What Is Your Virtual Onboarding Strategy? (Remote Series 10/11)

Many companies struggle to bring people into their organization so they feel welcomed, are quickly integrated into the work, connected to their teammates, and set up to contribute immediately.  Virtual working has added another level of complexity to that long-standing challenge but, with intention, it can be a great experience.

According to a recent study by Gallup, “only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees.”  The traditional in-person experience can usually be described as a firehose where they give you a ton of information they want you to know including the company history, the logistics of navigating the office space, computer setup, and necessary paperwork to complete.  For big companies, the HR representative conducting the process can be routine since they have likely done it numerous times so the novelty has worn off.  But for the person starting the new job, it is a one-time experience and a chance to make their company introduction special.

The goal of a good onboarding is to help newcomers get settled and have the confidence to jump in as quickly as possible.  Here are some things you can do to have a memorable virtual onboarding experience:

Phase 1: Pre-day 1

1A. Strong welcome upon acceptance.  Once the candidate accepts the offer, you want to send the candidate a grand welcome.  Some companies would receive a general welcome video from the CEO about the purpose and vision and the role they can contribute.  As the manager, you should send a welcome email or have a call mentioning how excited you are for the person to join your ranks.  You can even have a teammate or two send a message so they feel included from the beginning.  If a company offers no outreach from the acceptance to the first day, that’s a red flag as they may deemphasize the relationship piece.

1B. Paperwork & Checklist.  Every job has the necessary paperwork to complete, but instead of wasting time on day one finishing it, you should send it in advance electronically so you can hit the ground running on day one and not be bogged down with this tedious work that can be handled on your time.  It is also nice to have a checklist of everything you need to do to be fully onboarded so you can track your progress along the way.  GitHub has a massive checklist for the new employees and the things managers and the company need to complete with estimated deadlines.

1C. Introductions.  It would be great for the new hire to send a 1 min. video or a paragraph introducing themselves with their picture, some information about them, and some questions to get to know more about them, such as how they spend their weekends, some of their favorite things to do, or a top value.  There can even be a dedicated slack channel for intros to connect with people more easily and find common interests.

Phase 2: Intense Initial Period. 

Executive Consultant Amanda Davis talks about onboarding happening in an initial intensive phase, maybe every day for the first week, and then a slower, more sporadic phase because onboarding is an ongoing process and not a one-time event.  In this initial intense period, here are some aspects to consider:

2A. Receive Company Overview.   Day one should be special and aim to excite and delight.  It should include a macro overview of the company’s culture, philosophy, and customer impact stories.  It should answer why the company exists and the good work meant to be done.  The captured feeling should be energizing and motivating and make the person proud to be part of something great and important. 

2B. Get Briefed on Role Overview.   While you have learned about the role during the interview, this information can be even more specific, which will help you succeed at your job.  You should be briefed on the critical work to be done, a picture of what great looks like, and key processes and practices that will help you thrive.  

2C. Have a buddy or guide.  This is somebody on your team who can answer questions about the company or day-to-day necessities for you to do your work.  The buddy can be somebody there for a while to impart institutional knowledge faster or a recent hire who can navigate the onboarding process more quickly since they just went through it.  Upon hire, it would be nice for the buddy to reach out to connect, share what they love about the company, and make it easy for the person to contact them for anything.   

2D. Create a cross-functional cohort.  If it is a larger organization, you will have clusters of people coming in frequently.  You can make sure they are put into a cohort and there are opportunities to connect so they can know more people outside of the team and know others are going through the same experience as you.

2E.  Receive a 1-page network map from your manager.  It is vital to set up a strategic meeting with your manager where they will provide a matrix of the organization so you can have a better understanding of the inner workings and information flow.  The manager should also provide a list of key internal people to connect with, stakeholders and business partners.  It should have their top priorities and needs, the best way to communicate with them, and anything else you find helpful on that page.  Once you walk through the grid and describe the connections, you will want to broker an introduction with some key people to grant credibility early on.  There is a big difference between an employee pursuing a push method, where they seek to make contact with their coworkers over a pull method, where you, as manager, make the connection and find ways to pull them into work quickly.  Companies who opted for this pull over push system were 8x more likely to be successful versus lower performing organizations because they created the conditions where the new hire got connected to key relationships quicker, had access to information and expertise, and had an opportunity to get pulled into work and contribute immediately, which led to a shorter cycle of productivity.

2F. Meet & greets.  Once you have that list, you should set up appointments and begin your listening and relationship-building tour.  The quality and effectiveness of your internal relationships will separate successful and productive employees from unproductive ones.  When relationships are developed early on, the speed of work increases, and you can feel more included and empowered to contribute early on.  It can also lead to career success because you can develop a network of trusted experts.  You can also meet people that will help you get on bigger and more visible assignments. 

Be sure to make the most of meet-and-greets by asking some strategic questions.  You can set the frame by saying, “I would love to start with introductions and then learn about your key priorities, major pain points, and the work that excites you.”  You can also generate enthusiasm for working together by asking about their ways of working and how you can best support them and their success.  Good opportunity to tell others what you do and build your brand from the beginning.  You want to think about mutual value exchanges and not just create a one-way relationship.  As you leave the meeting, you can ask who else they think it would be helpful for me to connect with so you can extend the conversation with other strategic partners.

Phase 3:Ongoing supports

3A. 1 Month Connect.  Having gone through a month of work, there are likely many more questions that have come up so having a cohort of new hires connect for relationship building, continued excitement, and doing a deeper dive to answer questions to learn even more about the company so they can contribute more robustly to the organization.  The goal is to continue to educate and build excitement, so the new employees see themselves as direct contributors.  It is also a two-way street because hearing some of their perceptions can offer great value to the team leaders about the company and onboarding processes.  The managers do a great job spreading the learnings and aim to repeat them.  You can have exercises where people have to share their understanding of their role’s purpose aligned with the company’s purpose; these stories can build valuable connections.  These meetings can continue monthly for the first quarter.

3B.  Connecting to a mentor.  If the organization has a formal mentor program, it would be great for the person to be connected to a seasoned leader who can serve as a mentor to advance their career development to build that long-term investment.  This can happen bi-yearly or quarterly depending on the bandwidth and can increase in frequency over time.  Still, it is soothing knowing they have a dedicated mentor to help them succeed in their career.

Some companies treat onboarding as a routine one-day event.  However, the most successful companies treat the onboarding experience as memorable and put in the necessary support along the journey before they even start during their intensive period, and in an ongoing sustainable fashion.  When you intend to make the experience valuable, you will open the doors for workers to contribute more easily.

Quote of the day: “I truly believe that onboarding is an art. Each new employee brings with them a potential to achieve and succeed. To lose the energy of a new hire through poor onboarding is an opportunity lost.” -Sarah Wetzel, Director of Human Resources at Engage:BDR

Q:  What are the best tips you can share about onboarding effectively? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 11/11 will focus on hybrid work being the future.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

What’s your onboarding experience?

How To Get Noticed Remotely? (Remote series 8/11)

One of the biggest challenges with remote work is reduced visibility.  You may not get the same level of preferred interaction if you do not go into the office regularly.  However, you can still do many things to advance your career and stand out as a great teammate.

Here are some tips to get noticed remotely:

1. Show engagement & visibility.  Think about how you can show that you are invested in the team’s purpose and results, the company’s success, and each other.  One way to show engagement is to participate often in the group’s collective wisdom but not dominate.  When your cameras are on, and you offer verbal comments with those in the room and written ones in the chat, it shows your presence.  You can be sure to ask questions to show you are listening and even volunteer for additional projects if you have the bandwidth.  You can contribute to offline communication and post in Q and A forums, offer assistance, and share best practices.  You can send congratulatory notes to acknowledge other people’s wins and be specific with your feedback other than just saying good job.  Share what you have learned so that others may use that information to advance their work. 

2.  Be proactive.  Do not just sit back and follow, step up and lead.  You can raise potential challenges that you see on the horizon and offer possible solutions to show that you are being strategic and thinking long-term.  Connect your work and that of the teams to the impact of the business, and keep in mind other cross-functional teams and dependents when sharing your initiatives, as it shows you as a thoughtful contributor.  Be sure to procure a buddy who is in the room and can translate some of the nuances in the meeting.  You can message each other during and after the meeting to ensure you have the essential pieces down.  Be sure to make the most of your one-on-ones and seek out mentors as a prime opportunity to gain more visibility.

3. Create a friction-free experience.  It can be easy to create unnecessary thrash in remote settings, and be the person who keeps things simple and easy.  When sending emails, do not invite many back-and-forth interactions, rather, include the fewest steps possible.  For example, if you want to request a meeting with your boss, do not keep it vague and say, I’d like to meet, and then you have to wait for them to ask about the topic and available times, and then you provide times and there all these extra emails when once could have sufficed.  Instead, you can request to meet, state the topic, and offer several times that may work and if not, they can suggest 2-3 times during these available windows for the following week. They can confirm a time, and you can be all set.  If you are looking for your boss to provide answers, instead of making it open-ended by asking what they think is the solution which can demand a lot of work, you can offer three avenues that you were thinking about and ask which one of these, if any, would they want to go forward with?

4. Build relationships.  Since many organizations are matrixed where your work depends on the work of many others, it can be helpful to spend time intentionally building relationships and collecting goodwill.  This is one of the most important things you can do to succeed in your career, yet it is never urgent for people.  Your connections should not be transactional but more about building authentic connections.  You can share information on your careers and roles and even think about how best you like to work with each other. Knowing more details about their work can help you better work together.

5. Be a good team member.  Take part in team activities to get to know people outside their roles.  Be a builder and acknowledger of others’ ideas, take time to recognize, praise, and elevate them, and do not diminish, embarrass, or engage in any cringe-worthy behaviors.  Respond to emails timely and follow up on requests, so people are not wondering if you got their messages.  Do not engage in gossip; when you have a challenge with a person, assume positive intent and always go to the person to explore what’s going on. It would help if you did not involve your manager unless it calls for an escalation because the two of you have gone back and forth a few times and cannot seem to settle the differences.  If you do escalate it, do not send a private message to your boss to give your side, instead, you can tell the person, I think it is best if we bring this issue to the boss, and then you can send an email including the other person and your boss so no covert activities are occurring which can breed further distrust.

Working remotely does not mean you have to be invisible or reduce your value in any way. You can do many things to stand out and be a contributing force, it just may require a little more intentionality and planning.

Quote of the day:  “Not finance, not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare.” – Patrick Lencioni

Q:  What are you doing to stand out remotely? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 9 /11 will focus on how to personally thrive while working remotely

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

Get noticed Remotely

The Secret To Making Virtual Meetings Successful (Remote Series 7/11)

Why do some virtual team meetings feel like a waste of time while others feel essential and productive?  When leading a team, it is crucial to be mindful of your meeting design to increase the chances that the meeting is a good use of everyone’s time. 

Here are some steps to include that distinguish the most valuable virtual meetings from the rest:

1. Plan.  Decide if a meeting is necessary.  Most things do not require meetings – if you are giving information or have made a decision that does not involve others’ input — an email will do.  But some things require human interaction and collaborative thinking, like problem-solving or addressing conflict not fully explored.  If we need to take time to let creative solutions emerge, a meeting may be required. Adam Grant said that meetings should be for learning, doing, bonding, or deciding.

2. Determine Meeting Duration & Number.  No rule says meetings need to be 30 mins. or 1 hour.  Good meeting hygiene is to make meetings 15, 25, or 50 minutes because the shorter time will allow you to be more intentional about using your time wisely.  Having that buffer before the next meeting can help replenish energy.  It is also good to set the number of meetings suitable for the team, defining a healthy range for the week will allow people to plan time to do their best work.

3. Connect.  Each meeting should have connection time dedicated to them.  You can begin with a check-in question, such as what is something you have done this week that got you excited.  If you could play any Olympic sport and be the best, which would it be?  The goal is to get to know each other besides their role because people who know each other and can find commonalities usually work better together.

4. Clarify norms around meetings.  What are the expectations around participation?  Do you have a video camera rule where you want cameras on most of the time (say 90%) because it helps create a connection?  What are the guidelines around when cameras are off?  Do you want to grant professionalism to people and trust that when they have their cameras off, it is because of a good reason?  Should they drop a note in the chat about why their cameras are off, such as they have not had a chance to eat and will turn it on after, or kids are in the background since they stayed home from school, so it is a bit noisier than usual.  When cameras are off, how do you show you are still present?  For the presenter, it can be hard to stare at a bunch of black zoom boxes and wonder if people are present or even paying attention.  What is the behavior that you want to give and get?  When you ask questions, do you expect to hear from everybody by adding their views in the chat?  If you suspect people are disengaged because their camera is always off, and when you call on them, they do not respond or do not add to the chat, what is the process for addressing your observation? There are so many ways to do meetings well, and it starts with clarifying your expectations and inviting them to offer what would work best.  Once you have an agreed system, any deviation should be discussed until you are on the same page and making the most of your time together.

5. Prep in advance.  What are the 1-2 big questions you want to be answered in the meeting?  What should people read, prepare, and be ready to contribute?   Amazon has a narrative culture where at the beginning of the meeting, all people will read a document together for a few minutes and make comments and be ready to discuss ideas.  This allows for the discussion to be much richer and meetings more efficient because people are caught up to speed faster.

6. Create an inclusive environment.  There are things you can do to hear all voices.  First, telling them their point of view matters so that when they weigh in, the best decisions can be made.  Before the meeting, send any relevant info, an agenda, and questions in advance so you can give time for the introverts to think through problems/challenges.    How do you ensure turn-taking is happening effectively and that some dominant voices are not crowding out the introverted voices?  You can utilize the chat for more inclusivity and encourage people to put hashtags before their contribution to organize their ideas.  Adam Grant offers these helpful hashtags to organize comments:

·      #Question – you want to ask a question

·      #Debate – you want to challenge what was said or share a different perspective

·      #Aha - which indicates a new learning

·      #On Fire - means the floor is yours because you have something burning and timely to share. 

This helps to keep the flow and momentum of the conversation because it is related as opposed to going in order, and comments are not directly related.  Remote work benefits us because it gives us this second communication channel.

7. Save time by starting with the agreement.  If a meeting needs a critical decision, you can invite team members to send their responses in advance so you can review them and find the places of agreement.  Then, during the meeting, instead of reviewing everything, you can dial into the point of disagreement by saying, I know we are all on the same page with deciding this project is a go and like A, B, and C elements, let’s talk about element D since there were many different perspectives.  The ideal outcome would be deciding on the next step to advance this project.  After that preamble, you can begin a rich discussion for a decision to occur and save a lot of time in the process.

8. Encourage disagreements.   Productive disagreements can lead to the most innovative ideas, but sometimes they do not just naturally happen, so you can introduce some process to induce it.  Here are a few things you can do:

·      You can tell people you want to hear their disagreements and give them the space to offer any.

·      After people raise an idea, you can ask if anyone can think of an alternative perspective.

·      You can assign a devil’s advocate role to address any weaknesses of the idea.

·      When somebody says I think we should do X, you can acknowledge their contribution and challenge them to brainstorm to come up with several different other ideas.  When you get in the habit of saying, “great, what else is there,” you don’t get anchored to the first ideas leading to quality and innovation.  

·      You can focus the disagreements on the task or process and reinforce the idea that it is not personal and is in service of pursuing the best ideas.

9. Amplify others’ voices.  You can set the stage and let people know in the beginning that you will call on all people, starting with those you have not heard from so you can be sure to get diverse perspectives and so it is not a surprise when you call on them.  If somebody is not speaking up, you can call on them or send a private chat and preface your question with, “I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, what would you like to share?  Also, as a facilitator, be mindful of those who are trying to talk but may be a little slow to get in, you can give them an opening by saying, “Danielle, it seems as if you want to share, I would love to hear from you.”

10. Give space for the introverts to share.  Create time for people to write down their ideas privately before they verbally share or add to the chat channel to have that necessary processing time.

11. Facilitate turn-taking.   Making sure people get their turn goes a long way to feeling validated and included.  You can have people raise their hands so cue forms and each person can speak in order.  When somebody speaks, you can have them call on others. When you get questions, you can allow others to answer before you do, so it is not just a ping-pong effect going from one participant to you and then another participant to you, rather it is more of a network approach where they are answering each other’s questions, and you are in the background.  Watch out for interrupters, and be sure to jump in to prevent that behavior and allow people to finish their thoughts

12. Give praise.  Reach out to at least one team member after the meeting to recognize them for sharing their different view during the conversation.  When you reward the behavior you are trying to encourage, you will invite more of the same and create a great team meeting culture.

13. Reflect.  Watch a recorded video of a team meeting and pay attention to who is talking, who is talked over, who is listened to, and who is ignored.  You can see what the team is noticing and put any necessary changes in place to make meetings more inclusive.

Many people will tell you that meetings can be the worst part of their day and week, but when they are done right, they can be an energizing experience.  Designing the right processes can help create effective meetings that are inclusive, innovative, and foster the best ideas.

Quote of the day:  “Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful.  Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.” – Author Jason Fried 

“When leaders know how to lead great meetings, there’s less time wasted and less frustration.  We have more energy to do the work that matters, realize our full potential, and do great things. – Entrepreneur Justin Rosenstein

Q:  What are your best remote meeting practices?  Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 8/11 will focus on getting noticed remotely.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further. 

How do you run inclusive remote meetings?

Optimize Your Remote 1:1s (Remote Series 6/11)

It is common for people to feel a lack of support from their managers while working remotely if the right systems are not implemented.  When you are intentional about organizing your 1:1s, you can ensure your direct reports are getting the most out of the sessions by feeling connected and supported to be set up for success.

Here are some helpful components to include in your remote 1:1s:

1. Connect.  Spend some time connecting first before jumping into the work.  Asking about non-related work such as how their weekend went, inquiring about their family, or asking about any exciting things they have been up to lately will build invaluable rapport. 

2 Work Update & Supports.  You can have your Directs briefly report on the work (what’s going well that they are proud of and what challenges they could use your support in).  There can be space for what they tried, what they failed at, and what they are learning.  There are various supports you can offer, whether it is answering their questions, providing documentation, and informing them of how the big picture of what they are doing fits into your projects and the larger company initiatives. You can also give them access to others by making introductions with your peers, providing any tech equipment to do their job more easily, or any other necessary assistance.  As a manager, when you ask, “is there anything I can do to support you this week,” it sends a resounding message that you care.  If you have limited capacity or have one area of strength that you are particularly good at that you want to leverage, you can specify your support. For example, “I have an extra 30 minutes this week, is there anything I can do to support you on this project with this part of the deck or anybody I can connect you with to facilitate the work?”  

3. Skill progression.  It is always nice to call out skills and capabilities that they are developing and how they fit into their career goals.  Feedback on how they are doing can motivate and lead to greater engagement.  

4. Solicit Feedback.  This is important to optimize the working relationship.  A common question that leaders can ask: "Is there anything you want me to start doing or stop doing to make things more effective?" One remote manager Rodolphe Dutel found that when he asked his remote employees what he could do to make their lives easier, he learned a lot of helpful answers ranging from more face time, mentoring, and written instructions instead of verbal ones, so there is more clarity.  Little changes like moving a weekly meeting by one hour so the Direct Report can pick up his kids at school or scheduling time to have a quick sync before a big meeting to reduce nerves and stress, or having office hours for a brief check-in to provide help to get unstuck can all make a big difference.

5. Solicit ideas.  It is instrumental in creating space for your team to share their voice and be heard.  You can ask what ideas they have to improve the team or company.  They have a unique vantage point, and tapping into that wisdom will help you do your job better and serve your team more productively. It can also increase engagement because they can feel included and know their input matters.

6. Invite them to create the agenda.  Including the direct reports in crafting the 1:1s is essential.  You can have them talk about a structure that would work for them, possibly borrowing from some of the components above or creating new aspects.  The experience and buy-in will be significantly enhanced when they can include the factors that will meet their needs.

The key to effective 1:1s while working remotely is to be intentional about creating a great experience and not make the time transactional or routine.  Neither side should show up with no plan because you would miss a prime opportunity to connect, grow together, and produce great work.

Quote of the day: “90 minutes of your time can enhance the quality of your subordinate’s work for two weeks or 80+ hours.” – Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel.

Q:  How do you maximize your 1:1s to be an energizing experience? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 7/11 will focus on making virtual meetings successful.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you have great 1:1s?

Accountability Is Key For Remote Working (Remote Series 5/11 )

For remote work to be successful, it is vital to ensure your team is aligned on accountability.  Many people shy away from these conversations, but when you can bubble them up and are clear on how you want to handle the topic, you will save yourself a lot of headaches in the long run.

Here are some factors to consider with accountability:

1. Hire the right people.  When you hire doers eager to get great work done, you are set up for success.  Once you provide direction and guidance around important things to be executed, doers will make things happen.  One of Zapier's core values is "default to action," and one of Amazon’s principles is “bias for action.”  For these organizations, recruiting people with these tendencies who have a deep appreciation for getting things done is vital.

2. Focus on goals and outcomes over activities.  It would help if you did not try to manage every aspect of your team’s work or focus on activities completed and hours logged, instead measuring your team’s effectiveness on their accomplishments and KPIs.  If they are meeting their goals, great.  If not, you can investigate further to learn why and realign expectations.  Your job as a leader is to help define what the work is to be done and allow them to figure out how they plan to approach the project for success, and then follow up to discuss progress.

3. Offer flexibility and trust.  The mentality of ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) allows workers flexibility to decide how they want to arrange their day for maximum output.  If that means starting work later so they can take their kids to school or arranging a quick tennis match during their lunch break to get a 2nd wind to produce high-quality work, so be it.  Give them the autonomy to decide how they want to get the job done that suits their needs and situation, especially if it is not negatively impacting the team.

4. Align expectations and promote self-accountability.   At NASA, they use a fire-and-forget approach.  Once somebody has shared the work to be done and had the conversation around expectations, they can dismiss the task from their mind because they know that they can rely on their teammate to manage and monitor themselves without reminders.  It’s an enjoyable atmosphere to trust your coworkers that the work will get done without having to send constant follow-ups or check-ins on status.  If unforeseen circumstances occur, you can trust that they will be proactive, bring the matter to your attention, and renegotiate the agreement because there is always the consideration of how the actions of one will impact the entire team.

5. Address incomplete work early on.  Often, leaders dread hard conversations when deadlines are missed.  Be sure to follow up early to understand what’s behind this behavior and have commitment-based actions and plans to move forward differently and more productively.  If you do not say anything, you are offering a tacit agreement that their behavior works, and you are willing to put up with more of it.  The responsibility is more on you to determine what you will and will not allow than on them pushing the envelope.

6. Do check-ins, not check-ups.  As a manager, you can check in with your teammates to see how things are, and if they need support to unblock their path or help them think through their challenges.  This is different from check-ups with a more monitoring feeling; where it seems like you are trying to catch them doing something wrong.  Being clear about your check-ins from the outset and the reason why can build a trusting relationship.  For example, if somebody does not have a lot of experience with a project, you can share that you will do more frequent early check-ins to make sure there is alignment and they are set up for success rather than them getting far in a project only to have some of it rolled back because it is not meeting the target.  Once the work is moving along well, you can share that you plan to change the check-in cadence.

Getting accountability right will save your team a tremendous amount of time and energy.  It begins by defining whom we want to be as a team and putting in the processes that support those goals.  It also involves having the right conversations to raise awareness, and so people have ample opportunity to course correct.  When accountability is done well, it is an extraordinary component of a successful team.

Quote of the day: “Creating a culture of integrity and accountability not only improves effectiveness, but it also generates a respectful, enjoyable, and life-giving setting in which to work.” -Tom Hanson

Q:  What accountability approaches have you found work the best for remote working?  What is the trickiest part?  Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 6/11 will focus on optimizing your remote 1:1s.  For a deeper dive into accountability, you can also check out this 3-part series.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you offer supportive accountability?

Make Recognition Routine (Remote series 4/11 )

Recognition is a big part of building community and a culture of appreciation.  It can help retain top talent because a prime reason why people leave their jobs is because of poor managers, usually ones that overlook the excellent work of others and fail to provide praise. 

While it is a fundamental human need to receive recognition, it is not a universal practice.  More than 80% of supervisors say they express appreciation to their employees, yet less than 20% of their employees say their supervisors give appreciation more than occasionally.  There is a disconnect, and it is contributing to a hemorrhaging of great talent.

Some traditional recognition programs such as employee of the month or the annual banquet recognizing star performers have problems.  To acknowledge only one employee for the month is not enough, it should be a daily and weekly practice.  Another problem is that they are often not judged fairly, otherwise, your best employee would win every month, but it seems awkward to give it to the same person so you start concocting reasons to spread the benefit around to the point where everybody gets it. This means your best and average workers are treated equally, which is unfair if they provide different outputs.  Worse yet, if 1-2 people on your team have not gotten it, that can become an issue.  

Effective recognition makes the employee feel noticed for what they have done.  Managers who say, “I saw what you did, and I appreciate it” means a lot.  Both individual and team recognitions are essential, and they can range from formal to informal. 

Here are some recognition practices you may want to consider:

1. Saying thank you in a public way.   You can do this via slack channel or at a standup meeting for peers to see that you appreciate them.  You can also send a physical note or card to tell them how much you value their work beyond the requirements.  It can be helpful to keep track of those you recognize so you can challenge yourself to praise new people regularly if you feel it is genuine and well-deserved 

2. Send an email to your teammate and CC others.  You can be specific about what they did to do a great job and CC your boss and your boss’s boss to make their contributions more visible.

3. Create a kudos board or gratitude channel.  Some companies have a dedicated spot where you can see all the thanks.  There are programs like Assembly where you can give kudos to people and the ones that get the most every week will get rewards like gift cards, show tickets, or other benefits.

4. Spot bonuses.  Some managers have a spot bonus budget that they can give an individual or a team for a specific behavior, action, or result for an extraordinary job.  They can range from a couple of hundred to a few thousand, and it is nice to give a monetary reward when you can.

5. Have a forum to share your good work.  Google’s “I Am Remarkable” initiative empowers women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.  It is done because many people struggle to talk about their accomplishments due to culture, gender modesty norms, or imposter syndrome, so the goal is to challenge the social perception around self-promotion. 

6. Make connections to mentors and sponsors.  In addition to recognizing their good work, you can make connections to potential mentors or sponsors for them to receive support to further their excellent work.

It is essential to take time to shine a light on people’s good work, and the benefits extend to both the receiver and the giver.  For the receiver, it can be a moment stamped in their memory for years.  The boomerang effect for the giver is that it elevates their spirits because they create a positive experience for another. 

Quote of the day: “Recognition is not a scarce resource.  You can’t use it up or run out of it.” -Susan Heathfield, HR Expert

Q:  How do you like to give and receive recognition? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 5/11 will focus on accountability in the remote environment.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you recognize others?

Clear Expectations Are the Foundation for Remote Work Success (remote series 2/11)

Clear expectations can make or break a remote team.  Anytime there are changes to the work, or the context has shifted, there will always be an initial lack of clarity followed by unclear or unmet expectations.  This can cause a lot of stress as people are not realizing what they have to do and may even be duplicating efforts.  Clear expectations lead to greater confidence and trust in your work and less conflict, rework, wasted energy, and micromanagement; it is the fertile ground for successful remote work.

As a manager, you can do many things to create an incredible remote work environment for your team.   Here are some categories to cover for setting clear expectations:

1. Define the team.  If you’re starting a new team from the ground, or if you have inherited a team, be clear from the beginning about who is on the team and who is not, as well as the adjacent and dependent teams.  All good teams have a purpose and vision so there is alignment and a compelling reason to unite and rally around.  Additionally, you need to define the OKRs, goals, outcomes, tasks, the rationale for why the work matters, the big picture behind the work, and co-create team values that will guide the work.  When team members can answer why they are here to do what they do and the impact they will have, they will be more engaged. 

2. Define clear roles and responsibilities.  Now that you’ve all agreed on your team’s purpose and vision, ensure you are all on the same page regarding everybody’s roles and responsibilities.  For example, what specific tasks or perspectives do you expect each team member to contribute?  Because team members may not understand why they’ve been chosen, schedule a meeting to share why each member was named to the team, each person’s unique background and valuable skillset, and clarify each member’s role.  Share a game plan for how your team should interact with each other.  Creating a team charter can help bring organization and introspection to your team, especially when geographically dispersed, so they always know the direction and can remain on track with their high performance. 

3. Establish team norms or ways of working.  In different companies and cultures, routine processes often differ widely, which confuses team members.  How will you work together?  What are the ways you will interact with each other?  What are the values and behaviors that we all can expect?  Team leaders should establish norms and provide training for best practices such as meeting formats, use of technologies and communication, and processes for decision-making and conflict.

4. Set Communication Norms.  This is essential to make sure we are collaborating effectively and getting the work done.  What is your communication strategy to keep everybody connected and doing great work?  How many weekly formal or informal connections will you have?  What are the guidelines around daily needs?  How do team members set commitment-based deadlines so there is no need for follow-ups?  What kinds of digital tools will you use and for what purposes?  Teams often amass tools but no discussion on how those tools are used.  Sometimes zoom becomes the de facto for everything, even when sharing an update can better be done over email.  Remote working offers a great opportunity to co-create which tools will work best based on their purposes. 

You can develop a communication charter and gain agreement on how communication will happen, what kind of messages will be exchanged, and what channels will be utilized with examples and non-examples   After establishing those processes, you can gently remind the person who may be using the right tool in the right way based on the charter.  So much conflict happens due to unclear expectations around communication.   

Here is a list of tools with some possible purposes that might be helpful for your team for the communication component of the charter.

4A. Instant messenger.  Slack is a popular remote tool, especially for direct messaging.  This is best done for rapid communication and iteration without a glut of unwieldy threads like in email.  Some channels can be set up to relate to specific topics or projects.  There can also be non-work-related channels as a way to connect with others.  For example, you can have a water cooler challenge to learn about when it is people’s birthdays or what they did over the weekend. You can have a channel for introductions for when new teams join, and they can offer a video intro so you can quickly learn people’s stories.

4B. Email.  It can be used to provide more extensive information and have a record of the communication and share weekly updates or summaries of what everyone is working on to ensure alignment.  Most teams do not talk about the guidelines around emails.  For example, in the TO line will be those who need to respond, and in the CC line are those who need to be updated.  Instruct others not to reply all when it is not necessary, so it keeps people focused on their productivity unless there are important exceptions like a decision needs to be made and you want all voices included.  In that case, share that information and give them a window to weigh in before you move forward with the decision.  When an email chain gets too long, start by summarizing critical points before weighing in and creating a new thread when the topic has evolved with a different focus.   These may sound like trivial things, but being on the same page around communication norms and creating a frictionless experience will make the work much easier and faster.

4C. Video meetings.  Zoom is a popular tool for getting people together in real-time to discuss projects and have a back-and-forth to hash out details.  Other tools include Microsoft Team, Google Duo, and Webex.  In your charter, you can specify how and when you use video and the guidelines for success, such as when the cameras are on and the best ways to interact.  At GitHub, they do not have presentations in their meetings because they are only for interaction.  When a new team member tries to present, another team member jumps in to enforce the norm, and that’s how their meeting purpose remains intact.   If there is no discussion on these norms, you cannot expect people to be great team members.

4D. Phone calls.  If there are a few back and forth on instant messenger or emailing and still more to hash out, it can be best to jump on the phone to discuss the issue in real-time.

4E. Document hub.  Where do you store critical documents and project information?  Who is responsible for keeping that information organized and updated?  How can it be accessed outside the firewalls?  This allows people to quickly complete their work when there is a centralized location to get what they need.

4F. Define synchronous and asynchronous work.  Maybe you have organized your tools into broader categories of synchronous and asynchronous work based on the purpose.  For example, some teams will use asynchronous tools when work needs to be done in real-time such as brainstorming and problem-solving.  Using asynchronous work can be used for sharing info, giving status updates, adding ideas to a document, or chiming in on a proposal with a more extended deadline.  The advantage of this approach is that you can catch those people who either cannot attend a meeting or do not have an invite.  You can make it more inclusive and open it up to many voices to contribute their ideas and gain more visibility and possibly recognition.  It also leverages flexibility for times that best serve them depending on their energy levels and personal commitments.  The early risers can add comments at the beginning of the day when they do their best work, and the night owls can contribute at the end of the day for their ideal time. 

5. Define response time and deadlines.  What are the expectations around response times, should emails be answered within 24 hours or three days?  Should people respond when they have received a message by saying, “messaged received, thanks,” or is no response necessary to reduce clutter? How about the word quickly, what does it mean?  We could all have different ideas.  It could mean 2 hours, 1 day, within a couple of days, or sometime this week, depending on who is interpreting the message and their position in the company.  When you stay away from vague terms, it offers more clarity.  A great way to do that is to include deadlines, “please respond by tomorrow 5 pm est. so the client can have their answer in the morning as promised.” 

6. Define work availability and standard meeting hours.  For some, the work-from-home experience has blurred boundaries between personal and professional obligations, so as a manager, it is essential to discuss work schedules with each team member to respect their time.  If you know the morning time is for your family, and you will not be logging on until a specific time, share that upfront.  If you know you do your best work in the evening and will be sending emails after 11:00 pm or on weekends, share that just because you are sending a message that is convenient for you, your expectation is that they do not respond until their work hours.  These clear boundaries help maintain positive relationships and a healthy culture where people can comfortably focus on their work and not have to work around the clock, not have their performance measured by how quickly they respond, not get burned out, and not have to expend unnecessary energy thinking about their communication.  Clear boundaries can help teams work together better and especially overcome time zone differences.  For meetings, provide optimal times to overlap early and late time zones and have a predictable window.  If there is no convenient time, you can have a rotation system, one month that favors one coast and another month that favors the other.

Great teams can be set up to thrive when there are clear expectations on the ways of work, including a communication strategy.  It will enable people to spend more time on the work and less on figuring out the best approaches to navigate interpersonal dynamics.   As a leader, the best thing you can do for your people is to take the time to set this foundation for masterful work to be built.

Quote of the day: “Treat a person as they are, and they will remain as is. Treat a person as they can and should be, and they will become as they can and should be.”  -Author Stephen Covey 

Q:  How do you set clear and high expectations?   Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 3/11 will focus on building community remotely.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you set clear expectations?

Successful Remote Work Hinges On Great Managers (remote series 1/11)

The Pandemic has caused many people to shift their operations to hybrid and remote models for the first time.  Some people successfully adjusted to remote work, while many have not.  As an Executive Coach working with many leaders dealing with this issue, there are many lessons I’ve collected on how to improve the building and managing of remote and hybrid teams.

It is clear that not having a strategy to organize people around the globe to work together successfully and build something amazing will lead to failure.  But being intentional about a placeless mindset – an integrated way of thinking, living, and working so we can work from anywhere can be a differentiator.  And just because we have seen many early examples of remote work not being done right, does not mean it is a flawed model; it is constantly evolving and can be beneficial when leveraged correctly.

Here are some common challenges in thinking through remote work:

1. Low-performing managers. The managers who struggled in person have continued their challenges.   Some leaders got the position because they were good at the technical parts of their job and not necessarily because they were extraordinary people managers.  Being a manager is not simply a great individual contributor plus one additional skill in their familiar domain, it draws from a different bucket.  You have to have a mindset of really caring for your team and aiming to make them better than they thought possible. The reality is some people pursue that route for the promotion and title, not because they love the people side of the job or are particularly good at it.  So, you end up with a pool of people who dislike managing and do it anyway.   Their poor performance was exacerbated when they had to do it remotely because the stakes were even higher to do this aspect of their job well and with enjoyment.   Previously, some of these people leaders relied on an older management practice called “managing by walking around,” where they gathered information through their interactions, and some could rest on their presence and charisma.  Now, that they have to be more intentional about building rapport and in some cases, modeling vulnerability, they feel challenged because it is different and harder.

2. Managers not adapting their approach.  Leading a high-performing team can be hard work even in the best of circumstances.  But when team members are working from home and scattered geographically and culturally, the task of managing remote employees is even greater.  Managers trying to replicate the same approaches online as they did in person are struggling.  For example, if you used to give status updates in your meetings and now do it on zoom, it may not have the same impact because of all the additional environmental distractions.  There is a real opportunity to take advantage of the tech tools for a more significant impact and to enhance meetings, such as the breakout rooms to encourage small group discussion or the chat to include diverse perspectives.  It is not exciting for people to show up, stare at a screen and passively hear somebody talk the whole time.  Some of the zoom fatigue is that we are trying to make the online work feel like in-person work, but it is not.  There can be copious benefits to remote work when managers appropriately leverage unique opportunities to better utilize the time together.

3. Managers who do not lead with trust and know how to hold others accountable.   Some managers who do not trust their workers or fear losing control have turned to micromanaging or overmanaging.  If they are not skilled enough to control work and performance, they look to increase surveillance, e.g programs that count your keystrokes; this is never a motivating or inspiring strategy, resulting in rebellion and disengagement from workers.  With a lack of visibility, managers are struggling with how to keep accountability.  Instead of co-creating the goals, metrics of success, checkpoints, and implications for missed work and allowing people the freedom and autonomy to do their job, they are skipping these steps and doing more telling and less collaborating.  Employees who follow managers due to positional power is never a sustainable model, you want to manage where people choose to follow you because they find it to be a valuable, even inspiring experience.

4. Lack of clear expectations.  Communicating clear expectations is something we are constantly working on, but with remote work, there is even more of a need to do this extraordinarily well.  Do people know their roles, tasks, top 3 priorities, how they will be evaluated, and the specific ways they can excel?  Do they know the best methods for interacting with each other?  Using more intention in designing those processes will save a lot of time.  While you were In person, you may have been able to go up to somebody and request a task, but with remote, you have to be more thoughtful in how you approach people.  Email is a terrible way to communicate anything that involves a lot of back-and-forth discussion or emotional topics.  If coordination is not effectively done, it will lead to poorly organized projects from start to finish.

5. Lack of intention in building team cohesion and culture.  While some culture-building efforts could happen naturally in the office, especially before, during, and after team meetings, remote work requires more planning.  Some overlook this essential step which contributes to the overall enjoyment and engagement that can make people feel included, connected, and recognized.   

6. Lack of investment in employee career advancement and well-being.   A big part of being a leader is to care for those you lead and work to make them successful.  That entails having somewhat regular career conversations to ensure they are growing in the organization and investing in their well-being.  It is responsibility #1 of a manager to care for and develop others; If you are not doing that you are failing as a manager, regardless of the results you might be getting.

Surely, there can be a lot of advantages with remote work when the model is designed well.  Two enormous benefits include increases in productivity and job satisfaction, among others.  

1. Increase in productivity.  According to a survey from ConnectSolutions, 30% of workers say they accomplish more in less time.  While remote work is new for some people, many have been doing it for a while.  Cisco started with remote and hybrid work in 1993 and saw a rise in productivity.  Sun Microsystems experimented with it early on and saw productivity increase and costs drop significantly; they ended up reducing $500 million in real estate.  CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg said. “People are more productive working at home than people would have expected.  Some people thought everything was just going to fall apart, and it hasn’t.  And a lot of people are saying that they’re more productive now.”  When done right, with a strategy in place, remote work can be a boon to business.

2. Increase in job satisfaction.  Global Workplace Analytics shows that many people prefer to work at least part of the time remotely.  People value their autonomy and flexibility, and when they’re empowered to segment their day in ways that make sense for their personal needs, they are happier.  For many, stress levels can decrease when they can spend more time with their families and less time commuting. 

The great resignation has been coined to capture the phenomenon of employees voluntarily resigning in mass, and the causes have been multifaceted.  This period can also be known as the great reputation of the suboptimal work arrangements we have tolerated for far too long.  Power has shifted from the employer to the workers who are demanding how they want to work and where they want to work.  People want more from their jobs, they want good managers and will leave mediocre ones.  Companies intentionally providing better cultures and offering more remote opportunities are winning. 

Quote of the day: Micromanagement is the destroyer of momentum.” -Author Miles Anthony Smith

Q:  What’s the biggest remote challenge you are facing right now?   Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 2/11 will focus on setting clear expectations for remote work success.                                          

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you manage remotely for the greatest results?

How Is Your Executive Presence?

The term executive presence can be vague and mean different things to different people, like the concept of leadership.  Is it about how you show up by what you wear, how concise and convincing you are in meetings, how great you present, how much credibility you have, or how strong your decision-making and strategic thinking skills are?

When you ask a group of managers who aspire to the C-suite what it takes to get there, they invariably mention executive presence, even if they may not be clear on what it means.  In a survey conducted by Coach Source, Dr. Brian Underhill shares that from a manager’s perspective, 42% of people who seek a coach want to develop their executive presence.

So, what are these “make or break” factors in considering whether to promote somebody into the upper leadership rank?  Executive presence is not just about one or two factors, such as how you look or dress, but about the whole person.  It may seem like some people either have it or not, but they likely worked hard to achieve it, and it can be developed with intention.  Executive presence, or I would extend the concept to also include leadership presence is about inspiring confidence in others because of character, capabilities, and reliability.  These leaders can handle complex and unpredictable situations, make tough decisions quickly, and hold their own with talented and strong-willed team members.

The Bates Executive Presence Index, a research-based, scientifically validated assessment measures executive presence according to 3 big categories: character, substance, and style.  I’m going to borrow aspects of that framework and include my categories based on commonalities from clients I’ve coached on this topic.

Components of Executive/Leadership Presence:

1. Character.  Arguably one of the most important is about the personal traits and values that define you.  Two key components include:

·      Integrity - Acting authentically, transparently, sincerely, and in accordance with your actions and beliefs.  You live up to ethical standards because you care about doing the right thing for yourself and others, even when it is unpopular.  You are credible, trustworthy, professional, dependable, and know how to keep your promises.

·      Humility - Part of being humble is being self-aware – you have a good sense of your strengths, weaknesses, and the impact that you want to make.  At the same time, you know you do not know it all, so you seek out diverse perspectives and feedback, you listen inclusively to others, and you believe that all people have worth regardless of title or position.

2. Substance.  This relates to depth and overall maturity and can be split into practical wisdom and emotional intelligence.

·      Practical Wisdom – Having those hard skills and competencies in getting the job done.  You also exercise good insight, judgment, vision, strategic thinking, and collaborative skills in bringing teams and stakeholders aligned and along with you as you achieve results.   

·      Emotional Intelligence – You show calm and balance when under pressure because you know how to manage your own emotions.  You do not have erratic and unpredictable outbursts or become emotionally unhinged when you clash with others or receive pushback on your ideas; instead, you use your emotional strength to understand the situation better.  You are also attuned to others’ emotions because you listen, ask questions, factor in other perspectives.   You show care and build great relationships because you can read the room, receive data, and make pivots to fit the moment better.

3. Style – This is about how you present yourself and how others see and experience you quickly, if not immediately.  It is the first impression.  Two critical aspects include presence and effective communication.

·      Presence – This is more than the right clothes, firm handshake, eye contact, or voice projection; it is about exuding confidence, being calm in hectic times, and adapting your demeanor to serve the situation better.

·      Effective Communication – Relates to talking with intentionality.  You are clear, brief, direct, and speak with authority.  You do not bog others down with the details or open the floodgates and blast them with information; you know how to get to the bottom line swiftly.  You use your communication to empower, inspire, and bring out your best.  That may entail providing a forum where others feel safe, expressing themselves, asking questions, and feeling stretched in their growth because of your high expectations in their development and support. 

Like many intangible leadership traits, these skills can be grown, especially if you have a baseline level of self-confidence and a willingness to deal with unpredictable situations that come with the territory at the executive level.

Let’s jump into some things you can do to develop executive presence:

1. Skill build.  Understand where you want to go, assess your starting point with your current skill set, determine the new proficiencies you will need, and pick one capability to grow.  You can raise your awareness by reading about it and then practicing the skill.  Perhaps, you want to begin with style and specifically your public speaking.  You want to stand and deliver confidently, clearly, and concisely to large groups, answer questions effectively by maintaining curiosity and not becoming defensives, and handle pressure calmly.  You can start with the headline, provide some more details, and hold space for others to jump in with questions, then go deeper on topics that interest them.  Being comfortable with releasing some control means that they can drive the conversation, and you can handle whatever comes your way.  Speaking in shorter bursts is helpful because it is more of an exchange and not a lecture.

2. Get support from others. You can work with a coach to get clear on who you are, what you want to work on, what it will take to work on it, and be held accountable along the way.  You can also work with advocates, managers, peers, colleagues, mentors to let them know that you are actively focusing on this one thing.  If they have tips or suggestions and can be mindful of sharing feedback when they see you doing the behavior, you can gain their support for your growth.  Receiving helpful feedback from them can allow you to adjust along the way.

Expressing your executive presence is unique to each person.  You make an impression through the values you bring to the organization, the results you deliver, the way you connect, and how you communicate your points.  It is a worthy skill to invest in because it can lead to more career advancements and opportunities.  When you lead with character, substance, and style, you can positively influence and inspire greatness in others. 

Quote of the day: “How you act (gravitas), how you speak (communication), and how you look (appearance) count for a lot in determining your leadership presence.” -CEO Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Q: How do you define executive presence?  What’s one essential feature of it?  Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to help develop their executive and leadership presence, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you show up? Is it the way you want to?

How to Fire the Humane Way (Firing Series 3/3)

The prospect of firing someone you’ve worked with for years can be daunting, but you have decided that it is the last step in what was a fair and transparent process where all other options failed.  You are left with the best choice to elevate your team’s needs over any one individual.

How do you have the termination talk?  Here are some steps to consider: 

1. Check with Human Resources.  Before you schedule the conversation, Management Consultant Dick Grote suggests sharing your plans with human resources to see if there are any additional considerations.  They can offer a fuller picture of the employee’s extenuating circumstances.  Maybe their pension vests on Wednesday, so firing on Tuesday can be suspect, or you find out that their wife is starting cancer treatments, so firing on the same day can especially sting.  HR should tell you if you have all the proper documentation and if there are other things you need to do to go about the process fairly and professionally.  They can answer any questions you might have.  Since you know the situation best, if you think it would be helpful for an HR rep to attend the meeting to help with questions or unusual reactions, you can make that call, but it should be done in the spirit of support and not a show of force.

2. Don’t delay.  This is one of the hardest things you might have to do as a manager, but you must not let your agony delay the conversation.  Prolonging their employment when they do not gel properly with the core values and culture is unfair to them and can be very expensive and damaging to the company.  When you choose not to fire someone, it ruins the integrity of the organization.  “Managers rarely regret acting too quickly on a termination, but they have regretted waiting too long,” says Grote.  If you’re still having trouble mustering the courage to act, think about your team, which may be picking up that extra slack and working longer hours to cover the poor performance.  Once the decision has been made to pull the plug, do not wallow in the misguided hope that somehow things may still work out. They hardly do. Grote says, “Remember: It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable. It’s the ones you don’t.”

3. Choose your timing.  Doing it early in the day and week may encourage them to find another job and reduce the chances that they will spend the weekend moping in a black hole.  Choosing Friday after­noon, on the other hand, often creates the minimum amount of disruption to the rest of the staff.    Whatever you decide, make it logical and compassionate for those involved.

4. Do it in person.  It should come from the manager, a familiar face who had previous conversations about the potential ramifications if things did not change so there is no surprise.  It should go without saying, but do not send an email or text.  If the person is in a different city or working remotely and cannot do it in person, a video call can suffice.

5. Be clear and concise. The words you use to terminate a team member should be simple and to the point.  There is no reason to sugarcoat a termination; take the rip-the-band-aid off approach by skipping the excessive small talk and leading with the headline.  Consultant Jodi Glickman suggests beginning by saying, “I have some bad news.  Today is your last day here.” Then be transparent and state the reason for termination in one or two simple sentences.  “We’ve let you go because you didn’t meet your sales targets” or “You’ve not been a good cultural fit, e.g., missing deadlines in a fast-moving culture.” Then, tell them directly they are terminated.  It’s essential to use the past tense because it “precludes arguments about second chances,” says Grote. “The plug has been pulled.”  You can also say, “Last month’s report indicated that your department still has the lowest quality index. We have decided that a change must be made, and as of today, your employment has been terminated.”  It is important not to waffle or be ambiguous because being clear is kind.  While both examples point to termination happening immediately, I think it is always helpful to give the person enough notice to transition.

6. Be compassionate.  When you have decided the right thing to do is dismiss a team member, you want to make the dreaded process go as smoothly as possible, both for you and the person you are letting go.  

Dick Grote says, “Even when the business justification is clear, you’re sitting down and telling someone that [they] are no longer getting a paycheck and that when [they] wake up in the morning, [they] have no place to go. That’s tough.”  Very few people are eager to put themselves in situations of discomfort as keeping somebody accountable does not feel good, but it is an eventual gift.  If you feel guilty, you should know that you are keeping them from another job where they can be happier and thrive.  Thinking about how uncomfortable you are in having the conversation is selfish, you must keep in mind what’s best for the company, the teammates moving forward, and the ones being terminated.

Be sure to have the conversation in a humane and dignified way by doing it behind closed doors.   It is essential always to be respectful and compassionate not only because it is the right thing to do but also because it helps with morale.  John Stieger, CMO of Wilke Global “Anyone with empathy can at least understand how losing a job will impact a spouse, children, and others who are blameless,” he says.  How you treat people on their way out the door does not go unnoticed by the rest of the organization.”  When terminations are well justified and professionally executed, the rest of the workgroup realizes that this is an excellent place to work.   

7. Stay in the room and be prepared to answer questions.  While some experts contend that you do not need to say anything more or even remain in the room after the initial pronouncement, Grote vehemently disagrees. “Leadership demands compassion,” he says. “You were the agent of a terrible thing that has just happened in this person’s life.  Don’t run away, and don’t force HR to pick up the pieces.  You should be prepared to speak as needed and answer questions as they come up.”

 Before the meeting, you need to be well versed on practical matters or allow HR to handle questions relating to the last day of work, the last paycheck, the details of the severance agreement, the process of collecting unemployment benefits and health insurance, and what happens to their benefits and unused vacation time.  Of course, there may be issues you and HR have not considered.  In that case, you can let them know that you will get back to them shortly once you have the answer.  They should know the next steps.

8. Be prepared for emotion but keep yours in check.  Some people take the news in stride, while others might go through various emotions such as shock, grief, and anger.  Be prepared to listen and support in the best way you can.

9. Offer additional support if you would like.  If you genuinely believe the person has talent that could be useful elsewhere and are being let go for non-ethical or performance issues, offer to help with their transition so it is as seamless as possible.  Can you give them a long lead time to find a new job?  Can you assign them a Career/Transition Coach to support their next steps of polishing their resume and getting clarity on their next position?  Would you be willing to serve as a reference or write a testimonial?  How about making a LinkedIn introduction to a team where you think they would be valued?  Can you reassure them that the lines of communication will be open and that they can contact you for support?

10. Conduct an exit interview.  Exit interviews are a way for employees to be heard and state their case for why they are leaving.  They can offer valuable feedback on improvements since they may not hold back with their candid remarks, and you can use that information to plug any holes for improvement.  When possible, you should share their contributions and how they positively impacted the organization to feel proud of the time they spent.  Not all firings will be as amicable, but no need to burn bridges, ending on a high note is always the way to go.  Be sure to thank the person for their service and wish them well.

11. Talk to your team & focus on the future.  Gathering the colleagues affected by the termination to address the matter and offer a straightforward message, no need to reveal the reasons behind the decision due to confidentiality, but if it is probable that your team already knows.  The firing likely presents short-term challenges for your team so ensure them how it will be much better in the long run.  Share your strategy on managing the workload while you look for a replacement and are open to their suggestions to minimize the impact on them and the business.   

Deciding to fire is never an easy option but you should not delay just because it is uncomfortable for you.  That would be selfish and unfair to the person who is not a right fit because you keep them from moving on to better things.  It is also not fair to the other team members who may be overworking to compensate or to the organization if the business needs are being overlooked.  There is a way to fire with compassion, choose it and you will sleep better.

Quote of the day: “The day that firing becomes easy is the day to fire yourself.” -Tom Peters

Q:  What’s your best tip for successfully firing somebody with compassion?  Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to think through compassionate plans to dismiss their employees when they must, contact me to learn more.

Using compassion in saying goodbye

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?

Is it Time to Fire? (Firing Series 1/3)

One of the most difficult and least favorite parts of a leader’s job is deciding to let their employee go and then carrying out the process with humanity and fairness while also keeping the ship sailing smoothly.  Before making this decision to either fire or continue to support, it can be helpful to understand the turnover trends at your organization to put the issue in perspective. 

What is the turnover like on your team and at your company?

Low turnover is a sign of great company culture.  It shows that employees enjoy the environment and that the company has been thoughtful in its hiring processes and has gotten the right people matched to their positions.  On the other hand, high turnover is not only costly but could be emblematic of deeper and more systematic issues.  Perhaps, mistakes are being made in the hiring, training, or role placement process.  It could also be due to poor leadership if the common denominator is that you’re the one team that fires the most.  Or, maybe the company is growing so fast that leaders are not paying attention to the big picture such as to the phase shifts, which is where everything breaks as the company triples. Leaders may not be preparing for that different environment and getting their team adequately braced for the transition.  They may not be able to use the same processes for a team of 50 as they would 150.

Another reason to examine trends is to get a grip on the costs. According to Gallup data, the cost of turnover can be extensive; it can equal one-half to two times the person’s annual salary, including the expense of finding a replacement, onboarding, training, and the loss in productivity, morale, and institutional knowledge.

While low turnover is a great sign, you are not aiming for 0% within teams or in the company because some shakeup is healthy and necessary.  According to Adam Grant, a body of research shows that teams do the best when they have 4-4.5 years as a nucleus as it takes a few years to create effective routines and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and ways to complement them further.  It’s challenging to build alignment when teams are only together for a brief period.  Similarly, when teams stay together for too long, success drops because it lacks the diversity of thought and the pouring of fresh ideas which leads to innovation.

Reasons to Fire

While noting every organization is different and making these decisions are specific to the culture and needs of the company, here are some common reasons to dismiss an employee:

1. Ethnical violation.  If your employees lie, steal, or betray you, your team, or your clients, that is grounds for dismissal.  If they intentionally hurt, harass, or offend another person, there should be a zero-tolerance policy for this behavior because it can be quite corrosive to the culture. Nobody has the right to deliberately belittle others. When the trust is appallingly low because of frequent deceptions and misdeeds, a productive and genuine relationship cannot be built and productivity will be compromised.

2. Poor cultural fit.  If the employee is causing more problems than solving and the bad outweighs the good, it is time to go.  For example, if they do not operate with a growth mindset or a “what’s possible” mentality, and their default is seeing only the obstacles and getting easily deterred, that behavior can be counterproductive to the objectives.  Suppose they have an apathetic attitude in not caring about their work or their teammates or a negative disposition and exhibit toxic behavior where they are bringing everybody else down.  In that case, it is time to make a change.  Recent research from Harvard Business shows that one bad employee can corrupt a whole team.  The study looked at how employees act when they are around someone who misbehaves.  It found that 37% of those studied were more likely to do something dishonest if they worked with someone with a history of bad behavior. 

3. They are consistently underperforming and have not responded to your support.  If you have managed them well by giving them timely and specific feedback and have been a supportive partner in their performance reviews and career advancement plans, but they are regularly performing poorly, not capitalizing on any of the opportunities for improvement, or have ignored your repeated efforts to support them, it’s time.  In any of these cases, it should never be a surprise to them when they are let go, they should be well aware of what they need to do and the ramifications of not delivering on realistic expectations.  In most organizations, performance improvement plans are in process to address these issues. If you have a high standard of excellence and offer a supportive culture, keeping a low performer can be more costly to the team than the disruption of letting them go.  A good check-in question to ask yourself is, if you were starting this company today, would you rehire this person?  If the answer is no, follow your gut.  Netflix uses the “keeper test,” which is when managers ask themselves - “Which of my people if they told me they were leaving for a similar job at a competitor or peer company would I fight hard to keep?”

When it comes to the tough decision of letting an employee go, certain reasons make this decision an easier one.  If the person committed any ethical violations, is a net negative on the culture because their attitude diminishes the team instead of accelerating it, or if they are consistently underperforming and do not care to get better, then do not delay, make the call, as tough as it may be.

Quote of the day: “Firing is not something you do to someone: firing is something you do for someone.” Author Larry Winget

Q:  When do you know it is time to let somebody go?  What’s your process for firing?  Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!

[The next blog in this firing series 2/3 will focus on choosing to support your team instead of dismissing them] 

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to best navigate performance management challenges and build flourishing cultures, contact me to learn more.

When is the right time to let your employee go?

When Hiring, End Strong (Hiring Series 5/5)

The last few blogs in this series dealt with the beginning and middle phases of the hiring process, this article will focus on the latter stages.  Once the candidate has made it past the initial interview rounds, you may want to consider the following steps to decide among your potential matches to find the best fit.

Here are some helpful steps:

1. Written sample. Many companies collect writing samples from candidates before or after an initial interview to gain insight into their thinking and written communication skills.  It is an excellent way to know how they can convey messages.  This criterion may be more critical than others depending on the job.  Amazon, for example, has a practice where people share their written updates before meetings, and others silently read, review, make comments, and ask questions so having that ability is essential. 

2. Demo/job audition.  Ron Friedman recommends designing a job-relevant assignment that reflects the type of work the applicant will do if they are hired.  For example, if it is a software development position, maybe you want them to write sample code to see how clean their style is or build a feature to see how they conceptualize a project, and then have them explain it so you can understand their thinking process.  If you are deciding on salespeople, have them sell you the product after providing the contextual details and time to prepare. If you're hiring web designers, have them mock up a landing page. If the position is for a professional coach, have them do a brief coaching session. This way, your assessment is based on actual performance, not simply how charismatic they might be during the interview or about trusting your gut.  One of the best predictors of how somebody would perform at a job is to see a work sample.

3. Final Round Interviews:  There will be a few people you will want to see again.  The goal here is to ensure the right skill-culture-job fit. Southwest’s model is to hire for attitude and train for skill because it is hard to teach somebody to have a positive disposition and growth mindset. In this stage, Lencioni says, “do not be afraid to interrogate your applicants! If they skirt around a question, ask it again, and keep asking it until you get an answer. If you have a nagging doubt that the candidate is hiding something, there is a good chance they are, so don’t let it go—just change the wording slightly each time. For example, if the candidate keeps giving a vague answer to a question about coping with conflict, you can ask, ‘would your best friend tell you that you hold grudges?’ If a candidate eventually snaps at your pushy technique, that gives you valuable information.”  Get to the heart of what really matters.

4. Observe them in their environment [optional for top-level hires].   This is to get more of a sense of how they treat others for the cultural fit.  Bill Gates would introduce potential hires to others and see how they interact and observe if they could keep the conversation going.  Lencioni suggests conducting nontraditional interviews over soccer practice or even taking candidates out shopping so you can get to know them in a different context.  Charles Schwab’s CEO Walt Bettinger takes candidates out to a restaurant and deliberately ensures the waiter messes up their order to gauge how well they react to mistakes. A person who will be unforgiving toward waitstaff is not someone you want on your team.  If it is a small enough company, the CEO should be involved in hiring, especially with the early ones to be intentional about fostering a culture of excellence and humanity.

5. Check their references. Usually, references that people provide do not speak negatively, but if they confirm dates of employment, that's a problem because the absence of enthusiasm is a bad sign.  People who like you will go above and beyond.  You can ask on a scale 1-10, how great is this person?  You can ask a leading question: what is the one task the candidate would be most proud of that they experimented with and did well?  Luis Von Ahn, CEO and Cofounder of Duolingo, offers this advice.  When you contact their reference, you can ask, “Did he/she work well with others?”  You are looking for a more definitive and enthusiastic response like “absolutely” over a more wishy-washy one – “yeah, with most people.”  Maybe you detect the reference is being coy, you can frame your questions to elicit specific choices.  For example, “what’s more likely - that this person will be a total pushover or a little manipulative?”  “Work more by themselves or inclined to work with others?”  Listen closely to these responses because they can contain the exact answers you are seeking. 

6. Making a decision.  Part of what goes into a great company is hiring great people.  The way to know if the person is an A player is to answer the question – “Will this person raise the performance and cultural quality?”  If the answer is a yes on both fronts, you may have yourself a winner.  It may be tempting to let somebody in who is exceptional on their technical proficiencies, but if they are culturally challenging, it should be a hard pass because you send a message to the others that sub-par behavior is acceptable, and great culture is not prioritized.  Steve Jobs was rumored to have said, it is better to have a hole on the team than an A-hole. You should be dying to hire the person because of their competencies and cultural fit. David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, said, “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.  But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”  The quality of the people you bring in will directly lead to the satisfaction of the quality of the team members.  Indeed, cultivating unbelievable talent starts with one good hire after the next.

7. Send the non-hires feedback.  For the people who did not get the job, take the time to send them feedback, it will mean a lot to them, and it is the human way to operate, especially after they invested all that time.  Adam Grant offers this advice, “It's disappointing that so few interviewers give feedback to job applicants after rejecting them.  When turning candidates away, the least we can do is make it a learning experience.  Ghosting is selfish.  People are hurting.  A bit of guidance might help them get hired elsewhere.” A few thoughtful comments can have a massive positive impact on the candidate, do not squander the opportunity, build it into your process.

Finding the right candidate takes time and while there is an initial upfront cost, when you get the right person in the proper position, you will be glad that you took the extra time and thought to make a meaningful hire.

Quote of the Day: “Time spent on hiring is time well spent.” - Robert Half, Founder of Global Human Resource Consulting Firm 

Q: What methods work for you in asking for a job sample or checking a candidate’s reference?  Comment and share with us, we would love to hear!

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to get clarity on the hiring process to secure the best candidate, contact me to learn more.

What do you look for when you hire?

When Interviewing, Beware of Your Biases (Hiring series 3/5)

Organizing a successful hiring process can determine if you secure the right person for the job.  A crucial component to success is the interview stage as it is a great way to get to know your prospective employees, both the hard skills and intangibles such as passion, initiative, goal-orientation, and cultural fit.

Below are some steps to consider when you are designing the interview process. Be sure to filter any of these tips based on the culture and mission of your organization.

1. First-round individual interviews.  If you have many applicants, you can have a brief 30-minute group interview meant to cull the list further and separate the A from the B and C players.  As you move to the preliminary one-on-one interviews, the goal is to get to know your candidates a little deeper.  You can open your interview by letting them know you would like to spend 25 or so minutes getting to know them and then leaving some time to answer any questions they may have. Give the candidate the first words instead of telling them about the company as they can parrot what you would like to hear.

2. Beware of biases. While the interview is going to give you some essential data, there are inherent problems of deception.  Psychologist Ron Friedman argues, “The interview is dreadful in predicting if somebody’s going to be successful because they're measuring their ability to think on the spot. 80% of people lie and it seems like it’s almost advantageous for them to lie if they want to get the job.”  Another problem is that people have biases in hiring.  As humans, we are hardwired to make quick decisions, to go with our intuitions. The way we think is largely shaped by various unconscious biases which ultimately influence the way we perceive reality.  In fact, according to Quartz publication, 60% of interviewers will decide about a candidate’s suitability within 15 minutes of meeting them.  Some will even have made that determination within seconds of the interview.  When we have formed our intuition, we are no longer considering new information, we are just rationalizing it.

 Here are some common biases in which to be mindful:

·      Confirmation Bias.  Is the tendency to search for information that confirms some preliminary assumptions you may have.  For example, suppose you see a tall person, you may think they are a good leader and then ask questions that can evoke favorable answers such as – tell me a time when you led a group successfully versus a more neutral question - how much experience do you have leading a team?

·      Halo Effect.  We assume that just because somebody has achieved success in one area, they are likely to excel in another area. They were incredible coders so they are likely to lead a technical team, but they are two different skill sets that need to be individually assessed. 

·      Overconfidence Bias.  Is the tendency to hold an over-bloated assessment of our skills and abilities.  Some hiring managers believe they have a special talent to choose a candidate based on their gut, but our personal experiences can be limited.  To have an accurate read, we need to have more objective measures in addition to our instincts, however strong they may be.

There are steps we can take to interrupt our biases and have a fairer process:

A. Have a standardized set of questions.  Ask all candidates the same questions, write them down in advance and execute. The reason is that if we think somebody is extroverted, we are going to ask for examples of when they led a group, whereas if we think somebody is introverted, we may not ask them about speaking in front of an audience because we assume they may not have.  The way we frame the question influences the information we get, and when we ask the same questions, we level the playing field.

B. Have a scorecard. This is an idea mentioned by Geoff Smart and Randy Street in their book, Who: The A Method for Hiring.  Their card has three parts: mission, outcome, and competencies so you are clear what you are looking for and so the candidate is clear on what to expect.

·  Mission: 1-5 lines of why the role exists. For example, the customer service representative is to help customers resolve problems with the highest level of courtesy.  You can ask candidates how their mission aligns with the company’s mission.

·  Outcomes: 3-8 specific outcomes to achieve an A performance.  For example, improve the customer performance score from a 7-12 measured by x, y, and z by 12/1.  Another example could be to work with a team to generate copious ideas and then choose the most innovative one, gain consensus and galvanize the team to execute by a specific date.  You can ask how they feel about achieving the outcomes.

·  Competencies: - Choose the capabilities that most matter to the work. At Google, Kim Scott talked about hiring for general cognitive abilities, leadership, role-related responsibilities and expertise, and googliness (the culture piece).

·      Technical Competencies or hard skills: These are the skills and behaviors that people need to do the job (coding, product management, creating the strategic vision and executing, designing, etc.). You can ask them how they have exhibited those competencies and provide an example from a previous job or how they would complete a realistic project they would have to do for this position.

·      Interpersonal or soft skills: These are all the intangible that allows the work to get done and the business results to be achieved. It can involve being self-aware and understanding how they are being perceived, managing their time and being dependable, being an effective communicator and clearly spelling out expectations with respect and openness, as well as being a listener and excellent team player.

·    Leadership skills: Do they know how to develop others to advance in their role, do they know how to motivate, inspire, care, and appreciate others, can they run high performing teams, manage conflict, and promote DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) initiatives? Managing and leading a team is different than being an individual contributor.

·      Cultural Competencies:  Do your values and mission align? You can share the values of the company (e.g., hungry, humble, and smart) and ask how they exhibit those values, and provide an example from a previous job.

·      You can use the what/how/tell-me-more framework for follow-up questions. What do you mean? What happened? What does that look like? What is a good example of that?  What is your role?  What did you do?  What did your boss say?  What were the results?  What else?  How did you do that? Please walk me through the steps and how you overcame any obstacles.

Based on the responses, you should provide a score from A-E or 1-5 to each of their questions.  When you are done, you can review the scorecards with the hiring committee and advance the candidates with the highest scores.  If there are none, you may need to re-source potential candidates.

 C. Have a committee.  Eliminate siloed interviews in favor of at least 3 people on a panel because each person can be attuned to different aspects and see different things.  You can assign roles, such as a hiring manager to organize and then others that are looking for specific competencies. The panel should be made up of not only the hiring manager but peers and if there is a heavy cross-functional component, that person should be there as well. The committee should also be diverse in different areas such as experience, gender, race, etc. Before the interview, members should know the competencies, take notes, fill out a rubric independently, keep a tally, and then debrief their observations and compare impressions and scores.  If one person gave a score of a 5 in consciousness and the other gave a score of a 2, the idea is not to agree but expose the different perspectives and increase understanding, vote, and move on.  If there are any aspects that you are unsure about, you can drill down on those specific things in the next interview. Southwest conducts a lot of peer and team interviews. These processes help delay and test our intuitions so our decisions are more grounded in more data sources.

Many people complain just how hard it is to get the right hire.  The process can be lengthy and there is no guarantee that you are going to bring on great people.  Thinking about interrupting biases, having uniform questions, a scorecard for evaluation, and a committee to thoughtfully review the candidates can increase your chances of securing the right candidate.

Quote of the day: “Hiring is the most important people function you have, and most of us aren’t as good at it as we think. Refocusing your resources on hiring better will have a higher return than almost any training program you can develop.” - Laszlo Bock, Former SVP of People Operations at Google

 Q:  What’s your process for conducting group or one-on-one interviews?  How do you choose among the candidates you interview, which criteria do you use to assess a candidate’s performance?  Comment and share with us, we would love to hear!

[The next blog in this series 4/5 will focus on asking the best interview questions]

 As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to get clarity on the hiring process to secure the best candidate, contact me to learn more.

How do you disrupt your biases when hiring?

Your Hiring Process Determines Your Talent (Hiring Series 2/5)

Finding excellent employees can sometimes feel like finding your soulmate – you have to meet a lot of people to find that great fit.   A top concern for CEOs and other executives relates to attracting and retaining talent, according to the 2020 Conference Board Annual Survey.  Not only is it time-consuming, but it can be expensive. Gallup shows that “The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.”  Given the challenges around hiring and the high stakes of recruiting, we often rush to fill the vacancy, but bringing the wrong person aboard can have lingering repercussions.  Beyond the direct costs associated with orientation and training and eventual termination, the greater cost may not be as easily measured, which is the negative impact it has on current employees. The price of a poor cultural fit can be devastating to top performers, both in terms of their morale and productivity.   

Finding the right candidate takes time, and having an effective process increases your chances of procuring a great match.  Southwest Airlines has a comprehensive and competitive approach to sift through its many applications.  According to SVP Ginger Hardage of Culture and Communications, there is about a 2% chance of getting the job. This is because they take their time to hire right so they can manage easily.  Author Jim Collins supports this method; he famously endorses getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats, which is a metaphor for hiring well and putting people in positions where they can thrive.

 Here are some steps to consider in the early stages of the hiring process: 

1. Plan.  Make it a team effort, form a committee to do the following:

A. Define Your Team & Company Values. This is to share the most important drivers of your company and the values you are seeking and the behaviors that would support those values.  For more on values, check out the previous blog.  You do not need to attain homogeneity in work style and preferences, but on those core aspects you care about.  Making a deliberate effort to hire for diversity and inclusion will only improve your company.

B. Specify the Role.  Make a list of the specific tasks to be done and define them.  You can even try and do some of the work yourself or consult a teammate who has done the work before so they can clearly explain the specifics involved.  Sure, there can be flexibility in HOW the person hits the outcomes, but you want to be clear on the WHY and WHAT. When you write clear descriptions and results, you give the person a sharp sense of what they have to do to be set up for success.  This also allows them to select out if they feel they cannot do the job.

Generalist v. Specialist.  If you are clear on what the role demands, then you can create detailed requirements.  When I have worked with technical managers and software engineer leaders, they are usually looking for a specialist to do a tough job fraught with wicked problems or somebody who can crank out the work quickly, efficiently, and reliably.  In some cases, they may not need the highest standard of communication skills because they may only deal with the one direct report who hired them.  If they do not have to interact with the other teams, such as sales, marketing, and product development, you may be safe in being more lenient with this expectation since you need to overvalue technical chops.  If you are the leader working with that direct report and are satisfied with that level of chemistry, that’s fine.  If the role requires analytical and fast pace thinking, you need somebody that could work in a pressured environment with quick turnarounds; if it is a customer service job, you need somebody with incredible people skills.  Adjust your category weights based on the nature of the job.

Hiring is a two-way street, so while you will benefit from getting a talented person, you should be clear on their value proposition.  What are the benefits that the candidate will receive from the job?  Talented people can be weighing their options in a competitive environment.   The clearer you are, the better the chance you will have to secure the position. In the book, WHO: The A Method for Hiring, Geoff Smart talks about five criteria in which candidates seek:

1. Fit.  There is an alignment between what the candidate cares about, their goals, strengths, values, and mission with the purpose and vision of the company.  People yearn to do good work and have an impact.

2. Family.  There is enough balance in the position for the person to spend time with their family, friends, or on other important commitments.  There is an acknowledgment of the whole person and what they need to be set up for success, not just in the job, and that means not allowing work to be all-consuming.

3. Freedom.  There is autonomy in the role to make independent decisions and have creative expression and not be micromanaged.

4. Fortune.  People want to be paid a competitive wage.  Money is rarely the key motivator, but it is one important piece that allows for more freedom in your life.

5. Fun.  There are opportunities for enjoyment and the development of strong personal relationships.  Studies show that having a best friend at work plays a prominent role in job satisfaction.  How is the culture set up to foster connections among coworkers and have those enjoyable moments?

6. Mastery & Belonging.  Daniel Pink, Author of Drive talks about mastery (along with autonomy and purpose) being the trifecta of motivation.  It is essential for people to feel like they are doing good work.  Gallup also maintains that people seek opportunities to grow and work with managers who can support their development.  I would also add feeling a sense of belonging.  According to recent research released by Coqual (formerly Center for Talent Innovation), people are currently searching for belonging (a place where they can be seen for their contributions, connected to their coworkers, supported in their daily work and career development, and proud of their organization’s purpose and values).  This sentiment leads to an uptick in engagement, loyalty, and productivity.

C. Seek referrals.  A common approach to hiring is to tap into your professional and personal networks as talented people usually know other talented people and are happy to pass along names.  Ask people you work with and know the culture well if they can recommend any good candidates but be specific – if you are looking for sales associates in NY who can create content and make the sale, share that information.  You can make it a practice to occasionally ask about whom they know even when you are not hiring so you can form a queue of talent and can expedite the process when the time comes.  It is vital to have a pipeline and always be recruiting.

D. Consider insiders v. outsiders.  Hiring outsider executives can be typical because people imagine this extraordinary potential that unknown people can have, even if they are more expensive.  Despite the common trends of favoring outsiders, Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant prefers insiders because you already know what you are going to get, and they have the advantage of mastering the culture and skills of the organization. There are also prevailing perspectives about the value of hiring outsiders for a team that can bring in new views.

E. Look for diversity.  Diversity matters for a lot of reasons. A crucial benefit is that diversity provides different perspectives for innovation, problem-solving, and creativity.  There should be energy devoted to getting diverse candidates in the sourcing stage, where you have a larger pool to initially pick.  Many talented candidates are not even putting their hat in the ring because they may not know about the position. Take that time to find those people so you can set your team up for great success.

2. Resume & Video. Your first introduction to a potential candidate can review their resume to see if they have the general qualifications.  While a resume offers a brief view of their record of accomplishments, usually embellishments, it says nothing about failures, so that is why you must dig beyond the resume.  You can have them send in a 5-minute video explaining how their background would allow them to be an excellent fit for the job and what they have to offer.   Alternatively, you can request a cover letter so you can get a sense of how they present themselves in writing. That will be more labor-intensive to review so you can make it optional.

3. Group Interview.  If you have many good candidates, you can do a 30-minute group interview where you ask the candidates the same 4 questions to get a read of their conversation skills, how they answer the questions, and how they interact with each other in a group setting.  For example, do they dominate the conversation and cut others off or do they build off others and allow space for multiple contributions?  This can give you a lot of data on their personality dispositions.

Setting up your hiring process can make the difference between hiring the right candidate.  By first getting clear on exactly who you want, you can begin constructing a job position that will attract the right candidates for the proper position.  Once you have these processes established, hiring can occur in a more expedited fashion.  When you go slow and get the systems down, you will be able to get better at hiring quality talent to compliment your team.

Quotes of the day: “Bet on people, not on strategies.” -Lawrence Bossidy, retired CEO of AlliedSignal

“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves” -J Paul Getty

Q: How do you plan to put together a job offer to attract the best candidate for your team? Comment and share with us; we would love to hear!

[The next blog in this series 3/5 will focus on interviewing practices]

As a Leadership Coach, I partner with leaders to get clarity on the hiring process to secure the best candidate, contact me to learn more.

Finding the best fit for your company leads to success

The Strength of Making Decisions in Teams (Decision Series 8/8)

Every organization consists of teams that face grave challenges – how to innovate faster, build better relationships with clients, respond to competitive threats, decide which products to invest time into and which ones to abandon. How do you decide the best direction?

Here are some tips that help teams make the best decisions together:  

1. Get on the same page.  In 1999 NASA had a mission to study the climate on the planet Mars.  After 10 months of travel and 125 million, the spacecraft burned due to a navigational mistake, which was entirely preventable.  It turns out, multiple teams were working on the project, one group used the metric system, while the other used inches, feet, and pounds.  Some of the smartest people forget to check that both teams were using the same unit of measurement, and the consequences were catastrophic.  Before you embark on the decision-making process, take some time to cover the basics, get the small details right, and properly understand the problem before deciding on something and be sure to level set on the expectations, processes, and tactics.

2. Take time for independent thinking.  Spend some time individually to consider the problem and solutions so your ideas are not heavily influenced by anybody else’s.  This will allow for more variety in creativity and innovation because there will be an even larger pool of plans in which to choose. A common mistake that many people make is that they may share their idea with their teammate and then ask for their opinion, but they have already tainted the person’s thinking and may create an environment where the person does not want to disagree with you, especially if you are the boss. This is why as a leader it is important to go last so you can hear as many raw ideas as possible for you to share your perspective.

3. Share in small groups.  Form a series of small groups of 4-6 people within the larger team so all opinions can be put on the table and a consensus can be reached on the best way that the team can solve the problem.  According to a Ted Talk by Mariano Sigman, a leading figure in the neuroscience on decision-making space, he shows how crowds are wiser when they can talk to other people in small groups.  He ran an experiment where people provided an answer to a question about how tall the Eiffel Tower was and then they had a chance to discuss and debate.   The result was that the average of the group was more accurate than the average of the individuals.

4. Share in big groups.  Have a big group discussion where each team presents their ideas and then gets outside perspectives.  It allows you to go for a “robust average”  which gives a rough estimate of all the members’ answers while discrediting outliers. The old saying, “Two heads are better than one” is most true when you can extract each person’s untainted thinking first and then combine it with others to form even deeper insights.

5. Time for thoughtful disagreements.  If three groups within the team put forth their ideas, they can exchange in the thoughtful back and forth, while others can ask questions for clarity and provide a challenge to the ideas.   When you engage in quality discussions, people’s thinking can evolve and the best collective decision can be reached.   Ray Dalio uses a technique like this.  His goal is to attain an idea meritocracy, where the best ideas win out and have nothing to do with politics, personalities, status, or other influencers. 

6. Decide on a tiebreaker. You may have strong ideas, energy, and evidence for two dominant positions, but in the end, you need to decide once you have carefully considered all sides of the discussion. Usually, when there is a deadlock in ideas, the leader should weigh in and break the tie. However, use the approach that works best for your team, if it is strictly by consensus, you can opt for that method.

7. Disagree and commit. Used widely by Andy Grove and Jeff Bezos, they believed that once a decision has been made, regardless if it was yours or not, as a team player, you need to be behind it and hope for its success rather than being indifferent or worse, aiming to sabotage the idea.

8. Use timeframes. To facilitate the decision-making process, it is helpful to use timeframes. For example, maybe you allocate a week for the first phase which is about gathering information and discussing openly. For the second phase, you can allocate the necessary time to make the decision. Without timelines, you could get stuck in endless discussions and fail to move to the execution phase.

There are many techniques that you can use to make the best group decisions. By having clear processes that allow each person to contribute their best input, hard decisions become a little less hard.

Quote of the day: "My opinion, my conviction, gains immensely in strength and sureness the minute a second mind has adopted it." -Novalis, German Author and Philosopher

Q:  How do your teams make decisions?  What processes do you use?  Comment and share below, we would love to hear from you!

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to help them make hard decisions, contact me to explore this topic further.

What’s the best way to make group decisions?

The Art Of Using Creativity In Your Decision-Making (Decision Series 4/8)

We make thousands of decisions each day, and we are always looking for an edge, a specific way to improve our decision-making abilities so we can have more life satisfaction.  

One way to improve our information strategy for better decision-making is to get creative about the problem.  Here’s how:

A. Challenge the limitations.  Matthew Confer, VP of Strategy at Abilitie offers a tip before deciding to challenge the constraints.  He argues that too many teams jump into solving a problem without first considering it.  He recommends starting by thinking about what barriers are holding you back and then see what is possible. At Sandford, students in an entrepreneur class were given $5 and a challenge to turn it into the most money possible and then present their ideas in the following class.  The winning team did not even use 1 cent; they sold the rights to their presentation to a company in town who were happy to pitch to Stanford students to recruit them post-graduation.  They challenged the constraints of that 5 bucks and maximized the real opportunity, the presentation.  Next time you are deciding, how can you question the limitations before you even begin?

B. Reframe the decision.  Sometimes a tweak in the wording of the question can jolt a new way of thinking.  Going from, “What can I do to cause the outcome I want,” to “What are the best and worst outcomes I can expect” can lead you down a more creative path.  You can also think “AND” not “OR.”  If you are contemplating a career shift, you might keep your current job AND volunteer a few hours somewhere else to gather more data before pivoting too hastily.

C. Consider the opposite.  This approach helps you think about the problem differently.  For example, if you are struggling to decide who to hire and are leaning toward one candidate, consider why that person is not the most appealing option.  If you are thinking about Iceland as your next place to visit, make a quick list of why this will be a bad idea and this step will lead you to more research in addressing those concerns, and ultimately more confidence in your decision.  

Another way to employ creativity for better decision-making is to find the sweet spot between widening and contracting your options.

A challenge with decision-making is that sometimes we can think in binary terms, especially when we are overwhelmed with emotion, our thinking becomes more rigid.  I get married or a breakup; I move to NYC or I stay in the suburbs.  When we expand our options to a manageable amount, it changes the problem and can enable us to decide more confidently.  To reach this end, we can think about the following: 

A. Create a Top 10 list of your best options.  Once generated, you can compare and contrast to spot patterns.  You can then narrow your choices to 2-3 by cobbling together the best features from the alternatives.

B. Crowdsource.  If you are trying to expand your choices, tap into the power of the collective.  In 2008, Starbucks created “mystarbucksidea.com,” a submission website where anybody could send their ideas.  About 10,000 ideas were submitted and 100 implemented, including a free beverage for every pound of coffee, unlimited brewed coffee, and free coffee on birthdays.  Sometimes when we are so close to the problem, we can be blinded by love and emotion, but when we invite outside views, we get ideas we could have never imagined.

C. Scrap your options.  You can throw out the current set of selections and create a new list.  Maybe you have an employee who is excellent with administration work but not socially friendly; binary thinking would be – fire her or deal with the mountain of paperwork, or keep her and deal with her social challenges.  You can throw those options out and come up with new ones.  What if we moved her away from interacting with others and just had her doing administration work and allowed the rest of the team to contribute one day at the front desk so they can be closer to the work by interacting with the customers?  What if you partnered her with somebody skilled with social interactions so she can learn from excellent examples. What other options are there to consider?

D. Contract options.  As the Paradox of Choice goes, the more alternatives we are given, the less satisfied we become with what we choose because we are aware of all the other opportunities we are forfeiting.  Once we have gone wide, we want to narrow down our options to a manageable amount – usually 3-5. 

To help with decision-making, you want to get creative about your strategy.  This may include challenging the constraints, reframing your options, or finding the sweet spot between widening and contracting your decisions. 

Quote of the day: “We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals” —Stephen Covey.

Q: How do you apply creativity in your decision-making? Comment and share below, we would love to hear from you!

The next blog in this series 5/8 will focus on the role of the mind and the heart in decision-making.

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to help them make hard decisions, contact me to explore this topic further.

How do you apply creativity to decision-making?

Enhance your decision-making with strategy (decision series 3/8)

When you are thinking about a big decision, how do you decide?  What information strategy do you use?  Once you have done all the work in clarifying your values, style, and optimal energy state, how do you utilize your external resources to be in a better position to choose? 

Here are tips to strengthen your information strategy:

1. Learn more about the things you do not know by tapping into the collective intelligence of others.

A. Talk to people in your network who made that exact decision.  If you are thinking about leaving a big corporate job to start your practice, find somebody who traveled that path, and learn those lessons.  People do some version of this all the time, think about right before you go to a restaurant, you will check the Yelp reviews and see how satisfied people were with the meals.  Approach it with humility, do not rely on what you think something will be like, ask a range of questions, such as what are my blindspots around this decision so you can get the information you have not considered.

In an interview, Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert shared with Shankar Vedantam of Hidden Brain that some people might dismiss this approach due to the “illusion of diversity,” which is the idea that we think we are utterly unique, that other people's experiences might tell us a little bit about ourselves, but not very much.  Gilbert disagrees with this assertion because we are more similar than we think.  This concept of surrogation, seeing how others like something, and allowing that to guide us can be a constructive way to decide.  Even spending time on internet searches can yield powerful results.  According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, 58% of tricky clinical diagnostic cases could be solved using internet search and surrogation.  If your dilemma is more common, the chances increase. It could be good to aggregate the opinions of people who have made the decision you are pondering as a guide for what is right for you.

B. Tap extended networks.  Chip and Dan Heath offer this method - send an email to 5 people in your circle who are not close friends or colleagues.  Describe your dilemma and ask if they know anyone who might have some insights.  The goal is to enter different systems since most of your friends and close colleagues probably know each other and have linked associations.  Plus, you probably already know what they know through your conversations so you want to explore those weak ties for fresh ideas.

C. Seek contrarian perspectives.  When approaching a decision, we tend to pick something and then find additional information to support it, which is known as confirmation bias.  Based on one study in the book Decisive, when doctors were sure of their diagnosis, they were wrong 40% of the time.  In another study, when university students believed that they had a 1% chance of being wrong, they were wrong 27% of the time.  We have a false sense of certainty because we avoid evidence that challenges our entrenched beliefs. 

A great way to avoid confirmation bias is to seek outside opinions from people who bring different perspectives to weigh your options more objectively and spot your subjective or irrational tendencies.  Who do you know that you trust and is an entirely different thinker than you or somebody who could occupy a devil’s advocate role to tell you why your leading decision is wrong?  In her study of Silicon Valley firms, Kathy Eisenhardt found that the CEOs who made the quickest, most effective strategic decisions had a senior counselor who knew the industry well and could provide trustworthy guidance.  When asking those experts for advice on your choices, do not just ask them, “What do you think?” or “Do you like my idea?” How about asking disconfirming questions: “What’s the biggest obstacle you see to what I’m trying to do?” “If I fail, what would be the cause?”

D. Triangulate responses.  A chief enemy of good decisions is the lack of sufficient perspectives on a problem. 

Maybe you are considering taking your business into the European markets, how about getting three area experts committed to their right answers, and having them make their case.  You can listen to the discussion, triangulate their responses, glean lessons, and make more comprehensive decisions.  The quality of your synthesis can determine the quality of your decision-making. 

When it comes to decision-making, there are things we do not know (known unknowns), and then there are things that we do not know what we do not know (unknown unknowns).  When we can spend some time seeking out other resources, both in and out of our network, it can help us learn more about the challenge and make decisions more easily.

Quote of the day: "Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach." -Tony Robbins 

Q: When was the last time you sought out people in and out of your network to help with a big decision?  How did it go?  Comment and share below, we would love to hear from you!

[The next blog 4/8 will focus on utilizing creative strategies for better decision-making.]

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to help them make hard decisions, contact me to explore this topic further.

What’s your strategy for making sound decisions?

To Make Better Decisions, Start With Knowing Yourself (Decision Series 2/8)

How confident are you in your decision-making skills?  Which principles guide you most when choosing?

Part of the struggle that we have in making decisions is that we do not know much about ourselves.  By taking time to explore our values, decision-making style, and optimal state for making choices, we will be much better at deciding with satisfaction. 

Getting clarity about ourselves in these areas can make decisions easier:

1. Know your values.  What is your vision for life?  Have you put in the work to carefully articulate your value system?  How can those decisions get you closer to what you want more of and away from what you want less of?  For example, if you know you value having a career and are planning to start a family, how can you still be able to work part of the time because that will fulfill you and make you an even better parent?  The best decisions reflect our values, and when they are aligned, choices are more comfortable.  When we are caught up in a decision, we may have our emotions pulling us in multiple directions.  Successful people know how to stick to their values and trust their guidance during stressful events fraught with fear and doubt.

If it aligns with your values and creates excitement, go for it!  If it does not, do not do it.  When deciding to do an event or to put something in his calendar, Derek Sivers has a simple rule – it is either hell yes or no, nothing in between.  Is there a rule you can use to make this type of decision easier?

2. Know your style.  When it comes to decision-making, are you a maximizer or satisficer?  Maximizers seek the ultimate benefit or highest utility; they aim to make the most intelligent decisions possible.  Satisficers, on the other hand, are looking to make choices that they are minimally comfortable with, perhaps determined by more modest criteria.  The concept was first proposed by U.S. Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon who combined satisfying and sufficing as a way of describing this form of decision-making.  For example, suppose you are looking to purchase a TV, you might spend significant time reviewing many other TVs, comparing price and quality until you find the absolute best one on the market, determined by a set of criteria.  In contrast, satisficers will review a few options within a given time and then decide because they got something they can enjoy, and that’s enough.

It may seem like maximizers are the way to go because they aim for the absolute best option, but the research points to the opposite.  Satisficers will be more content with their decision, even if it is not the best they could have hoped.  In contrast, maximizers experience pressure from the high expectations they impose; they are more prone to doubt because they fear that a better choice is always out there.  They envision their life if they had chosen a different path.  Using this framework, which style are you, and how is it serving you to bring peace to your decisions?

3. Know your optimal state for decision-making.  Our mood, energy, and willpower significantly impact decision-making and are heavily influenced by these crucial factors: sleep, exercise, and diet.

A. Sleep.  When you experience deep restorative sleep, you can tackle a problem with fresh eyes and have the clarity to make sound decisions; otherwise, if you are sleep-deprived, you could be moody, emotional, and reactive.  When making a decision, Jeff Bezos talked about prioritizing 8 hours of sleep to make better executive decisions otherwise he will be tired and grouchy.

B. Exercise.  The stress of a significant decision naturally produces cortisol, the chemical that triggers the fight-or-flight response.  Cortisol clouds our ability to think clearly and rationally.  When we find ourselves stressing about a decision, we can exercise to recharge and refresh the mind.  As little as 30 minutes is all it takes to get an excellent endorphin-fueled buzz and return to mental clarity.  Exercise also helps you get past that fight-or-flight state by putting the cortisol to practical use.  Research shows that long-term exercise improves the overall functioning of the brain regions responsible for decision-making.

C. Diet.  Similarly, your decisions are likely to be sounder after a meal.  In a study led by psychologists at Columbia Business School, researchers found that judges were significantly more likely to issue favorable rulings when they made their decisions first thing in the morning or right after lunch.  But the longer they waited to decide after they ate, the more likely the judges were to deny prisoners parole.  The reason is because the more decisions we have to make over the day, the worse we get at making decisions.  We are prone to taking shortcuts when we are tired or hungry.  For a judge, it’s easier to deny parole than to do the mental work of having to think about whether bail is justified, so they took the easy route, which was to default to a denial.  

If we want to make sensible decisions, we want to be at our best, but that time of day differs for everybody.  In the book, When by Daniel Pink, he argues that our energy levels and cognitive abilities are not the same throughout the day but change in dramatic and unpredictable ways.  Some people feel their best in the morning and should choose that time slot to tackle complex decisions while others’ energy levels dip in the afternoon, and that slot should be used to make small decisions when fatigue is greatest.  When our willpower is low, we fall back to our default setting; it is why we go for chips over carrots and why the judges denied parole.  You can manage your willpower better by sleeping well, exercising, and eating healthy.

Part of being an excellent decision-maker is knowing yourself, which can include your values, style of decision-making, and optimal state for choosing.

Quotes of the day: “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” -Roy E. Disney

"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." General Norman Schwarzkopf

Q: When do you make your best decisions?  Comment and share below, we would love to hear from you!

[The next blog in this series 3/8 will focus on enhancing your decision-making with strategy] 

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to help them make hard decisions, contact me to explore this topic further.

You can get clear with how you decide

The Must-Have Ingredients For Team-Building (Team Series 2/10)

In the search to build excellent teams, what are the most important factors to consider?

The last blog focused on the number one component in building great teams – psychological safety.  This article will explore the other important elements involved in a winning team dynamic outlined in Project Aristotle, including dependability, structure and clarity, meaningful work, and impact.

Here are a few ingredients that contribute to excellent teams:

1. Dependability.  It is about making and keeping commitments, which allow individuals to count on each other to get high-quality work done on time.  People crave reliability.  It is a great feeling when somebody claims ownership of a task, and the rest of the team members can dismiss it from their mind because they have confidence that it will happen. 

So…what makes people unreliable?  At times, it can stem from a communication issue – some people can say yes to something just because it is hard to say no.  Or, maybe they initially commit with the confidence that they can safely handle the task, but then run into a dead-end and are too afraid to ask for help.  Regardless of the reason, when you have psychological safety, people feel comfortable saying no to a task they cannot do or are secure in asking for help when they need to.   

One way to build dependability is to show excellent communication: 

·      Perhaps you say yes to a commitment and your world has abruptly changed, talk to your team members immediately so they can be part of the solution.  When you have ownership of a task and cannot complete it, it means recruiting allies to get the job done.  Teams pitch in for each other when emergencies arise.  Do not turn your back on a project because something has come up, find an alternative route to get the job done, even if it involves remedy through others. 

·      Be timely with your meeting follow-ups.  After a gathering, it should not take you days to send instructions, suggestions, or other pertinent information that team members need to do their jobs.  If you know you are going to be unavailable for the next four days, do not ghost your team, let them know of your absence and put a plan in place.  Perhaps somebody else can be assigned to send the meeting notes. 

·      Respond to messages in a timely manner.  If somebody emails you requesting something, do not just choose to ignore them, instead send a message saying you are unavailable and let them know when you would be free.  Perhaps the best you can offer is to jump on a 2-minute call or provide the name of somebody who can help out.  I am not saying that you should be attached to your email, but have a workable plan for the times when you are and are not available.  Imagine for a moment you needed something from somebody, knowing you having several options will make you feel like you are a part of a good team instead of feeling like you have nowhere to turn.

2. Structure and clarity.  People should know their job requirements, how to fill them, and what happens if they are not done.  They also have knowledge of other people’s requirements so they know who to turn to in order to tap into their expertise.  Setting clear goals and having metrics to measure them offers much-needed transparency.  Google uses OKRs (objectives, key results) to hit their short and long-term goals.  Be sure to communicate team goals so all members understand the plan for achieving those targets.

One way you can learn about other people’s roles is to have a newsletter highlighting others’ successes.  When you share what people are doing to advance the team, others can learn more about their roles and responsibilities.  If a weekly or monthly newsletter is too much of a commitment, it can be as simple as a 3-minute share at the start of each meeting.

3. Meaningful work.  People need to work on something important to them.  The meaning they ascribe to their work can be personal - it could be about solving really hard problems, utilizing their creativity, making money to support their family, or doing good work to help their team thrive.  Without meaning and a higher purpose attached to it, work can become mundane and disengaging.

If helping others is the main driver for some of your teammates, you can offer public gratitude to them when they have done something to offer assistance.  This acknowledgment makes them feel good about the work they have done.  If growing their skills is a top priority for other teammates, you can offer to support them with solving hard problems so they feel they are developing their abilities.

4. Impact. People need to know that their work matters and is making a difference in the world. 

A good way for teammates to feel they are making an impact is for others to regularly share credit or team testimonials of how their performance has advanced their work, the product, or the organization.

Psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaningful work, and impact were the ingredients that Google deemed to be vital for team success.  While every team is unique and could require different components, it is hard to think about any of these elements not helping to build stronger organizational units. 

Quote of the day: "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.  The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."  -Andrew Carnegie

Q: Which aspect is most important to you? How do you find meaning in your work?  Comment and share your thoughts with us, we would love to hear from you!

*The next blog in this team series 3/10 will jump into fostering a team-first mentality.

As a Leadership Development & Executive Coach, I work with teams to strengthen their collaboration for peak performance. Contact me to learn more.

What vital features comprise your amazing team?