David Dye's Blog, page 27

Aargh – Don’t they Understand?

Episode 236: When you find yourself frustrated, yelling to yourself or the world, “Don’t they understand?” the answer is likely “no, they don’t.” But you do understand – and these moments of frustration are an opportunity for you to lead and make things better. In this episode David shares severals ways to meet these frustrating moments with leadership, whether that’s leading up, down, or sideways.

Don’t They Understand? – How to Deal with the Frustration, Lead, and Transform the Situation

0:32 The silent scream in every leader’s head: ‘Don’t they understand?’ Discover why this question reveals a bigger issue in communication and leadership within organizations.

1:45 Responsibility vs. Opportunity: Why understanding the difference can be a game-changer for executives facing communication breakdowns.

2:58 Unpacking the consequences of decisions. Learn how leaders can effectively communicate the trade-offs and implications of corporate decisions to their teams.

4:10 The theory and the practice of ‘just working harder.’ Why this common solution is often unsustainable in the workplace.

5:22 Owning the outcome. Strategies for leaders to assume responsibility and advocate for their team’s health and capacity in the face of challenging targets.

6:35 Navigating the cascade of decisions. Expert tips on how to communicate changes effectively. Avoid having to ask, “Don’t they understand?”

7:50 The crucial ‘Why’ in workplace communication. Why it’s often missing, and how its absence can lead to frustration and disengagement.

9:05 Strategies for ‘managing up’ and ‘managing down.’ Practical advice on ensuring clarity and understanding flows in every direction.

10:18 Skip-level check-ins: The secret tool for leaders to ensure their message is not just heard but understood across all levels of the organization.

11:30 Concluding insights on the power of communication in leadership. How to be the leader you’d want your boss to be and drive lasting success.

If you’d like more specific, practical phrases and approaches for common sources of workplace conflict, check out our newest book (May 2024—available for pre-order now): Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict—What to say next to destress the workplace, build collaboration, and calm difficult customers.

The post Aargh – Don’t they Understand? appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

How to Carve Out a Great Team Culture in a Fast Growing, Changing Company?

“Hi, Karin, our company is growing so fast, I’m not even sure what our CULTURE is. I’d like to have some semblance of unity on my team, but I’m not sure where to start. How do I CARVE OUT A TEAM CULTURE?” #askingforafriend

How to Carve Out A Team Culture Even When Your Company Culture is Lacking

Great question! You can (and should) work to build a culture for your focus on influence. You don’t need to wait for the bigger culture to emerge. Here are a few places to start building your team culture:

Team Culture: Pick and reward good pumpkins (talent)

When you have an opportunity to bring new members to the team, be sure you’re hiring for the team culture you’re looking to create.

And reward and celebrate the values and behaviors you want more of for every member of the team.

Team Culture: Get rid of the obstacles and roadblocks getting in the way

Support your team, by eliminating toxic courage crushers and sloppy “we’ve always done it this way” thinking. Create your team culture by encouraging innovation and alignment. Make it easier for your team to work together.

Team Culture: Create real clarity — get surgical about what you’re really asking people to do

Create clarity and get surgically specific about the MIT (most important thing – one of our 6 core competencies of leadership). Make sure your team understands your team values, strategies, initiatives, activities, and HABITS that are critical for success. Be sure your team has a shared understanding of what success looks like.

When we do this work with teams in our strategic leadership programs, most employees find aligning on the values is the easy part. It’s the art of translating these values into concrete behaviors that can be more challenging.

For example, we were working with one team that selected a core value of “compassion” to build their team culture.

Then, as they worked to define how that meant they would treat people externally (e.g. their customers, their suppliers, and their industry peers) and internally (their employees) the behaviors seemed straightforward at first.

For example, “We truly listen to people and their needs and work to make their lives better.”

But what happens when an urgent and important client request causes your entire team to work all day Sunday? The compassionate response for your client might be to do everything you can to meet their needs.

Of course, there’s also the issue of translating compassion into behaviors for your employees as well. How does compassion play into that Sunday request?

Testing these aspirational values against real-world competing pressures provides real clarity, and helps guide problem-solving and decision-making down the line.

Team Culture: Illuminate and empower your team’s ideas

Celebrate success. Empower innovation. In our book, Courageous Cultures, we talk about how to create a culture with higher engagement and a results-oriented approach to innovation. In this kind of culture, your team members speak up, share their ideas, and drive quality performance and productivity. 

If you haven’t already done this – download our I.D.E.A. Incubator Guide. It’s your free guide to a power-packed team innovation session that will mobilize courage and increase team engagement.

What would you add? What are some of your favorite best practices to CARVE OUT A GREAT TEAM CULTURE? Share in the comments below.

Related Articles:

Getting Your Team Back on Track – Leading Through Distractions

How to Create a More Innovative Learning Culture #ATD23

A Manager’s Guide to Best Practices for Better Decision-Making

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Fuel Your Career: 17 Critical Skills When You’re a Young Leader Hungry for Success

To distinguish yourself as a young leader, build your knowledge, focus on results and relationships, and speak up.

You’re a young leader with responsibility for a small team and you want more responsibility. And there’s nothing more frustrating than being told, “Not now. Give it time. You’re not ready yet.” (And if you manage a young leader, please don’t use those despair-inducing words.)

There are several areas of your leadership and work where you can invest to give yourself the best chance at that bigger responsibility: your knowledge and wisdom, the results you achieve now, relationships you build, and opportunities to speak up.

Knowledge and Wisdom as a Young Leader

We rarely know as much as we think we do. One of your most important tasks as a young leader is to learn everything you can about the business and yourself.

1. Get to Know Your Business

How does your business make money? How does your organization make a difference to your customers, clients, or constituents? As you learn the answers to these questions, focus on how the work your team does makes a difference. What are the vital outcomes? Not just the process you follow or the output you have to produce. Look beyond that—why are you doing what you do? What’s the end goal—the reason for the work?

These questions help you think strategically. You’re not just doing what you’re told—you’re doing what matters most for the business and your customer. The ability to think strategically is one of the most important abilities you’ll need to cultivate if you want more senior levels of responsibility.

2. Ask “Why?” with Respect

There will be times as a young leader where you don’t know how an assignment relates to the big picture. You might be tempted to just ask your manager, “Why do we have to do this?” Hopefully, your manager takes the question the way you mean it and gives you the context. But many people interpret “why” questions as challenging or argumentative. To avoid this unhelpful misunderstanding, try this instead: “I want to ensure we’re fulfilling all the objectives here. Can you help me understand the big picture goal here?”

3. Understand what Matters Around Here—especially for the role you want

You just earned an advanced degree – congratulations. That was a lot of work! But it doesn’t automatically mean you should get a promotion. Unless you’re in a business where that credential automatically comes with more responsibility. Sure, an advanced degree might be a requirement, but it’s not the only thing you need.

We’ve seen many a young leader achieve a degree or other visible certification and immediately seek promotion, only to get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. Often, they hadn’t paid attention to the organizations values and what behaviors and outcomes matter most.

What matters most in your organization? Are there trusted relationships you need to build? A consistent track record of results you need to show? Do you need to demonstrate a particular kind of knowledge or ability? Be sure you know what matters most – and how you can invest in those areas.

4. Ask for What You Want and Listen for What You Need

Are you a young leader who’s concerned about whether or not to let your manager know that you want more responsibility? Assuming that your team is doing well and you’re achieving the results you are responsible for, we would encourage you to ask.

You can use our Development Discussion Planner to prepare for the conversation. Take time to think about your current role and the role you want. Let your manager know you want to have the conversation and give them the planner you completed.

Show up the conversation with genuine curiosity. What do they see or know that you don’t? Are there additional skills or experiences they recommend you gain? Listen carefully and take notes. Then, as you work together, you can both look for opportunities to learn those skills or get the experience.

5. Learn If You Want to Manage

While you may be hungry for a promotion, take an honest look at your management and leadership responsibilities. Do you enjoy them? Do you like helping a team of people achieve more together than you, or they, could do individually? If so, you’ll be able to deal with the challenges that happen with every management and leadership position.

And if you don’t enjoy this work, that’s important to know. If you don’t enjoy leading a team, why would you want to do more of that? It only gets more challenging. If leading and management aren’t for you, there’s no shame in that—and it’s good to know now. Find a role more suited to the work you enjoy.

Results Focus for a Young Leader

To distinguish yourself and be ready for more responsibility, take responsibility for the outcomes that matters most.

6. Be Good at Your Work

One of the most common frustrating conversations with a young leader is when they want a promotion, but they’re not getting results now.

What results are you responsible for? Are you achieving them?

No excuses. If your answer starts, “I would, but…” then please don’t go ask for a promotion. Your first qualification is being good at what you do now.

Focus on your team’s current responsibilities. How can you help your team excel at doing that? If there are problems with vendors, challenges with another department, equipment, or other reasons for subpar performance, how can you solve them?

If you want more responsibility in the future, take responsibility now for the challenges in front of you. The skills you build to solve these problems will help when you face thornier problems.

7. Take Responsibility for Outcomes

One of the best opportunities to distinguish yourself as a young leader is to own the outcomes. You’ve learned why your work matters. Now, look at whether your team’s output is having the desired outcome. If not, how can you help make that happen?

A common problem for young leaders is that they’ll “do the work” or follow the process, but stop there. If “I did what they asked” doesn’t achieve the needed outcomes, you have an opportunity to lead.

You don’t have to solve it all yourself. Include your team. Clarify the goals and have an honest discussion about what it will take to get there. Once again, you’re honing the same leadership skills you’ll at higher levels.

8. Make Mistakes, Once

You should be making some mistakes. You can’t possibly know everything and part of your eventual knowledge you’ll gain from experience. And experience is a fancy word for “hmm, that didn’t work – what can I learn from that?”

There’s nothing wrong with making a mistake if you are trying to do the right thing. The key is to make the mistake only once. Learn from it, incorporate that knowledge, and open the door to the next level of learning.

9. Master Management and Communication Fundamentals

Start with these Six Core Competencies You Can’t Lead Without. Build your muscle memory now and everything gets easier.

Show up to your work with confidence and humility. Focus on results and relationships. Help your team know the habits that lead to success, practice consistent communication, check for understanding, and schedule the finish. These core leadership and management skills will scale with you and prepare you for future roles.

Conversely, if you get more responsibility, but lack these skills, you have farther to fall and less time to learn. Master them now and you’ll have them when you need them.

Relationships Focus for a Young Leader

Investing in relationships inside and outside your organization will help you in many ways.

10. Prioritize Peers

One challenge you can face as a young leader who is hungry for success and promotion is resentment from your peers. In addition to building relationships and supporting their success, be aware of some of the common mistakes that can sabotage your collaboration.

Be aware of unbridled tenacity, over-advocating for your team, and not sharing what you know. Help your peers succeed as you invest in your career and you’ll be there together—or they’ll trust you more when you get that next promotion.

11. Build Your Network

When you invest in more relationships, you’ll have more opportunities, solutions, and wisdom. It’s helpful to build relationships inside and outside your organization.

Internally, look for those sponsors and mentors, but also pay attention to how you and peers can support one another. You can be an encourager to someone who is a technical advisor to you. Or you can be an advocate for someone who challenges your thinking.

12. Practice Constructive Conflict

Building effective relationships at work doesn’t mean you roll over and agree with anything or anyone. Mastering productive conflict will help you be a more effective young leader and qualify you for future roles. Productive conflict are the discussions where you help a group of people improve their thinking, make better decisions, and collaborate.

Here are twelve phrases from our book Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict (HarperCollins May 2024) that will help you navigate any challenging conversation.

13. Build Leaders on Your Team

The most effective leaders constantly invest in others and build more leaders. One way to be ready for a promotion when it comes is to have someone who can immediately lead your team. Building leaders on your current team makes you more promotable.

14. Get Consistent Feedback

One easy way to distinguish yourself is to ask for, and act on, feedback from your peers, your manager, and your team. You can do this once or twice a year to choose one specific area where you want to grow. Use our Do It Yourself 360 process to have these conversations and get the feedback to help you be your best.

People will notice your follow-through when you build a reputation as someone who seeks, and implements, advice.

Speaking Up as a Young Leader

Whether it’s proposing a new solution to a vexing problem or raising your hand to volunteer, choose yourself and exercise your voice.

15. Share Ideas and Solutions

What are the problems and pain points that keep your manager or their boss up at night? Can you make a meaningful suggestion that has a chance to solve the problem? Or maybe it will spark someone else’s thinking and together you come up with a new answer.

Use our I.D.E.A. Model to vet your ideas and give them the best chance to be heard and get traction. They won’t always choose your idea. But you’ll establish yourself as a critical thinking and someone who cares.

16. Get Good at Accountability

One of the most promotion-worthy skills you can build as a young leader is comfort with accountability conversations. Build on a foundation of character, trustworthiness, and your skill at doing your current work with the ability to give and receive feedback.

Our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method is a practical way to navigate your performance feedback conversations.

17. Attend and Speak at Conferences

Conferences are one of the fastest ways to challenge your assumptions, broaden your perspective, and understand your work in a larger context. You’ll meet people with similar challenges, but different solutions. Or different approaches you can use. In addition, conferences give you a chance to build your network and better understand your industry.

Another opportunity conferences give you is to speak. Offer to share what you know. You’ll get experience speaking, presenting, and meet people. And when people start to say nice things about your thoughts and presentation, you can take those back to work and they positively reflect on your organization.

When Positions aren’t Available

If you work in a smaller business, a flat organization, or a large, very stable, slow-growing business, you might be ready for more responsibility, but openings are rare.

In these circumstances, you have a couple of choices. One option, if your team is humming along and able to do its work well without you, is to look for different assignments that expand your skills and understanding. It might not be more responsibility, but a different responsibility. The new challenge can be refreshing and continue your growth.

And, of course, you may need to look outside your current organization if you are ready, but unwilling to wait for an opening to come along. In this case, be sure to secure your next job before quitting this one.

Your Turn

When you’re a young leader who’s hungry for a promotion, take the time to invest in your understanding, focus on results and relationships, and speak up consistently. You’ll establish yourself as a caring, committed, strategic leader. Do these consistently and you’ll be on short lists for new roles.

We’d love to hear from you. What advice do you have for a young leader who’s hungry for success? Or, if you are a young leader, what have you found helpful?

You Might Want to Check Out These:How To Get Your Boss to Appreciate and Recognize Your GeniusHow to Not Screw Up Your Brand Even When You’ve Been Screwed OverDrive Your Career Success with Ed Evarts (podcast)How to Be Less Negative—and Still Be Yourself

If you’d like more specific, practical phrases and approaches for common sources of workplace conflict, check out our newest book (available for pre-order now) Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict – What to say next to destress the workplace, build collaboration, and calm difficult customers.

The post Fuel Your Career: 17 Critical Skills When You’re a Young Leader Hungry for Success appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Your Leadership Journey with Tim Lupinacci

If you want to be an effective human-centered leader, you’ve got to keep learning and growing. In this heartfelt episode, Tim Lupinacci, CEO and Chair of Baker Donaldson Law Firm shares his leadership journey and how you can invest in continuous learning and personal growth. We discuss the value of learning from leaders in different industries and applying their insights to your work.

Tim also shares his experience starting a nonprofit called Everybody Leads, which focuses on empowering individuals and underserved communities with leadership skills. He discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the need for leaders to prioritize their own well-being and resilience. Tim encourages you to invest in yourself, seek feedback, and be open to making mistakes and learning from them. You’ll get practical tools for a leadership journey of continuous growth, resilience, and empathy.

Your Leadership Journey with Tim Lupinacci

05:23 – A Career-Altering Mistake: Hear how one catastrophic project failure led to a critical moment of self-discovery in the leadership journey of a young lawyer.

06:33 – The Power of Belief: Discover how simply believing in someone’s leadership capabilities can fuel their confidence to actually take the helm.

06:47 – Fighting the Imposter: Learn how combating the internal voices of self-doubt can help pave the way to become a more effective leader.

07:21 – CEO Confessions: What’s it like for a CEO of a big law firm to admit dealing with imposter syndrome? Find out how vulnerability can actually be a strength.

How to Make Room for Your Growth and Development

08:03 – The Leadership Bestseller List: Ever wondered where to start your leadership education? Get recommendations for must-read books from the 90s that are still relevant today.

08:49 – Turn Your Car into a Classroom. How optimizing a daily commute with audio books led to unexpected solutions to work problems. And can further your leadership journey.

09:20 – The Weekly Coffee Chat: How informal weekly discussions about leadership led to an internal culture change in a law firm.

09:40 – Leaders Teaching Leaders: Hear how inviting other firm leaders to share their journeys not only educates the team but also enriches the one who started it.

09:59 – Continued Education. Resources to keep you updated and relevant in your industry.

10:18 – TED Talks and Leadership. Why do industry leaders watch TED Talks, and which ones have made the most impact?

15:30 – The start of Tim’s nonprofit – Everybody Leads

21:16 – Why starting with data is crucial for diversity and inclusion in leadership.

21:48 – The light bulb moment that changed the way leaders approach audits and team dynamics.

22:31 – The significance of ‘co-owning’ in leadership and why you can’t afford to ignore it.

22:50 – The delicate balance between being a decisive and collaborative leader in a flat organization.

24:40 – An alarming trend: Why managers are more disengaged than employees for the first time ever.

25:23 – How increased client demands and internal complexities are shaping the future of your leadership journey.

26:20 – The CEO’s personal approach to mental health and how it influences leadership.

27:01 – The essential need for in-person meetings in a remote world.

27:54 – Senior leaders’ struggles with dual roles and how mini-sabbaticals could be a solution.

Managing Overwhelm

28:51 – Critical advice for those feeling overwhelmed in their leadership roles.

29:34 – The ‘daily discipline’ that helps the CEO manage his priorities and responsibilities.

30:20 – How adopting the concept of a Sabbath, love for the arts, or other restorative practices can be a game-changer for leaders.

37:17 – The skills and mindset shift to help you move into more strategic, senior leadership.

45:11 – A powerful phrase when making unpopular decisions: “Can you help me better understand your point of view?”

Connect with Tim

Bakerdonelson.com

Tim Lupinacci LinkedIn

If you’d like more specific, practical phrases and approaches for common sources of workplace conflict, check out our newest book (May 2024 – available for pre-order now): Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict—What to say next to destress the workplace, build collaboration, and calm difficult customers.

The post Your Leadership Journey with Tim Lupinacci appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

From Fiasco to Opportunity: How to Reframe a Team Setback With Better Words

What to Say Next After a Team Setback: Beyond the ‘F’ Word

We’ve been there too—project outcomes that don’t meet expectations, missed deadlines, or even complete strategy breakdowns. On the heels of a colossal team setback, it can be tempting to throw around words like “failure,” “fiasco,” or “disaster.” But what if you could be the one to change the conversation—to focus on the path forward instead of dwelling on setbacks?

What could a shift away from this F-bomb do for team morale, project outcomes, and even workplace culture?

The Problem With ‘Failure’

The term “failure” is more than just a word. It’s a narrative that can create a toxic work environment, stymie innovation, and prevent your team from adapting to change. Not only does it paint a bleak picture, but it also hinders a solution-oriented approach. After all, if something is a “failure,” where do you go from there?

Shifting the Paradigm for Better Team Setback Conversations

The power of language can be transformative, especially in how we perceive challenges and team setbacks. By shifting your team’s vocabulary, you can open the door to new solutions, foster innovation, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. Below are some powerful phrases to consider using as alternatives to “failure,” each aiming to bring a different kind of focus and motivation to your team.

1. “Let’s Consider This a Learning Opportunity”

Instead of singing the “Woe Is Us” blues, why not jazz things up by turning team setbacks into learning jams or post-project celebrations where you celebrate the effort and the learning?

Follow-up Prompts:

“What’s one thing we each learned that we can jot down for our ‘How Not to Do It Again’ manual?”“What’s the one change that would have turned this ‘Learning Opportunity’ into a ‘Raving Success’?”“How do we ensure we don’t replicate the mistakes we made again?”2. “What Can We Take Away From This Experience?”

It’s not about glorifying the rubble; it’s about looking for the gold in the ruins.

Follow-up Prompts:

“Is there a golden nugget we missed in our initial plans that we should consider next time? Anybody got a metal detector?”“Were there any ‘Eureka!’ moments we had too late?”“What’s our strategy for panning for more gold the next time around?”3. “This Didn’t Go as Planned. What’s Our Next Move?”

Okay, so our ‘Plan A’ turned into a ‘Plan Aargh” with this setback. But hey, that’s why the alphabet has 25 more letters!

Follow-up Prompts:

“If we had to draft a Plan B—or C—right now, what would it look like?”“Which parts of Plan A are salvageable for the next iteration?”“On a scale of 1 to ‘Plan Z,’ how drastic of a change do we think we need?”4. “We Missed Our Objectives. How Can We Pivot?”

Missing the mark sucks, but if basketball players quit after every missed shot, we’d never have any sports highlights.

“What’s our rebound strategy? How can we slam dunk it next time?”“What barriers do we foresee in implementing this new approach?”“If we were to form ‘special teams’ for this pivot, what would they look like?”5. “What Data or Insights Led Us Astray?”

Data is like your GPS. Most of the time, it gets you where you need to go; other times, you’re questioning why you’re at a dead-end street facing a wall.

 “Were there any red flags or odd metrics we should’ve paid more attention to? Any detours we should set on our ‘Do Not Enter’ list?” “What’s our plan for data verification next time?” “Should we be considering alternative data sources or analytic methods?”6. “What Can I Do to Be Helpful Here?”

Think of this as the work version of offering to do the dishes after a dinner party disaster. It may not save the burnt turkey, but it’s a start.

“Is there a specific area where my skills can plug a gap or lend a hand?”“Should we form sub-teams to think this through?”“Are there any external resources or tools that I can bring in to help?”Implementing the Shift to Better Team Setback Conversations

So the next time you’re tempted to label your team setback a “spectacular mess,” take a beat. Your words can either be the anchor that sinks you or the wind that fills your sails. Why just survive a team setback when you can turn it into an opportunity for growth? After all, the only real “failure” here would be to miss out on that chance.

Want more powerful phrases for dealing with tricky situations

If you’ve noticed we’ve been talking about workplace conflict and collaboration a lot recently, it’s because we’ve been doing a lot of research, learning from people all over the world about their biggest workplace conflicts and what they would do differently next time. More on that research here.

In the meantime, our new book, Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict: What to Say Next to Destress the Workday, Build Collaboration, and Calm Difficult Customers is available for pre-order now, and we’re working on building our speaking tour for Spring 2024 (you can take a quick peek at some of our new conflict and collaboration programs here).

See Also: How Leaders Use Failure to Thrive (Podcast) with Olakunie Sorivan

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Growing Leaders Who are Confident, Skilled and Human-Centered (Mistakes to Avoid)

Growing Leaders through Modeling Behavior & Honest Feedback

Hi Karin, What are a couple of the BIGGEST MISTAKES leaders make when GROWING LEADERS? #AskingForaFriend

This fantastic question came in during one of our recent leadership development programs.

Three Mistakes that Will Sabotage Growing Leaders1. Not modeling the way

I can’t tell you how often someone in our leadership programs raises their hand and says, “This is fantastic! Have you taught my boss?

So make sure that if you’re encouraging your team to model certain behaviors you are also demonstrating those behaviors. And if you want your team to lead in a human-centered way, you should show up that way too.

2. Not giving them genuine feedback

People need to have a realistic assessment of how they’re doing so they can grow and develop professionally. In the video I give an example of how this goes south — and I see it happen all the time. If someone has a behavior that is sabotaging their influence, you are not serving them by avoiding the conversation. Take the time to be direct and help them grow.

And of course, when you’re giving feedback be sure to also recognize what’s working. You get more of what you encourage and celebrate and less of what you ignore. When growing leaders, genuine feedback will boost their confidence and help them improve in the areas that they need to step up. Read our practical tips for how to provide more meaningful feedback here.

3. Using vague language and unclear feedback

When you use vague language you leave room for your team to fill in what’s missing, and it might not reflect what you’re actually trying to convey.

Instead of saying:

“You need to get better at critical thinking.”
“You need to be more empathetic.”
“Or, you need to be more strategic.”

Try being more specific like this:

“When you were working on the _______ project, I noticed it was challenging for you to set up the project efficiently. When you delegated the tasks out among the team the timing was off and important parts of the project weren’t done when they needed to be. Why do you think this happened? What do you think you could do differently next time?

Review our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method for a step-by-step breakdown of how to give clear feedback in a human-centered way.

I can tell you, it’s unfortunately common for people to receive unclear feedback. People often call me and say, What in the world does that mean? What am I supposed to do with THAT? So break down your observation into specific behaviors and actions they can employ to improve their skills.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post in the comments below…what are your favorite tips for growing leaders?

And psst…Dear Leader…if work without human-centered practical leadership training is getting a bit too edgy for your liking – or your strategies just aren’t working like you need them to – visit our Live (online or hybrid) Leadership Training page to learn how to build and sustain company-wide change. 

This is no cookie-cutter, stale-off-the-shelf program. Every Live (online or hybrid) Leadership Training we provide is customized…designed specifically to meet your team where they are.

See Related Articles: 

Performance Management: How to Give Feedback to a Team Member Who Isn’t Changing

The Problem With Sandwich Feedback Video (and what to do instead)

How to Provide More Meaningful Performance Feedback

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Your Greatest Leadership Opportunity with Germaine Hunter

Episode 234: Leaders and managers face an ever-expanding level of complexity and demands on their time and skills. At the same time, there’s more of a need than ever before for managers to truly connect with their people – often across geography and time zones. These are big challenges, but they also present a leadership opportunity for leaders who can show up with transparency and vulnerability. In this episode, Germaine Hunter, Chief Diversity Officer for GE Aerospace, gives you the tools to lead well, serve your team, and do meaningful work.

Your Greatest Leadership Opportunity with Germaine Hunter

5:40 – The critical role of listening and empathy to make the most of your leadership

11:35 – To lead well, start with your data. What does it tell you?

14:52 – Next, build relationships with key stakeholders, influencers, and people who have their pulse on what’s happening. You can confirm (or not) what the data tells you.

18:22 – Why it’s helpful to actively ask for what you need to know.

20:36 – Challenges confronting managers today. More complexity combined with the need to lead with real empathy. All in increasingly remote and matrixed organizations.

28:11 – Solutions to these challenges give you a big leadership opportunity

30:12 – Why your focus on delivering outcomes and your technical expertise are critical.

32:58 – How leading with humility and transparency work in practice.

37:22 – Why transparency is so rewarding when talking with a manager who evaluates your performance

40:50 – Germaine’s Powerful Phrase for Dealing with Workplace Conflict (another Leadership Opportunity)

43:29 – Finally, a summary of Germaine’s advice to make the most of your leadership opportunities

Connect with Germaine Hunter

Germaine Hunter LinkedIn

If you’d like more specific, practical phrases and approaches for common sources of workplace conflict, check out our newest book (May 2024 – available for pre-order now): Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict – What to say next to destress the workplace, build collaboration, and calm difficult customers.

The post Your Greatest Leadership Opportunity with Germaine Hunter appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Workplace Innovation: The Secret to Getting Better, Remarkable, Usable Ideas

Why psychological safety is important, but not enough
when it comes to workplace innovation

If you’re getting lots of ideas, you’re probably doing a lot of things right when it comes to encouraging workplace innovation —making it safe, asking for input, and responding well. That’s a great start. But how many of these ideas are you implementing? Imagine if you weren’t just getting lots of ideas, but remarkable, practical ones.

In Karin’s just released TEDx talk, she shares why psychological safety is vital, but not enough when it comes to workplace innovation— and a practical technique to help you get better ideas.

Why Psychological Safety x Clarity Leads to Better Workplace Innovation

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 50% of the respondents said they hold back ideas because nothing will happen. If you shoot down too many ideas, people will stop trying.

When you are clear about the kinds of ideas you need, and what would make them remarkable, you’ll get better ideas. The better the ideas, the more you’ll use them. The more ideas you use, the more people will share. Now you have a virtuous cycle of both confidence and innovation. Not to mention more remarkable ideas.

How We Learned the Secret to More Remarkable Ideas

When we first began experimenting with practical approaches to make it feel safer and easier to share ideas, we tried two approaches.

Sometimes, we say, just say bring us ANY practical ideas to improve the organization.

In this scenario, people learned some critical thinking and problem-solving skills, had fun, and got to know one another better. It wasn’t a complete loss. But most of those ideas weren’t implemented. Reinforcing the “nothing ever happens, so why bother” statistic.

With others, we got very specific about what a good idea would accomplish. Leaders identified three or four areas of the organization where they really wanted ideas and were very clear about any constraints the teams needed to consider, and then they applied the tools.

Similar process. Similar time investment. A significant difference in the number of ideas implemented.

A Closer Look at the Intersection of Clarity and Psychological Safety

The Two Dimensions of InnovationPsychological Safety: Cultivating an environment where people feel secure in expressing their thoughts.Strategic Clarity: Directing those thoughts towards meaningful areas for innovation.The Role of Strategic Clarity in Decision-MakingClear Outcomes: Knowing where you want to go makes it easier to decide if an idea will help you get there.Focused Engagement: When people know what the objective is, they’ll contribute more effectively.

In the worst-case scenario, when psychological safety and strategic clarity are both low, most ideas will be negligible, and people are unlikely to have, or share them. Frustration is highest in this scene, and people are likely to give up, quiet quit, or leave.

When clarity is high, but psychological safety is low, people will have ideas, but they might be too nervous to share them. You’ll have invisible ideas, along with the frustration that first sparked our original research. This is the challenge that most people deeply committed to psychological safety are working to solve.

When psychological safety is high, but clarity is low, you’ll end up with lots of ideas.   There may be some good ones, but it’s tough to see them. You’ll spend significant time listening (and responding to) ideas, which eats up time from implementing the good ones. You’ve got a pile of unmanageable ideas. This is a challenge that many people deeply committed to psychological safety are faced with.

And, why some leaders shy away from encouraging workplace innovation, “we don’t need more ideas, we have too many already, we just need to execute.”

When strategic clarity and psychological safety are both high, you’re more likely to get remarkable Ideas. When you have more remarkable ideas, there’s less frustration and more usable innovation.

Your turn.

How have you seen better clarity lead to more remarkable ideas?

The post Workplace Innovation: The Secret to Getting Better, Remarkable, Usable Ideas appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Maximizing ROI: How to Translate Leadership Training into Behaviors that Last

Hi Karin, We just completed our leadership development program, and we’re feeling really good about how we’ve been applying what we’ve learned along the way. The leader-led Challenge and Support groups have been so helpful as we’ve worked to implement what we learned in our leadership training.  How do we continue to sustain the momentum? #AskingforaFriend

How to Embed Leadership Training into Your Workplace Culture

First, I’m so impressed with all you’ve done already. Your recent experience with leader-led Challenge and Support groups indicates you’re already ahead of the curve in terms of transitioning your newfound leadership training knowledge into action.

These groups are, in essence, a ‘living lab,’ a place to test, refine, and validate the theories and practices absorbed during your leadership development program.

While the groups provide immediate feedback and peer accountability, what will drive the long-term sustainability of your skills is embedding them in your organizational culture and personal behavior. So how do you convert that initial leadership training surge into a constant stream of progress?

Practical, Proven Approaches to Sustain Leadership Training Momentum1. Teach what you’ve learned

One of the best ways to become a rock star at a skill is to teach it. Consider sharing some of the leadership training tools you’ve learned and teaching them to others.

2. Celebrate success

When you see people using the tools and techniques, celebrate the effort and the outcomes.

3. Integrate the tools into the way your work processes

Many of our clients integrate the tools and techniques into the forms they use every day (e.g. their collaboration systems, one-on-one forms etc, and meeting agenda templates). 

4. Focus on one behavior change at a time

When you learn game-changing leadership techniques, it’s tempting to try everything all at once. After all, if these techniques produce results, you owe it to your team to use them. Right? Perhaps. But not all at the same time.

Pick one specific behavior or approach from your leadership training that you know will make an impact and integrate it into your leadership approach. Practice it consistently. Tweak it. Make it your own. Ask for feedback. Once you feel confident and competent in that behavior, the timing might be right to add in another technique. Too much change all at once will overwhelm both you and your team.

6. Find an accountability partner

Change is hard, and it can be lonely. It’s much easier to give up when no one’s looking. Find someone you trust who understands what you’ve just learned (someone else in your training class is a great choice). Share the behavior you’re working on and make a commitment to check in with one another once a week to see how things are going, discuss challenges, and brainstorm the next steps.

7. Invite your team on the journey

Tell your team what you’ve learned and what you’ve chosen to work on and why. Invite them to notice when it’s working and offer suggestions as to what you can do better. Your team already knows you’re not perfect, and they’ll be delighted to know you’re working on becoming a more effective manager.

8. Ask for feedback

Make it a point to ask for feedback on the impact your new approach is having on the people you’re leading. Ask open-ended questions about what you can do to improve.

9. When you screw up, apologize and try again

New habits don’t come easy. If you slip back into old behaviors, apologize and try again. Your team knows you’re not perfect. They just want to know you’re trying. Leadership training is important, but what matters most is what you do when you get back to your team. With just a bit of focus, you can ensure the strongest ROI for you and your team.

See Also: 10 Questions to Ask Before Launching a Leadership Development Program

 

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Ready or Reactive with Josefine Campbell

Episode 233: Is your team ready or reactive? To be ready, deal with change, and be flexible, people need energy. Meanwhile, stress, anxiety, and loss of engagement at work are major factors in modern work life and statistics are staggering in a negative direction. In many corporate workplaces, the brains of the people working there are the biggest asset of the business. The brain runs on energy, but most organizations treat people as though their personal energy is an infinite resource

In this episode Josefine Campbell, leadership coach, jiu-jitsu champion, and Author of Power Barometer: Manage Personal Energy for Business Success, gives you steps on how to increase awareness and navigate between different states of mind-agile, mellow, narrow, fragile-to improve your personal, your team’s, and your organization’s mental agility. Find out how to enhance your personal energy when managing or collaborating with others to become more mentally agile and productive.

Episode 233: Ready or Reactive

10:10

When you’re ready you’re in the green zone, you can use all of your brain, and your nervous system is calm, so you are more aware of what goes on around you. When you’re reactive, you get into the red zone and react from your autopilot.

13:14

When you create a working environment without psychological safety, collaboration, performance, and innovation will not thrive as much as they can versus an environment with psychological safety.

16:31

Making the distinction between professional, private, and personal energy.

33:03

One of the most important steps is to be aware as much as you can and then take responsibility for your behavior.

41:58

We make sense of things in ways that we have been conditioned to, that we learned were right, and very often in ways that we learned have served us well or made us thrive and survive. So we have the freedom to change that.

Connect with Josefine

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Get the Book

 

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