In small-to-midsize companies, the team leader's ability to develop and guide effective teams is especially important, and in order to create an effective team, the leader should select the best talent for the tasks at hand and provide them with the necessary resources, training, and cross-training. Cross-training in particular can achieve the next goal of the team leader, which is to explain and demonstrate how each member's role contributes to the big picture or the business strategy. This method can also demonstrate how each person's role is dependent upon the others in the group, while at the same time provide each member with skills they can use in a pinch should one member be unavailable. Leaders also need to define simple, relevant, and measurable goals at the outset to make it easier to assess efficiency and improvement among members and for the overall team. Timely, practical, and constructive feedback from the leader to the team can promote proactive problem-solving, which in turn keeps team members engaged. Fostering collaboration is another way to stimulate learning opportunities and to reduce negative behavior, such as competitiveness and fault-finding. If such problems arise, the leader should address glitches in the team's structure before correcting individual members.

As companies begin to view the talent of their employees as an increasingly valuable business asset, many businesses become more selective about employees' academic achievements. However, this may not be the optimum strategy, as many workers who did not perform well in school nevertheless have important skills and knowledge sets that would benefit companies in ways that more academically-oriented workers may not be able to replicate. Underachievers are often individuals with learning disabilities or those who simply do not test well, but can learn quickly to make up for their lack of academic accomplishments. Companies that want to find this hidden talent should consider applicants with lackluster academic records so long as those candidates can show that they have other valuable skills, especially effective communication skills, an ability to challenge conventional thinking, and an ability to quickly come up with solutions for problematic situations. A system that can develop this type of talent and foster such individuals' ability to innovate is likely to do better than one that rewards only academic achievement.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has a number of training programs for employees who want not only to develop crucial work skills but to maintain a balance between career and other life goals. Since many of the company's employees seek career success first, senior managers identify workers several years into their careers who may benefit from "Turning Point," a program that helps workers identify business and life priorities. About 800 employees per year participate in the program, which includes small-group coaching sessions and large discussions based on work-life balance skits illustrating the dilemmas many workers face. Participating workers report becoming more engaged with their job and co-workers after making lifestyle adjustments to cut down on job-related stress. The company also offers another training program called "Managing Complex Relationships," in which the experiences of senior employees are discussed as examples for younger workers learning how to interact with clients and co-workers, especially when delivering unpalatable messages. The program helps workers express themselves assertively and solicit other viewpoints to best maintain effective relationships.

Unproductive senior management meetings at corporate headquarters in Cincinnati have prompted Catholic Healthcare Partners (PHP) to turn to an executive coach for advice on how to improve its gatherings eight times a year. The advice has achieved some amazing results, and leaders across the nine-region healthcare system have now taken the strategies back to their own institutions and have implemented them in their meetings to help improve the way they lead. Leaders now know that the right people should be in the room for meetings, which means participation should be based on the roles individuals perform and not their titles. Role-playing techniques that put ideas, and not the person, on trial can help ensure that the real discussion occurs at the conference table and not in the hallway after the meeting. Participants receive informational materials to familiarize themselves with the topics for discussions to stress that the face-to-face meeting is a time for productive dialogue. Also prior to the meeting, leaders let everyone know how decisions will be made, such as by consensus or based on feedback. In addition to problems, polarities must be managed, and the goal should be a win-win outcome.