What do you like most about your job? When you reflect on your career (so far) what’s the highlight reel? What are you most PROUD of in your leadership? What brings you JOY?

There are so many good reasons to reflect on this question. 

First, when you’re stressed, under pressure, or things just aren’t going your way, asking yourself “What do I like most about my job,” can be incredibly grounding. 

It’s also a great interview question (to ask or be prepared to answer). I almost always ask people I’m interviewing about what they like most (and least about their current job), and what they’re most proud of when they reflect on their career. 

What’s in your Leadership Highlight Reel?

I recently stumbled on one of my first media interviews in 2013 when I was wrapping up a two-decade career at Verizon and launching Let’s Grow Leaders. 

I was honored with Liz Wiseman’s Multiplier of the Year award (so they sent a film crew to my house to ask a few provocative questions). So exciting!

Nearly a dozen years later, I’m struck by my answer to this question.

“When you look back at your career at Verizon, what is the highlight reel?”

What strikes me watching my younger, less wrinkly, shorter-haired, self answer that question….

My answer would still be the same.

Growing Leaders.

(I guess that might have something to do with what I named my company 😉 It’s a quick video if you want the fuller answer.

For more about my journey from Verizon Executive to CEO to growing leaders around the world, you might be interested in these articles.

Succeeding as an Entrepreneur: Lessons Learned from My First 9 Months

Our About Page (Which includes our love story) 

And as the story continues, my 2024 Global Speaking Reel.

How to Answer, “What Do You Like Most About Your Job” in a Job Interview

It’s interesting. If you Google this question, here’s one of the answers you’ll receive.

“Focus on the work rather than the people”

Ideally, focus on your work and the role rather than the people with whom you work. Use the opportunity to highlight your responsibilities, different aspects of the job, and the skills you use to complete tasks. It’s an opportunity to emphasize specific job-related achievements. For example:“I really enjoy interacting with the different customers and knowing I’m having a positive impact on their buying experience. This is an aspect that I’ve focused on, and, as a result, I was the top customer service representative last year. I’m proud of the communication skills I’ve developed over my time in the role, and the fact that I’m more outgoing and confident than when I first started in the role.”

I disagree. Here’s why. 

Sure, I’d like to hear about what makes you a rock star in your role.  But you know what else I care about? How do you collaborate with others, particularly under pressure? Tell me what was great about the team, and your role in fostering productive collaboration. Tell me a about a time you overcame a conflict and what you learned. Talk about how your team works together to solve better problems and share ideas.

I’d hire a great collaborator over a lone wolf any day.

Your turn. What do you like most about YOUR job?

When YOU think back on your career (so far), if you had to pick one theme, what is it? What makes you proud and happy about your leadership?

What would you name your leadership highlight reel? 

Note: I’ve updated this article because it continues to be so popular. You’ll see lots of comments where people share what they like most about their job. I’d love to add yours to the mix.

The post What Do You Like Most About Your Job? (With Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“I went to my boss with a great idea, and she said, “Go see what your coworkers think.” They’re already so busy and overwhelmed, I’m finding it hard to get their attention. What should I do?” How do I convince my coworkers I have a great idea?  #AskingforaFriend

Why It’s Important So Important to Get Your Coworkers on Board with Your Great Idea

Your great idea could make work (and life) better for everyone and could have a real impact on the results of the organization. And, your boss is far more likely to embrace your new idea when everyone else is talking about the benefits too. With more people in support, your idea will be easier to implement.

Quite notably, participants in our strategic leadership and team innovation programs said that when they shared their great ideas and spoke up courageously at work they felt “excited,” “proud,” and “accomplished.”

If you’re ready to help your organization bust through the notion of “that’s the way we’ve always done it” and share your ideas so you can innovate for progress and results, start here.

5 Ways to Get Your Coworkers to Embrace Your Great Idea

1. Be a great listener yourself (reciprocate)

If you want people to listen to your ideas, make it a habit to listen to theirs. If you have a reputation for caring about your peers and supporting their efforts, they’re more likely to take you and your idea seriously.

2. Know what matters most to them, and communicate your idea in that context

As you listen, you may find real barriers or needs you can address as you develop your great idea.

3. Talk them through the “how” of your idea

Show them that you’ve thought through the idea with tangible actions. Show them the “how” with step-by-step action items and expected results. As you break it down it won’t appear so overwhelming.

4. Anticipate their objections and concerns, and speak to them directly

Anticipating and speaking to your co-worker’s objections as early as possible in the conversation is a great way to get them to listen. Try saying…”If I were you I might be wondering… (and then fill in the anticipated concern).” Be thoughtful about how you respond to concerns and stay open to many points of view.

5. Articulate your “ask”

Be clear with what you need from your coworkers and request just one commitment from them at a time. You might say…

“So to move forward with this great idea, here’s the support I need from you…
“Just a thumbs up when I raise the idea in our next MS Teams meeting”
Or,
“I’m thinking that if each of us spent (insert required time) this month, we could knock this out.”
Or,
“I’m looking for a few customers to try this with. Would you be open to helping me find the customers we could work with on this?”

And what would you add as #6? How would you suggest this friend position their great idea with their coworkers? What’s worked for you in the past?

Ready to rally YOUR team for breakthrough results with Let’s Grow Leaders?

Establish a Courageous Culture of critical thinkers, problem solvers, and customer advocates in your organization with a Team Innovation Challenge or Executive Leadership Workshop. These strategic innovation events – in person or virtual – will help shape the culture of your organization, skyrocket employee engagement, and clear the path for great ideas and increased team innovation.

Let’s Grow Leaders programs are highly customized to your organization’s needs, hands-on, practical, and interactive. Get ready for leadership development that sticks.

See Also: Our Training Magazine Webinar on 7 Practical Ways to Be a Bit More Daring

The post How to Get Your Coworkers to Embrace Your Great Idea (Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

For this Asking for a Friend,  I talk with Liz Wiseman, Thinkers 50 award winner and author of Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact about what it means to be an impact player instead of an ordinary contributor.

Liz Wiseman’s book is based on research conducted with a variety of companies including Adobe, LinkedIn, and SAP, to determine what behaviors affect someone’s influence at work.

This interview was particularly fun for me, because of the opportunity to reconnect with Liz (we first met through her Multiplier of the Year award program back in my Verizon days. LOL If you want to see a much younger Karin talk about “Being a Talent Magnet” click here.)

Increase Your Influence at Work (conversation highlights)

Five practices of Impact Players

5:10 Make yourself useful

“While others do their job, Impact Players do the job that needs to be done.”

What separates the ordinary contributors from those with impact is how they handle the messy stuff. In the messy middle, most people stick with “doing their job.” Impact players don’t just do that – they also step into what needs to be done. Their job description is a basecamp but they feel free to serve where needed, too.

10:10 Step up, step back

It’s not only about how willing people are to lead, but how they are to follow.
How do you handle “leaderless” situations? When in the ordinary contributor mindset, we wait for direction. When in impact mindset, we step in and lead. Impact people are also willing to step back and follow as energetic participants. They are comfortable in both roles.

18:08 Finish stronger

“While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line and build strength along the way.”

When unforeseen obstacles show up, ordinary contributors tend to escalate it up, whereas an impact player will retain ownership and get things across the finish line. They don’t finish at all costs or end with bitterness. They involve those above them but don’t pass it off completely to someone else to fix.

24:10 Ask and adjust

Impact players don’t just manage change, they adjust. Impact players know that the world is moving fast and they are oriented to receive feedback to make healthy adjustments. They see feedback as information about their work more than about themselves so they can focus on keeping the work on track.

27:34 Make work light

“While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.”

Most people are carrying their weight, but impact players also make work lighter for other people.
They are easy and fun to work with. They don’t engage in drama.

29:24 Being an impact player and increasing your influence at work also helps you accelerate your career.

Your turn. What do you see as the most important behaviors for greater influence at work?

The post How Do I Have More Impact and Influence at Work? Video with Liz Wiseman appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The perfect mentor can be really hard to find. If you’re like most managers we talk with, you’ve got more than one area you’re working to develop. And the same person who is great with executive presence may struggle with strategic thinking. While the leader who is a master at peer relationships may struggle with managing up.

And then there’s the time factor. The most developmentally focused leaders are often all mentored out.

I remember when I was in my last few years at Verizon, I’d get several new mentoring requests every week. I would feel terrible, but at some point, my mentoring dance card was full.

What I found myself saying was, “I don’t have time for any more long-term mentoring commitments right now, but if you have something specific you’re working on and you think I can help, I would be happy to set up some time to discuss.

Those were meaningful and fun conversations for both of us, and I’ve been told the approach was helpful.

What If Instead You Found a Series of Micro-Mentors

If you’re struggling to find the perfect mentor, what if, instead you built a series of micro-mentors.

1. Make a list of developmental priorities– identify what specifically you are looking to learn or improve.
2. Notice who you really admire in that arena
3. Ask them if they’d be open to a 15 minute conversation (I share more about how to do that in this video)
4. Follow-up, thank them and share how you were able to implement their advice.

4 Ways to Be a Better Mentee

Whether you looking for one perfect mentor, or are looking to have a go with this micro-mentoring approach, these tips can help.

1. Know What You’re Looking to Accomplish

Determine specifically what you’re looking to achieve from your work together or in your micro-mentoring conversation.

Is there something about your mentor’s background or skill set that you want to learn? Perhaps they’re particularly good at navigating the political landscape, or great during times of stress. Or maybe you’re looking for better insights into how you’re being perceived in the organization or support in expanding your network with a few key introductions. As with all relationships, you’ll be more successful if you both are clear on your expectations for your work together. Have an open conversation about expectations upfront to determine if you’re aligned.

2. Be Truly Open to Feedback

If you’re going to ask for feedback and advice, be sure you’re listening. You don’t have to agree or act on it, but be sure to be open and say thank you. Nothing will turn off your new mentor more than a defensive argument about why their perception isn’t accurate.

3. Offer to Help

The best mentoring relationships are reciprocal– both human beings grow in the process. Ask what you can do to be helpful to them– even if it’s rolling up your sleeves and pitching in on a project they’re doing.

4. Bring Conversation Starters

It can be good to come with a few “starter” questions to break the ice.

• What are you most excited about in terms of the future of our organization? Why? How can I best prepare to add the most value?
• Which skills and behaviors do you think are required to be successful in my role? What advice do you have for accelerating my learning curve on those?
• I’m interested in learning more about working in your department. Who might be a few rockstars to talk with and learn from?

See Also:

6 Secrets to A Successful Mentoring Program

Building Teams that Speak Up and Solve Problems

How to Give Your Team Better Executive Exposure

The post How do I find the perfect mentor? (Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

We’re writing today with compassion for any of you who are looking for work. If it’s been a minute, the frustration is probably mounting. You might even begin questioning yourself, and the value you bring.

Repeated rejection can discourage even the most resilient person.

With that said, we want to give you the best chance to ensure your resume is given a fair chance.

You see, we just posted and hired for two new positions at Let’s Grow Leaders. And, what we saw during this process surprised us—and we realized that there are some insights here to help your resume stand out.

For one of these roles, we posted an opening on two different job boards. In the postings, we asked applicants to send their resume and include their answer to one question:

“Who is a leader you respect and why do you respect that person?”

Within ten days, we received 250 applications.

Three Simple Ways to Differentiate Your Resume

Now, if you’re looking for your next position, that might feel overwhelming. You might be wondering how you can possibly stand out from those 250 applicants.

It’s easier than you might think. There are four straightforward ways you can differentiate your resume. They aren’t difficult and they don’t take too much time.

1. Respond accurately and completely.

Let’s start with the most obvious opportunity. In our post, we asked that specific question about a leader you respect.

Of those 250+ applicants, how many do you think answered that one simple question?

Four.

Only four—that’s it. Out of 250+ applications, we received four qualified applicants. (The job involved attention to detail and responsiveness so seeing if they followed directions is a very relevant qualification.)

The first step to submit a relevant application is to read carefully, understand, and respond to the posting.

There were hundreds of people just clicking a button, saying, “Yeah, that might be a possibility.”

You can differentiate yourself right away just by responding accurately. Over the years, we’ve seen literally thousands of applications. The number of people who complete the process fully and accurately is shockingly small.

2. Respond rapidly.

We corresponded with those four applicants. Two of them immediately distinguished themselves with their level of responsiveness. One person didn’t respond at all. One person took up to two days to respond. In contrast, the other two replied within four hours.

Now, we recognize that you’re managing a life that might be messy and hard to plan. Even so, your level of responsiveness will set you apart from other candidates. It conveys your professionalism and that you take your work seriously.

3. Respond with research.

You have access to more information about prospective employers at your fingertips than at any time in history.

For many organizations, a quick look at their website, their leaders’ LinkedIn profiles, or a web search will help you learn about their work, their mission, their history, their recent celebrations or achievements, and more.

In your cover letter or follow-up correspondence, show your work. Talk about what they do and why you’d like to be a part of it. You can reference a recent success and why it’s motivating. There are countless opportunities to tailor your comments meaningfully.

Spend ten or fifteen minutes to understand the organization and you will further distinguish your resume and interview from all the others.

Often, you can find the hiring manager online and write them directly, noting your submission through the platform they used, and personalizing your message with relevant research.

If this research sounds like a lot of work, we invite you to consider that, in our experience, less than 1% of candidates do this. You’ve instantly distinguished yourself as someone who’s serious about being a part of the team.

4. Respond to your interview with questions.

There are plenty of guides to interviewing effectively, but the one skill we want to emphasize is to ask good questions.

If you have an opportunity to ask your interviewer questions, be prepared with thoughtful questions. Asking good questions demonstrates that you’ve done your research, you’re seriously interested in the role, you understand the opportunities or challenges, and that you belong in a successful organization.

Examples of powerful questions we’ve been asked when interviewing candidates include:

• “What’s your vision for the company in the next five years?”
• “I saw in that Business Journal article that you had a record year last year. How are you building on that? How do you hope this position will contribute to that success?”
• “You obviously have a clear strategy to _____ and it’s working. I’m curious how you got there?”
• “Looking at your marketing presence online, it looks like you’re targeting this demographic. Have you considered finding more of those people on this platform?”
• “In your LinkedIn profile, I notice you have a lot of experience doing _______.  I’d love to learn more from you about that. What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learned along the way?”
• “How has this challenging time impacted your business? What are you doing differently?”

Hiring managers can spot someone going through the motions in an application in a hot minute. Taking time to go a level deeper will give you an immediate competitive advantage in the hiring process.

Your Turn

We’d love to hear from you. Based on your experience of either receiving or reviewing resumes, what helps to differentiate the ones that get taken seriously?

You Might Also Like:

Career Development May Mean Career Disruption

How to Avoid Pigeon Holing Yourself For Greater Career Success

Resume Remedy: 5 Questions Your Resume Must Answer

The post How to Keep Your Resume Out of the Trash appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

But now your team is looking at you and wondering if you get it.

They think, “If she really understood what was happening here, she wouldn’t be so calm!”

So, how do you manage your own stress AND encourage that sense of calm urgency on your team?

Manage Your Stress By Showing Up Excited, Not Excitable

The proverbial stuff had just hit the fan. I was stressed for “Mark” a Senior VP at a Fortune 10 company.

“Mark, are you okay? Are you stressed? What needs to happen next?”

He smiled, “Karin, I don’t get stressed. There’s no use in that. But as it turns out I’m a stress carrier.”

In humor lies the truth.

Mark had mastered the art of managing his own stress. He had what I call “excited without being excitable” nailed.  Deeply passionate about the work, nothing appeared to rattle him.

He approached this new challenge as if he’d seen it a thousand times before. His actions were values-based, consistent, deliberate, and timely.

And yet he knew that his calm words didn’t always have a calming effect on his team.

In fact, sometimes, the calmer he got, the wilder his VPs became—as if to make up for his lack of stress and outward frustration.

Stress was still rolling downhill, even though Mark had tried to stop it.

Excited Energizes, Excitable Freaks People Out

In almost every company I work with, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern—things are remarkably calmer on the executive “floor.” (Even if it’s not a real floor these days.)

The stakes are higher, the decisions more vital. These folks have farther to fall, and yet when the going gets tough (for the execs who’ve mastered executive presence) the volume doesn’t amplify.

In full disclosure, I didn’t learn this early in my career. For a long time, I believed my excitable nature proved I cared. I confused stress with passion. Fired up is different than freaked out. Know the difference in yourself, and in those you lead.

Your team longs for calm in you—and in them.

How to Encourage Excited vs. Excitable

So how do you grow leaders who emulate calm, in a frenetic context?

1. Acknowledge reality.

More than anything, your team needs to know you get it. Otherwise, they think your head is in the sand. When you calmly state the issue and the implications, your team gets to exhale. They’ll move from trying to prove that the fire is real, to trying to figure out how to extinguish it.

2. Stay consistently true to your values.

Great leaders stay true to their values when the going gets tough. If “customer service is our most important thing” has been your rallying cry and you start short-cutting when budget (or boss) pressures loom, your team will be confused at best. Don’t change course. Instead ask, how do maintain our commitment to a great customer experience with these new parameters?

3. Encourage innovation and creative problem-solving.

Chances are that someone is sitting on an idea that is so crazy it might just work. Give them an opportunity to share. Then help them calm down, ask great questions, and consider how they could best execute.

4. Use failure as learning.

When the going gets tough, our tolerance for failing decreases. And, even in many well-intentioned leaders, it fully disappears. Ironically, it’s when times are tough that we need to fail gracefully, learn, and move on. Compounding setbacks take their toll on an already stressed team and it can easy to stop trying anything new.

5. Stay real.

When the going gets really tough, your team wants the truth. Share what you can and help them to make informed decisions.

Stay excited. Resist excitable—for you and your team.

See Also: How to Manage Your Stress When the Sky is Falling (Harvard Business Review)

The post How to Manage Your Stress Without Frustrating Your Team appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

If you’re dreading your performance review, we invite you to be the leader you want your boss to be and take a bit of initiative.

“But that’s not my job,” you might say. Perhaps—we could debate that all day—but here are a few questions to consider:

• Do you want the best performance review possible?
• Are you interested in showing you’re buttoned up and on top of your game?
• Would it be useful to reflect on your own performance and make a proactive plan to do even better?

5 Ways to Help Your Boss Prepare Your Performance Review

No, you should not be asked to write your own performance review for your boss to sign.

But providing input to your review makes your manager’s life a heck of a lot easier— and there’s no one who has a better record of what it took to pull off this extraordinary year.

Here are a few ways to help your manager give you a more thorough review.

1. Crunch numbers, numbers, numbers.

Don’t just say what you did, calculate the business impact. If possible, calculate the ROI on your projects (of course this is a lot easier if you do it along the way versus pulling an all-nighter). If ROI is too much of a stretch, calculate percent improvement in key metrics.

You can even report the “soft stuff” in terms of numbers.

For example, rather than say you “invested in developing your team,” point out that three of your team members were promoted to other departments.

Don’t say you “conducted three team-builders.” Instead, share the impact on absenteeism, attrition, or your employee engagement results.

Note: if you’re finding this impossible this year, this is a great time to consider what metrics you want to move next year and capture the baseline data.

2. Gather additional perspectives.

The end of the year is a great time for a Do It Yourself 360.

Knowing where you stand with others will lead to a richer discussion with your manager. As Julie Winkle Guilioni recommends, come to your meeting with a “plateful of feedback.”

3. Come prepared to discuss your opportunities for improvement.

Of course, a better performance appraisal doesn’t mean you only celebrate the good stuff.

Imagine how impressed your manager will be if you approach your performance appraisal full of self-awareness.

“Here are three areas I’d like to work on next year and how I think you could help.”

This developmental discussion planner is a great tool to help you think through your strengths and challenges for your current and desired future roles.

Approaching your review with such confident humility immediately puts your boss in helping mode. The review will likely feel better and go more smoothly from both sides of the desk.

4. Listen deeply and carefully.

The best performance appraisal conversations are just that—conversations. Come eager to listen and learn from your manager’s perspective. Ask sincere questions to dig a level deeper to learn all you can.

5. Summarize.

Your performance appraisal is a great time to check for understanding as you recap what you’ve heard, decide next steps AND schedule the finish by setting up a time to follow-up on progress.

Often it’s the best performers who are too busy to “toot their own horn” and document their accomplishments well. It’s not bragging, it’s useful. Make life easier on your boss this performance appraisal season, and invest the time to prepare properly. Ultimately, your career and your future are your responsibility, so why not give yourself the best chance for a helpful review?

See Also:

Avoid These Infuriating Phrases When Giving End-of-Year Feedback

How to Prepare for Your Performance Appraisal

The post How to Help Your Boss Give You a Better Performance Review appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Transitions in scope and scale are tricky. If you continue to approach your work exactly the same as you did at the last level, you will surely fail. On the other hand, if you abandon all your best characteristics and approaches that won’t work either.  As you work to be a better leader as your responsibilities scale, you want to stay true to your values, leverage your strengths, and be deliberate in finding new ways to serve your larger team.

Sam and Jenny

Take Sam. Sam was beaming with excitement as he told me about his promotion. He was in the throes of a transition from supervisor to manager. He’ll now lead leaders.

“But it’s scary,” he confided. “I know I have to handle this whole thing differently. I was very close to my team. We talked about everything and shared common interests. Now I must distance myself, not share too much, not get too close.”

Sam continued with the list of all her other behaviors that MUST change. I heard none of what must stay the same as his scope increased. He was at risk of losing the very best qualities I respected in him as a leader—particularly his ability to build deep trust and connection that led to loyalty and deep collaboration. People wanted to work for Sam, so he attracted an “A” team.

And then there’s Jenny who had been promoted for her long track record of strategic thinking and strong execution. Her new role was enormous and there was much to learn. We met to discuss her performance agreement and goals, and I asked, “So what’s your strategy for taking this team’s performance to the next level?” Silence. “What are you doing to build your team?” Crickets.

She’d been doing a great job learning and keeping things moving as they had before. But she wasn’t yet leveraging her best gifts, the ability to identify a transformational vision and rally the team around it. She was trying to lead like the leader before her.

How to Be a Better Leader as Scope and Scale Increases

If you’ve just been promoted, here are few ideas to keep in mind to ground your leadership and influence.

1. Inventory your strengths and opportunities.

Carefully consider the strengths that helped others see you as the candidate for this increase in scope and scale. You might even ask those who helped you get this role, “What is it about my leadership that made you think I was a good fit for this position?” Then consider how those strengths might work well in this bigger role and make a deliberate plan to leverage those strengths in your leadership.

Also, consider which aspects of the job come less naturally for you and make a plan to get the help you need until you can get up to speed. It’s likely that one of your new direct reports is a rock star in this arena. Have the humility to ask for help.

2. Translate the landscape.

You are in a wonderful position of having a more strategic seat at the table while having fresh memories about what it feels like to not have all that information. Pieces of the puzzle are coming together for you in a new way. Capture that feeling and share it with your team. Explain the strategy as you would have wanted it explained to you yesterday.

You can also use your new vantage point to help your boss and peers understand how the latest processes and policies are playing out in the field. Combine your old knowledge and new insights into an enlightened and integrated perspective.

3. Be visible, approachable AND get out of the way.

As a leader with a broader scope and scale, of course, you want to be visible for your larger team and you want to be approachable. But don’t get in the way. Nothing will annoy your new team more than having your door so wide open that employees skip right over their direct manager and come right to you,

Respect your team and their authority. Of course, there are important times for skip level meetings and interventions, but it’s important to respect your direct reports and the work they are trying to do with their team. Help them lead their teams more effectively by working through, not around them.

4. Listen, learn, and be strategic.

Go on a curiosity tour and learn all you can, but don’t react. You’ll be tempted to jump in and fix stuff because you have the answers, and perhaps can do it better than anyone else. That’s not your job anymore. Delegate the immediate fixing, and then take it up a notch. Look for patterns. Consider the strategic implications and root causes. Build cross-functional teams to tackle the challenges to make a greater impact.

5. Build better leaders.

Your most important work as a leader of leaders is helping them grow. The tragic truth is that many leaders spend less time developing their leaders as they increase in scope. Nothing will drive results faster than strong leadership at every level.

6. Respond versus react.

As your scope and scale increases, so does the gravity, quantity, and urgency of your challenges. Great leaders pause, listen, gather facts, and respond. Sure, that response must often be quick, but frantic reaction slows down helpful behavior. Learn to keep your cool early in the game.

7. Become a Roadblock Buster.

Spend time making things easier for your team. Find out where they’re stuck, and offer to remove roadblocks. With that said, here are two words of caution. First, don’t jump in without asking. Too much help will make your team feel like you don’t trust them. Second, be sure to take a moment to teach your team while you’re busting down those barriers.

Oh, and be sure YOU’RE not the roadblock. Respond quickly with needed approvals and work to diminish unnecessary time wasters and bureaucracy.

8. Invest in your development.

Many leaders spend less time on their own development the further up they go. Don’t fall into that trap. As your scope and scale increases, so does your responsibility to lead well. Get a coach. Have a collection of mentors. Read constantly.

Your turn.

What’s your best advice for becoming a better leader as your job gets bigger?

See Also:

5 Secrets to Great Skip Level Meetings

Executive Visits: 4 Great Approaches For Influence and Impact

How to Be the Leader Employees Want to See Walk Through the Door

The post How to Be a Better Leader as Your Responsibilities Scale appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

If your business is faced with a newly-remote workforce, you know how vital it is to have strong leaders in place to get everyone the support they need, nimbly respond to dozens of competing priorities, and keep strategic initiatives moving. But what if your leaders are struggling with this new challenge?

As social distancing has caused huge swaths of the workforce to work-from-home, the number of virtual and remote leadership development programs has proliferated with varying degrees of quality.

How do you sort through these offerings to avoid the time and money-wasters to find the most effective resources to help your leaders build productive teams?

Game-Changing

Whenever we ask leaders about the best leadership development programs, we consistently hear that the best leadership development:

• Happens over time, not in one day
• Closely aligns with strategic business goals
• Inspires managers with new ideas and practical ways to improve the business
• Creates lasting change in individual behaviors and positively impacts business results.

Your online leadership development needs to achieve the same game-changing outcomes.

10 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Live Online Leadership Development Program

Every leadership program, whether online or in-person, will be more effective when you’re able to answer these questions.

1. What should change as a result of this program?

Don’t start training until you have a strong vision of what will be different as a result. What behaviors do you want to shift? How will that affect your MIT (Most Important Thing—strategic goals)? Don’t stop at “We need better team leaders.” What does that mean? What will they do differently? Get specific. Work with a training partner who understands your business and who will build a program to get you exactly what you need.

2. How will we include the participant’s leaders?

Training doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You’ll need real buy-in from your participants’ managers or you’ll get a minimal return on your investment. Conceptual support isn’t enough. Managers need insights and specifics about what their people are learning and how they can best support it.  This is important when participant’s managers are not sitting nearby. Ask for an executive briefing session before the program begins, so leaders understand the ROI, prepare strategic questions for their participants, and have a clear path to support their teams’ learning and application. Be sure you have the commitment from participant’s managers to give them the time they need to participate fully in the program.

3. How will participants apply what they’ve learned with their teams?

No one wants to feel like an experiment as their manager comes back from training and tries four new ideas without any explanation. You’ve probably lived through a manager who tried a new idea, did it for a week, then forgot about it. That frustrates the team, and the manager’s credibility suffers. Does this program include a process for re-entry? Will your managers get tools to communicate what they’ve learned and to transfer their knowledge? (e.g. if they come back eager to improve accountability, how do they start to hold people accountable if they never have before?)

4. How will we sustain learning over time?

A single half-day workshop doesn’t produce game-changing leaders. Even if you have a limited budget, find creative ways to build live-online programs that combine learning with practice, reflection, and feedback. How will this leadership development program provide daily and weekly reinforcement of key behaviors? How will we know what’s working and where managers are struggling?

5. How will this program provoke new ideas and critical thinking to improve our business?

The best leadership training will fire up your managers with new ideas. Will the program leave them empowered and excited to execute, or frustrated about great ideas that “will never happen around here”? Work with a leadership development partner who understands your culture and how things get done. The best leadership programs don’t just teach skills, they create chances to apply learning and improve the business.

These next five questions are specific to your live online leadership development program.

6. Does the program feature real-time interaction with facilitators and other participants?

There’s no need to settle for a passive, webinar-style training program where people’s attention can drift and multitasking erodes the value. The best online leadership development features live engagement with your facilitators and real-time participant discussions with one another and the facilitators.

7. Does our training partner have experience with live online leadership development?

Online facilitation is different than working in-person. It requires different preparation, different ways of engaging participants, and confidence to work through problems that technology inevitably presents. Participants know when they’re working with a rookie and will quickly lose interest and engagement. Make sure your leadership development partner has ample experience in training and leading remotely.

8. Can our people take part via video?

Video isn’t the same as being face-to-face, but for online leadership development, you’ll want your participants to see one another and the facilitators. When everyone can see one another, it maintains attention, lessens multi-tasking, and gives facilitators and participants the opportunity to respond to confusion, enthusiasm, and questions. Make sure your participants can appear on camera and be heard well. For more tech recommendations, check out How to Take Charge of Your Remote Meetings.

9. Will our online leadership development program leverage technology beyond traditional classrooms?

One of the common mistakes with online meeting technology is to replicate a traditional classroom training environment. For instance, in a traditional face-to-face program, only one person can speak at a time. But when you leverage online meeting tools, you can have small groups meeting simultaneously and sharing their findings, questions, and incorporate with other groups’ feedback in real-time via chat and whiteboards, in ways that would lead to chaos in an in-person situation.

Remote learning also gives you the opportunity to break up your day-long training programs into smaller 60-90 minute sessions over several days or weeks, and increase the amount of application and leadership activity participants can do between sessions. Spaced learning over time with guided application between sessions is ideal for changing behavior, but more difficult when you’re limited to a single day of training. Leverage technology to help your leaders make the most of their training.

10. How will we create the head-space for people to focus on their live online leadership development?

When your manager physically goes to another location for training, it’s obvious that they’re gone. But with online leadership development, those boundaries can blur. Does their Slack messenger still show them as available? What are the expectations for answering phone calls, emails, and instant messages?

To give your leaders the best experience, work with your partner to create best practices in how participants notify their peers, colleagues, team (and remind their boss) that they’re attending the training. You can create a consistent set of guideline reminders for every session that will help people to focus (eg: turn off your email, social media, office messenger – everything but the one way someone would contact you in an emergency).

Your Turn

Live online leadership development gives you a chance to maintain your momentum and equip your leaders with the tools they need to build their teams and transform results – whether your leaders work around the globe or from home. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a comment and share: What’s one of your best live online learning experiences?

Learn More About Our Live-Online leadership Development Programs

The post How to Build a Better Live Online Leadership Development Program (video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

If you’re ready to conduct a succession planning calibration session as part of your overall talent strategy, read this first so you can avoid these five common mistakes.

Succession planning, done well, gives you a brilliant competitive advantage. Poorly executed, at best it’s a waste of time, and can wreak serious havoc on long-term performance.

Here are a few disturbing phrases,  I’ve heard in the last 15 days:

• “Oh, we’re too small to need a formal process.”
• “Our business is moving so fast we don’t have time for that.”
• “We’re baby boomers and we don’t know how” (trust me, I would never have included this one until I heard it TWICE this week from different companies looking for help).
• And the scariest of all, “We’re a family-owned business so the decision is obvious.”

The 5 Biggest Succession Planning Mistakes

1. Talking People Before Priorities

Before you can decide WHO is in your succession pipeline, be sure you are clear on WHAT you need. Think about the future and the critical competencies that will make that possible. Write them down. Then map your people against those possibilities. Choosing people for tomorrow based exclusively on today’s performance will slow you down.

2. Cloning

What often passes for “executive presence” is actually someone who looks and acts like the rest of you. Be careful. Sure you want poise, effective communication, and a tidy together look. But it may also be true that the quirky creative who marches to a different drum may just who you need to take your strategy to the next level. Too many like minds lead to uninspired strategy.

3. Letting Diversity Trump Common Sense

If you complete your 9 box succession planning grid and it’s all balding white guys with a dry sense of humor in box 9 you clearly have a problem. The question is, what IS that problem? Take a hard look in the mirror for bias and discrimination. Challenge one another to make it right.

Sometimes, it’s another issue. It’s the recruiting and leadership development that is broken. You can’t make someone ready for the next level by talking yourselves into it. Or worse, putting diversity multipliers on executive compensation which incent them to promote the diverse candidate just to hit a target.

The worse thing you can do is pad your “grid” by sliding diverse candidates into blocks where they don’t belong. Sure, identify opportunities for accelerated growth to make up for lost time. But NEVER promote an unqualified person for diversity reasons. You hurt them, your business, and weaken your diversity strategy.

4. False Consensus

You know you have a true box 9, high potential when every head at the table is chiming in with a resounding “Yes!” Not looking the other way when conflict arises.

A succession planning conversation without conflict is useless. The very best talent reviews involve robust discussion and lively debate which leads to important next steps (e.g. “You’ve got to know my guy better;” “She needs a stretch assignment.”)

If you start playing games like “I’ll vote for your manager if you vote for mine, the business loses.

5. Ignoring the Plan

The worst succession planning sin of all is going through the motions, and then reverting to the old patterns “just this time” when it comes to promotion. No one will take your succession process seriously the next time.

Don’t short change your talent strategy. The right people, at the right place, at the right time, will change the game. Be sure you’re prepared.

If you’re struggling with succession planning, I can help. I’ve facilitated hundreds of succession planning discussions over the years from the executive level, through merger integration, and at the frontline. Succession planning is worth doing well. Please give me a call for a free consultation, 443-750-1249.

See Also: How to Navigate Yet Another Office Shake Up (Wall Street Journal)

7 Big Rules For a Successful Talent Review

The post The 5 Biggest Succession Planning Mistakes appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.