Susan Scott's Blog, page 54

Fierce Tip of the Week: Celebrate National Recommitment Month with Your 2016 Goals

May is National Recommitment Month, which means we should review the goals we set back in January. Have you ever heard of this concept for May? I hadn’t. However, I love it, because we talk every day about how to make sure employees, leaders, and companies get where they want to go. And in order to do this, they must track trends.

Conversations are the most accessible tool you have, every single day, to assess if you are heading closer to or further from what you want and need to achieve. Conversations with your team. Conversations with your partner. Conversations with your kids. And most importantly, conversations with yourself.

So much in this world is unpredictable, and yet, you always have this way of navigating in your life. I’m sure some things have changed for you since 2016 kicked off. In the first blog I wrote this year, I shared, “(In 2016)… You will have triumphs you didn’t expect, setbacks you didn’t anticipate, and new people enter your life. You may have the same challenges, and you may not. You may have the same job responsibilities, and you may not. When things are out of your control this year, you will choose how you feel about what happens. And, more importantly, you will choose what you do after.”

So I ask: What has happened in 2016 that has surprised you so far? Do you have the same perspective compared to five months ago with what you want to accomplish?

This week’s tip is to look at the goals you made at the beginning of 2016 and reevaluate. Have they changed? What have you accomplished? If you don’t like them anymore, ditch them and create new ones – just do it for the right reasons. Once you evaluate, put a plan in place.

You can achieve what you set out to do…one conversation at a time.

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Friday Resource: 7 Ways to Improve Employee Development Programs

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Harvard Business Review and explores different ways to improve employee development programs.

It’s no surprise that employee development programs are a critical part to the growth and progress of any organization. A 2014 report published by Training Magazine found that over $100 billion dollars is spent annually on learning and development programs, yet many survey respondents felt there is considerable room for improvement within these programs.

In his article, Ferrazzi highlights seven challenges that companies must tackle to create truly effective development programs. A few of these include:

Providing flexible learning options. One of the greatest issues with development programs is finding the time to actually do them. Companies must cater to the busy schedules of their employees by offering on-demand and mobile solutions.Provide different programs for diverse learning styles. In a multigenerational workforce, it is paramount for organizations to cater their learning and development programs to meet the needs of their diverse staff. A program geared for Millennials will look and feel different than one catered to Baby Boomers.

Read the full article

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Three Tips to Be More Honest in the Workplace

With National Honesty Day approaching on April 30th, managers and leaders everywhere have an opportunity to evaluate the role honesty plays in their workplace. We surveyed over 1,400 executives and employees and found that 70% of respondents believed a lack of honesty impacted their company’s ability to perform optimally.

When the topic of being truly honest comes up, leaders and employees usually express fear that some people can’t handle the “whole” truth. And we say simply: Stop with that excuse. Don’t make other people’s compromises for them. Hold people around you able to listen and learn the truth. It is the much more respectful route for everyone. Oftentimes when people say that the other person can’t handle it, it is really the person tasked with sharing something difficult or potentially trajectory-changing that have the issue in the first place.

Be the person in your team, organization, family, and community that is able to describe reality in a way that is respectful and makes a difference. It takes practice and skill to feel more comfortable. Use these three tips to help you get there.

Ask for Feedback and Really Listen

Do: Encourage honesty by continually asking for feedback. Just like we need reminders to do so many things in life, employees need constant opportunities to give and receive feedback. During my one-on-one meetings, I always dedicate time and specifically ask for feedback. Sometimes when I don’t initially get any, I ask some questions to help. Examples are: What else can I do to support you better? What can be improved in our working relationship? What is not working as well as it could? The more specific the question, the more specific the answers.Don’t: Jump straight to defensiveness when you hear something you disagree with or feel was misunderstood. Common problems pop up when someone sticks their toes in the water and immediately gets a jarring reaction. It is important to act curious and dig for deeper understanding. If you don’t want to really listen and learn, then you shouldn’t be asking for feedback in the first place.

Stay Current and Keep it Short

Do: Make things easier on everyone by addressing issues as soon as they arise in a timely manner, free of emotional load. Calmly and clearly state the issue at hand, the impact, and give no more than three examples of when it occurred. This conversation is long overdue if there are more than three examples or more than one issue to resolve. It is important to create a culture where people do not hold on to something negative.Don’t: Avoid the “dump truck” approach. This happens when people have avoided an issue too long, and they have a laundry list of complaints to spew at their victim. It is not respectful to hold onto so much and then release without the person being prepared. Take responsibility for your part.

Lose the Pillows and Be Direct

Do: Be direct with employees and colleagues, so they have a clear action plan when something is not working well. Tell them what is at stake and the necessary steps to resolve issues together. At the end of the conversation, repeat the new agreement to make sure everyone is on the same page.Don’t: Choose to cushion the conversation to minimize any negative impact. This may include giving compliments, slipping in the actual issue during small talk, or changing subjects so quickly the other person doesn’t have a chance to digest the problem. In the end, the employee isn’t even aware that there is a problem to fix.

Now is a better time than ever to step out of the “comfort” zone and share what you truly think and feel. Be a little more honest.

Baby steps are better than none.

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Fierce Tip of the Week: Create Opportunity for Your Support Staff

This week honors Administrative Professionals. According to the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), there are more than 22 million administrative and office support professionals working in the United States. A recent OfficeTeam and IAAP survey of more than 2,200 administrative workers showcased that only 43% of support staff feel their full range of skills are being used, and only 7% of support staff feel they are completely utilized. That means 50% want more opportunity.

One of the easiest ways to create growth opportunities is to delegate. Many people view delegation as a way to get rid of menial tasks (what we call dele-dumping), instead, think about delegating as a way to grow the skill set of a colleague. Think about what is currently on your plate.

A couple years ago, I read a piece by Jim Schleckser, CEO of the Inc. CEO Project, he argues that the most successful CEOs use the “70 percent rule”, which means that if a person can do the task 70 percent as well, you should delegate it. This allows for the CEO to be freed up to do other tasks and strategic initiatives as well as gives greater opportunities to those around him/her.

So I ask: How can you create more opportunity for your support staff? How can you apply the 70 percent rule with your team? And this applies to administrative professionals too! How can you help to create more opportunity for your team?

This week’s tip is to engage in the conversation about opportunity and share appreciation for your secretaries, receptionist, and administrative support team members.

How will you share appreciation?

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Friday Resource: The Business Logic of Sustainability

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on  Ted.com  and explains the business logic behind sustainability.

In 1973, Ray Anderson read “The Ecology of Commerce” and it changed the trajectory of his business. As the CEO of a carpet manufacturer with petroleum intensive processes, he was in a unique position to make a difference and challenge the status quo of the “take/make/waste” industrial system. He decided to embrace technology to improve sustainability efforts and found that there was also a compelling business case behind this approach.

Anderson died in 2011, but his legacy and sustainable impact lives on through the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Through Anderson’s efforts, his carpet company has doubled profits while decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions by over 82%. Anderson’s achievements indicate a few things:

If a petroleum intensive company can make dramatic environmental strides, while simultaneously increasing profits – any business can do the same. That benevolence and the drive for zero emissions can be a more powerful sales tool than traditional marketing efforts.

So on Earth Day this year, consider how your organization could improve its carbon footprint – you may just find a compelling business case for it too.

“There must be a clear, demonstrable alternative to the take-make-waste industrial system that so dominates our civilization, and is the major culprit in stealing our children’s future.”

Read the entire transcript

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Three Tips to Have Your Team Celebrate Earth Day

Friday is Earth Day, and as inhabitants of this place, we want to show gratitude to where we live. John Muir, Scottish-American environmental activist and author made this appreciation and preservation his mission. He is often called the “Father of the National Parks”.

In his 1894 The Mountains of California, Muir said, “Fresh beauty opens one’s eyes wherever it is really seen, but the very abundance and completeness of the common beauty that besets our steps prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is a good thing, therefore, to make short excursions now and then to the bottom of the sea among dulse and coral, or up among the clouds on mountain-tops, or in balloons, or even to creep like worms into dark holes and caverns underground, not only to learn something of what is going on in those out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the sun sees on our return to common everyday beauty.”

So I ask: What are you learning from the world around you? From within you? The benefit of going outside is to expand your thinking. Below are three ways that leaders help to get their teams out of the office.

Take your one-on-one on a walk. If there is not something serious you need to talk about, suggest that you go on a 30-60 minute walk in lieu of you regular one-on-one meeting. Enjoying a long walk together will get good energy flowing before you know it – being active together can spark more creativity.Volunteer outside. Designate a certain amount of time to go outside. During one of our Fierce days of giving, we volunteered at an urban garden project. Find similar opportunities in your community, there is always benefit to giving back while you are going outside.Share outdoor experiences. During a regular meeting (or create one this week), have everyone on your team choose to share one of their favorite natural places on earth. Have them bring a picture or cue that represents that space. Have them talk about how they feel when they are in that location. The exercise can be a powerful practice in appreciation of an outdoor place and encourage people to go seek those escapes for themselves.

How will you take your team outside?

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Fierce Tip of the Week: Go Outside – It’s Good for Business

Oh, the smell of fresh air. Living in the United States’ Pacific Northwest, it is very normal to go outside as much as possible – rain or shine – to our mountains, lakes, and trails. How often do you go outside?

While seeing the beautiful scenery is great for our standard of living, it turns out that going outside is good for business. It feeds our anthropological roots, and it fosters creativity. In the NPR segment, We’re Not Taking Enough Lunch Breaks. Why That’s Bad for Business, Kimberly Elsbach, a professor at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management, who studies workplace psychology, states “We know that creativity and innovation happen when people change their environment, and especially when they expose themselves to a nature-like environment, to a natural environment.”

So, what is the easiest way to go outside? Take a walk. Research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that walking anywhere prompts creativity, and researchers found that spending time outside also influences innovation. Making your next meeting a walking one could get the creative juices flowing before you know it.

This week’s tip is to go outside to honor Earth Day. Whether it is taking a short walk outside of your office or planning something else, don’t make excuses. Close your laptops and put the phones away.

It’s time to soak up the scenery – it is good for your business.

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Friday Resource: Business Meetings – The Case for Face-to-Face

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Forbes Insights and discusses the importance of face-to-face interactions as opposed to virtual meetings.

As businesses continue to heal from the economic downturn, travel budgets continue to have slow growth within organizations. Currently businesses rely heavily on technology for internal communication, which has replaced interactions that were once had in-person. Although virtual meetings and conferences cut down on costs initially, are they actually costing companies more in the end?

Common answers for a preference towards technology-enabled meetings include saving time, money, and increasing flexibility in location and timing. These are all very practical answers. Saving money and time is crucial to any business – but what are these virtual meetings missing?

The answer: The human element.

After surveying over 750 business executives, the data shows that face-to-face meetings build stronger, more meaningful business relationships, an enhanced ability to read crucial body language, and increases the ability for complex strategic thinking. In the end, while technology cuts down on costs and can simplify many elements of our jobs, it cannot replace the intangible team building elements that arise from face-to-face interactions. Finding a balance between the two of these is critical for the continued growth of any business.

Read the case study

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5 Tips for Having a Better One-on-One with Your Direct Reports

According to Lucid Meetings research, 55 million meetings occur per day. For average workers that means eight meetings per week. For managers, 12 per week. Meetings can vary from status updates to brainstorming, from company-wide to one-on-one’s. They range from mission critical for completion of a project or milestone to completely useless. And let’s be honest, with so many hours in meetings, it can be easy to go into autopilot.

I want to focus on one-on-one meetings, because I see them as one of the best ways to build personal relationships and connections. These meetings give me insights about the person, our team, and the overall operations of the business in a way nothing else can. When effective, they truly give me a pulse on what needs to potentially start, stop, and continue. The catch? I must be willing to REALLY invite feedback and truthfulness into the conversation. It needs to be a safe zone. And I am not perfect at it. Sometimes, it is really hard– for myself, for my team, for the company. The insights are pure gold.

So I ask: How would you describe the quality of your one-on-one conversations? Are they robust and authentic? Or shallow and superficial? Whichever qualities you choose to describe your conversations, are the qualities of your relationship with that person (fierce idea: the conversation is the relationship).

One of my commitments to myself this quarter is to continue to take my one-on-one’s to a new level. Here are a few tips that I have learned and want to remember:

Be consistent. Susan Scott, our founder, states that trust requires persistent identity. I couldn’t agree more. The people I respect most in my life are ones who know themselves and show up consistently. If your team members do not know how you are going to show up from one day to another, they will not trust you. It is your job to stay true to yourself – whether you are having the best or worst day. Ditch the checklist. If you get in the habit of constantly using a list to dictate your conversation, you might miss something altogether. The list of action items most likely will not bring up a bigger issue or challenge that your team member is wrestling with. Start off with open-ended questions. Specifically: Given everything on your plate, what’s the most important thing we should be talking about today?Be here prepared to be nowhere else. This means turning off the screens. Yes, close the laptop, turn away from the computer, go into a room with no windows – seriously. It is easy to be distracted by shiny objects or pinging software. Physically make the space, so that you can be present and fully embrace the moment.Let silence do the heavy lifting. This can be very challenging if you are typically asking the questions. If you ask a question, allow the time and space for your partner to really think about it before answering. If you are exploring a topic together, leave enough room for the other person to engage. Don’t listen to respond, listen to understand. Take your time.Ask for feedback. In a 2011 Fierce survey, eighty percent of respondents who reported a good employee-supervisor relationship claimed that the most important thing a boss can do to create a positive working relationship is to both solicit and value their input. Yes, there is a skill set that can be learned to ask for feedback more effectively, and at the end of the day, it is important to just ask.

Perhaps choose one or two tips to try at first. And if you are going to try something new with your team, make sure to be transparent and share your intention, because it can be jarring if you show up very differently (hence, tip #1).

Don’t worry about messing up. Remember, a missing conversation is much worse than a failed one.

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Fierce Tip of the Week: Stop Your Useless One-on-One Meetings

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. – John Quincy Adams

When people think about being a leader and inspiring others, doing something unique often comes to mind. At its core, this is a well-guided strategy. You want to have your own personal style and not be like everyone else. The flaw in going to that reasoning, however, is that the everyday interactions and conversations are often overlooked. While paying attention to the big picture, you can miss the smaller pieces that sometimes make the most impact.

So I ask: Do you have regular meetings with your team members or peers that inspire them?

Oftentimes, when I talk with people in organizations, the answer is no. In fact, when the people are honest, they say they aren’t inspired by the conversation either. What a waste. Come on, you’re better than that. Your one-on-one time with others can be described as uninspiring and inconvenient or illuminating and enriching. Which would you prefer?

This week’s tip is to make your one-on-one meetings with your team members and peers more meaningful. Bring your whole self to the conversation and get curious. Make it about the person you are with rather than about yourself.

Yes, it is a simple tip, and yet, why do we keep having lackluster meetings?

It’s your choice to set the tone and create meaningful one-on-one meetings.

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