Strategies for Successful Team Enablement

Communication is the glue that holds teams together, but even the smallest cracks can lead to major fractures if left unaddressed. Imagine trying to build a strong, sturdy wall without noticing the hairline cracks forming—those tiny issues eventually compromise the whole structure. The same is true for communication within teams. Here’s why communication cracks happen and how to address them before they break the team dynamic: 1️⃣ Clarity Over Assumptions One of the biggest causes of communication cracks is the assumption that everyone is on the same page. Leaders often believe their instructions are clear, while team members interpret them differently. The solution? Prioritize clarity. Spell things out, confirm understanding, ask for play backs from your audience and encourage team members to ask questions. It’s far better to over-communicate to get it wrong. 2️⃣ Build a Culture of Openness Fear of speaking up is a silent communication killer. If team members feel like they can’t ask questions, provide feedback, or share concerns, cracks start forming. Leaders must actively create an environment where openness is celebrated. Foster trust by inviting feedback regularly and responding with empathy and action. 3️⃣ Don’t Let Digital Overwhelm Human Connections In today’s workplace, we rely heavily on emails, chats, and virtual meetings. While these tools are convenient, they can dilute the human element of communication. Misinterpretations happen, and nuances are lost. Incorporate more face-to-face (or virtual face-to-face) conversations for clarity and connection. Sometimes, a 5-minute chat can fix what a dozen emails cannot. 4️⃣ Active Listening is Non-Negotiable Effective communication isn’t just about talking—it’s about listening. Leaders and team members alike need to practice active listening. This means not just hearing words but understanding intent, emotions, and the bigger picture. Active listening makes people feel valued and prevents misunderstandings from growing into bigger issues. 5️⃣ Address Conflict Early Unresolved conflict is one of the most visible cracks in team communication. When issues are ignored, they fester and grow, creating divides that are hard to repair. Address conflicts as soon as they arise. Create an environment where disagreements can be discussed constructively and lead to solutions, not resentment. Take Action Before It’s Too Late Communication cracks, if ignored, don’t just affect a single project or conversation—they compromise trust, productivity, and the overall health of the team. Proactively addressing them ensures your team remains aligned, resilient, and effective. What’s one step you’ll take this week to strengthen communication within your team? Let’s start the conversation below. 👇 #CommunicationMatters #TeamSuccess #ConflictResolution #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #RuthOnLeadership

A reality check from my decade coaching Fortune 500 leaders: The data is undeniable: -Approximately 41% of U.S. employees with jobs that can be performed remotely are engaged in hybrid work arrangements, working from home some days and from the office on others. Pew Research Center -Companies that cultivate strong hybrid work cultures often experience lower turnover rates, as flexible work arrangements contribute to higher employee satisfaction and loyalty. -Leaders who effectively manage hybrid teams by focusing on outcomes and fostering inclusivity tend to see enhanced team performance and engagement. McKinsey & Company The most successful hybrid leaders aren't attempting to replicate traditional office culture in a virtual setting. Instead, they're pioneering entirely new frameworks tailored to the hybrid model. Three Proven Strategies from Top-Performing Clients: 1. Digital-First Communication Architecture -Prioritize asynchronous communication to respect diverse schedules. -Allocate synchronous meetings for meaningful collaboration. Result: Notable reduction in meeting fatigue, leading to more productive work hours. 2. Core Hours Framework -Establish designated overlapping hours across time zones for real-time interactions. -Protect blocks of time for deep, focused work. -Implement documented decision-making processes to maintain clarity. Outcome: Accelerated decision-making processes and heightened employee engagement. 3. Connection Catalysts -Create intentional opportunities for relationship building. -Organize structured informal interactions, such as virtual coffee chats. -Rotate team members in these activities to foster cross-functional collaboration. -Impact: Strengthened team cohesion and improved cross-departmental communication. Takeaway: Leading hybrid teams effectively requires a focus on outcomes rather than processes, building trust over surveillance, and ensuring clarity to prevent misunderstandings. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your leadership approach for the hybrid era. #HybridLeadership #RemoteWork #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamBuilding #FutureOfWork

Let's be honest: extensive cross-team coordination is often a symptom of a larger problem, not an inevitable challenge that needs solving. When teams spend more time in alignment than on building, it's time to reconsider your organizational design. Conway's Law tells us that our systems inevitably mirror our communication structures. When I see teams drowning in coordination overhead, I look at these structural factors: - Team boundaries that cut across frequent workflows: If a single user journey requires six different teams to coordinate, your org structure might be optimized for technical specialization at the expense of delivery flow. - Mismatched team autonomy and system architecture: Microservices architecture with monolithic teams (or vice versa) creates natural friction points that no amount of coordination rituals can fully resolve. - Implicit dependencies that become visible too late: Teams discover they're blocking each other only during integration, indicating boundaries were drawn without understanding the full system dynamics. Rather than adding more coordination mechanisms, consider these structural approaches: - Domain-oriented teams over technology-oriented teams: Align team boundaries with business domains rather than technical layers to reduce cross-team handoffs. - Team topologies that acknowledge different types of teams: Platform teams, enabling teams, stream-aligned teams, and complicated subsystem teams each have different alignment needs. - Deliberate discovery of dependencies: Map the invisible structures in your organization before drawing team boundaries, not after. Dependencies are inevitable and systems are increasingly interconnected, so some cross-team alignment will always be necessary. When structural changes aren't immediately possible, here's what I've learned works to keep things on the right track: 1️⃣ Shared mental models matter more than shared documentation. When teams understand not just what other teams are building, but why and how it fits into the bigger picture, collaboration becomes fluid rather than forced. 2️⃣ Interface-first development creates clear contracts between systems, allowing teams to work autonomously while maintaining confidence in integration. 3️⃣ Regular alignment rituals prevent drift. Monthly tech radar sessions, quarterly architecture reviews, and cross-team demonstrations create the rhythm of alignment. 4️⃣ Technical decisions need business context. When engineers understand user and business outcomes, they make better architectural choices that transcend team boundaries. 5️⃣ Optimize for psychological safety across teams. The ability to raise concerns outside your immediate team hierarchy is what prevents organizational blind spots. The best engineering leaders recognize that excessive coordination is a tax on productivity. You can work to improve coordination, or you can work to reduce the need for coordination in the first place.

This took me 5+ years to figure out... The power of compounding in leadership. Successful leaders build: • trust • collaboration • psychological safety • momentum Here's my story: When I first became a manager, I had no idea what I was doing. I had only a few skills to effectively lead the team. And I soon realized that I needed more. So I read books and articles. I asked questions. I took courses to expand my skills and knowledge. And I learned that it's not any one action or idea. Instead, successful leaders understand how to compound their results. → 1% better every day = 37x better in a year Each action builds on other actions. Here are 10 areas on which to focus: 1️⃣ Hold 1:1s 1:1s provide opportunities to set goals, motivate, and give feedback together. ↳ Don't cancel or reschedule. ↳ Do ask questions and listen. 2️⃣ Communicate Teams thrive when there is clear, frequent communication. ↳ Don't hide information. ↳ Do repeat info through several mediums. 3️⃣ Delegate Responsibility Employees are more engaged when given the trust and responsibility to complete tasks. ↳ Don't abdicate responsibility. ↳ Do consider task-relevant maturity. 4️⃣ Set Goals The team should clearly understand what they are working towards, and how they contribute. ↳ Don't dictate goals unilaterally. ↳ Do allow for personal and stretch goals. 5️⃣ Share Knowledge Teams work more efficiently and effectively when accessing collective knowledge. ↳ Don't try to do everything yourself. ↳ Do have the team share best practices. 6️⃣ Ask Questions Questions signal that the team's opinions and insights are valued, promoting collaboration. ↳ Don't ask questions but ignore answers. ↳ Do pose open questions for more insights. 7️⃣ Give Feedback Feedback motivates employees and reinforces the right actions aligned with goals. ↳ Don't use the feedback sandwich. ↳ Do give sincere praise and celebrate wins. 8️⃣ Create Vision and Values Clear vision and values align your team around shared goals and guide actions. ↳ Don't set and forget your MVVs. ↳ Do involve the team when developing. 9️⃣ Promote Continuous Learning Investing in continuous learning leads to high engagement and retention. ↳ Don't be afraid to coach and mentor. ↳ Do view failures as learning opportunities. 🔟 Foster Resilience Resilience helps teams effectively manage challenges, as well as recover from setbacks. ↳ Don't ignore the impact of stress. ↳ Do set an example by taking time off. Although we expect instant results these days, you need patience to build a high-performing team. When you do these actions consistently over time, you let compounding work its magic! PS. Which of these do you find most challenging? ***** 👋 I'm Chris Cotter. 🔔 Follow for more on leadership. ✳️ I help managers level up for success / happiness. DM me!

Most Enablement efforts fail. It’s usually because people focus on the wrong parts. Figuring out the problem isn’t that hard.  Figuring out how to fix it isn’t that hard.  Getting people to change what they do every day is really, really hard. Let’s say you’re trying to get 30 reps to change how they do discovery, or qualify, or whatever.  That’s like getting 30 people to quit smoking all at the same time. Even if they want to do it, it’s hard to make it work.  Why?  People revert back to their ingrained behavior.  It’s been good enough so far.  It’s what got them to where they are now.  Every part of your body and mind is wired to preserve homeostasis.  Establishing a new pattern of behavior requires the application of intention and effort over and over again, until the new pattern becomes the default. If you want your Enablement efforts to succeed, you can’t just design and launch a new approach.  Your efforts will be wasted unless you do the following: 1) Be inclusive when diagnosing the problem:  If you go look at the data, figure everything out, and tell everyone, no one will be on board.  They haven’t been through the diagnostic process themselves.  You have to bring them along with you.  They have to come to the conclusions themselves. 2) Be inclusive when designing a solution:  Similar to above.  If you come up with the solution and tell everyone to do it, there will be immediate resistance. Even if you’ve already figured everything out, you need to create a cross-functional team to help design the solution. 3) GET MANAGER BUY-IN!!!! - If the managers aren’t committed to the change, it will fail.  Literally, the whole things lives or dies with the managers. 4) Overcommunicate:  Your change needs to be everywhere.  The bigger the change, the more everyone needs to hear about it.  Multiple avenues of communication, for longer than you think you probably need to. 5) Create avenues for accountability and reinforcement:  You and the rest of leadership should be committed to reinforcing the change for at least a month, possibly a quarter.  It’s tempting to move onto something else, but if you don’t consistently reinforce the new behavior, you’ve wasted everyone’s time.

Empowering Your Team to Conquer Challenges 💪 Every team faces challenges (like climbing up the switchbacks in the photo and then climbing the mountain!), but the truly great ones don't let them stop them. They have the ability to overcome obstacles and emerge stronger than ever. But how do you cultivate that kind of resilience in your team? Here are a few tips: 1. Create a Culture of Open Communication: Encourage open and honest communication, where team members feel comfortable expressing their ideas, concerns, and frustrations. Be receptive to feedback and actively listen to their suggestions. 2. Foster Collaboration: When faced with a challenge, bring your team together. Utilize their diverse skills and perspectives to brainstorm solutions collaboratively. Encourage healthy debate and respect different view points. 3. Celebrate Mistakes and Learnings: Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how we learn from them that matters. Create a safe environment where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth and improvement. Celebrate the learning process and encourage team members to share their learnings with others. 4. Equip Your Team with Resources: Ensure your team has the tools, resources, and training they need to tackle challenges effectively. Invest in their professional development and create opportunities for them to acquire new skills that can help them overcome obstacles. 5. Empower Your Team: Give your team the autonomy to make decisions and take risks. This will build their confidence and foster a sense of ownership and accountability. Empowering them to overcome challenges independently will make them even more resilient in the long run. 6. Lead by Example: As a leader, set the tone for resilience. Show your team that you are confident, resourceful, and committed to overcoming difficulties. Share stories of past challenges you've faced and what you learned from the experience. 7. Encourage a Growth Mindset: Encourage your team to adopt a growth mindset, believing that their abilities can be developed through hard work and effort. This will help them approach challenges with a positive and solutions-oriented mindset. 8. Celebrate Successes: Recognizing and celebrating successes, large and small, is crucial to maintaining team morale and motivation. Highlight your team's achievements and show them the impact of their hard work. In my case it was getting to the top with my friend Lynn Noyce (teammate) and taking in the view. By fostering a culture of empowerment, open communication, and continuous learning, you can equip your team to not only overcome challenges but thrive in the face of adversity. What are some of your best practices for empowering your team members to overcome challenges? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 👇 #Teamwork #Leadership #Empowerment #Resilience #GrowthMindset

Most leadership teams focus on what to do. The best ones focus on: How to do it. Let me tell you about one of my favorite transformations. I worked with a small senior leadership team—14 leaders from a pharmaceutical company.    When we first met, their meetings looked like this:   -Everyone sat down -Gave individual updates, -Reported on progress, and left. No collaboration. Just reports. Their goal? To shift from being a reporting team to a collaborative team—one that makes decisions together.  But before they could do that, they needed to fix one crucial thing: How they worked together. So we started with the basics:   1. Ways of working. – What’s the structure for communication?   2. Feedback rules. – How will they give and receive feedback?   3. Tools and practices. – What tools will they use, and how will they use them?  The realization was simple but powerful: Most teams focus on what they need to work on. Few focus on how they’ll work together. Six months later?  They told me their collaboration was smoother than ever. No more confusion, fewer frustrations, and more time to focus on big decisions.  Here’s the takeaway:  If you want a high-performing team, don’t just talk about the work. Talk about how you’ll do the work. Because when you set clear norms from the start, you eliminate the friction that holds teams back—and unlock the potential to achieve much more together.  📌 Want to build your best team ever? Join 27,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gCv_2MQ2

The 6 Types of Working Genius #AI implementation isn’t just about technology—it’s about unlocking your team’s natural genius. Here’s how: Have you ever wondered why some AI projects thrive while others stall? The secret often lies in how effectively your team collaborates and aligns their unique strengths. Recently, I revisited Patrick Lencioni’s The 6 Types of Working Genius and realized how transformative it can be for AI implementation. By leveraging this framework, teams can seamlessly align their roles and responsibilities to maximize success: 1️⃣ Wonder: Ask, What inefficiencies or opportunities can AI address? 2️⃣ Invention: Generate creative solutions and innovative use cases. 3️⃣ Discernment: Evaluate ideas for feasibility, practicality, and impact. 4️⃣ Galvanizing: Rally the team around a shared vision and implementation plan. 5️⃣ Enablement: Provide the hands-on support and collaboration needed to move forward. 6️⃣ Tenacity: Drive the execution process to completion, ensuring results are achieved. 🔑 Key Insight: Success happens when we align these strengths across the team. For example, a Discernment-Galvanizing leader might assess feasibility and inspire action, while an Enablement-Tenacity teammate ensures seamless execution. By applying this structure, organizations not only optimize AI adoption but also empower teams to thrive. 💡 What’s your team’s “working genius,” and how are you using it to implement technology? Let’s discuss—share your thoughts below or DM me to dive deeper into this topic! #AIImplementation #Leadership #WorkingGenius #TeamDynamics #Innovation #AI #Collaboration #PatrickLencioni #DigitalTransformation

💡How healthy is your company network?💡 Did you know that small in-company networks can lead to feelings of disconnection? Our latest Worklytics Collaboration Analysis reveals the critical factors impacting team productivity and engagement, highlighting the importance of robust networks and effective cross-department collaboration. Discover how distributed work, meeting practices, and Slack usage can either enhance or hinder your team's performance. Here are 10 key insights from our most recent Collaboration Analysis: ➡ Network Health: Small networks (fewer than ~60 connections per week) often result in disconnection. Key metrics: # of collaborators per week, connections with leaders, and peer in-office density. ➡ Cross-Team Collaboration: Large day-to-day work groups (more than 12 people) struggle with productivity. Optimal collaboration requires at least two hours of interaction per week between key partners. ➡ Distributed & Asynchronous Work: Over 15 after-hours messages lead to burnout. Encouraging asynchronous work and setting collaboration hours can boost productivity. ➡ Mitigating Isolation: In-person or virtual team events, onboarding buddy systems, and monthly virtual coffee chats are effective ways to mitigate isolation and build connections. ➡ Bringing Siloed Teams Together: Raise awareness of existing silos, formalize cross-team touchpoints, and gather for offsite meetings to enhance cross-team collaboration. ➡ Meeting Guidelines: Smaller meetings (3-7 people) are more productive. Meetings should have clear agendas, and recurring meetings should track action items using shared docs. ➡ Asynchronous Work Practices: Build a system for tracking KPIs related to async work, focus on educating those who initiate synchronous collaboration, and highlight key async behaviors publicly. ➡ Slack Guidelines: Protect focus time by encouraging public communication, use Slack to reduce meetings, and limit after-hours activity to prevent burnout. ➡ Effective Use of Tools: Implement tool-specific guidelines and monitor problem channels to provide real-time guidance, ensuring productive and balanced collaboration. ➡ Engagement Metrics: Track hours spent collaborating cross-team, cross-level, and the percentage of the team that is over-extended to diagnose and address collaboration issues. Looking for even more insights? At Worklytics, we’re offering a free Manager Effectiveness Analysis to the first 10 companies who qualify. Feel free to send me a DM if interested. 🔗 Full details on our Collaboration & Network Analysis are in the comments below. How will you enhance your team's network and collaboration health this year? #PeopleAnalytics #HRAnalytics #TalentAnalytics #TalentManagement #EmployeeEngagement

Great marketers know their power doesn’t just come from their team but from collaboration across the ecosystem. Once you’ve nailed the basics—shared goals, clear roles, and centralized tools, etc.—it’s time to challenge conventions and spark creativity. Here are 11 tips to elevate collaboration and drive innovation: 1. Use a Single Source of Truth: Centralize goals, messaging, and creative for alignment and clarity. you have to know the rules to be able to break them. 2. Crowdsource Ideas Across Teams: Fresh perspectives from sales, product, or customer success (or simply peers or friends) can inspire untapped creativity. Prioritize Cross-Training: Shadowing other departments creates more versatility, fosters empathy, and develop a deeper understanding of how different teams contribute to the bigger picture (AKA "company goals").  4. Sprint Challenges: Pair teams for short, focused bursts of co-creation. 5. Reverse Brainstorms: Identify potential campaign failures and work backward to eliminate risks. 6. "Think Like a Customer" Workshops: Role-play customer journeys to uncover pain points and opportunities. 7. Show-and-Tell Meetings: Share wins and approaches to inspire cross-department collaboration. Bridge Partners employees give our Annual Consultant Showcase 👍👍! 8. Hackathons: Dedicated time for creativity often leads to unexpected, buzzworthy solutions. 9. Document Lessons Learned Immediately: Retrospectives help cement what worked and avoid repeating missteps. 10. Trend Briefings: Keep your team informed on the latest trends shaping the industry. 11. Celebrate Wins Together: Important but often overlooked. Recognize efforts to boost morale and reinforce collaboration’s value, best served in the moment. Tell me, how do you keep teams engaged and informed? (FYI I have soooo much more to say in that area!) #Collaboration #Marketing #Innovation #Teamwork #GrowthMindset