Arbinger Institute's Blog, page 8

From the top down: How leadership affects organizational culture

It’s no secret that your organization’s decision makers have a major influence on everything to do with your business’ day-to-day operations. But people don’t often talk about the one thing that’s most influenced by an organization’s leadership: company culture. 

A recent Gallup study revealed that 70% of the variance in employee engagement is directly related to an employee’s manager. On top of that, Arbinger’s latest research report revealed that 51% of all decision-makers and leaders say that feeling respected is one of the most important components of workplace satisfaction.

Both statistics confirm what many of us already know—when leaders do not see people as unique, valuable individuals, those people tend to disengage and depart. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how a leader’s mindset can be the difference between a culture of collaboration or frustration, and provide a simple question to help leaders build relationships based on mutual respect.

Salary is important, but it’s not everything

According to Flexjobs, the top five reasons employees want to leave their jobs are:

Toxic company culture (62%)Low salary (59%)Poor management (56%)Lack of healthy work-life boundaries (49%)Not allowing remote work (43%)

A company’s culture is the manifestation of behaviors that result from its employees’ collective mindset. For this reason, it’s not surprising to see poor management and toxic company culture in this top five. Good (or bad) leadership sets the tone for everyone and everything within a company, and we can consider culture to be a ripple effect of that. 

Our research indicates that senior leadership roles like SVPs and VPs place nearly as much weight on the relationships they have with colleagues as they do on salary. And for directors and managers, in addition to peer relationships, a fulfilling set of job responsibilities is of top importance. While compensation is an important factor, other ways of feeling “seen” and appreciated are weighted almost equally.

How leadership, company culture, and mindset intertwine

In the turbulence of a post-pandemic landscape, the need for people-centric company cultures has never been greater. Knowing that the majority considers culture to be a more important contributor to job satisfaction than salary, and 77% of job seekers research a company’s culture before applying, leaders must be aware of its impact. 

While many modern executives understand that culture is an important element for success—one that requires intentional investment—translating that awareness into tangible cultural outcomes is no simple task in today’s rapidly fluctuating economic environment. That’s where mindset comes in.

Your mindset—how you see challenges, choices, opportunities, and people—impacts your behaviors and the results you create for your team and organization. So let’s consider how your mindset in a leadership role might affect someone’s decision to leave a job. 

A mindset where we are alive to the needs, challenges, hopes, dreams, and aspirations of another person is what we refer to as an outward mindset. When we lead with an outward mindset, we’re curious about the people who work with us. This is because they matter like we matter. So, we can follow our natural sense to learn about and respect their needs and challenges. The act of understanding how another person values their time, ideas, burdens, struggles, efforts, and desires is how you can build a strong relationship.

A person leaving a job because they do not see an opportunity for advancement might result from circumstances beyond your control—there are a limited number of roles, or a company has restructured a team. But let’s consider the factors you can impact:

Do your team members understand who and how they impact others in the organization?Is there a path into another role through improved capabilities and skills?Do both of you see this opportunity?Do you know the hopes and aspirations of your team members?

We recently worked with a senior leader in a large financial organization struggling to motivate a teammate. The teammate was in a new role that utilized new technology and impacted multiple team members. The leader saw the role as a fantastic opportunity. However, the teammate was often unresponsive and quiet about the new role.

Rewards, encouragement, and additional responsibilities did not change the teammate’s behavior. We invited the leader to ask the teammate about their aspirations (beyond the current organization) during their next 1:1. The leader discovered that the teammate aspired to open a personal training business.

They were struggling in their current role because it seemed so disconnected from their dream. Additional discussions helped both the leader and the teammate identify responsibilities that would contribute to department goals, while also assisting the teammate in developing valuable skills and experience for a (potential) future career.

Leading by example to drive engagement and retention

One of the most powerful ways leaders influence company culture is by leading by example. When leaders embody the values and behaviors they expect from their employees, they create a strong foundation for a positive and thriving culture.

Research consistently demonstrates the impact of leading by example on organizational culture and employee engagement. A study conducted by Gallup found that employees who strongly agree that their leaders’ actions align with their words are 55% more engaged in their work. 

A shining example of a company that prioritizes leading by example is the International High School of New Orleans. Sean Wilson, Head of School, explains how his team maintains a standard of excellence by setting an example that comes from leadership:

The International High School of New Orleans has a set of performance standards and metrics in place that are modeled by leaders like Sean. As he says in the video, he believes in changing mindsets and building relationships with his peers before correcting, and as a result, the company’s culture has shifted towards one that fosters teamwork and a growth mindset.

By consistently modeling the desired outcomes and values, leaders create a ripple effect throughout their organizations. Employees look to their leaders for guidance and direction, and when they witness leaders practicing what they preach, it reinforces the importance of those values in the company’s DNA. 

This alignment between leaders’ words and actions cultivates trust, increases employee morale, and strengthens the overall company culture. To lead by example effectively, leaders should engage in ongoing self-reflection and seek feedback from their teams to ensure they are living up to the standards they set. 

Leading from the top down starts with a simple question

“How have I made things harder for you?” 

At the end of the day, getting curious about a peer or teammate is essential to improving your organization’s culture as a leader. Almost any question is a good question, but some are more revealing and inviting than others. Asking an employee how you have made things harder for them will create a space for responses that have previously been ignored or subdued. The question invites you—the leader—to consider your actions and listen to feedback. It also helps build a relationship of trust and clear communication.

hbspt.cta.load(23346030, 'c9eb205c-cefc-442e-9991-44c06bba762e', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Interested in learning more about leadership’s impact on company culture? Download Arbinger’s research report. 

The post From the top down: How leadership affects organizational culture appeared first on Arbinger.

From the top down: How leadership impacts company culture

It’s no secret that your organization’s decision makers have a major influence on everything to do with your business’ day-to-day operations. But people don’t often talk about the one thing that’s most influenced by an organization’s leadership: company culture. 

A recent Gallup study revealed that 70% of the variance in employee engagement is directly related to an employee’s manager. On top of that, Arbinger’s latest research report revealed that 51% of all decision-makers and leaders say that feeling respected is one of the most important components of workplace satisfaction.

Both statistics confirm what many of us already know—when leaders do not see people as unique, valuable individuals, those people tend to disengage and depart. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how a leader’s mindset can be the difference between a culture of collaboration or frustration, and provide a simple question to help leaders build relationships based on mutual respect.

Salary is important, but it’s not everything

According to Flexjobs, the top five reasons employees want to leave their jobs are:

Toxic company culture (62%)Low salary (59%)Poor management (56%)Lack of healthy work-life boundaries (49%)Not allowing remote work (43%)

A company’s culture is the manifestation of behaviors that result from its employees’ collective mindset. For this reason, it’s not surprising to see poor management and toxic company culture in this top five. Good (or bad) leadership sets the tone for everyone and everything within a company, and we can consider culture to be a ripple effect of that. 

Our research indicates that senior leadership roles like SVPs and VPs place nearly as much weight on the relationships they have with colleagues as they do on salary. And for directors and managers, in addition to peer relationships, a fulfilling set of job responsibilities is of top importance. While compensation is an important factor, other ways of feeling “seen” and appreciated are weighted almost equally.

How leadership, company culture, and mindset intertwine

In the turbulence of a post-pandemic landscape, the need for people-centric company cultures has never been greater. Knowing that the majority considers culture to be a more important contributor to job satisfaction than salary, and 77% of job seekers research a company’s culture before applying, leaders must be aware of its impact. 

While many modern executives understand that culture is an important element for success—one that requires intentional investment—translating that awareness into tangible cultural outcomes is no simple task in today’s rapidly fluctuating economic environment. That’s where mindset comes in.

Your mindset—how you see challenges, choices, opportunities, and people—impacts your behaviors and the results you create for your team and organization. So let’s consider how your mindset in a leadership role might affect someone’s decision to leave a job. 

A mindset where we are alive to the needs, challenges, hopes, dreams, and aspirations of another person is what we refer to as an outward mindset. When we lead with an outward mindset, we’re curious about the people who work with us. This is because they matter like we matter. So, we can follow our natural sense to learn about and respect their needs and challenges. The act of understanding how another person values their time, ideas, burdens, struggles, efforts, and desires is how you can build a strong relationship.

A person leaving a job because they do not see an opportunity for advancement might result from circumstances beyond your control—there are a limited number of roles, or a company has restructured a team. But let’s consider the factors you can impact:

Do your team members understand who and how they impact others in the organization?Is there a path into another role through improved capabilities and skills?Do both of you see this opportunity?Do you know the hopes and aspirations of your team members?

We recently worked with a senior leader in a large financial organization struggling to motivate a teammate. The teammate was in a new role that utilized new technology and impacted multiple team members. The leader saw the role as a fantastic opportunity. However, the teammate was often unresponsive and quiet about the new role.

Rewards, encouragement, and additional responsibilities did not change the teammate’s behavior. We invited the leader to ask the teammate about their aspirations (beyond the current organization) during their next 1:1. The leader discovered that the teammate aspired to open a personal training business.

They were struggling in their current role because it seemed so disconnected from their dream. Additional discussions helped both the leader and the teammate identify responsibilities that would contribute to department goals, while also assisting the teammate in developing valuable skills and experience for a (potential) future career.

Leading by example to drive engagement and retention

One of the most powerful ways leaders influence company culture is by leading by example. When leaders embody the values and behaviors they expect from their employees, they create a strong foundation for a positive and thriving culture.

Research consistently demonstrates the impact of leading by example on organizational culture and employee engagement. A study conducted by Gallup found that employees who strongly agree that their leaders’ actions align with their words are 55% more engaged in their work. 

A shining example of a company that prioritizes leading by example is the International High School of New Orleans. Sean Wilson, Head of School, explains how his team maintains a standard of excellence by setting an example that comes from leadership:

The International High School of New Orleans has a set of performance standards and metrics in place that are modeled by leaders like Sean. As he says in the video, he believes in changing mindsets and building relationships with his peers before correcting, and as a result, the company’s culture has shifted towards one that fosters teamwork and a growth mindset.

By consistently modeling the desired outcomes and values, leaders create a ripple effect throughout their organizations. Employees look to their leaders for guidance and direction, and when they witness leaders practicing what they preach, it reinforces the importance of those values in the company’s DNA. 

This alignment between leaders’ words and actions cultivates trust, increases employee morale, and strengthens the overall company culture. To lead by example effectively, leaders should engage in ongoing self-reflection and seek feedback from their teams to ensure they are living up to the standards they set. 

Leading from the top down starts with a simple question

“How have I made things harder for you?” 

At the end of the day, getting curious about a peer or teammate is essential to improving your organization’s culture as a leader. Almost any question is a good question, but some are more revealing and inviting than others. Asking an employee how you have made things harder for them will create a space for responses that have previously been ignored or subdued. The question invites you—the leader—to consider your actions and listen to feedback. It also helps build a relationship of trust and clear communication.

Interested in learning more about leadership’s impact on company culture? Download Arbinger’s research report. 

The post From the top down: How leadership impacts company culture appeared first on Arbinger.

High-performance culture: Driving success

An organization’s culture is like air: vital, omnipresent, and at times, invisible. Air and culture alike can be taken for granted—until they become toxic. And in the turbulence of a post-pandemic landscape, the need for people-centric and effective organizational cultures has never been greater. Employers battle widespread discontent, evidenced by ongoing trends like quiet quitting and the Great Resignation. In fact, research exploring attrition rates found toxic corporate culture to be the strongest predictor of employee turnover, one that was 10x more likely to drive turnover than dissatisfaction with compensation. 56% of workers evaluated across four different countries believe that culture is a more important contributor to job satisfaction than salary, and 77% of job seekers investigate a company’s culture before applying. These sentiments are even stronger for younger generations.  

From our experience with thousands of clients worldwide over the last 40+ years, we at Arbinger are convinced that culture plays a crucial part in organizational success. Culture arises from the intricate interplay of individual and collective values, behaviors, beliefs, mindsets, traditions, policies, and more. Yet, despite its complexity, culture can be improved in scalable, repeatable, and sustainable ways. Our research shows the primary reason that organizations fail to improve their cultures is because they focus on changing the external behaviors of employees instead of addressing the fundamental mindsets that determine behavior. However, when properly understood and implemented, culture can be transformed from lackluster happenstance—or even liability—into an enduring competitive advantage. 

 We have seen firsthand the ripple effect of cultural transformation across diverse industries: it can improve efficiency and employee performance, increase revenue growth, deescalate entrenched conflicts, boost morale, heighten accountability, enhance leadership, and tangibly improve the day-to-day work conditions within an organization. Over the past few years, executives increasingly seem to intuitively grasp the crucial importance of organizational culture. Yet, translating that awareness into tangible cultural outcomes is no simple task in today’s rapidly fluctuating economic environment.  

Shedding light on culture

To better understand the way that leaders understand, struggle with, benefit by, and try to influence their organizational cultures, we partnered with research group Ascend2 to survey over 300 executives and decision makers across a variety of industries in the US. Their responses clarify the obstacles to and rewards of high-performing cultures; address how different interventions—including leadership development, performance management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—influence culture; and illustrate ways that mindset influences cultural outcomes.  

The research results compiled in this report are timely. 88% of the leaders we surveyed anticipate that the importance of company culture will significantly increase in the coming year. So, in addition to the substantial challenges employers face from political upheaval, technological disruption, and global competition, they are also called on to create cultures that attract and retain employees and accelerate business results.  

Fortunately, as you can see in the research report, the leaders of workplaces that prioritize healthy cultures by strategically investing in their people are the very same leaders experiencing greater financial success and positive expectations for the future.  

Here are some of the main takeaways and insights from 300+ strategic leaders on how culture impacts performance: 

Key insightsInsight #1

Positive company culture improves the bottom line. Survey respondents from organizations with “very successful” cultures reported significantly greater increases in revenue last year than those with less successful cultures. This finding supports the belief we intuitively want to be true: that a company where people genuinely appreciate the workplace atmosphere is more likely to succeed. 99% percent of the leaders surveyed agree that culture is important when it comes to achieving business objectives such as revenue and growth. Culture is not a peripheral concern or an inconsequential afterthought that only tenuously influences profit; it is strongly linked with financial indicators of success.   

Insight #2

Most organizations fail to prioritize culture enhancing initiatives. A startling 71% of survey respondents work for companies that do NOT prioritize leadership development, performance management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), initiatives. This oversight would perhaps be more understandable if the expense of these initiatives was too great or the return negligible. But the opposite is true: organizations that invest in leadership development and culture transformation experience a myriad of benefits including higher retention, expanded revenue, and more positive outlooks on success. For example, nearly two-thirds (63%) of organizations surveyed that prioritize DEI initiatives a great deal also have retention rates of 60% or more.  

Insight #3:

Leadership development is key to improving culture. When asked to identify what element has the greatest impact on improving an organization’s culture, 52% respondents answered leadership development. Successful leadership development initiatives are also associated with a more positive outlook on business success, increases in revenue, and feelings of contributing meaningful work that makes an impact. Respondents with successful leadership development initiatives at their organizations were about 3x more likely to report great success in employee engagement levels. They were also more likely to report mutual trust and an eagerness to improve among employees.  

Insight #4:

Initiatives that prioritize mindset make a greater impact on improving culture and performance. 97% of surveyed decision-makers and leaders agree that the collective mindset of an organization directly impacts that organization’s culture. When the concept of mindset is included in leadership development, performance management, and DEI initiatives, respondents describe more overall success in company culture and the key areas of employee acquisition, retention, satisfaction, and productivity. Respondents whose organizations paired a focus on mindset with other initiatives report more efficient conflict resolution, and greater collaboration between teams than those whose initiatives do not include mindset.  

The cost of culture

Although it seems clear that investing in company culture means investing in the wellbeing of your work force and in the long-term success of your organization, it remains a challenge for many. When asked to identify the top obstacles to improving company culture, 52% of the leaders we surveyed pointed to the difficulty of creating a strategy that can adapt to meet changes within the workforce. Because people and circumstances change, the work of culture building is necessarily ongoing.  

Another challenge is a perceived conflict between investing in culture and other fiscal needs. 77% of our respondents reported that short-term company goals regarding revenue, profit-margin, or expense reduction hindered long-term strategies to improve company culture. The tension reflected in this research finding is interesting, since a healthy culture and profit goals shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.  

Building culture, though certainly requiring intentionality, effort, and time, does not necessarily require extravagant expense. We have seen a shift in mindset create relational dynamics characterized by respect, encouragement, and support, thereby providing a foundation for vibrant and productive culture throughout an organization. But an awareness that workplace culture matters is not enough, nor is paying lip-service; simply describing an idealized company culture does not summon it to life. Ultimately, a culture comes to being through the living interactions among its members, and this process is strongly impacted by the attitudes, actions, and examples of leaders. 

hbspt.cta.load(23346030, 'c9eb205c-cefc-442e-9991-44c06bba762e', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); For a more in-depth look into our research findings, download the full report here.  

The post High-performance culture: Driving success   appeared first on Arbinger.

Creating a high-performance culture: Uncovering the role of company culture in driving success

An organization’s culture is like air: vital, omnipresent, and at times, invisible. Air and culture alike can be taken for granted—until they become toxic. And in the turbulence of a post-pandemic landscape, the need for people-centric and effective organizational cultures has never been greater. Employers battle widespread discontent, evidenced by ongoing trends like quiet quitting and the Great Resignation. In fact, research exploring attrition rates found toxic corporate culture to be the strongest predictor of employee turnover, one that was 10x more likely to drive turnover than dissatisfaction with compensation. 56% of workers evaluated across four different countries believe that culture is a more important contributor to job satisfaction than salary, and 77% of job seekers investigate a company’s culture before applying. These sentiments are even stronger for younger generations.  

From our experience with thousands of clients worldwide over the last 40+ years, we at Arbinger are convinced that culture plays a crucial part in organizational success. Culture arises from the intricate interplay of individual and collective values, behaviors, beliefs, mindsets, traditions, policies, and more. Yet, despite its complexity, culture can be improved in scalable, repeatable, and sustainable ways. Our research shows the primary reason that organizations fail to improve their cultures is because they focus on changing the external behaviors of employees instead of addressing the fundamental mindsets that determine behavior. However, when properly understood and implemented, culture can be transformed from lackluster happenstance—or even liability—into an enduring competitive advantage. 

 We have seen firsthand the ripple effect of cultural transformation across diverse industries: it can improve efficiency and employee performance, increase revenue growth, deescalate entrenched conflicts, boost morale, heighten accountability, enhance leadership, and tangibly improve the day-to-day work conditions within an organization. Over the past few years, executives increasingly seem to intuitively grasp the crucial importance of organizational culture. Yet, translating that awareness into tangible cultural outcomes is no simple task in today’s rapidly fluctuating economic environment.  

Shedding light on culture

To better understand the way that leaders understand, struggle with, benefit by, and try to influence their organizational cultures, we partnered with research group Ascend2 to survey over 300 executives and decision makers across a variety of industries in the US. Their responses clarify the obstacles to and rewards of high-performing cultures; address how different interventions—including leadership development, performance management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—influence culture; and illustrate ways that mindset influences cultural outcomes.  

The research results compiled in this report are timely. 88% of the leaders we surveyed anticipate that the importance of company culture will significantly increase in the coming year. So, in addition to the substantial challenges employers face from political upheaval, technological disruption, and global competition, they are also called on to create cultures that attract and retain employees and accelerate business results.  

Fortunately, as you can see in the research report, the leaders of workplaces that prioritize healthy cultures by strategically investing in their people are the very same leaders experiencing greater financial success and positive expectations for the future.  

Here are some of the main takeaways and insights from 300+ strategic leaders on how culture impacts performance: 

Key insightsInsight #1

Positive company culture improves the bottom line. Survey respondents from organizations with “very successful” cultures reported significantly greater increases in revenue last year than those with less successful cultures. This finding supports the belief we intuitively want to be true: that a company where people genuinely appreciate the workplace atmosphere is more likely to succeed. 99% percent of the leaders surveyed agree that culture is important when it comes to achieving business objectives such as revenue and growth. Culture is not a peripheral concern or an inconsequential afterthought that only tenuously influences profit; it is strongly linked with financial indicators of success.   

Insight #2

Most organizations fail to prioritize culture enhancing initiatives. A startling 71% of survey respondents work for companies that do NOT prioritize leadership development, performance management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), initiatives. This oversight would perhaps be more understandable if the expense of these initiatives was too great or the return negligible. But the opposite is true: organizations that invest in leadership development and culture transformation experience a myriad of benefits including higher retention, expanded revenue, and more positive outlooks on success. For example, nearly two-thirds (63%) of organizations surveyed that prioritize DEI initiatives a great deal also have retention rates of 60% or more.  

Insight #3:

Leadership development is key to improving culture. When asked to identify what element has the greatest impact on improving an organization’s culture, 52% respondents answered leadership development. Successful leadership development initiatives are also associated with a more positive outlook on business success, increases in revenue, and feelings of contributing meaningful work that makes an impact. Respondents with successful leadership development initiatives at their organizations were about 3x more likely to report great success in employee engagement levels. They were also more likely to report mutual trust and an eagerness to improve among employees.  

Insight #4:

Initiatives that prioritize mindset make a greater impact on improving culture and performance. 97% of surveyed decision-makers and leaders agree that the collective mindset of an organization directly impacts that organization’s culture. When the concept of mindset is included in leadership development, performance management, and DEI initiatives, respondents describe more overall success in company culture and the key areas of employee acquisition, retention, satisfaction, and productivity. Respondents whose organizations paired a focus on mindset with other initiatives report more efficient conflict resolution, and greater collaboration between teams than those whose initiatives do not include mindset.  

The cost of culture

Although it seems clear that investing in company culture means investing in the wellbeing of your work force and in the long-term success of your organization, it remains a challenge for many. When asked to identify the top obstacles to improving company culture, 52% of the leaders we surveyed pointed to the difficulty of creating a strategy that can adapt to meet changes within the workforce. Because people and circumstances change, the work of culture building is necessarily ongoing.  

Another challenge is a perceived conflict between investing in culture and other fiscal needs. 77% of our respondents reported that short-term company goals regarding revenue, profit-margin, or expense reduction hindered long-term strategies to improve company culture. The tension reflected in this research finding is interesting, since a healthy culture and profit goals shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.  

Building culture, though certainly requiring intentionality, effort, and time, does not necessarily require extravagant expense. We have seen a shift in mindset create relational dynamics characterized by respect, encouragement, and support, thereby providing a foundation for vibrant and productive culture throughout an organization. But an awareness that workplace culture matters is not enough, nor is paying lip-service; simply describing an idealized company culture does not summon it to life. Ultimately, a culture comes to being through the living interactions among its members, and this process is strongly impacted by the attitudes, actions, and examples of leaders. 

For a more in-depth look into our research findings, download the full report here.  

The post Creating a high-performance culture: Uncovering the role of company culture in driving success   appeared first on Arbinger.

Introducing Arbinger’s new solutions to help you achieve transformative change

 Despite best intentions, 70% of organizational change efforts fail. While most organizations care about creating a work environment where employees and leaders can thrive, creating such an environment often feels like an elusive goal. Instead of experiencing humanity in the workplace, many employees feel isolated and disconnected—a trend negatively impacting the bottom line. Evidence is abundant: disruptive trends such as the great resignation and quiet quitting affect attrition, innovation, collaboration, and overall productivity. In fact, quiet quitting alone costs US organizations $500 billion annually (The Conference Board). 

If leaders are responsible for shaping organizational culture, why don’t leadership development programs address work culture issues more effectively? The problem is that most of them focus on behaviors rather than the root cause: mindset. Behavior-focused programs lack the understanding that our mindset can cripple the effectiveness of even the most promising behaviors. Behaviors are important, but unless you understand that mindset motivates them, it’s difficult to change behavior in a sustainable way.  

The reason why mindset is so important is that it has a ripple effect throughout an organization—the way employees see each other, their work, and the organization can create an undercurrent of conflict that permeates daily processes, increases enmity among individuals or departments, and makes it difficult for organizations to operate effectively. Leaders who recognize the importance of having the right mindset—and know how to invite and sustain it in others—create a work environment that drives innovation, collaboration, increased productivity, and better results.  

How Arbinger can help

We’ve helped thousands of organizations—and millions of people—improve results by addressing the mindset challenges that hold them back. Many of these individuals and organizations have graciously shared their experiences and successes with us, which we have used to build three powerful solutions that help leaders and their organizations change mindset and experience the level of results that are only possible by taking this approach. 

Outward Leadership

Outward Leadership is our solution designed to help you develop your leaders. It is a strategic partnership between Arbinger and your leadership teams which equips your leaders with both the mindset and skillset required to lead people-centric, results-focused teams and organizations. Outward Leadership empowers you to:  

Create emotionally & situationally aware leaders  Build engaged and productive teams  Develop accountable people  Boost productivity and performance  Increase retention  Achieve results and drive growth 

Outward Leadership includes: 

A two-day intensive kickoff workshop with leadership cohorts during which key concepts are taught through discussions led by an Arbinger-certified facilitator. This experience is punctuated by videos, individual and group exercises, one-on-one sharing, and application of the tools to the leaders specific challenges. 

Monthly Implementation Sessions equip your leaders with tools that enable them to create an organizational culture that energizes people and improves relationships. The tools include useful and practical approaches to:  

Developing accountable people  Fostering a collaborative culture  Reducing conflict and creating trust  Improving strategic leadership skills  Quarterly strategic leadership sessions help leaders track their progress and address organization-specific needs  Individualized coaching sessions with key organizational leaders focus on the individualized challenges and needs of key leaders in the cohort. These sessions equip these leaders to tackle the issues that are impeding success to help them lead in a way that ensures optimal organizational results. 

All elements of Outward Leadership can be delivered on-site or in live, virtual sessions.  

Outward Performance

Outward Performance enables you to shift the mindset and behaviors at your organization’s front line. This unique training equips all team members with the ability to contribute to a culture of high performance by enhancing accountability, reducing conflict, and accelerating collaboration at all organizational levels. With Outward Performance you will: 

Heighten employee empowerment  Enable personal accountability   Elevate self-awareness & resolve conflict  Improve productivity and engagement  Prevent burnout & boost morale  Improve individual & team performance 

Outward Performance includes: 

A 10-module video course that shifts both mindset and behavior. An Arbinger facilitator or client-certified facilitator guides participants through these modules and the associated individual and group exercises and practice sessions using the tools. 

Practical Arbinger tools enabling individuals and teams to bring humanity to the workplace by shifting their mindset and approach in their daily activities and interactions.  

All Outward Performance sessions can be delivered on-site or in live, virtual sessions paced at a frequency that fits your scheduling needs. 

Outward Inclusion

Outward Inclusion empowers organizations to invite the mindset and behaviors that cultivate the inclusive culture required for individual and organizational thriving. Using this unique solution, you will: 

Foster psychological safety   Transform team dynamics  Deepen relationships  Improve communication  Reduce unhealthy bias  Leverage & promote diversity  

Outward Inclusion includes:  

A one-day intensive workshop during which participants are guided through a process of self-discovery to help them uncover bias and become equipped with practical tools to create an inclusive workplace that celebrates diversity and fosters belonging. This experience is punctuated by videos that share authentic, real-life experiences rather than scripted role-playing, individual and group exercises, one-on-one sharing, and application of the tools to your specific leadership challenges. 

Outward Inclusion can be delivered on-site or in a live, virtual session. 

Arbinger results

These three solutions enable you to bring humanity to your workplace, driving better results. When our clients are equipped to change mindset rather than behaviors alone, they transform workplace culture and become more collaborative, innovative, and productive. By using proven training and coaching to shift mindset, our clients have seen as much as threefold increases in sales volumes, 65% increases in employee productivity, and fourfold increases in sales productivity.    

These results come as we build a strategic partnership with you, provide tailored solutions that meet your specific needs, and work closely with your organization to tackle the barriers to achieving lasting results. We look forward to helping you leverage these solutions to address your organizational needs across a spectrum of applications.  

The post Introducing Arbinger’s new solutions to help you achieve transformative change appeared first on Arbinger.

Stop holding employees accountable—develop accountable employees

Even though many organizations now consider annual performance reviews a thing of the past, there’s still a set of expectations for all employees within an organization. While there are a number of ways you keep your workforce aligned on performance expectations, the best way is to develop employees who are accountable for their own results and performance. 

When you have a team of individuals who take ownership of their responsibilities and are committed to achieving results, your organization will be more productive, profitable, and successful. 

When it comes to performance management, 95% of employees are dissatisfied with their company’s performance evaluation process, and 90% believe that it doesn’t provide accurate information. With the overwhelming majority being so dissatisfied, it’s easy to see why accountability is an issue in today’s workforce.

Let’s explore what you can do to develop a culture of employee accountability.

Developing employee accountability

Research suggests that when we feel a sense of ownership over our work, it not only influences our feelings toward our organization; it actually makes us more helpful and generous toward others as well. Developing accountable employees is about creating a culture of ownership and responsibility. When your team members feel that they have a personal stake in their work, they are more likely to take ownership of their responsibility to achieve success. 

To develop accountability, managers and employees must work together to establish clear lines of responsibility to ensure everyone has a strong idea of what they own. Without employee accountability, your workplace will suffer from an accountability gap—which is when people aren’t sure what they’re responsible for, resulting in unmet expectations, bad behavior, and broken commitments. 

Research shows that an employee accountability gap which lasts three or fewer days costs up to $5,000 in lost time and resources as employees ruminate about problems instead of speaking up. When an accountability gap reaches five days or more, an estimated $25,000 is wasted.

Another critical aspect of developing accountability is to ensure that your team members feel empowered to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This can be achieved by providing them with the resources and support they need to succeed and by encouraging them to take initiative and solve problems on their own.

Measuring impact

Having tools in place to measure impact helps employees see the effectiveness of their work and helps managers see where additional coaching is needed. These ongoing impact conversations keep employees engaged and working towards an actionable set of goals. Companies that have consistent feedback systems in place have almost 15% lower turnover rates for a reason—because their employees feel engaged and empowered at work.  

Measuring an employee’s impact can be as simple as checking in with other teammates to evaluate how they are contributing to the larger team. Some questions they can ask include:

How can I better support you in your work?What could I have done better to help you achieve your goals?Have I communicated clearly? How could I improve as a collaborator and team player?Have I applied feedback you’ve given effectively? How does my work impact your work?What do you think are my strengths and weaknesses, and how can I improve?What feedback do you have for me on how I can be a more effective teammate?Is there anything I can do to better support you and the team?Creating efficiency

There’s one thing that most organizations can agree on right now: resources are limited and work feels busier than ever. This makes operating with efficiency a high priority. 

Efficiency and accountability go hand in hand—having efficient processes and systems in place can help improve accountability. When you have efficient processes, it’s easier to track progress, spot bottlenecks, and hold individuals and teams accountable for their performance. At the same time, accountability ultimately leads to more efficiency by creating a culture of responsibility where individuals and teams are motivated to perform at their best and are willing to get their jobs done—and communicate when they aren’t able to.

To foster more efficiency within your team, it’s important that everyone clearly understands their roles and responsibilities, works well together, and is aligned on common goals. Using a tool like Arbinger’s 3A+ framework, you can work with each teammate to establish clear expectations and regularly check in on progress. Our Job Map, combined with a simple and powerful rating system that helps employees hold themselves accountable—our 3A+ Framework—helps team members focus on their four (or less) key roles. Any more, and you’ll sacrifice quality, efficiency, and cause burnout. 

These roles and priorities can shift overtime, but there should never be more than four on someone’s radar at once.

Checking in frequently

An accountable employee is also responsible for evaluating their own performance. That means scheduling their own check-in conversations. Using the 3A+ framework, employees and their managers following the following key principles to ensure productive, ongoing conversations that are at the heart of a shift from holding people accountable to creating truly accountable employees.

Three things should happen when an employee takes accountability for their performance check-in:

The employee prepares for, schedules, and conducts the check-in meeting. These should happen at regular intervals. They give an accounting of their results and the impact of those results on others. The employee presents a plan to improve both.In a spirit of helpfulness, both the direct report and their manager take robust responsibility for areas where they have been problems for the other. Navigating conflict

Conflict is an inevitable part of any organization, and it’s essential to have effective strategies for managing it. When conflict happens—and it will—it’s important to address the root of it. Too often, conflict stems from failing to see other people as people. We get caught up in our own agendas and forget about our collective goals. 

An effective way to see conflict differently is to simply focus on facts. When we’re in conflict, we tend to center our communications around the interpretations we’re making, not realizing that we’re speaking about our own perceptions and not necessarily about reality. 

One of the most effective ways to navigate conflict is to establish clear communication channels. When your employees feel like they can talk to one another, genuine conversations can take place. Part of navigating conflict is creating an environment where your team members feel psychologically safe and can share their concerns openly and honestly. Establishing clear frameworks for managing conflict also helps ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to working through conflicts in a productive manner. 

Nurture self-awareness

When we’re self-aware, we’re more likely to recognize our impact on others and adjust our behavior accordingly. The root of all working relationships starts with seeing and understanding our impact on others. This awareness of our impact on others is at the heart of the way we communicate to the way we get work done. But it’s not always intuitive for us to think of others before ourselves. Because of this, self-awareness (and ultimately, self-accountability) can feel elusive. We have to start with by adopting mindset that empowers us to recognize that those around us are people who matter as much as we do.

What we really want, of course, are engaged employees who naturally hold themselves accountable. These are employees who recognize that what they’re doing negatively impacts others or the organization and take the initiative to adjust their efforts in order to be more helpful.  

We might think this is a dream state—that there’s no way to develop an entire organization whose employees operate in this manner. Why? Because we know from our own experience that most people tend to approach their work in a self-focused way—with what we call an inward mindset. With this mindset, they see others as objects: as vehicles they can use to achieve their own objectives; as roadblocks they can blame when something doesn’t go their way; or, as irrelevancies they can safely ignore because they’re of no use. We call this way of seeing others an inward mindset.

Because those who have an inward mindset tend to think about their job as nothing more than achieving their own performance objectives, they’re not interested in others’ needs and objectives. Consequently, they let themselves off the hook for—or are simply blind to—the negative effects they might have on others in the organization. 

Outward mindset: Understanding our impact  

As entrenched as this inward mindset might be, it is possible to awaken others to the people around them. As an individual becomes alive to the reality and humanity of the people around them, they become more curious about others’ objectives, needs, and challenges. And, they become more interested in how their own work impacts the success of the people around them. Those who approach their work in this way have an outward mindset and see their work in terms of their impact on the needs, objectives, and challenges of others.

A leader can accelerate this transformation from an inward to an outward mindset by helping employees understand that their job is to work in a way that helps others be more successful—that every individual objective serves another person’s or group’s objectives. Some meet the needs of a manager, and others serve customers or end users. Some support peer groups or internal customers, and others enable those they supervise to achieve their tasks and objectives more effectively. 

When individuals and organizations shift from an inward mindset to an outward mindset, employees focus on collective results rather than their own individual objectives. They are aware of and curious about others’ needs and goals and are constantly adjusting their efforts to be more helpful to others. 

An outward mindset develops employee accountability 

More than any format or script for performance conversations, a fundamental shift from an inward to an outward mindset transforms an employee’s performance conversations with their manager. When employees rethink the meaning of their job to include impact and not just effort and outcomes, they can hold themselves accountable for what really matters. 

The post Stop holding employees accountable—develop accountable employees  appeared first on Arbinger.

7 steps to develop a leadership mindset within your workplace

Many frontline managers get promoted into leadership roles without any training to be a leader or people manager. These leaders need to be trained to understand the impact they will have on engagement, retention, turnover, accountability, and results—and how to lead in a way that produces the right outcomes in each of these areas—or they become a liability. Their ability to self-assess, create efficiencies by leveraging the talents on their team, and manage a remote, hybrid, or on-site workforce, is critical to individual, team, and organizational success. Great management skills don’t emerge overnight, but there are some things you can do starting today to develop a leadership mindset within your team. 

Leaders aren’t born, they’re made

Leadership is a skill that can be learned. It’s not about “being in charge,” it’s about influencing and inspiring others to do their best work. As a leader, you are accountable for the team’s success—and that means giving people opportunities to grow and develop their skills so they can contribute in the way most needed by the organization. Great leaders create an environment where people want to come together as a group and do amazing things together. As a manager, it’s your job to develop this leadership mindset in your teammates from day one. 

1. Lead by example with the right mindset

Being a leader within your organization makes you a cultural steward. When you’re in a position of authority, it’s your job to exemplify the way others should take ownership of their work and their impact on their teammates. That starts with your mindset. And your ability to help others adopt the right mindset is the key to creating the changes you need.

According to McKinsey, executives at companies that took the time to address mindset challenges were four times more likely than those that didn’t to rate their change programs as successful. Arbinger shows people how shifting their individual mindset from an inward, self-focused mindset to outward team-oriented mindset can lead to exponential shifts in organizational outcomes.  

Arbinger’s best-selling book, Leadership and Self-Deception, is a great read for leaders on your team. The book shows that the key to leadership lies not in what we do but in who we are. This important insight and the actionable steps it outlines to help leaders change in the way they see others has proven to have powerful implications not only for organizational leadership but in readers’ personal lives as well. 

Check out this video about how self-deception relates to leadership here:

2. Turn employees into high-performing leaders

Creating opportunities for people to lead projects, initiatives, and workstreams is a great way to develop an employee’s leadership mindset before promoting them into a management position. This gives employees a taste of what it’s like to be accountable for something that impacts and involves others within the safety of their current roles. Below we’ve highlighted some ways you can create leadership opportunities for your employees. 

Assign special projects

Assigning special projects is a great way to give employees a chance to take charge. By assigning out tasks, aligning with stakeholders, and managing deadlines, they can get a feel for what it’s like to balance multiple priorities and adjusting accordingly. These projects can be cross-functional or focused on specific areas of the business, and they should challenge the employee to take on people-related responsibilities beyond their current job duties.

Encourage cross-functional collaboration

Encouraging employees to collaborate with colleagues from different departments or teams is a great way to develop leadership skills. This helps employees learn to work with people who have different perspectives and skill sets, which can enhance their ability to lead diverse teams.

Allow employees to lead team meetings or events

Allowing employees to lead team meetings or events is another way to create opportunities for leadership development. This can include leading a brainstorming session, facilitating a team-building activity, or presenting a project to senior leaders.

Offer stretch assignments

Stretch assignments are tasks or projects that challenge employees to work outside their comfort zone and develop new skills. These assignments can include managing a workstream, working with new technologies or systems, or leading a project with high visibility and impact.

To encourage your employees’ growth as leaders:

Give them opportunities to try new things (and fail).Be patient with them when they make mistakes; this will help develop empathy within your organization as well as provide valuable lessons learned for future projects/initiatives/etc.

By creating opportunities for people to lead within your organization and empowering them to succeed, you can help them build confidence in their leadership abilities—making them all the more ready to step up into management roles when the time comes. 

Before you can correct and teach others in a meaningful way you need to build a relationship. 

The second way to develop leaders within your team is to provide ongoing feedback. But don’t just deliver feedback; make sure that you are giving feedback in a way that helps the employee grow and learn from their experiences, while also making them feel respected.

Feedback is an important part of growing as an individual, but oftentimes we only offer feedback when there is a problem. 

When we offer constructive criticism we can come across as harsh or unsympathetic. When providing feedback, try not to focus on what the person did wrong—instead focus on their impact and how they could improve.

Tools like Arbinger’s 3A+ framework and the influence pyramid pictured below are great ways to operationalize feedback. Having a structure for approaching these conversations (which can sometimes be challenging) is a great way to equip budding leaders for situations they may come across.

4. Give your employees the tools to make their own decisions

Equipping team members with tools and frameworks is a great way to set them up to win. As we mentioned above, starting with a mindset adjustment is crucial. But tools are a great way to ensure employees maintain the momentum and keep applying an outward mindset at work. 

Using tried and true leadership tools, you can give employees the freedom to make their own decisions while also ensuring they’re adhering to a framework that’s proven to be effective. This gives them more flexibility to problem solve on their own while also evaluating other factors like their impact on others. 

The skill of developing accountable people is the most important skill a leader can learn. If we have to hold people accountable, then our people are not being accountable.

Here’s how investing in tools can help your team members build a leadership mindset:

Improves decision-making

Having tools and frameworks in place helps employees make better decisions by providing a clear structure and methodology for problem-solving. It helps them analyze complex situations, weigh options, and make informed decisions that are aligned with the organization’s goals and values.

Increases efficiency

Tools and frameworks streamline decision-making processes, saving time and resources. Employees can quickly identify the best course of action, reducing the risk of delays and errors. Arbinger’s Impact Check-In tool can be used for this!

Enhances consistency

Tools and frameworks ensure consistency in decision-making across the organization. This is especially important in large organizations, where decisions are made by multiple individuals across various departments or locations.

Fosters collaboration

Having common tools and frameworks for decision-making encourages collaboration and teamwork because they allow employees to share insights and perspectives based on a common understanding of the decision-making process. Arbinger’s Meet to Learn and Start In The Right Way tools perfect tools to enable this level of collaboration.

Builds employee confidence

Equipping employees with tools and frameworks gives them the confidence to tackle complex problems and make sound decisions. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and motivation, as employees feel more empowered and engaged in their work. 

5. Help leaders recognize their impact

Being a leader today is high stakes. Managers have a bigger impact on their employees than many of us even realize, so it’s important to help leaders truly understand how much they influence their teams. (Managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement, after all!)

When managers feel like they’re a part of an organization that truly understands them, they’re more likely to do their best work. In fact, according to Great Place to Work, people are three times more likely to look forward to coming to work when they feel heard and that they belong. 

6. Invest in leadership development and training

Training and development are important for all teams, but it’s especially crucial for leaders. In fact, research suggests that an investment in leadership mindset development can result in a 25% improvement in business outcomes. If you want your team members to grow into effective managers that can make a real impact in your organization, they need to know how to empower others, boost performance, and navigate challenging situations. 

The first step is figuring out what kind of training or development would be most helpful for your team members’ particular needs and then finding a way to make sure they get it. The two basic sources are:

Internal resources within your company (like employee mentorship groups)External resources outside of work (like conferences or workshops)

(Hint: Most teams benefit from a combined approach!)

Leadership requires a unique set of skills that can be sharpened through training and coaching. Truly effective leadership training will unlock a new level of self-awareness in your team members, helping them to be more effective and empathetic managers. 

This training and coaching prepares them to tackle the range of challenges and situations they face daily. Just take a look at all of these situations managers encounter on the job (and the Arbinger tools available to help solve them!)

7. Offer ongoing coaching

Leadership coaching isn’t a one-and-done initiative, and considering the impact managers have on their employees, it should actually be a top priority. But despite how important it is, less than 5% of businesses have adopted leadership mindset development at all levels. 

Consider this: over 70% of leaders who receive coaching benefit from improved work performance, enhanced relationships, and more effective communication skills. Teaming up with a leadership development partner like Arbinger ensures that you’re not only signing managers up for one workshop or course and sending them on their way, you’re ensuring that ongoing coaching, tools, and resources are available to your valued leaders at every step of the way.

The key to a leadership mindset? Invest in your future leaders

When you work to develop an outward mindset in all employees in your organization, you’re developing a wider pool of future leaders–leaders who understand their impact on others and are equipped with the tools to succeed as they step into a manager role. Perhaps nothing you do will be more important to the ongoing success of your organization that building today the leaders who will lead tomorrow.

Want to start developing leaders within your organization? Get in touch with an Arbinger expert today!

The post 7 steps to develop a leadership mindset within your workplace appeared first on Arbinger.

Inspire excellence: 7 steps to develop a leadership mindset within your workplace

Many frontline managers get promoted into leadership roles without any training to be a leader or people manager. These leaders need to be trained to understand the impact they will have on engagement, retention, turnover, accountability, and results—and how to lead in a way that produces the right outcomes in each of these areas—or they become a liability. Their ability to self-assess, create efficiencies by leveraging the talents on their team, and manage a remote, hybrid, or on-site workforce, is critical to individual, team, and organizational success.

Great management skills don’t emerge overnight, but there are some things you can do starting today to develop a leadership mindset within your team. 

Leaders aren’t born, they’re made

Leadership is a skill that can be learned. It’s not about “being in charge,” it’s about influencing and inspiring others to do their best work. As a leader, you are accountable for the team’s success—and that means giving people opportunities to grow and develop their skills so they can contribute in the way most needed by the organization. Great leaders create an environment where people want to come together as a group and do amazing things together. As a manager, it’s your job to develop this leadership mindset in your teammates from day one. 

1. Lead by example with the right mindset

Being a leader within your organization makes you a cultural steward. When you’re in a position of authority, it’s your job to exemplify the way others should take ownership of their work and their impact on their teammates. That starts with your mindset. And your ability to help others adopt the right mindset is the key to creating the changes you need.

According to McKinsey, executives at companies that took the time to address mindset challenges were four times more likely than those that didn’t to rate their change programs as successful. Arbinger shows people how shifting their individual mindset from an inward, self-focused mindset to outward team-oriented mindset can lead to exponential shifts in organizational outcomes.  

Arbinger’s best-selling book, Leadership and Self-Deception, is a great read for leaders on your team. The book shows that the key to leadership lies not in what we do but in who we are. This important insight and the actionable steps it outlines to help leaders change in the way they see others has proven to have powerful implications not only for organizational leadership but in readers’ personal lives as well. 

Check out this video about how self-deception relates to leadership here:

2. Turn employees into high-performing leaders

Creating opportunities for people to lead projects, initiatives, and workstreams is a great way to develop an employee’s leadership mindset before promoting them into a management position. This gives employees a taste of what it’s like to be accountable for something that impacts and involves others within the safety of their current roles. Below we’ve highlighted some ways you can create leadership opportunities for your employees. 

Assign special projects

Assigning special projects is a great way to give employees a chance to take charge. By assigning out tasks, aligning with stakeholders, and managing deadlines, they can get a feel for what it’s like to balance multiple priorities and adjusting accordingly. These projects can be cross-functional or focused on specific areas of the business, and they should challenge the employee to take on people-related responsibilities beyond their current job duties.

Encourage cross-functional collaboration

Encouraging employees to collaborate with colleagues from different departments or teams is a great way to develop leadership skills. This helps employees learn to work with people who have different perspectives and skill sets, which can enhance their ability to lead diverse teams.

Allow employees to lead team meetings or events

Allowing employees to lead team meetings or events is another way to create opportunities for leadership development. This can include leading a brainstorming session, facilitating a team-building activity, or presenting a project to senior leaders.

Offer stretch assignments

Stretch assignments are tasks or projects that challenge employees to work outside their comfort zone and develop new skills. These assignments can include managing a workstream, working with new technologies or systems, or leading a project with high visibility and impact.

To encourage your employees’ growth as leaders:

Give them opportunities to try new things (and fail).Be patient with them when they make mistakes; this will help develop empathy within your organization as well as provide valuable lessons learned for future projects/initiatives/etc.

By creating opportunities for people to lead within your organization and empowering them to succeed, you can help them build confidence in their leadership abilities—making them all the more ready to step up into management roles when the time comes. 

Before you can correct and teach others in a meaningful way you need to build a relationship. 

The second way to develop leaders within your team is to provide ongoing feedback. But don’t just deliver feedback; make sure that you are giving feedback in a way that helps the employee grow and learn from their experiences, while also making them feel respected.

Feedback is an important part of growing as an individual, but oftentimes we only offer feedback when there is a problem. 

When we offer constructive criticism we can come across as harsh or unsympathetic. When providing feedback, try not to focus on what the person did wrong—instead focus on their impact and how they could improve.

Tools like Arbinger’s 3A+ framework and the influence pyramid pictured below are great ways to operationalize feedback. Having a structure for approaching these conversations (which can sometimes be challenging) is a great way to equip budding leaders for situations they may come across.

4. Give your employees the tools to make their own decisions

Equipping team members with tools and frameworks is a great way to set them up to win. As we mentioned above, starting with a mindset adjustment is crucial. But tools are a great way to ensure employees maintain the momentum and keep applying an outward mindset at work. 

Using tried and true leadership tools, you can give employees the freedom to make their own decisions while also ensuring they’re adhering to a framework that’s proven to be effective. This gives them more flexibility to problem solve on their own while also evaluating other factors like their impact on others. 

The skill of developing accountable people is the most important skill a leader can learn. If we have to hold people accountable, then our people are not being accountable.

Here’s how investing in tools can help your team members build leadership skills:

Improves decision-making

Having tools and frameworks in place helps employees make better decisions by providing a clear structure and methodology for problem-solving. It helps them analyze complex situations, weigh options, and make informed decisions that are aligned with the organization’s goals and values.

Increases efficiency

Tools and frameworks streamline decision-making processes, saving time and resources. Employees can quickly identify the best course of action, reducing the risk of delays and errors. Arbinger’s Impact Check-In tool can be used for this!

Enhances consistency

Tools and frameworks ensure consistency in decision-making across the organization. This is especially important in large organizations, where decisions are made by multiple individuals across various departments or locations.

Fosters collaboration

Having common tools and frameworks for decision-making encourages collaboration and teamwork because they allow employees to share insights and perspectives based on a common understanding of the decision-making process. Arbinger’s Meet to Learn and Start In The Right Way tools perfect tools to enable this level of collaboration.

Builds employee confidence

Equipping employees with tools and frameworks gives them the confidence to tackle complex problems and make sound decisions. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and motivation, as employees feel more empowered and engaged in their work. 

5. Help leaders recognize their impact

Being a leader today is high stakes. Managers have a bigger impact on their employees than many of us even realize, so it’s important to help leaders truly understand how much they influence their teams. (Managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement, after all!)

When managers feel like they’re a part of an organization that truly understands them, they’re more likely to do their best work. In fact, according to Great Place to Work, people are three times more likely to look forward to coming to work when they feel heard and that they belong. 

6. Invest in leadership development and training

Training and development are important for all teams, but it’s especially crucial for leaders. In fact, research suggests that an investment in leadership mindset development can result in a 25% improvement in business outcomes. If you want your team members to grow into effective managers that can make a real impact in your organization, they need to know how to empower others, boost performance, and navigate challenging situations. 

The first step is figuring out what kind of training or development would be most helpful for your team members’ particular needs and then finding a way to make sure they get it. The two basic sources are:

Internal resources within your company (like employee mentorship groups)External resources outside of work (like conferences or workshops)

(Hint: Most teams benefit from a combined approach!)

Leadership requires a unique set of skills that can be sharpened through training and coaching. Truly effective leadership training will unlock a new level of self-awareness in your team members, helping them to be more effective and empathetic managers. 

This training and coaching prepares them to tackle the range of challenges and situations they face daily. Just take a look at all of these situations managers encounter on the job (and the Arbinger tools available to help solve them!)

7. Offer ongoing coaching

Leadership coaching isn’t a one-and-done initiative, and considering the impact managers have on their employees, it should actually be a top priority. But despite how important it is, less than 5% of businesses have adopted leadership mindset development at all levels. 

Consider this: over 70% of leaders who receive coaching benefit from improved work performance, enhanced relationships, and more effective communication skills. Teaming up with a leadership development partner like Arbinger ensures that you’re not only signing managers up for one workshop or course and sending them on their way, you’re ensuring that ongoing coaching, tools, and resources are available to your valued leaders at every step of the way.

Invest in your future leaders

When you work to develop an outward mindset in all employees in your organization, you’re developing a wider pool of future leaders–leaders who understand their impact on others and are equipped with the tools to succeed as they step into a manager role. Perhaps nothing you do will be more important to the ongoing success of your organization that building today the leaders who will lead tomorrow.

Want to start developing leaders within your organization? Get in touch with an Arbinger expert today!

The post Inspire excellence: 7 steps to develop a leadership mindset within your workplace appeared first on Arbinger.

5 must-have new manager training tools

Whether it’s leading a team, overseeing a project, or developing a new strategy, managers play a crucial role in your business’ success. The problem is, many new managers are thrown into their roles without proper training, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities of their new positions. 

When managers don’t feel properly supported, they can struggle to navigate their added responsibilities, leading to poor performance, decreased morale, and higher turnover rates. 

But there are things you can do to set new managers up for success. It starts with providing proper training and coaching that will help to create a positive and supportive work environment and improve organizational performance. We know that truly effective coaching starts with changing mindset first and after that, equipping managers with tools that will help them navigate common challenges that arise within your business.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most effective training tools for new managers and how they can be used to ensure that your organization’s leadership is equipped for success.

If you’re a new manager, consider these tools:

1. Meet to Learn

Taking the time to meet and learn about your colleagues can help you establish stronger working relationships, build trust, and improve communication within your team—all things that are especially valuable as a new manager. This can lead to a more positive and productive work environment, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for your team and organization.

Arbinger’s Meet to Learn tool is designed to help uncover the objectives, needs, and challenges of others. It’s a tool for increasing your curiosity that then positions you to be more helpful to those around you. You can use it individually to get to know collaborators, customers, your direct reports, or with groups that your team interacts with regularly.

Download the tool here!

2. Job Map

Starting a new role can be overwhelming—and becoming a people leader means you’re adding a new set of people into the mix whose jobs you’re directly impacting. Considering only about 50% of the workforce strongly feels as though they understand work expectations, having an understanding of who your job impacts helps provide clarity around your role and responsibilities within the organization and positions you to help those you manage achieve the same clarity. Being able to identify your key stakeholders and their needs ensures that you are fulfilling your job requirements to meet those needs.

Arbinger’s Job Map tool orients people to their jobs in a way that promotes outward-mindset working. The tool will help to contextualize people’s work in terms of the people they affect and positions them to think about the key areas of responsibility (or roles) that make up their job. 

You can use this tool with new hires, new members of your team, and current members of your team in order to help them rethink their work and prepare to engage with an outward mindset. It’s great to do this use this tool to orient yourself in your role as a manager and to use it with your team to ensure they’re aligned on priorities. 

Download the tool here!

3. Outward Mindset Pattern (Apply S.A.M.)

At its core, the outward mindset pattern is a way of thinking and acting that outlines the steps we take when we do our work with an outward mindset: seeing others, adjusting efforts, and measuring impact (S.A.M.). By adopting this pattern, new managers can transform the way they interact with their teams, improve their leadership skills, and achieve better results. This tool easily helps managers operationalize the outward mindset in their work as a manager.

Let’s break down each component of the outward mindset pattern and see how it can help you as a new manager.

Seeing others: Seeing others means recognizing that your team members are individuals with their own goals, desires, and struggles. It’s about acknowledging their humanity and valuing their contributions. When you see others in this way, you’ll be better equipped to understand their motivations and tailor your leadership style to their needs.Adjusting efforts: Adjusting efforts means being willing to change your approach based on what you learn from seeing others. It’s about being flexible and adaptable, and making course corrections when necessary. By adjusting your efforts, you’ll be better able to meet your team’s needs and achieve your goals.Measuring impact: Measuring impact means tracking your progress and evaluating your results. It’s about being accountable and taking responsibility for your actions. By measuring your impact, you’ll be able to identify what’s working well and what needs improvement, and adjust your efforts accordingly.

To use the tool, identify a current situation you’d like to improve. Then apply the outward mindset pattern—S.A.M.—to that situation by answering the prompts in the downloadable template below.

Download the tool here!

4. Start in the Right Way

Whether you’re kicking off a challenging project, addressing a difficult coworker, or facing a contentious situation, it can be tempting to turn inward and operate from a place of blame, resistance, or disregard. New managers especially might find themselves in these positions more than they were used to before as an individual contributor. That’s why it can be helpful to have a tool on hand to stop any negative patterns before they start.

This tool allows managers to evaluate how they’d approach a situation from an inward mindset, and how things would change if they were outward. By clearly comparing the two, managers can catch themselves if they turn inward, and instead strive for accountable, collaborative, and engaged behaviors.

Starting in the right way helps managers stay motivated throughout a project, even when they encounter unexpected obstacles. It helps keep their teams aligned and engaged—ultimately boosting morale. 

Download the tool here!

5. 3A+ Development Framework

According to Gartner, 95% of managers report they are “unhappy” with traditional performance reviews. On the flip side, Lattice states that employee engagement is strongly correlated to review cycle frequency. In our increasingly fast-paced working world, it’s more important than ever that employees and managers align on expectations and performance in a way that works for everyone.

Performance conversations aren’t always easy though, and especially for new managers, it’s extremely helpful to have a framework for approaching these discussions. Arbinger’s 3A+ framework invites an outward focus into the review process, making it an easy way for managers and employees to regularly check in on their effort and impact.

This tool is valuable for new managers looking for help evaluating their impact, and also as a way to help them get comfortable leading and evaluating a team. Managers can use this tool to build the outward mindset into their employees’ understanding of their performance.

Download the tool here!

Start empowering your organization’s future leaders

New manager training is essential for ensuring the success of both individual managers and the organizations they lead. By having a set of situation-based tools on hand, organizations can set their new managers up for success and ensure a strong leadership pipeline for the future. 
The tools listed in this blog post are part of a suite of 50+ situational frameworks that are part of our Outward Leadership solution. From selecting a new hire to resolving conflict, Arbinger has a tool for every situation your leaders encounter. Contact us to learn more about our leadership development programs here.

The post 5 must-have new manager training tools appeared first on Arbinger.

What is an outward mindset?

There’s a reason that 70% of organizational transformation efforts fail. It’s the simple fact that you can’t change behaviors without changing mindsets first. 

In the behavioral approach to organizational transformation, leaders adjust systems and processes by providing motivation or incentives for employees to adopt new behaviors. Without a change in mindset, however, desired behaviors are often in conflict with our own perspectives, making it difficult or impossible to obtain the desired results.  

With an outward mindset, we see others as people who matter like we do. We consider their needs, challenges, and objectives. And we focus on collective results. We feel responsible to do our jobs well, but we also want to do them in a way that enables others to accomplish their work because we know their work also contributes to the organization’s results. 

When we have an outward mindset—when other people matter like we do—we naturally want to be helpful to them. So we adjust our own efforts to make their work easier. Rather than blaming others for our frustrations or feeling like victims of our circumstances, we begin to see new possibilities and solutions to our most vexing or longstanding problems. 

In practical terms, having an outward mindset means actively seeking to understand and empathize with the people you interact with, whether they’re colleagues, clients, or even strangers on the street. It involves being open to feedback, listening actively, and recognizing that the success of any group or organization is dependent on the collective efforts of its members.

Because the goal of cultivating an outward mindset is to build stronger relationships, foster greater trust and collaboration, and ultimately achieve better outcomes for everyone involved, it is a powerful and transformative approach to life and work that can have a profound impact on both individuals and organizations alike.

Inward mindset vs. Outward mindset

An inward mindset is a way of seeing ourselves and others that keeps us focused on our own needs, wants, and goals, often at the expense of others. When we live and work with an inward mindset we see people as objects rather than as people–as vehicles to be used, irrelevancies to be ignored, or as obstacles to be overcome, rather than as individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Inward mindset tendencies can show up in various ways such as blaming others, justifying our own mistreatment of others, or avoiding responsibility.

When we choose to see people as objects, we look for ways to justify this choice and become invested in seeing them as less than ourselves, which invites them to respond poorly to us in return. Their response, of course, justifies our original choice to not see them as a person. This self-perpetuating cycle of justification-seeking, mutual mistreatment, and blame characterizes most of our relationships when we are inward. Until we can escape this need for justification, we will continue to wallow in the problems are to a large degree of our making.. Until we can learn to acknowledge the obvious truth—that our coworkers, family members, and neighbors are as important and legitimate as we are—then our relationships will continue to be strained and the results we accomplish together much less than they could be.

Here are some examples of these two mindsets in action:

Inward mindsetOutward mindsetI blame my teammates when things go wrong. I hold myself accountable.I see my colleagues as competitors or obstacles in my way of success.I see my colleagues as collaborators.Other peoples’ perspectives don’t matter to me.I work to understand perspectives—even if they’re different from my own.

The key difference between an inward mindset and an outward mindset is the focus of our attention: an inward mindset is focused on ourselves and our own needs, while an outward mindset is focused on others and their needs. At the Arbinger Institute, we believe that cultivating an outward mindset is crucial for building strong relationships, fostering trust and collaboration, and achieving better outcomes for all involved.

How an outward mindset transforms organizations

An outward mindset can help organizations become more collaborative, resilient, and adaptive in a rapidly changing business environment. By focusing on the needs of others and creating a positive, collaborative workplace culture, organizations can achieve better business outcomes and create a more fulfilling work environment for their employees.

Let’s look at a common workplace scenario where mindset comes into play:

Mai and Jose work in the same marketing department. They have been assigned to work on a project together, but they have different opinions on how to approach the project. Jose believes that his approach is the best, and he is not open to feedback or suggestions from Mai. Whenever Mai makes a suggestion, Jose dismisses it and insists on doing things his way. He is focused on being right and getting his way, rather than collaborating with Mai to find the best solution for the project. 

Because of Jose’s attitude, Mai begins to view Jose as arrogant, difficult to work with, and selfish. Little does Jose know, Mai worked on a similar project last quarter and saw great success. But because of the way she perceives Jose’s behavior, she holds back her ideas and wants to see Jose fail by trying things his own way first. 

In this scenario, both Jose and Mai are operating from an inward mindset. They are focused on their own needs and desires, and aren’t considering the overall team. This creates tension and conflict between Jose and Mai, and ultimately impacts the success of the project.

We’ve likely all been Jose or Mai at some point in our careers. And the simple solution to resolving this conflict is approaching it from an outward mindset. Mai and Jose both know the right thing to do is to put aside their personal motives and instead focus on the greater good of the team. But their inward mindsets make following through with the right behaviors almost irrational from their respective points of view. 

When we actually take a moment to think about our impact on our others rather than operating from an inward mindset, we can begin to transform relationships like this one. And the truth is, transforming these working relationships is at the heart of large scale, organizational transformation. Once people in conflict begin to see each other as people, the behaviors they adopt will stick. In other words, shifting from an inward to an outward mindset is the not-so-secret strategy for getting our teams to actually change behaviors. And the numbers show it:

Organizations are 4x more likely to succeed in their transformation efforts when they address mindset to drive behavioral changeCompanies with highly engaged employees outperform their peers by 147%Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6x more likely to perform their best workPsychological safety is the #1 factor for building effective teamsQuiet quitting leads to worldwide company losses of up to $1.5 trillion each yearHow do you turn your organization’s mindset outward?

Our Managing Partner, Mitch Warner, explains why most change initiatives don’t work in this video:

The good news is that the process to turn your organization outward is easier than you think. At its core, an outward mindset is taking the time to see others as people who matter as much as we do, and understand our impact on them. 

Mindset training gets to the root of organizational challenges by fostering self awareness through a set of tools, frameworks, exercises, and video materials designed to evoke empathy and challenge people to actually see differently before you even start to think about getting them to act differently. 

It’s only when people truly understand how their behaviors impact others and begin to see their colleagues as people rather than objects (which typically comes with some a-ha moments, epiphanies, and life-changing transformation), will we dig into solving organizational challenges.. This change in mindset is the catalyst for meaningful and lasting change. Why? Because when people really see others, they will come up with the answers over and over, they will own the transformation and decide for themselves the right things to do to help be a part of the solution and achieve desired results. 

Arbinger can help with assessing your organization’s needs and challenges, hosting in-person or virtual workshop sessions, implementing a sustainment program, and providing ongoing training, coaching, and consulting to ensure your team is getting the most out of your investment in your people. (You can chat with an expert here to learn more about the process!) 

The top 5 outcomes of shifting to an outward mindset

1. Improved collaboration and teamwork

When employees adopt an outward mindset, they become more focused on understanding the needs of others and working collaboratively to achieve common goals. They shift their thinking from, “What’s in it for me?” to being more aware of how their role impacts others around them.

Carla Debow from CenturyLink talks how transformational it is to truly “understand the person on the other side of the table” here:

2. Increased employee engagement and retention

An outward mindset can lead to greater employee engagement and retention as employees become more invested in the success of their colleagues and the organization as a whole. This creates more engaged teams and can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars on employee turnover costs. 

3. Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty

When employees adopt an outward mindset, they become more focused on meeting the needs of customers (whether internal or external stakeholders) and providing high-quality service because it’s coming from a place of genuine empathy.

4. Greater innovation and agility

As employees become more open to new ideas and perspectives, greater innovation can happen. The sky’s the limit when it comes to what you can achieve with more organizational agility, but it could result in new processes, products, or services that help the organization stay competitive and adapt to changing market conditions.

5. Positive workplace culture

When employees adopt an outward mindset, they create a more positive and supportive workplace culture, which improves morale, motivation, and overall job satisfaction. This makes for a more fulfilling work environment for employees and a more attractive employer brand for prospective hires.

When you have all of these factors working in tandem together, your team is set up for surefire exponential organizational growth. 

Outward mindset examples

Now that you know what an outward mindset is, how it impacts employees and organizations, and what benefits it offers, you’re probably wondering what it looks like in practice. Take a look at the impact transforming to an outward mindset has had on these businesses:

Raytheon leveraged Arbinger’s outward mindset principles to cut $100M in expenses without laying off a single employee. See how: 

Tubular Steel Inc. grew from $30 million to over $100 million and more than quadrupled profits (in a shrinking market)

Kansas City Police Department reduced community complaints by 100% (from two to three per month to zero in the ten years!) with an outward mindset. Watch the transformation:

Turning your organization outward starts with you

There’s a major shift happening in the world. Creating a people-centric culture is now a critical component in achieving desired business results. The data speaks for itself, when employees feel seen and cared for by an organization, their potential for success and impact dramatically increases. An outward mindset is the key to helping your organization get there.

Interested in learning more about developing and implementing an outward mindset at work? Chat with an expert from our team.

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