In my previous blog post, I talked about the 4 reasons why team building fails and how it is important to be aware of those common pitfalls so that you can design a program that makes a positive impact on your team.

Team building can have a profound effect on the way teams collaborate, but to achieve that level of success you must incorporate The 4 P's of Strategic Team Building.

The concept of "team building" means different things to different people. Over the past 9 years I have spent a ton of time with hundreds of clients and thousands of people creating successful team building programs. Our shorter programs may span only four to eight hours in duration, and our programs focused on helping teams make a significant shift in how they collaborate may last over 9 months.

Regardless of how long the program is, I have always defined team building in three ways:

1. It is a tool to help accelerate team formation.

I have written quite a bit in the past about the importance of providing feedback to team members. In fact, in a recent blog post, I termed feedback as "the glue that holds alignment together."

But what happens when feedback just doesn't work?

When performance isn't meeting expectations, and a team member has been provided with consistent and transparent feedback, the next step in trying to help a team member make behavioral change is constructive discipline.

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The showcases involve taking the profile (Everything DiSC Sales, Everything DiSC Management, or Everything DiSC Workplace) as pre-work, and then participating in an interactive 90-minute webinar.

Here are some upcoming showcases:

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.

Ahhh overwhelm. It's that moment in time where you feel stuck. Where there is so much going on you don't know where to start.

The stories that play inside our heads are ones that sound like:

"I have too much to do. I'll do it (the important thing) tomorrow."

"There are no jobs out there."

"I don't have time to develop knowledge about new topics, ideas, and legislation"

"I'm not experienced enough for that role"

"It's faster to do things than to train others to do it"

I have talked a lot about the importance of alignment in my past newsletters and blog posts and how alignment creates focus, clarity, and accountability. But, the glue that holds alignment together throughout the year is...feedback.

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.

Maximizing Team Effectiveness Audio Program

This program is designed for small teams or businesses who want to take their team to the next level, but don’t have the budget for a significant training initiative. The program includes:

Does your team suffer from:

• A lack of focus
• Hoarding resources within silos
• Marginalizing people in the work place
• A patchwork approach to hiring
• Little to no focus on training and growth

Then join me for my upcoming webinar this Wednesday from 12:00 - 12:45 mountain time on The 5 Costliest Mistakes Teams Make, and learn how to overcome these issues and accelerate team development.