Sal Silvester's blog

I just saw an advertisement for a training course. It was titled something like "Making Team Decisions by Consensus."

This is where team building gets a bad rap and experiences on the "ropes course" don't translate well into the real work environment. Making decisions by consensus is applicable to bowling outings and the summer picnic and that's probably about it.

Typically, teams never truly reach consensus anyway. Instead, they end up with an "aura of consensus" where one or two loud voices or big personalities speak for the group.

The performance review process is your opportunity to reflect on your career, on your strengths, and on your plans for the future.

Here are a few ideas on how you can take ownership for your 2010 performance goals.

Understanding team members' preferences, motivations, priorities, and ideosynchracies can make a big difference on whether team members work well together or not.

In almost all of my strategic team building seminars I conduct with senior leaders and executives, I use either the DiSC profile or the MBTI as a tool to help create cohesion.

The purpose is really two-fold.

Generally speaking, people live up to the expectations that they have for each other. If expectations are low, performance tends to be low. If expectations are high, performance tends to be high.

It's snowing here in Boulder, Colorado....big time. Receiving a foot of snow on October 28th came a bit unexpected. At least for me.

But the fresh snow gets me excited about my favorite winter pursuits, like teleskiing and ice climbing. Unfortunately, the snow also reminds me that it is budget season (not quite as fun as skiing), and it's time to prepare for the new year.