“Hi Karin, I’m a manager of our flagship location. Which is pretty cool. And…. we are getting SO MANY executive visits. It’s a constant parade of senior leaders looking to learn and looking to help. Don’t get me wrong, it’s way better than being ignored or left on our own…. but sometimes my team feels like we’re working in a zoo.

All the observing and explaining is distracting my team, who really need to focus on our most important things and building our new team culture.

How do I gain better control over these visits, without damaging my career? How can I make these visits more productive?” #AskingForaFriend

Take Control of Executive Visits With These Simple Steps:

Determine Intention

Once you know who is arranging the executive visits, ask them these important questions:

• What is the intention of these visits?
• What does success look like?
• Is the purpose to educate executives so they understand the inner workings of the business?
• Or do they think these visits benefit you and your teams by providing moral support and encouragement?

After you know the intention behind the executive visits, you can help figure out the best way to achieve those results– without distracting your team.  With some focused conversation, you can ensure these visits add value for all involved.

Establish Your Leadership

As a mentor of mine, Gail used to say, “Where there is chaos seize control.”

One way to do this is by setting clear expectations for these executive visits. Give the visiting executives some information in advance. You might even consider making a pre-visit video to answer the most frequently asked questions and establish some guidelines for when they come.

Know the story you want to share, and help your team get ready. See Also: Presenting to Executives: How to Have More Confidence 

Ask for What You Need.

The good news is when executives come to visit they’re usually looking for practical ways to help. So be ready with your “ask.”

This is a great time to recognize employees by giving them some positive executive exposure.  It’s also a great opportunity to share your ideas. Check out our guide to sharing your ideas at work right here. If you need additional resources, or training, or…. find a way to work that into the conversation, linking what you need to why it matters.

All in all, your goal with executive visits is for your team to say…”You know what? When those people come good things happen.” And you want that to be true!

Executive visits are a great way to empower and support your team. Define success, engage proactively as a leader, and ask for what you need.

Are you ready to accelerate team performance? Our manager-led, on-demand Team Accelerator program is a perfect way to take your team’s performance to the next level.

Your turn. I’d love to hear from you. What’s one of your favorite ways to reduce zoo fatigue for better executive visits?

The post How to Host Better, More Focused and Productive Executive Visits appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

So what do you do when your well-meaning, enthusiastic team-member is just talking too much in meetings?  It’s tricky, particularly in virtual meetings.

“Hi Karin, I watched your #AskingforaFriend about how to encourage people to speak up more in meetings, but I’ve got the EXACT OPPOSITE CHALLENGE. I’ve got a well-meaning, really strong performer, who is talking too much. I don’t want to squash his enthusiasm, but I also don’t want him to shut other people down. What should I do?”

Three Ways to Get More Voices in the Room

3 Ways to Encourage a More Inclusive Conversation

1. Go directly to the employee who is talking too much

Of course, the obvious place to start is to have a caring, straightforward conversation with the employee. Ask them to help resolve the issue by taking some ownership around bringing more voices into the room. If this person is talking too much, chances are they are confident speaking up in a group and have some influence among their colleagues.

So, they could try using their voice to empower others versus stealing the show. If you need some pointers on how to initiate a challenging conversation read this article, How to Start the Conversation Everyone Wants to Avoid.

2. Reset expectations for the entire team

Inclusive and collaborative meetings are essential for driving innovation and fostering a thriving team dynamic. It’s not just that you want the employee who is talking too much to talk less….you want other people to talk more. You want everyone to have an equal opportunity to share their ideas so you can unlock the full potential of your team. Invite everyone to come prepared with one idea on how to make your meetings more inclusive.

You might go a step further and dedicate an entire session to idea generation to get the wheels spinning. Download our free I.D.E.A. Incubator Guide to hear less from the guy who is talking too much and hear more from the rest of the team. Using a structured facilitation technique will also make it clear to the person talking too much that you’re not interested in letting one person monopolize the conversation.

3. When people are talking too much, use the power of chat

To make sure everyone has the chance to speak up try using the chat feature or other technology tools. One way to do this is before you ask a question make it clear you want everyone’s input. Stop one person from talking too much by asking everyone to put their fingers on their keyboard and get ready to respond. Then take time to read some of the responses out loud to let your team know you’re paying attention.

You could also leverage technology tools to facilitate equal participation, especially in larger meetings or remote settings. Try programs like interactive polling apps, virtual whiteboards, or collaboration software to give your team alternative ways to share their ideas. This way the ones who aren’t talking too much have a chance to contribute, regardless of their communication style or level of extroversion.

Lastly, don’t forget to recognize and celebrate the contributions of each person on your team. Regardless of the size or impact of their ideas, they need to know that their voice is important. Create a courageous culture where people speak up and idea sharing and innovative thinking are normalized. By doing so, you promote a sense of collective ownership and inspire individuals to share their ideas.

That’s a start. What are your best practices for keeping one person from talking too much and making your meetings more inclusive? Please share in the comments below.

And, if you’re ready for your teams to accelerate performance and create sustainable positive culture change from within, download a free demo of our Team Accelerator manager-led program here.

The post How to Encourage an Employee Stop Talking Too Much (Without Squashing Their Enthusiasm) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The Power of Leaders as Coaches

If your Sales SVP thinks your leadership development program is a distraction, your sales managers will show up late and multi-task.

But what if that same sales SVP showed up as an active coach in the process? Imagine they were to kick off the training with a powerful story, then stay and engage with the team? After the training, what if they check for understanding to ensure their team understands the new techniques and why they matter? What if they celebrate when they see the behaviors in action?

We bet you’d give that leadership development program a high probability of igniting real culture change.

Now, imagine if you had leaders at every level doing that with their teams.

How to Create a More Sustainable Leadership Development Program

When you involve leaders as coaches, your leaders have a structured way to go back and role model what they’ve learned. And, they have an easy way to cultivate those competencies in their teams. Leaders coach, and reinforce, the skills they’re learning. They facilitate practical conversations about how the team can take performance to the next level.

Wait, What? Who Has Time for That?

You might be thinking, “It’s hard enough to get my managers to attend a leadership development program. Now you want them to be leadership coaches too? That all seems a bit much.”

We get it. No one has time for meetings that don’t impact learning outcomes and business results. And, we’ve seen busy leaders embrace their role as coaches because they are high-ROI engagements that achieve multiple business outcomes.

First, managers practice skills that directly apply to their daily leadership: asking great questions; drawing reluctant team members into the conversation; listening without bias; reflecting on what they’ve heard; running a great meeting.

Second, these leadership coaching conversations focus on real business priorities and outcomes. They’re practical. They make work smoother, improve team dynamics, and increase productivity.

Your leadership development ROI compounds significantly as managers coach what they learn. If you have ten managers attend a leadership program supplemented by a leader coaching program, you trained them and everyone on their teams.

Your training for ten just turned into impact for one hundred.

Two Approaches to Help Leaders Engage as Coaches

Here are two leaders-as-coaches models you can use to create sustainability in your leadership development programs.

Challenger Groups: Senior Leaders as Cross-Functional Leader Coaches

We love to incorporate leaders as coaches in our long-term leadership development and culture change programs through what we call challenger groups.

Challenger groups leverage senior-level leaders to mentor and support participants, helping them apply what they’ve learned.

One or two senior managers who have taken (or are taking) the course lead a challenger group of 7-10 participants to discuss what everyone is learning and applying from the formal, instructor-led training.

Conversations focus on applications to their day-to-day work. Ideally, these participants come from different regions, departments, or areas of the business.

We support the challenger group leader coaches through mastermind sessions and an easy-to-follow facilitation guide. These informal sessions help create psychological safety for the team and build your leaders’ confidence in facilitating these sessions.

Challenger groups create sustained culture change in four ways.

• First, there’s no better way to reinforce a skill than to teach it.
• Second, challenger-group participants learn from one another about how the leadership techniques work in different contexts.
• Third, participants see senior leaders modeling tools and using what they learned.
• Finally, everyone develops a network of trusted strategic peer relationships.

Get a glimpse of some of the outcomes here:

Team Accelerator Programs: Video-Based Guided Learning for Managers to Accelerate Culture

In this team accelerator model, managers actively guide their teams through a co-learning and application process.

In this model, the managers take an hour each month with their team to watch a short video, learn a new concept or skill, then use a provided discussion guide to help their team apply the concept to their work.

The team ends each meeting by creating a mutual behavioral commitment based on the topic. By the end of the program, they have a robust, co-created team agreement.

Between sessions, the manager and team members watch for opportunities to celebrate when they follow through on their commitments and call each other back to their agreement when they don’t fulfill it.

For example, some of our clients use a 7-10 month team accelerator program to supplement our instructor-led leadership development program.

Topics include aligning on key priorities and behaviors, holding accountability conversations, taking appropriate risks, developing deeper connections, and helping the team share their ideas.

As leaders facilitate conversations on these topics with their teams, everyone develops the skills (not just the manager).

As in the challenger group model, your managers continue to hone their own leadership and facilitation skills while they work as leadership coaches.

And, your teams learn practical skills to become more productive team members and prepare them for continued responsibility and leadership. Your teams work on practical, tactical ways to improve their performance, while managers become more accountable for the leadership skills they learned.

Learn more about bringing a Team Accelerator Program to Your Team.

Join us at ATD in Orlando to Learn More About Leadership Development Programs that Stick

If you want to ensure your leadership development program creates real culture change, help leaders become culture accelerators. If you’re interested in learning more, or have best practices of your own to share, we hope you will join us at ATD in Orlando on May 18th at 10:30 EST where we’ll be leading a highly interactive program and sharing a high-ROI case study.

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The post Leaders Coaching Leaders: One Secret to Sustainable Leadership Development appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.