Leadership – inspirations

What’s Your Plan?

I was having a lunch meeting with my boss and three peers, arranged to share year-end information. As the business part of the meeting, she asked each of us to assess our individual development over the year.

 

She handed everyone a card with five bullet points she wanted us to address.

 

Discuss your professional development over this past year:

  • What was your plan?
  • How closely were you able to follow your plan?
  • How did you grow as a professional?
  • How are you going to move forward this year?
  • What is your grade measured against the criteria of the plan?

 

As I stared at the card I had this overwhelming feeling – I did not really have a plan. I was going with the flow that others set for me.

 

My thoughts were, when it came my time to talk, it was going to be like an evening at The Improv.

 

Two of my colleagues had well-thought-out plans and breezed through the conversation. I muddled my way through what felt pretty awkward. After our meeting l followed up with my peers. In that conversation, I learned the two higher performers had created their own “Individual Development Plan” for the year, which they used to guide and track their progress.

 

It was introduced to them by a previous leader who used the plan as a dynamic framework for the year. He kept it simple, concise and adapted for each individual as needed to suit them. It changed the way they looked at their development.

 

Consider working with your direct reports to complete Individual Professional Development Plans. It can be a game-changer as it sets the path forward and measures progress.

Development plans are a common tool used in coaching engagements. Below are several examples I have used with clients. Take what you see and modify it to make it work for you and the members you lead.

 

Consider initiating the process by having each individual create a draft plan to share with you. Your role should be more of a coach to help them shape it. Think big goals are broken down into smaller tasks, events, or behaviors.

 

Prioritize and minimize. Do not try to cover everything at once. Set reasonable goals, milestones, and metrics. Allow the team member to take ownership of their progress. You may be surprised by the positive impact on engagement and performance.

 

Example 1

 

Example 2 

 

Example 3

 

Leadership Development Plan

Goals and Actions

Development Goal:

State your top developmental goal and actions steps to achieve it using a SMART analysis. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timeframe

 

Example:

  • Improve my ability to delegate so that within the next six months I trust my direct reports to complete projects of moderate difficulty.

 

Actions – Start/Increase:

  • Within the next month, delegate at least one short-term (two-week) project to each direct report.
  • Establish weekly status meetings on projects

 

  • ________________________________________________________

 

Actions – Stop/Decrease:

  • Continually asking about the status of the projects

 

  • ________________________________________________________

 

Development Goal:

State the second priority developmental goal and actions steps to achieve it.

 

  • ________________________________________________________

 

Actions – Start/Increase:

 

  • ________________________________________________________

 

  • ________________________________________________________

 

Actions – Stop/Decrease:

           

  • ________________________________________________________

 

  • ________________________________________________________
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Remote Leadership: Culture

“What a toxic culture! I hope I never have to work in a place like that again!”

“That place had the most welcoming and collaborative culture I have ever experienced, it was a joy to work there.”

What was the best culture you ever worked in? What made it the best?

What is it that makes up the culture of a workplace or team? It is defined by workplace behaviors. The attitudes, how individuals and groups are treated, what is rewarded, reprimanded, recognized, and ignored all are elements of a culture. It is not just the people and the mix of their personalities. It is influenced by how they are led.

A little test. Write a couple of sentences about what you believe defines the culture of your team. Then have every team member anonymously do the same. Now you will have the definition of your culture. Better yet, you will have a direction on what you need to do about your culture; maintain it, tweak it, or overhaul it.

Do remote teams have a culture? Absolutely, just as an in-person environment does. Here are the elements I have seen leaders use that set a culture; 1) deliberately set the culture. If you do not one will develop and you might not be happy with it, 2) the culture of your team is defined by interpersonal interactions or the lack of them, 3) relationships need time and space to develop, and 4) reduce the distance between team members.

 

Deliberate

If you want a particular culture, state what you want and deliberately set out to establish it. Setting the standard through personal examples sets the tone. A culture of empathy, caring, and collaboration requires significant effort by the leader to establish. Will your team hold you up as the model of the culture? The example of the most empathetic, caring, and collaborative team member.

 

Ever experience a leader who lives by “…do what I say, not what I do?” I have and it created a team of cynics.

 

Interactions

The type, frequency, and tone of personal interactions is the key element. In your remote team are the interactions all based on an agenda or is there social time? How can you build into the remote connections interpersonal time? This can be a challenge and will take creativity.

 

Time & Space

What are you doing to create the time and space for the desired interactions?  Adding time to the beginning and end of agendas may work well for your team. Other teams may need to replace typical in-person events such as hallway time or lunch breaks with a virtual open hour, lunchroom, or coffee for team members to check in with each other.

 

Reduce the Distance

In reality, this is the goal. Physical proximity does not automatically reduce the distance between team members.  I have had a client actually say she feels more connected in the remote environment. Why? Because as an introvert she was able to hide in the in-person environment. The change to remote forced her supervisors to pay closer attention to who is interacting and how often. New attention is focused on inputs from all team members. When in the office she was actually more remote.

 

What is the culture you are cultivating with your team? Is it deliberate or are you just letting it happen? Are you creating the time and space for interpersonal interaction, and have you been able to decrease the distance between team members so they are integral members of the team?

 

Remote work is here to stay and the research shows those that who implement it well are increasing productivity. What could the impact be on your organization if you were able to fully leverage all the positives?

 

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Remote Leadership: Productivity

A few thoughts to get us started:
– How much does direct in-person supervision impact your team’s productivity?
– What metrics are you using to measure your team’s productivity?

Now a second perspective:
– How much does direct in-person supervision impact your productivity?
– What metrics are you using to measure your productivity?

Any insights based on your answers to the above?

Many leaders/managers/supervisors believe in-person supervision is required of others but not themselves. The in-person work philosophy folks believe they have the ability to personally impact output. How many missed tasked or deadlines have you experienced working in the in-person environment? Typically, the personal impact is overstated. Do supervisors really look over the shoulders of individuals all day long?

Numerous studies have documented increased productivity from remote workers in a wide range of business sectors in different countries. Interestingly the positive trends were prominent prior to the COVID lockdown of 2020.

The upsides of working remotely:
– Individual autonomy to make schedules
– Less commute time saving 400+ hours a years
– More exercise
– Less unproductive conversations/activity

The downsides
– Less unproductive conversations/activity resulting in less cohesion
– Many workers do not have the tools to support remote work (capable internet and other technology tools)
– Isolation of individual workers

What makes an effective team whether it is a remote or in-person team?

In J. Richard Hackman’s Six Conditions Model, team success is defined by the following:
· Task Performance – the team delivers what is expected by the customer/client on time, with quality.
· Quality of the Group Process – the team becomes increasingly effective over time.
· Member Satisfaction – the team contributes to the learning, growth and satisfaction of each member

I simplify this to; the team delivers what was expected on time and the team and individual team members improve over time.

How to ensure your team is successful?

Consider focusing considerable effort on two elements of the Six Conditions Model:
1) Solid Structure
2) Supportive Context.

Solid Structure
What has been taken away in the remote environment? The familiar structure has been removed and teams are in unfamiliar territory. Two elements are consistent routines and limited personal interactions. I consider team norms of behavior the most important part of a solid structure.

Norms of behavior are typically consistent when in-person. In the remote environment, expect to put forth significant effort to develop stability. Consistency tends to reduce the need for supervision.

The in-person environment also supports regular interpersonal interactions that build strong relationships. That is missing when working remotely. Therefore, being deliberate about building those opportunities into the remote workday may be a key to building an effective team.

Is it possible to integrate “hallway time” into your daily remote routines? I think it is. However, it has to make sense and fit the personality and rhythm of your organization. How can you create the time and space for those interactions to take place spontaneously as well as planned?

Supportive Structure
Frustration and stress result when missing the correct tools to do your job. Computer connections, software, hardware, cameras, VPN connections, training, education, and readily accessible support are required of everyone in the remote environment.

The time and space required to build a high performing team will never be available if you leave this item to chance. Outfit your team for success.

Think Observation Rather than Supervision
Create the conditions for you to observe your team rather supervise them. Research has validated the conditions required to create a high performing team. The two we talked about are two of those conditions.

What would be the impact on the productivity of your operation, if you could observe your team functioning at a high level rather than supervising to ensure compliance?

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Vacations Changing Landscape

Totally Disconnected, Partially Disconnected, or Working Vacations

Want to improve your well-being? Take a vacation.

Gallup found that those who take regular vacations with family and friends have a higher well-being score. There are physical, mental, medical, and relationship benefits. Earth-shattering? Not at all.

Can workers with high levels of responsibility really take a completely disconnected vacation?

Here is a personal experience. Gone and totally disconnected, in a fishing lodge without access to the internet, what a gift. Solitude and peaceful disconnection from my hurried world. I could have made arrangements to be connected but chose not to.

Well, that came to an abrupt end. As predicted when the floatplane flying us back towards civilization was within range of a cell tower, my phone started buzzing and dinging with notifications. I don’t remember the number of emails and messages other than to say it was a lot.

Now came the task of digging out. We have all been there.

In digging out I became frustrated when I came across several items that needed decisions and folks put them on hold until I could respond.

Would I have been better off staying somewhat connected?

That begs the question: What type of vacation will benefit you the most? Totally disconnected, partially, or a working vacation?

Gallup says 66% of employees remain connected and do some work while on vacation and that is how they want it. Most of these workers feel an affinity to their workplace and a responsibility to stay connected. They want to keep their projects on track and not have to “dig out” when they return.

Engaged workers want to remain engaged. The new remote work wave with a myriad of flexible options has us all defining work differently than being at the office.

I see three types of respite from the office, totally disconnected, partially disconnected, and remote work at a vacation site. Think about what each option means for you and your team members, well-being, effectiveness, and engagement.

As you think about each option, I believe the essential question that needs an answer is: What are the limits I can tolerate on being disconnected or having that team member disconnected?

Totally Disconnected
We all need some of this type of time. No requirements to engage in work-related activities. Executives, business owners, and individuals in dynamic workplaces where they are the primary decision maker have limits on this type of vacation. In fact, this can add to the stress level.

Partially Disconnected
What does partially disconnected mean to you? If you allow this option for yourself or your team members and require attendance at every virtual meeting, is that what you are really after? What is the purpose of allowing someone to take time away from the office but still remain plugged in? Who defines what partially disconnected is may be the key to this option.

There are a lot of benefits to this option. Key decisions are made, progress continues, and it meets the terms of the person out of the office. The individuals who volunteer for this type of option feel good about it.

Working Vacations
I call this remote work from a vacation destination. There is no calling the person back into the office for an emergency meeting. Individuals are fully plugged into their responsibilities during the agreed-upon workday. They attend meetings virtually, meet all their deadlines and milestones, only it is done remotely at a vacation destination. Outside of work hours they are swimming, surfing, golfing, or doing other vacation activities.

Consider what works best for you and your team members based on what you want to accomplish. If increasing engagement and well-being is a top priority, vacations have been shown to make a positive impact. Flexibility in the type of time off arrangements may add to that engagement.

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Remote Work: Building Trust

A Texas couple was visiting Rome on vacation walking to a restaurant. They spent significant time with the hotel concierge, well known for his knowledge of the local restaurants before making their decision. He had made several outstanding recommendations for them this past week after spending some time determining what type of food they enjoyed. Struggling to find the restaurant in the maze of streets in Rome, they spot a family of four with the mom wearing a Texas hat. What a relief, someone they can talk with. Funny coincidence is they are from the same county back home. The couple relates their predicament of being unable to find this highly touted restaurant and wanted to see if they could help them?

Not being familiar with the restaurant or neighborhood the family is unable to provide directions. However, they were able to direct them to a “great” restaurant they just went to last night, their first night ever out of Texas. The couple thanked the family and headed off to the newly recommended restaurant.

Why did this Texas couple “trust” complete strangers who had very little expertise on Italian restaurants in Rome?

  • Common background
  • Friendly connection

There are all types of situations where complete strangers trust each other. Think of a flight crew on an airliner, emergency response personnel at the scene of a mishap, an operating room team. Why then is it so difficult to trust coworkers particularly when we are working remotely?

Let’s look at a remote work situation.

Brenda working remotely was struggling with a marketing project she was assigned after being on the job for two weeks. She was not feeling great about her team at this time due to limited interaction and a perception of ultra-competitiveness. She wanted to reach out for assistance outside of her boss and team but was not sure where she should look. After some thought, she contacted a mentor, Marie from her onboarding process. Marie happened to be an alumnus from the same MBA program. Brenda also made a friendly connection with her, having lunch with Brenda twice during onboarding, and was impressed by her experience.

What Brenda experienced is commonplace for the remote work environment. Isolated, not sure where to turn for assistance, and confessing to your team and boss you need help.

Her solution was also commonplace; reaching out to a colleague she came to trust after several short interactions.

What made Brenda willing to trust Marie, after limited interaction? Cognitive and emotional trust. Assumed reliability and a caring connection.

  • The friendly connection
  • The common MBA program
  • Assumed competence

Let’s continue the story. Marie recommended Brenda contact Robert, who has a background in the area she is struggling in an adjacent department. She does, has a productive meeting, and was able to move forward on her project.

Why is she trusting someone she has not even met?

  • Credibility based on a reputation from someone she trusted

In her book The Remote Work Revolution; Tsedal Neeley identifies two types of trust, cognitive and emotional. Cognitive trust is based on logic and thought. It usually occurs quickly and is based on your belief that the individual is reliable and dependable.

Emotional trust is built on an emotional connection, care, and concern about someone. It can take time to build emotional trust.

Both are important and are in my opinion additive. When you think of the above examples it is clear where the boundaries were.

  • The Texans had cognitive trust – determined quickly through a thought based on a belief of reliability.
  • The concierge had cognitive trust and emotional trust. Proven capability and a personal connection.
  • Marie had cognitive and emotional trust
  • Brenda’s teammate and the boss had neither

What is important in the workplace? Think of your best team experience and categorize the trust that permeated that team. Was it cognitive, emotional or both?

Probably, both.

To make your remote team effective you have to build both. These are built by knowing who you are working with, spending time working and interacting together. We generally trust coworkers immediately because of their position. As we learn more about their credentials, work habits, expertise, and ability to deliver, our trust grows or wanes. This is primarily cognitive trust. Is that enough to be a high-performance team?

The continued interactions, developing personal relationships, support for others, all build emotional bonds. That is where emotional trust is built. If you have no emotional bond or connection, that equals no emotional trust.

Building cognitive and emotional trust in your team requires creating opportunities for interactions that allow both to develop. The concept is simple, execution is challenging.

Currently many remote environments are an “all business” approach. Virtual video meetings, conference calls, and group chats are agenda driven. The time and ability to interact socially, as we often experienced in-person, is significantly reduced.

J. Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman from Harvard studied team performance for decades and developed what is now called the Six Conditions Model. Their research confirms that leaders who effectively establish the six conditions with their team remove 70% of the variability of team performance. Those six conditions help establish both emotional and cognitive trust.

Without going into the details of the entire model; here are three elements from the model that build cognitive and emotional trust.

  • Creating a high level of interdependence between team members
  • Assembling the right mix of skills on the team
  • Establishing norms of behavior that are modeled and enforced

To implement each of the above takes engagement and interaction between team members. Interdependence requires learning about each team member. The right mix of skills immediately builds cognitive trust. Establishing team behavioral norms that necessitate a wide range of engagements from social to “business only” has the potential to create trusting relationships.

The bottom line: Connect your team cognitively and emotionally. Reduce isolation and ensure each member of your team is connected and contributing.

As leaders, creating professional and social interaction may be the greatest method to bring trust to your team. Find ways to create meaningful interactions in the remote environment that fit with your team and its culture.

What do you need to do to connect your team cognitively and emotionally?

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Remote Leadership

“My boss is bringing everyone back to the office full time just because that is what he is comfortable with. I have been having an ongoing conversation with him on the benefits of working remotely at least part-time. He is having none of it.”

“He says he cannot trust everyone in the remote environment, we need the face-to-face time to ensure we continue to build camaraderie and sustain our culture, particularly for the new folks. Finally, he says we are not as productive. Which I totally disagreed and pushed back with the data on how well we did during the pandemic.”

Here is what I heard in that exchange by my client describing her boss. He wants everyone back in the office because:

  • He does not trust them
  • He believes culture is best built and maintained face-to-face
  • He believes high productivity is tied to being in-person

We can make all kinds of assumptions about this boss however, I see the bottom line for my client as; she needs to address his primary concerns of trust, culture, and productivity.

What about the team you are leading? Are you ready to allow more remote work or are you bringing everyone back into the office? The above three elements are applicable to every leader. In my opinion, if we as leaders adequately address all three considerations, remote and/or hybrid work is doable. Let’s look at an overview of each.

Trust

How do you build trust in the virtual or hybrid environment? My answer, the same way you do in the in-person environment. In a previous video, we talked about four elements a leader needs to build trust. Those are: setting the example, setting and enforcing the standard, building and sustaining morale, and exhibiting moral courage.

What do you think your team wants from you in terms of trust? What do you want from them? Research has found, leaders who want their people in the office to have a mindset of visibility equates to accountability. What does this mode of operation do for retention? Do you want to work for a boss who trusts you only when they see you?

Culture

What is the culture in an organization? It is how the team interacts and works together. Whether you are in person or virtual, your organization has a culture. Make it what you want it to be. A collaborative social culture is possible virtually. You have to be deliberate about how you cultivate your culture. Letting the culture evolve without your direction can be a recipe for something you really don’t like.

Productivity

Working virtually is not new, it has been around for about 20 years, mostly in the tech world. CISCO and Sun Micro System were one of the first to go mainstream with a large percentage of their workforce being virtual. It is certainly new for a lot of us. Remote meetings, less travel, less office space requirements, and less commute time have made us more productive. Does your team have to be in the office 100% of the time to be productive? Does your team want some remote work? Ask them for the productivity standards and solutions. You may be surprised at what your team tells you.

Remote work is here to stay. How are you leveraging it with your team? We’ll continue this exploration into the three areas: trust, culture, and productivity.

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Coaching Culture – In Practice

Pat has six direct reports who in turn manage another 40 people in the Marketing and Sales Department of a medical device company. The pandemic brought all kinds of challenges for her with employee engagement. To grow professionally she engaged an executive coach for one-on-one coaching for herself. After six months she engaged a coach for group coaching for her six direct reports.

She hatched the group coaching idea during one of her coaching sessions in which she was working on improving engagement and communication for her department. It took her about three months to put it in place and still considers it a work in progress. Here are the elements of the program.

Purpose: To create a culture where she would use coaching practices to inspire, motivate, and develop members at every level.

Specific Goals:

Improve employee engagement scores on the biannual survey by 15%

  • Increase the percentage of retained customers by 5%
  • Increase new accounts by 5%
  • Improve communication within the team
  • Improve retention

Key parts of the program

The first key to the program is setting the example. Pat is engaging in one-on-one coaching with an executive coach. She then engaged a coach to conduct a 6-month group coaching program for her six direct reports. She also has a once-a-month coaching session with her direct reports, who in turn have a once-a-month coaching session with their direct reports.

Group coaching

The six leaders meet biweekly for 60 minutes as a group facilitated by a coach. The purpose is for each individual to put in place a professional development plan for themselves. Some of the topics are planned, others are based on what the cohort brings to the session. One area of emphasis is developing coaching skills. This is to support the leaders in coaching their direct reports.

Pat spent a lot of time thinking about how to implement the group coaching. Her belief is by meeting regularly as a cohort they will build synergistic relationships while each individual develops their personal leadership capacity.

Monthly Coaching Sessions

The coaching sessions with direct reports have some parameters:

  • They must be scheduled for a minimum of 30 minutes once a month
  • The direct reports are responsible for scheduling the sessions with their supervisor
  • The topic is always the choice of a direct report.
  • The general focus is required to be on professional career development. This is to keep the coaching session from morphing into status updates on current issues.

Measuring Success

The team has developed some metrics as shown with the goals above. One area still being considered is a survey specifically directed at the coaching.

The Challenges

What challenges do you think they have or will encounter? Keeping the coaching as a priority and letting the daily fray override the coaching is the first.  A metric tied to meetings scheduled and conducted may be required.

Producing and using the professional development plan is a close second. Should this be standardized across the organization? Once complete how is the plan used? Turning the development plan into a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) could be counterproductive. Some thoughts on the requirements of the plan and its implementation are a must. It may be a good topic for a group coaching session.

Some training on coaching skills for leadership is also in order. The goal is not to make everyone a certified coach. However, providing every supervisor ongoing training on coaching skills is imperative. Clearly, it will be part of the group coaching sessions. Dedicated training would be beneficial and provide much-needed confidence.

This is one way to implement a coaching culture with some specifics and the thought process behind it. How could you implement a coaching culture in your organization? Contact me if you would like to bounce some ideas around.

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How Well Do You Understand the Team You Are On?

After celebrating Independence Day this past weekend, I took some time to reflect on the team that came together to write the Declaration of Independence. Assembled with varied backgrounds and views on the path forward. They disagreed, argued, compromised, and came up with a document that serves as the basis for the country we live in today.

By all accounts, at times the team was wholly dysfunctional and at others working fairly well. Two elements that were common amongst the team

  • All the players knew what brought them together
  • Every member understood the path that got them to that place in time

How about you? Ever been thrust onto a team with little knowledge of how the team came together and its history? I have, and it took significant time to build cohesion and synergy. If we ever did.

In your experience with teams what would have been the impact if the above two criteria were fulfilled at the very start.

In every team coaching engagement, I have several activities I use to focus on team members understanding the team. Here is the basic framework for one activity I call, “The Epic Story of ———”. I modify the activity based on the specific needs of each team.

The purpose is to ensure the team and each member understands how this team came to be. Learning how it started and who were the players that came and went. Understanding what the team accomplished and learned over time. And most importantly what brought the members of this team together and why they are here now.

Overview 

Using a LARGE whiteboard or multiple sheets of easel paper the team creates their “Epic Story”. They construct a timeline starting with the longest-tenured team member. For large teams, this could mean covering the walls of the room with the timeline.

Picture a timeline drawn horizontally across the middle of the paper. Each individual beginning with the longest-tenured member has 5 minutes to talk. Above the timeline they add data about people, below the timeline, they add info about events.

Specifics

The team decides on the information they would like to see. Typically, above the line topics are; team member’s arrival and departure, particularly team leaders, and what is it like to be on the team. The most interesting topic I have seen was each member chose a metaphor for the team at the time they joined.

Below the line captures events, milestones, defining moments, and lessons learned. Each member covers the time period from when they started to when the next member joined.

As you can imagine, the longer-tenured members cannot help themselves and make more contributions on the way. The only rule I impart is each member gets to make their contribution prior to additions from other team members. A time limit has also been a valuable tool.

My Experience

Picture a team of eight going through this exercise with a spread of tenure of 21 years to 6 months. What do you think this can do for the team?

I have seen this be an enlightening experience. It allows for genuine interest in the history and impact of particular events and people. Differing perspectives and interpretations of events produce rich exchanges between members. The sharing of the history and path traveled provides significant energy and understanding of the path forward.

What would be the impact on your team? Want to see a brief overview of this activity in action? Check it out HERE.

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Who is Lifting You Up? & Who are You Lifting Up?

If you could give trophies to the greatest supporters of your professional life, who would get them, and what would be the inscription on them? Here are some answers I got to that question:

  • For believing in me when I doubted myself.
  • Helping turn failure into education.
  • For pushing me to set big goals and holding me accountable to them.
  • For pushing me beyond what I thought was possible.
  • Helping me turn a long journey into many short trips.

Supporting relationships may be one of the most important elements of an individual’s success. We all received assistance to arrive where we are today.

As a leader I think it is important for us to:

  • assess those relationships we categorize as supportive to us
  • assess those relationships we categorize as supportive to others

What are the elements of supportive and detrimental relationships? My thinking has been influenced by personal experience and study, particularly Intentional Change Theory and Dr. Henry Cloud’s book, The Power of the Other.  What are the elements of those relationships that helped you thrive and those that held you back?

Let’s focus on the positive first. Before you read my list put the most positive supportive professional relationship in your head. Now make a list of 3-5 of those elements.

Here is my shortlist that comes from personal experience and client input:

  • The relationship was a source of positivity; attitude and energy
  • It fostered learning particularly from mistakes
  • It was an iterative process of continuous learning
  • It was forward-looking at challenging goals that were not easily achieved
  • I was completely comfortable with revealing my flaws, challenges, and shortcomings

 Take the same approach but for a leader who you had the most negative relational experience with. List 3-5 elements of that relationship.

Here is my list:

  • Being unable to be totally honest
  • The relationship did not feel like a partnership
  • Accountability was a measure and evaluation rather than learning tool
  • Disingenuous feedback, all positive, all negative, or with little depth or actionable content

Next step. Make a short inventory of some of your key professional relationships and assess them.

For your subordinates and colleagues, if they were rating you what elements would the individuals choose from the above lists? Are you providing a positive, resonant relationships that are fostering growth or are you holding someone back?

I think the simplest assessment of your relationships is to ask yourself two questions:

  • Am I guarded in how I give and receive feedback?
  • When I leave interactions with this individual how do I feel?

Now that you have an assessment, what are you going to do?

Please share your thoughts on what makes a supportive relationship.

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Leaders: You are Hurting Your Organization

“You are hurting your organization.”

“What are you kidding I am putting my heart and soul into this place and you are implying I am hurting the organization?”

“Yep.”

How you responded to this statement may be the indicator. Defensive and reluctant to hear feedback. Boil this down to a single essential question: How do you get your feedback?

This one question has a lot behind it. Here are several thoughts to guide you in analyzing the feedback you are getting:

What do I need to know?

Who is not talking to me?

What are they holding back?

Why are they not talking to me?

A cursory analysis usually turns up thoughts such as:  I have my regular meetings with my team for updates. Everyone is engaging and I don’t see my team holding back.

That’s my point, it is not easy for us to detect the feedback we need and are not receiving.

Folks are not avoiding you and not talking to you. They are physically there. However, they just are not willing to share everything they should with you. “The whole truth and nothing but the truth…”

How to get good feedback? My thoughts on this come from my personal experience and that of my clients. Make it easy for you team to give you feedback by considering these principles:

  • Ask for it.
  • Openly demonstrate you want by visibly participating.
  • Act on it.

A personal example, when I was a commanding officer of a Marine Corps aviation squadron my safety officer came to me talk about safety issues brought to him by aircrew. I asked what was going on? He said it’s about me. That set me back. A couple of aircrew went to him saying I was pushing the mission too hard at the expense of safety.  Whoa, did not see that coming.

My response; we called an all aircrew meeting that afternoon. In that meeting we had a “true confessions” session about aircrew safety. I led off the discussion talking about the concerns brought to me. Then we moved on to other safety issues that anyone had. That meeting brought to the forefront concerns I was totally unaware of. The result, we became a better and safer squadron that day.

Easy? Far from it. Beneficial, you bet. It reflected how I was leading and revealed some of my blind spots. The aircrew was reluctant to tell me what I needed to hear. I was hurting the squadron. Moving forward our aircrew talked more openly about how we were operating. Aviation squadrons are always pretty good at giving feedback, this took us to a new level and made me much more aware of how I was leading.

What about you?  What info do you need? I think there are three main areas all leaders need feedback on:

  • How you are leading?
  • What your team needs from you?
  • What they do not need from you?

In getting the feedback be an active participant. We hear a lot about vulnerability, particularly from Brene’ Brown. Be vulnerable. You don’t need to have all the answers. You need to help the organization get to the right answers. Act on the feedback. Feedback with no action is like a tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it.

I will leave you with an example of a very successful leader asking for feedback, actively participating in getting the feedback, and taking action based on the feedback.

Scott Cook, the Founder and CEO of Intuit, in this video talks about getting a 360-degree evaluation from his team.

Are you hurting your organization and don’t know it? What do you need to know?

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