It started for me about 10 years ago. It was subtle at first. Now it is intentional. I realized that my choices were shaping my life. They were creating my life.

I was living in Atlanta at the time. Playing golf on the weekends. I had just left the Army and was working my way up the corporate ladder.

I went ice climbing this past Sunday in Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time this season. And, as I was watching the video I made (see below), it occured to me that the key components of finding a good ice climbing partner are the same components of being on an effective team.

Hello Everyone

I wanted to wish you all a very healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving for me is a time of reflection and a time to come back to the present. It is a time for me to be grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life.

I just saw an advertisement for a training course. It was titled something like "Making Team Decisions by Consensus."

This is where team building gets a bad rap and experiences on the "ropes course" don't translate well into the real work environment. Making decisions by consensus is applicable to bowling outings and the summer picnic and that's probably about it.

Typically, teams never truly reach consensus anyway. Instead, they end up with an "aura of consensus" where one or two loud voices or big personalities speak for the group.

As I work with companies and organizations of all types, my biggest concern right now is the level of employee engagement. An even more important concern is the level of employee engagement among the best employees.

Generally speaking, people live up to the expectations that they have for each other. If expectations are low, performance tends to be low. If expectations are high, performance tends to be high.

On September 17, 2009 the Wall Street Journal featured an article titled "Soldier to Receive the Medal of Honor."

President Obama awarded Jared C. Monti a posthumous award for repeatedly braving enemy fire to rescue a wounded comrade in the Afghan mountains. The article went on to say that Sgt. First Class Monti twice ran into the open to try to retrieve the wounded man, only to be forced back by rocket-propelled-grenades and machine-gun fire.

He was killed on his third attempt.

I hear a lot about the importance of coaching in the workplace, and for the most part I agree that coaching an important aspect of every leader's role. In fact, as a leader, I think you should be spending 20-30% of
your time coaching your direct reports.

But my intent for this post isn't "how to" coach someone (that will come in a future post), but rather "when to" coach someone.

In my recent webinars on Recession-proofing Your Career, I have emphasized the importance of networking. I have also emphasized that networking via social media is an important part of that process. I have seen so many people who are complacent because they have jobs. As a result, they have few, if any, LinkedIn connections, and they have rusty, at best, connections outside of their internal network.

I just got back from an amazing trip to Cape Cod visiting my parents, brothers, nephews, and nieces. What a great reunion with all of the fun, chaos, and laughs that you would expect from a big family. Frankly, I reluctantly came home, feeling a strong sense of sadness living so far away from my family. But, as a result of the trip, I am now committed to getting home more than two or three times a year.