For The Practicing Manager - Building Your Team s Morale, Pride, And Spirit

Gene Klann

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.

Lead Contributor Gene Klann

Guidebook Advisory Group Victoria A. Guthrie Cynthia D. McCauley Ellen Van Velsor

Director Of Publications Martin Wilcox

Editor Peter Scisco

Associate Editor Karen Mayworth

Design And Layout Joanne Ferguson

Contributing Artists Laura J. Gibson Chris Wilson, 29 & Company

Copyright 2004 Center for Creative Leadership.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise , without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

CCL No. 426

ISBN No. 1-882197-86-0

Center For Creative Leadership Post Office Box 26300 Greensboro, North CAROLINA 27438-6300

336-288-7210 WWW.CCL.ORG/PUBLICATIONS

The Ideas Into Action Guidebook Series

This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL ) has generated in the course of more than thirty years of research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is sharedin a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to todays leadership and organizational challenges.

The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCLs mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.

Executive Brief

To build morale, pride, and spirit, a leader needs to possess certain characteristics and skills. This book will help you determine your current level of readiness in these areas. It describes two key factors: time spent together in shared experiences and communication among team members. When morale, pride, and spirit are enhanced, there is a positive response of cooperation and loyalty from team members toward the leader, the team, and the organization. Productivity and efficiency are enhanced, and there are tangible economic and relational outcomes . The leader is the key to the success of the entire process.

Ordering Information

For more information, to order other Ideas Into Action Guidebooks, or to find out about bulk-order discounts , please contact us by phone at 336-545-2810 or visit our online bookstore at www.ccl.org/guidebooks. Prepayment is required for all orders under $100.

For The Practicing Manager Building Your Teams Morale, Pride, and Spirit

To build morale, pride, and spirit, a leader needs certain characteristics and skills. This book will help you determine your current level of readiness. It describes two key factors: time spent together in shared experiences and communication among team members. The results of building morale, pride, and spirit include cooperation and loyalty from team members, enhanced productivity and efficiency, and tangible economic and relational outcomes. The leader is the key to the success of the process.

Lead Contributor

Gene Klann is a senior member of the training faculty at CCLs Greensboro campus. His responsibilities also include coaching, research and development, and the design and delivery of custom programs. Before joining CCL, he completed a distinguished twenty-five-year career in the U.S. Army. Gene holds a Ph.D. in systems leadership from the Free University of Brussels.

The Center for Creative Leadership is an international, nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We conduct research, produce publications, and provide a broad variety of educational programs and products to leaders and organizations in the public, corporate, and nonprofit sectors.

Background

The advice in this guidebook grew out of CCLs more than twenty- five years of experience running The Looking Glass Experience, a four-day business simulation in which the participants run a glass company consisting of three divisions. The six or seven participants in each of these divisions have a powerful shared experience that produces morale, pride, and spirit. They go from being total strangers on Monday morning to sharing very personal and self- disclosing information with one another by Friday. The shared experience begins with the simulation; the team works toward certain goals, experiences a great deal of stress and pressure, and successfully completes the simulation. Then the participants communicate openly in a safe and supportive environment about what they did well during the simulation, what they could have done better, what they learned, and how they viewed each others behavior. This entire experience is so powerful that these groups bond and build a strong sense of community by the time the program concludes. The members routinely maintain contact through e-mail, use one another as accountability partners for the goals they set during the program, and sometimes even have reunions. This guidebook was written to give practicing managers the key to the power of this kind of shared experience.