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How to Improve Communication Between You and Your Team

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How to Improve Communication Between You and Your Team

In a recent article, we spoke about the Five Benefits of Leadership Development You Need to Know About. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be delving a little deeper into each of the benefits outlined in that article and exploring the integral role that leadership development plays in creating them. The first theme that we’re going to discuss is Better Communication.

Often, when there are issues facing any team or business, the key to finding – and then implementing – a solution is improving communication. We need to have the tools to be able to hear the concerns facing us, as well as the know-how to introduce long-lasting change.

Why communication is important for leaders

Building Trust – Communication is one of the best possible ways to build trust among employees. This is a two-fold process of not only being able to effectively get our own ideas across but also having the ability to listen to the ideas and concerns of others. It is in doing the latter that we begin to see trusting relationships form.

Fostering Unity – When we make the effort to communicate clearly with each other, the chances of being misinterpreted are far less. This is especially important for those in leadership positions. It alleviates the need for clarification and thus ensures that the whole team knows and understands the common goal.

Better Negotiators – Being able to negotiate in a fair and informed way makes for excellent communication. They are informed, consistent and receptive.

How to develop better communication

#1 Listen

Often overlooked, listening is an essential skill to focus on when developing our communication skills. Most people are sometimes too focused on what they want to say next that they don’t pay as much attention as they should to what the other person is saying. By listening closely and asking questions, we show the person or people, we’re speaking with that they have our respect and that their ideas are valued. Also, practice listening ‘beyond the words’ by listening for the real meaning behind what they’re saying. What values seem important to them?

#2 Over-explain

While at first, this may seem counterintuitive to the idea of communicating effectively, when we are talking about communicating clearly, repetition can be a vital factor. This can include repeating the important points to ensure you are being understood. You may also find repeating or rephrasing the other person’s ideas in the form of a question, to be a useful tool in securing your own understanding of them.

#3 Know Your Audience

We wouldn’t speak to our colleagues, in the same manner, we speak to our families. We tailor the way speak to different groups of people in a way that is appropriate for the relationship we have with those people. You may have a well-developed shorthand way of communicating within your team that allows you to communicate complex ideas quite concisely. However, with a new team member, you may have to take more time to carefully explain yourself in order to get the same message across. And avoid jargon!

#4 Mindfulness

Similar to listening and knowing your audience, mindfulness in a communication context is about being aware of how you are being perceived. What kind of tone are you using? Is this the appropriate time and place to have this discussion? What is the intention behind your message? Ask yourself these questions before jumping into the conversation.

Remember that communication is about much more than just what you say. It’s also about how you say it, why you say it and when you say it. It can even be about what you don’t say. We are communicating all of the time, so be more mindful of what you are communicating, even when you’re not speaking. Lastly, be open to hearing the opinions and ideas of others too. Effective leadership communication is fertile ground for long, trusting relationships.

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How to Improve Communication Between You and Your Team

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The Five Benefits to Leadership Development You Need to Know About

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The Five Benefits to Leadership Development You Need to Know About

There is no denying that leadership development programs make an enormous impact on an organisation’s overall performance as well as to the performance of employees at every level.  The key is for people to be able to recognise their strengths as well as their limitations. It is only after identifying these areas that we may begin to address them. While organisations deserve and should expect a unique program to meet their needs, it is clear that no matter the starting point, the results of excellent leadership programs are the same.

One important goal of any leadership development training program is to provide the skills and know-how to be able to build trust and foster a healthy, safe culture. It could be said that a lack of trust is perhaps the biggest missing link in a company’s potential for success. In a recent survey by Edelman Trust Barometer, they found that only 37% of people thought their company CEOs were suitably credible or trustworthy (1.2). This is an astounding statistic and has a direct impact on performance.

Better communication

When leadership development opportunities are offered to all employees, we begin to see a shift towards an improved communication within teams, between management levels, and across departments. Leadership development programs open up people’s hearts and minds to new possibilities. Lower-level employees are encouraged to share more of their ideas and those in higher positions become more receptive. When employees trust those in management, communication improves, information is shared more freely and individuals are more likely to contribute in forums such as team meetings.

Recognising Talent

This is perhaps the most undervalued benefit to leadership development. Often times, the people who are best suited for leadership already exist within the company. Leadership development programs offer these people the chance to be recognised – particularly those not currently in a leadership role. These opportunities also help to foster a sense of company loyalty and employee engagement, while at the same time improving the efficiency of the business.

Creates Capable Leaders

By providing leaders with the skills they need to successfully navigate the ever-changing and often unpredictable business environment, organisations are able to overcome obstacles much more quickly (2). Capability in leaders also allows organisations to better shape their business strategy from the top-down by ensuring leaders are equipped to implement it.

Improves Company Success

Strong leaders are a fundamental element of successful organisations. When companies invest in placing the right people in leadership positions, other employees are then more motivated to perform better and achieve goals (3). Leaders who are ‘role-fit’ encourage creativity and innovation while simultaneously ensuring their team is focused on their common objectives. Companies who place greater value in leadership development are also shown to have stock market returns that are five times higher than those who don’t (2).

Employee Retention

As previously mentioned, leadership development is an important factor in enhancing company loyalty. Employees are much more likely to remain with the same company for longer when they feel they are being valued and supported by their leaders. In fact, a joint study conducted in 2018 by recruitment firms Accounting Principals and Ajilon found that 53.6% of individuals say “their top reason that keeps them from quitting their job is the loyalty they feel to their team, boss, coworkers or their company” (4). Essentially, what these people are referring to is trust.

What impact does trust have in these areas?

Everything we have talked about above coexists because of trust. Trust is the foundation for so much, including communication, the identification and development of competent leaders, and the fostering of a culture that values and encourages ideas to power up company success.

By taking the time to implement new leadership strategies it is possible not only to improve areas in which a company may be deficient but also to build upon existing strengths. When we look at the benefits of leadership development we can begin to see why such programs are important too, and impact on, all areas of business. Not only this, but we can see how each of these particular benefits stem from having a strong foundation of trust.

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The Five Benefits to Leadership Development You Need to Know About

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Exploring Transparency

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Exploring Transparency

In Part One of this six-part series, we explored trust in the context of organisations and in society generally, and how hard it can fee; sometimes, this is despite trust being at the heart of every relationship, whether in our personal lives or at work. Perhaps alarmingly, 82% of people say they don’t trust their boss to tell the truth, and 45% of employees say lack of trust in leadership is the biggest issue impacting their work performance (Edelman Trust Barometer). In contrast, high trust organisations experience 32x greater risk-taking, 11x more innovation, and 6x higher performance. And at a human level, treating each other with respect and forming good relationships feels like the right thing to do.

Trust as a Multi-Dimensional Construct

In Part One, we also introduced a model based on the best available information, research and my own experience in terms of what actually works. This model isn’t the work of an academic, but it is based on solid evidence. Making even small improvements in one or more of the five elements can make a big difference in how trustworthy we are perceived as being.

Five Elements of Trust.

In Part Two, we are going to explore transparency, which at its core, it about being open and honest and demonstrating vulnerability.

Whenever I ask people what they look for in a leader, almost without exception, they say openness and honesty. Nothing destroys trust quicker than people thinking that you’re hiding information, being guarded, or if people think you’re in it for yourself. People want to know the truth.

How to be Transparent and Honest

This is where emotional intelligence really comes in to play. While there are lots of definitions to do with emotional intelligence (or EQ), the simplest is that means we can regulate and use our emotions intelligently. This isn’t a course about EQ, so we won’t go in too much detail here, but EQ is a topic that has been written about extensively.

Six Strategies to Become More Transparent

I want to now focus on what you can do to build the ‘Transparency muscle’ – that is, become more effective at this element of trust.

#1 – Be Honest: I know this sounds obvious, but I’m surprised how many times people feel conflicted around this. Yes, be honest, but with skill – be sensitive to the time and place as well as how the message is delivered. Sometimes people wear honesty as a badge and are therefore too direct to the point of being blunt with little consideration for the potential damage done to the person hearing the message. We don’t need to walk on rice paper, but we do need to be constructive.

#2 – Be Prepared: We have recently worked with a high profile organisation here in Australia that has been plagued by bullying and sexual harassment. One of the problems is people not being open, honest and transparent about how certain behaviours were affecting them. We worked with several small groups of senior leaders and provided some guidance on how they might ‘call’ inappropriate behaviour. We essentially armed them with a kit bag full of phrases that would be helpful in the moment. The phrases focused on getting the message across clearly but not in a way that was passive or hostile.

#3 – Give Feedback Regularly: Be transparent by giving constructive feedback and positive feedback often, so people understand where you’re coming from and what your expectations are. By doing this, people will understand what you’re thinking or feeling about a situation.

#4 – Admit Mistakes: You can also be transparent by admitting mistakes and being vulnerable with others. This shows that you’re not perfect either, and it’s a great way to show people that they can trust you. It’s not about sharing all your deepest, darkest fears or every mistake you’ve ever made, so be strategic about what and when you share your mistakes. If you make one in the moment / present day, speak up early and move on. By being an example for your team, they will learn to be more transparent with you and one another.

#5 – Express your opinions: This is one of the best ways to build trust with your team – simply say what’s on your mind – with skill. As I talked about earlier, we need to think about the what, when and how, but as a general principle, don’t be afraid to say what you’re thinking about a conversation or other situation. In our leadership programs, I call this a leadership superpower! Not just blurting out the first thing that comes into your mind but expressing a perspective that will help the team move forward. Sometimes this might feel like a hand-grenade thrown into the middle of the group – an intentional provocative statement or question to get them to think differently.

#6 – Practice Vulnerability: I have recently written an article on leadership and vulnerability, so I will provide a summary here. In my own leadership practice, it is hard to describe the immediate impact vulnerability has on a group of leaders or a team. Recently, I was working with a leadership team as part of our High-Performance Team program, where the impact of one person demonstrating vulnerability was immediate. In this particular team, the effect was profound. Vulnerability creates connection; trust; innovation; a platform for leadership; as well as learning, growth and resilience. Practising being vulnerable is about (1) Being open; (2) Sharing more of yourself; (3) Trusting others; (4) Taking (appropriate) risks and (5) Staying on track by focusing on yourself while at the same time creating the conditions for others also to practice vulnerability. This article (part two) will be published soon.

So, there you have it, my top six tips to build the element of Transparency in your team and with your colleagues. Being transparent requires focus and courage.

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Exploring Transparency

Christmas 2018.

Tis the season for reflection

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Tis the Season for Reflection

Dare to lead in 2019

As we race towards the end of 2018, it is timely to reflect on the year. We have seen many challenges and change here and around the world.

During times of change, whether large scale or in our own life, it’s important to connect with what is core. This principle is equally true for organisations and ourselves in our own life.

In organisations, people are core to any business, so growing and nurturing them to be their best is critical. In 2019, we will be launching a new way to bridge the gap between classroom learning and individual online platforms. It will highlight and support the idea that leadership development is more like a quest than a one-off sugar-hit. We will continue to work with organisations and people in ‘daring them to lead’. We are excited by the possibilities.

people are core to any business, so growing and nurturing them to be their best is critical

In our personal lives, Christmas and the promise of a new year is an opportunity to get back to our own core. It is a time for reflection and renewal. It is about spending time with family and friends. It is also about being grateful for what we already have, rather than longing for what we don’t.

It is important to remember that all of us – including work colleagues, family and friends – are good at showing the world ‘our best face’.  So I invite you to take the time to check-in with all the people in your life – personally and in a work context – to find out how they are really doing beyond ‘I’m fine’. Showing another human being compassion and care is a relatively simple act, yet can make a huge difference.

We wish you and your family all the very best for Christmas and the New Year and look forward to connecting with you in 2019.

Phil and the team

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Tis the season for reflection

TIME Magazine - Person of the Year

The “Silence Breakers”

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The “Silence Breakers”

The #MeToo Movement

Time magazine has named “The Silence Breakers,” representing people who came forward to report sexual misconduct, as its Person of the Year.

On Wednesday, the magazine named the #metoo movement — or the “Silence Breakers” as the “Person of the Year,” a nod to the millions of people who came forward with their stories of sexual harassment, assault and rape after big Hollywood players like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and dozens of other powerful men were accused of sexual misconduct.

“For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year,” Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthan said in a statement.

Founder of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, appeared on the cover along with actresses Rose McGowan, Selma Blair and Ashley Judd, who broke the silence by coming forward with accusations against Harvey Weinstein. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler was one of the women on the cover. She posted a powerful blog entry in February about harassment she faced during her time at the company.

Taylor Swift, who won $1 in a sexual harassment trial against a Denver DJ accused of groping her also appeared on the magazine’s cover.

Burke first used the phrase that would be come such a widely used hashtag in 2017 more than a decade ago while working with young survivors or harassment and assault. Actress Alyssa Milano was sent a screenshot of the phrase and chose to send it out on Twitter.

“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet,” she wrote. She told Time she woke up to more than 30,000 uses of the hashtag and burst into tears.

The focus was not only on those in Hollywood or in TV journalism. A strawberry picker from California named Isabel Pascual was one of many to take to the streets of California to join stars and civilians alike in their march against the abusive behavior.

While many of the people featured in Time’s piece were women from all professions, actor Terry Crews was also included for speaking out against popular agent Adam Venit, who he accused of groping his genitals at a party and is now suing.

What does it all mean for leadership?

It should serve as a wake up call to leaders in all organisations – your central work is to create a culture of safety that enables speaking up so that we no longer have to rely on courage as the vehicle for transparency.

Unfortunately, there are too many examples and case studies to count involving bullying, poor behaviour and a tolerance for toxic cultures.

I have previously written about psychological safety on this blog.

In order to have the type of robust, honest conversations needed, you will need to work on creating high levels of psychological safety. Last November, Google published the five traits of its most successful teams – the first and most important was psychological safety, which has been described as a ‘‘shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.’’  Psychological safety is a necessary pre-condition for conversations that happen early and often, no matter what the problem or opportunity.

How do we create psychological safety?

Here are five ways to foster an environment where people feel safe.

  1. Listen – listening is an underutilised skill! Listen your way to agreement.
  2. Balance advocacy and inquiry – ask at least as many questions (inquiry) as you do tell/express an opinion (advocate). Effective leaders know how to ask challenging open questions rather than just spew out never-ending opinion.
  3. Authority – use your authority carefully and dutifully. Authority should not be your default style and approach.
  4. Don’t judge – our brains are wired to judge our environment, including other people – it helps keep us safe. But it also creates conflict, fear, marginalisation and low trust.
  5. Work on yourself – continue to work on yourself, and in particular what triggers you to move in to fight, flight or freeze. Understand and work on the triggers so people feel they can talk with you in an honest way that won’t send you off.

See the original article here, with thanks from Time Magazine.

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Getting Ready for the ‘Planning Season’ – Part 2 (Your Team)

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Getting Ready for the ‘Planning Season’ – Part 2 (Your Team)

Part 1 – creatively titled “Getting Ready for the Planning Season – Part 1” – discussed that for many organisations, the annual cycle of planning and strategy formulation is uppermost in their minds in an endeavour to set themselves up for the coming year. However, traditional strategic planning (and the yearly round of off-sites) often fails to deliver intended objectives.

Here are the five ‘antidotes’ we discussed in Part 1

  1. Create a ‘Collective Ambition’
  2. Make the process robust
  3. Make it agile
  4. Be real
  5. Balance performance and health

The article also provided an overview of the concept of organisational ‘health’ or what McKinsey have defined as “the ability of an organisation to align, execute and renew itself faster than the competition so that it can sustain exceptional performance over time.”

The concept applies equally to teams, and in fact it could be argued that without healthy teams (particularly senior teams) the chances of your organisation being healthy are slim.

A Way to Help Create Success

In our work with various senior teams over a twenty-year period we have seen a lot of things that work and DON’T work!

Based on evidenced-based principles and our own experience in working across many industries, we have formulated a framework to help your team focus on the things that matter – the things that will help you engage in the strategy planning process in a fruitful way. By focusing on the key elements of the canvass, you will also give yourself the best chance of implementing the strategy and creating a sustainable and high performing organisation or unit.

Team Charter Canvass

Creating a high performing organisation starts with creating a high performing senior team that knows where it’s heading, how to get there, and importantly, who they are as a team.

Our Team Charter Canvas (TCC) helps guide senior teams to do just that. The framework helps ensure that teams engage in crucial conversations that will lead to long-term success, starting first with clarity about the organisational vision and purpose.

               Figure 1: Team Charter Canvass

Those familiar with Simon Sinek’s work will be familiar with his tenet of starting with why may recognise the flow. Row 1 describes the WHY first, Row 2 the HOW and finally Row 3 is all about the WHAT.

This is in contrast to many planning processes that rush to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ and don’t do justice to the ‘why’.  I have yet to meet a team that is sufficiently clear about all nine areas of the canvass and the detail that sits behind each. This can have serious consequences on achieving short and long-term objectives.

“I have yet to meet a team that is sufficiently clear about all nine areas of the canvass and the detail that sits behind each.”

bigstock Management solutions
Management solutions closing the gap to a business challenge as a businessman lifting a three dimensional cube to complete a wall with a group of organized objects as a project metaphor for leadership expertise.

This simplified version (the full version has some key diagnostic questions in each square) is linear and prescriptive in that a team should start with box 1 then move to box 2 then 3, etc (of course you may need to circle back to earlier boxes as you progress).

Any planning process needs to be firmly linked to the organisation’s vision and reason for being. The ‘how’ helps teams examine their operating rhythm, their values and how they will celebrate and recognise achievements while enjoying the journey along the way. And finally the ‘what’ helps the team achieve laser-like focus on what needs to be achieved and by when, including the current shape of the team (strengths to be leveraged and weaknesses to mitigated).

How Do I Use the Canvass?

There are many ways to leverage the power of the framework, however all methods should lead to the same outcome – creating a robust dialogue that creates new learning and new possibilities.

At a more practical level, here are some tips:

  1. Ask each team member to rate each box between 1 (Poor) and 10 (Excellent) live, calculate the average score and then focus on the three lowest rated boxes.
  2. Using the same rating system as above, conduct a confidential survey before the session.
  3. Start at box 1 and gain agreement on what it is, then move to box 2, then box 3, etc.
  4. Don’t skip any boxes because you think you have them nailed without an explicit agreement on what it actually means (assumptions are like termites in your strategy).
  5. Invite key stakeholders and even customers to enter in to some ‘box conversations’.
  6. Pressure-test your outputs with people who matter (i.e. people you need to be successful).

In order to have the type of robust, honest conversations needed, you will need to work on creating high levels of psychological safety.

Last November, Google published the five traits of its most successful teams – the first and most important was psychological safety, which has been described as a ‘‘shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.’’  Psychological safety is a necessary pre-condition for meaningful planning.

Implementation is the Achilles Heel

We know that around 80% of change fails and that globally a high percentage of Chief Executives are dissatisfied with their strategies and the results they create.

While it is relatively easy to produce a beautiful looking strategy document, it is how those ideas are realised that makes the difference. By default, ‘implementation’ means that change will be necessary (unless you have a no-change strategy that has already been implemented in which case you should be updating your strategy!).

Implementation and change leadership is out of scope for this article, however it needs serious attention as part of the overall planning and strategy process. This is where the real work begins.

Find out More

We are specialists in working with senior teams to bring the Team Charter Canvass to life. We do this through working with leaders and teams to create high performing and healthy teams and organisations.

If you’re interested in learning more about these programs and how we may be able to work with you to achieve outstanding results, then you can:

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Getting Ready for the ‘Planning Season’ – Part 2 (Your Team)