5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of October 3, 2016

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Wee... 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Wee...

5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of October 3, 2016

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Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.

I Blame Blame… by Niel Nickolaisen

I blame blame for creating toxic workplace cultures. Sadly, there is plenty of blame to go around for blaming. Here is my case against blame.

Let’s assume that something goes wrong. In a perfect world, nothing ever goes wrong but in an uncertain, complex, fast-paced and subject-to-the-influence-of-humans world, sometimes something goes wrong. If, when something goes wrong, we blame someone, that person focuses on either defending themselves or shifting blame to someone or something else. With the focus now on defense or blame-shifting, we do not focus on finding and fixing the process issues that really created the problem. And processes are the cause of the vast majority of all problems.

My Comment: I’ve seen this cycle of blame cripple organizations. Nickolaisen gets to an important bottom line in this important article: “A blame-free culture creates a great place to work and thrive.”

Winning Well leaders don’t waste energy and talent assigning blame. They understand that the past is useful to instruct and ask “What can we learn? How will we improve? How will we do this next time?”

Do Employees Really Know What’s Expected of Them? By Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson at Gallup

Only about half of all workers strongly indicate that they know what is expected of them at work. Expectations — or a lack thereof — have the power to make or break worker engagement. Even if employees feel energized and motivated, those who lack clear expectations and spend too much time working on the wrong things can’t advance key initiatives to create value for an organization.

My Comment: In every program I ever deliver, I emphasize the need for leaders to ensure clear expectations – mutually understood, shared commitments based on a clear definition of what success looks like. In my experience working with thousands of managers across industries, this is the foundation of ninety percent of the performance problems you’ll encounter. You always make sense to you, but you rarely make as much sense to others as you think you do.

The good news is that a few simple practices can radically improve clarity, save you tons of time, and improve employee engagement. Start by checking for understanding. Eg: “Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. Let’s review the three priorities for this quarter and how we’re going to meet them.” Once you hear it from your team, you know that they know. Until then…it’s anyone’s guess.

Company Culture Tips from the Best Places to Work by Aj Agrawal

A happy employee is a productive employee. And we all know what increased productivity leads to: a better bottom line. According to Great Places to Work companies with an excellent work culture outperform their competitors on the stock market by nearly two-times. Employees are well aware of their value in the marketplace and expect a superior company culture along with other more traditional benefits like salary, insurance, and vacation time.

Just how do you create a company culture that will not only attract the best employees but retain them as well?

Here are three popular companies that employees are dying to work for and why…

My Comment: Two of the companies featured are tech companies and one is a grocer. The characteristics that make these great places to work are things you may be able to emulate. While not every employer can offer flexible work hours, there are often other ways to empower your people. As you read through these characteristics, consider how you can leverage the principle – not their specific version of it.

Put Passion Into Your Pocket When You Argue by John Baldoni

Passion may hurt you more than help you in your next argument.

That’s a conclusion of new research into persuasion by a pair of university academics and reported by Shankar Vedantam of NPR. Passion, often highly prized by leaders, may actually work against that leader if he or she is trying to reach out to someone who may not agree with them.

My Comment: This research makes intuitive sense as you think about your own experiences. Covery summarized it well: seek first to understand, then to be understood. Beginning an argument from a place of passion virtually eliminates the chance that you’ll find common ground or be able to persuade another person.

The Secret Weapon in Deconstructing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace by Elizabeth Borges

Companies must not stop at simply bringing the right people in the door. To truly reap the benefits of diversity, companies must actively build inclusive cultures where employees from all backgrounds can be successful. Tech companies and social critics alike agree that companies with inclusive cultures are more innovative, more agile and higher-performing.

My Comment: Leaders who don’t draw on the rich strengths, perspectives, and experiences of all people inherently put themselves at a disadvantage. If you’re struggling with diversity and inclusion, I invite you to start by eliminating one word from your vocabulary: ‘tolerance.’ No one wants to be tolerated. Focus on empathy, understanding, and appreciation. Borges shares the incredible power of cognitive empathy – self-awareness and emotional connection that lead to action. Don’t let the words scare you off if you’re not familiar with them – Borges gives you the specifics you need to build these habits in your life and leadership.

Joint with David contact