Category: Leadership Tips HBR

Leadership Tip of the Week #91

adapted from HBR

Understand How You’re Perceived at Work, Ask two questions: 

It’s not easy to understand how other people perceive us. Too often, we assume that our motivations and intentions are clear, when they’re really not. To learn how you’re perceived at work, follow this process.

1. Select five people who observe you regularly in important work situations — bosses, executives, direct reports, peers, or even former colleagues — and ask to meet with them individually.

2. Tell them what you’re hoping to learn, and ask two questions:

A. What is the general perception of me?

B. What could I do differently that would have the greatest impact on my success?

3. Be clear that you’ll keep confidential whatever they say and that you’re collecting feedback from a number of colleagues.

4. Look for themes and points that multiple people agree on.

If the perceptions of you are in line with what you intend, great. If not, it’s time to change your behaviors and begin to shift people’s perceptions of you.

Good Luck

Adapted from “How Are You Perceived at Work? Here’s an Exercise to Find Out,” by Kristi Hedges

Stay in touch with your friends

Leadership Tip of the week #90

Adapted from HBR

Many people let their personal relationships fall by the wayside as they focus on their careers and start a family.

Yet research shows that we are more successful in our careers when we’re supported by a foundation of strong, stable friendships.

Don’t run the risk of losing touch with your closest social connections. Career and friendships can reinforce each other — friends can share big-picture career insights and even inspire your passion for professional growth.

Counteract the natural drift away, and make the effort to maintain your friendships. Call a close friend instead of just clicking on their Facebook page. Make plans to see them (and don’t cancel!). It’s OK to set ambitious career goals, but don’t sacrifice close ties in the process.

Adapted from “Being Too Busy for Friends Won’t Help Your Career,” by Neal J. Roese

Deliberately Encourage & Reward Collaboration

Leadership Tip of Week #89

adapted from HBR

There are a lot of reasons why someone might refuse help from a colleague.

Some employees prefer to be self-reliant, others don’t want to feel obligated to return the favor, and still others don’t trust their coworkers’ motives. But these attitudes can increase employees’ risk of burnout and hinder social connections at work.

As a leader, you can encourage and recognize collaborative efforts by calling attention to them and explaining how they contribute to the organization’s goals and mission. Be sure to demonstrate your willingness to accept help when you need it; employees are more likely to do it if they see their leaders doing it.

And be careful not to send mixed messages: If employees who go it alone advance more quickly than those who give and receive support, people will pick up on that discrepancy — and they’ll go back to looking out for number one.

Adapted from “Why We Don’t Let Coworkers Help Us, Even When We Need It,” by Mark C. Bolino and Phillip S. Thompson

4 Steps to Get Buy-in for Your Next Innovation

Leadership Tip of week #88

adapted from HBR

Everyone wants innovation in their organisation, but getting a new idea implemented can be a challenge, especially when office politics are in play. When you’re trying to get approval for your latest innovation, follow these four steps.

1. anticipate resistance. If you know what people might object to, you can plan how you’ll address those concerns.

2. understand what objections are truly about. For example, someone might say they object because of a publicly acceptable reason — say, the project is too costly — when their real concern is political, like they’re afraid their team will lose influence.

3. find a champion for the project. This should be a senior executive whose clout and expertise can help you move the project forward.

4. gather a critical mass of supporters. If you have a group of people who believe in the innovation enough to try it, you’ll have social proof that the idea is a good one.

Adapted from “How to Navigate the Politics of an Innovation Project,” by Brian Uzzi

Reduce Distractions by Figuring Out What’s Causing Them

Leadership Tip of week #87

adapted from HBR

Stress and distraction can form a dangerous cycle.

When we can’t focus at work, we often feel stressed about not being productive — which causes us to focus even less.

You can break this cycle by using self-awareness.

Pay attention to what’s going on the next time you get distracted: Are you bored by what you’re doing? Pulled away by a ringing phone?

Also, notice how you feel: Are you anxious because you can’t remember an important detail during a high-stakes presentation? Do you feel tense because you’re trying to find just the right words for an important email?

Your answers to these questions will help you pinpoint the source of your distractions. Before you can take steps to reduce your stress, you have to understand the underlying cause of the problems.

Adapted from “Break the Cycle of Stress and Distraction by Using Your Emotional Intelligence,” by Kandi Wiens

Leadership Tip of the week #86

adapted from HBR

Conflict is a normal, healthy part of working with other people.

And yet many of us avoid it at all costs — often because it feels personal.

To get more comfortable with disagreements, and to reap the benefits of productive conflict, let go of the idea that it’s all about you.

If you model that you’re comfortable with productive conflict, you’ll show your team that it’s OK to disagree, encouraging people to raise their ideas.

To move a work conflict away from the personal, think about the bigger picture and the business’s needs. Disagreements often arise over objectives and processes, for example.

When you and a colleague have different views about something, ask yourself two questions

1. Why is this difference of opinion an important debate to have?

2. How will it help the organization or the project you’re working on?

The more you can keep a conflict focused on the business, the better chance you have of resolving it in a way that benefits everyone.

Adapted from “Why We Should Be Disagreeing More at Work,” by Amy Gallo

Leadership Tip of the week #83

It’s important to encourage your colleagues to take time off.

Make it clear to them that this is a business issue — not just a personal one.

Use a few minutes in a team meeting to share some of the research on the benefits of holidayies, such as higher productivity and less stress. Then keep track of how many holiday days colleagues have taken, and periodically update the team so that they know this issue matters to you.

When people do take time off, tell them that you don’t want them checking email or voicemail, and that you’ll keep a list of things that come up for when they’re back.

And if someone on your team isn’t taking their vacation time, bring it up during their next development discussion.

Most important of all, be a good role model: Take full, disconnected holidays so that your team will, too.

Have a great Easter break….

Adapted from “How to Get Your Team to Use Their Vacation Time,” by Liane Davey

How to Get Through to a Bad Listener

Leadership Tip of the week# 82

adapted from HBR

It’s frustrating to work with someone who doesn’t listen.

Whether your colleague interrupts you, rambles on, or seems distracted, the impact is the same: You feel ignored, and the chances of misunderstandings increase.

But you can encourage your colleague to listen better by emphasizing the importance of your message up front.

Before starting a conversation, say: “I have to talk to you about something important, and I need your help.”

This sends a signal to your colleague that they need to pay attention.

As frustrating as it may be, you may also need to make your point multiple times, in multiple ways. Be transparent about what you’re doing.

You might say: “I want to repeat this, because I want to make sure it’s understood.”

Then follow up with: “Does that make sense?”

That way you can know your message has been heard.

Adapted from “How to Work with a Bad Listener,” by Rebecca Knight

Leadership Tip of Week # 81

adapted from HBR

If you and your team are facing a chronic challenge, you might be tempted to take control and vehemently argue for the solution you think will work, or to offer ideas indirectly and let your team take ownership of the issue.

Neither of these extremes is optimal.

Instead, try an approach that combines conviction and openness — that way others can come up with solutions that build on your best thinking.

1. With your team, talk about the persistence of the issue, what solutions have failed, and why.
2. Explain that you want them to choose the solution with you.
3. Make it clear that you are looking for new ideas, not a defense of failed solutions or rehashed versions of what you’ve already tried.
4. Build a set of measurable criteria with which you can evaluate options.
5. Admit any biases you have for particular solutions, and ask the team to treat those ideas no differently than their own.
6. Rate all ideas, including yours, against the established criteria
7. Most important, be open about the assumptions underlying your views.

Adapted from “Stress Leads to Bad Decisions. Here’s How to Avoid Them,” by Ron Carucci

Leadership Tip of the week # 80

adapted from HBR

We all want to find meaning in what we do. As a manager, you can help your team members foster this inner sense of purpose by asking them a few simple questions:

1. What are you good at? What do you take on because you believe you’re the best person to do it? What have you gotten noticed for throughout your career? The idea here is to help people identify their strengths.
2. What do you enjoy? In a typical workweek, what do you look forward to doing? These questions help people find or rediscover what they love about work.
3. What feels most useful? Which work outcomes make you proudest? Which of your tasks are most critical to the team or organization? The answers can highlight the inherent value of certain work.
4. What creates a sense of forward momentum?How is your work today getting you closer to what you want? The point here is to show people how their current role helps them advance toward future goals.

It’s not always easy to guide others toward purpose, but these questions can help.

Adapted from “5 Questions to Help Your Employees Find Their Inner Purpose,” by Kristi Hedges

When Leading a Turnaround,

Focus on the Future, Not the Past

Leadership Tip of Week #79

When you’re brought in to turn around a team or business unit, the deck might feel as if it’s stacked against you.

If your predecessor failed, how will you succeed?

First off, to effectively lead a turnaround, resist the temptation to emotionally distance yourself from the situation — you are part of this team, so embrace it. And minimize references to your past successes; while you should draw on what’s worked for you before, no one in a struggling organization likes to hear “This is how we did it at my old company.”

To help keep your colleagues’ anxiety down, be transparent about how you’ll make changes and on what kind of timeline.

But don’t be afraid to push back if they offer ideas that you don’t believe will lead to positive change. You want to clean up the mess, not create another one.

Talk About Skills When Talking About Promotions

Leadership Tip of the week #78

adapted from HBR

Conversations about promotions can be tense — both for the person asking and for you, the manager.

Your first instinct might be to consider whether the employee is a “good fit” for the new role, but it’s better to focus on their skills.

Ask yourself, What will the person need to do the job well? Then communicate the answer to your employee. For example, you might say: “You would need to develop expertise with Tableau,” or Excel, or giving presentations.

That is a far simpler message to deliver than “I don’t know if you’re equipped to be a manager yet.”

By breaking down the role into the required skills, you’ll demystify the promotion and make it more attainable for the employee.

Plus, a request to learn new skills is much easier, and quicker, for you to grant.

Adapted from “How to Support Employees’ Learning Goals While Getting Day-to-Day Stuff Done,” Nick Gidwani

Solve a Problem: Think About Worst Possible Solution

Leadership Tip of the Week #77

Adapapted from HBR

If you need to come up with a new idea, stop trying to think of the best one.

Instead, imagine the worst idea possible:

1. What would be the wrong way to solve this problem?
2. What do our customers absolutely not want?
3. How could we make all of our stakeholders angry?

Try to come up with ideas that would get you laughed at (or maybe even fired), and then work backward from there to find new ways of solving the problem.

This process, called “wrong thinking” or “reverse thinking,” isn’t always easy to do. You can start by trying to see the problem as a beginner would. What would someone who knows nothing about the context suggest?

When you give yourself permission to have bad ideas, you often come up with the best ones.

Adapted from “To Come Up with a Good Idea, Start by Imagining the Worst Idea Possible,” by Ayse Birsel

What Can You Delegate Today?

Leadership Tip of the Week #75

adapted from Harvard Business review

Many of us know the benefits of delegation: It helps teams share the workload so that managers focus on the work only they can do.

But in reality, you (like most managers) probably hoard tasks and become a bottleneck.

To fix that, start with baby steps.

Ask yourself regularly, even daily: “What can I, and only I, do?”

If a certain task could be done by someone else, maybe it should be. Try to delegate small tasks that add up to something bigger, or projects that are relatively simple. Also consider time-sensitive work that competes with your other priorities.

If you’re still struggling to delegate, try this: For two weeks, make a list of tasks that you might delegate, writing them down as you think of them. This exercise will get you one step closer to handing off the work you need to.

Adapted from “How to Decide Which Tasks to Delegate,” by Jenny Blake

Leadership Tip of the week

adapted from Harvard Business review

Celebrate small wins to change company culture

If you’re trying to implement a new culture in your organisation, colleagues are more likely to buy in if they see that the change is already sticking.

Demonstrate small wins early on and showcase examples of how the new culture will help the company achieve its goals.

Here’s an example. Before the pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s rolled out the company’s new mission, “Good health can’t wait,” leaders redesigned the product packaging to be more user-friendly and recast its sales reps as knowledge hubs for physicians.

When the cultural shift was introduced, leaders could point to projects already under way to show how it was succeeding.

Celebrating the first small steps toward a new vision helps your employees understand what the new culture should accomplish — and gives them models to follow when making their own contributions to the shift.

Adapted from “Changing Company Culture Requires a Movement, Not a Mandate,” by Bryan Walker and Sarah A. Soule

 

The Best Way to Defuse an Argument Is to Listen

Leadership Tip of the week

Adapted from HBR

Few things feel worse than getting yelled at by a colleague or a partner.

When a colleague criticises you, your first instinct is likely to be self-defense: You want to point out all the ways they’re wrong and you’re right.

But even calmly contradicting the substance of your colleague’s argument may make things worse.

Instead of rushing to justify your points, start by validating your colleague’s feelings and restating their views. For example, you could try, “I hear you. You don’t see your team’s input in what I just presented.” Showing that you’re listening and genuinely trying to understand your colleague’s perspective gives them less reason to holler.

Although it might feel counter-intuitive, demonstrating support for an angry colleague — without necessarily agreeing with their points — is one of the best ways to deescalate a conflict.

it works at home as well….. Ask Verity

Adapted from “How to De-Escalate an Argument with a Coworker,” by Liane Davey

Christmas Trees make a happier workplace

Leadership tip of the week adapted from HBR

Have you ever responded to an overwhelming moment at work by closing your eyes and imagining yourself lying on a beach or strolling through a pine forest path?

You may be onto something.

Research shows that exposure to green spaces reduces stress and boosts general health. One study found that greener office environments increased employee productivity by 15%.

Fortunately, there are easy ways to incorporate some nature into your day:

1. Hold walking meetings outside.
2. Use outdoor spaces for your lunch breaks.
3. Open blinds to let in natural light.
4. Green Plants in the office
5. Real Christmas Trees and “decking the hall with holly” at Christmas

These small investments in a more natural work environment pay off in terms of increased happiness, relaxation, and even stronger connections to your colleagues.

Adapted from “Why You Should Tell Your Team to Take a Break and Go Outside,” by Emma Seppala and Johann Berlin

Leadership tip of the week

adapted from from Harvard Business Review

Lose a Battle to win the War

You Don’t Always Have to “Win” a Negotiation to Get What You Want

The Brexit Negotiations led by our ” Brexit Bulldog”  will go on right up to the last minute of 11am March 29th 2019. and there is much to learn from the most important negotiation in our recent history.

Negotiators generally believe that acting dominantly will give them an edge at the negotiating table, but research has found that acting deferentially has its advantages too.

In negotiations with many moving parts, the best outcomes result from one person behaving deferentially and the other behaving dominantly.

When both parties are focused on “winning” the issue through dominance, they’re more likely to reach an impasse. But when one side is deferential, the dynamic becomes more comfortable and the negotiators are better able to parse complex issues.

Being deferential doesn’t mean becoming submissive or sacrificing your goals, though – it means using a subtle, respectful conversational approach to get what you need. And both sides being deferential doesn’t help either.

So if your negotiating partner is taking an aggressive stance, try adopting a deferential style – or vice versa. You may find that doing so helps both sides achieve higher-quality deals.

Adapted from “When You Shouldn’t Try to Dominate a Negotiation,” by Scott Wiltermuth.

Leadership Tip of the Week

adapted from Harvard Business Review

Create a Road Map to Make Your Work Feel More Purposeful

It’s too easy to allow entire days to pass by in a blur, without being able to articulate what you’ve actually done.

One of the most effective tactics for staying focused and productive is to bring purpose to each moment of your work.

Start by understanding and articulating how your daily work connects to your personal goals and the goals of the organization. Then use that information to create a road map in which you identify which tasks are critical and which can wait. Make time estimates for each task, plotting out your work so that you know what you should be focusing on and when.

Finally, name your distractions — and understand the root cause of them — so that you can catch yourself and return your attention to those tasks on your priority list. Knowing what you’re doing and why can give your job a fuller sense of purpose.

Adapted from “Stop Mindlessly Going Through Your Work Day,” by Leah Weiss

Leadership Tip of the Week

from Harvard Business Review

When Pitching an Idea,Think Like a Salesman

The next time you have to pitch an idea or project to get stakeholder buy-in, take a tip from your sales colleagues and learn as much as you can about your “customer.”

Long before you make your proposal, gather information that will help you sell your idea.

Have a conversation with the stakeholder you’re trying to win over, and ask empathetic questions:

• What problems do they need to solve?
• What do they need to accomplish?
• Do they have a personal goal, such as advancing in the organization?

Once you’ve figured out your customer’s motivations, you can tailor your proposal to suit their needs.

As a great “salesperson,” you should take a genuine interest in the stakeholder’s problems. Your pitch should describe how your idea or service will solve them.

Adapted from “How to Improve Your Sales Skills, Even If You’re Not a Salesperson,” by Rebecca Knight

New Leaders, Learn About the Company Before Implementing Your Vision

 

A new CEO or senior executive has a 50% chance of leaving the organization within 18 months.

Some experts attribute this failure rate to leaders proposing and implementing a new vision too soon. Yes, leaders should know where they plan to take the company, but it’s important for them to understand the organization first.

If you’re new to your senior role, take time to learn about the working environment. Listen to your colleagues and customers and find out if some of your ideas have already been tried.

If people ask about your strategic vision, don’t be afraid to say, “This is my opportunity to listen and learn. Ask me again in three months.”

Studying the landscape before rolling out your big ideas can prevent you from repeating the mistakes of your predecessors — and wasting resources on plans that won’t work.

Adapted from “The Biggest Mistakes New Executives Make,” by Sabina Nawaz

Whether things go right or wrong, we instinctively understand there’s always room for improvement.

And yet, remarkably, we rarely stop to ask ourselves exactly how we could have done better.

Instead, we beat ourselves up about our failures—playing the disappointment over and over in our head. Or we self-congratulate without taking the chance to build on our success.

Success and failure are opportunities for growth in equal measure. We should make the most of them. Decide what one thing you could you have done better, then go ahead and do it the next time