Practice to Hone Your Leadership
High performance depends on BUNDLES of organizational practices. not any individual one. How often? Where are they? Suppose I need guidance?
Organizations put practices in place to support its mission, its vision and its values. Practices are something leaders perform and train daily. They are repeated daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. When you perform something often, it’s a practice.
In organizations, practices are a series of programs for leaders to apply daily that build and sustain relationships across the company. Each organizational practice is designed to reinforce the other, so that the total is greater than the parts. Can you have practices without principles? No. The practices support the principles, which build the relationships to solve the problems.
Let’s look at simple FAQs for the criteria for a practice. Asking some key questions can guide leadership in creating practices consistent with each other. Does it promote shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect? Does it open communication? (Between peers, across departments/locations, between management/staff) Does it foster a sense of community? Does it support your mission statement?
Some common practices and management philosophies used across successful organizations around the globe include: hiring for relational coordination; behavioral interviewing; boundary spanning; building communities; communication; conflict resolution; discovery questions; recognition programs; mentorship programs; progressive discipline (bad apple process); huddles to raise the sights of the team; sales roundtables; team building games; touch base sessions; continuous quality improvement workshops; and so forth...
Think of some practices, or management tools, that are currently in place within your organization. Identify areas in your business where you see room for improvement. Using this criteria, review the practices and processes around these business areas to identify the bottleneck preventing the company members from working together to achieve a more desirable result.
Repeat this exercise for areas in your organization where your business is exceeding expectations in the results. What practices contribute to the success? How can you implement what’s working in other areas of the company to better serve the customer?
______________
Practices are a series of programs for managers to apply daily that build and sustain relationships across their company. Think of practices like a toolkit. A builder knows when to go into the toolbox to reach for a hammer when he needs to secure the foundation of a house the same way that leaders reach into their toolkit to utilize a practice when they need to train, coach or develop their team.
HIRING PRACTICES
Typically, organizations set practices in place to hire and train for relational competence by utilizing recruitment techniques throughout the hiring and on-boarding processes. Common companies tend to hire solely based on functional expertise. Interviewing candidates based only on their functional expertise produces as much of a chance for a return on your investment as blind speed dating. Effective leaders utilize behavioral interviewing questions and scenarios to hire for relational competence.
Leaders and HR Professionals are the gatekeepers to any organization and it’s a shared responsibility to get the right people on the bus. Too often, managers do not run help wanted ads until there is an open position. Then, due to workload and the daily demands of running a business, the position is filled quickly with the best available candidate. While these new hires may be good, solid performers, more often than not, they are usually not great performers. This puts your business at a greater risk and a greater loss in the long run. Work with your leadership team to always be looking for great people to maintain efficiency in building a pipeline of strong fit candidates to back fill positions throughout the organization.
In the book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins explains why some companies make the leap and others don’t: “The right people are self motivated and are intrinsically driven to succeed. These employees do not need to be tightly managed, but instead are leaders and set the example for others on your team.” The right people will always help spread the right behaviors throughout their departments and the organization.
Leaders who take pride in getting the right people on the bus want to contribute to the hiring process however they can. Some leadership teams practice a self-assessment tool as a guideline to determine how likely it is that candidates will be successful. Areas for leaders to inspect include: technical proficiency, leadership skills (ability to motivate others), interpersonal skills (ability to build successful working relationships), team skills (ability to work interdependently), conflict management (diplomatic skills), self-motivation (drive for results), fitting into the organizational culture, catalyzing positive changes (driving for CQI), representing the organization well to external entities, and going beyond formal job descriptions to contribute outside of one’s own role.
At the end of each assessment, candidates will be found to be one of two types of people: A giver or a taker. Givers focus on themselves and their own personal improvement. They build others up through commitment, communication, competency, enthusiasm, dependability, self-improvement and selfless behaviors. Givers make you feel good to be around them. It’s as if they give you “wing beneath your wings”.
On the other hand, takers look for someone to blame when something is said or a change is made. They seek out ways to pin wrongdoings on anyone except themselves. Takers typically focus on and talk about others. They blame others or make excuses for everything. Most takers tend to build walls between people, creating divisions. Leaders end up spending all their time managing takers, their wants and endless needs. Unfortunately, this undermines your organization’s progress with shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect.
If you surround yourself with takers, you will fail.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Approach conflict with humility, with the intent to understand, and resolve the problem...
Organizations should proactively resolve conflicts with humility and the intent to understand the problem. Every conflict is an opportunity in disguise awaiting your leadership.
Rather than allow conflicts to fester, leaders should seek out conflicts and actively identify cross-functional conflicts that weaken relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect, while treating it as an occasional learning experience. They help strengthen relationships between employees and boost performance across the organization.
Having consistent standards in place creates a high expectation around the very concept of conflict in organizations. It becomes “a code”; a way people automatically respond to every individual who works there.
Ultimately, encouraging the conflict resolution process promotes good (and better!) working relationships in the end.
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Leadership practices that support organizational efforts to train, coach and develop its people are typically seen throughout the orientation (onboarding) process; the cornerstone of which everything is tied back to the company mission, vision, values and principles. Practices that set this as the expectation early and often, from the very first day (or interview), tend to be more effective than organizations practicing routine “check the box” processes throughout the levels of their training programs.
There are only a small handful of ways in which human beings can learn new things. The key to leading programs for development well is to incorporate multiple bundles of ways to learning, often using one way to build upon another. Leaders must consider the big picture while training employees and designing practices that support them. Some areas to inspect include policies, procedures, extensive functional training plans, new hire training, CQI training, etc.
MENTORSHIP
Leaders will assign experienced employees to pair up with a newly hired individual to guide them through the initial period with the company. This mentor relationship helps to orientate people into your company culture. Mentors will serve as a “resource guide”, sharing knowledge about job functions across departments.
RAISING SIGHTS
If you want to make things happen, you have to raise the sights of your team, not lower them. The broader the picture you give people, the fewer obstacles they see in their path. People need BIG goals. If they have big goals they will blow right through the small ones. But those obstacles will become mountains if you don’t get people beyond the day-to-day issues, if you don’t appeal to something they really want to do. That means letting them see the big picture. It means sharing the facts with them. It means showing them the challenge, letting them experience the fun of the game, the fun of winning. It means motivating people with humor and excitement, which go a lot further than yelling and screaming.
BOUNDARY SPANNING
This practice is all about collecting, filtering, interpreting and disseminating knowledge across organizational boundaries. A boundary spanner is an expert in building and developing relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect.
BUILDING COMMUNITIES
Leaders must recognize that people’s need for belonging and social fulfillment are two of the most powerful human needs. Happiness doesn’t come from wealth or money, but instead from social relationships, enjoyable work, a sense that life has meaning and a sense of belonging to a group. Think of ways to acknowledge or validate people and build plans to grow communities. Some successful community programs include multilayer recognition strategies.
Companies can create and contribute to a quarterly newsletter that reiterates boundary spanning practices and communications. Here is always a good place to recognize achievements, announce upcoming events, celebrate business or department “wins”, share relevant industry news, list birthdays and anniversaries of your employees , or talk about recent progress initiatives in a new community enrichment program as a way of encouraging individuals across business locations to get involved.
Let’s face it... your employees spend a great chunk of time working for their companies each week. It is always nice for them to have something to take home and share with their families, especially when they are involved in the process.
A little recognition goes a long way. Organizations can also implement “Shining Star” programs (ie. Employee of the Month/Year) to recognize people who consistently demonstrate behaviors aligned with the shared mission, vision and values. It is both very wise and cost effective for companies to make a program like this a really, really big deal. A prime example is to present the winners at the end of each year and include a surprise prize for a trip or cruise vacation (for two) of their choice.
It’s recognition like this that continues to be talked about throughout the entire next year ahead and that’s chatter that reinforces your organizational culture for the better. Imagine the excitement for the winner.
issues in the bud before they fester or become potential problems.
Motivational coaches such as Tony Robbins are the first to tell leaders that “Repetition is the mother of mastery”. A leader who practices touch bases each month with all 12 of the product representatives they directly oversee, is sharpening their coaching skills 144 times more than a leader who is not. It’s an effective practice that takes no more than 15-20 minutes per session and serves as a continuous reminder of your shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect for another.
DISCOVERY
In law, a discovery takes place before a trial and services its purpose for “fact-finding”. Strategic leaders informally practice something similar when leading their teams. Asking discovery questions within your department, other departments or across your organization’s industry helps leaders gather unfiltered feedback. Feedback is a form of respect. When we allows ourselves to not only give honest feedback, but to hear it too, we can have a greater impact.
Some discovery questions include...
What is the morale of your team?
Are the practices effective in building community?
What new ideas do you have?
Are there any “bad apples” on your team?
Is the entire team focused on customer’s expectations?
Is our culture evident daily?
Do your people feel valued? How do you know?
How are you casting vision daily?
Describe your routing of “inspecting what we expect”.
Are you getting the desired results?
Are you communicating with peers effective and focused on common goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect?
While it’s important to ask questions like those listed here often as a way to guide the organization’s focus, it’s very important to use discretion on when, where and how you are communicating. Again, everything is always tied back to its mission, vision and values. No one wants to ask all of these questions at the same time and no one else wants to answer them at the same time.
Each leader should really work off one “Discovery Checklist” per location or department. Everyone wants to be heard so remember to spread the love evenly across the team. The discovery practices is a great resource for companies of any size. The practice provides larger corporations made up of multi-hierarchy levels spread across multiple locations with a useful tool to help leaders keep a pulse of the team. In smaller organizations, it creates an opportunity to challenge leaders to think bigger and have more meaningful conversations with its people, their most valuable asset.
CQI WORKSHOPS
CQI = Continuous Quality Improvement. This practice is an invaluable way to conduct boundary spanning and shared development during specific time slots each week. The purpose of CQI sessions is to always be focused on equipping, training and developing together. If you are a consumer facing business, identify a consistent time frame where business as usual won’t be interrupted by conducting a 30-45 minute workshop.
For example, a retailer’s store traffic is typically lighter during 2pm-3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This would be an ideal time to host CQI workshops each week. Leaders can enlist mentors, new hires, product experts or cross-functional leaders in the process of teaching CQI workshops. This practice sets the tone for an ongoing learning focused workplace. Enlist your team!
If one of your sales reps saves a big sale by effectively resolving customer concerns or even does this so well that the customer doubles their original order, take the opportunity to celebrate the win and invite the employee to host the next workshop to teach everyone else how they did it. Leaders can use discretion to help coach individuals prior to leading workshops to ensure consistency across your common message. Leadership is a choice and making each moment count with effective leadership practices is a choice successful leaders make.
