Becky Robinson's Blog, page 43

5 Tips to Stop Driving People Crazy

We’re throwing it back! This week we’re showcasing a guest post from Susan Fowler about the theme from her latest book, Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work… and What Does, which re-launched in paperback on February 27, 2017.

If you want to drive yourself crazy, notice how often you hear the word “drive” in workplace conversations. Drive for results. Drive for performance. Drive ____ (fill in the blank with your organization’s current focus). Here’s one that really drives me crazy: We need to drive engagement. The worst is some version of: We need an incentive to drive motivation.

Do yourself and the people you lead a favor. Stop thinking you can drive people. You can drive cattle, drive a car, or drive a golf ball. But driving people for results, performance, or motivation, only drives them crazy.

Five questions to determine if you are driving people crazy — and tips to stop it!

Over the next week, catch yourself when you utter the word “drive.” Notice if your use of the term “drive” belies potential beliefs, values, or practices that maybe sabotaging your results and debilitating the people you lead.

Do you have an underlying assumption that people don’t want to achieve their goals? Is “driving performance” a euphemism for giving people a kick in the backend? Are you “driving performance” because you’re afraid people will underperform?

TIP: Revisit your basic beliefs about the nature of people’s motivation. The truth is, people want to thrive. No one wants to be bored and disengaged. Question your beliefs about human nature and you may discover that people want to succeed even more than you want them to.

Do you throw incentives at people to drive performance?

TIP: You are operating on outdated approaches to motivation. Instead, help people discover their own meaningful reasons for achieving goals.

Do you conduct contests to drive behavior?

TIP: Contests may be fun, but research shows that after the contest ends and people receive their prizes, they revert to their old behavior. Contests are a lazy way to promote new behaviors. Instead, work harder to convey the benefits of new behaviors from the individual’s perspective —  not just the organization’s.

Do you hold people accountable by driving metrics without meaning?

TIP: Frame metrics or expectations in a compelling way so people can relate to them at a higher level. Tie metrics to the welfare of the whole, a noble purpose, and the organization’s values.

Do you believe that people perform better under pressure? Do you think that driving your agenda spurs people into action?

TIP: Let go of the idea that pressure promotes performance. Wake up to the fact that driving people generates pressure, comes off as a threat, or instills fear—strategies empirically proven to diminish the quality of people’s work, stifle innovation, endanger mental and physical health, and prohibit sustainable performance. Try talking to people about their reasons for achieving goals. When it comes to people’s motivation, what matters most is the reason for their motivation.

When people thrive, you don’t need to drive.

Driven managers are the worst at driving people crazy. I worked for a driven manager once. Marty was so driven to succeed that every day was a competition. He was so driven to win that he berated employees in public to get them to work harder. Marty justified his actions when he won (met the metrics). He blamed everyone else when he didn’t. One day, I had enough. I walked out of his office, got in my car, drove myself away without a word, and never returned. It’s ironic that the best thing I did during my time with my most-driven manager was to drive myself away.

Thinking back, I realize that Marty’s drive came from his need for power, to prove his own worth, and to fill some personal void. Today, I actually feel sorry for Marty. But, I feel worse for people working for managers whose actions may not be as obvious as Marty’s — whose subtle actions are just as insidious.

Recently, I was wary to work with a powerful Wall Street executive. I envisioned another Marty—or worse — a Marty in sheep’s clothing. The executive allayed my fears when he eliminated the word “drive” from speeches and written materials for an upcoming conference.

This powerful executive recognized that he couldn’t drive people to be more just, client-focused, and service-oriented. By choosing to focus on people’s thriving, he could give up driving and tap into people’s honest, authentic, and optimal motivation.

Try eliminating “drive” from your vocabulary this week and see how far you and your people can go without being driven.

 

 

This post was originally published on susanfowler.com .

Flexibility in Hiring

Our team is a great hybrid of virtual and local. In the beginning of my company, I hired mostly remote team members and enjoyed the flexibility of finding the right person for each role; without the limit of geography, I could hire anyone.

As the company grew and leased office space, I began to rely on and value in-person, instant collaboration and moved toward hiring more local staff. At times, this felt difficult. I didn’t feel convinced that I could find the talent I wanted in our small-town market.

Earlier this spring, as we sought to expand our local office team, we interviewed a lot of people who didn’t quite fit. Later in the process, we met a fantastic candidate. A recent college grad, Sierra jumped right into our office team, quickly contributing to several key areas. Had I been inflexible, I wouldn’t have offered her the office position at all as she revealed, during the interview process, a plan to move to California soon with her fiancé.

Because flexibility is a core value, we did offer Sierra a position despite her planned move. As a result, we benefited from months of fantastic in-person collaboration with Sierra and we will now continue to thrive with new California-based team member.

If you are a small business owner struggling to find the right talent, consider the possibilities associated with incorporating more flexibility in your hiring processes. Ask yourself the following questions:

What am I hoping to achieve with my upcoming hire? If you are clear about the job you are hiring someone to do, it will be easier for you to be flexible about how the job gets done. Had I been hiring a person to manage our shipping department, I would not have been able to be flexible about the person’s geographical location.
What are the non-negotiables for this position? Once you know the non-negotiables, you can make a list about what is negotiable. You may find that geography, work hours, and even full time vs. part-time status are all considerations you can become flexible about in order to add stellar talent to your team.
What will I gain if I say yes? If the person you’re interviewing seems like a great culture and skills match, becoming flexible about details may be the right answer. Just be sure any non-negotiables are clearly stated and agreeable to the person you’re hiring. For me, having time to train Sierra in person before she moved away seemed to be an important request.

Our team went out last week to wish Sierra well as she heads to California for her new adventure. The best news of all is that we will continue to collaborate with her once she settles in AND those of us in the office have had months to enjoy her physical presence. I’m happy I applied our value of flexibility to hiring.

How do you practice flexibility in your business?

 

Live Life at Your Best, with Larry Senn

Larry Senn is a corporate visionary, speaker, and author, whose personal purpose is to help an ever-widening circle of people live life at their best mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. We’re thrilled to showcase the new website that we’ve designed and developed for him at TheMoodElevator.com.

Meet Larry Senn

Dr. Larry Senn is the founder of Senn Delaney, the culture shaping unit of Heidrick & Struggles. He has been referred to in business journals as the Father of Corporate Culture, based on his field research: the first systematic study ever conducted on the concept of corporate culture. His studies were published as his doctoral dissertation in 1970. This led him to an early personal vision of finding a way to enhance the lives of people, the effectiveness of teams, and the spirit and performance of organizations. That vision became Senn Delaney: the first firm dedicated to shaping the culture of organizations.

Larry is on a mission to make “culture shaping” an everyday practice of companies around the world. His purpose is to inspire leaders and organizations to live life at their best. He has worked with dozens of Fortune 100 CEOs, as well as State Governors, U.S. Presidential Cabinet Members, and presidents at some of the largest universities in America, to help transform and enhance the spirit and performance of their organizations.

Larry runs 6 triathlons a year and is very active in the marriage between mind and body. He is married to his beautiful wife, Bernadette, and has five children. He resides in Huntington Beach, California, and also enjoys spending time in Hawaii and Wisconsin in the outdoors and with friends and family.

Corporate Culture & The Mood Elevator

Larry brings a powerful story and great messages to any leadership conference. His presentation style is very dynamic and energizing, and he has been the highest rated speaker at most conferences where he has presented. Rather than a lecture format, he employs an audience participation “experiential” delivery method that engages people, is memorable, and provides great takeaway value. Two of his main topics are corporate culture and the Mood Elevator, also the title of his newest book.

As the Father of Corporate Culture, no one has more experience, data, or stories to tell about the importance of culture and how to shape it. The topic of culture can take different forms, including performance, engagement, customer experience, and strategy alignment. Larry combines client-gathered data with experiential “Ah Ha” inducing exercises, table discussions, and other highly interactive activities to create relevant, engaging presentations.

The Mood Elevator, something we all ride up and down every day, is also a great conference topic. As someone who took up triathlons at the age of seventy, Larry speaks from experience when he emphasizes the inseparable connection between physical health and mental health. He shows how to recognize when you’ve become accustomed to being stuck on a lower floor, and how to interrupt those negative thought patterns and start going up again. When shown the Mood Elevator graphic, people intuitively see that it is a story of their life and want to know how to better ride it. Everyone gets a pocket card of The Mood Elevator, and it becomes a prized possession for years to come. The book itself is also a great gift and takeaway for many groups.

Learn More

Check out Larry’s site to learn more about his passion for corporate culture, the Mood Elevator, and helping people lead at their best. Be sure to visit his new blog for interesting anecdotes and helpful tips about each of these topics. While you’re there, check out the page for his upcoming book (The Mood Elevator), and follow the links at the bottom to connect with Larry on social media.

P.S. It’s not too late to participate in Larry’s upcoming book launch! Sign up here, then register to join his webinar on August 17.

 

Interested in our book design or web design/development services? Contact us to learn more!

The Hidden Strengths of Flexibility

Have you had the opportunity to see any demonstrations of three-dimensional (3D) printing? With 3D printing, layers of a substance are manipulated by computers to create a three-dimensional object. 3D printing used to be something scientists only dreamed of; now it is used routinely in industries like manufacturing, medicine, and engineering.  

The first exposure I had to 3D printing came when I read the book Bend Not Break, by Ping Fu. Although elements of the book’s veracity have come into question, my reading of it still exposed me to the science behind the process.

One of our organizational values here at Weaving Influence is flexibility. What does that have to do with additive manufacturing (3D printing’s advanced version)?

Being Flexible Does Not Mean Being Weak

Scientists at the University of Florida used 3D printing to create implanted medical devices that are stronger and more flexible than conventionally produced devices.

In the work world, a value of flexibility has the potential to make us stronger and more flexible. If we come to our roles having preserved our energy in order to concentrate it where it is most needed, we can most effectively serve our customers.

Being Flexible Allows Customization

The scientists mentioned above were able to personalize devices to individual patients through 3D printing. Hero Forge makes intricately designed miniatures with 3D printing.

Weaving Influence is able to respond to varying client needs because we have assembled a multi-talented group of professionals who can respond precisely to client needs. Because of our flexibility, we are able to secure services of people around the world who might not be able to report to a physical office every day but who can contribute from wherever they are.

Lighter Does Not Mean Weaker

As I’ve absorbed more information about additive manufacturing recently, I have learned the term “lightweighting.” It doesn’t exactly mean what I first assumed. When Altair produced a large gantry with additive manufacturing, they were able to reduce the farming component’s weight by 103 pounds without sacrificing strength. Why is that good? A lighter component is easier to transport, relies on less gas, and is less stressful on the human beings having to move it around.

Our organizational value of flexibility helps us perform the services-related equivalent of “lightweighting.” People with definable strengths are able to function efficiently while minimizing administrative drag.

And Then There’s the Mars Example

In his book Spaceman, astronaut Mike Massimino shared his experience making repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. He and his team had practiced the procedure over and over and over; nothing should have gone wrong . . . until something did. One of the screws they had to unscrew in order to repair a part was stripped and would not budge. Eventually, a roll of tape and a pair of vise grips (no lie – read the book!) saved the day, but Massimino could not drive down to the local Ace Hardware and pick up a spare – he had to solve his problem with only the implements and supplies the mission had taken to space.

Massimino solved his problem; but as NASA works toward its Journey to Mars, what will people do when they need tools or other implements in order to survive?

They’ll PRINT THEM with 3D printing!

Our organizational flexibility allows us to do the same thing: create something that works, efficiently and strongly, when it is needed.

Those kinds of results are out of this world.  

To Communicate Well – Tell a Story

We’re throwing it back! This week we’re showcasing a guest post from Willy Steiner about the theme from his latest book,  Discover the Joy of Leadership , which launched on February 6, 2017.

I thought I wanted to be a playwright because I was interested in stories and telling stories. – Francis Ford Coppola

It is estimated that by the time a child is four, they will have heard over 30 million words, many of these in the form of stories or nursery rhymes that are told by parents and family. In other words, we are immersed in stories our whole life.

The bottom line is we are hard-wired for stories; but I don’t think we recognize what a huge reservoir of insights, lessons learned, and experiences we have to share with others.

I took up storytelling as a hobby a couple of years ago and have performed around the Chicago area. Most of these are of a personal nature about my experiences with family or friends, but I really started to consider how important stories would be for my clients as key leaders in their organizations. I use stories frequently in my coaching conversations.

Stories are, by their very nature, more memorable and easier to relate to than a list of bullet points on a PowerPoint slide. You connect with people intellectually, emotionally, and even physically when you consider the style and the body language of a storyteller. Storytellers are, by nature, collaborative and giving, and can have three major choices in terms of the intent of telling their story: to inform, to inspire, or to provoke.

I believe leaders in organizations need to employ the use of stories more in their communications. The question is how do you do that? How do you construct a good story you can use as a key resource in your bag of leadership tools?

Constructing a Great Business Story

The steps are:

Who – are you thinking of?
What – was the issue or opportunity?
Where – and under what context did this occur?
Result – what happened?
What’s changed or lessons learned – the moral of the story?

If this intrigues you, then follow the steps and begin writing your story. START WRITING NOW! Don’t worry about getting it right the first time or making it perfect. Once I develop an idea or topic, I do the outline, flesh out the idea, and work on various sections over a period of time, often while walking, and may spend 4 to 5 hours getting it right, usually over a week or so. Good storytellers work hard at their craft — and if you’re going to tell a meaningful story in your work world, it requires the same level of effort.

Final Tips on Storytelling

A couple final thoughts:

Keep your story between 5 and 7 minutes long. Any longer than that and you will start to lose your audience.
Less is more. Strip away any extraneous information. Interesting anecdotes or observations can actually be a source of clutter to a good story. If anyone could wonder about the relevance of any of your points, take them out. I’ve had feedback about stuff I thought was pretty cool that others could not discern the relevance. Out that went.
A good story is NOT solely about the storyteller. You are the vehicle for sharing the insights, experiences, or lessons learned. Your feelings or the impact on you do matter, but go well beyond just your perspective.

For so many of you that I’ve known over the years, you are incredibly rich sources of stories, lessons learned, and insights to share. They should not go untold.

Ask yourself:

Will I spend the time to develop a good story? You’re in no hurry, so you can do this over as much time as is needed.
For each story you intend to tell, what are you informing, inspiring, or provoking others about? If you don’t know, don’t tell the story.
Are you worried about whether or not you can be a good storyteller? Don’t worry about it, because you’ve been telling stories your whole life. You just can be more purposeful.

What personal experience could you share a story about today?

Shipwrecked!

Partnership, a core value of Weaving Influence, takes many forms. Internally, we partner with one another to ensure not only that we are serving our clients well, but also that we are serving one another well. We partner with other companies who are experts in fields that complement ours, enabling us to expand our service offerings and meet the needs of our clients. And, we partner with our clients. We don’t wish to be a vendor from which someone purchases a service. We want to come alongside our clients on their journeys and create success and opportunities together. Those clients with whom we have the most success are the clients who share and embrace this value of partnership as we work together to achieve their goals.

Customer service expert (and client) Chip R. Bell believes that when you partner with your customer, you build loyalty. In fact, he wrote a book called Customers as Partners in 1994, and you’ll still find the idea of partnership woven through his most recent works.

Our family recently experienced this brand of innovative service while we were on vacation. It caught us by surprise, delighted us, and, indeed, built loyalty.

We were wrapping up a long weekend at Austin Lake RV Park and Cabins with a 2-hour pontoon rental. We’d enjoyed the scenery, trying out several different fishing spots around the lake (none of which resulted in the catching of a single fish), and it was time to head back to the dock. There was only one problem. The motor would not go down into the water. It would start, but that was it.

We were shipwrecked! You can see by our “Shipwrecked Selfie,” that while we had drifted to the edge and were literally in the weeds and the trees, we weren’t really concerned for our safety. But we did have to wait until another boat came by, as we were in a beautiful valley with no cell service. About an hour in to our misadventure, we saw the owner of the campground, Bill Cable, come around the bend on his jet-ski.

What I was expecting was that he would ask after our well-being and apologize for the malfunction of his boat. We were perfectly fine, and not at all upset that we had to float on the lovely lake for an extra hour. Nevertheless, I expected he would be somewhat serious and apologize.

Instead, he approached the pontoon wearing an orange t-shirt, overalls, and a big grin. He circled us three times before sidling his jet ski alongside the boat and coming on board. He first addressed our kids (ranging in age from college down to elementary), and enthusiastically told them they were so lucky because now they had great writing prompts when they went back to school about what happened on their summer vacation!

He quickly fixed the motor. And by fixed, I mean he plugged it back in! (In our defense, the plug was inside a compartment and we would have had no idea where to look!) Before he returned to his jet ski, he thanked us — yes, thanked us — three times! He said, “They never let me out here on this!” He wished us a great day and as we went in one direction to the dock, Bill sped off in the opposite direction to enjoy the gift we’d given him — time to play on the lake on a beautiful day! He didn’t just make us his partners, he made us his partners-in-crime!

The encounter gave us all pause and a giggle. My oldest son looked at me and said, “I think you should introduce him to Chip Bell!” And it’s had me thinking…

Sometimes the customer experience doesn’t always go as expected, but when both parties engage in the spirit of partnership, it is possible for each party to take away something of value and feel satisfied, or better, with the outcome.

We Need It Yesterday!

We’re throwing it back! This week we’re showcasing a guest post from Jack Quarles about the theme from his latest book, Expensive Sentences , which launched on January 30, 2017.

“We need it yesterday!” is an Expensive Sentence.

There’s a time for urgency, but inflated urgency can cause you to pay too much, select the wrong vendor, or choose the wrong solution. It can also be a lazy way to justify a half-baked decision. So how do you handle this Expensive Sentence and make sure your team’s decisions are fully-baked?

Pause & Think

To be a stickler, you probably didn’t really need it yesterday — because, as it turns out, you didn’t have it yesterday and you’re still here. Here are a few ways to move from the absolute language of need/don’t need to a discussion about optimal value:

“Are there specific dates that we are working backwards from?”

“Yes, we want to do this soon. To help the team focus, let’s prepare an estimate on the cost of each week we delay.”

“Let’s ballpark the cost and risk of taking another four weeks to scope this out more and talk to several vendors… how does that compare to possibly saving another 5-10% on the project?”

Speed almost always carries a premium. If you absolutely, positively have to have it there tomorrow, you can do it for a price. It is sometimes worth the price. Take a few minutes with the team at a whiteboard to talk through these questions and write down answers:

What is the actual cost of delay? Get specific, and when you don’t know an exact value assign a dollar range.
How much delay are we really talking about?

Addicted to Urgency?

Some companies and some leaders build a culture of over-urgency, and that greatly impairs expense management. Consider how your company makes decisions, and the aftermath. Be honest:

Have you hired several people too fast and then discovered they really weren’t the right fit?
Have you often scrambled to meet a client request that ended up being bad business for you?

If this is a pattern, it’s likely you also buy hastily — and as someone first noted in the early days of the English language: “haste makes waste.”

The urgency card is over-played. A modest measure of analysis and patience will almost always save you money and clarify what you need to buy.

Sometimes if you are patient enough… you may not need to buy anything.

Partnership Across the Miles

A few years ago, I decided to run my first marathon. I had eased into the idea of running races with a few 5Ks, a 10K, and a half-marathon. So when my friend Tara suggested we run the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, TX, I decided it was time. Tara is a triathlete and a personal trainer, so I was excited to have her as a training partner.

There was one challenge . . . Tara lives in Texas. I live in Northern Virginia.

Luckily, technology allows the world to be much more connected than it has ever been in the past. Tara and I set up regular check-ins throughout the week. On Saturdays we’d text each other to say how long our long run would be. After we finished, we’d check back in to let each other know how it had gone. These check-ins were often the only reason I got myself out on the trail. The accountability helps when it’s 20 degrees out and you have a 16-mile training run planned!

Tara was my resource and support any time I had a question about running, strength training, foam rolling, and nutrition. She shared articles, videos, and tips. She listened when I needed to vent. In return, I encouraged her, kept her accountable, and gave her recommendations on podcasts and books to listen to on long runs. We were partners, even though we weren’t physically together while we trained.

Partnership at Weaving Influence is much the same.

A large part of the Weaving Influence team works remotely from all around the U.S. We even have international team members! Most of our clients are also spread out geographically.

Yet we all have the same goals. We want our clients to succeed. We want our team to succeed. We want to support each other.

The remote environment offers some challenges, but the basics of partnership remain the same. Here are 3 things to keep in mind while building and maintaining a partnership remotely.

Use technology to your advantage.

Technology offers literally hundreds of ways to stay connected. Email, text, phone calls, social media, video chat, Google Docs, Basecamp, etc., etc., etc.! Decide early on which technologies will work best for you and use them.

Establish regular check-ins.

The Weaving Influence team holds regular video “stand-up” team meetings. We have internal calls and video chats about projects. We check-in with and update our clients weekly or monthly. This communication is essential, particularly since we’re not all in the same room every day. These check-ins hold each other accountable but also serve to motivate, to encourage collaboration, and to keep lines of communication open.

Remember the goal.

Ultimately, the aim of any partnership is to achieve a shared goal. For Tara and I, our goal was to finish the marathon without injury. For Weaving Influence, it is to see our clients and teammates succeed. It can be easy when you’re not physically together to forget that everyone is moving towards the same goal. I’ve always been impressed by how well the #WITeam supports each other and our clients to see each other succeed.

In a surprise twist — the Cowtown Marathon was actually snowed-out that year. Tara and I had a great weekend in Fort Worth and ran the half-marathon instead. We then each ran the marathon on our own back home. I ran 26.2 miles on the W&OD Trail and she ran on a treadmill. And we checked in before, during, and after our “races.” Goal achieved.

What other tips would you add to help build partnerships remotely?

 

The Anatomy of a Butt Kick

We’re throwing it back! This week we’re showcasing a guest post from Bill Treasurer about the theme from his latest book,  A Leadership Kick in the Ass , which launched on January 16, 2017.

All butt kicks, butt kickers, and butt kick recipients are unique. That said, hiney-smacking events also share a few common elements. Let’s deconstruct how a leadership kick in the ass typically works.

Four stages of every kick:

Comfortable oblivion: Prior to getting kicked, you are blind to your own behavior. Life is going swimmingly and you are blithely unaware of the impending insult. Oftentimes you are full of confidence. You can quickly marshal the facts that support the value you’re adding to the organization you serve. You view yourself as competent, aware, and deserving.
Startling sting: Ouch, that hurts! Butt kicks assault our comfort, and thus are painful events. As a rule, the more oblivious you are prior to the kick, the more painful the kick will feel. Most commonly, kicks provoke emotions of fear, anger, rejection, or depression. These emotions often result in defensiveness and self- righteousness—“How dare they kick my ass this way!”
Change choice: After the sting starts to subside, you are left with a choice. Broadly defined, your choice comes down to accept or reject. We’ll explore this stage in more depth in a moment, because it’s the most critical stage in the butt kick process.
Humility or arrogance: Depending on the decision you make in stage three, stage four will result in either deeper arrogance or genuine humility. If you double down on your conviction that your kick was an undeserved injustice, you’ll fortify your sense of righteousness. If you take the lumps the kick brings and make changes based on the information that it provides you, you’ll exit the butt kick event with a view of yourself that is more grounded, sober, and humble.

“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the pants may be the best thing in the world for you.”   — Walt Disney

Coming to grips with and, hopefully, overcoming the butt kick is one of the hardest things you can do as a professional. But, as the saying goes—what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Right?

Embarrassment and humiliation cut deep, and no one escapes these funky feelings. Growth is painful. Consequently, a butt kick is nearly always a painful event initially. The end result, though, is that good and rewarding things can grow out of that pain. That growth is contingent upon acceptance.

Five tips to help you choose acceptance:

Answer the holy question. Here are the four most important words in the English language: what do you want?
Be courageous. Initially, your butt kick will make you feel raw and vulnerable. It takes courage to allow yourself to feel these feelings. Courage is not found in comfort. Be courageous by embracing the discomfort your butt kick causes.
Control what you can. Much about a butt kick is beyond our control. We don’t get to choose, for example, the timing of the kick, who kicks us, and how hard the kick is. But how we respond to the butt kick is entirely within our control. Acceptance is easier when you have some semblance, however small, of control.
Reduce judgment, increase honesty. When your butt kick comes, don’t waste time obsessing about all the ways you’ve let yourself down. Instead, get out a piece of paper and list all the ways you may have contributed to the kick. Be rigorously honest. Identify the lessons you’ll carry forward to prevent similar kicks in the future.
Let go. Nearly all of life’s greatest lessons come down to these two words! Only by releasing your tight grip on how you wanted things to be can you fully accept things as they are. Let go of the condition that existed before the kick, so you can grab hold of the better leader you can be after the butt kick lessons take root.

It takes a very self-aware and courageous leader to say “I was wrong” or “I messed up” or “It was my fault.” Yet saying these powerful words often endears a leader to those being led. There is something completely disarming, and even attractive, about a leader who admits when he or she is wrong. Something profoundly important is revealed and communicated when a leader admits a mistake: his or her humanness.

Nothing stunts leadership growth as much as closed-mindedness. When your ability for self-reflection is shut down, personal accountability is next to impossible.

Partnership: It’s About the “With”

We covered for each other when our breaks took longer than the commercials. We ensured we pronounced names correctly. We brainstormed and experimented with ideas of how to improve our show. And we kept each other awake—and sane—while working the midnight shift.

The “we” is my first on-air co-anchor and me. In our first jobs out of college, we cut our teeth and paid our dues side-by-side in the news industry. We weren’t competitors, climbing over one another to get to the next big market. We were partners.

Fast forward a few years, and I’m solo anchoring with producers who tell me they don’t care if something goes wrong because it’s not their “face on the screen.”

What was the difference between these two working relationships? A common goal.

My co-anchor and I both wanted our show to do well. That couldn’t happen if we rooted against one another.

The producer didn’t care about the performance of our show. It was just a job to him. His goal was to get out of the station door and back to his personal life as quick as he could.

Since the news industry, I’ve worked in several different capacities within communications, and I have found time and again that the secret to a successful partnership lies in sharing a common goal—and a few other things.

Partnership is one of the core values of Weaving Influence, and I’ve been thinking more about what it means to be a good partner to those on the #WITeam and our clients.

I believe a solid partnership can be refined to four key elements—and I’m happy that all four are strongly rooted in the culture at Weaving Influence.

Shared goal

Having a common purpose is the backbone of every partnership. Without it, actions will not be aligned and efforts wasted. Weaving Influence team members are passionate about the work they do and the work they promote.

We hold the success of our clients and their works close to our hearts. Thus, we start working relationships with a strategy to outline where and how to focus our efforts.

Balance of power

Bitterness and resentment breed when there is an imbalance of power—and that destroys any working relationship. A partnership where someone thinks the other isn’t pulling their weight, or thinks they are too good to pull their own weight, is one bound to fail.

Successful collaboration features those willing to help others in any way they can, using all their strengths and resources. People within the #WITeam are always willing to jump in and help, and try new things.

Strong communication

A relationship without sound communication isn’t a relationship at all. That’s why regular updates to our clients in project manager reports and Google Drive spreadsheets are of an utmost priority. This helps clients keep track of our efforts, and also sheds light on any areas of tension or misunderstanding, so that we may keep on track to reach our shared goals.

Support

It never ceases to amaze me the professional and personal support I receive from #WITeam members. If I need guidance or assistance with a task, several people are always happy to help. If I need to adjust a meeting time to fit the needs of my family, people say it is no problem.

They/we do the same for our clients. Just like my former co-anchor, they are ready and willing to do whatever is necessary for all of us to succeed and achieve our goals.

A partnership is not about working for or against someone, it is about working “with” someone. This is something I learned throughout my career, and something I’m happy to see time and again at Weaving Influence.