The best leaders spend up to 20% of their time coaching their direct reports.

It's a responsibility that leaders all too often overlook as they get caught up in pressing matters, but nothing can be more important to the health and future of an organization.

Coaching others not only helps develop their skills, it frees leaders to focus on more strategic initiatives as their junior leaders develop. It also builds the bench strength of an organization to ensure a competitive advantage in years to come.

Collaboration trumps time management...every time.

We often seek to do things faster and better and as a result look for "time management" techniques for the answer.

The problem is that time management often results in us asking the wrong question - "How do we do what we are currently doing more efficiently?"

Instead...focus on working more effectively with others and you'll find yourself answering these types of questions:

When people don't communicate what they need, it results in a lose-lose for themselves and others around them.

I recently experienced this in my personal life. I'd been traveling (mostly for fun and personal time off) several weeks in a row and my wife and I were invited on an out-of-town trip to the mountains with friends. I immediately said yes, because spending time with friends and family is one of my core guiding principles.

Here is the third excerpt from our recent article on 3 Ways to Derail Team Formation. In Part 1 of this post I talked about the first mistake that derails team formation - Ambiguity of team purpose and vision for the future. Part 2 focused on the mistake of - Hiring a warm body instead of the right person Here's Mistake #3... Dis-orientation Most team members are hired and then thrown into the fire.

Here are 4 real-life excuses that will scare off a retail customer every time.

Excuse One: “It’s our policy.”

Ah, the dreaded fallback position from employees and organizations that have no clue about what the customer needs. Smells like complacency to me. In other words, corporate has my hands tied and I can’t do anything for you.

Excuse Two: “My manager is on vacation for the next week.”

This seriously happened to me. Right after excuse number 1. Sounds a lot like "my dog ate my homework."

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of  credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Drawing clear lines in the sand.

The challenge in many organizations is that most leaders don’t get to know their people well enough to create a motivating environment. They like to draw lines in the sand between business and personal.

Actually, our business and personal lives often intersect and have a huge impact on each other.We need to make business personal.

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Leading with answers instead of questions.

Jim Collins said it best in Good to Great:

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Solving problems others should solve.

It’s not uncommon for new leaders to solve problems for their team members instead of helping them learn to do it on their own. For the overly controlling leader, you may find it faster to take care of it yourself than to take the time to teach.

For the less assertive leader, it might be easier to do it yourself so you can get around confronting an issue directly.

What is your team's purpose?

What is your team supposed to do that no other team does?

These are important questions for all teams - whether you belong to a management team, a functional team, a project team, or other.

The challenge in most organizations is that teams don't have clarity about their purpose. They brush it off as something too fluffy to consider. Or, for other teams, their purpose ends up on a pretty poster in a conference room and does nothing but take up wall space.

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Imposing goals on team members.

I can’t stress enough the importance of making the goal-setting process collaborative. Imposing individual goals on someone is the fastest way to lose commitment. And, leaders should be leery about imposing their expectations through online collaboration tools. Technology can be successfully used to support the goal-setting process, but should never take the place of crucial conversations.