David Dye's Blog, page 61
August 9, 2021
How to Give Difficult Feedback to Your Boss (Even When You’re Scared)
You have some difficult feedback for your boss, but you’re not quite sure they’re ready to hear it. It might feel safer to stay silent. After all, they can’t shoot the messenger if there’s no message.
But if you stay silent, the problematic behavior will only continue, or even get worse.
If you want to get better at giving upward feedback start with these six steps.
Ground yourself in connection and intention.Set up a time to talk in a private place.Be objective and specific.Ask for their perspective.Probe for opportunities to help.Schedule the finish.6 Steps to Get Better at Difficult, Upward FeedbackYour boss is an imperfect human, doing the best they can. Just like you. They don’t brush their teeth in the morning dreaming up ways to be more difficult and frustrating to you and the rest of the team.
Maybe they’re unaware of the impact of their behavior. Or perhaps they’ve had a bad role model or two. Or, it could be they’ve not received the leadership training or 360 feedback they need to improve.
Start with the benefit of the doubt that this can and will work, be the leader you want your boss to be, and make a plan to get better at giving difficult feedback.
1. Ground yourself in connection and intention.For years, we’ve been asking this critical question in our leadership development programs:
If you knew someone truly cared about you, your career, and the success of the team, would you want to hear difficult feedback, even if it was hard to hear?
Every single time, every hand in the room goes up.
Every person with that raised hand is somebody’s boss.
Of course, we’re not naive. We’ve both been there and heard the stories. We’ve both experienced the wrath of a toxic boss responding poorly to difficult feedback and have heard from many of you about the times it didn’t go well.
But we also know this.
If you start your difficult feedback with genuine human connection and a good intention, your chances of getting through improve exponentially.
Try something like this:
2. Set up a time to talk in a private place.“I really care about you and the success of this team. I have an observation (or idea) that I think could really improve ________ (insert desired outcome here, e.g. productivity, the customer experience, revenue, morale.) Would you be open to talking about it?”
Most of the time when difficult feedback goes wonky, the timing or location is off. The easiest way to ensure your feedback will be met with defensiveness is to share it in front of others. Or, to give it from a place of anger or frustration.
Setting up a time and place to talk in private gives you a chance to think through your approach and makes it easier to have a focused conversation. The privacy signals your genuine concern for your boss and conveys respect for them and their position.
3. Be objective and specific.When hearing difficult feedback, nothing is more frustrating them vague feedback with no examples.
“Everyone is feeling frustrated by your angry, terse attitude,” would be difficult for anyone to hear.
“In yesterday’s meeting, I noticed you raised your voice and cut off both Jon and Kathy when they were sharing their ideas. And after that, no one spoke up again,” is an easier starting point.
Note: If you’re familiar with our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. method for tough conversations, these are the N (Notice) and S (Support) steps.
4. Ask for their perspective (and really listen.)“I know it’s been a challenging few weeks, how are you feeling? What’s going on for you?”
Or you can even take a “reflect to connect” approach. “You seem really frustrated with our team right now. Am I right? What’s weighing on you the most?”
5. Probe for opportunities to help.Next, try an open-ended question that offers your support.
“I’d love to help our meetings go more smoothly. How can I best support you?”
“What do you think we can do differently to reduce frustration?”
Note: This might feel frustrating at first. You might be thinking, “Hey, they’re the one with the problem!”
But chances are, this gentle, empathetic approach will help get underneath the root causes of their behaviors. And you might even get an, “Hey, it’s not you, it’s me. Here’s what I can do differently.”
6. Schedule the finish.If you’re familiar with our 6 concepts you can’t lead without, you know we’re big believers in “scheduling the finish.”
And, we always recommend that you close an I.N.S.P.I.R.E. feedback conversation with a direct report by scheduling time to talk about the behavior again.
You can do this with your manager too (depending on their receptivity to the earlier steps).
“It sounds like we all have some things we can do to reduce the frustration around here, and I think we have a good path forward. Do you want to chat again after our next team meeting?”
Giving difficult feedback to your boss is rarely easy. But, practice builds confidence. And the best way to work for a better boss is to help them grow.
The post How to Give Difficult Feedback to Your Boss (Even When You’re Scared) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
August 6, 2021
Mastery Under Pressure with Tina Greenbaum
As a leader do you ever feel overwhelmed and stressed? Keep running into the same limiting mindset or patterns, but don’t know how to fix them? In this episode, you’ll discover a system used by world-class athletes, performers, and CEOs to build their confidence, achieve transformational results, and overcome their limiting mindsets. Performance mastery specialist Tina Greenbaum will give you practical tools to achieve mastery under pressure.
Mastery Under Pressure1:21 – Meet Tina Greenbaum, high-performance coach to CEOs, athletes, and politicians. (And a high-performance mom too!)
2:44 – Tina’s background caring for people and her earlier leadership memory
5:42 – How Tina discovered the roots of performance coaching from her work as a therapist helping people with eating disorders
7:27 – Then we discuss how you can think about Tina’s insights and the opportunities to apply them to your leadership and areas of life where you want to grow
9:37 – The need to access the deeper parts of your mind and body in order to achieve results
12:10 – Where our bad habits come from and how to think about them compassionately
15:31 – Next we discuss how to cultivate your awareness to identify the areas that act as roadblocks
24:19 – A deep dive into how leaders can work with their stress and help resolve it
27:18 – How to activate your brain and tap into deeper wisdom
29:03 – Your limited ability to focus and how to get the most from that resource
34:09 – How to free your mind to focus on what’s most important – with less stress
36:14 – Why the skill of relaxation is vital for high performance and how to achieve productive relaxation quickly
41:04 – Next we discuss the vital role authenticity plays for today’s top leaders and why doing the work of honestly looking at yourself is marketable (not to mention important for your own health and wellness)
42:39 – Why this sort of work is hard to do on your own and where to get help with it
46:36 – The power of visualization (no vision-boards required) – how to leverage your mind to achieve mastery under pressure
51:01 – Start your high-performance journey by getting curious about yourself.
Connect with TinaGet Tina’s Book
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August 4, 2021
How Do I Help My Team Thrive During Uncertainty at Work?
To face a world in constant flux, and prepare for a future of uncertainty at work, you need more than resiliency. April shares practical ways to live your life so that you’re prepared to better cope with (and thrive) no matter what comes at you.
In this week’s Asking For a Friend, I talk with April Rinne, author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.
8 Superpowers to help you prepare for Uncertainty at Work (and Life)Run slower.See what’s invisible.Get lost.Start with trust.Know your “enough.”Create your portfolio career.Be all the more human.Let go of the future.Watch Karin Hurt and April Rinne on Asking For a Friend LIVEWhat inspired this book?1:30 April recounts the moment over 25 years ago when her parents passed away from a car accident while she was in college.
4:00 How do you live your life prepared for whatever happens (not just respond.)
4:15 We tend to think about reacting to change. That’s not how flux works. It is about reshaping our relationship to change from the inside out. Change can be relentless.
5:15 People tend to think of resilience as elastic. It can also be plastic/clay. You are shaping new forms. Flux is more like plastic – we are forging new territory. There will be long periods of experimentation and iteration.
6:54 A look at getting grounded in yin. From a leadership perspective, the problems come from yang overdose. We need to balance that with more yin. Every person has yin and yang.
Let’s Talk about the Flux Superpowers9:40 Eight superpowers to thrive during uncertainty at work.
10:15 April’s favorite superpower especially for this audience. The one that pulls them all together is “Start with Trust.”
11:30 “Learning How to Create Your Portfolio Career” is about seeing your career not as a path to pursue but a portfolio to curate
12:12 “Know Your Enough” gets at the heart of our obsession with more. It’s about what is your point of sufficiency – about not having to constantly strive for more (i.e. income, lifestyle, power.)
16:16 The Portfolio Career – set a directional intention but be open to emerging possibilities along the way; travel in a “cattywamply” way – purposeful toward a destination yet unknown
22:24 Don’t be the best, be the only. (Jerry Garcia) Only you are the combination of skills that you have.
24:20 What do you recommend to people who have been burned by negative circumstances in the past? When trust seems broken, assume good intent. Reset your default assumptions. “The average individual is trustworthy.” Also thinking about why/how the mistrust happened is helpful for growth and the future.
29:13 The book will be released August 24, 2021 (already available in audiobook.)
We are in a world in flux. There will be uncertainty at work. When everything is in flux, everything can benefit from a flux mindset.
See These Other Resources For Dealing with Uncertainty at Work and Life
7 Ways to Lead Well During Times of Uncertainty and Change
Your turn.What would you add as #9? How do you prepare your heart and mind for uncertainty at work (and life)?
The post How Do I Help My Team Thrive During Uncertainty at Work? appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
How Do I Help My Team Thrive During Uncertainty at Work
To face a world in constant flux, and prepare for a future of uncertainty at work, you need more than resiliency. April shares practical ways to live your life so that you’re prepared to better cope with (and thrive) no matter what comes at you.
In this week’s Asking For a Friend, I talk with April Rinne, author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.
8 Superpowers to help you prepare for Uncertainty at Work (and Life)Run slowerSee what’s invisibleGet lostStart with trustKnow your “enough”Create your portfolio careerBe all the more humanLet go of the futureWatch Karin Hurt and April Rinne on Asking For a Friend LIVEWhat inspired this book?1:30 April recounts the moment over 25 years ago when her parents passed away from a car accident while she was in college.
4:00 How do you live your life prepared for whatever happens (not just respond.)
4:15 We tend to think about reacting to change. That’s not how flux works. It is about reshaping our relationship to change from the inside out. Change can be relentless.
5:15 People tend to think of resilience as elastic. It can also be plastic/clay. You are shaping new forms. Flux is more like plastic – we are forging new territory. There will be long periods of experimentation and iteration.
6:54 A look at getting grounded in yin. From a leadership perspective, the problems come from yang overdose. We need to balance that with more yin. Every person has yin and yang.
Let’s Talk about the Flux Superpowers9:40 Eight superpowers to thrive during uncertainty at work.
10:15 April’s favorite superpower especially for this audience. The one that pulls them all together is “Start with Trust.”
11:30 “Learning How to Create Your Portfolio Career” is about seeing your career not as a path to pursue but a portfolio to curate
12:12 “Know Your Enough” gets at the heart of our obsession with more. It’s about what is your point of sufficiency – about not having to constantly strive for more (i.e. income, lifestyle, power.)
16:16 The Portfolio Career – set a directional intention but be open to emerging possibilities along the way; travel in a “cattywamply” way – purposeful toward a destination yet unknown
22:24 Don’t be the best, be the only. (Jerry Garcia) Only you are the combination of skills that you have.
24:20 What do you recommend to people who have been burned by negative circumstances in the past? When trust seems broken, assume good intent. Reset your default assumptions. “The average individual is trustworthy.” Also thinking about why/how the mistrust happened is helpful for growth and the future.
29:13 The book will be released August 24, 2021 (already available in audiobook.)
We are in a world in flux. There will be uncertainty at work. When everything is in flux, everything can benefit from a flux mindset.
See These Other Resources For Dealing with Uncertainty at Work and Life
7 Ways to Lead Well During Times of Uncertainty and Change
Your turn.What would you add as #9? How do you prepare your heart and mind for uncertainty at work (and life)?
The post How Do I Help My Team Thrive During Uncertainty at Work appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
August 3, 2021
Live-Online Leadership Training: Where Can I Send My Managers?
Q: Karin, I see all the feedback about your customized leadership development programs for human-centered leaders, and they look great! The problem is, that I only have a handful of managers who need live-online leadership training.
Do you have an open enrollment program they could attend? #AskingForaFriend
A: Most of the programs we do are highly customized for our clients. However, we have received so many requests like this, we are offering an open-enrollment program this Fall.
We have limited seats available to keep the program highly interactive. And, to ensure managers have deep opportunities to learn from one another as well as us.
If you’re looking for practical ways to …
– Build high-performing hybrid or remote teams
– Hold better performance feedback conversations
– Help employees build confidence and competence in their role
– Hold meetings that get results and people want to attend
– Delegate so nothing falls through the cracks
– Give each member of the team the targeted development they need
– Get the feedback you crave to be a better leader yourself
All grounded in the 6 leadership competencies you can’t lead without this leadership program is for you!
High ROI Live-Online Leadership Training
If you would like to set up some time to learn more out just give me a call at 443.750.1249 or reach us at info@letsgrowleaders.com
And before you choose any live-online leadership training program, be sure to ask yourself these ten questions.
The post Live-Online Leadership Training: Where Can I Send My Managers? appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
August 2, 2021
How to Scale Your Leadership for Bigger Influence and Results
You have a solid track record of building high-performance teams. But, now your team is bigger and you need to scale your leadership.
Perhaps you’ve been promoted and your team has tripled in size.
Or, maybe you’re leading a fast-growing start-up, and it’s no longer feasible to have the direct influence you once had with every employee and customer.
How do you scale your leadership, motivate your large team, and continue to get the results you need?
How I Learned About Scaling Leadership the Hard WayAfter a decade of leading HR teams at Verizon (my largest team until that point was forty), I made a lateral leap to lead three large contact centers (about three hundred people). I also happened to be pregnant with Sebastian, so I was preparing to scale my responsibilities at home too.
The contact center gig was a turn-around scene. The previous director had been fired and quickly escorted out of the building with no opportunity to transition.
I quickly jumped in and did everything I could to motivate the team and help them regain t heir results and mojo.
I established a clear vision and performance expectations.
Then, I met with each agent to build trust and got to know them and their concerns.
I attended as many team meetings as possible and spent all the time I could on the contact center floor.
I regularly held town-hall meetings and other motivational meetings to get the team fired up and connected to our bigger purpose.
Yup, I even dressed in costumes and made up songs reinforcing our MITs (most important things). I know it sounds wacky, but showing up a bit vulnerable also helped the efforts to create psychological safety and rebuild the culture.
By the time of my baby shower, we had a lot to celebrate with a highly engaged team getting it done.
Four weeks into my maternity leave, my boss called:
Karin, I hate to ask you this, but how soon can you come back? All the results are sliding backward. You’re team’s just not ready to do this without you. “Laura” (the person I had left in charge) just doesn’t have the influence you do. I visited your Silver Spring center today, and no one on the floor even knew about the new initiative we rolled out last week. Please, please, come back as soon as you can.
That’s where I learned about scaling leadership the hard way. You can’t lead a team of 300 like you lead a team of forty. I don’t regret the components of my overall approach. What I do regret was putting myself at the vortex of the transformation.
How to Scale Your Leadership For Lasting ResultsAs a leader of a large team, you’ve got to scale your leadership by creating a solid operating infrastructure and processes that work without a charismatic cheerleader pushing them along.
Here are a few tips that can help.
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.
When I came back from maternity leave, the first thing I did was to build a clear development plan for each member of my team with a clear focus on critical thinking.
I asked more questions than I answered.
If you want to scale your leadership, teach your team how to think.
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 scale your leadership and encourage courage, 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 scale your leadership, 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, but also enabled me to grow leadership bench strength at a very deep level.
Your turn.
What has helped you to scale your leadership and motive your large team?
See also: How to Be a Better Leader as Your Responsibilities Scale
Tips for Scaling Your Leadership: A SummaryTranslate your leadership into tactical leadership behaviors.Teach your team how to think.Build an integrated communication plan.Build an infrastructure for courage and innovation.Find, develop, and encourage informal influencers.The post How to Scale Your Leadership for Bigger Influence and Results appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
July 30, 2021
A Minute to Think with Juliet Funt
If you feel like you’re constantly reacting and don’t have a moment to think about what you’re doing, much less why you’re doing it, this episode is for you. Juliet Funt gives you practical suggestions (as well as the permission) to regain control of your workday, create the space you need in order to do your best work and lead your team well. It’s time to reclaim your energy, creativity, and brilliance – it all starts by finding your minute to think.
A Minute to Think3:55 – The importance of self-awareness and progress in your leadership development.
5:20 – The permission to have time that doesn’t have a specific assignment. It’s like oxygen for a fire – without that sort of time, the fire of your productivity and creativity will go out.
7:52 – The challenges and negative side-effects of all the productivity short-cuts you might take.
8:50 – Why mindless busyness is counterproductive and illogical.
10:03 – Next, we look at the pervasive “culture of insatiability” and how it precludes us from doing the work that actually makes a difference.
12:18 – What is white space and why it is a competitive advantage for leaders who ensure it exists for themselves and their teams.
13:10 – Four ways that giving yourself unscheduled time will benefit your leadership, your team, your health, and your productivity.
16:38 – A practical example of an innovative team member who was innovative because he regularly had a minute to think. But he lost his creativity when he joined the innovation team. Why?
18:32 – Next, we look at how you can get started with a tool called “the wedge.”
22:29 – Then we look at meetings and how to ensure they are a good use of time for you and your team.
26:56 – Next you get another practical tip to avoid sucking away people’s time in meetings.
32:49 – Then, we take a look at the four most common thiefs of time. These are positive attributes of most leaders that have a shadow side. They’ll derail you if you’re not careful.
47:09 – Finally, we discuss how to say “no” elegantly – in ways that serve your leadership, your team, and even your boss.
Connect with JulietGet Juliet’s Book
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July 28, 2021
How Do I Build More Connected Business Relationships? (With Video)
This week on “Asking For a Friend” I interview Susan McPherson, author of “The Lost Art of Connecting” about how to build deeper trust and connection in your business relationships.
How do I build more connected business relationships?
Want Better Business Relationships? Gather, Ask, Do.1:30 “The Gather, Ask, Do” model
1:50 GATHER: this starts with connecting with the most important person – yourself.
1. What is meaningful to you in business relationships?
2. What are your goals?
3. What are your superpowers (chief differentiating factors)? Who can you connect/reconnect with to help with these things, as well as help others?
4:00 Become the host. When you are not invited to things, become the host yourself!
JOMO – the joy of meeting others. As the convenor, you take back a bit of power.
6:44 What you learn, you can share.
7:00 ASK: learning to ask meaningful questions of others so you can learn their hopes, dreams, and challenges. Be willing to ask for help. 8:10 People tend to ask based on what THEY need. Instead, how can you learn about their challenges and what help they need.
9:18 When I lead with “How can I help?” the help comes back.
10:29 Reframe the feeling that you only have one chance to “get it right” with people.
11:08 The delineation between networking and connecting
12:12 A sidebar about Susan’s parents and some of the ways they built business relationships.
What can people newer in their career offer to those further along? #Asking For a Friend13:49 What can people newer in their career offer to those further along? Younger adults are often more comfortable with technology, so that can be helpful.
15:45 Define your ask. (i.e. What do you mean when you ask someone to be a mentor?) Being specific and giving options helps people be responsive.
17:53 DO: the more quickly we can follow up (giving grace during unusual times) we send the message that we saw/heard them. Tip: on your way home, voice memo a reminder to yourself to follow up; schedule the finish
Create a Better System for Building Deeper Business Relationships19:54 Having a system is a great help. Making connecting a task is OK! Add connection notes to folder or carry a notepad. Take photos of people and make notes. When someone comes to mind, and you aren’t in the middle of a meeting, immediately send a message to connect, “I’m thinking of you.” This all helps in building business relationships.
23:04 “I’m an introvert and I loved working from home and now I have to return to the office. The thought of connecting exhausts me” and “I was hoping we’d go back but it doesn’t look like we will fully – we are work from anywhere now – and I’m not ready to deal with video meetings forever.” 23:47 Give ourselves grace. We may not yet understand what this has done to us psychologically. If you run a company, make space at beginning of meetings to help people feel comfortable.
25:45 “We are staying remote. I’m not connecting like I used to.” Be proactive if you can. Use the comments feature on various platforms. Take some things offline and talk on the phone. 29:05 Science shows that if you make a meaningful attempt to build relationships, your life will last longer. It’s extraordinarily healthy.
Related blog post: Lead Remote Meetings that Get Results and Build Relationships
Related Asking For a Friend: How Do I Get Better at Remote Small Talk?
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July 26, 2021
How Smart Leaders Help a Team Work Better Together: Plan Breakdowns
Does your team get derailed by miscommunication, hurt feelings, customer service challenges, or another department’s dropped balls? These common relationship breakdowns don’t surprise effective leaders. On the contrary–smart leaders know it’s not a matter of if they’ll happen, but when. You can prepare and make your team work better together by planning for these breakdowns and turning them into opportunities for growth and connection.
4 Ways to Make a Team Work Better Together by Planning for BreakdownsKnow Where Breakdowns Will HappenPlan for and Train RecoveryModel RecoveryCelebrate Successful RecoveryPlanned FailureHave you ever seen a light pole or a stop sign after a car runs into it? You almost never see it partially broken, bent, or mangled. There’s usually a clean break and the sign or pole is lying on the ground.
Weird, right? Some of these poles are so big that you would think they could withstand the impact without breaking. It turns out, they could withstand the impact, but the engineers designed them not to.
And, if you inspect even bigger poles, you’ll often see a slip base where the pole is bolted to an anchor. This is the point of planned failure – the bolts will shear and break when they receive a specific type of impact (like from a car crashing into them). The engineers design them to break cleanly for three reasons.
First, accidents are unavoidable. With millions of cars speeding along our roadways, it’s not a matter of if a car will hit a pole, but when. Knowing that these breakdowns in traffic flow are inevitable, the engineers plan for it.
That leads to the second reason for planned failure: it minimizes damage. The pole absorbs some of the car’s velocity, rather than resist it. There’s far less damage to the car than there would be if, for instance, the car hit a large, immovable tree. It’s also less likely that the car will bounce off and spin into traffic. The planned break also minimizes collateral damage from a flying pole. The pole breaks cleanly and falls over rather than resisting the impact until it snaps and goes spinning off into traffic or someone’s living room.
And finally, the reason for these clean breaks is they make recovery much easier. Rather than disrupting traffic to dig and set a new anchor, they can use the original anchor and just swap in a new pole or sign. It’s faster and less expensive.
Planning Breakdowns: How Leaders Can Help a Team Work Better TogetherSo how do you implement planned recovery on your team? Follow these four steps to steps to improve your team’s productivity, morale, and relationships.
1) Know where breakdowns will happen.First, identify where breakdowns are most likely to happen. You can do all the process planning to minimize manufacturing and service errors, but you will still have breakdowns and challenges.
You’re a human being. So are they. Nobody’s perfect. There will be times where we all will hurt one another despite our best intentions.
The biggies include:
• One team member lets down, disappoints, or inadvertently disrespects another team member.
• A disgruntled customer eats up time–not because of a true product or service defect, but because they are having a bad day.
• Another department doesn’t keep their commitment and creates stress for your team.
It’s not a matter of if, it’s when these breakdowns happen so what’s your planned recovery?
One of the best ways to help your team work better together is to have frank discussions about these breakdowns and give them the tools to talk with one another. In his executive role, David met with every new employee and explained:
It’s not a matter of whether we’re going to hurt one another or let one another down. It’s going to happen. What will distinguish us from other teams and other organizations is what we do with that next. Do we have the conversation? Do we acknowledge it? Do we address it?
One tool you can give your team is the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method for tough conversations. For example, “I noticed that this didn’t happen. I’m curious, what’s going on here from your perspective. Let’s talk about how we can get back to what success looks like and let’s recover.” These conversations tools are essential to help your team work better together.
3) Model recovery.Despite your best efforts, there will be times where you let down your boss, a team member, or a customer. It happens. Yes, work to minimize them, (we also do everything we can to prevent people from crashing into poles), but be ready for the breakdown with your planned recovery.
These are awesome culture-building leadership moments. Your team’s watching. How you take responsibility makes all the difference.
Karin spent several years leading contact centers supporting large enterprise clients. You can imagine that when things broke, they broke big, and needed to be resolved fast, and every senior leader was watching. And wanting answers.
These are the most important teachable moments for your team on the art of recovery.
It was really tempting to blame the person at the root of the cause. Resist the urge. (Even when asked for names).
Blaming your team only teaches your team how to be better blamers. Not how to recover well.
It’s much better to have a productive “How can we prevent this the next time?” conversation that encourages psychological safety and candid ideas.
4) Celebrate recovery.You get more of what you celebrate and encourage, so be on the lookout for the moments where your team implements their recovery processes. Teams that know how to surface problems quickly, discuss disappointments and conflicts, and respectfully resolve these issues have more trust. The increased psychological safety permits healthy risk-taking and innovation. Moreover, when you plan recovery, train it, and model it yourself, your team will spend less time in needless conflict, anxiety, and hurt feelings–which means more time solving bigger problems and doing better work.
We’d love to hear from you: how have you seen leaders help their team work better together and overcome normal human relationship breakdowns?
The post How Smart Leaders Help a Team Work Better Together: Plan Breakdowns appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
July 25, 2021
How Do You Develop Loyalty on Your Team? (Video Interview with Dov Baron)
As we stare straight in the face of the “great resignation,” how do you nurture loyalty on your team?
In this edition of Asking For a Friend, Karin Hurt speaks with Dov Baron about practical ways to nurture loyalty. And, what gets in the way.
We discuss:
What is fierce loyalty and what are the key leadership approaches that encourage people to stay?Why retention is such an issue right now and what to do about it.Practical approaches leaders can use to build more trust and connection with their teams.More Ways to Build Connection, Trust, and LoyaltyHow to Build Great Culture in a High-Turnover World
6 Habits of Highly Effective Hybrid and Virtual Teams
What Leaders are Learning From the Covid 19 Crisis (Asking For a Friend with Atholl Duncan)
The post How Do You Develop Loyalty on Your Team? (Video Interview with Dov Baron) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.
