Susan Scott's Blog, page 98

Great Leaders Tap into Perspectives

Earlier this month, Fierce held our mid-year strategy session. Prior to the meeting, Fierce CEO and President, Halley Bock, sent out a request to the entire team to send two critical challenges, one cultural and one strategic, that were a top priority. Everything was on the table. At the session, we broke into teams and held beach ball meetings to begin to innovate, solve, and elaborate on eight of those challenges. On the day of the session, the room was literally buzzing with the energy of so many perspectives coming together.

It’s never super easy to open yourself up and ask for feedback. To start the conversation with: I see that this might not be working –  how can I/we make it better?

It takes bravery, skill, and discipline.

Sometimes leaders will hold a strategic session, yet they don’t invite perspectives from different levels and departments within the company. What information might your support staff be able to share with you that is critical to your team’s success? Can you honestly say you know the top two cultural issues each of your employees feel the company faces right now?

Great leaders are always innovating, asking questions, and exploring the answers. They open themselves and their companies up to the people they’ve trusted with their business, and they listen.

If, as a leader, you want to make your job harder and perhaps create strategy that is not supported, then make your decisions in a bubble. However, you have to know, that there is another way.

Are you tapping into the genius of your team?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Question Your Comparisons

We’ve all done it, compared ourselves to those we work with. And while it’s common to look outward and judge, doing so often can be counterproductive.

This week’s Fierce tip encourages you to first recognize when you are comparing yourself and then ask: Is this helping me reach my full potential?

One of the ways to turn this behavior into something positive is to engage in a conversation.

If you are consistently comparing yourself to someone you admire, ask them if they have time for coffee or lunch so you can pick their brain about how they developed their skills and see if they have any advice for you.

If you compare yourself to someone because you feel superior to that person get curious with yourself to understand if that context is really serving you. If it is appropriate, perhaps engage in a conversation with that person and provide feedback that could help them grow as an individual.

Either way, this week take the passive action of comparing and turn it active!

Fierce Resource: The Connected Leader: How To Improve Results Through Conversations

For our Fierce Resource this week, we want to remind you to sign up for Fierce CEO & President, Halley Bock‘s upcoming Netspeed Learning Solutions webinar, The Connected Leader: How to Improve Results Through Conversations, on Tuesday, July 23rd at 2 PM EST.

“In today’s business environment — with the workforce becoming more and more dispersed — the ability to create meaningful and collaborative connections is more essential than ever… Learn how these ideas and principles create conversations that are the work horses for your company and enable you to tackle your toughest challenges, while building an open and direct work environment. Fierce Conversations change the way we connect with each other, they alter our perceptions of what it means to lead, and they become the behavior that propels individuals and teams toward success. You will walk away with immediately applicable tools”

To learn more about the webinar and register for this event, click here.

Fierce Survey: Toxic Employees

Toxic employees, we’ve all worked with them, perhaps, at one point we’ve even been one.

Today we launch our newest Fierce Survey titled, “Toxic Employees”. This survey will explore how you and your employer feel about the attitudes of staff, positive and negative, and how these attitudes impact workplace relationships, culture, and the bottom line. What are the traits you love and disdain in coworkers? And how do you and your organization deal with colleagues that are constantly negative?

Please take our brief survey today, by clicking here.

Also we would love to hear your thoughts on the blog about toxic employees – how do they impact your organization?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Your First Idea May Be Your Best

Imagine for a second that you are in a meeting where the goal is to solve a challenge. An idea immediately comes to mind, however you skip over it, with the hope that an even more brilliant idea might pop into your head.

Why do we do this? Why do we discount our immediate instinct?

This week’s Fierce tip encourages you to vocalize all the first ideas you have, and to trust the instinct that told you that this is a problem, solution, challenge, or whatever it may be. If you’re a leader, this week when you are in a meeting, ask everyone to say their first ideas. You may be surprised as to what is being left unsaid, due to self-editing.

No matter what your initial idea may be it may look different once others collaborate and innovate on it, or it might be the perfect solution right off the bat.

Fierce Resources: Honesty is the Secret to Sucess

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published yesterday on the CX Journey blog and was written by Erin Osterhaus. In Erin’s piece, Honesty is the Secret to Success, she highlights Fierce President and CEO, Halley Bock, whose article, Why Honesty is the Secret Ingredient of Successful Organizations, was published last month on the Software Advice blog, The New Talent Times.

“The success of an organization is closely related to an honest company culture. And here’s the proof: A 2010 Corporate Executive Board study found that companies encouraging open and honest feedback among its employees experienced superior shareholder returns over a ten year period, outperforming others by 270 percent…Impressive numbers, but do they hold up? To find out, Fierce, Inc., a leadership consulting firm, conducted its own research. The firm surveyed over 1,400 executives and employees, finding that the vast majority – 99 percent – preferred a workplace where staff members were able to discuss issues truthfully.”

To read Erin Osterhaus’s full article on the CX Journey blog, click here.

To read Halley Bock’s article on the New Talent Times blog, click here.

3 Tips to Create an Innovation Process

In May, Fierce attended the Entrapalooza 2013 conference, and I attended a break out session given by Insyte Consulting. The focus was putting process around innovation. The session pointed out that while many companies love the idea of innovating, they rarely think about it as a process. Innovation is really something that can be systematic, repeatable, and subject to improvement.

I think this is a powerful idea. Innovation takes into account so many aspects of business. It’s about breaking the rules and testing new ideas. Process is all about the minutia, the details, and oftentimes, taking a linear path from point A to point B.

As a leader, marrying these two concepts, innovation and process, together requires some serious skill. You must have conversations that focus on the big and the small, the straight and the curved, the singular and the many. Below are three tips to help you start today.

Delegate . Creating an innovation process is a great way to delegate responsibility and grow your team. You may have team members that are strong at looking at the big picture and those that are good with the details – tap into that talent and enlist their help. By doing this you’re not only developing others, you’re getting their buy in, so that people will eventually follow the process.
Be Agile. Flexibility is the name of the game whenever you innovate or create process – so it’s even more intense when you marry the two in order to create a process around innovation. Be patient, listen, and stay away from declarative statements.
Hold Others Able. After your process is created, believe that people are able to follow what was made. And if something isn’t working, have the conversation right away. Accountability is important in keeping a safe environment that is conducive to creativity.

As a leader, what conversations can you have to start creating an innovation process?

Fierce Tip of the Week: Are Your Employees Engaged?

In June, Gallup released a survey which showed that 70% of U.S. workers are not engaged, and 18 out of the 70 percent are actively disengaged.

Fierce CEO and President, Halley Bock, wrote a blog about how leaders can identify their company’s burning platforms. It seems for many organizations that engagement may be their biggest issue.

This week’s tip encourages you to honestly look at your team. Are they engaged, or do they fall into that 70%? Is this your company’s burning platform?

If the answer is yes, take action immediately to move the needle by engaging in conversations. Ask questions, discover where the gaps are, and learn what motivates your team. Don’t assume you have all the answers. The very act of you engaging this way can have a domino effect for better results.

Fierce Resource: Financial Benefits of the DOMA Ruling

This week’s Fierce Resource was first published on Wednesday on the Harvard Business Review blog and was written by Susan Mcpherson and Laura Clise.

With the recent Supreme Court decision to rule against DOMA, the topic of civil rights and gay and lesbian marriage might be a buzz in your office. We chose to share this article, Why Companies Should Support the DOMA Ruling, which explores the financial benefits for an organization that supports the LBGT communities ability to marry.

“The Supreme Court ruling gives scores of Americans access to previously-denied benefits—making HR’s job easier and cheaper. The 5-4 ruling paves the way for same-sex married couples legally married by the states to receive the hundreds of federal benefits (including taxes, insurance, social security, immigration) available to other married couples, which has positive implications for the concerns and costs articulated by the business community.”

To read the full article, click here.

Fierce Tip of the Week: Celebrate your Independence by Innovating

This week in the United States we’ll celebrate the independence of our nation. However, this tip is for people all over the world who want to celebrate their freedom by being creative.

This week, embrace your ability to be creative, take risks, and dive into the unknown. In “business speak”, we call this innovating. Imagine what many of our lives would be like if we did not push the boundaries, blur the lines, and take risks.

Whether your creativity comes out in the conversations you have, the words you write, the art you produce, or in the numbers you crunch – challenge yourself this week to go farther than any week prior. Think of the generations to come that will celebrate your hard work.