Organisational Coaching – Great Organisations and Great Managers

Mathematicians In A High Performing Team

Examples of high performing teams are pretty rare so whenever I find one, especially away from the realm of sport, it captures my attention. Amir D. Aczel's book[^A] The Artist and the Mathematician, The Story of Nicolas Bourbaki the Genius Mathematician who Never Existed surprised me with such an example.

Team Games

A couple of times a year I find myself involved in an event with both work sessions and team building. My involvement is with the work sessions and is always focused on core business issues. The organisers will often schedule in some team building components for a change of pace.

All professional team building organisations have trained facilitators to lead the activity and draw out the lessons. In each case I have seen the participants understand the lessons and become good at working as a team.

Welcome to 2011

As we rush into 2011, let's pause for just a moment.

Are you a Manager or a Leader?

... for the last 30 years, it has been ideas about leadership, not management, that have come to dominate our conversations and our bookshelves. We believe it is time to redress the balance. Leadership is about the traits and behaviors that make us worth following. Management is about how we get work done through others.¹

As you read Organisational Coaching, you may notice that I always refer to "managers" and "management". This often causes grief as someone comes back with the inevitable, "we need leaders and not managers".

When did management become such as bad thing?