I started touring
colleges this past week with my oldest son, a high schooler who’s pretty
curious about the whole college experience.
I was excited about
the first college we toured; I felt it suited him perfectly. We’d watched a few
videos on YouTube about the school and its programs, as well as attended a
virtual tour. When we got there, the first impression of the institution was
solid but, within minutes, I hate to say it, the cracks in the veneer began to
show.
I won’t go into
details (discretion is the better form of valor), but I will say that I went
from a huge fan of the college to a critical evaluator of the institute and its
programs.
I started to write an
email to admissions to let them know a few of my gripes, quips, and
disappointments. Once the note was complete, and before I hit “send,” I re-read
what I wrote and decided to hit delete. My note felt snarky and the tone just
didn’t seem right. The feedback I wanted to share didn’t seem helpful and it
just wasn’t meant for an email.
I opted for a phone
call instead. Rather than a one-sided note flung through cyberspace, I felt
that a conversation would be a better medium – it’d convey my respect, interest
in helping improve the admissions process, and share helpful insight into my
observations. (The call’s scheduled for this week.)
This brings me to the
point of this email. I know many of us like to share feedback with others via
email. I get it entirely – it feels safer to articulate our words in text and
hit send than to have a face-to-face where conflict or disagreement might
ensue. But have you ever thought that constructive feedback through this medium
isn’t caring and can be misconstrued?
Here’s the deal –
email is great for admin. You’ll need, though, either a phone call or a
face-to-face when the following criteria apply:
You have to say something that could be taken the wrong way
You have critical/constructive feedback to deliver
There are stakes involved in the dialogue
You don’t want what you intend to put in writing to be printed and/or forwarded
The other person might feel disrespected if you don’t talk to them directly
Delivering feedback in
this manner can be difficult … I know. Sometimes it’s hard to follow my own
advice. But there are times when we have to remind ourselves that we’re
leaders. Leaders do the hard stuff because they recognize that when things are
uncomfortable, they’re stretching, growing, and probably doing the right thing.
Written by Angie Morgan via Leadstar. Visit Leadstar to read the full article.
Common wisdom in management science and
practice has it that to build support for a change project, visionary
leadership is needed to outline what is wrong with the current situation. By
explaining how the envisioned change will result in a better and more appealing
future, leaders can overcome resistance to change. But research, recently
published in the Academy of Management Journal, leads us to add a
very important caveat to this.
A root cause of resistance to change is
that employees identify with and care for their organizations. People fear that
after the change, the organization will no longer be the organization they
value and identify with — and the higher the uncertainty surrounding the
change, the more they anticipate such threats to the organizational identity
they hold dear. Change leadership that emphasizes what is good about the
envisioned change and bad about the current state of affairs typically fuels
these fears because it signals that changes will be fundamental and
far-reaching.
Counterintuitively, then, effective change
leadership has to emphasize continuity — how what is central to “who we are” as
an organization will be preserved, despite the uncertainty and changes on the
horizon.
This is a straightforward and actionable
notion that we put to the test in two studies. The first study was a survey of
209 employees and their supervisors from a number of organizations that
announced organizational change plans (including relocations and business
expansions, reorganizations, structural or technical changes, product changes,
changes in leadership, and mergers). The focus was on how effective the
leadership was in stimulating employee support for the change, measured through
supervisor ratings of employee behavior. As predicted, results showed that
leadership was more effective in building support for change the more that
leaders also communicated a vision of continuity, because a vision of
continuity instilled a sense of continuity of organizational identity in
employees. These effects were larger when employees experienced more
uncertainty at work (as measured by employee self-ratings).
In the second study, we tested the same
idea using a laboratory experiment so that we could draw conclusions about
causality. 208 business school students participated in the study, and the
context was potential changes in the school’s curriculum. They received one of
two messages allegedly from the dean of the business school. One conveyed
a vision of change for the curriculum, and the other conveyed the same vision
of change but also conveyed a vision of continuity of identity. Independent of
which message they were exposed to, students received one of two versions of
background information that suggested either low uncertainty or high
uncertainty about change outcomes. We then assessed their sense of continuity
of identity and their support for the change as expressed in actual behavior:
help in drafting a letter to persuade other students to support the change. The
results of this second study were similar to those of the first: Support for
change was higher when the vision of change was accompanied by a vision of
continuity, because in this case people’s sense of continuity of identity was
higher. Again, the effects were stronger when uncertainty about the change was
higher.
The implications of this research are
straightforward. In overcoming resistance to change and building support for
change, leaders need to communicate an appealing vision of change in
combination with a vision of continuity. Unless they are able
to ensure people that what defines the organization’s identity — “what
makes us who we are” — will be preserved despite the changes, leaders may have
to brace themselves for a wave of resistance.
Organizational leaders
may say they are committed to employee well-being, but unintentional messages
and behaviors can signal otherwise, leading employees at all levels to default
to their draining routines. How we leverage time and calendars can be a powerful,
reinforcing message around valuing resilience and recharge.
Six ideas to get started
are:
Create a daily ‘away from the office’ routine — for example, during lunchtime — to set boundaries and manage expectations.
Send no email after 7 p.m. local time or opt to use “delay send.”
Walk as part of your meetings. If possible, skip the video in exchange for an old-school phone call and walk while talking. Build movement into your meetings, pausing every 60 minutes or so for everyone to take a brief stroll or stretch.
Consider no-meeting Fridays. If that’s too bold, start with no-meeting Friday afternoons.
Schedule shorter meetingsto allow for a rejuvenating “commute” between video calls and meetings. For example, 25 instead of 30 minutes…or 50 instead of 60 minutes.
Surprise and delight! Give a Friday off, an extra PTO day, or another reward that makes sense for your organization.
Sustained, peak
performance is achievable when individuals and organizations prioritize
intentional recharging. Burnout is not an inevitable phase of our work life, nor a
badge of honor to wear. With intention and attention, we can create the
conditions for ourselves and our employees to burn bright.
What are ways you help your employees burn bright? I would enjoy reading. Email us at aha@ahaleadership.com
I am a morning person and enjoy quick news soundbites, such as ‘The Skimm’ daily email. This appeared in a ‘Skimmed from the Couch’ January issue, and worth a repeat. As many continue to navigate WFH from novelty to the status quo, here are 9 tips and tricks that may help you create new habits or reboot old ones.
1) Setting
Up
For when you miss your morning commute…Fake it till you make
it (again). Commuting into the office can help create a work-life boundary and
prep you for the day ahead. The bedroom to living room commute? Not so much. So
take a conmute, or con yourself into thinking you’re commuting. This can mean walking
around the block listening to a podcast or a pump-up playlist.
2) For
when you’ve gotten tired of your home “office”…
Find a new home. If you can, set up in the room with the
most natural light or multiple light sources. This helps ward off eye strain
from blue light. It’ll help you sleep better too, since you’ll be living in
sync with your circadian rhythm (aka natural sleep-wake cycle).
3) For
when you feel overwhelmed…
Lists, but make them exciting. Instead of a standard to-do
list, make a D-List, divided into three sections: “Doing,” “Dealing,” and
“Dreaming.” In the Doing section, write down the 1-3 work tasks that must get
done that week. In the Dealing section, write down personal, household, or
other tasks that should get done. And in the Dreaming section, write down
something exciting or inspiring you’d like to dig into. This can be an article
you’ve been meaning to read, a piece of art you want to look at more closely,
or a (socially distanced) trip you want to plan.
4) Getting After It
For when your calendar is booking up…
Block it off. If your work requires deep focus, you won’t be
able to get that done with back-to-back Zoom meetings. Grab a few 1-3 hour
blocks on your calendar every week and mark them off for deep focus work. Some
people say that they do this work better in the AM, others prefer afternoon.
Try both and see which works for you.
5) For when you zone out of virtual meetings (or virtually every meeting)…
Close. Those. Tabs. It’s tempting to buy that shirt with
“only one left in your size” mid-meeting, but this will end up wasting your
time and everyone else’s. Grab a notebook (how vintage) and take notes by hand
to resist the pull of the Interwebs.
6) For when you’re feeling Zoom fatigue…
Try and pad your meetings with a 5-10 minute break in
between to give your eyes and brain a rest. And opt to use a good ole audio
call instead of Zoom when you can. It gives your eyes a break and lets you
focus solely on listening, instead of how you look on video. We get it: The
(eye) struggle is real.
7) For when you keep getting distracted…
Break up with your distractions. If you keep opening new,
shiny tabs (hint: researching anti-aging serums or pulling up menus from
restaurants you miss), you might need to try an Internet blocker app like
Freedom. If your distractions come from your SO or family, make it clear that
you need dedicated space. Say something concrete like, “Can we block off 20
minutes together at 4pm to talk about this?” Then put it on your calendar. This
might feel like you’re running your personal life like a business, but structure
can help manage most aspects of life.
9) For when you need a break…
Take one. Take many. There’s no hard and fast rule for how
many breaks you should take per day, but Skimm HQ is partial to the post-lunch
walk. Some HQ’rs also like the Pomodoro technique: 25-minute work intervals,
each followed by a 5-minute break. After four 25-minute work blocks, take a
longer 15-20 minute break. This helps create a sense of urgency while avoiding
burnout.
10) Logging Off
For when your 9 to 5 becomes 9 to 7 or 8 or 9…
Log off at the same time every day. This might seem
unrealistic, but try it for a week. Since your D-List runs on a weekly cadence,
you can tackle what’s leftover the next day. Saying “bye” to the remote office
at the same time every day creates a renewed sense of separation so that work
doesn’t permeate every aspect of your life.
11) For when you’re answering emails in bed…
Keep bed a sacred space. No computers or phones allowed.
This creates another barrier between work and life. Bonus: It’s more beneficial
for sleep and mental health.
WFH can feel like a lawless land. Congrats, you’re now the mayor. Set the rules, create the habits, and productivity will have a better shot at falling in line.
As we enter a new year, organizations
continue to adjust to the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, including an
extension of work-from-home policies for many employees. As more time goes on
between “what used to be” and “the new normal,” the need to establish updated
procedures for employee-performance conversations has become imperative.
Employee performance conversations can be
challenging for all involved, even without considerations related to working
remotely during a pandemic. However, these conversations should still be a
priority to ensure future productivity, maintain morale and let employees know
you are invested in their performance as a member of the organization.
If your team is continuing with remote work, consider approaching performance conversations in a new way — thoughtfully, with compassion, and with a structured plan for mutually beneficial results.
Here are five ways to improve remote employee evaluations.
1-Check-in more often.
About three years ago, the University of Phoenix did away with annual performance reviews in favor of quarterly check-ins. It was a smart move then, and it makes even more sense now.
More frequent, structured conversations can
help offset the lack of in-person connectivity that naturally occurs in an
office setting.
It also allows managers to gauge whether employees are receiving the support
needed to complete tasks, meet objectives and succeed in their roles in their
work-from-home environment.
These regular check-ins should be used to make sure that expectations are clearly understood and that progress is being made. Remember that in many cases, remote employees are likely not working straight through from 9 to 5 every day, so this measure no longer applies.
2-Be compassionate but firm.
Leadership in a time of uncertainty requires
emotional intelligence. Every employee has challenges, some work-related and
some not. From the stress of helping children with online learning to managing
anxiety and depression to caring for an elderly parent, each stressor can
affect an employee’s work.
Communicating with understanding lets employees
know you care about their overall well-being and don’t view them as a cog in a
machine. This does not mean employees should be absolved of expectations or
responsibilities. It does mean you may have to think creatively and make
adjustments to support their success.
For instance, managers may need to consider flexible deadlines instead of rigid ones for noncritical work or reallocate resources to see a project or assignment through to completion. Rather than changing expectations, find solutions to achieve goals. This ensures continuity for the organization and shows employees you value them. Your return on investment will be in loyalty from your employees.
3-Reflect on the past, but focus on the future.
Managers sometimes make the mistake of using
performance conversations to look backward only, missing the opportunity to
look forward.
While evaluating an employee’s past performance is important, it shouldn’t be
the sole focus of your conversation. The past can be instructive, but you
cannot change it.
Instead, leverage past experiences as a way to create future successes. Performance conversations should be less about what happened during the past quarter and more about how to align to achieve success moving forward. A manager should leave a performance conversation knowing what the employee needs to effectively accomplish goals, and the employee should leave knowing the expectations. If you can effectively communicate on both ends, successful outcomes should follow.
4-Rethink your rating system.
Around the time we did away with annual
reviews, UOPX also nixed the traditional rating system, such as “needs
improvement, meets expectations,” etc.
Putting labels on employees does not add
value. In fact, employees can become so focused on the performance review label
that it distracts from what matters most in a performance conversation —
setting the employee up for success.
The value is in the coaching and the feedback, not an arbitrary label or rating. That focus is even more important now as we balance the stresses of the pandemic.
5-Camera on or camera off?
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, I typically
met with employees face-to-face for performance conversations, even if they
telecommuted. There is value in seeing someone’s body language and hearing
their tone of voice.
To personalize these conversations now, I
prefer video calls to phone calls. It provides a sense of normalcy and allows
for human connection. At the same time, I recognize that some employees may
have reasons for keeping their camera off. In those situations, I always
turn my camera on as the leader even if the employee feels more comfortable
with their camera off. I want them to see they have my undivided attention.
While it may seem easier to delay performance
conversations or even scrap them entirely, they are necessary now more than
ever. Adjust your processes to best meet the needs of your employees, but do
not do away with the opportunity to provide feedback and support for your team
members.
Source: Jeff Andes January 22, 2021, Chieflearningofficer.com
Judy Rathwell, Project Director-Aha! Leadership