Team Quips and Quotes
& Empowerment Collection
Team Quips
and Quotes
&
Empowerment Collection
NEW "The
way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the
greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't
play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
- Babe Ruth
NEW "Many
hands make light work."
-
John Heywood
"Michael, if
you can't pass, you can't play."
- Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jorday in his freshman year at UNC.
"Synergy
- the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously."
- Mark Twain
"The ratio of We's to I's
is the best indicator of the development of a team."
-
Lewis B. Ergen
"There is no 'i' in TEAMWORK."
-
unknown
"In cooperative
situations, others are depending on you to succeed.
In competitive situations, others hope to see you fail."
- Unknown
"The best
method of overcoming obstacles is the team method."
- Colin L. Powell
"A noble
person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them."
- Goethe
Teamwork makes the dream work.
It is amazing how much people get
done if they don't worry about who gets the credit.
- Swahili proverb
A team should never practice on a field that is not lined. Your players
have to become aware of the field's boundaries.
- Former NFL Coach John
Madden
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever does."
-
Margaret Mead
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins
championships."
-
Michael Jordan
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common
vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational
objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon
results."
- Andrew Carnegie
None of us is as smart as all of
us.
- Japanese proverb
"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just
look at what they can do when they stick together."
-
Vesta Kelly
"A team with a star player is a good team, but a team
without one is a great team."
-
Author unknown
"Alone we can
do so little; together we can do so much."
- Helen Keller
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together
is progress; working together is success."
- Henry Ford
"Strength lies in differences, not
in similarities."
- Stephen Covey
"Enthusiasm is the way you trigger other people's emotions so
they instinctively help and support you."
-
Paul Meyer
"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three
words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do
much with the other two."
-
Lee Iacocca
"The leaders who work most
effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. And that's not because they have
trained themselves not to say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they
think 'team'. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They
accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This
is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”
- Peter Drucker
"Individual commitment to a group
effort...that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a
civilization work."
- Vince Lombardi
"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team,
but one man cannot make a team."
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."
- John Wooden
"The one man team
is a complete and total myth.”
- Don Shula
"One finger cannot lift a
pebble."
- Hopi Saying
"I've never known anyone so loyal. If you
are Larry Bird's teammate,
you are one of the most important people in the world to him."
- Kevin McHale
"Two heads are better than
one."
- Unknown
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
- John Wooden
"What must be abandoned by management is a whole ideology,
a whole way of thinking about power. Power no longer belongs in
boxes, in titles, in ranks. What counts, for power, is what you do
yourself with your own skills."
Author James Champy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Treat people as though they
were what they ought to be,
and you help them become what they care capable of being.
Goethe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Empowered employees are
dramatically enabled,
and powerless employees are dramatically disabled.
When you put fences around people you get sheep.
Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"As a manager, the important thing is not what happens
when you are there but what happens when you are not there."
Ken Blanchard and Robert Lorber
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Empowerment is achieved through the equation of
E = A x D x S
where A = Autonomy, D = Direction, and S = Support
Autonomy - handing the ball
off and allowing people to run to daylight.
Direction - providing well-defined objectives and setting clear-cut
goals
Support - providing resources, training, and validation by
continuous recognition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 10 Commandments of Empowerment
1. Let go of things others
can do.
2. Involve, delegate, and challenge.
3. Share knowledge, information, and skills.
4. Value, trust, and respect each individual.
5. Encourage initiative, ideas, and risk taking.
6. Ensure that people have goals and know how they are performing.
7. Provide support without taking over.
8. Coach to insure success.
9. Reinforce good work and good effort.
10. Model the way - Practice what you preach.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Empowerment replaces
self-interest, dependency, and control
with partnership, responsibility, and commitment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Empowerment...A Blinding Flash of the Obvious
Empowerment works like a
candle.
When you share light from a candle by lighting another person's
candle,
there isn't less light because you have given some away, there is
more.
That works with empowerment too. When you share power,
there isn't any less power because you have given some away, there
is more.
Power, like light, is
infinite.
Power is never used up...it increases by diffusion and grows by
dispersion.
Empowerment begins with the understanding that to empower is not to
lose power
but to gain power.
Power shared is power gained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a very young girl
Attempting to fly her kite.
And as the wind grew stronger and stronger,
The child held on with all her might.
But instead of letting more string out,
She thought holding on was all she could do,
And in only just a few seconds,
The kite string broke in two.
The kid was quite perplexed
As a tear ran down her face.
The kite was hers no longer
As it drifted into space.
As I hope this example illustrates,
You must consider this to be the truth---
Gripping tighter might not be the answer;
Sometimes you have to let loose.
Whether it's a relationship or your child,
There is something you must know---
That in order to hold on,
Sometime you have to let go.
Christopher P. Neck
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Team Competitions and Empowerment
An interesting study by William I. Gordon and Daniel V. West attempted to determine if teams that enter competitions experience greater "psychological empowerment."
Psychological
empowerment is defined as meaning, impact, self-determination, and
competence:
meaning
as the value of a work goal or
purpose as judged in relation to an individual's own ideals or
standards; impact
as the degree to which an individual can influence how a job is done
and its outcomes;
self-determination as an
individual's sense of having choice in initiating and regulating
actions; and competence
as an individual's belief in his or her capability to perform
activities with skill.
Gordon and West surveyed 451 members representing 59 teams that participated in the Ohio Manufacturers Association Governor's Quality Award in 1995. An analysis of 143 respondents indicated that "making a contest of quality improvement teamwork made it imperative for the work group to confer, consult, cooperate and collaborate in problem solving. Empowerment came to mean cutting waste, time, money and competing in the race for quality."
Preparing for this competition lifted each team to a new level of a sense of empowerment which carried on after returning to work. Winning or losing the competition was not a determining factor.
This message has come back with most teams that have entered competitions such as the ASQ's Team Excellence Awards, so perhaps it is wise to consider these competitions as part of your overall team development strategy.
Ohio Manufacturers Association - (study
no longer available)
Published in "EI Network" newsletter, January 31, 1999.
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Team Motivation: Ideas to Energize Any Team by Peter Grazier