Have you heard the saying: ‘People join companies, but they leave managers’? Maybe you’ve witnessed this and have seen A players leave your company. The most powerful vision will remain unachievable without great managers leading the way.

Are you set up for success next year? Have you achieved all your growth targets in this past year? And have you enjoyed the ride??

Executing on our strategy is a high priority, but a roadblock that can prevent effective implementation is a culture lacking accountability. We will not accomplish our goals or strategy without a strong culture of accountability in our teams. We all may have a different idea or understanding of accountability, so let’s align ourselves on the topic.

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.