team members feel isolated and unmotivated.

What are the 3 most common Mistakes of managing virtual teams?

What are the 3 areas, which if addressed correctly can raise your Virtual Team performance exponentially?Continue reading→

Weed Your Life

Originally posted on SVProjectManagement.com December 2011.

Here’s another personal musing promoted by what I’ve come to call the “alcoholidays”.

This time of year my mind wanders to gratitude. I’m grateful for the incredibly talented colleagues who have made this year’s relentless stream of work border on enjoyable. And I’m thankful for friends who have made life’s normal burdens lighter through their kindness and support. A garden of friends and colleagues has made this terrifically challenging year much more pleasant for me. But, like all gardens, it occasionally needs weeding.

Many years ago when I was exiting physics graduate school, and sad to be leaving friends behind, one of my professors advised me to let go of relationships that had passed their time, and not to grieve for their loss. While many relationships grow more satisfying over the years, he cautioned that clinging indiscriminately to all past relationships can burden a person – like accumulating too much baggage on an around-the-world tour. This was a man whose life’s ambition was to get all of his worldly belongings into no more than 2 suitcases. I must say, now I see his point.Continue reading→