David Dye's Blog, page 57

How to Lead a Team That Lacks Urgency

“My team lacks urgency. I’ve got to follow up on everything or we miss deadlines. I’m tired of babysitting. How can I ensure things get done on time?” Sound familiar?

In this episode, you’ll get five ways to help get things moving. Paradoxically, sometimes leaders with a high internal sense of urgency can struggle with this the most. But the good news is that there are just a few straightforward tools you can use to help everyone work effectively and meet those deadlines.

 

(01:48)
Let’s start with five steps to get things done and help your team develop a common sense of urgency.

(02:00)
Urgency means different things to different people. Folks naturally have a different perspective on what matters and why it matters.

(02:27)
Help your team be as effective as possible and lower your stress level by creating a common understanding of timeframes, and shared commitments.

(02:46)
Leadership starts with you. If your team lacks urgency, pay attention to how you respond to tasks, opportunities, and problems.

(03:34)
A critical step to help a team that lacks urgency is to identify routine tasks so you can schedule the finish.

(07:00)
The second category of tasks is the things that aren’t routine. These can be delegated assignments, project work multi-part tasks. For high urgency leaders, these are the tasks that usually needed to be completed yesterday.

(10:10)
The final way to help a team that lacks urgency is to reinforce it with celebration and accountability. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage, and less of what you criticize or ignore. Reinforce what’s working for the routine items.

(11:38)
Remember, people’s sense of urgency varies. Use these tools to get everyone on the same page.

The post How to Lead a Team That Lacks Urgency appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

How Do I Have More Impact and Influence at Work? Video with Liz Wiseman

How do I have more impact and influence at work?

For this Asking for a Friend,  I talk with Liz Wiseman, Thinkers 50 award winner and author of Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact about what it means to be an impact player instead of an ordinary contributor.

Liz Wiseman’s book is based on research conducted with a variety of companies including Adobe, LinkedIn, and SAP, to determine what behaviors affect someone’s influence at work.

This interview was particularly fun for me, because of the opportunity to reconnect with Liz (we first met through her Multiplier of the Year award program back in my Verizon days. LOL If you want to see a much younger Karin talk about “Being a Talent Magnet” click here.)

Increase Your Influence at Work (conversation highlights)Five practices of Impact Players 5:10 Make yourself useful

“While others do their job, Impact Players do the job that needs to be done.”

What separates the ordinary contributors from those with impact is how they handle the messy stuff. In the messy middle, most people stick with “doing their job.” Impact players don’t just do that – they also step into what needs to be done. Their job description is a basecamp but they feel free to serve where needed, too.

10:10 Step up, step back“While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.”

It’s not only about how willing people are to lead, but how they are to follow.
How do you handle “leaderless” situations? When in the ordinary contributor mindset, we wait for direction. When in impact mindset, we step in and lead. Impact people are also willing to step back and follow as energetic participants. They are comfortable in both roles.

18:08 Finish stronger

“While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line and build strength along the way.”

When unforeseen obstacles show up, ordinary contributors tend to escalate it up, whereas an impact player will retain ownership and get things across the finish line. They don’t finish at all costs or end with bitterness. They involve those above them but don’t pass it off completely to someone else to fix.

24:10 Ask and adjust“While others attempt to manage and minimize change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change.”

Impact players don’t just manage change, they adjust. Impact players know that the world is moving fast and they are oriented to receive feedback to make healthy adjustments. They see feedback as information about their work more than about themselves so they can focus on keeping the work on track.

27:34 Make work light

“While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.”

Most people are carrying their weight, but impact players also make work lighter for other people.
They are easy and fun to work with. They don’t engage in drama.

29:24 Being an impact player and increasing your influence at work also helps you accelerate your career.

Your turn. What do you see as the most important behaviors for greater influence at work?

The post How Do I Have More Impact and Influence at Work? Video with Liz Wiseman appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Have More Impact and Influence at Work? Video with Liz Wiseman

How do I have more impact and influence at work?

For this Asking for a Friend,  I talk with Liz Wiseman, Thinkers 50 award winner and author of Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact about what it means to be an impact player instead of an ordinary contributor.

.

Liz Wiseman’s book is based on research conducted with a variety of companies including Adobe, LinkedIn, SAP, to determine what behaviors affect someone’s influence at work.

This interview was particularly fun for me, because of the opportunity to reconnect with Liz (we first met through her Multiplier of the Year award program back in my Verizon days. LOL if you want to see a much younger Karin talk about “Being a Talent Magnet” click here.

Increase Your Influence at Work (conversation highlights)Five practices of Impact Players 5:10 Make yourself useful

“While others do their job, Impact Players do the job that needs to be done.”

What separates the ordinary contributors from those with impact is how they handle the messy stuff. In the messy middle, most people stick with “doing their job.” Impact players don’t just do that – they also step into what needs to be done. Their job description is a basecamp but they feel free to serve where needed, too.

10:10 Step up, step back“While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.”

It’s not only about how willing people are to lead, but how they are to follow.
How do you handle “leaderless” situations? When in the ordinary contributor mindset, we wait for direction. When in impact mindset, we step in and lead. Impact people are also willing to step back and follow as energetic participants. They are comfortable in both roles.

18:08 Finish stronger

“While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line and build strength along the way.”

When unforeseen obstacles show up, ordinary contributors tend to escalate it up, whereas an impact player will retain ownership and get things across the finish line. They don’t finish at all costs or end with bitterness. They involve those above them but don’t pass it off completely to someone else to fix.

24:10 Ask and adjust“While others attempt to manage and minimize change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change.”

Impact players don’t just manage change, they adjust. Impact players know that the world is moving fast and they are oriented to receive feedback to make healthy adjustments. They see feedback as information about their work more than about themselves so they can focus on keeping the work on track.

27:34 Make work light

“While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.”

Most people are carrying their weight, but impact players also make work lighter for other people.
They are easy and fun to work with. They don’t engage in drama.

29:24 Being an impact player and increasing your influence at work also helps you accelerate your career.

Your turn. What do you see as the most important behaviors for greater influence at work?

The post Have More Impact and Influence at Work? Video with Liz Wiseman appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

How Leaders Can Build Team Commitment – Fast

Cultivate team commitment with answers to deep questions.

Trust takes time, but sometimes you need to get everyone working together quickly. You can accelerate team commitment by focusing on critical leadership behaviors that answer key questions your team is asking.

Start with Shared PurposeBe Real and TransparentCare for Your Team and Have Their BackPractice Celebration and Accountability

Does any of this sound familiar?

Your business quadrupled in the past year and new people are everywhere. Or, you just went through a big restructure, and suddenly you’re leading a team of people who don’t know you or one another. Or maybe you’ve been assigned to an urgent project and you find yourself leading a new project team full of players who don’t know one another.

However you got there, one fact is true: to succeed you need to build a team that’s able to work well together and get results–and you need to do it fast.

Creating real trust and the psychological safety that leads to great performance takes time. There’s no substitute for the confidence your team will get from working together, learning one another’s strengths, and experiencing reliability. But you can speed up the process and improve team commitment to outcomes and one another by focusing on these four activities.

Each activity answers critical questions your new team is asking. Strong, clear answers everyone can see in action create a firm foundation for results and trust.

1. Start with shared purpose.

The driving question for any team is “Why are we here?” The unifying focus for any team is their shared reason for existence. What is the motivating story behind the work you do? How are people better off because of your team’s effort?

You cannot over-communicate your team’s shared purpose. This is the drumbeat that moves through all the work you’ll do together. It is the answer to every decision you’ll make. Don’t stop with a surface answer to this question. Keep asking why until you get to the foundation of the difference you make. Then communicate it five times, five different ways–and then do it again.

2. Be real and transparent.

The next questions your new team members are asking are “What’s going on?” and “Can I trust you?”

One of your most powerful leadership strategies to address both questions is transparent communication. In the absence of information, people fill in the blank with many explanations. These explanations are often far worse than the truth.

Be a leader people can count on to tell the truth–especially if it’s uncomfortable or unpleasant. Your vulnerability and authenticity help people know they can rely on you. That you won’t hold back or play games with them. Equally important is a very clear picture of what success looks like. What are you doing together? How does each person successfully contribute to that outcome?

As events unfold, the mantra “Here’s what I know. Here’s what we don’t know. And here’s how you’ll know when I know” will be a critical part of your leadership communication.

3. Care for your team and have their back.

The next question they’re asking is “Do I matter to you–not just the company?” They want to know that you have their back, to believe you’d walk through fire for them, and to take the proverbial bullet coming from above. Your team’s commitment to one another and their work is a mirror of your commitment to the team. There are several ways you can show your team that you support them.

Advocate for them and their ideas. Provide visibility for the work they do. Be the same person with your team as you are with your boss (or their boss). And one of the most important ways to let your team know you care is to take responsibility for their mistakes. When they screw up, don’t throw them under the bus and blame them when your boss asks what’s happening. Take responsibility as the team’s leader and address it within the team.

4. Practice celebration and accountability.

The last question you want to answer as fast as possible is “Do you value my work?” Your team’s commitment depends on yours.

The answer to this question comes through both celebration and accountability. As you start your work together, intentionally create small wins and celebrate them. Let everyone know that success matters. Encourage the team to celebrate one another and the wins as they happen.

And practice accountability. Quickly. Accountability tells everyone that their work matters. Ignoring poor performance or behavior tells your top performers that you don’t value their work. Equip your team with the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method for effective performance conversations. Build a culture where you keep your commitments to one another and don’t let time go by without addressing it when things aren’t working.

Your Turn to Cultivate Team Commitment

You can’t answer these questions in a team meeting or through PowerPoint slides. Your team has to see you live the answers every day. You’ll quickly build trust and commitment as your team learns they can rely on you and, by extension, one another.

We’d love to hear from you: What’s the best way you’ve seen leaders quickly build a team’s trust and commitment?

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Our Team is Growing: How do I Lead Well Now? (With Video)

“Karin, our team is growing. Fast! How do I lead well now?”

“Leading was easy when our team was small, but now our team is growing. What do I do now?”

“How do I scale my leadership influence as my team size grows?”

These are “Asking for a Friend” questions I hear frequently in our leadership development programs. 

How to Keep Leading Well as Your Team is Growing

Here are a few tips that can help you continue to lead well as your team is growing,

1. Translate your leadership vision to tactical, measurable behaviors.

If you want to scale your leadership, you’ll want to ensure that employees at every level understand what success looks like in their role, but also the daily behaviors needed to make it happen.

For example, something as simple as “hold regular one-on-one meetings,” can be open to a wide range of interpretations. What does “regular” mean? What happens in those one-on-ones?

Or, suppose “We are highly responsive to our customers” is vital to your vision. What does that mean for your managers and front-line employees? Does responsive mean you return the call within one hour, or 24? How do you balance responsiveness with productivity? How do you distinguish the truly urgent and important from the noise? What do you do with a chronic complainer?

Playing through these scenarios helps to make your vision real, and makes it easier for your team to provide a consistent experience no matter who is watching.

2. Teach your team how to think.

When you’re a strong, influential leader, and things are going well, it’s easy to overestimate the leadership capacity of your team.

It may seem like they’re leading well, but they may just be following your lead. As your team is growing resist the urge to solve problems FOR them and teach them how to think.

Our “9 What Coaching methodology” can be really helpful as you do this. Try it with your direct reports and then teach them how to

3. Build a highly integrated communication plan.

In the great maternity leave debacle, my biggest mistake was that I was at the center of all the communication.

Instead of attending skip-level meetings to SUPPORT my team leader’s messages and approach, I brought the message and worked to build trust WITH ME. I answered all their tough questions, as opposed to preparing my team managers to do so.

When I stepped away, my managers did not have the experience, skills, or courage to step into that role (see also How to Be a More Courageous Manager).

I’ve learned that to scale your leadership, one of the best approaches is to ensure that every manager on the team has a closely aligned and integrated 5×5 communication plan.

Of course, as the leader, you want to be a highly visible communicator. Even better when your direct reports are all amplifying and supporting your messages with their own 5×5 plan.

4. Build an infrastructure for courage and innovation.

One of the real joys and benefits of having a large team is all the hearts and minds you include as you work to improve the business.

To lead well as your team is growing you will want to build a deliberate approach to asking for and responding to ideas (note: sharing this article with your team can help).

5.  Find, develop and encourage informal influencers.

In addition to your direct report team, if you want to build your influence as your team is growing, seek out (and build relationships with) the informal opinion leaders and change agents on your team.

As my teams got larger and larger, I found this was absolutely vital to creating buy-in for our change efforts.

For example, when I was leading a 2000 person sales team, we consistently held operational excellence rallies where our highest performers were not only recognized for their contributions, but also served as teachers of best practices.

We also pulled a dozen front-line sales reps out of their day jobs and turned them into change agents for our key strategic initiatives. This worked like magic because they were well-respected, fun, and less intimidating than those of us with bigger position power. Their fellow reps could be real with them about their challenges and concerns, and then they could roll up their sleeves together to try out the new desired behaviors.

Each year, I also led a skip-level mentoring circle of high-potential store managers where we worked on real business challenges together.

When we needed to make a change, communicate a new priority or gather candid feedback, I had a whole network of trusted relationships beyond my direct report team to help quickly engage with the larger team.

Not only was this a great way to scale my leadership as my team was growing, but also enabled me to grow leadership bench strength at a very deep level.

Your turn. What advice do you have for someone whose team is growing fast?

The post Our Team is Growing: How do I Lead Well Now? (With Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The Long Game with Dorie Clark

Do you feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind? How can you break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful life that focuses on what matters most – in the long run? In this engaging episode, Dorie Clark gives you unique principles and frameworks to help you reorient yourself, see the big picture, and tap into the power of small changes. It’s not an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life, leadership, and your career. That’s playing The Long Game.

Long Term Thinking – Insights from Dorie Clark and The Long Game

The books I mention in this episode are:

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny OdellSacred Earth Sacred Soul by John Philip Newell

4:08 – How do you pick your favorite drawing of a President?

7:00 – Defining the Long Game: the surest path to meaningful and lasting success in a world that so often prioritizes what’s easy, quick, and shallow

9:24 – The passion and experience that led Dorie to write The Long Game

11:40 – How long-term thinking and leading yourself first make you a better leader

13:31 – The need for white space and how our calendars are often prisons of our own making

15:53 – Why we tend to over-schedule

17:36 – One of the most simple ways to reclaim some white space and build margin for long-term thinking

20:05 – Responding to meeting requests and limiting your time in unproductive meetings

21:04 – The question to ask instead of “Can I do this?”

23:28 – Another question to ask yourself to determine if something is of long-term value to you

25:40 – Optimize for interesting – an awesome decision-making strategy to play the long game

29:52 – The power of leverage and how to make something count twice

33:42 – Why recognizing your constraints is a vital driver of creativity and better decision-making

36:07 – Small changes you can make to start reclaiming your time and long-term thinking

38:21 – The danger of baseline syndrome and how to overcome it

42:04 – Keeping the faith: staying motivated through obstacles, discouragement, and heartbreak

51:54 – Quiet, silence, and reflection.

Connect with Dorie

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube

Get Dorie’s Book

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Leadership Growth – Are You Coachable?

Leadership growth requires feedback and continual learning

It’s no exaggeration to say that if you’re done learning, you’re done leading. The world changes. People grow. And your influence will grow too if you invest in your leadership growth. But that growth is a choice – and one that not every leader will make.

I recently spoke with a senior executive who surprised me with her vehemence. “At my level, you’ve either got the skills or you don’t. I don’t believe I can learn anything by asking my team esoteric questions about where I can improve.”

Wow. I left the conversation saddened for her–and for her team. Sad for her because she lived in a self-limited world where she couldn’t grow her influence. And sad for her team because she wasn’t open to the feedback they could offer. Everyone would suffer.

Another time, we were working with an organization’s managers and having them rate the leadership behavior where they felt the most need to improve. As the managers moved around the room and sorted themselves into groups based on their perceived needs, we asked the senior executive which behavior he would choose.

“Oh, I’m good at all of these,” he replied.

We looked up and 90% of the managers had clustered around “prioritizing what matters most.” We suggested that if 90% of his managers felt that was an issue for them, it might be an issue for him.

Both leaders shared a lack of humility and resistance to feedback. These characteristics will stunt their leadership if they don’t change. In contrast, many leaders we work with who achieve spectacular results and occupy top-tier positions have an insatiable appetite to learn, grow, and constantly ask for input that will help them improve.

Unsolicited Feedback Saved My Life

I’m a big fan of coaching, feedback, and getting all the wisdom I can–from wherever I can find it. It’s no exaggeration to say that feedback saved my life – and I hadn’t asked for it.

During the summer before I started college, I worked at a gas station in a rougher part of town. Bullet-proof glass completely enclosed the cashier’s booth.

One week in July, it was my turn to work the graveyard shift. During the overnight shifts we were only supposed to exit the bullet-proof glass enclosure once all the customers left the store, and we had flipped a switch that locked the front door.

On my first overnight shift, I followed the procedures. But by the second night, I got sloppy. I waited until all the customers left the store (or so I thought) and left the enclosure to prepare hotdog buns.

Midway through my third bun, a scraggly man in stained coveralls surprised me, shoved his finger in my chest, and yelled at me. “Don’t you ever leave that glass without locking the door. My brother was shot and killed in a gas station just like this one! Don’t ever leave that glass.”

Then he turned around and walked out, got in his truck, and drove away.

He’d scared me, and I was angry. “I’m sorry about his brother, but who does he think he is?” I vented to the empty store. But he had scared me…and so the rest of the night, I locked the front door when I left the enclosure.

But then…

Two hours later I was wiping down counters when I heard someone rattling the front door, wanting to get inside. Assuming it was a customer, I went back into the enclosure, locked the door behind me, then flipped the switch to let the customer into the store. But when I looked up, there was no one at the door. I supposed they got impatient and left.

Just then, three police cars pulled into the lot and turned their spotlights on the dumpster beside the station.

They’d been chasing a man who’d committed armed robbery half a mile down the road. A man who, as he fled the police, had come upon a 24-hour gas station with a kid in the lobby whose back was turned to the doors.

Doors that, until 2 hours earlier, had been unlocked.

The next morning as I pedaled my bike home, I trembled. I’d realized what my arrogance could have cost me. At the very least, that scraggly man had kept me from being held hostage by an armed robber. It’s very possible he saved my life.

And that’s just one moment of feedback. There are countless more times where feedback has made me a better leader, a better father, and a better husband.

So yeah, I’m a fan of feedback.

Invest in Your Leadership Growth

The great thing about feedback is that you don’t have to wait for someone to surprise you with it in the middle of the night. Effective leaders stay coachable and invest in their leadership growth by asking for insights that will help their growth.

Invite Feedback

One of the easiest ways to get meaningful feedback is with a Do-It-Yourself 360 Listening Tour. Choose a focused topic like running a more productive meeting, efficient communication, or helping your team be productive.

Now, write two questions. One that focuses on strength and one that looks at your opportunities. For example:
1) What’s the one most effective part of our team meetings?
2) If you had one recommendation for me to run a more effective meeting, what would that be?

Next, choose a diverse group of people to ask these questions. Choose people who you know to have different perspectives from one another (not just your fans, favorites, or foes).

REAP the Benefit of Feedback

Feedback is a gift and to reap the full benefit of its value, follow these steps. Click here to download a PDF of this leadership growth tool.

R—Reflect to Connect.

As you listen, acknowledge the emotions you’re picking up from the other person. Reflect to connect and ensure that you’ve seen them. For example: “Sounds like you’re frustrated by the…” or “I’m hearing that you really appreciate it when we…”

 

E—Engage in Dialogue.

When you ask for feedback, listen to understand what you’re hearing (not to respond immediately). Check for understanding and ask clarifying questions to verify that you’re clear about their suggestions. At this stage, more conversation might be appropriate, but avoid the temptation to become defensive or try to change their mind. If you do, you’re sending the message that you weren’t really interested in their feedback.

 

A—Acknowledge Their Gift.

As you conclude the conversation, thank the other person for taking the time and thinking about how you can be more effective. You’re not saying you agree with everything they offered. You’re affirming that they gave you something to work with.

 

P—Prepare Your Response

As you ask for feedback, let people know your next steps and how you’ll use their feedback. For example, “I’m asking several people these questions. I’m going to summarize everything I learn and choose one habit to cultivate over the next month. I’ll get back with you and everyone else about what I learned at our meeting on the 30th.”

Your Turn

Asking for feedback and responding to what you learn helps you grow. It will help you address blind spots and opportunities you might have missed as the world changes. Moreover, you’re building a culture of growth. When you ask and people can see you actively invest in your development, it makes it safe for them to do the same.

I’d love to hear from you: what is one of the best ways you’ve seen a leader invest in their leadership growth?

You Might Be Interested In:
• Staying Coachable with Sean Glaze (podcast)
• 7 Reasons Your Feedback is Being Ignored
• How to Show You’re a High-Potential Leader (Before You’ve Led a Team)

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Leading Through Disruption with David Giersdorf

Is there any industry that’s been disrupted more at a global level over the past twenty years than the cruise lines? In this episode, David Giersdorf, a former senior executive in the global cruise, travel, and marketing services industry, gives the roadmap for leading through disruption. It’s optimistic, encouraging, and full of opportunities to help you navigate your company, career, team, and life through the fog of disruption.

Leading Through Disruption

2:00 – Early leadership lessons being “born” into the global travel industry.

3:40 – THe need to balance results with relationships

5:08 – The challenge of disruption

6:05 – The anxiety of navigating through fog and uncertainty

9:18 – How to find the opportunity in every disruption.

13:45 – The role your values play in leading through disruption

16:00 – Where to look to find opportunities during disruptive times

20:05 – How David keeps growing and learning

21:36 – We take a detour to learn more about David’s Iron Man pursuits

22:33 – The role of training and discipline in helping you lead effectively

23:58 – Finding your waypoints – getting at the truth of a situation as quickly as possible.

24:58 – The range of facts you might have available that you might not consider at first

26:29 – The two most common types of disruptions and how to respond

29:12 – How a clear purpose allows you and your team to respond quickly and keep moving through disruption

33:04 – What’s your strategy for staying afloat and ensuring you can keep moving?

34:10 – Find your “first first” – the thing that you must get right or everything else doesn’t matter. It’s not always what you think.

39:33 – Turning the disruption into the core of your future success

42:49 – What to do when you’re looking ahead, seeing opportunities in the disruption, but having trouble persuading others of your perspective.

45:12 – Why patience and perspective are critical if you want to persuade and influence others.

47:21 – The role of anti-fragility – how to make you, your team, and your organization more resistant to bumps and disruptions.

48:30 – Mitigating risk

56:00 – The power of giving over control (both for surviving storms and leading through disruption)

Connect with David Giersdorf

David’s Website
Global Voyages Group
LinkedIn

Get David’s Book

The post Leading Through Disruption with David Giersdorf appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

How To Help Your Team Think Like an Entrepreneur

How to Develop Entrepreneurial Thinking on Your Team

Back in her Verizon days, one of Karin’s favorite questions to ask a team member whom she was encouraging to think like an entrepreneur was:

“If this was your company, would you  _______ (make this decision, hold this meeting, spend money in this matter, invest in this project)?”

As you can imagine, the answer was often. “Errr, well, no, but …”

The conversation after that “but” is at the heart of teaching your team how to think and act like an entrepreneur.

5 Ways to Help Your Team Think Like Entrepreneurs

“Entrepreneurship is a chance to trade a solution to someone who has a problem that needs solving. Solve more problems, solve bigger problems, solve problems more widely, and you’re an entrepreneur. It’s tempting to industrialize this work, to make it something with rules and bosses and processes. But that’s not the heart of it. The work is to solve problems in a way that you’re proud of.” 

– Seth Godin

1. Hire problem solvers.

It’s going to be hard to teach your team to think like entrepreneurs if they’ve always been a “just tell me what to do-er.”

It’s much easier to encourage someone to think like an entrepreneur if they have a track record of innovation and problem-solving.

If you want to hire people with the capacity to think like an entrepreneur, ask about their experience.

What’s the best idea you’ve ever had to improve the business? Tell me about the idea. What did you do with it and what happened as a result?Tell me about a time that you strongly disagreed with your manager. What was the issue? How did you work to resolve the conflict?Describe the most difficult problem you’ve ever faced at work. How did you work to overcome it? What are you most proud of about your approach and what would you do differently the next time?What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made at work? What did you learn?

Hire for courage and innovation and be clear from the very first day of new-hire orientation that you really want your new employees to share ideas.

2. Create clarity around where you need great ideas.

Don’t just tell your team you want them to “think out of the box,” Or that you have “an open door” for them to bring you new ideas. Be sure they clearly understand your strategic direction and what success looks like.

One of the biggest challenges we hear from our fast-growing start-up clients is that it gets more and more difficult to keep everyone aligned on what matters most as the business scales.

Be sure your town hall meetings talk more than EBITDA, with a clear message of “What I need from ya.”  And that you’re communicating your strategic priorities and what matters most at least five times, five different ways. 

3. Make information accessible.

It’s impossible to connect dots you cannot see. When a manager is struggling to think like an entrepreneur, it’s often that they don’t have access to the information they need to be resourceful.

4. Give them a piece of the business to own.

One of the most meaningful leadership conversations David had in his first executive role was informing the middle level and front line leaders that “This is your company.” They were used to a visionary leader calling all the shots, so it took some time for them to get used to the idea that they were responsible for their team and together, shared responsibility for the business.

You don’t need to give someone full P&L responsibility to help them act like an owner of their part of the business. If you want a manager to think like an entrepreneur, find ways to give them both influence and authority. (In general, try never to give responsibility without authority.) This could be a project, a market, and group of customers, or even a group of emerging leaders to develop.

Our strategic empowerment worksheet can help you work with the manager you’re looking to empower, to understand what decisions they can make and which they need to run by you.

5. Reward risk-taking and scaffold failure.

A big difference we see in our fast-growing start-up clients is that risk-taking is not only encouraged, but rewarded. Even when things don’t turn out as planned.

One way to build risk-taking muscles is to encourage and reward the act of taking the risk—especially before everyone knows the results. If you only reward successful efforts, that doesn’t encourage risk-taking—it only encourages “sure bets.” So scaffold your risk-takers with support so they know where to play and not blow up the business, and then reward the attempts.

Another way to do this is to turn your post-mortem meetings into post-meeting celebrations—where you celebrate the learning, the successes, and the “What we can do next times?”

Your Turn

Let’s start a conversation. If you’re part of a large organization, what advice do the big guys have for the start-ups? And the startups have for the big guys?

See Also: 5 Ways to Become an Intrapreneur in Your Organization

The post How To Help Your Team Think Like an Entrepreneur appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Humanity Works Better with Debbie and Kate

Humanity. It works—and it works better. In this heartfelt and moving conversation, Debbie Cohen and Kate Roeske-Zummer help you chart a path that brings humanity (yours and your teams) to work through awareness, choice, and courage. They’ll help you build a healthier, more productive work environment that draws the best—rather than squeezes the most—out of people. Because humanity works better.

Humanity Works Better

1:56 – An early leadership lesson in fire prevention rather than fire fighting

5:24 – Understanding that no one has it all figured out and everyone is figuring out the journey as they go

8:40 – The observations from within and without organizations that led Debbie and Kate to write Humanity Works Better

10:50 – Why human-centered leadership is always your responsibility

12:34 – If things are not quite right in your organization, real change starts with you.

13:54 – Debbie and Kate introduce the five practices you can use to start transforming your leadership and culture.

15:32 – Your most compelling self—and why that matters for leaders.

16:47 – Creating safety and trust

20:55 – One of the biggest leadership myths Debbie and Kate want to change

21:30 – The powerful leadership practice of surrender and not-knowing

25:10 – The three self-limiting fears that can keep you from creating a more human workplace (and what to do about them)

27:00 – What to do when you experience resistance in yourself or your team (look for the fear beneath it)

30:34 – A powerful question to move through your own fears and resistances

33:33 – What to do to create trust and consistency in work environments that are constantly changing and unpredictable

35:02 – Why it’s important to stop focusing on turnover (great resignation) and start focusing on the retention—on the people who are staying

40:16 – The problem with trying to squeeze emotions out of the workplace and why we need them

44:00 – The ultimate way to make our work more fulfilling

46:51 – How being your authentic, unique self brings out the best leader in other people

48:45 – The need to take responsibility for what you create through your life and leadership

50:27 – A practical way to uncover your values and live in alignment with what matters most

55:55 – A powerful story of discovering values, what you will and will not live with, and claiming your voice.

Connect with Debbie and KateWebsiteKate’s TwitterDebbie’s TwitterKate’s LinkedInDebbie’s LinkedInGet the Book

The post Humanity Works Better with Debbie and Kate appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.