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.

Date/Time: Wednesday, April 28th; 12:00 - 12:45 mountain standard time

Are your teams struggling and as a result costing your organization millions each year due to poor performance and low productivity, misaligned resources, and high levels of employee disengagement and turnover?

Does your team miss out on business opportunities as members engage in endless conflict, revisit decisions over and over again, and hoard resources within their silos?

Well, it doesn't have to be that way.

Join Sal Silvester for this 45 minute webinar and explore:

Recession depression is definitely impacting your people.

What is recession depression?

It is fatigue. It is low morale due to the way that people have been treated over the past year. It is the "doing more with less" that seems endless after a year or more of having to do more with less.

I am on my 6th iphone. Yup, number 6.

The problem is that the phone does everything really well, except make phone calls.

And that's a issue for me, since I spend an enormous amount of time on the phone with my clients.

Last week was the last straw. So, as I had done five times in the past, I made an appointment with a Genius at the Apple store and filed my complaint.

The Dream Manager is a quick read and very inspirational. Get some great ideas on how you can create remarkable results by helping your employees fulfill their dreams. Heck, if it's possible to reduce attrition at a Janitorial Services Company, in can happen in any company.

Check it out for some good ideas.

Have you ever stepped back and watched team members respond to a decision?

It’s really an interesting dynamic to watch.

I just watched a group of mid-level managers react to a decision that their management team made - three months ago. There clearly is not commitment amongst this group (once again, these are mid-level managers).

If retaining talent is not high on your list of concerns in 2010, then it should be.

I have seen way too many executives and hiring managers think that with the down economy and high unemployment rate there’s no need to worry about employee retention. This line of thinking will lead you down a slippery slope, especially as the economy begins to recover.