Leadership

25
nov
0 0

SPOILT FOR CHOICE!

Posted by Leadership, RemoteNo Comments

By Sally Foley-Lewis

With so many online platforms available to meet, inform, share, collaborate, allocate, and chat … it can be daunting to know which ones to use for what purpose. The trick to making the best decision is to be guided by:

  • what your organization sanctions and pays to use as a whole of organization license.
    • Ensuring access to support services that would be included in the license.
  • what your team tends to find easy to use and actually use regularly.
    • Minimizing the time to learn a new platform
  • using free versions to trial until you can be clear about which platform/s will serve you best.

Remember that you may already have access to reliable and effective platforms for online communication, ask around your organization, IT department and team.

Technology is meant to help!

“Email was going to help the world go paperless!” Do you think that worked? Tech tools that help teams collaborate can help share the workload, engage the team and provide a way to help people learn and understand standards and expectations.

Email is never urgent!

Jane-Maree was incredibly frustrated that her time was almost fully consumed by sending emails asking team members to fix their work. She would spend many, many hours beyond a standard workday, including many weekends, editing, re-writing and proofing work. She was correcting homework like a teacher! Email after email with edits, corrections and changes.

She knows that her direct reports get just as annoyed as she does with the emails. Jane- Maree shared a few typical email examples and every one of them started with, “Just a few things to fix…” and every one of those emails was easily beyond 1500 words in length.

ISSUE NUMBER 1: Just is a contradiction to the rest of the email. Jane-Maree’s intention was to soften the email but the reality is all the emails were containing direction for significant work, not just a few things.

FIX NUMBER 1: Stop using indirect language.

ISSUE NUMBER 2: Only using email. A paper trail makes sense but it’s also not contributing to maintaining a positive relationship or actually ensuring learning. The team came to expect Jane-Maree to do all the proofing and fixing so why bother to try for perfection. They weren’t deliberately doing poor work but they certainly weren’t empowered to strive harder.

FIX NUMBER 2: Have a meeting to discuss the purpose of the piece of work. Use a shared screen to discuss and agree the purpose of the work and expected standards. Check to understand that team members know what’s expected. Encourage team members to aim for final draft quality and provide guidance on language style. With the team start creating, if one doesn’t already exist, a style guide. Refer the team to the style guide and be mindful of any essential variations for different regions.

ISSUE NUMBER 3: Productivity (time management) – using up personal time to do work that is keeping the manager from doing more role relevant (leadership) work.

FIX NUMBER 3: a) As Jane-Maree still has to sign off on the work, bring the deadline forward to allow extra time to read and sign-off. b) Schedule unavailable – do not disturb – time during your workday to proof the work, even 20 minutes of uninterrupted time earlier in the day gives more time later in the day for editing from the team.

LIGHTEN UP!

Taking a short break from the serious work to have some fun will help strengthen the team. It may look and feel like playing games, socializing, chatting and that’s because it is. Having a short segment of the regular online meeting allocated to something fun and social is no different to the odd morning tea, birthday cake celebration, work lunch that happens in workplaces quite regularly.

The opportunity to simply pop over to someone across the office or factory floor needs a remote or virtual equivalent. Allocating some fun or socializing while online will make reaching out online a little more receptive given time and distance.

A touch of creativity and a bit of willingness might be all that’s needed. Managers quite often think they need to have the answers, need to set the agenda, build trust and engagement over distance by inviting the team members to suggest ideas for socializing online.

Team Activities

“I Spy”

  • Cameras on
  • No virtual backgrounds
  • One person spots something in another person’s background. And just like in the original game, the person says, “I spy with my little eye something … [beginning with the letter… or something that is the color …]
  • The rest of the team have to guess. The winner takes a turn to spy the next item.

Two Truths and One Lie (2+1)

Everyone thinks of two things that are true but might seem unbelievable to others, and one lie. For a small team, there might be time for everyone to have a turn at sharing and everyone else guessing which are the truths and which is the lie. For bigger teams, consider using the breakout room functions or small group set up provided with some technologies. Alternatively, nominate/invite only a few people to offer their 2+1.

Online Collaboration

While it can be overwhelming to ask the team to learn new technology while also staying productive with their standard workload, there are some online tools that are simple to use and a fun way to collaborate on social ideas. IdeaBoardz is one simple tool you could use, it’s free and simple to set up. You can use it here: ideaboardz.com.

The following table was collated by Deloitte, the purpose was to demonstrate that a significant technology investment may not be necessary, it’s more about the strategy managers and teams implement to ensure the technology is fit for the purpose of the activity.

Attend the upcoming HRDQ-U webinar, Leadership via the Lens: Remote Leadership, on Wednesday, December 9 at 2pm EST/11am PST.

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19
nov
0 0

The Keys to Engaged Remote Workers (it’s not what you think)

Posted by Leadership, RemoteNo Comments

By: Kevin Eikenberry

For several years, engagement has been a big topic among consultants and the business press. Organizations and leaders want to have more engaged team members, and so all manner of programs, tools, apps, processes, and surveys have been created to support and encourage employee engagement.

And the focus has only increased in the last few months as millions of more people have been working from home. The slippery issue of engagement seems to be even more, well, slippery.

Regardless of where people work there are two underlying starting point questions which must be acknowledged and answered first:

  • What is engagement?
  • Who owns engagement?

What is Engagement?

Too many efforts to improve engagement assume the goodness of the idea and further assume that because it is a good thing, that everyone knows what is being strived for. I agree that engagement is good – and that it is worth pursuing – but we must know where we are headed before we begin.  Here is a short section from our upcoming book the Long-Distance Teammate: Stay Engaged and Connected Anywhere that addresses this point:

Engagement is more than employee satisfaction. You can be satisfied, and your job’s fine. Nothing’s wrong, but it doesn’t mean that you’re engaged. Engaged is a level of caring beyond just “It’s okay.” How much discretionary effort are you putting in? How much of your heart, soul, and effort are you putting into your work? Are you satisfied with just the bare minimum, or are you doing your best most of the time?

Engagement then is about caring, believing, and being motivated by the work, your co-workers and the importance and purpose of the work’s output.  If you doubt the value of this, consider two people: one who is all those things and another for whom those things wouldn’t be true.  Who do you want on your team (to lead or work with)?

Who Owns Engagement?

Here is another brief snippet from our upcoming book:

Contrary to popular opinion, we believe your engagement largely belongs to you. How much you care, how hard you try, how much effort you put into your work, is in your control—all of these are your choices. Can those around you (including your boss) make those choices easier or harder? Sure—but the choices are still yours.

If engagement is about caring, believing, motivation and meaning, who has control of those things?

You do – the individual (perhaps remote) worker.

Engagement doesn’t belong to your boss, the HR Department, or the Engagement Project Team – it belongs to you.

The Organizational and Leadership Role

This doesn’t mean leadership should be given a pass or organizations shouldn’t think about creating greater engagement. There are many things that can support and encourage the decisions that individuals make regarding their level of engagement.  These ideas should be studied and considered – but only in the right context and with the proper goal.  Individual leaders should look for ways to support engagement, not be looking for some perfect solution to “get people to be engaged.”

I believe that everyone (you, the rest of your team, your leadership, and the organization as a whole) wins as individual team member engagement grows.  I hope this short article helps you see this situation differently. More importantly, I hope this article helps you think about your own engagement first.  Since engagement starts with us, work on your engagement first – it is a perfect example of role modeling the behavior you want to influence in others.

Join our upcoming HRDQ-U webinar, Creating Engaged, Productive Long-Distanced Teammates, on December 2, 2020 at 2pm ET/11am PT.

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16
mar
0

Why is Leadership Development Broken?

Posted by Leadership, Ryan GottfredsonNo Comments

By Ryan Gottfredson

Do you have leaders like Tom Coughlin in your organization? Let me explain.

Tom Coughlin is the former successful head football coach of the New York Giants, having won two Super Bowls with the Giants. Upon stepping down as the coach of the Giants, he took on the role of executive vice president of football operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that has historically been poor.

We have got to believe that in taking this new position, Tom Coughlin wanted to turn around the Jacksonville Jaguars to become a winning team and create an even greater legend for himself.

Unfortunately, Tom Coughlin’s influence was anything but positive.

Because there are 32 teams in the NFL, the NFL players on the Jacksonville Jaguars represent approximately 3 percent of the NFL. Yet, according to the NFL Players Association, 25 percent of all complaints filed by NFL players this past season came from the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This was so bad that the NFL Players Association publicly stated that they could not recommend that any football players play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, which promptly led to Tom Coughlin’s firing. He had all of the good intentions in the world, desiring to have a positive impact on a low-performing team. Yet, despite his good intentions and hard work, his influence was actually negative.

So, do you have any “Tom Coughlins” in your organization? Leaders who have demonstrated prior success, yet despite any good intentions and hard work, their impact is less than positive?

The statistics on leadership effectiveness suggest that you do.

The Current State of Leader Effectiveness

I have yet to meet a leader that wants to have a negative impact on the organizations they lead and the people they serve. Yet, the following statistics have been reported across a variety of sources:

And, if that doesn’t make you sick enough, despite organizations spending close to $356 billion globally on leadership development, 75 percent of organizations rate their leadership development programs as not being very effective.

It appears that organizations’ leadership development efforts are commonly broken, or at least are not having the full positive effects we would like them to have.

Can You Imagine?

Can you imagine how your organization might be different if all of the “Tom Coughlin” leaders in your organization created outcomes that were more closely aligned with their positive intentions? How would that reduce conflict, enhance engagement, enhance retention, and affect your organization’s overall culture?

If you are anything like me, it is difficult to imagine just how different and better your organizational life would be.

We Need Your Help

Unfortunately, we do not have all the answers related to how organizations can more effectively develop their leaders. Thus, we want to gather your thoughts and insights on how effective your organization’s leadership development efforts.

We’d like to invite you to participate in a 5-minute survey on your organization’s leadership development practices: https://fullerton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cIsqbO1N3AVSBM1

As a thank you for your participation, your name will be entered in a drawing to win your choice of an $229 Audible Platinum Annual Membership, Apple gift card, or Amazon gift card of equal value.

Attend our webinar on how to develop a more agile workforce on May 5. Register here: https://www.hrdqu.com/webinars/agile-workforce-05-05-2020/

3
feb
0

Give People Permission to Be Courageous

Posted by Bill Treasurer, LeadershipNo Comments


By Bill Treasurer

Often the most powerful action you can take to provoke courageous behavior is to give people permission to be courageous. Before starting my own company, I worked for Accenture, one of the world’s largest and most respected management and technology consulting companies, as its first-ever internal executive coach. Before moving into the coaching role, however, I remember being petrified at the prospect of coaching the senior executives whom I worked with.

As a middle manager, I had reported to a few of them and knew how intimidating some of them were. I feared that my lower rank would cause my coaching guidance to be discounted and that eventually my role would be marginalized. Nearly all of the senior execs had more business experience than I had, yet I’d be counseling them. Safety for me meant preserving the positive reputation I had built up prior to that moment. Moving into the new coaching role, I feared, might threaten it.

I was so worried about failing that I strongly considered forgoing the opportunity, despite the fact that I wanted it badly. Now, admitting to your boss that you’re scared of failing is hard to do in any company. It is particularly hard to do in a company made up of hotshot consultants. But I was fortunate to be working for Hines Brannan, a seasoned and level-headed senior partner. Hines had a way of lifting my head up past the speed bumps of the moment so that I could view my career as a winding journey. So I went to him and said, “Hines, I think you should consider placing someone else in the new coaching role. I’m okay with coaching people at my level, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to coach people who are more senior than me. I mean, I’ve reported to some of these people in the past. The thought of coaching them is just too intimidating.”

Hines listened patiently. Then, instead of telling me what a wuss I was being, he simply said, “But Bill, you coach me.”

He was right. Like many of the senior executives I would be coaching, I reported to him. And over the years, I had become a bit of a confidant to him. In the process, I had grown comfortable offering Hines my perspective on issues and challenges that he was grappling with. I’m sure that Hines had far more impact on me as a coach than I ever had on him, but in the moments when I had coached him, he had drawn value from it. By pointing out the obvious, Hines gave me permission to see the opportunity in a different way. The confidence I had already established in coaching him could be extended to working with the other executives. His words helped me to cut myself a break. Moreover, his words helped put my courage to work. After all, if I could coach the most senior executive on the account, certainly I could coach the people who reported to him.

The most important thing that Hines did was to give me permission to express my fears without embarrassment. Unlike some bosses I had worked for, Hines didn’t make me feel small so that he could feel big. With him, I never felt dismissed or patronized. He never disrespected me by multitasking when I talked with him, despite his pressing schedule. To the contrary, when I approached him, I always had his full presence and attention. I felt valued, not intimidated. Because Hines’s disposition permitted me to express myself without fear, when I did, he was in a much better position to provide me with good counsel. Had I reported to another executive, I would have been much more reluctant to express my fears and concerns.

More tangibly, Hines gave me permission to be courageous by pointing out where I was already doing the very thing I was afraid of. This was incontrovertible proof that I could indeed meet the challenge . . . because I was already meeting it. Armed with this knowledge, I was able to build up a thriving internal coaching practice, eventually coaching thirty Accenture executives on a regular basis.

Permission enhances safety. Often workers avoid doing courageous things because their heads are telling them that they aren’t “allowed” to. As a manager, how you carry yourself will make a big impact on how safe they feel and, thus, on how expressive they will be. By giving them your full presence, you’ll cause them to feel valued and “allowed” to bring their fears out in the open. When they do, you’ll be better able to address their concerns and shift their thinking to all the ways they are prepared to meet their challenges.

Who on your team needs to be given permission to be courageous?

7
jan
0

Learn Walt Disney Leadership Style In Three Easy Steps

Posted by Leadership, Lenn MillbowerNo Comments

By Lenn Millbower

Walt Disney was an incredible leader. Learn how you can adapt Walt Disney leadership styles for yourself in this easy to follow guide from HRDQ-U!

A Surprising Notion

“I tear the hell out of them. I pound, pound, pound.” —Walt Disney

Surprised by that quote? Most people are. It was not Walt Disney’s finest hour. It was, however, an important part of Walt Disney’s leadership journey.

Most people remember Walt as the kindly, loving, mischievous, impish uncle on television via his Disneyland and Wonder World of Color TV programs. The Walt on television was, by most accounts, an extension of the Walt at that stage of his life. But Walt went through much trial and error to become that guy on television.

Walt Disney’s Evolving Leadership Styles

When distilled into these phrases, or “acts,” to use show business terms, and as explained in my book Care Like a Mouse, Walt’s journey provides lessons applicable to any leader. Those three acts can be described as:

  • Act One, The Pal
  • Act Two, The Boss
  • Act Three, The Guide

Act One – The Pal

In Act One, The Pal, Walt was, like his namesake Mickey Mouse, everyone’s best buddy. Walt Disney, likely for lack of funding and a young man’s naïveté, ran his business as a communal enterprise. With little income to pay salaries, everyone was expected to share in both hardships and success.

Walt would inspire his staff with a vision of creating a new entertainment art form: animation. His leadership style was communal, collaborative, and almost utopian. This style worked… as long as there were no profits to share. With the huge financial successes of Mickey Mouse and Snow White, it became increasingly difficult to maintain.

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Act Two – The Boss

Walt tried to maintain his communal attitude. But at the studio, flush with money, resentment built up. Sacrifices seemed pointless in a studio raking in money. Individual identities resurfaced. A lack of organizational structure made for chaos. Perceptions of inequity, arbitrary pay raises, and hard work gone unrewarded fueled resentment. This resentment led to individual demands for better pay, better working conditions, and more individual recognition.

In one example, Walt Disney complained that employees who were happy to work on any surface and sit in any chair when there was no money were now complaining about who had the best drawing desk and chairs.

People quit. People went on strike. Walt, frustrated that his “boys” (as he called all of them) did not appreciate how good he had treated them, changed.

And then, World War II hit. Overseas profits were frozen. Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi did not perform well at the box office. The U.S. military took over the studio grounds. Disney was forced to make military training films.

In spite of Walt’s inspirational visions, artistic pursuit no longer made a profit and gave way to expediency. As Walt himself described it, “We’re through with caviar. From now on its mashed potatoes and gravy.”

Walt Disney detached. He became moody and dictatorial. Team members reported that he would either be sighing in tired frustration or growling in anger. They described him as distrusting, disgruntled and dominating.

Jack Kinney explained that he would “… giving you the evil eye, with his finger pointed at your chest, that was very intimidating.” Ward Kimball said needed “…to put somebody down. You learned early on never to argue with him or to cross him.”

If Walt Disney’s career had ended in the 1940s, he would have been revered for his animation breakthroughs, but not as a leader and mentor. Act Two, The Boss, just like Act One, had not been a good model for leadership. The real Disney model for leadership was in the future and would come to fruition in Act Three, The Guide.

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Act Three – The Guide

Walt Disney’s switch in leadership style grew gradually as the 1940s faded into the 1950s. A catalyst may have been the trip Walt Disney and Ward Kimball took to the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair. Walt had always loved trains. When animation no longer excite him, he removed himself from the minutia of day to day studio operations and turned to model training. We are all fortunate he did that because that tinkering led to the development of Disneyland.

Two other factors pushed Walt Disney towards a new view of leadership (1) Walt became a TV star thanks to his Disneyland TV show and (2) Walt had grown older, evolving from the passion-driven young man into a kindly, impish, wise old man. In this guise, Walt could weigh in on opinions where and when needed. He could support, guide, mentor, and coach without getting too deep into studio minutia.

Walt described his “Guide” role in this manner, “I think of myself as a little bee. I go from area to area and gather pollen and stimulate everybody.”

Freed from the daily grind, Walt Disney became the visionary everyone loved. Everything then fell in place. The product was well received, the studio made money and Walt’s people bloomed. From a leadership perspective, Disney was free to chart the course, touch the rudder when required and enjoy himself.

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What’s Your Leadership Style?

Think about your leadership style and the three acts.

  • Do you believe in a communal approach? This Pal approach is applicable for startups where you have to inspire people but have no real financial rewards to offer them. It can, however, be challenging when people feel they are being treated unfairly or not able to share in the rewards because of their efforts.
  • Are you The Boss? Do you control everything with dictatorial demands? Walt Disney was able to keep his studio together during tough times with The Boss approach, but the cost in acrimony and turnover was high. Bossing is applicable for tough times but may make tough times even tougher and encourage a talent drain.
  • Are you The Guide? – Do you share a vision and allow people to sail towards the horizon with direction only when truly required? For Disney, this approach worked best. The Guide is applicable when your employees respect you, know you know what you are doing, and really want your opinion. It does, however, require you to paint a vision and relax while others focus on delivering it.

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All three roles have their place, but the choice is clear. The Guide is the one leadership approach that yields the most benefits, the best teamwork and the best chance for an enjoyable life. It is, as Disney discovered, the recipe for success … with or without the trains. To learn more, view our webinar, Caring for Castomers: A Disney Inspired Approach to Employee Engagement.

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