You want to coach employees to improve performance, but there’s just so little time. Make every coaching conversation count, by focusing on what each team member needs most.

Effective Coaching Techniques

Coaching employees to high performance can take many forms. One person may need corrective performance coaching while another needs encouragement. One person needs training while another is ready to teach others.

Our Let’s Grow Leaders confidence/competence model is a great way to quickly identify what your employees need most from you.

Employee Coaching Template: The Confidence-Competence Model

We use our Let’s Grow Leaders Confidence-Competence model as a cornerstone to the “Be a Builder” module of our six-session Virtual Leadership Development Program. 

Our clients tell us it’s exactly these types of super practical leadership tools that bring the LASTING VALUE to their trainings. At Let’s Grow Leaders we are all about easy to implement, 100% relevant leadership tools.

click on image to download the confidence competence model

WHEN to use it:

You can use the Let’s Grow Leaders Confidence-Competence Model every few months to keep your development efforts on track. It can serve as an important part of your overall development strategy both at an individual and team level.

Or you can use the Let’s Grow Leaders Confidence-Competence model to ground your approach in real-time as you prepare to coach employees to higher performance in a specific situation.

Coaching Employees Examples

John is headed into a sales call with a new client. You know he’s nailed similar situations before but he’s recovering from a bad “last time” scenario and his confidence is shot.

You quickly assess that he’s in the high-competence / low confidence quadrant on the model, so instead of telling him what to do (training) or pointing out areas of vulnerability (coaching), you remind him of one or two of his past success stories in similar scenes.

Up next is Jennifer, who has been knocking her sales out of the park for years, but you get a sense that she’s phoning it in these days. You know she’s confident and competent, but it’s time for a challenge.

You use your coaching conversation with her to focus on building deeper, more strategic relationships in one of her key accounts.

Coaching Employees with a Deeper Plan

Or, you can use the Let’s Grow Leader’s Confidence-Competence model to map each member of your team and identify and calibrate priorities and development needs.

We will often work with a group of managers to map and calibrate each of their employees so they can work together to support one another in developing their team members.

For example, we recently worked with an energy company to map each of their customer service agents on the Let’s Grow Leaders competence-confidence model.

Then we facilitated a conversation about what the agents in each of these quadrants needed most. For example, they asked some of their “challenge me” seasoned agents to sit side-by-side with some of the “teach me” agents to support their training efforts.

They had a long list of “encourage me” agents who were newer to their roles and just needed affirmation and recognition that what they were doing was right. So they made a plan to notice and recognize a specific set of behaviors.

They worked together for six months on this collaborative development plan and, of course, worked to ensure every agent had a specific development plan.

Then we came back together six months later and did the mapping exercise again. It was remarkable to see the improvement in most. There were also a few agents that were still in the “teach me” bucket after much additional training and effort. Some of those folks, they admitted, had been having these same challenges for years.

That led to our “Can they really get there from here?” conversation. And for a few, the answer was no. And, HR agreed to work with each of their supervisors on their final performance improvement discussions.

Coaching Employees in the Workplace

As you look at people’s performance, keep in mind their levels of confidence and competence. Your approach will depend on how much competence they display and how much confidence they have in themselves and their skills.

The next time you’re dealing with a performance management problem, try starting with the lens of confidence and competence.

High-Competence/Low-Confidence: Encourage Me

When an employee has low confidence but shows that they know what they’re doing (high competence), encourage them. The good news is you’ve got a great foundation of skills to work with. Sadly, sometimes low confidence can come across as disengagement so it’s important to understand what’s going on so that you can help.  One of our favorite ways to encourage employees is to get them to solve problems on their own, by asking a series of 9 strategic questions. 

A few articles that can help:

How to Build your Team’s Confidence: Leadership Without Losing Your Soul podcast

The Best Way to Help Employees Have More Confidence

High-Competence/High-Confidence: Challenge Me

When an employee is both confident and competent in what they’re doing, you can challenge them with higher levels of achievement, new tasks, or new opportunities. This could be an employee in the perfect sweet spot of positive energy and flow, or maybe they’re becoming a bit bored and longing for more.

Ideally, they’re your A-players, although the high confidence/competence combination can sometimes manifest itself in feelings of superiority, particularly if the rest of the team is weak.

A few articles that can help:

7 Things Your High Performing Employees Want to Hear you Say

How to Manage An Arrogant Slightly Obnoxious High Performer

Low-Competence/High Confidence: Coach Me

For an employee who is confident, but lacks performance, coaching can help them tap into and develop the skills they need to succeed. They may need help to see that in certain areas, they’re not as good as they think they are.

This employee needs help to see his strengths and developmental opportunities more clearly. Offering feedback through assessments, specific examples, and coaching will help bring his skills in line with their self-perceptions.

Try this approach to help employees learn to solve problems on their own.

A few articles that can help:

Managing the Art of Tough Conversations TD Magazine

How to Give More Meaningful Performance Feedback

How To Make Your Leadership Expectations Remarkably Clear

Low-Competence/Low Confidence: Teach Me

Employees with both low confidence and low competence most likely need you to teach them, give them training, and show them how to do what they need to do. Train and teach the skills she needs for success in the role. There may also be a skills mismatch; have a deeper development conversation to determine if there is a better fit for her within your organization.

A few articles that can help:

How to Build a Better live-online Leadership Development Program

Confidence Bursts: Interval Training to Drive Results

How Often Should You Coach Your Employees?

Ideally, you meet with your team members at least every other week. The Confidence-Competence model gives you the ability to have frequent small engagements with team members – the exact conversation they need at that moment.

Looking for more ways to coach employees to high-performance? We can help.

This is no cookie-cutter, stale-off-the-shelf program. Every Virtual Leadership Training we provide is customized…designed specifically to meet your team where they are.

Or download our brochure or contact us at info@letsgrowleaders.com 443-750-1249.

 

 

The post How to Coach Employees to High Performance When Time is Limited appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You’re in a unique position to develop your team’s confidence (or erode it). In this episode, we discuss one of the most important ways leaders help teams to develop confidence and belief in themselves.

The post How to Build Your Team’s Confidence appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

A few years ago, I wrote an article for Success Magazine, called 7 Ways to Build Your Employees Confidence. Highlights include:

• Start with a foundation of deep respect.
• Be specific about what they are doing well.
• Give them an opportunity to teach others.
• Scaffold behaviors as they learn.
• Celebrate incremental achievements.
• Encourage them through mistakes and setbacks.
• And, my favorite, help them to fully prepare.

“Nothing builds confidence more than being the ‘smartest’ guy in the room. The truth is, nine times out of ten, the ‘smartest’ guy in the room is really the most prepared. Let them know that and ensure they do their homework by role playing the scenarios they’re most likely to face. The next time it will be easier.”

These seven ideas are foundational for building confidence. And now, after several years of working with leaders around the world to have more confidence and influence, I realize there’s another vital element to consider: Navigating the tricky “Because I’m a _______” mindset.

Start Here to Build Confidence

We were teaching the  I.N.S.P.I.R.E. model for having tough conversations during a Winning Well program. when “Jana” raised her hand.

“So can you talk about how to use this technique if you are a woman?”

What a fascinating question—particularly since I (a woman) was leading this particular part of the program. I was demonstrating how to give feedback to David (a man).

Our approach teaches managers to help the employee they are coaching to reflect and find their own path to change the behavior that’s reducing their effectiveness. This technique should work as well (if not better) for a woman as for a man.  We’ve been using it for years and have taught many women and men who are using it successfully. The short answer to her question is, “There’s no reason to modify this because you’re a woman. It should work just fine.”

But I also knew her question was more complicated.

What I heard in her question was an unspoken, underlying concern:

“How do I have a tough feedback conversation if I’m not sure I can pull it off?”

My mind immediately raced to all the times I’ve seen managers (more women than men) apologize for the feedback they were about to give.  Or ending their feedback phrases with an intonation that sounds more like a question, “This behavior is unacceptable?” And the myriad of ways people sabotage their influence with pre-apologies, “This is probably a dumb idea.” All behaviors triggered by a lack of confidence which undermines their influence and results.

So here’s where it gets really tricky. It’s certainly possible that Jana is dealing with a complicated circumstance where having a tough conversation is more difficult because she’s a woman. I’ve certainly had times in my career that felt like that.

It’s also quite possible that Jana is telling herself a self-perpetuating story that difficult conversations are always harder because she’s a woman, which diminishes her confidence, and impacts the way she’s showing up. When she shows up unsure, her influence diminishes and reinforces her deeply held belief that it’s harder because she’s a woman. It’s hard to know.

So if you have a Jana on your team, how do you help?

Digging Deeper

Of course, we all need to be on a vigilant lookout for discrimination, micro-aggressions, bullying and other toxic behaviors that hold people back, destroy confidence and diminish their contribution. That crap is real, and it’s hard to know if someone is experiencing it now or has scar tissues from the past. If they tell you those stories, believe them and do everything you can to help them find a healthy way forward.

What also breaks my heart, and is even more frequent, is when people let one or two bad experiences over-shadow all the positive ones and reach the conclusion that they won’t be successful  at something “Because they’re _______ (a woman, a white man, a person of color, fat, short …),” and that lack of confidence makes that story true. I see it all the time.

And many managers back away from this conversation — for fear of aggravating the situation. Or label them “a victim,” and write them off as low-potential. So the employee stays stuck in a tragic story of lost potential.

Questions to Help Build Confidence and See a Broader Picture

The best way I’ve found to help employees who are stuck in a limiting “Because I’m a ____” story, is to ask some provocative open-ended questions framed in the spirit of Appreciative Inquiry to help them view the situation more broadly.

For example:

• Tell me about a time you were really effective at _______ (insert area where they are lacking confidence). What was the circumstance? How did it turn out? What did you notice about yourself in that situation?
• Awesome. Can you think of another time? And another time?  What do notice about yourself in all of these situations? How can you bring more of that behavior or approach the next time?
• Who are the ______ (insert the affinity group they think makes this hard, e.g. women) who you see doing this particularly well? What do you notice about their behavior that makes them so successful?
• Tell me about the next time you think you will have a chance to do ________ (insert area they are lacking confidence)? What would success look like in that interaction? What’s one behavior you could do that would make that success more likely?
• Now imagine you’ve been successful in that interaction. What do you notice about yourself? How does that feel?

In our current environment, it’s easy to shy away from these conversations—and of course, they can only be held in the context of deep trust. But, it’s a tragedy to avoid them. Please don’t let one or two failed attempts discourage you from trying again. We need more people in the world navigating these conversations well to grow more confident leaders, using their gifts, to make a greater impact.

See Also: Building Confidence and Competence (A Frontline Festival) 

The post The Best Way To Help Employees Have More Confidence appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Of course, the whole point of my model is that it’s the balance of confidence with humility, but my point was not the point. I needed to hear her story.

They just filled a really critical role in our organization, and everyone was shocked. “We thought it would be you!”  I know I’m way more qualified than the guy who got it, and I could have added a lot of value. But the truth is, I didn’t apply. No one asked me to. I guess, I figured if they wanted me they would have asked.

She continued,

I don’t think we should be teaching women about the power of humility. I think we need to get them to learn to believe in themselves and tell others why they should believe in them too.

And then several other women chimed in with similar experiences. One C-level exec shared her observations.

I think the problem is that many women look at the long list of requirements on a job description and think “Shoot, I’m missing one, better not apply.” Whereas a guy is more likely to say, “Ha, look at this, I’ve got all but one nailed, I’m a shoe-in.”

As I listened, I thought about the many roles I have taken on in my career that were really a stretch. On paper, I was completely under-qualified for these cross-functional assignments. What was the difference? Why did I exude that “masculine” audacious confidence that made me believe I could be successful without the experience?

And then it hit me. Much of that confidence came from the fact that one time, one senior leader convinced me I should move out of HR and take on a field role for which I had no experience. He told me he had “no doubts” that I would be successful. So I put my hat in the ring and was hired. He was right.

The next time, I didn’t need any external convincing.

Humility has nothing to do with selling yourself short. Humility is about knowing the mission is bigger than you. For goodness sake, if you’re the best person for the job, don’t stand back and let someone else take the helm.

And we all need to be on the lookout for women and men, who might need a little extra convincing.

The post The Worst Reason Women Don’t Get Promoted appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The Internal Side of Breakthrough Results

The achievements of an organization are the result of the combined efforts of each individual. – Vince Lombardi

Wally Bock of Three-Star Leadership reminds us that breakthrough results and business success take more than smarts. Guts and discipline count, too. Follow Wally.

Michelle Cubas of Positive Potentials reminds us that breakthrough results are often like “overnight sensations.” We all know or heard of people who have come “out of nowhere” and were the next big thing. Stop there—Not true. See why . . .  Follow Michelle.

Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding points out that breakthrough leaders are curious.  They enjoy turning rocks, are willing to get dirty and courageously face the squiggly things they discover.  And those discoveries inspire change and results.   Follow Chery.

Bruce Harpham of Project Management Hacks helps us learn how George Washington laid the foundation for breakthrough results in the American Revolution and beyond. He mastered these four career hacks before he turned 25. Follow Bruce. 

Barbara Kimmel of Trust Across America advises that breakthrough results can be achieved by companies that proactively build trust into their business strategy. If you don’t think a business case for trust exists, this article may change your mind. Follow Barbara.

Scott Mautz of the Make It Matter blog helps us discover a formula that expresses how an organization’s energy is derived, and provides the four questions leaders can ask themselves to avoid sapping precious energy from the quest for breakthrough results. Follow Scott.

From  Matt McWilliams of MattMcWilliams.com: These four words are what helped a shy assistant nearly set a company record for sales…in her first week. Less than two years later, she scored in the top 1% on the SHRM exam as she transitioned into HR management. It all started with these four words.  Follow Matt.

Jennifer Miller of the People Equation explores what happens when you’re just plain stuck. Try these four tips to help you break through the mental clutter.  Follow Jennifer.

Michelle Pallas of Michelle Pallas, Inc. asks and answers: “Want breakthrough results? Change you!” Follow Michelle.

Alli Polin of Break the Frame  shares that you can’t achieve breakthrough results until you have the confidence to show up and lead from your truth, not from behind an illusion of perfection.  Follow Alli.

LaRae Quy of Mental Toughness Center observes that when we stop striving to do our best, we become complacent. We settle into a comfort zone that produces mediocrity, and it takes mental toughness to break out of that rut.  Follow LaRae.

The External Side of  Breakthrough Results

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

Beth Beutler of H.O.P.E. Unlimited gives pointers on setting goals with your team that will achieve breakthrough results. Follow Beth.

David Couper of Improving Police suggests that to inspire breakthrough results, a leader must: deeply listen to others (including dissent), oversee a quality training program, model an engaged style of leadership, create a system of improvement, be data-driven and sustain improvements. Follow David.

David Dye of Trailblaze, Inc. shares the most important five minutes you’ll spend to get clarity, accountability, and breakthrough results after your team stumbles upon a breakthrough idea. Follow David.

From John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement blog: Breakthrough results don’t always require remarkable innovation or even radical change.  Often incredible results are the result of creating a system that is continually improving and over time hundreds of actions build and help achieve breakthrough results.  Building such a management system takes great care. Follow John.

Jon Mertz of Thin Difference shares that as leaders we can get caught up in the hard-core metrics when we’re measuring results, but what if we also focused on heart? Heart delivers a confidence to make the places we work and live better with each week, month and year. Follow Jon.

Skip Pritchard of Leadership Insights shares, “Have you ever seen the massive pumpkins that compete for the world’s largest title? Thousands of pounds, these champion growers credit the good seed, good soil, and good luck. What I learned about breakthrough results mirrors what I learned from these monster pumpkins!” Follow Skip.

Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center points us toward research study into teams that create breakthrough results, identifying these six benchmarks of high performance teams. How does your team stack up? Follow Jesse Lyn.

Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context shares how respect is incredibly important. In the quest to create workplaces where people can find meaning and do their best work, she believes that we need to aim much higher. Follow Linda.

Call for Submissions. The April Frontline Festival is about Spring Cleaning for your leadership or team (e.g. renew, refresh, planting seeds). Please send your submissions no later than April 10th. New participants welcome. Click here to join in!

The post Experts Share Advice on Inspiring Breakthrough Results: A Frontline Festival appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Humility: We’re all shaped by it

“Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.” – Confucius

Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding reminds us that great struggles humble us, and make us stronger, softer and wiser leaders.  Read cautiously, this post may inspire you to wish for a big struggle!   Follow Chery.

Matt McWilliams of MattMcWilliams.com helps us with How to Avoid the Three Most Common Downfalls of Leaders (hint: one is ego)  Follow Matt.

Jeff Miller of the Faithful Pacesetters asks, “How Does Humility Equal Confidence?” Follow Jeff. 

Yes it is true that Solomon was gifted with great wisdom. But his greatest leadership asset was his humility, according to Bernie Nagle of Altrupreneur. Follow Bernie.

Michelle Pallas of Michelle Pallas, Inc. offers, “When people in my network reached out to support me during an important meeting it was acts of caring. If not for a snow storm that forced a travel delay and time for reflection, I would have missed being grateful. It’s an emotion that keeps me humble and yet without deliberate thought it is easily squeezed out.” Follow Michelle.

Skip Pritchard of Leadership Insights gives us humble leadership  lessons with Pope Francis as a model. Follow Skip.

LaRae Quy of Mental Toughness Center shares about a time when she realized she would be moving from knowing everything about her job, to a new situation where she knew absolutely nothing. It was tempting to feel humiliated, yet she instead felt humbled. Follow LaRae.

Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center shares how Alfred was deeply humbled by a wake up call and radically turned his life around. (Spoiler alert – this is a true story). Follow Jesse Lyn.

Humility: We all benefit from it

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” – Rick Warren

Beth Beutler of H.O.P.E. Unlimited reminds us to forget what we give, remember what we receive. Gratefulness leads to humility.Follow Beth.

Wally Bock of Three-Star Leadership tells us that humility is a virtue everyone praises, but getting it right is hard. Many of us face the same challenge as Ben Franklin. Follow Wally.

Tom Eakin of Boom Life  points out that parent-leaders who want to help their children solve their own problems often give advice. But giving the answers, surprisingly, doesn’t help change the behavior that caused the problems. That’s where influencing with humility comes in. Follow Tom.

Bruce Harpham of Project Management Hacks shares three ways your humility improves your effectiveness at work. Follow Bruce. 

Barbara Kimmel of Trust Across America shares 20 simple ways to be trustworthy. Guess what one is? “Be Humble.” Follow Barbara.

Lisa Kohn of Thoughtful Leaders  shares how a great leader is someone who can admit when they are wrong, and be gracious and humble when they are right. Follow Lisa.

One thing we want in life is respect. We want to feel valued and listened to. Humility is one of four practices to earn and keep the respect of your peers. Thanks, Jon Mertz of Thin Difference. Follow Jon.

Don’t you just love a big slice of humble pie? Leadership Coach Julie Pierce of Empowered by Pierce shares her passion for pie and humble leadership. Follow Julie.

Alli Polin of Break the Frame  suggests that we learn to use our humility to solicit and be open to insights and ideas from across the organization. Together, not alone, we can create and do great things.  Follow Alli.

Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context reminds us that leading now is not as much about leaders as it is about bringing out the best in those they lead and serve. Follow Linda.

Call for Submissions. The March Frontline Festival is about inspiring breakthrough results. Please send your submissions no later than March 13th. New participants welcome. Click here to join in!

If you haven’t seem my confident humility infographic, click here. to view and share.

The post Leadership Pros Contribute Thoughts about Humility: A Frontline Festival appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

I was the “client”–read that “scary exec”–who was doing everything in my capacity to have my team viewed as developers, not auditors.

As I made my way to the back of the room from the makeshift stage, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find a small, gray-haired women with eyes gleeming with pride. It was Lisa, the service rep who had swept the recognition awards. Lisa was one of the heroines in this call center’s turnaround story, I was delighted to talk to her to understand the secret to her success.

“Lisa, congratulations! You’ve got to tell me, what’s the secret?”

What she said next was so utterly simple and yet totally profound.

“Last year I was almost fired.  My metrics were a disaster.

Everyone kept telling me that I needed to be more confident, to be the expert for our customers. But the problem was I just wasn’t FEELING confident. And I didn’t THINK of myself as an expert.

And then one day, my team leader gave me an opportunity to re-record my opening greeting. I decided this was my big chance to sound absolutely energetic, confident, and convey my expertise. I recorded it again and again until it sounded just right.

And then a miraculous thing happened. The customers heard that greeting. They began to greet me with comments like, “Wow, you sure sound cheerful for so early in the morning.” Or, “I am glad that I got the expert, I should be in good hands.” Well, after that I just had to stay cheerful, and began feeling more confident. And you know what, I had to be an expert. Turns out, I am one.

After thousands of calls, only once have I had a customer respond to this in a negative way. My customers are getting a great experience because I know I can deliver it.

And now, here I am.”

That’s what we SHOULD have been celebrating… her story… that’s what the others needed to hear. Why hadn’t I heard the back story BEFORE I’d taken the stage? Why had I wasted that recognition moment?

I vowed to no longer be the executive hand-shaker without getting the details. (See also:  why your recognition is backfiring).

Full of confident-humility, she was poised to teach me what mattered most.

You Can Too

Even if it seems impossible to go that deep, it’s worth it.

Take time to understand the turnarounds. Hear the whole story. Ensure others know it too. Know matter how many layers fall between, as a leader, it’s always your job to know the good stuff.

I promise. It’s worth it.

The post The Turnaround Factor: Digging Deeper appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Confidence: Explaining It

“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” – Joe Namath

Beth Beutler of H.O.P.E. Unlimited shares how a shooting lesson with Olympian and Top Shot star Gabby Franco revealed three important elements of excellence and confidence. Follow Beth.

John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement  shares that without confidence people often take disagreements about the merits of an idea, proposal or action as an attack on them. With confidence people are much more able to separate their feeling of self worth from a discussion about what options are best. Follow John. 

According to Barbara Kimmel of Trust Across America, when a business that’s comfortable not having 100% market share confidently and happily recommends a competitor, they’re sending a signal about trust and confidence and most of all, about feeding the community first. Follow Barbara.

Michelle Pallas of Michelle Pallas, Inc. states that we act confidant when we deliver on our promises. It’s the only thing that gives us the right to hold others accountable. Follow Michelle.

Skip Pritchard of Leadership Insights says confidence is more important to your success than competence and provides three steps to building it. Follow Skip.

Confidence: Gaining It

“Confidence comes from discipline and training.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Paul LaRue of the UPwards Leader gives us steps for new leaders to overcome their fears and gain credibility in their new role. Follow Paul.

From Matt McWilliams of MattMcWilliams.com: You had great expectations, but you fell short. Now what? Here are five steps for letting go of expectations and getting your confidence back. Follow Matt.

Julie Pierce of Empowered by Pierce asks, “Do you ever find your confidence waning when you’re cornered?” Here are 3 Confident Comebacks for When You’re Pressured, Pushed, or Put on the Spot. Follow Julie. 

Confidence: Maintaining It

“To succeed in life, you need two things. Ignorance and confidence.” – Mark Twain

David Dye of Trailblaze Engage! shares several tools to overcome imposter syndrome and regain the confidence you need to lead well. Follow David.

LaRae Quy of Mental Toughness Center tells us five things confident women never do, and that confidence should never be confused with arrogance. Follow LaRae.

Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding asks, “How do you maintain your confidence when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone or faced with historical pain?” Follow Chery.

Dan Rockwell of Leadership Freak says “Insecure people won’t try. Successful leaders help others find confidence, assuming they want to find it.” Follow Dan.

Tanveer Naseer of Tanveer Naseer Leadership provides  5 measures leaders can take to build and strengthen their confidence. Follow Tanveer.

Call for Submissions. February’s Frontline Festival is about humility. Please send your submissions no later than February 13th. New participants welcome. Click here to join in!

If you haven’t seem my confident humility infographic, click here. to view and share.

Thanks to Larry Coppenrath for a wonderful map of our Festival’s Ideas.

The post Leaders Share about Confidence: A Frontline Festival appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“Too many women in too many countries speak the same language — of silence.”

~ Hillary Clinton

When I ask intelligent, articulate, highly qualified women to step up and take on more responsibility or a substantially bigger role, I’m often met with questions.*

“Do you really think I’m ready?”

“Are you sure I’m qualified?”

“How am I going to balance it all”?

In all my years of working with young staffers, NOT ONCE did I hear something like that from a man. Sure men have fears too. They just are less likely to say them out loud. It’s not all women. There’s no one who hates gender stereotypes more than me (and Hillary). But we have enough stories to be concerned. I imagine you do to.

How To Help Strong Leaders Build Confidence

1. Look past the obvious choice for special assignments – The most qualified candidate for that special project may not be the one banging down your door asking for more. Consider the strong less flashy performers quietly inspiring others to get it done.
2. Share specifics of why you believe in her – People need help in connecting the dots of their experiences. Articulate why you know they can do what needs to be done.
3. Debrief wins – Help the leader understand her role in successes as they are happening. It wasn’t just “luck” or the expertise of a “great team.” If her leadership made a difference, explain why.
4. Encourage confident communication – Point out the words that weaken (“this is probably a bad idea…” “in my feeble mind…”) and encourage power words (“absolutely” “game on” “we’ve got this.”
5. Teach the art of ignoring stupidity – Many female leaders tend to take scrutiny more personally than men. And sadly, appearances and other superficial characteristics tend to get more focus for women. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, women leaders need rhino skin. And as Hillary added, we still do, we now just have better skin care products to hide it. Help your leaders focus on what matters, and ignore criticism that doesn’t.

*Quote is paraphrased, apologies to Hillary Clinton if it’s not precise…sentiment is spot on.

The post Hillary Clinton And I Share This Concern appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

• “Can I trust you?”
• “How do you talk to your boss?”
• “Are you like the last guy?”

When we have been with a team longer, our teams have real perceptions and interpretations of our actions.

• “Is this a pattern?”
• “Does she always have my back?”
• “How does he act under stress?”
• “How is she treating everyone else?”

After years of leading, being led, coaching leaders, reading employee surveys, and hanging out with leaders here’s my best summary of what inspires or destroys trust.

“Why I Trust You”

Because you

• let me know where I stand
• share information
• back me up
• help me learn from mistakes
• share how you make decisions
• treat other people well
• do what you say you will
• understand what makes me tick
• have my best interests in mind
• admit when you are wrong
• encourage dissent

Why I Don’t

Because you

• let politics trump logic
• withhold information I need
• talk about me behind my back
• break commitments
• keep changing your mind
• react without understanding
• don’t get to know me
• ignore me

What are you doing to develop trust within your teams?

The post A Matter of Trust: Why I Trust You, Why I Don't appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.