Many years ago the great innovator, Buckminster Fuller introduced the term ‘synergy’ wherein synthesis (creation) is joined with energy to create a form of alchemy. With human beings this simply means that when we work the way we are capable of working together, one plus one no longer equals two. It can feel like it equals 50! If you’ve ever been a part of a team where synergy was running rampant, it was undoubtedly one of the greatest experiences of your life!

As a passionate teambuilding speaker I love to get everyone off the sidelines and into the game. I don’t want to give a speech about teambuilding…I want to create an unforgettable experience OF teambuilding. The keys are engagement, energy, and impact!

With virtually every one of the more than 1,300 events at which I’ve delivered teambuilding and leadership presentations, my clients are hungry to breakthrough silos between departments, divisions, and even within their own teams. When this happens the results are phenomenal.

In my own business career our team at the large transportation company at which I was a vice president engineered a tremendous turnaround through the unstoppable power of teambuilding. We blew those silos apart by reaching out across department lines to bring sales, operations, and administration together as one synergistic team. At the core of this turnaround are the foundational breakthrough leadership principles I bring to my teambuilding presentations:

  • Shape the future. This is about your VISION and understanding that what you focus on is what you create! All breakthroughs begin with a new vision. And it’s CRUCIAL that your vision be team oriented!
  • Energize and Engage. To everyone we touch, our energy is our example. People will remember very little of what we say, no matter how well we say it. But they’ll never forget our energy. As you elevate your energy you elevate your leadership. As you build energy in your team they become unstoppable!
  • Build people and build teams through recognition, acknowledgement, and most of all, appreciation. This element is all about relationships and combines with each of the first two elements to truly impact those around you. As you use your vision to look for peoples’ strengths, to catch them doing things right, you ignite and create more of that behavior. By energizing and engaging first yourself, and then those around you, you help them elevate their OWN energy and engagement. And so begins a tremendous upward spiral.
  • Deliver extraordinary results. Breakthrough leadership elevates the team to generate results they’ve never achieved before. That is the essence of the breakthrough. Every one of the over 1,300 clients I’ve spoken for wants the same thing – truly extraordinary results. They want to go to the next level…to breakthrough from good to great. Extraordinary results come from shaping the future (creating a new vision), from energizing and engaging yourself and the team, and from building people and building teams.
  • Model personal excellence, integrity, personal responsibility, and humility! This final element of breakthrough leadership moves beyond your reputation to your true character. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation for your character is who you ARE, your reputation only what others think you are. And, if you stay focused on your character it will BECOME your reputation.

This final breakthrough leadership principle has the greatest power to build a culture of unselfishness and true teamwork. As the great teambuilder, Coach Paul Bear Bryant said, “When things go great, THEY did it. When things go good, WE did it. When things go bad, I did it.”

Teambuilding requires extraordinary personal responsibility across the board. When EVERYONE embraces Bryant’s simple philosophy you will rise to the top and stay there! That’s precisely what I bring to my clients as a teambuilding speaker and America’s Breakthrough Coach!