VOLUME 11, ISSUE 16
In This Issue:

• Thought Leader
"The Eight Keys to Team Success" by John Maxwell

• Leadership@Large
Geek Culture

• Quick Quotes
Teamwork... Rockefeller, Carnegie, Riley

The Eight Keys to Team Success
by John Maxwell

Michael Phelps' Olympic Triumph

A victory in the 400-meter medley relay marked Michael Phelps' eighth gold medal in the Beijing Olympic games. The record-breaking feat made Phelps the single greatest Olympian in history. As he celebrated the triumph with his teammates, Phelps could be heard uttering the same phrase over and over again: "I couldn't have done it without you guys."

Phelps wasn't merely giving lip service to teamwork. If not for the superhuman efforts of a teammate, his historic quest for eight gold medals would have come to a premature end.

Invariably, great teams are the main ingredients of a leader's biggest accomplishments. In this edition of Leadership Wired, I'd like to share eight keys to team success.

Read the full article...

Geek Culture

In an age when computers have overrun our desktops, snuck into our briefcases and backpacks, swallowed our information, and entangled us in a worldwide web of communication, perhaps nothing is more disheartening than computer problems.

When my computer crashes, I might as well be living in a cave miles beneath the Earth's surface. I feel isolated, in the dark, and incapable of living an ordinary life. My calendar, bank information, work assignments, personal correspondence, roadmaps, recipes, photographs, newspapers, and music all reside inside my computer. Without access to my laptop, I feel like my world has been placed on hold.

Thankfully, whenever I have a computer problem, I know I can rely on Geek Squad to find me and fix my computer, thereby allowing me to re-enter society. The Geek Squad is a team of roving technical geniuses on call around the clock to help us navigate the tricky gadgetry that runs our lives. They are brilliant people who solve complex computer problems quickly and in person.

Bill Taylor explores the Geek Squad and its unique identity in a recent blog for Harvard Business Publishing. Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens has an obsession with company culture, and in his blog, Taylor captures the quirks that sets the Geek Squad apart. Here are a few of the company's distinguishing qualities...

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Teamwork

"I have long been profoundly convinced that in the very nature of things, employers and employees are partners, not enemies; that their interests are common, not opposed; that in the long run the success of each is dependent upon the success of the other." ~ John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

"It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job than you can do alone." ~ Andrew Carnegie

"Teamwork requires that everyone's efforts flow in a single direction. Feelings of significance happen when a team's energy takes on a life of its own." ~ Pat Riley