Choose to Double Down on Support (Firing Series 2/3)

Deciding to fire can be a tough choice.  In the last blog, we explored the reasons to let an employee go, this blog will focus on another option, which is to support your teammate rather than letting them go. 

Reasons to support:

If an employee is not working out, instead of rushing to release that individual, you may want to closely examine the reasons.  Choosing to support somebody by providing guidance for improvement, switching roles to better match their skillset with the work requirements, or changing teams could be the better decision.

Here are some common reasons why you would choose to support:

1. You were unclear in the hiring process.  If you did not articulate the job requirements and if you did not train the person adequately in the onboarding process where they are set up for success and feel safe to contribute fully, you should not let them go because you are responsible for the mismatch.  You should give the person adequate training so they can win at their job.  This happens often because we are usually rushed to fill a position and choose to throw them into the fire with insufficient training. 

2. Realignments and changing business needs.  If the business has changed and you need people to do other jobs than what they were doing or if you had a realignment and created a skillset redundancy, you may want to move them to another team where they would be able to contribute and thrive.  Quality employees with a fierce skillset and a learning mindset can be versatile enough to be plugged in elsewhere to positively impact; they are people you want around.   

3. You haven’t managed them well.  Part of the success of an employee can be attributed to how well they were supported.  Have you had regular meetings with your direct reports to learn what the person needs to succeed?  Did you set clear goals and expectations measurable with benchmarks, deadlines, and a general timeline for completion?  Have you had 1:1 performance discussions where they are aware of their gaps, and you have created an opportunity to invite their feedback to co-create an improvement plan with outcomes you are both comfortable with?  Have you had career development conversations where you understand their short and long-term motivations and dreams and how they fit into their daily tasks while offering opportunities for support, growth, and development?  Generally, have you be a present thought partner enabling their best efforts and clearing the path for their great work?

If you had a conversation about their struggles, do they know exactly what to do to improve and how their progress will be measured?  Are they aware of the timeframe and consequences if they break the mutual agreement and no improvement is made?  Making sure you have done everything possible to support the person matters.  If they still have not responded well to your assistance, it could be time to let the person go.

4. You have not kept them engaged or focused on their wellbeing.  If an employee is underperforming, it could be because they are burned out.  They were given more work than exceeded any normal human’s capacity, so they shut down, and so did their productivity.  They could also be dissatisfied with their job if they have been in the same role for a long time and they have not been offered growth opportunities, they could be showing signs of dissatisfaction and frustration by not being challenged by the work.  They can also feel resentful that all their time will work and they do not feel supported in having time off.  Before Thanksgiving of 2014, President Joe Biden sent a memo to his staff reminding them that he did not expect nor want anyone to “miss or sacrifice important family obligations for work.”  That includes celebrations, such as birthdays, anniversaries, or weddings, and time needed to step away from work due to an illness or death in the family.  For Biden, it was an unwritten rule for staff to take time off for family responsibilities or wellbeing.  Workplace cultures where there are no boundaries between professional and personal and being on call 24 hours a day is not conducive to bringing out people’s best, even if it may seem so in the short term.  Rewarding overwork can be detrimental.

If you have determined that you did not offer the proper support in the hiring and managing stage or if the business needs have changed, there are still things you can do to support your people.  You can move them laterally to another team or another department to thrive and be happier somewhere else in the company.  Perhaps, they have been in sales for many years, and an opportunity in marketing would be a breath of fresh air.  Or maybe they're in tech or operations and would enjoy a career pivot to manage people because that is what gives them joy.  Separate the person from the job; if they are great, where else can they go?  Around 2010, Salesforce wondered how it can be just as easy to transfer within the company as it was to leave so they created their Opportunity Open Market initiative.  After each quarterly release, software developers could transfer teams.  There would be internal job fairs to facilitate that transfer.  It allowed people to find what motivated them and work on things that challenged and excited them.  It was so successful it was integrated into the broader company. 

5. Your company decided to downsize.  If the company is going through a tough time and you must make layoffs, what are all your options?  The worst thing about layoffs is not only what you do to the people who leave but what you do to the people who stay because if they are expected to double their work, they end up losing trust and getting frustrated.  Is it possible to do furloughs instead?  Would anybody on the team volunteer for some time off because they are in a more comfortable position and wish to spend more time with their family?  Can you agree on a temporary promotion freeze if it means your people can stay?  Every team and culture are different; choose what works best for the group.  In 2008, Barry-Wehmiller got hit hard with the recession, so the board put pressure on the CEO Bob Chapman to make layoffs, but he believed in committing to people like family.  Instead of firing, he had each person take a four-week furlough of unpaid vacation whenever they wanted because he thought it was better for all to hurt a little than some to suffer a lot with a job loss.  As a result, morale went up because people saw leaders sacrificing the numbers for them, so they started to care for each other even more.  They would give their days to those who could not afford furlough.

Deciding to let a team member go is a big choice.  Before pulling the trigger, you want to understand the reasons for doing it and whether they are valid.  If the fault lies with you, you should give your people another chance.  If you have genuinely done everything you can, but they still show no improvement, do not waste one more minute.

Quote of the day: “On what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work.” - Marilyn Carlson, former CEO of Carlson Companies

[The next blog in this firing series 3/3 will focus on the best ways to go about firing]

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to support their teams to do their best work, contact me to learn more.

How can you partner with your direct report for success?

How can you partner with your direct report for success?

The Art of Receiving Feedback (feedback series 2/3)

Does this sound like you?  A friend or co-worker offers you some negative feedback and you get flustered, perhaps say some unpleasant words, avoid him/her, and deliberately choose not to send your now ex-associate a holiday card?

Receiving feedback can be hard because nobody wants to hear negative comments about themselves.  It could make you feel undervalued, disappointed, discouraged, and even disengaged.  Moreover, defense mechanisms usually ignite - you may consider the source of the feedback and assess whether he/she is “qualified” to provide it in the first place, or you may reject the comments on the basis of not being relevant to you, but true of the messenger. 

So, how can you see value in feedback?  If your objective is to be as good as you possibly can be, you want guidance and should go out of your way to seek it!  Even if you consider yourself to be self-aware and feel like you have a clear picture of how you are doing, it is still important to get an outside view as we all have blind spots.  Getting multiple perspectives from a network of people who care for you personally and are willing to challenge you professional is vital to your success.

Now that you may be warming to the idea of getting feedback, what’s the next step?  Enlist Help! You could ask a trusted coworker to pay attention to one thing you are trying to work on.  Perhaps, you may feel that when you speak, you give too much information and want to work on bottom-lining essential points.  Your feedback partner can observe you during meetings or collaborative sessions when you are being too loquacious, discuss it immediately after, invite you to offer ways to improve, and possibly provide some suggestions.  Your accountability partner can also champion you for the moments when you were concise.  This information will be instrumental in your progress and to create the desired behavior change.

If you are not as self-aware to know the one thing you are trying to work on, you can create a go-to question to expand your understanding of what you need to improve on. You can ask - what is one thing I can start doing or stop doing to make it easier to work with me? What is one thing I’m doing that is stopping me from being an even better leader/coworker? What’s one new behavior I can adopt that you see really successful in senior leadership?

Finally, it is always a good idea to be gracious in receiving feedback.  Here are some ways:

1. Don’t be overly reactive to the feedback. This is because that may push well-meaning people away.  When you are soliciting feedback, defensiveness is self-defeating.

2. Don’t interrupt before the person has finished.   Sometimes our inner dictator highjacks the conversation by responding too soon thereby missing the benefit of the full report.

3. Always say thank you. It is a gracious way to accept information while showing your gratitude.

When you can receive information that you did not know was making you less effective, it is a gamechanger. Too many people march through life unaware of how their behaviors may be positively or negatively impacting others and when you learn about it, you can make adjustments that will improve your performance.

Q: What is one behavior in which you would like to get feedback?  Who could you ask to be your feedback partner?

[The next blog in this series 2/3 will focus on 5 common mistakes to avoid when giving feedback]

Quote of the day:God gave us all weaknesses and it is a blessing to find out about them” -Ben Horowitz, CEO and Author

Feedback is a gift

Feedback is a gift

This blog is designed to showcase researched-based success principles coupled with my interpretations and practical applications to help you reach your greatest potential and unlock leadership excellence.

The Art of Giving Feedback (feedback series 1/3)

Giving feedback or guidance is one of the most powerful influences on employee development because it has the potential to double the speed of learning.

Many people still use the popular sandwich approach to give feedback, which is to layer corrective suggestions between two pieces of praise.  The method makes sense in theory but does not work as well in actuality.  Roger Schwarz of the Harvard Business Review notes that most managers believe that it is easier for people to accept negative feedback when it is packaged with positive points, but research shows that this is ineffective because when you lead with praise, people usually find it insincere as they are anxiously anticipating the negative parts.  Also, the positive feedback section, when coupled with the negative feedback is diminished because people continue to focus on the negative part that still drums loudly in their minds.

Although it may appear more comfortable to ease into the conversation with a positive start, it stirs up the very anxiety we are trying to avoid in the first place.  As Schwarz points out, “the longer you talk without giving the negative feedback, the more uncomfortable you’re likely to become as you anticipate giving the negative news; your employee will sense your discomfort and become more anxious as well.” These delay tactics rarely do any good.

Here are 4 common frameworks for providing feedback: 1. magical feedback 2. Radical Candor 3. SBI Method 4. Intent v. Impact. You can feel free to get inspiration from any of these methods and create your own approach to deliver your message effectively.

Magical Feedback

It is more appetizing to discard that stale sandwich and replace it with magical feedback, a concept pioneered by a group of psychologists from Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. Their research showed that this particular form of feedback used by a teacher boosted student effort and performance immensely. 

The secret formula has 3 components: connection, belonging, and high standards. 

1. Connection: According to a 2018 Employee Financial Wellness Survey, only 44% of employees feel their manager cares.  When you take steps to connect with your employees, they feel appreciated. Find out what makes your employees’ hearts sing and start by asking.

 2. Belonging:  People want to feel like they are a part of a community. Research shows that having friends at work is most important.  When you say to your team, your success and growth are vital; many of your team members are depending on you, this sends a powerful signal.

 3. Recognizing high standards: When giving feedback, acknowledge the high expectations you set and the employee strength of x, y and z to get there even with a difficult journey.   When managers are aware of their team’s individual assets, they are much more likely to feel engaged and energized.

 Separately, each aspect has a limited effect, but when combined, it creates feedback magic and can sound like this. I am invested in your growth and deeply care about doing great work together. Your teammates count on you for your high-quality and timely work so when you miss deadlines, it erodes creates delays and erodes trust amongst our partners. You are a top performer who has a consistent and positive impact on this team, what would it take for you to get on track and meet your commitments?

Radical Candor

Another way to give feedback is to use Kim Scott’s Radical Candor approach which is where you care personally and challenge professionally.  Author Lara Hogan provides a helpful formula to achieve this goal, which is an observation of the behavior + Impact + question + request = actionable, specific feedback.

1. Behavior Observation. Describe the who/what/when/where of the situation in which you are referring, keying in on the behavior.

2. Impact.  Describe how your employee’s behavior/action has impacted you or others.

3. Question.  Ask a question to learn more about the situation. This part is important because you can learn about the person’s intentions and draw attention to the intention-impact gap, which can build trust and understanding.

4. Request. You can offer a request for using the desired behavior going forward and even provide an example or co-create one.

Example. When Beth spoke, I noticed you jumped in and cut her off when she was not done explaining her idea (BEHAVIOR). That interruption made her feel like her ideas were not validated, and she will be more hesitant to share next time (IMPACT).  Can you help me understand why you jumped in that way (QUESTION)? How could you give somebody the space to complete their thoughts for next time? Or, I’d like you to give somebody the space to complete their thoughts so they feel safe sharing (REQUEST).

SBI Method

The SBI approach comes from the Center for Creative Leadership.

S (situation) - Describe the situation. Be specific about when and where it occurred.

B (behavior) - Describe the observable behavior. Don’t assume you know what the other person was thinking.

I (impact) - Describe what you thought or felt in reaction to the behavior.

When we gathered in the meeting with the purpose of deciding on the initiative and after Andy spoke up, you raised your voice, stormed out of the room abruptly, and slammed the door behind you. The impact of that behavior on Andy is that it caused him to shut down and not want to contribute his ideas anymore and it disrupted the meeting because we could not make a decision. Taking this approach where you are laying out the facts rather than making judgments such as you are angry or you have a problem, is much more productive.

Intent v. Impact

This is an even more simplified version. When you start your discussion by assuming positive intent and focus on the impact, you can diffuse the other person’s potential defensiveness because you are not assigning any malice to their actions.  For example, you can say, “I know it is not your intent to shut me down in the meeting and that you value a free exchange of ideas, and when you jump in before I have had a chance to finish articulating my ideas, the impact it has on me is to go silent and not contribute.  It makes me feel rushed and the conclusion I draw is that if I do not have my thoughts concise and crystalized, I should not share.  I would love to talk about a productive way forward so we can keep our focus on the things we value which is to have diverse perspectives.  What would you suggest to achieve that goal?  When you ask a question and enlist their support to devise a better framework to interact, you will have their buy-in.

As a manager, when you are providing guidance to somebody, it is more than just your job, it is the right thing to do. In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill explains it very well. He said, ‘The source of everything respectable in man, either as an intellectual or as a moral being, is that his errors are corrigible… The whole strength and value of human judgment depending on the one property that it can be set right when it is wrong.’ Giving people guidance to improve their work will have a great impact on others.

Quote of the day: “Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a [person’s] growth without destroying [their] roots.” – Frank A. Clark

Q:  What approach do you use in providing feedback to your team? Comment below.

[The next blog in this series 2/3 will focus on The Art of Receiving Feedback]

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to help them provide effective feedback to their direct reports, teammates, and other stakeholders, contact me to learn more.

Feedback delivery makes all the difference

Feedback delivery makes all the difference

This blog is designed to showcase researched-based success principles coupled with my interpretations and practical applications to help you reach your greatest potential and unlock leadership excellence.