Smile, It’s Monday: Your Weekly Wake-up Call to Become a More Effective Leader

What chance gathers she easily scatters.

A great person attracts great people

and knows how to hold them together.

---Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Reflect on the high points in your career. They are most likely the times when you felt you were a part of a strong, effective team.

Your employees, board members, and even your significant investors or sponsors feel the same way: they seek community, a sense of belonging, the opportunity to be a part of a maverick group that’s making a difference in the world.

Strong core values are the glue that creates this group cohesion.

Shared values unique to your team are what generate feelings of “We’ve got to stick together,” and “I’m willing to put so much of my time and effort into this organization because nobody else is doing what we’re doing!”

Consider the words of former CEO George Weissman: “Other than my marriage, [working at Phillip Morris] was the passionate love affair of my life. I don’t think many people would understand what I’m talking about, but I suspect my colleagues would.”

Weissman and many of his executive colleagues continued to come in regularly, mostly because they enjoyed spending time together.

This level of group cohesion is unimaginable for most of us working in today’s highly mobile workplace where the average tenure is under two years. Yet it is possible.

Reflect on the steps you can take to create a cohesive team of people who, someday, will look back and consider their time together to be one of their most meaningful experiences in providing the sense of connection and belonging they so value in life.

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Anthony Silard is the president of The Global Leadership Institute and the author of the Simon & Schuster book The Connection: Link Your Passion, Purpose, and Actions to Make a Difference in the World. To receive Smile, It's Monday every other week in your inbox and a free copy of Anthony's new audio CD, "The Surprising Source of Your Passion", enter your email here (1-step only).