Susan Scott's Blog, page 93

Fierce Tip of the Week: Show Appreciation to Your Leaders

For emotionally intelligent leaders, a marker for their success is how often they share appreciation with their teams. However, this week I want to put the conversation in the hands of those they lead.

Think back over the year: How many times have you told your manager you appreciate him or her?

The responsibility to build emotional capital is a two way street. It’s important to share with your boss, and those who lead within your organization, that you recognize their work and are thankful for the job they do.

How do you show appreciation to your leaders?

Fierce Resources: Looking For a Quick Solution? It’s OK Sometimes to Say “I Don’t Know”

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published on the TLNT website yesterday and was written by Crystal Spraggins.

Looking For a Quick Solution? It’s OK Sometimes to Say “I Don’t Know” explores the career advice that you should never tell your boss you don’t know something, even if in fact you don’t know it. The piece challenges this notion by pointing out four main areas where this mentality can actually work against you and the larger culture you’re working in.

“I read an article the other day that advised employees to never tell a boss, “I don’t know.” Instead, the authors advised, the right response is: “I’ll find out right away.” Well, any regular reader of career advice (I’ll plead guilty) knows that there is a lot of bad advice out there. A lot. And while I wouldn’t consider the above to be the worst of the bunch, it’s close. What’s so objectionable about saying “I don’t know,” if in fact, you don’t know?”

To read the full article, click here.

What Conversation Are We Missing With Veterans?

According to the latest stats by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the unemployment rate among post 9/11 veterans is averaged at almost 10%. The overall number for unemployment for all veterans isn’t that much better at 6.9%. Both numbers paint a dismal picture if you’re about to leave the military world and transition to civilian life.

According to the collective wisdom, some of which comes from articles posted this week in TIME Magazine, the Washington Post, and CNN, top contributing factors to these high statistics are the increased number of veterans who have disabilities upon returning from war, bureaucratic stickiness, lack of civilian work experience, and the generational divide. The average unemployment rate among 18-24 year old veterans in 2012 was 20.4%. That’s 5% higher than non-military individuals in the same demographic.

While I don’t underestimate the complexity of an issue like this, I have to wonder: What conversations are missing for this to be our result? What are we pretending not to know? And what is the state of the relationship between veterans and private business, given these numbers?

A piece of the puzzle that is needed is training for vets so they can communicate effectively in the private sector. Fierce CEO and President, Halley Bock, contributed to an article in the Seattle PI titled, CEO Provides Insight into Securing a Job. In this piece she provides easy to apply tips that veterans can use right away in order to understand what communication skills are needed in private business.

I don’t pretend to know all the answers, and I’m not a veteran, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. Share if you’re a vet, someone who employs vets, or have insight: What conversations are we not having? Why do you think this number is so high? What can private business do to bring the number down?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Conversations to Develop Veterans

Today in the United States, we honor our veterans and say thank you for their service. There are many ways to say thank you, and if you’re a leader or work with veterans, you have a unique opportunity to show your appreciation.

If you lead veterans who’ve just entered into the private workforce from military jobs, one of the ways you can say thanks this week is to take the time to support their assimilation process by focusing on communication. The skill set these veterans bring to the table is rich and unique, and in private business it’s important to continue to grow their ability to communicate effectively . Fierce CEO and President, Halley Bock, wrote an article about the integration process and gives 7 great tips that you can start practicing today.

Lastly, it doesn’t matter if the veteran is your direct report, a colleague, or your boss – show that you appreciate what they’ve done and their expertise by making the time for conversations. Unless you’re a veteran yourself, you don’t know what it’s like, so make yourself available and open.

How will you celebrate veterans this week?

Fierce Resources: Why Leadership Development Fails to Produce Good Leaders

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published on the Financial Post website and was written by author and thought leader, Ray Williams.

Why Leadership Development Fails to Produce Good Leaders explores the current state of leadership development programs. He argues that training fails when it is centered around only tactics and competencies instead of being rooted in the inner development of a leader. He lays out four core areas where training should really focus. These core areas range from building emotional intelligence to promoting leaders who are humble.

Our question is: Do you think good training can provide both a skill set and inner development?

To read the full article, click here.

3 Reasons to Show Humility as a Leader

In our Fierce Conversations training we talk about older styles of leadership. One older style is the command and control mentality, which would have us believe that it’s better to hold your cards close to the vest and not let those you lead know too much.

While this style of leadership may seem antiquated, too often it still creeps into our daily subconscious and limits leaders from showing the powerful quality of humility.

The power of being a humble leader goes far beyond being a person that others like. It is actually very strategic. Below are three reasons showing humility as a leader impacts your bottom line.

#1: Innovation

Leaders who are comfortable with showing humility leave space for more robust conversations because they don’t limit what can or can’t be talked about. Arrogance in its nature makes things smaller. When you limit what is okay or not okay to talk about, you limit the possibilities. If those you lead feel they have grace within your relationship to take risks and speak up, your company is set up to innovate and grow.

#2: Mistakes Will Be Made

Inevitably you will make a mistake, you’re human. By owning up to your mistakes, you save time, energy, and emotional capital which would have been wasted if it was directed toward something not worthy of those resources. On the flip side, when others make mistakes you’ll have the strength in your relationships to bounce back faster and have it impact the business less.

#3: Developing Others

Humble leaders understand that their success is larger than themselves. They have interest in truly developing their team and future leaders. Whether it’s by mentoring, coaching, or inviting differing perspectives to the table to be heard, they realize they’re part of a larger picture.

Do you think humility is an important strategic quality for leaders?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Own Up to Your Mistakes

As the holidays approach, we begin to look for ways to tell and show people that we appreciate them. And while gifts and grand gestures are nice, one way to enrich your relationships this holiday season is to take ownership for your mistakes.

This week, take responsibility for your actions. Your ability to do this communicates that you do appreciate and value what others think. This conversation isn’t for a select few in your life; it can be with a client, co-worker, direct report, or leader.

Where can this happen in your life?

Fierce Resource: Map: The Sad State of Global Workplace Engagement

This week’s Fierce Resource was published yesterday on the Harvard Business Review blog and was written by Gretchen Gavett and Scott Berinato.

Map: The Sad State of Globlal Workplace Engagement; takes the 2011-2012 World Wide Gallup workplace report and creates an eye-opening interactive map that helps you understand the results. With only 13% engagement world-wide, something is definitely amiss.

“Our map shows engagement data on the countries polled by Gallup, and includes regional insights into where the problems lie — and how they might be fixed. The numbers only include people who work for an employer, and stretch across industries and sectors.”

To view the entire article and experience the interactive map, click here.

3 Tips for Deeper Conversations in Your Team Meetings

If you’re a connected leader, chances are you meet with your team weekly or bi-weekly to touch base and talk shop. While the details of the meeting will vary from leader to leader, the goal is usually the same: share ideas, innovate, and strategize.

However, when speaking with our clients, it’s common to hear that in actuality making these touch base meetings meaningful can be tough. Typically the conversations stay on the surface.

Below are three tips so you can begin to make the conversations within your group meetings more robust and deliberate while still having fun along the way.

Tip #1: Not All Agendas Are Created Equal

While there might be some logistical details that need to be covered in your meetings, they shouldn’t be put to the group in the same way as an idea that needs real creative thought around it. In our Team module, we use an idea prep form that breaks out what the issue is, why it’s significant, ideal outcome, and what help is wanted from the group. No matter what model you use, it should ask questions and share information in a way that gets the creative juices flowing so people look at the topic with the most knowledge possible. It also should get to the heart of the issue quickly to leave more time for conversation.

Tip #2: What Else?

If you’re running this meeting then your true purpose is to be a facilitator of the conversation. This means that you should probe for understanding and provoke the learning of others by asking – what else? On any given topic a good rule of thumb is to ask what else at least three times. Every time you ask, you go deeper.

Tip #3: Leave Room For Everyone

I’m an extrovert and an external processor, so I talk a lot in meetings. Chances are you have people on your team like me. However, we should not be the only ones that get our voices heard. As the leader of this meeting, you should leave space for others who don’t speak up as often to share their opinions by asking them directly for their perspectives. If this is not common in your culture, it’s a good idea to call out that you aren’t picking on these quieter team members, and in fact, you’re asking because you really want to hear their perspective and value their opinions.

So, how do you go deeper in your group conversations?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Practice Coaching

In our Fierce Coaching module, the goal is to ask questions in order to help an individual work through an idea or issue, in order to find a new path forward.

This week look for opportunities to do this with someone in your life.

Start by asking: What is the most important thing we should be talking about?

Don’t coach them because you want to share your brilliant idea, or because you’ve been in a similar situation and have all the answers. Coach them because every time you ask someone what’s the most important thing we should be talking about together, you give yourself and that person the opportunity, through conversation, to have new perspective at the end of the conversation.

Don’t miss this rich opportunity.