I hope that you and your loved ones have a wonderful day filled with joy and gratitude.

Sal

This is strange, Angela thought. Ben had never requested to meet with her alone.

She grabbed her notebook, went to the kitchen for a quick cup of tea and then into her meeting with Ben. It was slightly past 9:30am, as was customary. But, as unusual as it was, Ben was already sitting at the conference table. Angela noticed a piece of paper lying in front of him. Hmmm, Ben’s not usually
this formal.

I am going through two major transitions in my personal life right now - (1) getting married in October 2010, and (2) selling and buying a new home.

Both are amazing changes that will have a significant and profound impact on who I am as a person. And as I reflect on these changes, I am constantly reminded that change itself is inevitable in this life, but how we handle it is a choice.

This is a book that is having a profound impact on my life. I referred to The Work in a recent email newsletter entitled Overcoming Overwhelm.

This book will challenge you to "Notice When Your Thoughts Argue with Reality"

"The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want."

So, you want to take your management team off site and work on building cohesion? After having conducted management team retreats for over 9 years, I have learned a few things. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Identify your objectives. If you want maximum focus from your management team off site, get clear on what outcomes you want to achieve. Also identify what challenges will stop the team from achieving the expected results and what will be different when those challenges are overcome.

One of the costliest mistakes senior leaders make is spending too much time IN the business instead of ON the business.

When senior leaders focus too much time on the technical and tactical aspects of the business, and playing the role of project managers, they fail to look at the strategic aspects of the business and the longer term plan.

This typically results in ambiguity of roles and responsibilities and a lack of alignment.

Answer the following questions:

I recently wrote a three-part series on reluctant new managers. One cause of reluctance that I wrote about was due to a fear of losing control (which often leads to a reluctance to delegate, hand over responsibilities, etc.).

I recently came across an article called When Teams Work Best by Frank LaFasto and Carl Larson and within their article they deal with a similar issue head on. And I quote: "The best way to manage your personal control needs as team leader is to demonstrate behaviors that share control.

I had my annual physical the other day, and it reminded me of how customer service can be so bad, and how easy it could be to be really good.

Here's how my experience went at the doctor's office.

"Hi, my name is Sal Silvester. I am here for an 8:30 appointment."

Receptionist partially ignores me, continues to dial a phone call, and points a finger at me as if to say "hold on for one minute." My mother always taught me to never point fingers.