Tag: leadership

team of business people meeting with female leader manager project colleague coworker

Why You Need to Let Your Team Go

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last years, you’ll have heard about the phenomenon known as ‘helicopter parenting’. These are parents who won’t let their children experience failure of any kind.

In the business world, this is known as micro-managing. “Micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes and/or controls the work of his/her subordinates or employees.”

In fact, leading a team isn’t all that different from parenting. Not that team members are children nor should they be treated as such, but stick with my analogy for a moment and you’ll see where I’m going.

Avoiding being a bottleneck requires some planning

CEOs and top flight managers are often concerned with two issues:

  1. The amount of time they have to get tasks done that don’t relate to people management (which is often not enough!)—an issue every parent can relate to particularly when fights among siblings are a daily occurrence.
  2. Not becoming a bottleneck to work getting done.

The result is that in the aim of not becoming the bottleneck, they become too available to their team. Like the parent who is forever picking up after the older child who should know better, the analogic results for a leader or manager is that is that they a) don’t have enough time for point 1 and b) the team doesn’t learn to operate on their own.

Your team members must be set up to make decisions on their own, and fail if necessary. That is a far more valuable learning process than constantly stepping in to help them avoid all the pitfalls. Mentoring a team doesn’t necessarily mean making all the decisions for them and simply expecting them to execute; it means helping them find a way to making those decisions on their own.

Setting team members up to decide, not to fail

The previous point isn’t meant to say that you as a leader should set team members up to fail. Rather, you need to equip them with all the necessary tools and information so that they can make decisions without you. Non-helicopter parents do it all the time: they give their kids a certain level of freedom and the rules that surround that and let them go to it. As a leader, you need to think the same way with your team.

This means:

  • Clearly establishing the parameters and scope of their authority;
  • Encouraging creative solutions, even if they ultimately don’t work out, by not punishing failures;
  • Reviewing decisions on a regular basis as a team and seeing where improvements can be made, so that the review becomes a learning process for all.

Give team members some free range

The opposite to being a helicopter parent is being a free range parent. That is: “… raising children in the spirit of encouraging them to function independently and with limited parental supervision, in accordance of their age of development and with a reasonable acceptance of realistic personal risks”

Apply that to your team too: block off time to be available to your team but also block off time where you’re not. Whether that’s because you’re in conference or otherwise occupied, there are teams that will gravitate to always asking for your input because they don’t feel comfortable making decisions or have simply fallen into the habit.

Like the parent who wants their kids to be more independent over time, your team needs to be more independent and get into the habit of making a judgment call as to whether you really need to be brought into the decision in advance or whether it would be enough to fill you in later, at a pre-scheduled meeting.

A little trial and error where the errors don’t result in punishment will help your team to function on their own a little more, freeing up some of your time to focus on other priorities.

If you think about it, looking at the development of your team as a work in progress, as parents do with their children, you will be able to clearly see when they need a little boosting and encouragement and when they should be allowed to fly on their own. Giving your team independence is good for their development and feeling of accomplishment and it’s also good for your own satisfaction in your role. You can rest easy knowing that you’ve equipped them for the job you’re asking them to perform.

Sources: Wikipedia ;Wikipedia ; Wikipedia

How to Lead From a Distance

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

How do you provide a sense of purpose to your team when face to face interaction isn’t an option?

 

The importance of having regular meetings with team members can’t be overstated. Whether it’s to give feedback (positive and negative) or just to ‘check in’, much has been written about why this is important for overall team health, as well as individual job satisfaction and effectiveness.

Depending on the nature of the business, you could have staff that are working at a distance, or even a team scattered over a large geographic area, making connecting in person very difficult, if not impossible. So how can you authentically empower your team members from a distance and not have them roll their eyes at you?

 

1. Be clear on your purpose, as a team

If everyone is clear about what you are working towards and what the values are of the organization, it’s easier to motivate people, even from far away. When people are scattered, they need to feel that unifying purpose and they can’t do that if they don’t understand what the team is all about.

If everyone is clear about their roles and responsibilities, to each other, to the project and to you / the organization, they can get on with their work with a sense of confidence that they’re on the right track. Then it’s up to you to make sure they retain that feeling.

 

2. Keep in touch

Out of sight, out of mind: you might be tempted to push off the effort to keep in touch with each individual team member simply because you don’t see them every day. It’s easy to say that you don’t have the time and that you’ll do it next week. However, leading by example is essential to distance teamwork being effective. Reaching out regularly to each person individually also needs to be a part of your routine, as it would be in an office environment. It shows respect, commitment, interest in your team members, and enhances their trust of you. Hopefully, they will appreciate and even replicate the behavior with others.

More often than not, this will require a formal communication strategy, at least at first. Processes by which team members check in with you and you check in with them. Everyone works differently and so work with your team members in a way that is authentic to them. If a daily meeting is too much, drop it to weekly. Not everyone ‘needs’ to check in daily to feel included and empowered to get the job done. Others may need that support at least at first.

 

3. Don’t skip the small talk

Conference calls and video conference meetings are the norms for teams that don’t work in the same space, but often, they’re fairly regimented in the aim of not wasting anyone’s time. Fair enough, but there is a lot of ‘team building’ and morale-boosting that goes on during water cooler chats. It’s in these more informal interactions that you, and others, can learn each other’s non-verbal cues and idiosyncrasies. Replicating that in a Skype call isn’t necessarily easy but the person leading the meeting sets the tone for it and should make time for a little small talk at the beginning or end of the meeting. After all, you know what they say about all work and no play!

Another aspect is celebrations! Yes, celebrating a birthday, milestone, or project success at a distance can be tough but technology is there to make it easier. Such as? Send a package to each team member in advance that contains a treat, with instructions not to open it until the video conference scheduled for the celebration day. Then you can all open them together and celebrate! It may seem silly but it’s in these little ways that you can build a solid community, even miles and miles apart!

 

4. Open door policy

Make sure that your team knows when they can reach you freely, in the same way as they would in an office environment. If you were in the same space, they’d be able to see whether your office door was open or closed or have a sense of whether you are in the middle of a crisis issue and can’t break.

At a distance, those cues are gone, so creating a calendar with blocks of time when you’re available makes sense. Like a professor who has posted office hours, you can let your team know that they can always reach you but that X, Y and Z time slots are the best!

 

5. Focus on the outcomes and the effort

Unlike an employee whose desk is right outside your office, you can’t really observe or track how much effort a remote employee is making. Frankly, you shouldn’t be micromanaging an employee right in front of you that way either, but that’s another blog post!

Instead, focus on the outcomes. Are they delivering their projects/work on time? Is the work well done or does it seem rushed and incomplete? If they’re doing good work and they’re doing it on time, that’s what matters! If not, that needs to be dealt with too, so that other team members aren’t left feeling like that person isn’t pulling their weight.

 

Key to all of these efforts is authenticity. You have to believe in what you’re doing, and your team, in order to reach them. Going through the motions isn’t enough. Trust in the people you work with, show them what you expect and walk with them along the path. Even at a distance, thanks to technology, you can do all of these things and do them well.

 

 

10 Things Mentally Strong Leaders Do

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

Really, it’s a bit of a misnomer to refer to ‘mentally strong leaders’. Most leaders, by definition, are mentally strong. But like the chicken and the egg argument, which came first? The leadership or the strength?

 

Most successful leaders started out with many of these strong traits in their back pockets, but their time in leadership roles has honed them so that they have become a real part of their personality.

 

1.Embrace change and challenges

 

A mentally strong person will not shy away from change or challenges in life and in business. In fact, they will invariably see adversity as an opportunity, not a negative. There is a willingness to act outside of their comfort zone, for a greater result.

 

2. Take (calculated) risks

 

Risk for the sake of it is not on the agenda for a mentally strong person, but a calculated risk that could result in a valuable result is something they will engage in. That’s because, at it’s foundation, a calculated risk is evaluated based on logic, not gut.

 

3. Willingness to fail

 

Intertwined with the willingness to take a risk is the willingness to fail. One comes with the other! Mentally strong people maintain a constant state of relative optimism. That is, while they’re not mired in negative thoughts of failure, but they aren’t blindly optimistic either. Instead, they live in a happy medium where they prefer to see the positive but are open to reality.

 

4. Celebrate others

 

As with any personality that leans towards a good dose of self-confidence, the mentally strong person will always and happily celebrate the successes of others. That’s because they understand the merit that comes with achieving things and a core belief is that we none of us succeed alone.

 

5. Think wisely

 

Time is a finite thing when you consider our mortality. Mentally strong people tend to be able to think ‘bigger picture’, remove the extraneous details that don’t matter or aren’t worth worrying about and keep focused. This is the best use of their time and energy.

 

6. Maintain core beliefs

 

Even in the face of opposition, a mentally strong person will stay true to their core beliefs. Not in a stubborn way: they are always open to being disproved by others and will modify their beliefs if convinced. But they will also not sway in their beliefs because of peer pressure or some vague nod to popularity. They’re comfortable in their way of thinking and will defend it, if necessary.

 

7. Focus on that which you can control

 

Too many of us spend a lot of time fussing about things that we can do nothing about. Mentally strong people will take stock of whatever they are dealing with and make cogent plans for managing the issue, rather than worrying about it.

 

8. Learn from, and make peace with, the past

 

Whenever a past decision turns out to not have the positive results expected, a mentally strong person won’t dwell on the result. Instead, they’ll review it, take responsibility for it, see what can be learned from the experience, and move on. Viewing failure as an opportunity to learn and grow is in their nature.

 

9. Spend time alone

 

There’s a great line in the 1995 movie: Sabrina. Fanny Ardant, playing an editor at Vogue France, says to the young and impressionable Sabrina: “You seem embarrassed by loneliness, by being alone. But it’s only a place to start.” It’s so true!

 

Whether to get a handle on their thoughts, work through a problem or simply relax, mentally strong people are comfortable spending time alone; indeed, they look forward to it.

 

10. Practice gratitude and kindness

 

Being grateful and kind are choices that we make. We can choose to be those things vis-a-vis other people and situations. A mentally strong person will practice gratitude and embody kindness whenever they can because they know that these two attitudes can help keep any problem they might have in proper perspective.

 

An effective way to be mindful and remain grounded in gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal. This ‘secret ingredient’ to happy, productive lives is one that mentally strong people are aware of and embrace.

 

What do you do to stay mentally strong? Would you add to this list?

7 Tips to Help You Command the Room

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

 

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” — Thomas Jefferson

 

Whether you’re at a networking event, or about to chair a board meeting with a slightly hostile majority, fear is your enemy if your goal is to command the room. Instead, do as Thomas Jefferson suggests: act as if all the world was watching. What would you want them to see?

 

True leaders make their presence felt without uttering a syllable. Instead, their gravitas is almost innate and no, it doesn’t come from their title. So how do you do it?

 

Be on time

 

Nothing makes a worse impression than the person who stumbles into a meeting or presentation late, disrupting the whole event. If you’re standing around making excuses for being late, you’re not coming from a position of strength. When you want to command a room, that’s not a great start. Instead, make a positive, strong entrance.

 

Walk tall

 

Perception is reality: if you walk in looking defeated, uninterested, bored or anything other than purposeful, that is how people will perceive you. Do not walk in with your head down, shoulders bowed, shuffling your feet. Body language says a lot to others, so stride into the room with purpose! How you carry yourself tells others whether you’re commanding or just being. Even if you don’t know where you’re going to sit just yet, you need to walk in like you own the place.

 

Acknowledge others

 

Say hello, shake a few hands, and look people in the eye! It’s all about charisma: looking like you belong even if that’s not exactly how you’re feeling in the moment. Whatever your misgivings are, you need to show others that you’re engaged by acknowledging them. Eye contact is a strong body language element that gives the other person a strong sense of your confidence. If you look anywhere but at the person you are speaking to, you look like you either don’t know what you’re talking about or you have no presence.

 

Sit up straight

 

Slouching is for teenagers! You need to sit tall and straight in your seat if you want to look commanding, even while seated. The point is to give the appearance of strength. Women are in particular prone to minimizing their presence: shoulders hunched, ankles crossed, almost hiding.

 

Where you sit matters too. If seating isn’t assigned, take these tips on board:

 

  • Tables: sit at the table, not in a background chair. If there is a seat for whoever is in charge, sit near but not next to them. In doing so, you’re giving yourself access to them and still leaving yourself open to connecting with others around the table.

 

  • Rows: don’t sit in the front row, but choose a chair near the front. Usually, a front row is reserved for speakers or honored guests, so you want to be near them and able to interact with them if the opportunity presents itself, without necessarily being among them. The point is to be able to engage with those around you and ensure that they see you as much as you see them. Setting yourself apart, as would be the case with the front row, creates an invisible barrier to that connection.

 

Keep to your intro

 

If you’re introducing yourself to others, use your practiced and polished intro speech. No extra details: just the meat. This isn’t a pitch, so make it short, sweet and memorable.

 

Project your voice

 

When speaking, unless it is a private conversation, make sure that you project your voice. Not to be obnoxious but to appear authoritative. So many people get quieter, or worse, mumble when in a group situation, but if you want to be seen as commanding the room, you have to take it! No one is going to hand it to you.

 

If you are speaking to a group, make sure to gesture with your arms, above the hip. Keeping your arms away from your body gives a sense of openness and strength while you speak. Keeping them unmoving at your sides, almost like a robot, gives the impression of fear or weakness.

 

Influence by being concise

 

People who have an opportunity to speak, whether at a meeting or a larger gathering, but then drag on about a variety of topics instead of staying on point are rarely people of influence. If anything, they develop a reputation for being unable to get to the point, and people start to ignore what they’re saying even before they’ve begun speaking. Don’t be that person!

 

Know when to remain silent too: “Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.” ~Mark Helprin

 

If you’re not yet in a leading position in your organization, being able to command a room will get you noticed by those who can affect your role. It’s a skill that you need to practice to perfect.

 

 

So next time you find yourself in a meeting or getting ready for a presentation, remember these tips and remember that a great leader can lead a room without saying a word.

Do You Know Your Next Career Move?

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on!” – Sheryl Sandberg

 

What are your options to grow and evolve, when you’re already at a senior level? Obviously, that depends on your organization, your industry and your interests.

 

Most people don’t reach a high level in their careers without opening some of their own doors and breaking a few glass ceilings. The point is that even when you’re happy with what you’re doing, it never hurts to look forward to the next step.

 

Many careers have an obvious path but that doesn’t mean that you have to follow it. You can go from an accountant to a department head to an AVP and ultimately CFO, on a financial track. Or you could go from department head to running your own company, developing apps for accountants. However you want to change, there are certain steps you should follow to gather your WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY AND HOW. With these, you can be sure that your next move is the right one.

 

To reach your end goal, you need to know what it is

 

By end goals, I am referring to your WHERE and your WHAT. Where you want to be in five to seven years and WHAT success looks like to you. Ultimately, if you don’t know WHERE you’re going, you won’t be able to find the right path to get there.

 

Do you want:

  • More time for family or personal pursuits
  • Secure financial positioning
  • A more creative role
  • A challenging, ever-changing role
  • A whole different role from the current one

 

Ask yourself what a perfect day in your ideal next role would be? That should help you hone down what you see as priority end goals, and what you don’t. Factor in things about your current role that you DON’T like. They matter too, in terms of your overall role satisfaction.

 

In other words, WHAT does success look like to you? If you’ve already reached senior levels where you are now, odds are success looks different than it did when you were twenty and starting out. That’s okay. It’s not a fixed target!

 

Think about WHAT you want right now and for the next few years, not what you think is expected of you or what others want. It’s okay if you have several end goals since there is often a way to make them overlap. Prioritize your different end goals and focus in on the top two to help guide you.

 

Develop and research paths that will take you to role’s that include your end goals

 

Ask yourself WHY you want to reach certain goals. If you want to be CIO, why? Is it to run the whole show? Is it to have control? Is it because you have ideas that you think could take the company into the next generation of technology growth? Think about your WHY and then develop your HOW.

 

HOW are you going to get there? If financial stability is your goal, entrepreneurship might not be the right choice! If you’re bound and determined to become the CIO at the company you’re currently working for, what is going to take for you to get there? Figure out the path to what you want. Once you have the path worked out, you can easily determine if you can meet the steps required or not.

 

Assess your skills and possible sponsors

 

This is the WHO: Take a cold, hard look at what your skills are and factor in personality traits too. Do you have what it takes to take your career to the next level on a projected path? Do you need to enhance your skills or exposure in certain areas in order to achieve your goals?

 

If you want that CIO job, what is it that you will need as skills before you will be considered? Research other CIOs at other companies, get a mentor, improve your material skills (public speaking, organizational, etc…).

 

As to sponsors, is there someone WHO can help you get you where you want to go? Someone WHO will champion your career move, open a door or two or simply give you some solid advice? Work with them, network with them, find a way to open up a conversation and see if they are open to working with you.

 

Taking some time to reflect on the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY and HOW of your career path is like any business plan: it’s a guideline that can help you take the next step without falling into a hole!