Leaders: How effective are your teams?

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Tue, Jul 07, 2015


I recently had the good fortune of meeting a very successful businessman who works globally. During the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I work with executive teams and teach graduate courses in team dynamics and leadership. He asked me if I knew the definition of a team.

“Yes,” I replied, and I would like to hear yours. He answered that the U.S. definition of a team is based on the acronym, TEAM. “Together everyone achieves more.”

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Leadership Skills:One on one coaching tips from a professional dancer

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Thu, Jan 16, 2014

A colleague of mine, I’ll call him Aaron, is a professional dancer who has worked in a international professional dance company for five years. He and I got to talking about his work and the leadership tangles that have presented themselves. As we spoke, I realized that therewere some lessons to be learned for all leaders. Here is the first excerpt of an interview I conducted over a period of several weeks.

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What Effective Executive Leaders Can Learn from Geese--Lesson 1

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Sat, Jan 19, 2013

Your intrepid Tangle Doctor has been tied up, so to speak, implementing new ways to untangle corporate leadership knots and teaching MBA students how to work well together and be effective leaders. So many tangles, so little time! 

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Increase Team Effectiveness--Avoid Violated Values TanglesTM

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Fri, Feb 24, 2012

 Executive leadership teams regularly develop values statements to explain what is most important to them in fulfilling the company mission. Teams go through exercises to identify values they hope to live by.

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Three Tips for Executive Team Effectiveness

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Fri, Jan 06, 2012

Nothing tangles potential organizational effectiveness than a top leadership team mired in unproductive interpersonal dynamics. These manifest as turf wars, political battles, and hidden agendas. The result is a lack of honesty and an inability to raise tough issues. Bad feelings between two key functional leaders trickle down to the rest of the organization. I once worked with a team in which two senior leaders had a visceral dislike of each other. Direct reports two to three levels down felt the tension, and were in turn mistrustful of each other. The result? Gridlock.

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Marcia Ruben Ph.D, PCC, CMC

Marcia Ruben Ph.D, PCC, CMC

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