How to maximise your next 30 days as a leader. - Talenttio

Talenttio Leadership Journey

By Henry Rose Lee

If you are an established leader: How to maximise your next 30 days as a leader. You’ve been in your leadership role for a while now, and you’re good at what you do. Your team may like and respect you, but the business conditions are not getting any easier. The effects of the worst global recession in living memory are paling into insignificance, when social and political upheavals are impacting businesses at their very core. So – even if you love being a leader and things are going well - you’re being asked to do more with less, to move faster, to improve quality, yet keep costs down, and to remain flexible yet agile. It’s tough out there. So why not try something new? Choose one, or a few, of the activities from this list of “experiments” during your next 30 days and see if that jump-starts any new conversations or business connections. Whatever you do, do something!

30 experiments for the next 30 days: 1. Agree a local vision with your team: Today’s organisations often have a mission, a vision and a whole host of strategic goals. And everyone tries to align to them. That’s great. But you can go one better. Run a team day and agree a local vision with your team. For example, what do you want your team to stand for? Agility? Quality? Speed? Do you have a year-long theme which could stand alongside the corporate strategy? Get creative and build your team’s vision – together. Then use it to encourage and guide your team to even greater success. 2. Reconfirm what good looks like: The Gallup Q12 survey confirms there are 12 questions employees need their leaders to answer. One of them is “I know what is expected of me and my work”. Apart from a job-spec or task description, make sure that each of your team members really does know what good looks like? If you’re not sure they know, then ask them. 3. Update all team-member job descriptions regularly: What a difference a year makes! It’s amazing how a team member can start work with one job description and then discover that their job has morphed into something else. At least once a year, ask every team member to re-draft their job role, explaining what they do/or don’t do, and discuss it with them. Once you have agreed this, (and had it approved by HR) lodge it with your personnel function. And be prepared to revise it within the next year. And while you’re at it, do the same for your own job! 4. Make time to praise someone personally: Also included in the Gallup Q12 survey is the statement “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work”. Find time to praise someone who has done a good job – and say thank you. Today, most jobs include a huge amount of discretionary effort and input and a compliment or work of thanks can go a long way towards encouraging that effort to continue. 5. Get out of your comfort zone: Be a role model and do something publicly that you’ve not done before – and ask your team to give you feedback on it. Do you struggle to present well? Do a keynote. Are you restless or very direct? Promise for one day to be patient and more empathic and state openly that you are doing this. When you show the team you are prepared to keep on learning and moving forward, it will encourage them to follow your lead. 6. Run a kick-start session with your team called “Where are we now?”: Use this session to debate what’s been working and what hasn’t and encourage new ideas for moving on from the current position. Then use these ideas to help you achieve your team and corporate objectives.

7. Celebrate success: Even if month-end, quarter-end or year-end figures are not final, catch your team members doing something right and hand out “mid-term” awards. These can be serious (the most sales achieved, the fastest delivery of a program, the biggest profit). It can also be funny; (ask your team to come up with ideas). Buy lanyards with rosettes or medals from a supermarket and hand out as many as possible. The idea here is to celebrate and make a fuss of the people who give you so much, day in, day out. 8. Adapt your communication style: If you tend to write two-line, curt emails, or spend as little time as possible on conferencing, for one day, change your style. Write longer, more discursive texts and emails and spend longer on the next video conference. If you don’t feel like sharing, then extend your communications by asking questions. The answers will be very useful. If you normally write a book for every email and have to have the last word at every meeting, reduce your inclination to speed and write and become quiet, brief and concise. Notice what’s different. 9. Be observed and shadowed: Pick two of your best team members and encourage them to observe you or shadow you, as you go about your work. Pick one day when you have lots of meetings and let them tag along as silent observers. At the end of the day, ask for feedback on what you could improve or do differently. All three of you will be learning something. 10. Run a surgery: For a few hours one day, have an open diary that anyone in your team can see, in order to book a one-to-one, or a one-to-many meeting with you to talk about whatever they want. Spend that time listening and learning. It will pay dividends and the team will feel heard and valued. 11. Become a trainer for half a day: Take a few hours out of your schedule to act as a trainer for the team and teach them something new. Think about it; if you did this once a month, your team would gain fantastic, additional skills within a few months. 12. Be open and transparent: Of course you can’t tell your team everything that is sensitive or confidential. But make the effort to share as much as you can. Too many leaders hold on to information as power, or as protection - (too much information might spook or overwhelm the team). Actually the reverse is true. A team that know what is going is empowered - and can find new strength and ideas for dealing with even the most challenging situation.

13. Work on a charity/not-for-profit task: If you can manage it, take the whole team out for one day to work on a project together. It could be gardening or painting or whatever. Local charities are always crying out for hands-on support, so organise 7 hours when the team – and you – can work on something as a team. Then watch the camaraderie and the engagement increase. And by the way, lunch and end-of-day drinks are on you! 14. Buddy up team members: You can’t be there all the time for each team member and anyway, each person may have unique needs. Find a buddy in your company for each of your team members. That buddy will support the team member and the support will be two-way. Encourage this buddy system with every team member. Work is hard enough – and everyone could do with some support at one time or another. 15. Say sorry to a client: If you have done something wrong or you’ve made a mistake in the eyes of a client, it can feel terrible. But it may not be the end of the line. If you’re brave enough, own up to a mistake with a client and say sorry. A heart-felt, sincere apology can go a long way to rebuilding a damaged customer-relationship and you model the way for your team. Mistakes happen; things go wrong; if you apologise, you can show your team how it’s done. 16. Accept some reverse mentoring: Leaders are often looking after other people and may ignore their own needs. Encourage a younger team member to reverse-mentor you – perhaps on the latest communication technologies. Both of you will find it a rewarding experience. You will have learned something new and the younger team member will grow in confidence. 17. Make a list of key information about every team member: Do you know the birthdays of your team members, line managers or key stakeholders? Do you know if they are married or have children, or have specific hobbies? Find out something new about every key person in your working life. You’ll soon find an opportunity to use that information in a positive or even celebratory way. 18. Rotate roles in meetings: Just for one day, rotate some roles. If you usually chair a key meeting, ask less experienced team members to take on three roles and then rotate them. One could be the chair, one could be the scribe (taking key notes and actions) and one could be the observer (with permission to feed back to the meeting attendees their impressions of what worked well or worked less well.) Rotation could be within one meeting or within three discrete meetings.

19. Become a leader-coach: In order to support your team, aim to coach each team member at least once a month. This means asking the best possible coaching questions and encouraging each team member to find their own answers. (NB: if the coaching session is about skills, however, you made need to give feedback, [using the acroynym AID – action, impact and desired outcome], and then tell the person what to do. But if it’s any other kind of coaching – attitudinal, cultural or behavioural – encourage the person to find their own answers and then test their willingness to follow up and take action. ) 20. Share a Youtube video or LinkedIn article: You can do this anytime you like but it works really well if you do this once every couple of weeks. Every fortnight, find one video or article that you want to share with your team. It could be funny or serious, business-based or human. But get used to sharing in this way. It’s popular and it will encourage discussion and debate – and it makes team members feel connected to you. 21. Encourage brain-writing: Too many leaders run brain-storming sessions where everyone is asked to pitch in with their ideas. But research has shown that brain-writing – where each person thinks and works alone on an idea – is much more effective for encouraging innovation and creativity. Run a face-to-face or virtual session, and ask each person a question. Each one then writes their ideas down, without conferring with others or hearing their views – and passes/sends it to you. Sort through the responses, put them into themes and then debate. You will see that far more ideas are generated. 22. Share books: In this day or Youtube and Kindles, paperbacks and hard-backed books are still selling strongly. If you’ve read a brilliant book lately, pass it round to the team and offer to read the books they’re reading too. It connects the team and it can often reveal new ideas that everyone can benefit from. Worst case scenario? You’ll find some excellent reads! 23. Start working on your succession plan: You won’t get promoted if there is no one to take over from you. Start thinking about who your top two talents are, and what they might need to learn in order to take over from you, or gain their own promotion. 24. Encourage everyone to take the stairs and to walk further: Most offices are on more than one floor. Instead of the lift, take the stairs. And encourage your team to do the same. If you have “fitbits” (or the equivalent) offer a prize for the most steps taken in 30 days. The aim is to encourage everyone to walk more. It’s good for them and it’s good for business. Healthy people work more effectively.

25. Run “what have we learned” sessions: When a project, or programme comes to an end, run a team discussion about lessons learned – even if it’s what not to do. Encourage everyone to see and use the learning – it will help the team to think more flexibly and to problem-solve more effectively. 26. Connect more regularly with team members who are new hires or new in post: Research has indicated that a “newbie” can take anything up to six months to bed into a role and they might leave during any part of that time period if they don’t feel heard, valued and supported. So take time to provide support for the newbies – either via the buddy system, or coaching and mentoring. And get someone to connect with them at least once a week to ask such questions as: “What are you learning? What resources do you think you need? What barriers are blocking your progress? What else would help you right now?” 27. Find new connections across your company: Leaders build a cohort of connections but then they stop. For one day a month, seek out someone new, in your organisation. This might be someone in a different function, or business unit or parallel team. Matrix line management is everywhere these days so there’s always another person to connect with. Ask them to tell you about their job and how it impacts the business. Such connections can be very useful when you want to influence others and extend your reach as a leader. 28. Find a golden or magic hour: Some leaders use what is known as magic time or a golden hour, to undertake other projects that they have no time to deal with during the normal, working day. If you’re a morning person, once a week, come in an hour early and work on something new or different. If you’re an evening person, stay an hour later, or do an hour at home. Even if you only do 1 hour a week, your pet project will quickly take shape. 29. Remember to keep developing yourself: Find time at least once a year, to work on your own self-development. Accept any training, coaching or mentoring that comes your way – even if you’re rammed at work. A leader that doesn’t keep developing, doesn’t reach Mastery in the Leadership journey. 30. Read “The Code for New Leaders”: If you’re new to your leadership role, then read The Code for New Leaders; how to hit the ground running in days not weeks. And if you have team members who are new to leadership, encourage them to read it too. That could be the first book you share around!

Henry Rose Lee is an Award-Winning Speaker on Millennials Leadership, making sense of the generational differences in the workplace, and an Executive Coach. She also founded Ladies Who Lead, a by invitation-only personal and professional development community that meets once a month in London, UK. For enquiries about her services as a speaker or coach, email [email protected], send her an invitation to connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryroselee/ Or call on 07739 037 876.