Engaging with Teams

Have you ever been absolutely right, and yet had nobody listen to your ideas? This phenomenon pervades corporate life. Establishing a relationship of trust is a prerequisite to being allowed to inform strategy.

Rather than requiring teams to work with him, Jim's always established relationships and earned the organization's business. He treats his business like a consultancy: His teams clarify expectations and exceed them, so teams want to work with him. Doing so also makes his teams much more flexible and dedicated to the organization's success.

Functioning as a consultancy, his teams listen to stakeholder needs and translate them into valid questions to be answered. They then proposed specific plans to which both teams jointly commit. The two teams then execute the project and analyze data together to ensure that the final results are relevant and actionable.