You’re right. You deserve high-quality, carefully considered feedback in your performance review. Your manager should take this seriously and do it right.

But often they don’t. It’s statistically likely that you (or a friend) will be blindsided by the performance feedback you receive. Let’s get ahead of it this year with some Powerful Phrases to ask for, and engage In a more meaningful conversation.

Powerful Phrases to Deal with Lazy, Vague, Frustrating Feedback

A few years ago, I wrote “Avoid These Infuriating Phrases in End-of-Year Feedback” to encourage managers to stop making stupid comments when giving a performance review.

This heartfelt post came from years of listening to high-performing employees vent their frustrations about frustrating phrases their managers said. If you’re a manager who struggles with performance reviews, please start there.

How to Respond to the Most Infuriating Kind of Performance Review

For the rest of you (or your friends), let’s prepare for that frustrating feedback this year and prepare you with some Powerful Phrases for when the conversation goes sideways.

1. “I don’t have much end-of-year feedback for you. You know you’re doing great.”

I hate this one as much as you do. If you’re hearing this, you probably are doing great, but it doesn’t give you much to build on or improve.

Some options to start your empowered response:

• “Wow, thanks so much! I appreciate your support. This year, I feel particularly proud about __________ (insert that accomplishment you expected them to bring up). I’m curious about your perspective on that _______(project, strategy, accomplishment). Why did that work from your perspective? What made that work so well, and how might I bring more of that into my work?”
• “Thank you! You know, one area I’m really working to improve on is _________. What is one suggestion you have for how I can be more effective in that arena?”
• “Thank you! I’m curious about what specifically you appreciate about what I’m doing here. I’m very focused on ensuring next year is even better, and I’d love your help in knowing what I should continue doing and ideas to help me really differentiate my performance next year.”

2. “I rated you as meets expectations for your end-of-year feedback. Your performance really was an “exceeds” but I had to make the math work out.” Or, even worse, “I could only have one person in that category.”

Okay, you have a serious right to be ticked off here. I’ve been there, on both sides of this awkward conversation.

And it’s probably too late to change the math or the rating. I know this because as a Verizon executive I’ve fought this battle many times for the high-performers on my team, and the answer was “pick one.”

Your manager may be as (or even more) frustrated than you.

In my article on infuriating phrases, my advice to your manager is to stay focused on results and behaviors, rather than the rating. And, to be clear about the criteria that they used to calibrate performance and where you met and exceeded those criteria and opportunities to improve in the future. To stay away from comparisons to other employees, or blaming other people for the rating they received.

And now, some options to start your empowered response: 

• “Oh, wow. That must have put you in a difficult situation. And, I’ve got to tell you, that makes me feel really ___________(insert emotion here, but try not to scream or cry).”
• “I’ve worked incredibly hard this year and I really don’t want to be having a similar conversation this time next year. Can we outline what I need to do for next year to make ‘exceeds’ (or whatever your rating equivalent is) the obvious rating? I’d love to build a plan to ensure I have the success I’m looking for.”
• “I really appreciate your support. And I’ve got to tell you I’m pretty frustrated. This affects my compensation too (if that’s true). I’d really like to talk to HR to express my concerns about this.”

3. “I know we haven’t talked about this before, but _____”

This one’s tricky because your manager certainly shouldn’t blindside you this way in your performance review. There are a few angles you might choose to take. If they’ve put something in writing that’s coming out of the blue, you might request to have that removed, requesting a fair chance to address it before it turns up in the documentation.

And, here are some empowering phrases that might be useful.

• “I appreciate your feedback and your desire to help me improve. I’m wondering what we could do to set up a more regular cadence of feedback throughout the year, so there are no surprises next time.”
• “I’m a bit surprised by this feedback and would like to take some time to digest it. Let’s set up a follow-up in a week to talk a bit more.”
• “Since this is the first time I’ve heard this feedback, can you please give me some time to address this before you put it in the formal review? Here’s my approach to improving in this area.”

4.”I don’t really have any specific examples, but it’s become a real issue.”

If you hear this in your performance review, and you can’t think of any examples either, I’d recommend you push for some examples.

• “I’m deeply committed to improving my performance in this arena. And, it’s really hard to understand what needs to change without some concrete examples.”
• “I really would like to understand this more. I’m struggling to come up with examples too.”
• “Can you please tell me more? I’d really like to get a better understanding of your concern here.”

5. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from other people about your performance in this arena. Who? I’m not at liberty to say.

As with most of these awkward performance review phrases, I would start with a gut check. If your manager is raising an issue and it feels true to you, then your best bet is to own it and work on it.

However, if this third-party performance review feedback feels unfair, then I would press for more information.

• “Hmmm. That’s tricky. I don’t see it that way. It would be really helpful for me to talk directly with those concerned. Can you please ask them to come to me with their concerns so I have a chance to talk with them directly about it?”
• “Have you noticed this issue yourself? Does this seem like something that’s consistent with what you’ve observed?”
• “I’d like a chance to better understand this issue. Who do you suggest I talk with to learn more?”

6. “Just write up your accomplishments and I’ll sign it.”

It’s a great idea to submit your accomplishments. After all, you’re closer to the work you’ve done and the impact you’ve made.

Say yes, and then…

• “I’d be delighted to write up my accomplishments (see How to help your boss give you a better performance review for tips on how to do that well).”
• “I would also really appreciate your feedback and perspective on my performance this year. When would be a good time for us to talk through my performance review?”
• “Here you go (hand them your accomplishments). I’m also really interested in your feedback on how I can make next year my best year ever. I got this great development discussion planner from Let’s Grow Leaders. I’d love to schedule some time to go through that.”

While lazy, vague, and frustrating feedback can feel super irritating, it also gives you a chance to take responsibility for your career development. Ask for what you need and giveyour manager the opportunity to rise to the occasion. Sometimes their insights will surprise, and help you make that next step.

Related Articles

12 Powerful Phrases For Navigating Challenging Workplace Conflict

How to Help Your Team’s Performance Stand Out for Better Recognition

The post Performance Review: How to respond to frustrating or lazy performance feedback appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

I don’t know about you, but we love a good “year-in-review” list. There’s something about looking back over the entire year and seeing what stands out. More than the list itself, it’s the conversation that it provokes that each of us finds compelling: “Really, that was your favorite…. interesting.” “Oh, I almost forgot about that one. That WAS a big deal.”

What are your year-in-review highlights? How would your highlight reel compare to the year-in-review highlights from your team?

A “what stands out” conversation can be a great team builder for your end-of-year meeting, or to enhance your December one-on-ones.

7 Questions to Help Your Team Reflect on the Year

Here are a few questions to help you facilitate a year-in-review conversation.

1. What are your personal bests?

One fun way to do personal bests is to give your team a list of potential “best ofs” to choose from, and have each team member pick one or two personal bests to share.

Best…

• Day (this one can be a lot of fun, and great for storytelling).
• Accomplishment (it’s always interesting to see which people choose– it’s a great indicator of what matters most to them).
• Contribution to the Team (also interesting to see what people see as their “best of,” and, of course, this can set the table for additional gratitude).
• Customer Win (it’s easy for “going the extra mile” for customer stories to go unnoticed. Here’s a chance to share.
• Idea (Celebrate the I.D.E.A.s (the remarkable ones), and even the great ones you were not able to use.
• Comeback (Filling the room with great come-back stories is always energizing).
• Collaboration (This is a chance to talk about when teamwork was at its very best)

Of course, a good follow-up question is… what made these best-ofs so great? And how do we get more of that next year?

2. Which of our projects/efforts/contributions was most impactful to the organization?

This is a great way to help your team consider how their work aligns with your organization’s strategic priorities.

This works well, even for frontline employees who may not be involved in projects with a capital “P.” Invited them to talk about ways they have contributed to improving results.

The natural follow-up conversation is to talk about how your team can continue to contribute in meaningful ways.

3. How have you grown this year personally and professionally?

Probes: In what areas have you developed? What development and training were the most impactful? What new skills did you learn? Which areas of your performance have most improved?

4. Who helped you most this year? How? What difference did it make?

Even if you’ve already thanked someone, you can’t go wrong with including gratitude in your year-in-review. A quick lightning round of this question is a great meeting starter.

5. What’s your biggest lesson learned?

What did you learn and how? How will you apply that learning in the future?

6. What would you do differently if you were to live this same year again?

Closely related to the lesson learned, this question is a good one to set the stage for strategic changes, priorities, and new habits for next year.

7. What important question should we add to our year-in-review discussion?

This question empowers your team to identify specific areas they would like to talk about as part of the end-of-year review.

We would love to hear from you. What questions would you include in an end-of-year review?  What would you include in your best of highlight reel?

The post Year-in-Review: 7 Questions to Help Your Team Reflect on Success and Key Learnings appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Unlocking Leadership Wisdom For A Growing Remote Culture

00:00 – Embracing Diversity in Team Dynamics

Discussing the dynamics of collaborating with diverse mindsets, the speaker emphasizes the enriching and sometimes challenging aspects of building a business alongside people with differing world views, underscoring the value such diversity brings to the workplace, particularly in a remote culture.

00:14 – Leadership in a Remote Culture and Organizational Success

Introducing EFU Media, the conversation touches on the company’s remarkable growth and its focus on creating an intellectually stimulating remote culture. The CEO details how balancing life, social responsibility, and an innovative remote work environment contributed to their success.

02:01 – Foundations of Leadership: Early Beginnings

Antonella Pisani reflects on her earliest leadership experiences, starting from her teenage years. She shares how these formative experiences, including running a small business and taking initiative in various roles, laid the groundwork for her future success, especially in shaping her approach to remote culture.

03:18 – The Entrepreneurial Spirit in Youth

Pisani’s story about her early foray into entrepreneurship as a young teen selling baseball cards provides a charming glimpse into the roots of her business acumen. It highlights how early, simple ventures can spark a lifelong journey in business leadership and adaptability in a remote culture.

03:57 – Strategic Focus in a Growing Business

Here, Pisani elaborates on Eyeful Media’s core business strategies, focusing on performance-oriented services like paid search and SEO. This segment gives insights into how a customer-centric approach, combined with strategic planning, drives success in a remote culture.

06:05 – Leveraging Cross-Industry Experience for Innovation

The conversation shifts to the importance of learning from various industries. Pisani discusses how this diversity of experience fosters innovation and keeps her team challenged and engaged, a crucial aspect of maintaining a vibrant remote culture.

06:41 – Cultivating Company Culture in a Start-Up

Detailing her approach to building a company culture, Pisani emphasizes the significance of authenticity, experienced talent, and social responsibility. She shares how these elements have been integral in developing a cohesive and productive remote culture at EFU Media.

10:15 – Authenticity and Employee Engagement

Here, the focus is on the strategies employed to create a workplace where employees feel comfortable being themselves. This approach, especially critical in a remote culture, involves thoughtful hiring practices and fostering a supportive environment where everyone can thrive.

17:53 – Client Expectations vs. Team Wellness

This segment tackles the challenging balance between meeting client demands and ensuring team wellness, particularly in the context of a remote culture. Pisani candidly discusses the complexities of managing growth and maintaining employee well-being in a fast-paced environment.

26:00 – Principles of Effective Remote Culture

Closing with practical advice, Pisani shares her insights on what makes remote work successful. From communication tools like Slack to intentional knowledge sharing and fostering connections among team members, these tips are crucial for anyone looking to enhance their remote culture.

Thank You to Our Guest

Connect with Antonella Pisani

Visit @ Eyeful Media

The post Leading a Fast Growing Remote Culture with Antonella Pisani appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

One of the real joys of being authors is hearing from leadership book clubs and teams who are reading our books together.

We love learning about what’s resonating, and most importantly, how teams are applying what they’re reading as they grow leaders and encourage courage and innovation.

And, you don’t get better at leadership or building culture just by reading a book. You’ve got to do something with what you read. We write all of our books so the techniques are easy to apply. We also make it easy for teams to read together and discuss what they’ve learned.

5 Ways to Improve Your ROI of Reading Courageous Cultures With Your Team

So if you’re considering reading Courageous Cultures with your team or leadership book club, here are some ways to spark deeper reflection, better conversation, and most importantly, action. You can also download (or listen to) the first chapter and the foreword from Amy Edmondson.

1. Download the Executive Strategy Guide

The Courageous Cultures Executive Strategy Guide is a free fillable PDF workbook where you will find the First Tracks templates, additional discussion questions to engage your team or leadership book club, and more detail about the tools, best practices, and approaches you can use to build a Courageous Culture in your organization.

You will find the guide here (scroll to the bottom of the page at this link.)

2. Leverage the “First Tracks” Tools and Conversation Starters

As your team or leadership book club reads Courageous Cultures, you will likely encounter ideas and techniques that feel like you’re in unchartered territory. If you’re a skier, it might feel like you’ve ridden the first lift up the mountain after a great fresh night of show and you get to make the first tracks in the deep powder.

Or perhaps you had a similar feeling as a child jumping in the wet sand and making prints for your friends to follow. Beginning in chapter 5, we conclude each chapter with a “First Tracks” exercise. These work great for book group conversation starters.

For example, chapter 5’s First Tracks exercise is a Courage Map to reflect on your own moments of courage. You could have each person in your leadership book club or team complete their map and come ready to discuss the questions in the guide. Questions like: “As a leader today, where would it be helpful to show up more like this or with these values?”

3. Complete and Discuss the Courageous Leadership Reflections Assessment

One of the tools our clients tell us is useful as they read and discuss Courageous Cultures self-assessment. You can do this at the beginning, and then again at the end of your book group discussion.

4. Own the U.G.L.Y. and/or Share an I.D.E.A.

Over the last few years, we have been using our I.D.E.A. Incubator process with teams all over the world to apply the tools to strategic business challenges and come up with practical, remarkable, usable ideas.

We would love to come work with you in this way. You can learn more about our Courageous Cultures strategic team innovation programs here. 

And, in the meantime, you can also do this yourself. You can download our FREE I.D.E.A. Incubator Guide which guides you through the process.

5. Experiment with Practical Ways to Be More Daring

You can also have your leadership book group pick an experiment from these Practical Ways to Be More Daring.

6. Supplement Your Conversation with Multi-Media Discussions

In any team or leadership book club, you’re going to have people who absorb information in different ways. Courageous Cultures is available on Audible (read by us). You might also consider including some supplemental videos like my recent TEDx Talk: The Secret to Getting Remarkable Ideas You Can Actually Use which contain new insights since the book was first published.  You might even invite each member of your leadership book club to find one fun way to share a key insight from the book.

A few ideas of how your team can share a big takeaway:

• A short fun video highlighting a key point
• Have each member bring an object to your meeting that represents something they learned
• Invite people to draw a picture of a Courageous Culture
• Or, if you want to get fancy, like this team at Amazon, use Legos
• Divide your leadership book club into smaller groups and each group teaches back a main point
• Have your team share images of where they’re reading Courageous Cultures.

7. Watch the Recording of our Courageous Cultures Book Group Event.

• Learn about the research that grounds Courageous Cultures and what we’ve learned applying these techniques with teams over the last few years.
• Explore a few of our favorite Courageous Cultures tools and how you can apply them with your leadership book group or team.

If you missed our Leadership Book Club Event: How To Read Courageous Cultures with your Team – you can watch it here now. (or click on the image below).

The post Leadership Book Club: How to Read Courageous Cultures With Your Team appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“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.

“Hey Karin, I have a great team, but they’re spread out ALL OVER THE WORLD. I wouldn’t say we have a trust issue, but I would like to find some additional ways to INCREASE TRUST. What do you suggest?

Today on #askingforafriend I’m taking you on a road trip to Virginia, on my way to give a keynote and talk about how to increase trust in a highly dispersed remote or hybrid team along the way.

If you’ve been hanging around Asking for a Friend for a minute, you know that so much of the trust research really comes down to 4 key questions. These questions apply to leadership, but they also can apply to teams.

To Increase Trust Ask Yourself These 4 Questions

Do we see one another as credible?

Does your team understand and value the expertise of each person? Does every member of the team have the opportunity to showcase their skills and share their background? Everyone wants to work on a team where they are respected for what they bring to the table. When this is the case, people feel seen and valued for their unique contribution.

Are we connected?

Does your team know one another as human beings? Is there time to connect, ask questions and connect around shared values and intentions? Check out these compassionate conversation starters for some tips on how to open conversations with deeper connection and increase trust.

Are we reliable?

Do your team consistently do what they say they will do, and meet our commitments? To increase trust, particularly in a global team with asynchronous work times, make sure you’re having conversations about expectations. How do you hold one another accountable? What are the agreements on the team regarding deadlines, communication, and follow-through? Lay these out so they are clear and consistent and everyone has access to the same agreements and expectations.

Do we genuinely have one another’s best interests at heart?

Provide opportunities with your team to share what they care about…professionally and personally. Do you have ways at work to protect each other’s interests? Do we have systems in place for when someone needs to take time off or miss a meeting? What about moving up in the workplace…are there opportunities to support one another around continuing education, increasing expertise, and learning new skills?

I’m curious, what would you add? How do you build and increase trust for a team that is seldom in the same room?

See Also:

How Do I Build Trust With My Team (Video)

The post How to Increase Trust in Your Remote Team (with video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

If you’re a manager, you likely hear a lot about not only leading and organizing but also being a coach for your team. And, it can be hard to know exactly how to make that happen in the midst of everything else you have going on.

Today on Asking for a Friend I talk with Sara Canaday about tips from her new book “Coaching Essentials for Managers.” She shares her expertise around how to coach your team to do their best work and help them achieve their highest potential.

Sara reminds us that employees “want to learn, want to grow, and want to progress.” Employees want to make sure they are getting the skills and knowledge they need to get grow in their careers.

Sara explains the importance of being both a developmental coach and providing performance coaching.

As a manager, you supervise and organize the workload for those you are managing. You set the expectations and give performance feedback.

As a coach, the goal becomes empowering your employee to be the best they can be by helping them identify and achieve their own professional goals. Just like with any human-centered leadership development, learning how to be a good coach takes effort and being willing to be coachable ourselves.

Developmental coaching is a vital approach to developing potential in your employees

Performance coaching is when you help someone improve in a specific area. With developmental coaching, you can help employees identify their professional goals and empower them to engage in the process of learning and growing. Instead of evaluating their performance, you become a partner for their success as you coach your team.

You’re the person who’s going to ask great questions to help them discover their potential.

Practical Ways to Coach Your Team

Here’s a practical list of Sara’s Dos and Don’ts from Coaching Essentials (pages 206-207)

Do:

• Build trust and nurture strong relationships with your coachees
• Position yourself as a partner in their success
• Be fully present
• Set the intention up front
• Confirm confidentiality- and keep that promise
• Maintain clarity about your role and your purpose as a coach
• Use a framework as your guide
• Ask open-ended questions
• Suspend judgment
• Finish with an action plan
• Hold them accountable for their commitments

Don’t:

• Confuse the role of coaching with training, counseling, or discipline related to poor performance
• Rely only on your coachees to identify their needs
• Fail to set ambitious goals that align with your coachees’ strengths motivations and interests
• Talk in code (e.g. “you need to be more strategic) rather than translating your recommendations into actionable steps with examples
• Neglect to enhance your own self-awareness and emotional intelligence
• Assume you wouldn’t benefit from insights and feedback provided by your own coach or mentor
• Underestimate the potential of your direct reports
• Underestimate your own potential as a successful coach.

What would you add? What is one of your best practices or approaches to be an effective coach for your team?

More articles related to how to coach your team:

Empower Your Team to Make Better Decisions

How to Coach Employees to High Performance When Time is Limited

Your turn. What is your best practice for being a coach for your team?

The post Coach Your Team and be Even More Effective and Helpful appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Every truly high-performing team has one thing in common: They spend time in candid conversation talking about what’s working and consistently look for ways to improve. They look at the work they’re doing and ask “how can we” do this EVEN BETTER?

And they enjoy and celebrate their success.

And yet, when you’re neck deep in urgent deadlines, fast pivots, and navigating uncertainty and change,  it’s easy to postpone those vital conversations to “someday when we have more time.” And of course, that someday may never come. Or, that conversation gets lost in the sauce of all the other important conversations at your end-of-year offsite.

But what if you carved out an hour a month to have the most critical conversations to lead your team toward high performance? Here are ten important questions to start with when building a high-performing team. What would you add?

10 Vital Conversations to Build a High-Performing Team

1. What is our vision for a great team culture?
2. How do we better leverage the strengths of every team member?
3. How do we best communicate?
4. What are our most important strategic priorities (and how do we best achieve them)?
5. How can we build deeper trust and connection?
6. How do we enhance the effectiveness of our meetings?
7. What can we do to give more meaningful feedback?
8. How will we hold one another accountable (with compassion)?
9. How will we celebrate success and learn from mistakes?
10. What ideas do we have to improve our team’s performance?

1.  What is our team vision for a great team culture?

If you are really looking to build a high-performing team, the most important place to start is with a clear definition of success.

An easy way to do this is to invite everyone on your team to draw two pictures: one of the team as they see it now, and one as they would like it to be. Discuss the themes and approaches for getting to your desired state.

Or, you can go a level deeper and involve your team in defining key values and behaviors critical for your team’s success. See How to Build a Great Team Culture.

2.  How do we better leverage the strengths of every team member?

Click on the image to download our “Land in the AND tool.

Another characteristic of a truly high-performing team is that they truly understand the strengths and gifts each member brings. They encourage confident-humility and focus on results and relationships.

Team members know their strengths, own them and use them. And, they know and admit their vulnerabilities and ask for help.

If you’re looking to help your team “land in the and” of confidence and humility AND results and relationships, click on the image to the right to download this free high-performing team conversation tool.

3.  How do we best communicate?

Our clients tell us that one reason our leadership programs lead to sustained culture change is that everyone adopts a common vocabulary.

High-performing teams have a habit of “checking for understanding” to ensure key messages are received and “scheduling the finish” to ensure everyone is aligned on what “done” looks like.

4.  What are our most important strategic priorities (and how do we best achieve them)?

If you’re a regular reader of our blog or books, you know we’re all about the MIT (Most Important Thing). One of the biggest differentiators of high-performing teams is that they have real clarity about what success looks like, and the critical behaviors to achieve them.

One of the most important one-hour investments you can make is to talk about your MITs and how you will achieve them. This Creating Clarity article gives you a clear road-map to do that well.

5.  How can build deeper trust and connection

click to download conversations starters.

Trust starts with connection. Sure, building trust takes more than an hour, but it can start by having deeper conversations. Our B.E.C.O.M.E. model is a good place to start, as are compassionate conversations starters. Click on the image to the right to download those conversation starters to use with your team.

6.  How do we enhance the effectiveness of our meetings?

When should you have a meeting? Who should be included? Which meetings make sense? Which needs to go? How can you enhance your asynchronous communication to eliminate meetings and help level the playing field for remote team members across different time zones?

How will you make decisions in these meetings? We’ve been helping so many teams have these important conversations. And, it’s pretty amazing the progress that can be made in an hour.

7.  What can we do to give more meaningful feedback?

Another characteristic of high-performing teams is that they “ditch the diaper genie” and have important, candid conversations that will help one another to grow and improve. And, it’s important to set the stage for this 360 feedback upfront.  

8.  How will we hold one another accountable (with compassion)?

It’s easy to think about accountability as your job as the manager. But the truth is, the highest-performing teams hold one another accountable. 

It’s worth an hour to not only talk about shared accountability but also to give your team a practical tool to do that well. Our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. method is a good start. 

9.  How will we celebrate success and learn from our mistakes?

High-performing teams take time to celebrate success and learn from their mistakes. They look down the mountain and see how far they’ve come. They make plans about how to celebrate and when it’s most important. And, they master the art of post-project celebrations. 

10.  What ideas do we have to improve our team’s performance?

Okay, if you’ve been following any of our research or writing on Courageous Cultures (download the first few chapters of our latest book for FREE here), you knew this was coming. High-performing teams have strong psychological safety and encourage one another to share their ideas. 

This conversation can start with a well-spent hour. Of course, to continue to build a truly high-performing team, we also encourage you to build this into your regular meeting cadence and one-on-ones.

Introducing the Let’s Grow Leaders Team Accelerator Program!

Imagine if you had a structured, scaffolded way to easily hold these critical conversations for building a high-performing team. That’s why we’ve built our new Team Accelerator Program. In just one hour a month, you have the framework and support tools you need to hold these conversations with confidence.

Your team will become more connected, efficient, and focused on what matters most.

Get a free Team Accelerator Demo for a first-hand view of this practical approach to building a high-performing team.

Your turn: What conversations do you think are most important when building a high-performing team?

The post How to Build a High-Performing Team: Ten Vital Conversations 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.

Related Articles:

9 Questions to Help Your Team Solve Problems on Their Own

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

In this week’s Asking for a Friend, I speak with Whitney Johnson, author of Smart Growth, about how to support your team along the S curve of employee growth.

When I read Whitney’s new book, I was struck by how her model reflected my own journey of taking the leap from Verizon Wireless executive to entrepreneur.

You’ll want to watch the interview, particularly if you, or someone you care about, feel called to take on a new challenge, or are particularly stuck or stagnating in your career.

The S Curve of Employee Growth

Whitney talks about three main phases of growth: the launch phase, sweet spot, and mastery. In the launch phase, you take on the role of “explorer” and “collector,”—you’re not committed to taking on a new challenge full steam at this point. But, you’re learning about the possibilities of this new adventure and if it’s right for you.

Then in the sweet spot, you learn fast and your performance accelerates. Key roles in this phase of the game are “accelerator” and “metamorph,” where you BECOME your aspiration.  This all makes real sense to me. I distinctly remember that moment I realized I was doing more than writing, I had become a writer.

And in the final phase, mastery, you’re confident and tested, and beginning to look around for what’s next (the next S curve for your personal or employee growth.

Bonus Track: Six Questions to Ask Yourself in the “Explorer” Phase

As I was reading Whitney’s book, I kept smiling through the “six questions to ask yourself in the explorer phase.”

So as a “Bonus Track” I share them as it relates to the “explorer” journey I began a decade ago, which turned into Let’s Grow Leaders (if you’re just tuning in here’s the backstory with a side of love story.)

As it turns out these are almost the exact questions  I asked myself at that time.

1. Is it achievable?

Once my leadership blog started gaining traction, I began paying attention to who else was in this human-centered leadership space. I reached out to every leadership blogger I could—talking with them about their approach, their challenges, and most importantly, what they were doing that led to success. As I found my human-centered leadership voice, I began to more fully understand my unique gifts and what differentiated me from others in this space. That discovery brought confidence. 

2. Is it easy to test?

Apparently, this one came from my subconscious. I was exploring before I was exploring. When I started my Let’s Grow Leaders blog on Sunday morning, I had no intention of testing my ability to start an international leadership development company. I just knew I had something to say, and began to write it down.

The funny part of this story is that I “shipped my art” (my really crappy first blog) to Seth Godin that morning. AND HE WROTE BACK.

I will never forget that generosity of encouragement to get me started.

3. Is it familiar, yet novel?

One hundred percent. The first decade of my career (and all my formal education) was about leadership development and communication. AND then, I became a large team operations leader. I’ve lived what I yearned to teach. I had taught leadership decades before in my HR roles. I knew how to build and operationalize high-quality leadership programs (and sell them internally to internal stakeholders).  And also importantly, I knew how to measure their impact on bottom-line business results.

4. Does it fit my identity?

Totally. And, I had to laugh, at age 22 I thought I was ready to start my own LLC (called values and visions).  I didn’t have the education, experience, or skills to do that … YET …  Although, I just checked my tax returns. I netted $500 in that endeavor 😉

5. Is the pursuit worth the cost?

Every single human I talked with told me the financial risks were insane. (Except for one random dude who came up to me after a keynote I gave that first year. He challenged my, “I’m prepared to make less to pursue my dream,” with “Why do you assume that?”  He was right.)

But the truth is, I was prepared to sacrifice some financial security to make a deeper impact on the world. And it was really hard the first few years. There were many days I wasn’t sure it would work. I gave myself a “How much I’m willing to lose?” deadline (I came within a  hundred bucks of that.)

A huge joy is that we can now give back profits from every program to our Winning Wells program, building clean water wells in Cambodia.

6. Does it align with my values?

YES! And that’s the real joy. I’m one-hundred percent confident I was put on this planet to grow leaders as a leader, a parent, and through our leadership development work around the world.

Smart Growth Interview Highlights

Growth is our default setting.

2:40 I share a story from Whitney’s book. A 56 year old shared how tired he was, and the lack of engagement he is currently feeling. While written way before the pandemic, it applies now. There’s a reason Adam Grant’s article on “languishing” was the most-read New York Times article of the year.

Growth is our default setting.
We may feel we have a good life, but if we aren’t thinking of growing anymore, go deeper as to what may be happening to our sense of engagement.
What do you need to do to rest and restore?

Source of inspiration

5:30 What has been a source of inspiration for Whitney and her own engagement?

Whitney has found strength in her faith tradition, and not abandoning it during the pandemic.
Working on writing a book and having a meaningful project.

The S Curve of Learning

7:50 We discuss the S curve of learning (based on a Diffusion Curve).
Whitney used this to explore a hunch about growth and engagement

Launch Point

Your brain is running a predictive model.
Many times those predictions are incorrect, and you are in new territory which is taxing.
You might feel overwhelmed in this phase and growth feels slow.

Sweet Spot

10:24 The Sweet Spot
Your predictive model is getting increasingly accurate
You are starting to feel energy and engagement
Growth is fast

Mastery

10:50 Mastery
You’ve figured it out
Your growth slows down

12:22 How do you coach someone who is in mastery?
Anchor – once you’ve accomplished what you set out to do, take time to honor it. Review what worked and the habits that got you there.
Mountain – What now?

Is this “A” summit or “THE” summit?

My team is on a variety of spots on the curve of employee growth. How do I help them all?

21:00 How do I help my team with their engagement and development?
You can manage your team as a portfolio of S curves
Optimizing your team for growth benefits from a variety of points on the curve
For example, those at the launch point need support, encouragement, training, resources, and you value their inexperience. Their questions can lead to innovation.

22:46 How do you help those who have reached mastery and aren’t interested in a new launch point.
Have an S curve discussion with them.
Remind them that learning is the oxygen of human growth.
Make a plan for continued growth to the point of their retirement/resignation.
Encourage them to leave an example and legacy.
Point out what they will lose if they stay stagnant

25:30 How do you help Millenials/Gen Z’s embrace a challenge?
They likely noticed other generations working very hard – almost too hard. They want to grow but not just at work.
Don’t be resentful, but be direct in what they need to do to be successful.
Humans like freedom, but we also like boundaries. Be flexible on where/when/how but very clear on what needs to be done.

Last piece of advice about personal and employee growth.

27:55 Last piece of advice
The purpose of the book is to give you a very simple, visual model of what growth looks like. When you have a map, the more you can grow.

If you like this Asking for a Friend on Inspiring Employee Growth, you won’t want to these:

How to Help My Team Make the Most of Failure (Colin Hunter)

How do I have more impact and influence at work (Liz Wiseman)

Development Discussion Planner (Free Tool) How to Prepare for a Better Development Discussion

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