David Dye's Blog, page 59

How Do You Create Customer Loyalty? (Video with Shep Hyken)

Your Most Important Customer Loyalty Metric: Do Your Customers Come Back

In this week’s Asking for a Friend, I talk with Shep Hyken, author of I’ll Be Back, discusses how to build customer loyalty and getting customers to come back again and again.

The Basic’s of Customer Loyalty

Karin and Shep talk about how they first met a decade ago while they were both keynoting the International Customer Service Association Conference.

2:40 Shep discusses his current book and the importance of measuring beyond the metrics – measure the behavior and cadence to determine customer loyalty (i.e. Do they come back? Do they return again and again?)

4:30 What is an “Arnie?” Arnold Schwarzenegger made that phrase famous and in this situation it means a customer giving you an “Arnie” (i.e. Emmy/Oscar) because they want to keep coming back.

5:23 “Customer loyalty is not about a lifetime. It’s about the next time, every time.”

Thinking lifetime is too daunting. Instead, what are you doing right now to make sure they are coming back the next time?

Moments of misery, mediocrity, and magic.

7:16 Misery – bad experience

7:24 Mediocrity – mundane, ok, ordinary experience

7:50 Magic – just a little bit better than average. Doesn’t have to be over the top. Create customer amazement.

8:08 Where do you start to ensure your customers return? Seven principles including:

8:47 Everyone in it to win it

9:18 Hiring right and let people do the job they were hired to do is a key step in creating customer loyalty

9:37 Define, in writing, the experience you want to give.

10:00 Is there a leadership approach to Arnies?

10:49 Put it in writing, communicate it over and over, train everyone to it, role model it, keep everyone in alignment, defend the culture, celebrate it when it works.

Becoming a Role Model for Creating Great Customer Experiences

12:13 A story about William – who turned out to be Bill Gates – the value of executives spending occasional days in the field.

16:29 How can I build relationships with clients if they are not there?

17:01 Repeat business vs. loyal business – repetition doesn’t necessarily mean loyal (emotional connection.) Example: deciding based on location or frequent flier miles when perhaps they would choose somewhere else if these elements didn’t exist.

19:14 Clients vs customer. “Client” implies some type of ongoing relationship – B2B. “Customer” tends to be more B2C. Do things not to sell them, but to check on them. Reach out to them. Build a relationship as a partner, not just someone selling something.

Why Many Customer Loyalty Programs Don’t Work

20:39 ” Customer Loyalty” programs, discount programs, and punchcards don’t necessarily mean a loyal customer. Sometimes they come back for the perks, not for the place.

22:27 Nothing has changed in customer service. The methods may have changed, but the basic goals and desires are still there. Don’t make it difficult to get a human to help!

24:42 Why would customers terminate you? Making it hard to find ways to contact you, slow response, being apathetic, etc.

27:13 Shep’s 2-minute keynote: Be nice! It’s not so common. That’s how to build customer loyalty.

Your turn: What would you add? What are your best practices in creating customer loyalty?

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Resourcefulness Matters: How to Help Your Team Be More Resourceful

7 Ways to Encourage Your Team to Be More ResourcefulWhat does it mean to be resourceful?

Our favorite definition of resourceful is, “The ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.”

Quick and clever. Overcome difficulties.

Who doesn’t need more of that on their team right now?

And yet during times of stress, ambiguity, and change, when you need your team to be THE MOST resourceful, some managers clamp down, insist on the old ways of doing things, and slow their team down.

In our research on innovation and psychological safety, 67% of employees said their manager operates around the notion of “this is the way we’ve always done it.”

It’s tricky to be quick and clever in a scene like that.

Like other human resource competencies, resourcefulness needs to be taught and nurtured, through deliberate focus and training.

7 Ways to Help Your Team Be More Resourceful

So how do you teach and encourage resourcefulness in your leaders and on your team?

1. Build an infrastructure for resourcefulness.

First, if you want your team to be more resourceful, be sure you don’t sabotage natural creativity and resourcefulness with your infrastructure, rules, and words.

For example, consider a highly competitive culture where people or regions are stack-ranked against one another. They’re not likely to reach out and ask one another for help or share best practices.

Be sure your team knows that their competition is mediocrity, not the guy in the Zoom window next door.

Similarly, if even small decisions require multiple layers of approval, your team will lose energy to try new things. Or if people think they’ll get in trouble for their creativity, they won’t risk it.

A good place to start is to set clear parameters for decisions so employees understand where they’re truly empowered to try new approaches and get scrappy—and where you’d rather they not.

Of course, sometimes an abundance of resources can actually sabotage your ability to grow resourceful leaders.

The most resourceful leaders I know learned how to do more with less because they had to. Be sure you’re giving your team some opportunities to get resourceful and scrappy.

2. Get to know your team (beyond what they bring to their day job.)

Chances are you’ve got people on your team who have some fantastic skills you didn’t hire them for.

One of our favorite examples of this was when Karin worked with thirty BPOs (outsource contact centers) in her role leading the Strategic Partnership Channel at Verizon.

These companies were all running on tight margins and focused on building high-engagement cultures. The internal Verizon centers always held fancy kick-off meetings and the outsourced centers wanted to hold one too. But they just didn’t have the same budget.

So, they tapped into the talent on their teams and held kick-offs in the parking lot.

Service reps painted props or sewed some curtains into a make-shift backdrop. Employees formed ad-hoc rock bands. Others danced or made up lyrics to songs that reflected their most important strategic priorities. There were baggies with candy reinforcing key messages. Managers brought in their own grills to cook the burgers.

No fancy budget. Lots of fun.

And guess what?

Strategic messages got through just as well (if not better) than if we had rented a fancy room at a gigantic sound system and tee-shirt blasters.

This works for other aspects of the business too. Ask your team what they love to do most and look for creative ways to use their gifts.

The other day, one CEO we work with was using our developmental discussion planner to have a career conversation with a senior-level direct report (who we’ll call Kim). Kim began sharing experiences from a role at a previous company and why they had been so meaningful to her. Not too far into the conversation, they both realized they could call off the external search for a new role, and give Kim the opportunity to try it.

3. Invest in your network.

Encourage your team to invest in a network of trusted strategic relationships inside and outside your company. Having a diverse group of people you trust to tell you the truth and challenge you can save you a lot of time and wasted effort.

Before starting a new initiative, ask your team to reach out to their network and learn from their best practices and mistakes. “Who is doing this well? And what can we learn from them to save us some time?”

Of course, the best way to build a network of useful resources is to be a resource to them.

4. Ask “How can we?”

When it comes to resourcefulness, three of the most powerful words you can teach your team are “How can we?”

“I know we don’t have the time we usually do to pull this off, but HOW CAN WE accomplish this in half the time?”“We don’t have the budget we did last year, but HOW CAN WE ensure this customer event is just as meaningful?”“I know everyone’s working from home, but HOW CAN WE run this strategic planning meeting as well as if we were in person?”

One time David led a team that brought together 4,500 people from across the city in a matter of days to take advantage of a generous opportunity. When confronted with the opportunity, it seemed impossible. A few “How can we?” conversations later, the team figured out how to get it done. “How can we?” is a powerful creative force.

5. Start small (the power of a great pilot.)

Even if you’re in a big company with lots of resources, you don’t have to try all new ideas at scale.  Teach your team the art of intrapreneurship by piloting ideas on a small scale first to see how they work.

6. Normalize asking for help.

It’s easy for everyone to assume that everyone else is so busy, they don’t have time to help. And yet, sometimes just a little help can go a long way. Resourceful teams create space in their meetings for people to ask for the help they need and to celebrate the help they’ve received.

7. Iterate.

Before you build something new from scratch, look at what’s come before. Sure, you want that project to be just perfect for that new client, but before starting with a blank sheet of paper, take time to identify best practices as building blocks to iterate from.

Talk about It

Most importantly, if you want your team to be resourceful, have deliberate conversations about resourcefulness.

“What’s the most efficient way we can pull this off?”“What other resources might we be able to tap into that we haven’t considered?”“Who can we learn from before we begin this process?”Your turn. What’s your best advice for helping your team become more resourceful?

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A Culture of Integrity with CEO Brittany Burns

How do you transform the culture of a rapidly growing business in an industry that’s not always known for transparency and integrity? Join Simpler Trading’s CEO Brittany Burns and me for a practical look at how you can lead with conviction, build a culture of integrity, and focus on the bottom line.

A Culture of Integrity

2:59 – We begin our conversation looking at the challenges of leading in highly emotional settings where people have strong opinions.

4:12 – Next we discuss how important it is to focus on the humanity of every person. Then to consciously think about what everyone truly wants.

5:28 – Then Brittany introduces us to her company, Simpler Trading.

10:08 – For those who are unfamiliar with the online trading world, we discuss GameStop. What happened there and the education work Brittany’s company does to help.

13:03 – Next we take a look a the importance of leading the way with integrity. How does that play out with regulations, decisions about marketing, products, and convenience or revenue.

14:47 – As you consider a culture of integrity, Brittany shares her benchmark to know whether or not its happening. Do people raise concerns and are they heard? Is every voice getting through when it needs to?

17:47 – Then Brittany shares her “grandma test” for marketing with integrity.

22:17 – Next, Brittany shares what she tells every new hire as they join the company to ensure that they’re speaking up.

22:57 – Because of the culture they’d built, the pandemic pivot went smoothly

24:55 – Why you’re always building a culture, whether you realize it or not.

26:27 – Next, we turn to the importance of organizations serving their community and giving back.

27:10 – Why a great culture led to employee retention when other businesses were losing people.

29:26 – Then we discuss how you practice accountability in a positive culture and why it matters so much.

32:00 – Next we discuss how leaders must role model integrity and responsibility with a look at a specific instance in Brittany’s company.

36:00 – Finally, we examine the role of patience for anyone leading change and transformation in building a culture of integrity. The result pays off in a stronger, more loyal, and productive workforce.

Connect with Brittany

On LinkedIn

 

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Team Conflict: How to Surface and Discuss Simmering Issues (Video)

Address Team Conflict Early Before it Erupts into Something Bigger

We all know that when there is team conflict brewing, it’s only a matter of time before it erupts into something bigger.

It’s like families refusing to talk about the tough stuff, and then one day Uncle Joe is throwing the Thanksgiving turkey off the balcony.

Here’s the good news. You don’t need to be the manager to address team conflict (although these techniques will work great for you too!). In this week’s Asking For a Friend, I share some really practical advice on bringing your team together and having much-needed conversations.

3 Ways to Surface and Heal Team Conflict (Even if You’re Not the Manager)

Here are a few things you can do to surface (and address) the conflict before it does too much destruction.

0:58  1. Talk one-on-one with team members about what you can do to help.

Start humbly. “I really care about this team, our work, and our collective success. I’d like to get some feedback about what I can be doing to better support this team. And, I’d love your thoughts on how we can work more effectively together.

By starting with your own behaviors, you’re more likely to create a psychologically safe environment where others will open up and share their true feelings.

Once you have everyone’s input, you can begin to collect the themes to share with your manager (and the team), as a starting point for a “How can we?” make this better conversation.

1:30 2. Have your team think about their best experiences working on a team

This is a basic appreciative inquiry exercise. But you don’t need to get too fancy. Just ask your manager for a few minutes to do this in your next virtual or in-person team meeting.

Ask your team to reflect on the best team they ever worked on, and why it worked so well. Watch as everyone lightens up and smiles as they share their stories and how it made them feel.

Next, have the team identify the common themes from those stories. What were the characteristics and habits of those high-performing teams, and most importantly, how did they behave?

1:57  3. Ask your team what needs to happen to reach closer to that ideal (get practical.)

Next comes the practical conversation. “How do we do more of that?”

You don’t need a long list. The themes will lead you to the obvious place to start. Work to establish one or two commitments and build from there.

What would you add? How do address conflict on your team (even if you’re not the manager)?

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Don’t Let These Three Common Mistakes Undermine Your Leadership Presence

Overused assets can ruin a positive leadership presence

You work hard to set a positive example for your team. You care about success, and you want your people to succeed. You’ve clarified what matters most and you’re committed to accountability. You’re intentional about your culture. But somehow, your leadership presence isn’t working. You don’t have the connection or influence you hope for.

What’s happening?

Committed, caring, hard-working leaders often have one of three problems interfere with their influence. If any of these issues sound familiar, you can readily overcome them with a few straightforward solutions.

Leadership Presence Mistake #1—Tunnel Vision

Focus is a useful leadership skill, but too much of a good thing becomes a liability. Leaders with tunnel vision can focus on a task and forget about what’s happening to people. Or they obsess on one aspect of their culture but lose awareness of other elements.

If you’ve built up trust and your people believe in your mission, some moments of tunnel vision can help your team reach new heights. But if you don’t widen your view regularly, your people will start to feel ignored.

Antidotes to Tunnel Vision

If you are a leader who gets super-focused and tends to lose sight of your people or the big picture, here are some questions you can ask:

What are people feeling right now?Why are we doing this?What’s the big picture here–what truly matters right now?What will matter most in five or ten years?Where do I need to stretch and grow as a leader?

Each of these questions reconnects you to the bigger picture of your people, the work you’re doing, and your growth.

Leadership Presence Mistake #2—Emotional Splash

Emotional splash is the unproductive drama, negativity, frustration, and stress that you unintentionally dump on other people. We call it “splash” because it’s a little like when a dog comes out of the water. It shakes back and forth to dry off and splashes all that water on whatever (or whoever) is nearby. For many leaders, emotional splash comes from their intensity and drive-useful attributes, but ones that need to be managed.

Emotional splash takes many forms.

Recently, we were in a retail store where a partial wall divided the customer-facing counter from the back of the store. The staff in front cringed (along with all the customers) as their manager berated an employee. The manager wasn’t wrong about the performance issue, but he splashed his frustration all over his customers and the rest of the team (not to mention the employee who needed feedback, but not humiliation).

It’s also the worked-up manager who storms into a meeting, cuts people off, and snaps at her team–not because they’ve done anything wrong, but because her boss treated her poorly. Or the leader who feels stressed and overwhelmed and so spins up a cyclone of drama to make sure their team feels the same way.

All this emotional splash sucks the energy out of people, limits productivity, and undermines your credibility.

Antidotes to Emotional Splash

Emotional splash can be difficult to overcome because you’re not always aware of it. If you suspect you’re prone to emotional splash, a DIY 360 Listening Tour can help. Be sure to listen and simply say “thank you” as people answer your questions.

Get help–you don’t need to bottle up your stress (it will still come out somewhere). Process it. With a friend, a professional, in the gym, or on the trail. (Here are more ways to manage your leadership stress.)Plan for your performance conversations (use our INSPIRE Method).Hold performance conversations privately.Ask yourself: “Am I being the leader I’d want my boss to be?”

This final question is a self-diagnostic tool. If a leader you respect were acting the way you are now, would they still have your respect? If not, there’s a good chance you can make a different choice to better serve your team and the results you want.

Leadership Presence Mistake #3—Toxic Positivity

Toxic positivity is a relentless optimism that ignores or negates other emotions. Once again, optimism can be healthy and powerful. After all, a belief that together we can have a better tomorrow is at the heart of leadership. However, if you insist on positivity to the exclusion of other emotions like grief, frustration, or what Adam Grant popularized as languishing, you will probably alienate most of your team.

Those non-positive emotions are there for a reason. They have a job to do. Ignoring them or wishing them away won’t help your team be more productive. Over time, doing so makes you less trustworthy.

Antidotes to Toxic Positivity

1. Reflect to connect.

If toxic positivity ignores all but positive emotions, healthy positivity does the opposite. Reflect to connect is to acknowledge emotions. For example, “It sounds like you’re feeling pretty discouraged by the results of the …” Or, reflecting a positive emotion: “Wow, sounds like you’re super excited by the opportunity to …”

When you reflect to connect, you acknowledge emotional reality. You connect with a common starting point–how the other person or team feels.

2. Communicate confidence.

Healthy positivity starts with acknowledging genuine emotion, then builds on it with confidence. This may be your belief in your team. It may be the way you’re addressing a situation. Maybe you don’t have the answer yet, but you believe the team can find one.

This isn’t blind hope. What is the basis for your confidence? For example, “I believe in us because when we solved that challenge, we proved we can handle this one.”

3. Engage to empower.

Toxic positivity robs people of power by negating their feelings. A healthy approach to positivity returns power to people. You can do this by asking your team for their input. For example:

“How can we do this in a way we’ll be proud of?”“How might we help our colleagues to solve that problem?”“What are your thoughts about how to …?”

Asking these questions from a sincere place of curiosity engages and re-empowers your team.

Your Turn

A powerful leadership presence gives people confidence in themselves and their collective future. That confidence starts by managing yourself and ensuring your normally healthy focus, drive, and optimism don’t become liabilities.

We’d love to hear from you: Are there other common mistakes that undermine a positive leadership presence?

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Leadership Development that Works with Jennifer Mackin

Leadership development is one of the most important investments you can make in your organization’s success. Unfortunately, there are many ways to do it poorly. The results are lost time, money, credibility – and worst of all, poorly trained leaders. In this episode, Jennifer Mackin, author of Leaders Deserve Better, gives you the roadmap to effective leadership development. There are a handful of principles you can use right now to build a better leadership development strategy (and partner effectively with leadership development experts who can help transform your business).

Leadership Development that Works

2:53 – Traditional leadership development doesn’t work. How Jennifer recognized this and why she wrote Leaders Deserve Better.

4:54 – Next, we look at what we mean by strategies that “works” – simply put, it means leaders are ready.

7:09 – Then we discuss the paradox of training customer-facing roles, but leaving training until after people have these roles (if even then).

11:12 – Why leadership hasn’t changed, but training needs to evolve

13:36 – Next we talk about the need for development to be leader led. You can’t outsource your leadership training. It’s the responsibility of every leader in your organization.

17:30 – So then we look at how the senior leadership team can get started with leader led training.

19:44 – Then we discuss how your people strategy must flow from and be visibly connected to your core business strategy.

22:16 – Now it’s time to clarify…leader led doesn’t mean that every leader is a trainer. It means responsibility and ensuring people are growing and have a development plan.

28:10 – Then we discuss why people development is a leader’s job. And we look at the benefits to overall team performance and time management when you do it well.

30:41 – The next element of effective leadership development is that it is practical and applied to day-to-day work.

34:51 – Next we discuss how the most effective leaders take responsibility for their own development.

38:46 – Finally, we look at how you can get started and take practical next steps to build a strategy that works.

Connect with Jennifer

Website

LinkedIn

Get Jennifer’s Book

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How Do I Balance Empathy and Execution? with Sara Canaday (Video)

Balancing Empathy For Employees Needs with Execution and Accountability

How do I balance empathy and execution? On this week’s Asking For a Friend, I talk with Sara Canady, leadership expert and author of Leadership Unchained.

5 Ways to Think About Empathy at Work

(Read more in her article Leadership Expectations: How to Juggle the Demands of Empathy, Expectations, and Inclusion)

Make your organizational values strong and clearProvide proper trainingKeep the focus on solving the work group’s problemLoop employees in on decision makingGive some employees ownership in the discussion processHighlights from our Conversation about Human Connection and Execution

1:20 People want to show up with genuine empathy, and there are also business realities

1:44 Sara is hearing from overwhelmed leaders who know that being inclusive and giving their employees a voice is important. Yet, they need to meet objectives.

3:05 Empathetic conversations take a lot of time.

3:18 Five ways to think about empathy at work

3:30 Values: redirect and reconnect your team to the “why” of what you are doing. We are fighting for people’s mindshare.

5:18 If you are expecting leaders to facilitate challenging conversations with empathy, they need to be equipped to do it.

7:10 Some recommended elements for a training program: reinforce guiding principles for interaction, reflect to connect, show up calm, scaffold the agenda so people know the expectation for the time/conversation

11:42 It can be helpful to allow a team member who is equipped well to lead such conversations so this type of work doesn’t always fall on just the team leader

Return to Work

12:40 Return-to-work issues are a big topic right now – loop your employees in on the decision-making. This engages the team, provides more ownership, provides for customization per team.

15:09 Be clear on what success looks like.

16:45 The real emphasis on connecting people to the why is that we have got to get part of our employee’s mindshare back. Way too much is competing for their attention.

“Asking for a Friend”

18:00 Question from a listener who feels like they are being treated like a child.

18:29 Have a conversation with your boss about how you can be of most value/contribute at a standard of excellence, pointing out if the leader’s requirements will help or hinder that and asking what your boss would suggest.

20:14 A study about political discussions – over 60% of leaders have said they have no training for facilitating those types of conversations. 80% of employees wanted their companies to take a stand on a political issue, yet the percentage plummeted when asked if they wanted to discuss politics at work.

22:50 Generational challenges – have some conversations and let people have some wins – how much are you talking about the problems we are trying to solve?

23:55 A company and culture will thrive if leaders are inclusive, give their employees a voice, but also pay attention to the fact that there is a business to run.

24:25 Additional suggestions: At the end of the day, we are working with people. People will drive our results. Create some specific guidelines (i.e. about response times, things that worked/didn’t work). These conversations can lead to more empathy because people may open up.

27:05 Some leaders take on too much of their team’s emotion and stress. Focus on ways to move forward focused on the why of the team and enrolling them into the guiding principles. Leaders aren’t responsible for the individual happiness of each team member.

28:40 Use the word “and” rather than “but.”

29:17 Sara shares about her books, You According to Them and Leadership Unchained.

Your turn. What are your best practices for balancing empathy with execution?

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How to Build a Better Network of Peer Relationships

Don’t Overlook The Importance of Peers in Your Network of Strategic Advisors

When it comes to building a network of strategic advisors, it’s natural to look to people with more position power, access, and influence as your primary go-to’s. Yes, you want a productive relationship with your boss, a mentor who will challenge you, and—if you’re really lucky—a genuine sponsor opening doors. But don’t overlook the importance of a network of strong peer relationships.

4 Vital Peer Relationships To NurtureAn EncouragerA ChallengerAn AdvocateA Technical Advisor

Whenever anyone asks me what leadership lessons I wished I’d learned sooner, I always have the same response.

“I wish I’d invested in deeper and more meaningful peer relationships way sooner than I did.”

This goes beyond, “having a best friend at work,” (which according to Gallup only 30% of us have— which is too bad— since those who do are more engaged and productive).

I’m talking about having a deep network of strategic advisors to help you win.

It’s natural to focus on building a great relationship with your manager. And of course, as a human-centered leader, you focus on connecting with and developing your team.

But a deliberate investment in go-to coworker relationships matters just as much (or even more).

And the good news is that, unlike your manager, who is who they are (and may or may not be able to give you all the support you need), you likely have a number of peers to choose from.

So, you can gather your go-to peer relationships based on what they do best. And you can leverage what you do best to help them.

Here are four key peer relationship players to get you started. What would add?

1. An Encourager

This is the peer you can trust to pick you up when you’re feeling down. You can vent about setbacks and they’ll remind you how wonderful you are.

They’re your “you’ve got this go-to.”

If you’re not getting the appreciation or recognition you crave, your encourager can help you feel seen for who you are, what you’re contributing, and remind you of how important all that is.

Your encourager will shut the door and let you be a bit vulnerable, so you can face your team (or boss… or that mean dude in the other department) with confidence.

2. A Challenger

When it comes to peer relationships, your challenger plays quite a different role from your encourager. While your encourager reminds you of how smart you are, your challenger asks tough and courageous questions that really make you think.

“Are you sure that’s the best approach?”

“Have you considered what would happen if you just stopped doing that?”

“What did you learn from that mistake?”

When you ask your challenger how you could have presented that I.D.E.A. more effectively, you can count on her to tell you the truth.

3. An Advocate

An executive sponsor is great, but let’s face it, they’re not always around. And you don’t want to be consistently running to them asking for their help. Having an advocate or two in your peer relationships network can really make a difference.

Advocates serve a variety of roles, from bolstering your reputation, “you know who’s the best at this?”, to bringing up your name for special projects or opportunities.

Of course, if you want folks to advocate for you, the best approach is to be a staunch advocate for others.

4. A Technical Advisor

Even if you’re the best at what you do, it’s always good to build peer relationships with someone who is even better at the technical aspects of your role.

They’re up on the latest industry trends. Or perhaps they’ve got tons more experience, or they’re fresh out of school with a different perspective. Maybe they’re just wicked smart.

Your technical advisor might not be the best encourager, or may even be a bit rough around the edges, but they’ll help you to get it right.

How to Build These Important Coworker Relationships

Of course, building genuine peer relationships starts with generosity. Need a technical advisor, start by considering what you may offer them. Maybe you can be an encourager or an advocate for them before you seek out their technical expertise.

Back in my Verizon days, one of my favorite peers, Dan, and I were always advocating for one another—but for completely different things. He was my technical expert— he knew everything about the network and call center operations. And I was his HR and team development sounding board. AND, we were constantly bringing up one another’s names when we saw opportunities that were a great fit.

Highly reciprocal. But not forced. And heck yeah, if Gallup had asked, I would have said I had a best friend at work. And yes, we were both highly productive and engaged.

Things to Learn about Your Trusted Coworkers

Of course, relationships like this need to evolve, but a bit of deliberate conversation can help. Here are few things to work to know about the people with whom you’re working on investing in deeper peer relationships.

What’s their MIT (Most Important Thing) that they’re working on (and why is that so important)Who is important to them in their lives (significant others, friends, pets)What’s challenging them or frustrating them?How do they like to communicate?What do they need from you (how can you best help?)How can they best help you? (and have you asked for it)

Your turn. I’d love to hear your stories of great peer relationships. How did you help one another?

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Courage at Work: How to Be More Courageous (and Why it Matters) Video

You want to be more courageous, but sometimes the stakes can just feel too high. So, how do you know the difference between courage and stupidity?

“Courage is every virtue at its testing point” -C.S.Lewis

In this week’s, Asking for a Friend, Karin speaks with Jim Detert, author of Choosing Courage, about what it means, and what it takes, to be a bit more courageous at work.

The Nature of Workplace Courage

1:24 Jim shares about his book and how it’s important not to only know and have the tools for effective leadership, but how at work to use them. And we talk about how challenging “speaking truth to power” (i.e. the boss) can be.

3:40 It’s important to separate courage from courageous actions. We ALL can identify with actions that we or someone else demonstrated toward a worthy or noble cause that carried some risk.

4:27 Courage at work involves risky but worthy actions.

4:39 We’ve allowed ourselves to believe that courage is just a property some people have, but that’s not true.

5:09 Why should courage at work be any different from any other virtue expected on a regular basis (i.e. kindness)?

5:30 Jim shares about a study done with some of his students about people they admire for short and long term. In the long term, courage tends to stand out as the most admirable.

6:30 The myth of the “magical time down the road” when things get less risky.

7:57 Many organizations “talk the talk” about courage, but the sense is that the “yes people” are the ones who actually get promoted.

8:45 Is courage worth it?

9:04 It’s not for one person to decide for another whether courage is worth it. The person needs to ask, “Do I care enough?” and “How important is it to me to be true to myself and authentic relative to potential consequences?” Also, think about longer-term horizons. People tend to look back and talk about positive, courageous things they did or regrets what they didn’t do.

How to Be Competently Courageous

12:09 Some very specific elements of courage.

12:24 Speaking truth to power – some do’s and don’ts. We should choose competent courage – courage that is also skillful.

13:26 It is not just “in the moment.” We also do many things prior to and after that moment that will contribute to that moment of courage.

14:00 Showing up with both warmth and competence

16:05 Develop self-awareness so that we know what may detract from our warmth and competence (i.e. facial expressions)

17:50 Appear to be on both sides, or no side at all, to reduce the feeling of win/lose.

20:44 What’s a good way to not be a yes person and be able to advance your career when the leadership appears to not value that sort of courage? You may have to decide if this workplace is even right for you. Do you want to advance in a toxic organization?

Also, be sure to reframe your points because your boss may be thinking about threats the company is facing more than opportunities you want to see. Pay attention to what is concerning to them. The content can be the same but the framing may need to be different.

23:47 Have a “bags packed” attitude so your career security doesn’t depend on the money or identity you receive from one organization. Think honestly about the notion of loyalty. Sometimes courage at work means being ready to leave.

27:22 What advice do you have for people wanting to change jobs or careers? Get clear on your values and ask yourself what kind of organization, and what kind of boss do you want to work for? Interview the company, don’t just be interviewed. Pick up on signals that may indicate it’s not the place for you. Get things in writing.

30:10 We cannot be someone in 30 seconds what we have not been in the last 10 years…

30:49 One last piece of advice – you are not going to be ready for the big moments if you don’t put in the work every day. Build a courage ladder.

Your turn. What’s been your most courageous act at work? What helped you to muster the courage?

 

The post Courage at Work: How to Be More Courageous (and Why it Matters) Video appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Courage at Work: How to Be More Courageous (and Why it Matters Video)

You want to be more courageous, but sometimes the stakes can just feel too high. So, how do you know the difference between courage and stupidy?

“Courage is every virtue at its testing point” -C.S.Lewis

In this week’s, Asking for a Friend, Karin speaks with Jim Detert, author of Choosing Courage, about what it means, and what it takes, to be a bit more courageous at work.

The Nature of Workplace Courage

1:24 Jim shares about his book and how it’s important not to only know and have the tools for effective leadership, but how at work to use them. And we talk about how challenging “speaking truth to power” (i.e. the boss) can be.

3:40 It’s important to separate courage from courageous actions. We ALL can identify with actions that we or someone else demonstrated toward a worthy or noble cause that carried some risk.

4:27 Courage at work involves risky but worthy actions

4:39 We’ve allowed ourselves to believe that courage is just a property some people have, but that’s not true.

5:09 Why should courage at work be any different from any other virtue expected on a regular basis (i.e. kindness)

5:30 Jim shares about a study done with some of his students about people they admire for short and long term. In the long term, courage tends to stand out as the most admirable.

6:30 The myth of the “magical time down the road” when things get less risky.

7:57 Many organizations “talk the talk” about courage, but the sense is that the “yes people” are the ones who actually get promoted.

8:45 Is courage worth it?

9:04 It’s not for one person to decide for another whether courage is worth it. The person needs to ask, “Do I care enough?” and “How important is it to me to be true to myself and authentic relative to potential consequences?” Also, think about longer-term horizons. People tend to look back and talk about positive, courageous things they did, or regrets of what they didn’t do.

How to Be Competently Courageous

12:09 Some very specific elements of courage

12:24 Speaking truth to power – some do’s and don’ts. We should choose competent courage – courage that is also skillful.

13:26 It is not just “in the moment.” We also do many things prior to and after that moment that will contribute to that moment of courage.

14:00 Showing up with both warmth and competence

16:05 Develop self-awareness so that we know what may detract from our warmth and competence (i.e. facial expressions)

17:50 Appear to be on both sides, or no side at all, to reduce the feeling of win/lose.

20:44 What’s a good way to not be a yes person and be able to advance your career when the leadership appears to not value that sort of courage? You may have to decide if this workplace is even right for you. Do you want to advance in a toxic organization?

Also, be sure to reframe your points because your boss may be thinking about threats the company is facing more than opportunities you want to see. Pay attention to what is concerning to them. The content can be the same but the framing may need to be different.

23:47 Have a “bags packed” attitude so your career security doesn’t depend on the money or identity you receive from one organization. Think honestly about the notion of loyalty. Sometimes courage at work means being ready to leave.

27:22 What advice do you have for people wanting to change jobs or careers? Get clear on your values and ask yourself what kind of organization, and what kind of boss do you want to work for? Interview the company, don’t just be interviewed. Pick up on signals that may indicate it’s not the place for you. Get things in writing.

30:10 We cannot be someone in 30 seconds what we have not been in the last 10 years…

30:49 One last piece of advice – you are not going to be ready for the big moments if you don’t put in the work every day. Build a courage ladder.

Your turn. What’s been your most courageous act at work? What helped you to muster the courage?

 

The post Courage at Work: How to Be More Courageous (and Why it Matters Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.