25 Sep
Managing Your Boss
peopletek Decision Making

Managing Your Boss

 
The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful.
Jon Taffer
Can we really manage our boss? Not really, but what can do is work towards building a good relationship (or at least improve it).  Having aligned expectations, regular communications, being accountable, and interacting in a style that works for them all lend themselves to strengthening and building a trusting relationship.
 
Liz Ryan, CEO Human Workplace recommends what NOT to do:
 
1.    Don’t start a conversation with your boss when you’re mad or upset. Wait until you calm down.

2.    Don’t fall into a win/lose mentality and start counting the number of times your boss said “yes” to one of your requests versus the times they said “No”. Rather, focus on your work, your team’s work and your mission.

3.    Don’t go to your manager with a list of complaints. Convert your complaints into practical suggestions whenever you can.

4.    Don’t ask your boss to adjudicate arguments with co-workers unless you and your co-worker agree there is no alternative.

5.    Don’t be shy about asking for feedback or asking for advice on a situation you haven’t handled before.

6.    Don’t forget to keep your manager informed of positive things you hear about the team, the company, and your manager him-or-herself. Nobody gets enough acknowledgment!

7.    Don’t assume your boss knows important news you hear or read during the day. If you think the new information would be valuable to your manager, pass it on.

8.    Don’t bash your manager to other employees, or vice versa.

9.    Don’t ask your boss to solve tiny problems you could solve on your own.

10. Don’t assume that because your manager is different from you — with a different gender, age, nationality or life story — that you can’t be real with them. We can all bring more of ourselves to work and it would be good for all of us if we did!

Having a strong relationship with your boss impacts the entire organization. It helps create a desired work culture, the achievement of results, and increased satisfaction levels. And, you won’t likely have the desire to look for another job!
Sincerely,

Mike and Jan

A Perfect Employee Is The One Who Inspires His Boss As Much As His Boss Inspires Him… Thanks For Being My Inspiration.
—Anna Teams
22 Sep
Universal Leadership Principles and Behaviors
peopletek Leadership

Universal Leadership Principles and Behaviors

Leadership, in its simplest form, means the act of getting individuals aligned and moving in the same direction toward a desired outcome.

Gallup/Clifton Strengths

Leadership has many definitions and we’ve shared them over the years. One of our more basic definitions is Taking others where they’ve never gone before and wouldn’t go by themselves. This covers a lot of territory.  Examples include goal attainment, career development, self-awareness, coaching, team synergy, and the list goes on and on.

Gallup, famous for their polling, completed one of their largest studies where over 14,000,000 employees, 2,000 organizations, and 559 job studies provided input for identifying what they viewed as the most essential competencies required for successful leaders. The results:

  • Build relationships
  • Develop people
  • Lead change
  • Inspire others
  • Think critically
  • Communicate clearly
  • Create accountability

We feel we can’t omit TRUST as an essential competency for leaders. Leaders that are trusted, are viewed as having high levels of integrity, and are considered authentic, make teams thrive and more readily achieve desired goals.

Lines of communication are open, individual and team confidence grows, and there’s a willingness for innovative thinking and taking risks without the fear of repercussions.

Effective leaders build a culture where accountability and responsibility are the “norm”. There’s no fear of bad reviews, demotions, or embarrassment, and feedback sessions are actually looked forward to!  They know that their leader will be respectful and honoring while delivering feedback, that the leader truly wants team members and the team to grow and succeed, and that they want to help each individual establish a career path and create and track their progress.

Claremont Graduate University Professor Paul Zak wrote that people in high trust workplaces compared to low-trust workplaces experienced the following:

74% less stress

106% more energy at work

50% higher productivity

13% fewer sick days

76% more engagement

29% more satisfaction with their lives

40% less burnout

This is definitely aligned with Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors Of A Cohesive Team model where trust is the foundation for success. Regardless of how many leadership competencies one possesses, without trust a leader’s skills and abilities will always be limited.  Any disagreement?    

Guiding Principles

Does your place of work operate within a set of principles that clearly guide team members? Do they define how employees are to be treated, how employees will optimally interact with one another, and how the needs of clients, internal/external customers, and shareholders are best serviced?

Remember, it all starts with the employees. This includes satisfaction levels, attrition, general work engagement, and that employees leave “their boss, not their job”. The quality of leadership makes individuals and companies thrive while reducing turnover.

In Success Magazine, May/June 2022, Editor Tristan Ahumada shares 6 Leadership Principles of quality leadership he feels are necessary for leaders of all levels and they can be remembered as I SPARK. Excerpts include:

Innovation: Great leaders look for opportunities that will be impactful

Systems: Great leaders understand the need for systems and processes and their ability for reuse  

People First: People must be truly valued and treated well, in order to achieve success    

Awareness: Leaders understand the impact they have on others and the repercussions their actions and words will have

Resilience: Leaders must have grit and determination to deal with tough times and failures

Kindness: This is sometimes forgotten; great leadersare empathetic and compassionate, build relationships and unite people.

As a leader, what principles do you support and promote within your organization? Are there any that Mr. Ahumada provided that you could incorporate? Think I SPARK!

Relationships need to be built and maintained How would you evaluate the kind of relationships you have with your boss and your direct reports?  Do you find that you are most often in sync with them or that your relationship is “hit or miss”?

What’s your comfort level sharing stories about your personal life or discussing challenges you are facing at work?

22 Sep
Tips for Emerging Leaders and Beyond
peopletek Blog, Leadership

Tips for Emerging Leaders and Beyond

At times organizations are only developing their Emerging Leaders with Leadership Development and Coaching. Some C Suite Leaders of the organization say “that’s not for me, it’s for them. 

What I find when doing organizational assessments is that the same basic skills that every leader must get better at are what leaders at all levels struggle with. It’s applying the basics of developing a Team, building a culture, and getting to honor and know each and every person that works with us. It’s soft skills like communicating clearly and respectfully and holding each other accountable. It is finding out the heart and minds of the people that work with us and for us. To do that we must cultivate a coaching and mentoring attitude. In order to do that you must have each person’s trust.

When distrust is the default – we lack the ability to debate or collaborate.
Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI)

As a leader of any level, what impacts your ability to trust someone? Do you start with an even playing field where you are open and accepting or are you more inclined to reluctantly accept what is being shared and need to learn more? There is no right or perfect approach the key is to be aware of how you approach to trust and what is needed to be trusted by each other.

Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI) has been conducting annual trust surveys for over 20 years.  For the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, data was gathered from survey results obtained in November of 2021, with input from over 36,000 respondents from 28 countries.   

The findings:

  • Nearly 60% of the respondents have the default tendency to distrust and require more evidence
  • Distrust is now society’s default emotion
  • 64% say it’s to a point where people are incapable of having constructive and civil debates
  • Gone is the ability to collaborate on differences
  • 60% will choose a place to work based on their beliefs and values

Having over half of your colleagues/team members lacking the ability to trust certainly impacts your work culture as trust is the essential ingredient for building strong teams, supporting common goals, and producing results.

As a leader you have the ability to impact trust levels. Some ideas include:

  • Share your expectations (and live them)
  • Be authentic and transparent
  • Mean what you say
  • Keep confidences
  • Follow through on your commitments
  • No hidden agendas are allowed
  • Don’t disregard morale issues
  • Build relationships and take the time to “know” your colleagues/direct reports
  • Listen
  • Don’t ignore unhealthy conflict
  • Provide healthy, constructive feedback (with specifics)
  • Solicit feedback
  • Utilize Emotional Intelligence

Invest in building trust. When trust levels are lacking, stress, turnover, morale, gossip, productivity, and satisfaction ratings are impacted. When trust levels are high, the ability to collaborate, achieve results, and be open and vulnerable are also high.

When we truly care about a culture of trust we create an environment where each person is honored and respected for the skills, abilities and talents we have.

We have a learning culture where the development of our mindset is a top priority. We help each other achieve their desired goals and objectives. It’s not just about me, me, me it’s about we.

Could you do more to improve the ability to trust? Could your peers?

Some tips for emerging leaders that you should learn

If you read and study the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team by Patrick Lencioni you find there are concrete areas to measure and develop. The key is to 1) know what they are 2) measure the areas 3) develop plans to close the gaps that exist in each area.  The areas are:  Trust (what this entire article is about, Conflict (being able to address issues without fears or repercussions 3) Accountability (being accountable to each other no matter what level or title 4) Commitment (being committed to common goals and objectives 5) Results

There is a specific process to building and team by undoing The Five Dysfunctions. It’s best to just start. Find out where you are with being trusted as an individual or organization. Do an assessment to find out where you are. Sometimes this has to be done with outside expertise because who would open up with internal colleagues? Is there even enough trust that when you run the assessment at all? What are the barriers getting in the way? Is the organization safe and free to be vulnerable with each other? Can a problem be identified without people getting upset and angry to the point of

holding grudges for a long time? I recently had a client who said “we can’t discuss that hear because I am afraid of how Senior Management may react”.  Once you start the process it’s best to be open and honest with each other about what was heard. This gives permission for others to do the same. If the CEO or head of a department or organization shares what they heard and that they are starting a process to correct some things then it gives others permission they too can have a problem in their team and can work on it to correct and make it better.

For example, there are many leaders who don’t understand how their roles and those of their team connect to the overall goals and objectives of the company. Even when the leader who runs the organization does they don’t connect the dots for those that work for them. So when doing a survey or assessment it comes out that things like communication isn’t clear, we don’t know where we are ultimately going, and we don’t fully understand our role. Instead of being defensive about this, a leader needs to take charge, be open about the gap that was identified, and talk about the future with clarity. 

Another point to be clear with is that everyone is responsible for the change that must occur. That means everyone no matter what level or role. A way to further understand this point is discussed in a book by John Miller called the QBQ.  I love this book because it  clearly states we all own everything that happens. It is our responsibility to work on the problem. The book gives examples of questions we each must ask, what can I do to solve this issue, how can I help and provide support or a solution? Not questions like why is this happening and who is to blame. If you do anything with this article purchase that book and implement the QBQ throughout your organization. What we’ve seen is that when these processes are started there is immediate progress made. Not only with trust but all of the other four dysfunctions begin to improve.  Remember this is a process and not an event. What this means is that it’s like going to a gym to build physical muscles. It takes time and effort. Leadership, Team and Organizational muscles are the same. They must be developed over time. How we communicate, handle conflict, set our vision, mission and goals and hold each other accountbale is a career-long process.

19 Sep
Are You Accountable?
peopletek Decision Making

Are You Accountable?

Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.
–Bob Proctor
We’ve recently been told that accountability issues are increasing in the workplace. Do you agree?  Do you find that colleagues (and maybe even you) find that being accountable is difficult?

If yes, we think the top 3 reasons may be:
  1. Not wanting to look bad
  2. Fear that others may lose their appreciation for us
  3. We’re unable to be vulnerable since relationships and maybe even job security could be impacted 

Like it or not, we all make mistakes. Sadly, and all too often, that includes justifying why we did (or said) what we did. And to make us feel better, we self-rationalize why we did it, and add “why” and “however” to what we’re saying in hopes of lessening our error.

Doing this does not help and in reality pretty much does the opposite. We need to realize that the lack of accountability does not serve us well. We lose the trust of others, we sever relationships, we get avoided, we get labeled, and team morale is diminished when lack of accountability is not addressed.

Siddharth Chaudhary, author at FocusU, views the 4 Steps To Accountability as:
  • Mustering the Courage to SEE IT
  • Finding the Heart to OWN IT
  • Obtaining the wisdom to SOLVE IT
  • Exercising the means to DO IT

Author John G. Miller shares his views and they include “owning up”:
  • I did it.
  • I was wrong.
  • It’s my fault.
  • I shouldn’t have said that.
  • I shouldn’t have done that.
  • I’m sorry.
  • I will change today.

Don’t make excuses, don’t ignore that an error has occurred (or that you dropped the ball), and don’t point fingers. If you erred, own it and learn from it. This builds levels of trust, helps with integrity, and earns respect.

Sincerely,

Mike and Jan

Accountability breeds response-ability.
–Stephen Covey
08 Sep
Balancing Quality with Quantity
peopletek Decision Making

Balancing Quality with Quantity

Does quality always matter more than quantity?
It’s not uncommon to work at a frantic pace with the work environment setting unrealistic expectations for needed deliverables. This may impact us (and our team), resulting in lower quality work, morale issues, intense work relationships, and high stress levels.

This does not mean that long hours and critical deadlines won’t be experienced, but as skilled leaders we must monitor work-loads for intensity and pace (for both exceptional performers as well as under achievers).

TIPS include:
  • Set priorities and identify 3 to 5 things that must be accomplished.  Studies show that only about 50% of a worker’s time is spent on goal specific activities. The rest of the time gets diverted to other tasks that are not mission critical.
  • Have clear goals, tasks and objectives and standards with measurable objectives. Set stretch goals and checkpoints and encourage feedback.
  • Establish best practices; debrief deliverables for what went well and what to be aware of, have documented processes and procedures.
  • Have a clear business case for the resources you will require (staff, funding, materials, and support).
  • Make sure you (or your project manager) possess the skills required to delegate, empower, and inspire the team, communicate, plan, and set clear priorities.  If not, invest in developing the missing skills.
  • Be prepared to take risks.  Thinking outside of the box and tough negotiations may be necessary to attain what is required.  This may also include making mistakes and failing to deliver what is expected.  Again, debrief what went well and what did not.

As leaders, we need to understand how we, and our teams, react to stress.  Some are energized by it, others debilitated by it.  Watch how team members interact, ask how they are doing, and don’t disregard the need to balance life outside of work.

We need to truly understand when quality work is being impacted by the quantity of work that must be done.  Are you able to help others find the appropriate balance?

Sincerely,

Mike and Jan

We need to provide value to our organization and one way is to ensure we deliver quality results.
08 Sep
Clarity of Diversity versus Inclusion
peopletek Blog, Leadership

Diversity and Inclusion – What’s A Leader To Do?

Solving the issue of diversity doesn’t guarantee an inclusive culture. Diversity is about whom you hire, but inclusiveness is about a work environment of trust and involvement.

Gallup

Clarity of Diversity versus Inclusion

We’ve written about diversity and workplace inclusiveness in the past; since studies reflect that more clarity between the two is needed, we decided to provide additional context.

When you hear the word “diversity”, what comes to mind? Per the Bing dictionary, it can mean a “variety of something such as opinion, color, or style”, it can be “ethnic variety, as well as socioeconomic and gender variety, in a group, society, or institution”, and it can be “a discrepancy, or a difference from what is normal or expected“.

A diverse workplace must have variety. This simply means a variety of styles, behaviors, preferences, recruiting and interviewing techniques, along with addressing unique development needs for all levels across entire organizations. The work culture does not exclude differences, rather it embraces a blend of races/ethnic backgrounds, a range of ages, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.  

Awareness

We also believe it includes knowledge, acceptance, and awareness. How accepting are you of differences? Would you consider yourself and your organization to be diverse?

Before you answer, think about what comes to mind when topics related to diversity and differences surface. Do you think about race, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation and disabilities?

Do you also think about accents, education, physical size, spiritual orientation, and political preferences?

Differences are limitless. What’s key is our awareness and respect for how these differences strengthens our team, our organization, and our world.

We all have biases and filters. What we suggest is taking the time to examine our biases and recognize the impacts differences have on attitudes and actions with the ultimate goal to appreciate and utilize what’s different.

Studies show that diversity enhances learning; we grow our mindset when we listen, process, and understand differences (and learn our way isn’t the only way!)

The CDO

Have you heard that a new C-Suite role has been added to many companies?  It’s called the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) and it’s reported that 60% of Fortune 500 companies have a CDO.

The role of Chief Diversity Officer has been defined as being “responsible for creating, managing, and optimizing their work culture to be an equitable and fair environment for all employees”.  What leader wouldn’t want to optimize their work culture?

Inclusion

Inclusion is different from diversity.  With inclusion employees feel that they matter to both leadership and their teammates, they want to be heard and they want to be acknowledged for the value they provide. They want to be able to utilize and leverage their strengths (we call it Magic Dust®) and have career growth opportunities. As a result, when there is a sense of inclusion employees are more fully engaged and less likely to leave and go to another company.

Think about Gallup’s quote “Diversity is about whom you hire, but inclusiveness is about a work environment of trust and involvement.”  Have you heard us say “hire hard or manage hard”?  This is one piece of creating the type of work culture where everyone can grow and flourish. New hires have to be a good fit for your team; consider experience, skill-set, attitude, commitments, accountability and collaboration.

If afforded the opportunity, it also helps to have a well-balanced team based on assessment results. Consider Myers-Briggs (MBTI) types, DiSC workplace styles, team roles, and communication styles. Leveraging individual strengths from team members not only helps achieve desired results, it also reduces attrition and increases satisfaction levels.

Have you observed a variety of leadership skills, traits and behaviors within your organization? Do you relate equally to all styles? Do you find all of them effective? Chances are “no”.

What Can Leader’s Do?

As leaders, investing the time and energy to hire the right person(s) for your team will save you time.  Either you expend the time on the front end, or you’ll be spending time on the back end for managing issues that will likely arise when team members are not a good fit.

It’s also advantageous to view our staff as people, not just as an employee or consultant. There’s a constant need to keep people engaged, and for team members to have a sense of belonging.  Gallup reports that 33 percent of American workers are engaged at work, 52 percent claim they just show up, and 17 percent say they are actively disengaged. That plays into the role of inclusiveness; being understood, valued, and cared about.

As a leader we can influence these numbers. What are you doing to learn more about your team members and help the team learn more about one another? Don’t neglect getting to know your team on a personal basis, it makes a difference!

Retaining talent is a challenge; as leaders we have opportunities to create a work culture that is both diverse and inclusive.  How successful are you? Do you have a CDO (or someone that fills that role), and does your business strategy include diversity and inclusion?

What can YOU change to reap the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive workplace?