By David Dye Archives - Let's Grow Leaders https://letsgrowleaders.com/category/by-david-dye/ Award Winning Leadership Training Tue, 12 Nov 2024 18:58:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://letsgrowleaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LGLFavicon-100x100-1.jpg By David Dye Archives - Let's Grow Leaders https://letsgrowleaders.com/category/by-david-dye/ 32 32 Managing Change: How to Cultivate Forward Thinking Leadership https://letsgrowleaders.com/2024/07/29/managing-change-how-to-cultivate-forward-thinking-leadership/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2024/07/29/managing-change-how-to-cultivate-forward-thinking-leadership/#respond Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:00:33 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=255959 Your leadership success depends on your skill at managing change and embracing the future Are you hanging on to a familiar way of doing your work or leading your team because it’s comfortable? If it’s been a year or more since you experienced a significant change for yourself or your team, you might be missing […]

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Your leadership success depends on your skill at managing change and embracing the future

Are you hanging on to a familiar way of doing your work or leading your team because it’s comfortable? If it’s been a year or more since you experienced a significant change for yourself or your team, you might be missing out on great opportunities to build morale, build your career, and enjoy your work. Managing change is critical for your success—too much change, too quickly creates instability. But resisting natural, healthy change will prevent growth and stagnate your team.

Resisting Natural Change

Off the east coast of North Carolina and Virginia, a set of barrier islands known as the Outer Banks stretches over a couple hundred miles, guarding the inner sound from the worst of Atlantic storms. On a recent visit, our brother-in-law Steve, who’s visited these beaches and dunes for decades, took me on a driving tour and pointed out some changes he’s seen over the years.

He pointed across the road at a five-foot rise of sand you could walk across in a few steps. “To climb that dune, you used to have to work at it and scramble on all fours. It was huge.” We drove a little further and earth-moving equipment worked to keep blown sand from obliterating the narrow strip of asphalt road as the wind seemed to fight to reclaim and reshape the island.

Then he showed me the Oregon Inlet where private deep-sea fishing boats enter and leave the sound. “In the early 1800s the inlets all closed up and there weren’t’ any islands at all. It was a straight stretch of sand. Then, in 1846, a hurricane carved out the inlet. These days, sand keeps filling it in, and they have to dredge it out regularly so the fishing boats can get in and out.”

The Outer Banks are a land of change. And it takes an incredible amount of work to prevent that change. And some day, given a big enough storm, the change will probably happen anyway.

managing change sunset

The visit reminded me of the mountain west where I grew up. In the mountains, lodgepole pine forests evolved to burn periodically. Quick burns opened the forest floor to new plants, refreshed the soil, helped cones to disperse seeds, and prevented disease or insect infestations. Decades of fire prevention along with climate change, created huge, intense burns and stands of diseased dead trees. Resisting that natural change came at an enormous cost.

Resisting Business Change

You’re certainly familiar with companies like Blockbuster and Kodak who resisted change and faced extinction. It’s easy to shake your head and wonder how those leaders could have let that happen.

But the CrowdStrike bug that crashed Windows PCs, snarled airlines, and interfered with hospitals’ ability to access patient records had a similar cause. Microsoft tried to shift its approach to security two decades ago, but regulators prevented them from doing so.

Why?

Because the software giant had always allowed open access to their computers’ kernel and some companies had built their entire business model on that access. (Access that Apple and Linux have never allowed.)

When Microsoft tried to do what Apple and Linux have done, the companies who relied on kernel access went to regulators who ruled in favor of the status quo, rather than allowing developing technology to address the situation. And that decision created the conditions that allowed the CrowdStrike crash to happen. (For a full analysis, check out Ben Thompson on Stratechery: Crashes and Competition.)

Again, it’s easy to point the finger at regulators who get stuck in time and cling to the way things are.

But intentional change isn’t easy.

Build Your Ability to Lead Change

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 67% of respondents reported that their manager was stuck in “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking.

And you don’t have to look very hard to find places you might be stuck. I’ve been guilty of these at times:

  • Holding on to a team member that you should promote or give other opportunities outside your team—because you don’t know what you’d do without them.
  • Hanging on to team member that you really should move off the team—because then you’d have to find someone new and train them.
  • Continuing the stale team-building activity everyone loved five years ago—because it always worked before.
  • Refusing to decide—because going one way or the other will take effort.
  • Resisting new ideas from team members—because hearing them out might mean you don’t have the answers you thought you did or will require you to act.
  • Hoping against all evidence that the recent changes you’ve experienced will “go back to normal” – because acknowledging the change will require energy and effort to explore a new path forward.

But ignoring or resisting these moments of natural change won’t work forever.

The status quo’s comfort and ease are illusions. If you don’t invest in managing change, the changes will happen to you.

That team member will leave. Or they’ll stay and everyone else will leave.

Your credibility suffers. Your career lags. And you’re stuck frantically trying to do what used to work, working harder, with more stress, and missing out on what’s possible.

Two Questions to Find the Flow and Know What’s Next

One of the easiest ways to lean into natural change is to ask yourself this question:

What are you up to?

As a team leader, manager, or executive—what are you getting up to?

  • Is there a problem you’re trying to solve?
  • Are you helping your team to grow?
  • An opportunity to explore?
  • Some improvement or process you’re implementing?
  • What are you learning?

When you’re up to something, you’re managing change. You can’t help it. You’re moving, flowing, and growing. Once you’re up to something, you can start managing change:

When you get up to something, you collaborate with natural change and create the future, rather than have it happen to you.

managing change try new things

A second question you can ask yourself to find the flow of natural change is:

What’s happening in my industry?

No matter what kind of work you do, there’s something new to learn. Technology changes. Trends shift. Someone somewhere is innovating. And it’s easier than ever to learn what’s happening.

You might not apply what you learn immediately. Changes in the business environment, shifting tastes, or new AI applications may not affect your work tomorrow (though they could).

But knowing what’s happening and being informed will give you the perspective to be better at your work and be a better leader for your team.

What if My Boss Isn’t Managing Change and Doesn’t Want To?

If you want to get up to something or start learning more about what’s happening in your industry, but you worry that your boss just wants you to “focus on doing what needs to be done,” there are two possibilities:

You need better results.

We’ve worked with many leaders who were eager to get up to something new, but weren’t succeeding at their current work. You’ll be much more influential in selling a new idea or approach if your current work is solid. Master that, then build on your success.

You’re doing well and your manager fears change.

If you can objectively show your success, but your manager still wants you to limit your focus to doing what you’re asked, they might be the one hanging on to what they know.

In this case, keep doing your work well—and get up to something anyhow. You’ll have opportunities—the world needs more thoughtful, innovative problem solvers than ever. “Just shut up and do your work” isn’t a path to the future. What you learn will serve you and your team.

And you don’t need permission to learn.

Your Turn

Managing change is a critical leadership skill. Sticking with what’s familiar feels safe and comfortable, but change is inevitable. You can lean into change and become a more innovative, creative, and adaptable leader by taking initiative to move and actively learning.

How about you? We’d love to know one of your favorite ways for managing change and leaning into the future.

And if you want to help your team or organization drive innovation and improve results:Innovation and Results

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How to Lead Through Chaos without Burning Out You or Your Team https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/09/18/lead-through-chaos/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/09/18/lead-through-chaos/#respond Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:00:09 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=252910 To lead through chaos, clarify what matters most and define reality for yourself, your team, and your manager. When you feel completely out of control, tossed back and forth on an ocean of rapidly changing priorities, reactive pronouncements from senior leaders, and an insurmountable list of priorities, it’s natural to expect your manager to solve […]

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To lead through chaos, clarify what matters most and define reality for yourself, your team, and your manager.

When you feel completely out of control, tossed back and forth on an ocean of rapidly changing priorities, reactive pronouncements from senior leaders, and an insurmountable list of priorities, it’s natural to expect your manager to solve the problem. But they can’t help until you take responsibility. When you take the initiative to lead through chaos you’ll give your team the confidence they need and protect them (and yourself) from burnout.

Exhausted

“I just don’t know what to do.” Alan’s desperation was palpable. “It’s crazy around here. No one seems to understand what’s going on. We’re getting contradictory directions from senior leaders. I’m trying to be a team player and do whatever they ask, and my team’s been hanging in there, but they’re about to break. I’m going to lose them to other jobs or PTO because this is making them sick. And I’m exhausted too.”

He shook his head and sighed. “I feel bad for my manager, they’re in a hard place and there aren’t any easy decisions, but I can’t seem to get them to make better choices. I don’t know how much more of this we can handle.”

There’s No Help Coming

One of the reasons for Alan’s fatigue is that he was relying on other people to solve his problems. It’s natural to want your managers to solve those challenges and figure out what needs to happen next.

But they can’t.

They don’t know what you know. They’re not experiencing your problems and challenges. And they have problems of their own.

That’s not an excuse – it’s just reality. You’d have the same issues if you were in their position.

To successfully lead through chaos, you must embrace the fact that no one can solve your problems for you.

Time to Lead

Your manager can’t solve the problem for you. But that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t help.

They can help, and often will, but the only way they can help is for you to lead first – to stop waiting for help to arrive, to take responsibility for yourself, your team, and the situation. That’s what it means to lead through chaos.

When you take ownership for the situation, you won’t be thrown back and forth by the waves of whatever reactive policies come down every four hours. You’ll have clarity about what needs to happen. You’ll be able to give your manager the information they need – even if it’s uncomfortable. And you’ll provide the trust and confidence your team needs to do their best and avoid burnout.

Regain Your Calm and Lead Through Chaos

There are five steps you can take to re-empower yourself, your team, and lead.

1. Let Go of Villain Stories

Your manager didn’t wake up this morning planning devious ways to make life difficult for you and your team. He’s a human being, trying to get through some challenging circumstances, the same as you are. And she might not be as assertive or solution-focused as you wish, but that’s the humanity part. You’re not perfect either.

Holding on to stories about villainous or incompetent your manager is only keeps you stuck. You remain a victim and you can’t lead.

So let go of the stories and re-empower yourself with your ability to take responsibility and act.

2. Clarify What Matters Most

As you take responsibility, your first job is to focus on the outcomes that truly matter. Not what is comfortable for you or your team, not whatever objectives your manager is passing through from hour to hour…what actually matters most to the success of your business and your customer?

One way to answer this is to think about six months or one year from now. Once this wave of chaos passes by (hopefully) what will you and your senior team be happy you accomplished? That’s what matters.

3. Prioritize What’s Possible

When you have limited time, limited resources, and strained emotions, and tired people, you must focus relentlessly on what you can actually do. If there are sixteen possible outcomes, what are the three or four that you can truly achieve?

This step is uncomfortable for many managers. They don’t want to say they can’t do something – it feels like an admission of weakness. It’s not. In fact, it takes strength and humility to acknowledge what you’re capable of doing. Pretending you can do what you cannot isn’t strength, it’s foolishness. It’s lying to yourself and others.

Have the courage to genuinely assess what you and your team can do.

“Pretending you can do what you cannot isn’t strength…”

4. Connect with Your Team

Next, it’s time to focus on your team. This is one of those moments where landing in the “and” of a combined focus on results and relationships makes a big difference.

Be real about the facts, the challenges, and the outcomes you need to achieve. Acknowledge the rapidly changing environment and the overwhelming number of priorities you face together. Then bring their focus to what matters most.

What are the most critical habits, activities, and outcomes they need to achieve in the time available? And what are the “nice to do” when time permits?

With that clarity in place, share your confidence in their ability to make it happen along with how you will manage up, deal with the pressures, and provide cover for them to do their work. They need to have confidence that you have their back, are advocating for their best, and that when you bring a new priority to them, it is truly important.

5. Communicate with Your Manager

Now it’s time to talk with your manager. Show up to these conversations “landing in the and” of confidence and humility. This usually isn’t a one-time communication. It’s an ongoing series of updates, one-on-ones, and conversations. In these conversations you’ll need to be clear about:

What Matters Most: “These are the priority outcomes that I believe are most vital to the organization. Would you agree?”
Limitations: “In order to achieve X and Y, I may not consistently be able to do Z.”
How You Are Leading and Managing the Situation: “My team and I are close to burnout and I’m going to manage our hours to help maintain their health and productivity while we achieve those top priorities. Here’s what that looks like…”
Ask for Input: “That’s my approach. I’m curious if you see anything critical that I’ve missed or have suggestions on achieving the results within these limitations?”

When you share this information and ask for input, it is possible that your manager will say something like “That’s nice, but that’s not acceptable. You’ve got to achieve X, Y, and Z.”

When this happens, don’t argue. Instead, agree.

With empathy, you can say something like, “I totally agree. It’s not acceptable, it’s just what it is until we can resource differently. And, I’m totally open to your advice about how we can do it differently. Or, if there are other priorities we can trade-off that would allow for X, Y, and Z. Do you have any thoughts?”

Now, you’ve taken responsibility for your circumstances. You’ve done the best you can to manage the situation and, you’ve informed and equipped your manager to help you, rather than waiting for them to magically figure out what you need. You’ve also given your manager the information she needs in order to problem-solve and advocate for you and your team.

You communicate all of this calmly, confidently, respectfully, with empathy, and with the humility to learn and consider other approaches.

Your Turn

When work feels totally out of control, how do you take responsibility and lead through chaos? What are the key decisions you make and communicate with your team and manager?

You might also like:

 

Workplace conflict

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How Leaders Use Small Habits for Big Results https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/07/31/how-leaders-use-small-habits-for-big-results/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/07/31/how-leaders-use-small-habits-for-big-results/#respond Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:00:31 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=252251 Transform your leadership and team’s results with the power of small habits Your team won’t become a high-functioning powerhouse after one offsite. You can’t be a trusted, influential leader after one week on the job. There are no leadership hacks or shortcuts that will transform your organization or results. But there is a way to […]

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Transform your leadership and team’s results with the power of small habits

Your team won’t become a high-functioning powerhouse after one offsite. You can’t be a trusted, influential leader after one week on the job. There are no leadership hacks or shortcuts that will transform your organization or results. But there is a way to do all these things that’s available to you and every leader: the power of small habits.

A Riddle and a Dream

Let’s kick things off with a quick riddle: What tips the scales at over a hundred million tons, floats, and can inspire daydreams or cause destruction?

Keep thinking about it as we travel back to 1845.

In the mid-19th century, no suspension bridge designed for trains existed. The idea was deemed far too risky, and most engineers wrote it off as an unsafe proposal. Fast forward ten years, the world was introduced to its first railway suspension bridge, connecting the US and Canada over the Niagara River. The story of this engineering marvel begins with a simple picnic and a letter.

While Canadian entrepreneur William Merritt was enjoying a picnic with his wife, they received a letter from their children touring Europe. In this letter, the kids described an impressive suspension bridge they’d seen in Switzerland. This sparked a dream in Merritt – he envisioned a similar bridge across the Niagara River, capable of facilitating rail travel and enhancing trade with the rapidly growing US network.

Merritt obtained the government’s permission, formed a company, and hired the right talent – in this case, Charles Elliot Jr., a dynamic engineer with a knack for promotion.

A Small Solution to a Big Problem

The initial challenge was how to get a line across the gorge. The simplest approach, one Leonardo da Vinci had suggested centuries earlier, was to use a kite. Elliot saw an opportunity for publicity and staged a competition: a $5 prize to the boy who could first fly a kite across the Niagara Gorge.

The winner, a young boy named Homan Walsh, succeeded on his second attempt. Elliot tied a thicker string to the kite string and pulled it across the gorge. Gradually, thicker ropes were tied and pulled across until eventually, a cable could be drawn across the river. This was the starting point of the bridge that took another seven years and a different engineer to complete.

Monumental projects often start with a simple act. An inconsequential kite string laid the foundation for a groundbreaking bridge. When you’re overwhelmed with massive projects, look for your “kite string”—the smallest action that gets the ball rolling.

A Small Answer to a Big Riddle

This brings me back to the riddle. What weighs over a hundred million tons and can both float and stir up a multitude of emotions?

Clouds.

Clouds are millions of small, almost negligible droplets. Despite their massive cumulative weight, these droplets are less dense than the air around them, which allows them to float. What an incredible metaphor for the power of small activity to make a big difference.

Vincent van Gogh once said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” He probably wasn’t contemplating clouds, avalanches, or railway bridges, but his words ring true for leadership. Small habits, repeated consistently, bring transformative results.

clouds and small habits

The Leadership Power of Small Habits

Whether it’s a small act of defiance against an unjust system, a brief moment to reinforce a value, or a celebration of progress, each seemingly insignificant step contributes to a larger outcome over time.

In nearly every core leadership development program we lead, we start with six foundational skills you can build on for greater influence and transformational results:

  • Show up with confidence and humility
  • Focus on results and relationships
  • Mind the M.I.T. (know what matters most and the specific initiatives, activities, and small habits that lead to success)
  • Communicate Consistently (Communicate key messages at least five times, in five different ways)
  • Check for Understanding (Ensure communication happened)
  • Schedule the Finish (Discuss priorities and create mutually agreed moments for completion)

These activities are critical examples of small habits with a big payoff. Checking for understanding avoids misunderstandings and wasted time. Scheduling the finish increases accountability and energizes your team. Consistent 5 x 5 communication keeps everyone aligned and aware of what matters most.

But maintaining this consistency is easier said than done. Some days you’re in a hurry. Tired. Feel overwhelmed. And it’s easy to forget to check for understanding, schedule the finish, repeat your team’s purpose, or follow up when someone doesn’t follow through.

And for that one day, it may not make a big difference. That’s the problem with small habits – missing it once doesn’t feel consequential. But miss the habit too often and soon you have a problem.

One skipped “check for understanding” leads to days or weeks of wasted time and frustration. Forget to “schedule the finish” and you waste time you don’t have chasing down projects and frustrating team members who are working on other time-sensitive tasks.

What’s Your Small?

It’s easy to get discouraged when the big wins seem far away. Your struggle today may not feel all that glamorous but know that every small step matters, especially when it’s a step you’ve taken before.

Each moment of encouragement, each clarification of purpose, goals, and success habits, each kind word, every moment of accountability or clarification with your team has an accumulative effect. Like threads in a towel, each small action weaves into a larger tapestry of leadership, influence, and meaningful outcomes.

So, what’s your kite string? Where can you get small today?

Where can you take that micro step that will make a macro difference?

Small habits are mighty, and incremental changes lead to monumental outcomes.

 

strategic leadership training programs

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The Hidden Power of Vulnerability: Why Great Leaders Dare to Be Wrong https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/07/17/hidden-power-of-vulnerability/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/07/17/hidden-power-of-vulnerability/#respond Mon, 17 Jul 2023 10:00:18 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=252117 Why Is It So Hard to Be Wrong? Vulnerability is the Gateway to Growth. You’re an experienced leader with a track record of success. You’re brilliant at what you do, and you’ve got where you are today because you consistently have the answers. But could this need to have the answers stop you from achieving […]

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Why Is It So Hard to Be Wrong? Vulnerability is the Gateway to Growth.

You’re an experienced leader with a track record of success. You’re brilliant at what you do, and you’ve got where you are today because you consistently have the answers. But could this need to have the answers stop you from achieving even more? I’ve had a couple of experiences recently that reminded me of the vast power of vulnerability for a leader’s (and my) growth.

A Selfish Question

Recently, after Karin Hurt’s TEDx Rockville presentation (the video won’t be available for a couple of months), I was talking with Haley Foster, who has coached hundreds of TEDx presenters. As we talked, I posed a leadership and culture question that has confounded me for decades. (I’ll save the question itself for another time.)

TEDx Rockville Llamas

As you might expect from Haley, she said, “That would make an excellent talk.”

“I don’t think so,” I shook my head. “I don’t have an answer yet.”

Haley looked at me. Intently. “So what if you don’t have to have an answer? What if you were to share the question with hundreds of smart people who could all work on the answer?”

Her words hung in the air. As much as I’ve sought an answer to this question for many years, I realized the truth in what she said. Avoiding the vulnerability of others’ answers and keeping the question to myself was selfish. If I don’t share my unanswered question, none of us can benefit from potential answers.

Feet Gloves, Vulnerability, and Being Wrong

One more example: in the last two years I’ve fallen in love with trail running. But after a couple of stubbed and broken toes, I’ve been struggling with a pesky problem: blisters.

I’ve tried almost everything (including diaper cream—don’t judge, it works. It’s cheap but messy!)

Several times people suggested toe socks. Yes, the socks that look like gloves for your feet. I hated the idea of individual toes in little toe socks. In fact, they gave me the creeps. But…I’d never tried them.

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in front of a pair of toe socks at REI. The socks were on sale. And looking at them, I realized that my dislike for them was an assumption, not based on any experience. So, I bought a pair and tried them out. Turns out, they were great!

Does it take vulnerability to admit you’re wrong? That you’ve deprived yourself of a simple solution because of your blind stubbornness?

Yes. But I am glad to tell you I was wrong. I’ve since bought two more pairs to have them in steady rotation.

The Leader’s Paradox: To Lead is to Learn

You’re probably used to having answers and making decisions. And having those answers was a vital part of your early success. But let’s face it – the people you lead, the ones who are on the front lines, will often know more about the nitty-gritty of the work than you. That’s their job, and they’re good at it. Their experience is more recent.

So, the question is, can you learn from them? Can you show up with vulnerability and admit, even if it’s just to yourself, that you might be wrong? More importantly, can you change your mind based on what you learn?

Vulnerability to Embrace Change: The Key to Unlocking Your Full Potential

In a recent podcast conversation with Oscar Trimboli, he defined true listening as “the willingness to have one’s mind changed.” I love that definition so much. There’s so much to learn when we ask a good question and truly listen. (And I strongly recommend this episode with Oscar – you’ll never look at listening the same way again!)

As a leader, you’ve built your career on having answers. But the most transformative leaders aren’t just answer-givers, they’re question-askers. They’re vulnerable enough to learn something new. To be proven wrong.

You may never try toe socks, and that’s okay. But can you admit when you don’t know, or when you’re wrong, and learn from these moments? To show up with the humility and vulnerability to change your mind when faced with new information.

Your Turn

Are you ready to unlock the next level of your leadership potential? Show up with the vulnerability to change your mind and learn something new, even if it means admitting you were wrong.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments (or drop me an email) and let’s celebrate the times you’ve been wrong and learned something new from it. It’s in admitting our mistakes that we learn, grow, and become leaders who truly make a difference.

Workplace conflict

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Give Everyone a Chance to Speak and Be Heard at Work https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/01/23/every-voice-be-heard-at-work/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2023/01/23/every-voice-be-heard-at-work/#respond Mon, 23 Jan 2023 10:00:59 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=250073 Use these powerful phrases to ensure every voice can be heard at work As all of us strive to create a more human-centered and inclusive workplace where everyone can feel comfortable being who they are, leaders have a unique opportunity to help voices be heard at work. Whether you’re in a formal leadership position or […]

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Use these powerful phrases to ensure every voice can be heard at work

As all of us strive to create a more human-centered and inclusive workplace where everyone can feel comfortable being who they are, leaders have a unique opportunity to help voices be heard at work.

Whether you’re in a formal leadership position or are participating on a committee, in a meeting, or on a project team, you have a role to play. You can help everyone have a chance to speak and be heard at work, whether you’re in charge of that scenario or not.

When every voice is heard your team will make better decisions, you’ll surface and solve problems earlier, you build engagement, ownership, and productivity. These scenario-specific powerful phrases will help you build an inclusive and effective culture. Here are phrases to use during:

Where Does the Silence Come From?

Even with good intentions, it’s easy for teams to ignore, speak over, or inadvertently silence some people.

Energetic extroverts can get rolling and make it hard for the quieter folks to find an entry into the conversation.

Knowledgeable, passionate introverts who start talking can turn into steamrollers when they’re enthusiastic. People turn to the known subject matter experts or, lacking experts, the team members who have the loudest opinions.

Then there are the societal dynamics that affect teams and organizations. In the United States, women can be interrupted more often than men. People of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities may not be asked for their input or listened to at the same level as others.

In global teams, people from the company’s home country can have more of a voice than others. Lower socio-economic groups, less expressive cultures, or members of a recently acquired company can all face hurdles to be heard.

And these all-too-human tendencies don’t include more overt discrimination and favoritism.

It takes work to overcome these barriers to collaboration, trust, and effective teamwork and give everyone a chance to speak and be heard. And, this is something you can do whether you’re leading a group directly or as a member of a team. The first step is to cultivate awareness of everyone’s voice. Once you do, then it’s time to use your voice to help everyone be heard at work.

Powerful Phrases to Give Everyone a Chance to Speak and Be Heard at Work

There are several scenarios that can lead to unheard voices. Choose an approach that’s appropriate for the situation you’re in.

Scenario: Idea generation

During traditional brainstorming exercises, it is common for those with the most positional authority or passion for the topic to dominate the conversation. To get everyone’s voice into the mix, you can use a two-step process of silent writing first, then randomize the ideas, and the group shares them.

In an in-person setting, you might do this with note cards or sticky notes. In an online setting, you can use a shared form, document, or whiteboard. Once the ideas are in the room, then you can build on them.

If your group hasn’t done something like this before, here are some phrases you can use to introduce the subject:

  • “I’m curious if we can try a new technique here?”
  • “I’ve come across this way to generate more ideas, more quickly – can we give it a try?”
  • “I think we’ve got an opportunity here to level up our brainstorming, would you be open to use it?”

Scenario: Group Discussion with Quiet Participants

During a discussion, you notice that some members of the group aren’t speaking or sharing their thoughts. Or, they’ve tried, but are being talked over. Here are phrases to address these situations and call your colleagues into the conversation.

  • “I noticed that Diane was starting to say something…Diane, what were your thoughts?”
  • “Dillon, we haven’t heard from you on this topic. I’d love to know what you think about how it will…”
  • “Germaine, you have some experience with this, I’m curious what you think?”
  • “Vivian, as you’ve been listening to this conversation, what’s coming up for you?”
  • “Anish and Paula, how do you see it?”

These phrases give people an opportunity to contribute. They may not feel that they have something meaningful or worthwhile to share. When that happens, it’s okay. They know you invited them into the conversation. However, if that voluntary silence happens regularly, on a range of topics, it’s worth checking in individually to see if there are factors preventing them from engaging and make sure they can be heard at work.

Scenario: Group Discussion—People Ignored or Co-opted

In energetic or heated conversations, some people may speak, but have their ideas ignored or claimed by others. While effective teams build on one another’s ideas and everyone contributes selflessly, this requires an atmosphere of trust and respect. If that environment of trust and respect doesn’t yet exist, you can help. These phrases help build a culture of trust and respect for people’s ideas:

  • “We interrupted you, please, will you finish your thought?”
  • “Before we continue, I want to make sure we acknowledge [person] for that perspective. That was very helpful to move our conversation forward.”
  • “We didn’t allow [person] to finish. I know we’re excited – and we need to make sure we’re getting everyone’s best thinking into the room.”

Scenario: Decisions—Missing Stakeholders

When people make decisions at work, important stakeholders can be left out of discussions. Hopefully, they weren’t consciously excluded. More often, people are absorbed in their usual way of doing things and didn’t think about who else would have a meaningful perspective on the decision.

Here are phrases you can use to give missing stakeholders a chance to speak and be heard:

  • “This decision will affect [group], have we got their input yet?”
  • “This will require significant time and people from [group], do we know their capacity right now?”
  • “It looks like we don’t know how [group] will view this. Who can we ask to make sure this works for them too?”
  • “To make the best decision here, we need input from [group]. Who can we ask for their perspective?”

Scenario: Decisions—Who Owns the Decision?

Another common challenge in decision-making that limits collaboration and prevents people from being heard is a lack of clarity regarding who owns the decision.

When the owner of the decision isn’t clear, people get frustrated and shut down. If you’ve ever heard someone say “I don’t know why you ask our opinion, you’re just going to do what you want anyway,” this is either a lack of clarity about who owns the decision (or an insincere request for input).

There are three common decision owners at work: a single person, a team via vote, or a team consensus. If you aren’t clear about who owns a decision, here are phrases to help clarify the owner and how everyone can best participate:

  • “I’m unclear how this decision will be made. Are we voting? Using consensus? Or will you make the call on this one?”
  • “Are you looking for a majority rule here or would you prefer a choice everyone can live with?”
  • “It seems to me that we are not the ones making this decision. Is that right? And, if so, is it our role to make a recommendation to the person or group that will make the decision?”

Your Turn

Your team, department, and organization will make better-informed decisions, solve problems faster, and be more innovative when everyone has a chance to speak and be heard at work. Even better, you’ve built a culture where everyone can show up as themself, be comfortable, and contribute their best.

Whether you’re leading the conversation or participating in a group, you can increase collaboration and ensure the contribution of every voice by using these eighteen phrases.

Workplace conflict

 

You may like:

 

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Why Your Team Can’t Innovate When You Want Ideas and Try to Help https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/10/24/why-your-team-cant-innovate-when-you-want-ideas-and-try-to-help/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/10/24/why-your-team-cant-innovate-when-you-want-ideas-and-try-to-help/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2022 10:00:38 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=248697 When Your Team Can’t Innovate It May Be Because of Your “Help” New ideas have a life cycle. Many senior leaders jump in to help their teams refine, grow, or prune an idea before they’re ready – and as a result, their teams can’t innovate at all. Idea Killer? I have a confession to make. […]

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When Your Team Can’t Innovate It May Be Because of Your “Help”

New ideas have a life cycle. Many senior leaders jump in to help their teams refine, grow, or prune an idea before they’re ready – and as a result, their teams can’t innovate at all.

Idea Killer?

I have a confession to make.

I’ve been an idea-killer.

It’s not that I don’t want new ideas, solutions, and innovation. I didn’t callously shout “that’s not how we do it!” No, my problem was different.

It came from trying to help in the wrong way at the wrong time. Someone would bring me an idea and I’d jump in with all the possibilities. The three distinct problems we’d need to solve. How we had similar solutions already in place. Most of the time, that was the end of the idea.

And I know I’m not alone. Many leaders and managers, in their desire to be helpful, show off their vast knowledge, or shortcut to a faster solution, will give quick answers when team members ponder “what-ifs.” I’ve done this more times than I care to admit.

How Well-Meaning Leaders Extinguish Ideas When Teams Can’t Innovate

As we work with leadership teams to help them build a Courageous Culture filled with teams of innovators, problem-solvers, and customer advocates, we’ll often hear that their teams won’t solve problems on their own and lack creativity.

When you watch what happens in these organizations, people will often have ideas—and then senior leaders swarm that seedling of an idea and pick it apart, tell the team what they’d missed, and what’s already happening. The swarm of input crushes the idea and spirit behind it before the team can learn more or experience the joy of innovation.

And I get it—from an experienced leadership perspective, you want to help. There are five different perspectives you’ve learned through your experience that are relevant and that the team hasn’t considered. You can see the potential in version 3.0 of their idea, and you jump to that, asking if they’ve considered incorporating x, y, and z. You’re also sensitive to time—after all time is money and if you can shorten the learning curve and get to a better idea, faster, doesn’t it make sense to get there as quickly as possible?

Not necessarily.

Or at least, not now.

When Your Team Can’t Innovate—Pay Attention to Idea Life-Cycle

When your team’s new ideas meet with a flurry of input, criticism, or overwhelming additions, they can’t innovate. The new idea drowns before it can grow. And people give up—it’s just not worth it to try.

Think of ideas like an apple tree. When the seed first sprouts, that tiny seedling needs enough room to grow, put out a few leaves, and get some roots down to anchor it in the soil. It wouldn’t make sense for you to prune or shape a seedling or look for apples. It’s not ready yet.

pruning - can't innovate

Give that tiny seedling time to grow, however, and it will develop strength as it faces wind and rain. Eventually, it will be big enough and strong enough that you can shape it and prune it—and doing so will make it healthier and help it produce more apples.

Nurture the Birth of Ideas

Your team and their ideas have a similar life cycle.

When your team can’t innovate, pay attention to what happens in the early stages of ideation. Is there room to explore and grow an idea? Can they experiment and try ideas at a small scale to see what works, what they hadn’t considered, and how to get the information they need to contribute better solutions? To make mistakes that won’t cripple the business, but that help people learn and grow?

Real learning grasps the essential elements, understands “what happens if,” makes new connections, finds new solutions, and creates new visions. Be careful not to squelch creativity and risk-taking by trying to help too much or jumping ahead too soon.

Recently I interviewed Olankunle Soriyan, author of A Love Affair with Failure, and he captured this tendency to paralyze ourselves or our teams by focusing on perfection before we’re in motion. “If you wait to release an iPhone 14 and all the features it has today, you’ll never release the first edition.”

“If you wait to release an iPhone 14 and all the features it has today, you’ll never release the first edition.”

-Olankunle Soriyan, A Love Affair with Failure

How to Help When Your Team Can’t Innovate

Here are three strategies to help nurture new ideas and people who are learning how to innovate:

  • Provide context and clear criteria

When someone on your team has an idea, they likely are thinking only of what the world looks like from their perspective. Help them grow and make it more likely their idea can have a meaningful impact by sharing context and clear criteria. What is happening in the organization, the environment, or the industry that they need to be aware of? What are the boundaries within which they can play as they implement their idea? Where do you or the organization most need a good idea?

One of the most powerful ways to equip your team with criteria to help them contribute meaningful ideas is with our I.D.E.A. model. What makes an idea interesting? Doable? Engaging to stakeholders? And what are the next specific actions they recommend?

Learn more about the I.D.E.A. model here.

  • Respond with Regard

How you react to incomplete, unusable, or half-thought-through ideas has a huge effect on whether you’ll ever get useful ideas. When your team can’t innovate, pay attention to your response to the ideas you hear.

Start with gratitude for the act of contributing. For example: “Thank you for thinking about how we can improve in this area.” Note: You are NOT thanking them for their specific idea or even telling them it’s a good idea. Celebrate their effort.

Next, add information – this might be additional criteria, context, or even how their the idea is already in use. Give them enough information that they can continue exploring, growing, and making connections, but not enough to drown them. (Think of that apple tree seedling – it needs water to grow, but not too much.) If their idea can’t work right now, this is the time to let them know why.

Finally, invite them to continue thinking, contributing, and to refine this idea. This is critical to give people the same chance to learn and grow that made you the expert you are today. As they gain experience and think through their concepts, they’ll gain strength and be ready for the pruning and shaping stage of innovation.

Here’s more on how to: Respond with Regard

  • Reward Failure

This may sound strange, but let’s think about the concept of rewarding failure for a moment.

If your people take a risk, but you only reward the risks that succeed, what will happen?

People will naturally stop taking risks.

By their very nature, risks mean uncertainty of success. By only rewarding the risks that work out as hoped, you communicate that you don’t actually want creativity and innovation; you communicate that you’re only interested in a “sure thing.”

Avoiding loss is human nature. Most people in your organization will therefore choose to do nothing, rather than risk your censure for a creative idea that doesn’t work.

The solution to this problem is to reward behaviors and attempts. Some organizations take this concept to a grand conclusion and annually give an award for “The best idea that didn’t work.” Others describe every new initiative as “an experiment” – a term that clearly communicates the desire to learn from the effort and acknowledges the reality that it may or may not work out as intended.

Your Turn

When your team can’t innovate, but you really want new ideas, make it safe to experiment and take risks. Avoid the temptation to swarm a new idea with too many corrections and criticisms. When you celebrate creative behaviors, attempts, and even failures, you make it OK for the effort to not work and for everyone to learn something along the way—and you’re that much closer to the game-changing ideas you do need!

I’d love to hear from you: what’s your most effective way to help new ideas thrive?

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How to Leverage Your Skills with the Most Valuable Leadership Practice https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/10/10/how-to-leverage-your-skills-with-the-most-valuable-leadership-practice/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/10/10/how-to-leverage-your-skills-with-the-most-valuable-leadership-practice/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2022 10:00:54 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=248543 What’s your most valuable leadership practice? At the start of our work together, we’ll ask leaders and managers around the world for their most valuable leadership practice. There are several answers that consistently rise to the top, including clarity, vision, encouragement, communication, listening, empathy, and support. These are certainly valuable. And when we ask the […]

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What’s your most valuable leadership practice?

At the start of our work together, we’ll ask leaders and managers around the world for their most valuable leadership practice. There are several answers that consistently rise to the top, including clarity, vision, encouragement, communication, listening, empathy, and support.

These are certainly valuable. And when we ask the tens of thousands of leaders and managers we’ve worked with about the most valuable practice they’ve learned through our work together, one of the most frequent answers is to “Check for Understanding.”

Check For Understanding: Ensure that everyone in a conversation is on the same page and has a shared understanding of what they discussed to save hours, days, and weeks of headache, heartache, and frustration. (For more on the valuable communication tool: look at Check for Understanding)

But What’s the MOST Valuable Leadership Practice?

I love the “check for understanding” and I do think it’s one of the highest ROI practices you can use…

But, if I had to choose one practice that adds the most value and leverages everything else you do as a leader, I would choose a word that lacks glamor. It’s not flashy or charismatic. But it will be the deciding factor in your long-term success.

What’s the most valuable leadership practice?

Consistency.

Showing up moment by moment, day after day, project after project with the same skills, character, and commitment.

Why Consistency?

I’m training for my first ultra-marathon of about 33 miles over hilly trails.

You can’t train for a race like this in a day or a week. It takes months of consistent training including running, strength work, and stretching for your body to adapt and grow to meet the new demands.

consistency training most valuable leadership skill

Me consistently wondering how I’m going to finish this 17-mile training run

Your team and organization are similar. Day-to-day consistency and accountability in a few practices will do far more good than multiple pronouncements and intentions.

Just like the body adapts to physical training, your team will adapt to practicing good communication when you practice it daily, bring one another back to focus when you forget, and celebrate success.

Then do it again the next day.

The same is true for any meaningful team behavior or leadership skill. Your team needs your encouragement consistently. To hold one another accountable every day. They need clarity of outcomes and priorities all the time.

Why Consistency is Rare and Valuable

You’re probably nodding and saying “Yes, yes, consistency – I get it.”

But consistency is valuable and multiplies every other leadership practice because it is so rare. It’s easy to encourage your team when you’re excited, results are fantastic, and everyone feels good.

It’s more challenging when you’re distracted, stressed, overwhelmed, or bored. Inconsistency undermines any good intention you share or initiative you begin. But showing up consistently builds trust.

That’s why we recommend developing a habit of using one leadership skill before adding the next.

(It’s also why meaningful leadership development programs combine spaced learning over time with action learning—where participants apply what they learn.)

The Most Valuable Leadership Practice – Your Turn

Consistency isn’t flashy. There’s no hack or trick to it. But showing up repeatedly, and doing what works, will build trust, strength in your team, positive habits, and success.

So yes, commit to checking for understanding, scheduling the finish, investing in development conversations

And commit to the most valuable leadership practice: consistency in your chosen skills. It makes all the difference.

I’d love to hear from you: How do you maintain consistency in the practices that matter most for your success?

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Don’t Get Lost or Hurt: The Vital Role of Leadership Strategy and Tactics https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/09/12/dont-get-lost-or-hurt-the-vital-role-of-leadership-strategy-and-tactics/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/09/12/dont-get-lost-or-hurt-the-vital-role-of-leadership-strategy-and-tactics/#respond Mon, 12 Sep 2022 10:00:35 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=248175 Balancing leadership strategy and tactics is critical for leaders at every level of an organization When you don’t pay enough attention to strategy, you and your team end up lost in a wilderness of meaningless, unproductive busyness. However, when you don’t pay attention to tactics and effective management, you create needless conflicts, frustrations and hurt […]

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Balancing leadership strategy and tactics is critical for leaders at every level of an organization

When you don’t pay enough attention to strategy, you and your team end up lost in a wilderness of meaningless, unproductive busyness. However, when you don’t pay attention to tactics and effective management, you create needless conflicts, frustrations and hurt feelings. When you embrace effective leadership strategy and tactics, they’ll work together to help you, your teams, and organization thrive.

Leaders and managers often struggle with the difference between strategy and tactics or vision and operations. But they are both vital to your success and don’t have to be complicated.

The Danger of Focusing Only on Strategy

This weekend I went for a long trail run. The terrain was rocky with roots snaking across the trail. I kept a close eye on the ground and placed my feet carefully. Then I caught up with two women on the trail ahead of me.

I called out a friendly “passing on your left” and as they moved over to allow me to pass, I focused on the trail ahead where I would pass them, and I sped up.

And that’s when one of those roots caught my foot and I tripped, falling down in an inglorious pile of dirt, blood, and embarrassment.

In looking at the trail ahead, I lost focus on the ground beneath my feet.

That’s the danger of focusing on strategy or vision (the trail ahead) to the exclusion of the operational and management realities you face today (the ground beneath your feet).

leadership strategy and tactics hurt

The trail demanded attention

Tactical Questions to Help You Avoid “Injury”

Operational tactics (looking at the ground beneath your feet) include clear communication, a shared understanding of success, healthy professional relationships, and consistent accountability.

When you lack these elements, your team will experience the “injuries” of frequent conflicts, frustrations, and misunderstandings that derail productivity and quench morale. Here are several vital questions to help focus on the tactical aspect of leadership strategy and tactics:

  • Does everyone know what success looks like?
  • Does everyone know what specific behaviors are critical to achieving that success?
  • Have you checked for understanding to ensure everyone has the same understanding?
  • Are you consistently communicating critical messages and concepts five times, five different ways?
  • Do you schedule the finish with clear discussions and mutual appointments to conclude tasks and projects?
  • Do you and your team hold one another accountable for commitments?
  • Do you acknowledge and celebrate success?
  • Does your team know how to discuss and resolve day-to-day conflict, dropped balls, and misunderstandings?

For more on these critical leadership questions and competencies, check out Leadership Skills: 6 Competencies You Can’t Lead Without

To help your team with tough conversations, check out How to Provide More Meaningful Performance Feedback

The Danger of Focusing Only on Tactics 

Back to the trail…I got up, brushed myself off, and continued to run. Twelve miles later I took a new trail I’d never explored. I was determined not to fall again, so I watched the ground closely.

When I reached the end of the new trail, I turned around, confident I’d counted the number of branching trails I’d passed and that I could get back easily. But I was tired, hadn’t looked at a map, and I’d been watching the ground so closely that I hadn’t paid enough attention to my surroundings. I took a wrong turn and I was lost.

In looking at the ground beneath my feet, I’d lost track of where I was and where to go.

That’s the danger of focusing on tactics and operations (the ground beneath your feet) to the exclusion of strategy and vision (the map and the trail ahead).

leadership strategy and tactics lost

Lost and Wandering

Strategic Questions to Help you Avoid Getting “Lost”

Strategic clarity and vision (looking at the map and the trail ahead) include understanding the big picture, why you’re doing what you’re doing, and how your team’s work contributes to the whole. In addition, a shared vision (picture of where you’re going and what it will feel like to get there) inspires and energizes your team.

When you lack these elements, your team will get “lost” in business. Their work might be precise and done well, but it’s not meaningful—it doesn’t move the team or outcomes forward. This type of meaningless work saps morale and wastes precious time and energy. Here are several questions to help avoid getting lost in unproductive work as you focus on the first element of leadership strategy and tactics:

  • Why do we do this?
  • And ask again, up to five times… why do we do this?
  • What is our organization or team’s purpose?
  • Do we have a shared vision of success for our team? (What does it look like, feel like, and what is happening when we are at our best, doing our best work?)
  • How does our work contribute to the bigger picture? (That bigger picture can be your customer, the organization, or society beyond the business.)
  • What is changing in the world, our industry, technology, employees, or our customers so that we can understand and respond?
  • How will our customers, client, or world be better because of the work we do?

For more on connecting your team to the “why” in your work, check out Strategic Planning Tool: How to Engage Your Team in Better Conversation

To create more clarity and ensure everyone understands what matters most: Creating Clarity: Strategic Activities For Human Centered Leaders

To help your team make these connections and build a foundation for high performance: How to Build a High-Performing Team: Ten Vital Conversations

Resolving the Tension Between Leadership Strategy and Tactics

Many leaders and teams get into arguments and conflict as they struggle with the need to “look at the map” and focus “on the ground beneath their feet.”

The reason for many of these disagreements is that most of us have a natural tendency to focus on one direction or the other. Some people are natural visionaries, looking at the horizon, seeing into tomorrow, and inspiring people to come on the journey with them. Other people are naturally good at operations and ensuring everyone is on the same page, connected with one another, and doing their work well.

Obviously, you need both for any team or organization to do meaningful work and make a difference. What is obvious and self-evident for you will not be so clear for your colleague with a different gift.

In most discussions, the best way to resolve the tension between leadership strategy and tactics is to start with strategy. Where are we going? Why are we going there? How will we and our customer/client be better off as a result?

Once you’ve clarified the strategic goal, then focus on how you will achieve it and the leadership practices that help the team operate smoothly.

In your own leadership, commit to a weekly habit of strategy and tactics. If you’re strong tactically, schedule time at the beginning or end of the week to re-examine why you’re doing the work you’re doing and ensure it aligns with the big picture.

If you’re strong strategically, ask the tactical questions and ensure you haven’t let communication or accountability lapse while you’ve looked at the horizon.

Leadership Strategy and Tactics – Your Turn

A mutual focus on leadership strategy and tactics helps you and your team do motivating, meaningful work without morale-sapping frustration.

I’d love to hear from you: how do you balance leadership strategy and tactics, ensuring you don’t lose focus on one or the other?

let's grow leaders who grow leaders

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When Goal Setting Demotivates Your Team and Kills Their Spirit https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/08/22/when-goal-setting-demotivates-your-team-and-kills-their-spirit/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/08/22/when-goal-setting-demotivates-your-team-and-kills-their-spirit/#respond Mon, 22 Aug 2022 10:00:18 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=247988 Goal Setting Will Energize People When You Avoid These Common Mistakes Effective goal setting brings out the best in people. But if people can’t “win”, don’t feel their work matters, don’t understand why a goal exists, and feel tossed around without a strong foundation, those goals quickly become demoralizing. There are three common goal setting […]

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Goal Setting Will Energize People When You Avoid These Common Mistakes

Effective goal setting brings out the best in people. But if people can’t “win”, don’t feel their work matters, don’t understand why a goal exists, and feel tossed around without a strong foundation, those goals quickly become demoralizing. There are three common goal setting mistakes that erode motivation. Each of them has a straight-forward solution.

  1. Moving Too Fast
  2. Setting Goals in Isolation
  3. Rapidly Throwing Your Team from One Change to the Next

False Summits are the Worst

If you’ve never encountered a false summit, trust me, they stink.

You hike up the side of a mountain for hours, eyeing that final ridge. You push your body a little harder, fighting the missing oxygen because you’re almost there… And then you peak over the ridge you were climbing—only to find that it wasn’t the summit at all, and you still have far to go.

If you’re not prepared for them, false summits can quickly demoralize you. You’ve worked hard, but suddenly the goal seems to have shifted.

When you don’t set goals skillfully, you can easily create false summits for your team that demoralize people, kills their spirit, and leave them asking, “Why bother?”

If your people respond to your latest goals with a collective shrug and shake of their heads, it’s time to revisit how you’re setting goals and avoid the soul-crushing false summits.

alse summits goal setting

A recent false summit I encountered

Three Ways to Ensure Goal Setting that Energizes Your Team

There are several common mistakes leaders make when setting goals—often with positive intent (for example: “I thought I was encouraging everyone to do their best.”) Fortunately, these mistakes are easy to correct.

1. Moving Too Fast

Kathy was a team leader whose team had done such a good job with their financial goals that they had not just met their goal—the team had single-handedly achieved the financial outcomes for the entire organization.

She was justifiably proud of her team’s work.

But she felt sad and discouraged. Rather than acknowledge the team’s significant achievement, the senior leadership team immediately reset the goals to be significantly higher than what the team had already achieved.

“I understand stretch goals and that there’s more work we can, but there was no acknowledgment of the creativity and problem-solving that allowed us to be so successful.”

She shook her head and sighed as she summarized her team’s concern: “They’re asking one another if they wouldn’t have been better off taking it easy and not working so hard the first time. If no one cares and they’re going to say ‘just kidding, you didn’t actually do well,’ then why bother?”

This is a common mistake leaders make as they rush on to the next goal: failure to acknowledge people’s work and achievement.

It’s deceptively easy to let yourself move on, try to solve the next problem, and skip what your people have achieved.

This creates a demoralizing false summit. They worked hard, thought they’d done well and arrived, only to be told they weren’t as good as they thought. Their work didn’t matter the way they thought it did. You moved the goalposts, and that feels incredibly unfair. It undermines their confidence for what comes next.

Solution: Celebrate

Most people need to feel a sense of accomplishment. Endless work with no sense of movement or achievement is torturous.

Energize your team by celebrating success. Take a moment to high-five, ring the bell, throw confetti, say thank you, and let people know the results of their work. Why did their work matter? What positive impact did it have? How are people (not just spreadsheets) better because of the work they did?

Tomorrow, you can still set new goals. Today, celebrate.

When you celebrate people’s work, it gives them momentum and confidence for what comes next.

goal setting view from summit

Time to Celebrate! The view from the ACTUAL summit.

2. Setting Goals in Isolation

This is still a common mistake. A thoughtful, well-intentioned leader thinks and thinks and decides.

Then they share that goal with their people—only to have their people immediately object, list reasons it won’t work, question the leader’s intelligence, and generally work hard to avoid doing what makes little sense to them.

The leader gets frustrated and makes more stringent demands. People get more frustrated and some leave.

And it’s all unnecessary. You may be smart enough to solve many of the challenges and come up with ideal plans yourself (unlikely, but you might be), but no matter how smart you are, if you can’t bring people with you, you won’t succeed.

Solution: Set Goals with People

Start by giving people the context, criteria, and problems that need to be solved. Then invite them to contribute their ideas.

True, this takes a little longer than just telling everyone what you think is the best solution. But you gain three significant benefits. First, people understand the problem or opportunity. Now they are with you emotionally and understand the need to change.

The second benefit is that you’ve got parallel processing power. As smart as you are, including other people opens the door to more and better solutions. Those solutions are more likely to work for more people because you’ve included more perspectives in the decision-making.

Finally, the third benefit is that the team now owns the ultimate solution. And people are much more likely to implement, lean into, and creatively problem-solve what they own. They understand why it’s needed, what it’s trying to accomplish, and can communicate that information to others.

3. Thrown Around by Changing Circumstances

Rapidly changing priorities can frustrate people and sap motivation. As with the lack of celebration, the rapidly appearing and disappearing “summits” can quickly exhaust your team.

Even so, changing circumstances are an inescapable part of business. Technology changes, policies shift, and competitors do new things. You learn, grow, and consequently need to change your mind. These changes can buffet your team and throw them around like a ship caught in a storm.

Solution: Prepare for Change Before It Happens

Prepare your teams for changing priorities by creating structures to help them shift. Advocate for your team to ensure their work matters (and insist on celebration when they’ve done well).

To maintain your team’s energy and morale when goals change frequently, start by setting expectations that it’s going to happen. Ensure you have a reliable communication strategy in place—and that everyone knows how it works. As you navigate shifting priorities, take time to celebrate and “tie a bow” on the priorities you must retire. What did the team achieve? What did they learn?

Your Turn

Sound goal setting motivates and energizes. The goals are challenging but achievable. They bring out the best in people. To make the most of your goals, take time to celebrate success, set goals collaboratively, and prepare for rapid change before it happens.

I’d love to hear from you: How do you help your team stay connected to what matters most, maintain their energy, and meaningfully engage with your organization’s goals?

 

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How to Be Less Negative – and Still Be Yourself https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/07/25/how-to-be-less-negative-and-still-be-yourself/ https://letsgrowleaders.com/2022/07/25/how-to-be-less-negative-and-still-be-yourself/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2022 10:00:17 +0000 https://letsgrowleaders.com/?p=247640 Learning How to Be Less Negative Will Make You More Effective When your team or supervisor thinks of you as a negative person, you’re less likely to be invited to conversations where you would have valuable contributions to make. You’re less likely to receive recognition for your work and your odds of promotion go down. […]

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Learning How to Be Less Negative Will Make You More Effective

When your team or supervisor thinks of you as a negative person, you’re less likely to be invited to conversations where you would have valuable contributions to make. You’re less likely to receive recognition for your work and your odds of promotion go down. If you often hear that you’re too negative, learning how to be less negative is a critical skill to master—and fast.

That might not feel fair—after all, Eeyore was still invited to all the goings on in the Hundred Acre Woods and appreciated for his loyalty. But unless Winnie the Pooh and Tigger are on your team, shifting that perception of negativity will help you have more influence and contribute your expertise.

The good news is that there are easy shifts you can make that don’t require you to change your personality – It’s not about changing who you are. And these shifts will help you bring your best qualities to every team and conversation.

Why It’s Hard to Hear

“Don’t be so negative” can be incredibly frustrating feedback when you don’t think of yourself as negative.

I know because I’ve heard this feedback many times in my career and relationships. What made it so frustrating is that in almost every one of those circumstances, I would not have told you I was being negative.

Most of the time, from my perspective, I was engaging with an idea, answering questions I thought I’d been asked, or trying to prevent problems.

But the reality, as Marshall Goldsmith says, is that “In leadership, it doesn’t matter what we said. All that matters is what they think they heard.”

Why They Think You’re Negative

One of the most common reasons people get a ‘negative’ label is because of how they respond to ideas. See if this sounds familiar:

During a leadership meeting, your boss proposes an idea that has a shiny, attractive quality. Let’s say they want to hire a contractor because it looks like it will save money, save time, and solve a problem.

You hear the idea and immediately see three critical problems:

  • The person they want to bring in to help doesn’t have the experience with a critical function
  • While the initial cost is lower, managing the contractor and bringing them up to speed will cost more time and money, plus any extension of the contract would cost more money than the current situation
  • The function is mission-critical, and the contractor has no redundancy. If they get sick, the team’s out of luck or will have to work harder to make up the difference.

What do you do?

Well, if you’re often labeled as negative, you probably say something like, “I see a couple of challenges here…” and then list them.

Are you wrong?

You Might Be Right, But…

Let’s assume you are one hundred percent correct in your analysis. And you care about the outcomes, the team’s welfare, and saving the business time and money. You’re justifiably concerned about the future of the team, the business, and your customers.

You care. You’re correct. And yet, you’re called negative. Why?

The problem is that for many personality types, jumping straight to problems and challenges isn’t effective. For the “get things done” crowd, the roadblocks are frustrating—they want to see action. For the idea people, they want to explore and build on ideas, not have their creativity and energy crushed before their ideas can breathe. And for relationship people, jumping straight to problems feels harsh and disrespectful.

Roadblocks…crushed…harsh…disrespectful. What do all these words have in common?

They are negative.

And that’s how your supervisor or colleagues perceive your attempt to head off problems.

And that’s assuming you’re always correct in your analysis. Which of course, you’re not. There are often opportunities to build on ideas and explore possibilities you can miss.

How to Be Less Negative in Three Easy Shifts

The problem isn’t your analysis. The team needs you to help think through ideas and ensure the solutions you implement together are as sound as they can be.

Here are three shifts you can make in how you respond to ideas that will help you have more influence:

1. First, Affirm

This step will help your idea people feel heard and relationship people feel connected. Find something interesting, fun, or positive about the idea and say that first. For example, you might say,

  • “That’s a creative way of looking at this.”
  • “A third party could bring a fresh perspective.”
  • “Wow, that’s interesting, I hadn’t looked at it that way.”
  • “I appreciate you thinking about how we can save money here.”

(We once worked with a very literal-minded engineer who had a reputation as a caustic teammate. As he worked to “First, Affirm” his starting effort was, “Oh, that’s an idea.” It was as much of an affirmation as he could muster when confronted with what he saw as wrong-headed thinking—but his team still appreciated the effort.)

2. Present Problems as Solutionshow to be less negative

This step is critical. You will still share your challenges or concerns. But instead of stating them as problems, package them as solutions or opportunities.

For example, “That’s a great idea, here are three things we can do to make sure it succeeds. First, let’s ensure the contractor has experience in this technology. Then, if we can find someone at this price point without an extension penalty and who has a team to back them up, this could really work.”

Presenting your analysis as “ways to make this work” is magical. First, people’s perception totally shifts. Your concerns don’t come across as obstacles. You’re contributing to the idea’s success.

Second, when people hear what it will take to “make their idea work,” they will form their own conclusions about viability or solutions. They may propose follow-up solutions. Or, you’ll hear them say, “That’s a good point, I don’t think this is the best idea, let’s keep looking.” You didn’t negate their idea, you supported it in a way that they could do the analysis.

3. Take Your Temperature

This final shift is about managing yourself.

When I am tired, frustrated, or have lots of problems vying for attention and someone presents an idea, I am most likely to forget steps 1 and 2. Or, I may do them, but my tone is tired, whiny, or negative.

When you find yourself in a conversation about ideas or where you would typically be told you are negative, pause and “take your temperature.” How do you feel? If you’re tired, frustrated, or tied in knots with other problems, can you pause and not respond right away?

For example, “I appreciate you bringing this up—and, I am exhausted and trying to solve three things at once right now. I want to make sure I give your idea the positive attention it warrants. Can we talk tomorrow morning?”

Most people will appreciate that you cared enough to be honest and valued their suggestion enough to give it a proper hearing. Sometimes, they’ll even say, “Oh, it’s okay, I was just brainstorming and it can wait.”

Taking responsibility for your state of mind and tone when you respond will help avoid the times you’re most likely to come across as negative.

You’re not changing who you are – you’re choosing to be your most effective self with others.

A Final Note About Mental Health

These suggestions about how to be less negative are written to help if you are otherwise feeling healthy and constructive. They are not intended to address depression or other mental health challenges.

If you find yourself in a state of negative thinking where everything seems dark, gloomy, or hopeless for many weeks, I invite you to be kind to yourself and talk with a counselor or mental health professional (just as you would talk to your dentist for a persistent toothache).

 

Your Turn

When you care about success and want the best for your team, but that passion comes across as negative, these three shifts can help. They’ve helped me and many leaders we work with to have more influence and build better ideas with teammates.

I’d love to hear from you. If you (or someone you know) has wrestled with a reputation for negativity, what solutions did they find as they learned how to be less negative?

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