David Burkus Presents

Culture is a huge factor in the success or failure of a team. There are cultures so focused on performance and talent that they leave everyone drained. And then there are cultures where individual members, no matter how talented, put the needs of the team over their needs and, as a result, everyone wins. But there’s a lot we misunderstand about culture. When you hear many people describe their cul...

Teamwork is impossible without communication. Teams have to share information; they have to share ideas. Without communication, teams can’t coordinate tasks. They can’t help each other; they can’t do anything other than work alone in silence. Since communication is so vital to teamwork, it’s no surprise that the quality of communication affects the level of performance of a team so strongly. There...

Communication is the lifeblood of any relationship. And that’s especially true for the leader-teammate relationship. How well leaders communicate with their subordinates affects how motivated and productive they are. And how well leaders communicate with their entire team affects how the team members communicate with each other…as well as how motivated and productive they are. So, if you want to b...

Trust makes a massive difference on the performance of teams. And that fact has been found in research on teamwork over and over. For example, a 2011 study of nearly 200 teams from the United States and Hong Kong, found that when trust went up, so did performance. In a way, trust on a team acts as a social lubricant. When teams trust each other, the social frictions are reduced, which makes it eas...

There’s a lot to think about as a leader. There are goals to pursue. There are people to manage. And every day new problems arise that make pursuing those goals or supporting those people more difficult. Amid all these demands, it can be difficult to think any more deeply than just reacting to the moment. Leaders know they need to think strategically, but often don’t know how to find the time to d...

Teamwork may indeed make the dream work, but teams that lack a teamwork culture can be a nightmare. Pick your sport, and you can find a professional team that focused on acquiring talented players but failed to get the results their bulging salary budget should have brought. And the reason teams of star players fail more often than they should most often comes down to culture. Or at least, that th...

In a time when most organizations are struggling to attract and retain talent, one simple intervention can help reduce turnover dramatically. Despite their infrequent use, stay interviews are a powerful tool for helping managers keep top talent on their team and keep everyone engaged. In one study, conducting stay interviews in the burnout filled halls of a hospital was found to reduce turnover by...

Failure is inevitable. Projects fall apart. Clients leave. Sometimes circumstances outside of the team’s control doom them to failure. But every failure creates an option. Teams can take the loss at face value. Or learn from it and get better. Reflection on failure can be a powerful growth tool for individuals and teams. In one study, having participants spend just 15 minutes a day reflecting on t...

You don’t need a title to be a leader. But, it helps. And for many aspiring leaders, getting noticed and seen as a potential new leader in an organization can be difficult. There are ways to demonstrate leadership skills outside of a formal leadership role, but those skills won’t necessarily bring the position unless noticed. Some organizations have “high potential” programs to identify and develo...

One of the biggest factors in helping a team collaborate optimally is the level of trust on the team. The extent to which team members feel safe to express themselves, believe their colleagues will deliver on promises, and trust their leader to lead can have a massive effect on their ultimate performance. And as we know from research, trust is a reciprocal process. When one person acts with trust,...

Creativity is a team sport. It’s been that way for a long time. But the level of teamwork required to solve problems and find innovation has increased over the last decade and even century. Most of the simple problems of the world have been solved, and the ones that remain are too often too complex to be solved by any lone, individual genius. But not all teams fair equally when it comes to creativ...

In this episode, we’ll outline how to fire an employee in a way that is specific, but humane. Research suggests that the boost in productivity from releasing a poor employee is larger than the boost gained from hiring a star player. And sometimes it’s not even about releasing a poor performer, there’s economic or industry specific reasons for having to lay off valued teammates—and it must be done...

Team alignment can make or break the success of any team. But many leaders struggle with how to build team alignment and so just assume that smooth running meetings and responsive teammates means team alignment. But that can be a big mistake, because even a small misalignment in the beginning can compound and create a devastating project breakdown. Team alignment is a bit like the flight plan crea...

According to the Gallup organization, only about 20 percent of adults report being highly engaged in their job. In the United States, the number rises slightly to about 30 percent. But that is still 7 out of 10 people who are missing out on an essential element of a positive working life. And for many of this unsatisfied majority, the easiest solution seems to be quitting and trying again at anoth...

In this episode, we’ll outline the six ways leaders influence organizational culture. Leaders and researchers have engaged in a constant dialogue about the importance of culture, the ways to build culture, and the differences between a positive and toxic culture. But surprisingly little has been said about how leadership influences organizational culture. It’s not that no one talks about it. ...

There aren’t a lot of jobs left that people can do in complete isolation. There aren’t a lot of problems left that can be solved by lone geniuses. Performance is a team sport, one that requires we help each other. You shouldn’t be hesitant to ask for help, and you can’t escape having to ask for it. So, in this episode, we’ll outline how to ask for help at work in a way that boosts your chances of...

Just because you don’t have a title, doesn’t mean you’re not a leader. But if you want to someday gain that title, and the position of team leader or manager, then there’s a dilemma you’ll have to reconcile. You’ll have to be able to demonstrate leadership at work to the people who make promotion decisions, without having had a leadership role to point to. But working on any team creates leadershi...

Bad bosses are a sad reality of working life. Hopefully, you’ve never had to deal with toxic leadership. But if you’re reading this, you probably have. It seems like toxic leaders are far too common in organizations of all sizes. So in this episode, we’ll outline six ways to deal with toxic leadership—and we’ll save the most obvious tactic (leaving) for last. 0:00 Introduction 1:33 Set Boundaries...

High performing talent can make or break a project’s success—or an entire organization’s success. Recent research suggests that high performers aren’t just a little bit more productive, they are drastically more productive than average. One study found high performers created 400 percent more value than their average counterparts. But it’s not enough to merely attract high performers and set them...

Employee engagement has been a hot topic for several decades. And for good reason. Business teams with highly engaged employees have a 59 percent lower turnover rate than those with less engaged staff.  Highly engaged teams are 17 percent more productive. Engaged teams receive 10 percent higher customer reviews. And yes, businesses with engaged employees have higher profit margins than non-en...

Dealing with difficult employees is unavoidable. But the good news is that taking the time to deal with a difficult employee can have a dramatically positive effect on the team. According to Harvard Business School professors Michael Housman and Dylan Minor, the productivity boost gained from removing toxic employees is greater than any boost gained from adding a star performer.  In this epis...

Most leaders agree on the importance of building a positive organizational culture. Positive organizational cultures come from the accumulation of positive team cultures. Most employees’ experience of work is really the experience of working with the teams they serve on. So, teaching team leaders how to shape team culture will have the largest impact on creating a positive organizational culture o...

In this episode, we’ll review five methods leaders can use to keep high performers motivated and achieving. 0:00 Introduction 1:10 Sharing Meaning 2:30 Building Connection 3:53 Creating Safety 4:56 Giving Autonomy 6:11 Providing Growth 7:30 Conclusion What all five of these methods have in common is that they require a mindset shift. Just as organizations need to recognize that high performers don...

Critical thinking is one of the most critical skills for leaders. When it comes to making decisions, crafting strategy, or even just solving smaller problems, leaders are called on to think more critically than those they lead. And as the world becomes more complex, thinking critically has never been more important. In this episode, we’ll outline four ways leaders can think more critically. 0:00 I...

Appreciation is an underutilized part of organizational life. It’s not that leaders think they don’t need to make employees feel appreciated. Most are in agreement that showing appreciation for great work is key to a positive organizational culture. And the research supports that belief. But most organizations equate appreciation with rewards. They create bonus structures and gift-giving programs....