Leaders Make Things Fun

Leadership has many facets and one of the big ones is keeping the team motivated.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

This is not about “raw-raw” type of cheerleading.  It’s not about about being everyone’s friend all the time. It's not about alcohol, even though the Change Order Beer that Dust Bowl Brewing used to sell was pretty cool.

Leadership Tools: Making Winning Fun. Change Order Beer from Dust Bowl Brewing.

Leaders are always looking for ways to make really challenging things fun.  This stretches teams and builds the relationships that hold teams together in good times and bad.  

I was introduced to this beer a few weeks ago by a client.  They had a bunch of outstanding changes to process at the end of a project.  One of the management team members brought in a case and setup a simple set of milestones with the project team sharing a “Change Order Beer” after each milestone.  The project got closed out successfully with a happy client.   

It should be noted that this leader was not directly responsible for the project managers.  Leadership is leadership - it cannot be given with lines of authority. Leadership can come from any corner and level of the organization.  Leaders align teams.   

Seeing this reminded me of another great leader who setup some friendly competition on a project that had a bid bust in it to boost production.  She leveraged fun and a few friendly beers to help the team have fun while pushing their limits. She is now President of the company.  

Learn more about talent development




Collections and Retention Trend Metric
Assuming that a contractor’s project team has done an effective job of aggressively billing the project, the biggest variable that remains for cash flow is the effectiveness of collections.
General Mattis - Operations Occur at the Speed of Trust
Retired General Jim Mattis uses the word trust 65+ times in Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.  "Trusted personal relationships are the foundation for effective fighting teams, whether on the playing field, the boardroom, or the battlefield."
Prerequisites for Success - Real or False Limits?
The first step in achieving what you want is to ask yourself one very critical question: Are the prerequisites I have defined for my success real?