5 Lessons About Teams from the Movie Avatar

I have now seen the movie Avatar several times, and each time I learn something new, and gain a new perspective.  This time when I watched it I found myself thinking about the parallels between the story line, and business.  In the movie Avatar, there were examples of the following, which I believe are essential for organizational success:


Relationships

Teams and communities can endure and move through a great deal of change, crisis and adversity when the relationships are strong. Relationships can be restored with work, and when both parties are willing to understand, build the relationship, forgive, and move forward. Trust can be broken as quickly as it is formed so ongoing attention to nurturing trust and relationships is essential.


Values

Trust, honesty, honour, family and respect for the land and its creatures was critical, just like in organizations, these are often the key organizational foundations. When deeply rooted values are compromised, or challenged, it can create conflict and division in the community, in the team.

Importance of rituals and legacy

In the movie Avatar, legacy, tradition and rituals were the backbone of the people. Decisions were made based on history and rituals that keep the community strong. In workplaces there is often a culture, and when the team connects with tradition and rituals, there is a sense of synergy that forms.

Community

When there is a goal and a purpose, communities (and in the case of Avatar... Tribes) come together to support the mission. Community is not just people living or working in a certain geographic area. Community involves relationships. In Avatar, when the safety of the community was threatened, other communities came to lend support. We have seen this in our own community natural disasters such as forest fires, floods, etc. Other communities reach out to lend support, resources, and assistance. Social responsibility and respect for the land is a hot issue in many workplaces and organizations, as it was in the movie Avatar.

Leadership

Every community, tribe, workplace and team needs a leader. Leaders are the vision keepers, uphold the goals and mission, even when the going gets tough, and create cohesion in a time of crisis. As David Irvine (author and speaker on leadership and trust) says, leadership is a decision, not a position.




Next time you watch Avatar, watch for the parallels you see between the movie and the team or organization in which you work. Look forward to hearing your perspectives.

Bounce Forward...getting resilience on the HR agenda

Recently I had the opportunity to be a guest speaker for HR.Com in their virtual conference. My topic was Bounce Forward- building resilience at work.  During the webcast, some great conversations and questions were generated around: building resilience, making resilience a higher priority, building team charters, and how to help the team bounce forward during change, challenge, adversity and crisis. 

Resilience is an important topic to get on the HR agenda’s in workplaces. One of my key messages during this presentation is that “the time is now!” to build the business Bounce Forward.  My book, Bounce Forward has four components...

1) Courageous Dialogue- having the conversations that matter most (and are mostly avoided)

2) Teamwork by design- not by default

3) Managing stress and boosting resilience

4) the ASK

You can access the webcast recording here:

http://www.hr.com/en/webcasts_events/webcasts/archived_webcasts_and_podcasts/bounce-forward--building-inspired-and-resilient-te_h1h8lt3j.html

Here are some of the tips I shared on the webcast:

- Take time to build the team

- Resolve issues effectively and as they arise

- Practice and prepare for challenging conversations

- Ask for help

- Set three priorities per day

- Build a team charter

- Create opportunities that build trust and improve relationships

- Help others discover their passion and purpose and connect activities to these

As you move into the second half of 2012, what will you do to make sure you are bouncing forward....that you are resilient?  Simply taking one action each day towards building resilience and your ability to bounce forward results in 365 actions in a year!

Be And Give What You Wish to Receive

When I saw Rev. Patrick Cameron speak at Empowering Edmonton in November 2011, he said “you have to be what you wish to receive.”  If you want to receive support, give support. If you want to receive ideas, give ideas. If you want to receive acknowledgement, give acknowledgement.  I thought this was such a great quote and one that could really help take our conversations, courageous dialogue and team relationships to new levels of success.

For example, if you want to receive more trust… give trust.

If you want to receive more respect….give more respect.

If you want to receive more patience from others…show more patience.

In my presentations I always talk about “how you show up is everything’ and “make your moments matter”.  One way to make your moments matter and ensure you are showing up as your best version of YOU is to give and be what you want to receive from others.  Another way is to do the ASK. Let others know what it is you need, and ASK others how you can be of help or in service to them.   When you ASK, others can make an ASK of you! It creates a cycle of reciprocity much like the one created by being what you wish to receive.

I first started to learn about ASKing from Jack Canfield.  A great book to teach you about some of the principles to success, is The Success Principles, by my mentor Jack Canfield.

To find out more, visit:

Make the Decision to Trust

David Irvine, is known as the Leader’s Navigator™. I had the opportunity to interview David on the launch of my new radio program Conversations with Charmaine. What a fabulous conversation, full of rich content for the listeners. David offered incredible insights about trust, authentic leadership and building a culture where communication, quality and authenticity prevail.


It became clear to me that not only is David a powerful connector and a communicator, he is an expert at building productive, engaging and vital cultures through authentic leadership.

Something that really struck me was David's comment that authentic leadership begins with a decision.

In discussing the concept of accountability, which is certainly a challenge I see lots of leaders struggle with, he described accountability as the "ability to be counted on" and reminded listeners of the importance of one's actions in demonstrating that you can be counted on.

As we discussed the importance of trust in organizations, and in teams, listeners heard not only why trust is essential...but also how to build trust. Many organizations that I have worked with have a long history building, restoring and rebuilding trust. In fact, with many, the old stories of trust (or lack there of) continue to plague the team because it has become part of their culture. David and I discussed a number of ways to restore trust, and like he said... it begins with the decision.

Listen to David's conversation on trust, leadership and authenticity at work at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charmainehammond/2012/02/15/guests-david-irvine-and-seanna-collins

To find out more about David's book The Bridges of Trust, or to add it to your corporate library, check out:

What kind of leader are YOU? Part two.

John Maxwell's Five Levels of Leadership.... tips from a leadership expert

This is part two of the Leadership posting. Last post I shared a summary of John Maxwell's levels of leadership, so clearly defined in his new book The Five Levels of Leadership.  Maxwell offers a few tips for leaders in these different levels. First, is that it is not a given that all leaders will transform through these levels. I have worked in organizations, and have met lots of leaders who are still in a positional leadership level despite having been a leader for 15 years. They have not transformed, nor has their team. They use their position to lead people. You would hear language like “I’m the boss”, or refer to employees as subordinates (not team members). You can like the people that you are leading however; you cannot effectively lead people that you as a leader don’t like. This is an important concept as I have heard many leaders say things like “I don’t have to like people on my team” or “I don’t have to like them, I just have to respect them.” The challenge is for leaders to find something that they like or appreciate about the team members, otherwise it will shine through.

Leaders will be well served to create a good environment and great relationships, and of course, get things done. This ensures that profits go up while turnover and team issues go down. The bonus is that leadership and work becomes more fun and leaders become agents of change because they are making difficult decisions that ultimately create big outcomes. As a corporate trainer and consultant I have seen many leaders shy away from important decisions, because, it may not be a favorable decision. Ultimately this can hurt their credibility, the relationship and the culture of environment of the team. Making these decisions requires some risk taking.

Empowering others, your team, will serve you well as you refine your leadership skills and approach. Empowering others allows leaders opportunity to “reproduce” themselves as they make a high investment in others’ development which also deepens relationships. Essentially as Maxwell explains, leaders change the lives of those they lead!

Maxwell talks about three types of values: ethical values (doing the right thing for the right reasons), relationship values (how to build an atmosphere of trust and respect for others), and success values (deciding on the goals that are worthy of spending your life on). These are great questions to explore as a leader, “am I doing the right thing for the right reasons?”, “how do I build and maintain an atmosphere of trust?”, and “what goals are worthy of me spending my life and time on?” The concept of values is a frequent discussion topic in corporate training and the team building processes I facilitate. And, values are often at the root of many workplace challenges and communication challenges.

This week, what are three actions you can take to empower others, build relationships and create an environment where the team becomes champions for the corporate goals and mission?

To add this book to your leadership training program or corporate library shelves, visit: