David Dye's Blog, page 41

Ten Common Mistakes New Managers Make

How to Avoid the Most Common Mistakes New Managers Make

So many new managers don’t receive the training or skills they need to be effective, lead their teams, and achieve meaningful results. As a result, well-intentioned, hard-working new managers often trip into these common mistakes new managers make; unnecessarily frustrating their teams, diminishing their credibility, and curtailing their influence.

When you equip your managers with the essential skills to avoid these mistakes, you’ll achieve results more quickly, have more nimble teams, reduce turnover, build a strong culture, and be able to focus everyone’s energy on serving your customers with better products and services, rather than constantly dealing with internal friction.

If you’re a new manager, eliminating these mistakes and building effective habits early will leverage your influence, build your career, reduce your frustration, and help you enjoy your work. These are practical ways you can build a strong foundation for your career.

Here are the common mistakes new managers make:

Avoid Accountability ConversationsFavor Friends and Former PeersBe an Expert in Everything Be a Push OverAssume People Should KnowExpect People UnderstandLeave Follow-Through to ChanceAssume People Know How to Achieve a Goal or Express a ValueUse Fear to MotivateDon’t Invest in Trust10 Mistakes New Managers Make

We’ve made many of these mistakes and seen them in many of the managers we’ve worked with. The good news is, with a bit of training and focused effort you can avoid these common mistakes new managers make. Here’s a glimpse at some of the biggest challenges for new managers and what to do instead.

1. Avoid accountability conversations

New managers often engage in magical thinking. A team member is late or disrespects another person and the new manager thinks “Oh wow, that wasn’t good. Well, they certainly understand that they screwed up. I’m sure they won’t do that again.”

Then it happens again, and the new manager thinks, “I can’t believe it…that’s twice now. They’ve GOT to know that’s not cool.” And the manager doesn’t say anything. In the meantime, poor performance or toxic behavior continues and becomes the norm.

What to do: Address poor performance and disruptive behavior as soon as it happens. You don’t have to make a big deal out of it or get visibly angry. You can use the INSPIRE method to show up for a conversation with curiosity. Start with your intention for the conversation, explain what you’ve noticed, and invite their perspective. Then, when it’s appropriate, you can move to a mutual commitment and align on the next steps.

When you address accountability conversations in this way, your team member knows that you care. They know you want them to succeed. They know you want to hear their perspective. You’ve invested in them, and the team’s, success.

Additional reading: How to Provide More Meaningful Performance Feedback (this article describes a step-by-step methodology to do this well)

2. Favor friends and former peers

New managers often face the challenge of leading friends and former peers who try to leverage their relationship for special treatment. But your credibility, respect, and trustworthiness depend on treating people equitably and putting the team first.

What to do: Some people will tell you not to be friends with your team, but that’s not always possible – particularly if you’re already friends. The key is to have a conversation and set clear expectations about your new responsibilities. Be clear about what success looks like for each person and the team. Help everyone (especially your friends) understand that you care about each person individually, and, you will need to make decisions that consider the team’s welfare first.

Additional reading:  Leading Friends and Former Peers

3. Be the expert in everything

You were good at your job before you were promoted, and you have ideas about how everything should work. Of course, you want to leverage that confidence to inspire your team. But, you can’t possibly have all the answers – and your team knows it. Especially if you have responsibility for leading a team that has deep technical experience, they will know more about their work than you.

What to do: Earn the right to be heard by listening first. Get curious. Ask your team to teach you one new thing every day.

Additional reading:  9 Questions to Help Your Team Solve Problems on Their Own

4. Be a push-over

At the other end of the continuum is the manager who lacks strength and conviction. You want your people to like you, so you don’t address negative behaviors or subpar performance. Your top performers lose faith in you and the negative actors drag down the team’s performance.

What to do: Before you can practice consistent accountability and keep everyone on track, you need a solid foundation. So, reconnect to your values and the reason your team exists. You are in the role to support your people and accomplish a mission.

Reinforce the “why” behind every “what.”

Additional reading: Executive Presence is a Virtual World: What Matters Now

And download our Free E-Book, 7 Practical Ways to Be a Bit More Daring.

5. Assume people should know

This mistake is very common to new managers (and more than a few veterans!). The project makes sense to you. Follow-up activities are just “what you do.” Customer care is common sense. Everyone knows these things, right?

Not really.

What to do: One of the most vital steps you can take as you start in a new leadership role is to clarify what success looks like. Use a 5 x 5 communication strategy for the most vital aspects of the team’s work. That means you communicate critical messages five different times through five different forms of communication. People will internalize these key messages when you communicate with repetition and variety.

Additional reading:  5 x 5 Communication for Remote Teams

6. Expect people to understand

This is another common mistake new managers make (and again, many veterans as well). You definitely said it. You may even have said it five times, five different ways. But what did the other person hear? They may think they understand or they may be shy to ask clarifying questions. Either way, daily misunderstandings compound to create tons of wasted time and energy.

You don’t know people truly understand until you ask them.

What to do: The solution for these misunderstandings is to “check for understanding”. Communication hasn’t happened until there is a “send” and a “receive.” When you check for understanding, ask the person you’re talking with to share their understanding. If you’re not on the same page, clarify and check again.

Additional reading: Check for Understanding: A Leadership Communication Best Practice (Video)

7. Leave follow-through to chance

Many new managers leave follow-through to chance. Even when your team is competent and has good intentions, there are many factors that disrupt follow-through and prevent them from following through on what matters most. Sometimes, you might be the disrupting factor (with other priorities you’ve delegated). Other times, it can be the crush of competing priorities from other projects or departments.

What to do: Have a conversation to “schedule the finish.” This is not simply assigning a due date. It’s a frank conversation about when all parties agree to complete the task or project and how this task interacts with other priorities. The conversation concludes with both parties scheduling the next step, completion, or follow-up conversation on their calendars. Follow-through is no longer left to chance. It’s literally scheduled for both of you.

Additional reading:  High ROI Leadership: Schedule the Fi nish

8. Assume people know how to achieve a priority or express a value

The team has discussed their goal. You’ve checked for understanding of the team’s values. Everyone can express their KPIs. Everything’s good, right?

Not yet—understanding the goal is one thing. Understanding how to achieve it is another thing entirely. Often, another of the mistakes new managers make is to focus on the goal and push people to perform without discussing the specific activities and consistent behaviors that will help everyone achieve success. People may work hard and be busy, but their efforts don’t produce results.

What to do: For every critical goal, value, and metric, take time with your team to discuss and identify the two or three critical behaviors or activities that lead to success. If you don’t know what these are, it may take practice and investigation to figure it out.

Additional reading:  Creating Clarity: Strategic Activities For Human-Centered Leaders

9. Use fear to motivate

When the team doesn’t meet its goals, a mistake new managers make is to be frustrated and rely on fear to get results. Fear is an insidious leadership trap—because it works. We’ve known many leaders who relied on fear to get results because it was an easy way to make something happen.

Fear motivates effort, but with a single focus: escape the fear. Everything else shuts down. The problem with using fear to motivate is that the “something” you get is the minimal effort people need to escape the fear. They’re not choosing to give their best and they can’t be creative.

What to do: Begin by acknowledging your own fears and anxiety. If you’re tempted to use fear as a motivator, you’re likely stressed yourself. Acknowledge your emotions. Breathe through them, reconnect to your values and the reason your team exists.

Once you’ve managed your own anxiety, bring the challenge to your team. Be real about the situation, express your confidence, and ask for their ideas about how you can get there together.

Additional reading: How to Avoid Toxic Courage Crushers in Your Organization

10. Don’t invest in trust

Some new managers assume people will trust them because of their past performance or because of their title. But trust is a relationship and relationships take time and effort to build. With a lack of trust, you’ll find everything else about your leadership is far more difficult.

What to do: Trust can feel abstract, but the people who study trust have identified four elements that consistently contribute to trust (and whose absence breaks down trust). These elements are:

Credibility—does your team believe you know what you’re doing? (And do they feel like you believe they know what they’re doing?)Reliability—can your team count on you to do what you say you will do?Connectedness—do you and your team know one another as human beings? Do you know their “people, pets, or projects”? What matters to them outside of work?Best interest—do your people believe you have their best interests at heart? This is an important element of trust. If people believe you have their best interest in mind, they’ll forgive some lapse in the other elements. But if they don’t believe you have their best interest at heart, perfecting the other three won’t matter as much.

As you consider these elements of trust, where do you need to invest your time and effort? For example, some managers who mean well aren’t reliable because they over-commit and haven’t learned to manage their time. If that’s you, start by carefully considering what you say “yes” to and the commitments you make.

Identify the area where you have the most room to improve and invest in showing up there more consistently.

Additional reading: How to Build Trust More Quickly With New Employees

Your Turn

These ten common mistakes new managers make are also opportunities to distinguish yourself and build a sound foundation for an incredible leadership career. Refine these habits now and your influence will multiply, results will improve, and you’ll be a manager people want to work with.

We’d love to hear from you: what are some of the other common mistakes new managers mistake (and most importantly, what can they do instead to build a strong leadership foundation?)

Additional Reading That or Clients Tell Us is Extremely Helpful for New Managers

Leadership Skills: 6 Competencies You Can’t Lead Without

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Breakthrough Execution with Patrick Thean

What does it take to break through ceiling after ceiling and innovate during growth? All growing companies encounter ceilings of complexity, usually when they hit certain employee or revenue milestones. How can you achieve breakthrough execution?

In this episode, Patrick Thean, author of Rhythm: How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth, equips you with the tools to identify the signs of setbacks before they occur, track those signs, and make adjustments to keep your plan on track and accelerate growth. Get Patrick’s simple system to empower everyone in your company to be focused, aligned, and accountable—a three-step rhythm for effective execution.

Breakthrough Execution

06:19

Realizing that a lot of the issues companies have are from struggling to making their commitments and the difference between a strategy problem and an execution problem.

07:29

The process of think, plan and do.

09:07

Great execution is understanding what your priorities are. Making the right choices to say, these are things I’m going to do and these are the things I’m not going to be able to do. These clear decisions separate meaningful results from busyness.

28:22

Shift to understand the mindsets, the mindsets of how to work together, how to cross functionally collaborate.

36:05

The environment, process, and situation are what usually cause poor outcomes and excecution, not the people themselves.

39:12

Choose to either be the victim or the owner. The victim would say, well it’s not my fault I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, my boss never told me. The person of the ownership mentality would be saying, you know what? I just realized I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Let me go find that out.

54:16

Using weekly adjustments meetings to focus on execution around specific adjustments and solve specific problems.

Connect with Patrick

Website

LinkedIn

Twitter

Get the Book

 

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Coach Your Team and be Even More Effective and Helpful

How to be Even More Effective and Helpful as You Coach Your Team

If you’re a manager, you likely hear a lot about not only leading and organizing but also being a coach for your team. And, it can be hard to know exactly how to make that happen in the midst of everything else you have going on.

Today on Asking for a Friend I talk with Sara Canaday about tips from her new book “Coaching Essentials for Managers.” She shares her expertise around how to coach your team to do their best work and help them achieve their highest potential.

Sara reminds us that employees “want to learn, want to grow, and want to progress.” Employees want to make sure they are getting the skills and knowledge they need to get grow in their careers.

Sara explains the importance of being both a developmental coach and providing performance coaching.

As a manager, you supervise and organize the workload for those you are managing. You set the expectations and give performance feedback.

As a coach, the goal becomes empowering your employee to be the best they can be by helping them identify and achieve their own professional goals. Just like with any human-centered leadership development, learning how to be a good coach takes effort and being willing to be coachable ourselves.

Developmental coaching is a vital approach to developing potential in your employees

Performance coaching is when you help someone improve in a specific area. With developmental coaching, you can help employees identify their professional goals and empower them to engage in the process of learning and growing. Instead of evaluating their performance, you become a partner for their success as you coach your team.

You’re the person who’s going to ask great questions to help them discover their potential.

Practical Ways to Coach Your Team

Here’s a practical list of Sara’s Dos and Don’ts from Coaching Essentials (pages 206-207)

Do:

Build trust and nurture strong relationships with your coacheesPosition yourself as a partner in their successBe fully presentSet the intention up frontConfirm confidentiality- and keep that promiseMaintain clarity about your role and your purpose as a coachUse a framework as your guideAsk open-ended questionsSuspend judgmentFinish with an action planHold them accountable for their commitments

Don’t:

Confuse the role of coaching with training, counseling, or discipline related to poor performanceRely only on your coachees to identify their needsFail to set ambitious goals that align with your coachees’ strengths motivations and interestsTalk in code (e.g. “you need to be more strategic) rather than translating your recommendations into actionable steps with examplesNeglect to enhance your own self-awareness and emotional intelligenceAssume you wouldn’t benefit from insights and feedback provided by your own coach or mentorUnderestimate the potential of your direct reportsUnderestimate your own potential as a successful coach.

What would you add? What is one of your best practices or approaches to be an effective coach for your team?

More articles related to how to coach your team:

Empower Your Team to Make Better Decisions

How to Coach Employees to High Performance When Time is Limited

Your turn. What is your best practice for being a coach for your team?

The post Coach Your Team and be Even More Effective and Helpful appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Stuck in a Rut? 7 Questions to Inspire New Thinking on Your Team

Help Your Team Get Unstuck
By Showing Up a Bit More Curious

It’s a strange and ironic phenomenon. Despite all the change going on, have you noticed your team sometimes gets stuck in a rut of uninspiring routines?

It’s easy to hunker down and do things the old way, particularly when so much else is changing. But what if the old habits, make it even more tricky to thrive in the midst of change?

For example, your tried and true approach to one-on-ones may feel comfortable and familiar… after all, that’s one less thing to think about. But, is it giving your team what they need most, now?

Or, your pivot to virtual sales calls, worked well when your customers were all working from home. Sure, they’re more efficient, but what are your customers yearning for now?

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 67% said their manager operates under the notion “this is the way we’ve always done it.” And it’s not just managers who can get stuck in a rut. It’s easier for your team to keep thinking and doing things the way that’s worked before.

If you want your team to thrive in the midst of all this change, ask some courageous questions to show up just a bit more curious about potential ruts, and how to get out of them.

Courageous questions are specific, vulnerable questions that get right to the root of the matter. Courageous questions help eliminate FOSU (fear of speaking up) and create the psychological safety your employees need to speak up and ask for what they need.

7 Courageous Questions Help Your Team Get UnstuckIs there any aspect of your work where you feel stuck in a rut? What do you wish you could do instead?What should we say “no” to, in order to free up time to focus on our most strategic priorities? If you could design our staff meeting from scratch, what would you do differently?What are we spending a lot of time on (e.g. reports, communication, analysis) that no one would miss if we stopped?How do you think we could make things a bit more fun around here? What are one or two specific ideas to make that happen?What’s one strength or talent you feel is being underutilized in your work? What ideas do you have for how we could better leverage that strength?What’s one suggestion you have for making this coming year remarkable? What must we do differently?

One way to get started is to share this article at an upcoming team meeting. Invite team members to consider which of these questions they think are most important to answer. Of course, you can also invite them to ask their own “let’s get out of a rut” courageous questions as well.

For example, “What’s the most important question we should be asking ourselves right now? Why?”

Of course, asking questions is only the beginning. Be sure to “Respond with Regard” and help the team identify one or two doable I.D.E.A.s (Interesting, Doable, Engaging,Actions) that would make the biggest impact.

More Questions to Inspire Your Team Toward High Performance

How to Build a High-Performing Team: Ten Vital Conversations

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Empower Your Team to Make Better Decisions

Use This Powerful Process to Empower Your Team
to Solve Problems on Their Own

How do you empower your team to solve more problems on their own?

In today’s Asking for a Friend from the PMI Rochester conference, David shares our very popular “9 What’s” whats coaching methodology to empower better decision-making and problem-solving. Read the original article here. 

The following nine questions will empower your team and help you to free up your own time and increase your team’s ability to think and problem-solve on their own.

9 Important Questions to Empower Your Team

Goal

1. What is your goal?

Start here to check for understanding and ensure that the team member has a good grasp of defining the problem.

Reflection

2. What have you tried?

This question ensures you don’t spend time covering the ground they’ve already explored to solve the problem. It also requires your team member to make some effort before requesting help.

3. What happened?

Finish gathering facts by asking them to talk about the consequences of the solutions they’ve already tried. Sometimes just the act of talking about it will help them figure out a new solution.

4. What did you learn from this?

Click the image for more detail on the 9 what’s process

With this question, you empower your team member by asking them to reflect on their experience. Often, the act of examining what happened and what learning they can draw from it will spark a new approach to solving the problem.

Analysis

5. What else do you need?

This is a check to see if there is additional training or equipment they need.

6. What else can you do?

Now it’s time to empower your team member by having them generate some new options. When you ask this question, one of two answers usually happens. Your team member might say, “I don’t know” or they might offer some options, eg: “Well, I was thinking I could try option A or I could try option B.”
If they say, “I don’t know,” we’ll come back to that with question #9. Let’s assume for now that they offer some options.

7. What do you think will happen if you try option A? What about option B?

You’re asking your team member to explore the potential consequences of their proposed solution. This gives you insight into their thinking and helps them think through what makes their choices viable or desirable.

If they are missing a critical piece of information, you can supply it here without telling them what to do. Eg: “One additional factor you will want to know is that the customer considers that a vital feature.”

Commitment

8. What will you do?

This is the critical step to empower your team member. As you helped them review the facts, reflect on what they learned, explore alternatives, and the consequences of each choice, the goal is for your team member to choose their solution.

Bonus Question

9. Super-Bonus Question to empower your team: If you get an “I don’t know”

Ask “what might you do if you did know.” (read the article in the comments for more on how to ask this well and why it works).

How about you? How do you empower your team to solve more problems on their own?

How Do I Ask Better Questions: Asking For a Friend with Chad Littlefield [VIDEO]

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True Gratitude – More Than Pleasantries or Recognition

It’s easy for true gratitude to get lost in the swirl of formal recognition programs, everyday courtesies, and the relentless push for more and better. Progress is good. You need recognition. And courtesy is vital. But none of these are genuine gratitude.

True gratitude begins with deep humility. It changes us.

True gratitude transforms our relationships. It changes the game.

Courtesies Aren’t Gratitude

And yet many leaders try to check the gratitude box with a “Thanks-for-passing-the-gravy” kind of gratitude.

…thanks for this report…thanks for the update…thanks for coming to the meeting…thanks for returning my call

Those courtesies are important. We need them. But they aren’t gratitude.

Recognition Isn’t Gratitude

Many organizations also do a pretty good job with formal recognition — taking time to determine who deserves the plaque, the award, and a celebration. These ceremonies may come from a place of deep gratitude, but not necessarily. Often, they are based on numbers, rankings, or “it’s that time of year.” You won’t find gratitude in a spreadsheet or calendar.

True gratitude involves a deeper pause of thanksgiving. But many leaders, at every level of organizations, miss this vital pause.

Gratitude is missing when…an executive hears a presentation and immediately responds with questions, concerns, critiques and challenges, without a pause to consider the depth and breadth of work entailed, the long hours, and the creative thinking.a middle manager, frustrated in his current role, overlooks his long career of exciting challenges and developmental experiences.the team leader acknowledges the team’s steady progress, but fails to understand the deep personal sacrifices of her team.a team member resents the promotion of a coworker, and overlooks all the ways he has grown himself in the past year.

Thanks and recognition are about the receiver. As leaders, it is our job to say “thank you” and recognize good work.

But true gratitude is also about the giver. Genuine gratitude transforms your leadership.

An Inexhaustible Source of Leadership Gratitude

One source of gratitude that never runs dry is the recognition of choice.

People don’t have to follow you, don’t have to show up, and don’t have to bring their creativity or initiative.

They choose to.

Even your direct reports don’t have to follow your leadership. Every day people make a choice to be a part of your team. To contribute and engage. Or not. But it’s always their choice.

“Wait a minute,” you might say, “if they don’t do their job we can fire them.”

You’re right of course, but that’s their choice. True gratitude begins when you realize that everyone’s a volunteer. They choose:

If they will be a part of your team.How they will show up.Whether to participate fully or phone it in.The level of effort they will give.How well they will perform their role.

When you embrace this fundamental truth – that everyone is a volunteer – it will change your leadership forever. Every action from every person on your team becomes a gift.

“Everyone is a Volunteer” David shares from a keynote stage

Every ounce of energy they spend on a project is a gift. Your leadership work shifts from force to invitation, from control to influence, from fear to gratitude. You won’t lead to wring out the worst, but to bring out the best.

Practical Ways to Practice True Gratitude

Cultivating gratitude will open daily opportunities to communicate your encouragement and genuinely thank people for their choices and contributions. Here are three suggestions to make the most of these moments.

1) Focus on the Person, Process, and Outcomes

There’s a big difference between gratitude for what a person does and the person themselves. Acknowledge the person, the process, and the outcome.

Person: Sometimes a simple, straightforward, “I appreciate you” are the most powerful words you can say.

Process: “I am so grateful for how you’re approaching this problem. I see how diligently you’re working.” It’s not always about the outcome.

If you’re familiar with how to Respond with Regard to fuel innovation and ideas, you’ll recognize the first step as gratitude for their process: “Thank you for thinking about how we can improve.”

Outcome: “You did it! I am so grateful for what you’ve accomplished here.” In our rush to the next goal, it’s easy to forget gratitude for the outcomes. Taking time to look people in the eye or send a hand-written note to communicate your gratitude will cement that achievement for you and your people.

2) Be Specific and What and Why

Even leaders who are good about expressing gratitude often focus on what they’re grateful for. But that’s only half of the story.

Karin shares ways to make recognition an everyday habit.

What they did, or are doing, is important. And, you’ll increase the value of your gratitude when you finish the story by sharing why it matters.

For example, “I’m grateful for the extra time you put in with that customer, or solving that patient’s complaint or resolving that our client’s issue. I saw the extra work and the customer called me and told me what a difference that made to them. Or the patient noted in her comments after she checked out how meaningful that was to her and her family and how much she appreciated it.”

3) Mix Up Silence and Growth

There are times when it makes sense to start a coaching conversation with gratitude.

For example, if someone’s bringing some unorthodox solutions that don’t make immediate sense to you, you can start with: “I am grateful for the work you’ve put in on this project and the creative solutions you’ve uncovered. And, I’d like to explore how you see these fitting into our strategic priorities.”

In the ensuing conversation, you might get insights into new creative approaches, or the team member might learn more about what matters most and how they can contribute.

But you want to be careful about always following up gratitude with growth opportunities. Too many “I’m grateful, and…” conversations will undermine your gratitude and make people feel like nothing they do is ever good enough.

Sometimes gratitude followed by silence is the most effective.

And so, we want to conclude with gratitude of our own.

We are grateful for you and your commitment to human-centered leadership. We see you try, learn, get up, and try again.

And with your consistent effort, you make a difference. To your people, to your community, and to the world.

Thank you.

You Might Also Enjoy:How to Make Better, Frequent Employee Recognition a Daily HabitGratitude at Work: How to Cultivate a Grateful Culture (with video)Encouragement that Gets ResultsHow to Respond To Employee’s Wacky Ideas (Tool & Video)

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How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive with Olakunle Soriyan

How do leaders use failure to thrive? Too many efforts with potential game-changing outcomes are short circuited by the fear of failing; people with huge ideas become paralyzed by “what ifs,” unable to see past the challenges of today. Shift your perspective and use failure to thrive.

Olakunle Soriyan, known by most as PK, author of A Love Affair With Failure: When Hitting Bottom Becomes A Launchpad To Success, paints “failure” and “failing” as two different realities and mindset. Failure is a destination, a windowless prison that does not exist unless you accept that it does. However, failing is a journey, a launchpad into new knowledge and new beginnings and the key to successful innovation and entrepreneurship. PK builds up emerging entrepreneurs be prepared for the inevitable challenges ahead and urges them to be resilient in pursuing their dreams, embracing the idea of failing not only as a prerequisite for achieving success, but also a victory in itself because it signifies having had the courage to take action.

How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive

06:01
Take responsibility for the way that you’re showing up and the energy and what’s happening in any group of people or situation, circumstance you’re in
09:14
Every creation deemed successful is composed of the aggregated results of things not going exactly as planned.
10:18
Use the word failing intentionally because failing is not failure. Stumbling is not failure as well.
13:06
We’re going to make mistakes of judgment, we’re going to make mistakes of association, We’re going to put the wrong premium on the wrong things and all of that. And that makes failing constant.
20:38
The idea of chasing perfection, trying to avoid shame or loss or trying not to fail, and therefore become so guarded hiding behind excellence when in actual fact you are just paralyzed by the possibility of losing or of failure.
21:52
If you’re ready, you’re late.
24:56
Why is success a lousy teacher? And as leaders, how can we help our teams to be making the most of all the learning that’s available, whether it’s from success or from failure of things not going as planned?
28:08
We have similar experiences, but the differences will be in how we interpret that experience and how prepared we are for that experience.
31:59
How can we deal with naysayers? What do we do when people are not as motivated as we would hope and maybe even demotivating in their approach to what’s happening with us?
37:13
When people say you can’t do it, often what they’re really saying is they can’t see themselves doing it. It’s not about you at all.
48:25
Reality as a partial representation of truth.

 

Connect with PK

LinkedIn

Website

 

 

The post How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive with Olakunle Soriyan appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive with Olankunle Soriyan

How do leaders use failure to thrive? Too many efforts with potential game-changing outcomes are short circuited by the fear of failing; people with huge ideas become paralyzed by “what ifs,” unable to see past the challenges of today. Shift your perspective and use failure to thrive.

Olakunle Soriyan, known by most as PK, author of A Love Affair With Failure: When Hitting Bottom Becomes A Launchpad To Success, paints “failure” and “failing” as two different realities and mindset. Failure is a destination, a windowless prison that does not exist unless you accept that it does. However, failing is a journey, a launchpad into new knowledge and new beginnings and the key to successful innovation and entrepreneurship. PK builds up emerging entrepreneurs be prepared for the inevitable challenges ahead and urges them to be resilient in pursuing their dreams, embracing the idea of failing not only as a prerequisite for achieving success, but also a victory in itself because it signifies having had the courage to take action.

How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive

06:01

Taking responsibility for the way that you’re showing up and the energy and what’s happening in any group of people or situation, circumstance you’re in

09:14

Every creation deemed successful is composed of the aggregated results of things not going exactly as planned.

10:18

Use the word failing intentionally because failing is not failure. Stumbling is not failure as well.

13:06

We’re gonna make mistakes of judgment, we’re gonna make mistakes of association, We’re gonna put the wrong premium on the wrong things and all of that. And that makes failing constant.

20:38

The idea of chasing perfection, trying to avoid shame or loss or trying not to fail, and therefore become so guarded hiding behind excellence when in actual fact you are just paralyzed by the possibility of losing or of failure.

21:52

If you’re ready, you’re late.

24:56

Why is success a lousy teacher? And as leaders, how can we help our teams to be making the most of all the learning that’s available, whether it’s from success or from failure of things not going as planned.

28:08

We have similar experiences, but the differences will be in how we interpret that experience and how prepared we are for that experience.

31:59

How can we deal with naysayers? What do we do when people are not as motivating as we would hope and maybe even demotivating in their approach to what’s happening with us?

37:13

When people say you can’t do it, often what they’re really saying is they can’t see themselves doing it. It’s not about you at all.

48:25

Reality as a partial representation of truth.

 

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The post How Leaders Use Failure To Thrive with Olankunle Soriyan appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Job Interview: The Best Way to Showcase Your Unique Talents (Video)

Nail Your Next Job Interview By Showcasing Your Unique Value

I get frustrated and sad when I see highly qualified people unable to sell themselves in a job interview– particularly when they seem to be so qualified.  It happened again, perhaps you know someone who can benefit from this story and the actions that followed.

Meet Me in St. Louis

The sweet woman next to me on the flight from Denver to St. Louis shared her story about her frustrating series of job interviews.

She had a masters in education and yet kept piecing together teaching assistant jobs to make ends meet for her and her 7-year-old son. This meant no benefits and often waitressing on the side. She couldn’t seem to get hired in a permanent gig. “I just don’t seem to be what they’re looking for.” She had a job interview that afternoon for a “real” teaching job. Game on.

When I asked her about what “they were looking for” in previous interviews, the conversation led to rubrics and curriculum and other teacher-y words. Her lack of experience drained the confidence from her explanation. “I keep trying to figure out what they want, and I think that makes my answers fuzzy.”

So we had a quick impromptu coaching session over a couple of cranapple juices and a bag of snack mix.

I asked.

Why are you passionate about education?  What makes you unique as a teacher?

Seat 14 B suddenly radiated new energy. She told me stories of raising her son bi-lingual and how she incorporates that into the classroom. How she’s an artist and how she combines art history with reading and writing in interactive field trips in the park. She shared her proactive efforts to learn at conferences and share with her peers.

And so, I asked the obvious question.  Have you ever shared any of that in a job interview? 

She stopped. “No.”

They Don’t Know They’re Looking For You

 

In an effort to be what “they” want in a job interview, she was masking her gifts. They can’t possibly think they are looking for a bi-lingual artist, with a master’s in teaching, and a passion for making reading fun. It doesn’t mean they won’t jump when they see that. I would want my first grader in her class.

Teacher’s Homework

The flight was ending so we outlined an approach for her next job interview.

Identify the 3 gifts that differentiated her as a teacher (Art, Languages later I found she knows more than 2) and Teaching Reading.Practice the starting statement here’s what I’m about (she needed an elevator speech)Prepare examples that highlight her 3 gifts (specifics, with outcomes and results)Anticipate the tough questions, and weave in her giftsEnd with confidence (and avoid self-sabotaging words)Another Important Tool to Nail Your Job Interview

How to Make an Even Better Career Elevator Pitch

What’s One Piece of Advice You Wish You Learned Sooner

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How to Make Better, Frequent Employee Recognition a Daily Habit

Why Gallup Question 4 Matters: “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.”

When employees come to us venting their frustrations that their boss doesn’t value or appreciate their hard work, it’s usually not about who got the plaque in the end-of-year meeting. Of course, the time you spend on getting your formal employee recognition right matters. But you know what matters much, much more?

Frequency.

More people saying thank you more often.

And it’s not just front-line employees sharing their lack-of-appreciation-induced frustration. In fact, it’s one of the hottest topics in senior-level coaching conversations.

“I just wish my boss would say thank you!”“We always talk about where we have to improve, I just wish we could take a breath and look at how far we’ve come.”“I just finished a big project, and my manager didn’t even acknowledge it before she dumped the next one in my lap.”“Arghh, I haven’t even spoken to my boss in a week, I’m not sure they even know what I’m doing.”“Our virtual one-on-ones are always about the work on my plate, never about what I’ve accomplished.”“I’ve worked for this guy for a year, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard what I’m doing well, only what I need to do better.”“My boss does great recognizing employees on the front line, but behind closed doors with his direct report team, it’s a whole other story. I don’t need much. Just a simple thank you would make a difference.”

If you’re familiar with the Gallup organization and its extensive research on employee engagement, you know they focus on a dozen key drivers of employee engagement, known as the Q12 survey.

Question 4 reads, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

Why 7 days?

Because frequency matters.

It’s the cadence of positive reinforcement that creates a consistent dopamine response. People need to feel seen and appreciated regularly to feel valued.

You get more of what you regularly encourage and celebrate and less of what you ignore.

How to Get Better at Consistent Employee Recognition and AppreciationSchedule time each week (or daily) for informal recognitionKeep track of who you’ve appreciated and howEncourage others to notice and celebrate what’s workingVary your celebration and employee recognition methodsTake an extra three seconds in your emailsAsk for feedback on how your appreciation is landing

Informal recognition doesn’t need to take long. Imagine how many people you can appreciate in a block of just ten minutes on your calendar. Here are a few practical habits that can help.

1. Schedule time each week (or daily) for informal recognition

Some leaders I know make this the first task of the day, every day. It becomes automatic. Just like pouring that first cup of coffee.

Of course, when you begin your day with a bit of celebration, you feel better too.

If every day feels overwhelming, start with a slightly longer block one day a week. Schedule the finish by putting it on your calendar, as you would other meetings. If something comes up, don’t cancel it. Commit to rescheduling the time to keep your commitment to employee recognition.

2. Keep track of who you’ve appreciated and how

Giving yourself a micro-goal can make all the difference.

If you have a large, or remote team, you might find it helpful to keep a list of your employees’ names on your desk and record each time you gave them appreciation or recognition that week.  When I’ve done this, I’ve often been surprised at who I’ve overlooked on any given week, and then make a deliberate effort to notice something important.

3. Encourage others to notice and celebrate what’s working

The larger and more disbursed your team is, the more help you’re going to need. Set up systems and people to help you, even with your informal employee recognition. It doesn’t have to be a big formal process.

For example, each week, you might ask your direct reports to give you three people to call and thank them for their work. You don’t even need to know the whole story. You can just ask open-ended questions, such as…

“Hey, I heard you did a great job on ______.Can you tell me more?I’d love to hear how you did that.What are you most proud of about this?What are you excited about next?

And of course, you don’t always need to be involved. Carve out time and encourage your team to appreciate and celebrate one another.

4. Vary your celebration and employee recognition methods

When we teach communication, we talk about the importance of 5×5 communication. An important part of capturing people’s attention is mixing up the WAY you celebrate. Sure, thank you emails are always good. And a thank you email every few days certainly can’t hurt. But, imagine the power of mixing in a hand-written note, a video message, a haiku, a cup of coffee, or your manager as a surprise guest popping into your zoom call, just to say thanks.

5. Take an extra three seconds in your emails

Every now and then I have a manager tell me, “yeah, I just tell my employees to not expect too many pleases or thank yous from me.” We’re moving so fast I don’t have time for that.

Okay.  So I just timed it.

Here are appreciation phrases I can type in three seconds or less.Thank you.Great job.Much better.Significant improvementGetting closer.Excellent.Yes!Nice job.Perfect. Game on.And here are a few that can be done in seven seconds or fewer.I appreciate your time.I know this isn’t easy. Thanks for the extra effort.I really appreciate the work you put into this.I’m impressed by the level of research you put into this.I know there’s a lot going on, thanks for making time for this, this weekend.6. Ask for feedback on how your appreciation is landing

If you’re not sure how people on your team want to be recognized, ask them. No one will be offended if you set a clear intention to do this better. “It’s really important that you know how much I value you and your important contributions to the team. Beyond the usual that everyone wants (e.g. raises, bonuses etc), what kind of recognition do you find most meaningful?

And don’t be surprised if you hear “gosh, I just really like a sincere thank you.” If you hear that, keep those thank yous flowing.

More Tips to Get Better at Regular Appreciation

 

Your turn.

What are your best practices for better, frequent employee recognition? How do you ensure your people have felt appreciated and valued every week?

See Also:

How Your Employee Recognition Program Can Destroy Morale

And, How to Help Your Employee’s Performance Stand Out for Better Recognition 

The post How to Make Better, Frequent Employee Recognition a Daily Habit appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.