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WIN!

A Leader's Guide to

Building a Winning Team

Leader's Workbook

Published by Akers Consulting Group LLC at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. IF you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Being a fable, the characters portrayed in the book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual living persons is coincidental. The lessons provided within are based on true-life experience in developing strong, winning teams. Only the characters are fictional.

E-Book Introduction

Win-ning [win-ning] adjective: that wins; successful or victorious, as in a contest

Team [teem] - noun: a number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest: a number of persons associated in some joint action

This Leader's Workbook e-book has been developed to help current and aspiring leaders leverage the lessons and approaches in Win! A Leader's Guide to Building a Winning Team.

This book is designed to reinforce the key lessons from the book, allowing you to incorporate them into your leadership approach, thus assisting you in the development of a Winning Team Environment.

Through reinforcement of the proven techniques and approaches revealed in the book, you will be able to personalize each lesson to your current situation.

Contents

Slogan of Purpose.................................4

S = P - E.................................................5

Leadership Pledge.................................7

Professionalism Manifesto....................10

Developing Strengths..........................13

Leveraging Free Agency......................15

Choice of Action....................................17

Attitudes are Contagious......................19

Having Fun?..........................................20

TEAM Goals...........................................22

Weekly Game Plan................................24

Scouting the Competition.....................26

Seizing Momentum..............................28

Are You Flexible?..................................29

The Coaster of Change.........................30

Your Favorite Quotes...........................32

Slogan of Purpose

Why does your business exist?

Aside from the obvious reasons of providing you and others with jobs, making a profit, etc., when you get down to the core reason that your business is there and why any person should be interested in doing business with you, what might that sound like?

This isn't your company vision, but rather a one or two sentence explanation as to why, from a more philosophical and emotional perspective, you are in business.

In the book, Coach Billings provides Chase with a few examples. Leveraging these, and understanding your business the way you do, develop your own Slogan of Purpose. Lead a brainstorming session with a cross functional representation of your business. Explain to the team what you are looking for. What do they see as the businesses' purpose? Work with the team to pare the thoughts down into one or two sentences. Write the resulting Slogan of Purpose down here.

Our Slogan of Purpose:

________________________________________________________________________

S = P - E

"S=P-E is a formula that is understood and utilized in Winning Team Environments. The formula works for all things in business as well as your personal life.

The Formula, found in the book, is:

S (______________________________) =

P (______________________________) -

E (______________________________)

The formula is used in judging different aspects of the company's performance.

Another way to look at the formula, and how it applies to business is S________________ only happens when your P_______________ is greater than the E__________________.

Think about a few times when this formula could have, or should have, been applied in your experience. Write down two of them here:

________________________________________________________________________

Were the E_______________________ clearly defined in those situations? If not, could the outcome have been different if they had been clearly defined, either by you or the other party?

Understand that to be a leader of a Winning Team, it is critical in all situations that you ensure these are clearly defined, for individuals, teams, leaders, board members, etc.

What areas of your business could benefit from applying this formula? Write down three that come to mind:

________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Pledge

In the book, Chase learns from Coach Billings the importance of setting expectations. One key approach that Chase incorporated into his strategy was the development of a Leadership Pledge. A sample of a complete Leadership Pledge is included in the Important Documents section of the book. You may want to reference this to get your Leadership Pledge started, but make sure you personalize it to your own beliefs and pet peeves.

Use the following exercise to develop your personal Leadership Pledge. You should keep your items to twenty or less. Once you are happy with the list, develop a professional looking document that will be distributed. You need to provide a copy of it to everyone within your sphere of influence, including those that you report to. You should roll the Pledge out to all of your team members in a live meeting, so that they can hear you speak each of the items you have listed. Do not send out as an e-mail or distribute via a memo. This is a chance for your team members to see you as a true and inspiring leader.

Keep a copy of the Leadership Pledge in your office as a constant reminder to your commitment to these ideals and behaviors.

We provided you with a sample heading, or introduction. Feel free to use this or to create your own.

My Leadership Pledge

I, _________________________, do hereby pledge to each of you, my fellow team members, that I will direct myself in accordance to the following principles:

#1 _____________________________________________________________

#2 _____________________________________________________________

#3 _____________________________________________________________

#4 _____________________________________________________________

#5 _____________________________________________________________

#6 _____________________________________________________________

#7 _____________________________________________________________

#8 _____________________________________________________________

#9 _____________________________________________________________

#10 ____________________________________________________________

#11 ____________________________________________________________

#12 ____________________________________________________________

#13 ____________________________________________________________

#14 ____________________________________________________________

#15 ____________________________________________________________

#16 ____________________________________________________________

#17 ____________________________________________________________

#18 ____________________________________________________________

#19 ____________________________________________________________

#20 ____________________________________________________________

Professionalism Manifesto

A Winning Team exhibits professionalism in everything they do, and they ensure that anytime that a current or prospective client has exposure to the organization that the business is portrayed in a professional manner. The same goes for how team members act towards each other.

In the book, Coach Billings explained the concept of the Professionalism manifesto to Chase. In addition, a full example of a Professionalism Pledge is included in the Important Documents section of the book. Using these examples, you need to develop your own Professionalism Manifesto. You may want to enlist the help of a group of cross-functional team members, so that you ensure every possible item gets captured.

Once you have completed it, you need to provide a copy of it to everyone within your sphere of influence, including those that you report to. You should introduce the Manifesto to all of your team members in a live meeting, so that they can hear you speak about the importance of each of the items listed. Do not send out as an e-mail or distribute via a memo. This is a chance for your team members to see you as a true and inspiring leader. Remember, the tone is set with you. You must "Walk the Walk"

Use the following exercise to develop the Professionalism Manifesto for your organization. We provided you with a sample heading, or introduction. Feel free to use this or to create your own.

Our Professionalism Manifesto

Maintaining a strong brand helps us compete against our competition in the marketplace, increases our customer base, and improves customer loyalty. Most importantly, it is a direct reflection of our business.

The following items must be reviewed on a _________ basis. Any areas of concerns should be brought to light immediately so that they can be addressed:

#1 ___________________________________________________________________

#2 ___________________________________________________________________

#3 ___________________________________________________________________

#4 ___________________________________________________________________

#5 ___________________________________________________________________.

#6 ___________________________________________________________________

#7 ___________________________________________________________________

#8 ___________________________________________________________________

#9 ___________________________________________________________________

#10 _________________________________________________________________

#11 _________________________________________________________________

#12 _________________________________________________________________

#13 _________________________________________________________________

#14 _________________________________________________________________

#15 _________________________________________________________________

#16 _________________________________________________________________

#17 _________________________________________________________________

#18 _________________________________________________________________

#19 _________________________________________________________________

#20 _________________________________________________________________

Developing Strengths

If you are like most managers or leaders, you have been asked or required to create personal development plans for your team members. Typically, these plans focus on the team member's weaknesses. In the book, Chase and Coach Billings discuss why this approach is outdated, and why you should instead focus on developing the team member's strengths.

Winning Team Leaders focus on developing the strengths, or natural abilities of their team players.

What are two of the key benefits of focusing on developing a team member's strengths?

________________________________________________________________________

Take a moment to list out the strengths of three of your team members that could, and should, be developed:

Team Member #1: ________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Team Member #2: ________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Team Member #3: ________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Incorporate the development of team member's strengths into your leadership approach immediately.

Leveraging Free Agency

Professional sports teams have a common practice of utilizing free agency to improve their team's chances of winning. The book discusses why businesses should also be using this type of philosophy.

According to the book, what are three negative impacts to an organization or team when a team member is not performing at the expected level?

#1______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#2______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#3______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are three of the benefits of incorporating the free agency philosophy into your organization?

#1______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#2______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#3______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What steps or changes would you need to take in order to utilize this approach for your team or organization?

#1______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#2______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#3______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OK, so what is stopping you? Work with your HR department to implement this approach as soon as possible.

Choice of Action

Leading a Winning Team involves the need to quickly deal with situations that arise when team members are not pulling their weight.

What impact does it have on a team when a fellow teammate is not performing their job, or not pulling their weight?

As adults, we have the ability to make choices in regards to how we react to a situation. In a Winning Team Environment, team members understand that they will be held accountable for their Choice of Actions when situations arise in the workplace.

A Winning Team Leader will make the team member aware of the _________________ their __________________ is having on the team. They will also make the team member aware what changes in ________________________ are expected, and what the _______________________________ are if they don't change.

In the book, Chase makes notes from the day's discussion on this topic. He lists out several key items for the following topics. Fill them in from the book to reinforce the concept in your mind.

If a team member has a personal situation that is impacting their work, a Winning Team Leader show empathy, but will address it with them so that they understand what impact their choice of actions is having on the overall team.

Person not pulling their own weight

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Choice of Actions

___________________________________________________________________________________________

A Winning Team Leader does not allow improper behavior, or choice of actions, to continue because they feel sorry for the person or they want to avoid the conflict. You're really not helping the person when you do that, and you definitely aren't being a leader for your team.

In a Winning Team environment, proper Choice of Actions are recognized and rewarded.

Do you have a recognition and reward program? If not, you need to develop one. Pull together a small, cross functional team to develop ideas for one that will work well in your organization.

Attitudes are Contagious

In the book, Coach explains to Chase that besides a _________________, an Attitude is one of the most contagious things you will ever encounter.

A Winning Team Leader works hard to spread _____________________ attitudes and makes sure that ___________________________ attitudes don't have a chance to catch on and spread.

The right attitude can make the difference between winning and losing in the marketplace.

What steps or ideas can you implement in order to ensure this happens? You may want to enlist others to help you brainstorm some ideas. Utilize this opportunity to lead the group through proper facilitation of the meeting. Set the right expectations, recognize and reward positive choice of actions. Write down the four best ideas here and develop a plan to implement them as soon as possible.

#1__________________________________________________________________________________

#2__________________________________________________________________________________

#3__________________________________________________________________________________

#4__________________________________________________________________________________

Having Fun?

So here is a question for you... Do you think a team member would be more productive in a fun, enjoyable environment, or in a dreary, repressive one? No, it isn't a trick question. I've seen this in real life situations. Could you imagine having a job where you hated being there? It can happen, and it is a direct reflection of the leadership.

Winning Team Environments are fun, while still being professional. The book explains the benefits associated with having a fun, enjoyable work environment. As a leader, you need to develop your strategy for creating and fostering a fun atmosphere.

List out five of the benefits resulting from having a fun environment. These can be found in the book.

#1__________________________________________________________________________________

#2__________________________________________________________________________________

#3__________________________________________________________________________________

#4__________________________________________________________________________________

#5__________________________________________________________________________________

Develop and list out five ideas for improving the environment, making it a more fun, enjoyable one. If needed, enlist the help of team members and /or fellow leaders in the organization.

#1__________________________________________________________________________________

#2__________________________________________________________________________________

#3__________________________________________________________________________________

#4__________________________________________________________________________________

#5__________________________________________________________________________________

Now, develop your implementation strategy, and get the ideas launched.

TEAM Goals

Winning Teams use the TEAM Goal criteria. The acronym stands for:

T____________________

E____________________

A____________________

M____________________

Utilize this approach for all goals you make, including personal development plans, project timelines and key business strategies, such as your marketing strategy. TEAM goals enable you to have a good idea of what success will look like. And more importantly, you will be able to tell if the strategy or plan is making the proper progress.

TEAM goals are designed not to just focus on the desired end state, but all of the important steps along the way.

When building TEAM goals for personal development plans, set them for each of your team members with their input. A Winning Team Leader then holds them accountable to meeting or exceeding those goals.

Weekly Game Plan

Using the Winning Team goal setting approach, you'll have long-term goals that reflect where the organization needs to get to, but you should also break it down into smaller pieces.

To do so, utilize a weekly game plan. Lay out what the objectives are for the week, and place TEAM goals against each objective. These are specific goals that you want to have completed, or at least to a certain state by the end of each week. Review your weekly game plan each morning to see how you've advanced on each goal, and what pieces you want or need to get accomplished that day.

Have people in leadership and other key roles that report to you also complete and track Weekly Game Plans of their own. This enables you to keep your conversations during meetings focused on the important and relevant topics. You can discuss challenges they are having, celebrate successes when they meet their goals, etc. It can give you a quicker insight into their world, what challenges they are facing, and help you evaluate their strengths.

To practice, develop your weekly game plan for the upcoming week.

Objective #1

T __________________________________________________________________

E ___________________________________________________________________

A__________________________________________________________________

M _________________________________________________________________

Objective #2

T __________________________________________________________________

E ___________________________________________________________________

A__________________________________________________________________

M _________________________________________________________________

Objective #3

T __________________________________________________________________

E ___________________________________________________________________

A__________________________________________________________________

M _________________________________________________________________

Scouting the Competition

Make no mistake, your competition wants to take your customers away from you. Like a sports team wanting to take advantage of their strengths and the other team's weaknesses, your competition is evaluating how they can increase their market share at your expense. They will make adjustments to their strategies and approach in order to attract new business, business that you need as well.

How well do you understand your competition? If you are like many leaders, you may need to make an extra effort to find out what they are doing, and what affect it is having.

To make sure you are capturing the proper intelligence on your competition, you'll need to develop a list of key questions. Once you have gathered the answers, you need to share the information with your entire team. They all need to know and understand what the competition is doing. Remember, communication is one of the key elements of a Winning Team Environment. You'll find that some of the best ideas to counter what the competition is doing will come from your team members.

In the book, Chase develops a list of important questions that he and his team members needed to know about their competition. Leverage the examples from the book to develop your list. Enlist help of others if needed. Write your questions below.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Seizing Momentum

According to Coach Billings, momentum cannot be measured, but it is extremely important to winning.

Coach also explained to Chase that there were two reasons why someone gets motivated. They are:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Winning Team Leaders leverage positive momentum to keep morale and productivity high. One way to build positive momentum is to celebrate successes, no matter how small they are.

What are some of the ways you can recognize and celebrate successes of your team?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you Flexible?

Ever hear of a coach making half-time adjustments? Why do they do this? Because parts of their initial strategy are not working, and in order to improve their chance of winning, they need to be able to identify the issues and make the necessary adjustments.

Winning Team Leaders do the same. While they have confidence in their strategy, they understand that changes occur that may cause a necessity for evaluation and change.

According to Chase, failure to be flexible and make changes could cause the following three impacts to a business:

Lose _____________________

Lower ____________________

Less ______________________

To make sure you are making proper adjustments, feed off the intelligence around you. Your team members will tell you what is going on in the marketplace. They know that if they bring up this intelligence, the organization can make adjustments to the strategy to put it in a better position to win. You need to make sure you personally thank a team member when they come to you with information that can help you win. As long as they feel the information is being accepted and acted upon, they will continue to provide valuable input.

The Coaster of Change

According to Coach Billings, change is like a roller coaster, and everyone reacts differently when they are riding the coaster.

There are four specific phases to the Change Process. These are:

__________________________________________

On the Winning Teams Website, you will find great information and approaches to leading your team successfully through change. One important lesson for leaders is on the four unique reactions a person can have to change. Visit the site at http://winningteamsystems.com to find this important information.

The four unique reactions to change are:

__________________________________________

According to Coach Billings, one of the keys to implementing change successfully is to ___________________ the key reasons and facts as to why the change is necessary.

You need to constantly provide updates and information to stop _________________ from starting.

Winning Team Environments embrace change, as they understand that in order to win, you need to make changes when necessary to your approach, processes, products and strategy.

Your Favorite Quotes

Winning Team Leaders leverage quotes to provide communication and motivation to their team members.

Coach Billings provided Chase with a number of quotes, located in the Important Documents section of the book.

In addition, the Winning Team Systems website hosts a large repository of quotes, organized into four key categories; Leadership, Teamwork, Winning and Change. You'll find them at http://winningteamsystems.com

Write down your favorite quote in each of the four categories:

Leadership ______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Teamwork ______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Winning ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Change _________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Winning Team Systems

Building a winning team can be accomplished, if you have the right approach, strategy and focus. Having proven tools at your disposal is extremely important, and can make the difference between successfully building a winning team, or having a dysfunctional one.

To help support you in your endeavor to build a winning team, Winning Team Systems has collected a large number of tools and articles and have made them available to current and aspiring team leaders.

Visit the Winning Team Systems website, where you will find a large library of information, tools and strategies for building and being part of winning teams.

http://winningteamsystems.com

Look for our newest book

in the

Winning Team Systems

catalogue

Winners!

A Team-Members Guide to

being part of a Winning Team

Available fall of 2010.

Professional Coaching Services

Need help on any of the leadership topics or lessons? Want help in building your Winning Team? Need to strengthen your leadership skills?

David Akers, president of Akers Consulting Group LLC offers effective and affordable professional coaching services to current and future leaders. Your initial consultation is always Free!

Contact Akers Consulting Group LLC for more information.

http://akersconsultinggroup.com(610) 608-3987

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