A culture is just a network of conversations!

A High-Performance Culture is a network of “Intentional Conversations” that are designed from the company’s core values and mission statement.

To deepen the company culture throughout the whole organization we need to be designing intentional conversations in the following scenarios and then hold each other accountable to living it.

Remember a True Professional is someone who is the “Master of the Details” in 4 key areas:

• Image
• Conduct
• Expertise
• Execution

Below are a set of practices that our clients are living every day to enroll their colleagues into living their culture in intentional ways:

1. Hiring Process

How is your hiring process designed? Including questions that support vision, mission and core values. This helps to ensure the organization attracts the right type of people who will move the organization forward and will fit into the culture.

2. One-on-One Coaching Conversations

It is important to create space for individual conversations where people can feel free to speak their minds and bring up any concerns. Doing this shows an organizational culture of communication where even the most introverted people have the opportunity to be heard.

3. Feedback

Every organization manages the communication of feedback differently. For example, it may be done at annual performance reviews, monthly or weekly meetings, or daily in the moment.

The frequency and the structure of how feedback is provided speaks to a culture. Daily feedback and open forums speaks to a more agile, open and responsive culture vs. annual speaks to a more structured and reactive culture.

4. Organizational Conversations

Culture is a network of conversations and language that lives within the organization.

For example, at Starbucks every staff member is a “Partner”, at Disney all the design staff are called “Imagineers”, at STEP Energy Services all the staff in the field are called “Field Professionals”, and at Awesome Journey when challenges or setbacks occur we don’t ask, “What went wrong and who’s fault is it?” we ask, “What can we see was missing and who do we need to support and how can we best support them?”

5. Senior Management as Brand Ambassadors

Senior Management who live, breath and talk the vision, mission, and core values are the best catalysts for building and maintaining a culture. Leadership breeds more brand ambassadors.

6. Reflections and Celebrations

Does the organization take the time to step back and look at accomplishments, contributions, appreciation, wins (big and small), and celebrate in some way? Acknowledgments provide a space for the team, to see what they have done and understand how it has benefited the organization.

7. Communication Structure and Transparency

What structures are in place for communication? (i.e.: Email, phone, in person, online forums). How is communication performed throughout the organization? What is the expectation of what becomes of the communications – how are people accountable? What is the level of transparency for communication?

At Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest investment firms, they practice “radical transparency”. When you enter the company, you understand that they are radically transparent and your opinions and thoughts are required regardless of if they are positive or negative. You understand that you will not be reprimanded or face negative consequences for simply speaking your mind.

TedTalk Video that speaks to Radical Transparency | How to build a company where the best ideas win

If a company does not have this particular culture, there may be other methods of communicating your thoughts that work better for that culture.

8. Personnel Management

When a person is hired, promoted or terminated, how is it communicated to the organization? This indicates what behaviors are rewarded, or not acceptable. It also speaks to the level of openness and transparency within the culture.

If people are hired, promoted or terminated with no communication, the culture becomes “things just happen, no one tells us anything or cares how it affects us”.

On the flip side, if there is solid communication and space for any questions, the culture becomes “there has been a change, we’re in the loop, and I have a place to speak to my concerns. Management cares about us”.

The way decisions are made and how they are communicated shows a lot about an organization’s culture. What behavior creates a promotion, termination, corrective action or congratulatory situation?

9. Team Meeting Rhythms

How often does the team meet as a group? Are their smaller groups or committees to manage projects? What is the structure of the team meetings?

At Awesome Journey, we begin each meeting with meditation and then discuss our experiences with one of our core values. This is built into our culture.

10. Social Team Time

All work and no play can lead to a sense of a “no fun” culture. Creating the opportunities for the team to meet socially defines the “fun” factor. Consider Friday pizza lunches, coffee dates, group dinners, or anything else where the team can gel in an informal setting and get to know each other.

11. Charitable/Service Projects

Charitable service can be done internally (helping someone move, attending a special event, etc.) and externally (organization is committed to a specific charity).

Is the organization involved in any charitable organizations where they do an annual or monthly service? Is it a regular thing for team members to provide support to each other beyond just work? Charitable involvement shows people what the organization cares about within the broader community.

 

Leadership Challenge:

Reflect on what your organizational culture currently is and what you would like it to be.

What makes a great organization great? Is it only about a solid strategy, great planning, and exceptional execution, or is there more to it?

What truly separates organizations that achieve greatness and happy workers, from those that stall out?

Many organizations spend a great deal of time hammering out their vision, mission, core values, strategy, and plan for execution. All these items are necessary and very important, but what is often missing in these plans are the plans for how to ensure the team is set up properly to execute with excellence.

 

What does this mean?

Does the organization have the culture, communication, support structures, processes, and agreements to effectively execute on the plan? Does the team effectively communicate with each other and know how to work well together to be productive?

Basically, what is the level of “Workability” in your organization?

At the end of the day, people are the ones doing the work, therefore they need to know how to work well together to achieve the organization’s goals.

 

Creating a high-performance culture is not a one-pronged endeavor; meaning, there are multiple components that contribute to HP cultures.

 

CULTURE

What is culture and how does an organization create one?

Culture is built through a network of intentionally designed conversations that are agreed to and lived through shared values, attitudes, standards, beliefs, and practices.

Culture dictates behaviors, attitudes, how people interact with each other, what is expected, and how a company operates. It is the foundation within the organization for how the organization will perform work and the structure within the organization to build from.

Culture includes:

• Agreements – Requests/Promises
• Integrity – the ability to honor your word
• Support Structures – having the necessary equipment, processes, skills, and competencies to complete your work
• Culture of Leadership – action-oriented language
• Accountability – tracking, monitoring, counting
• Practices – there are common practices that people engage in

Culture starts at the top, then trickles down as the team observes Senior Leaders walking the talk and living the culture.

In Forbes, showed the importance of Senior Leadership in defining culture.

Forbes – Change your leaders to change your culture

“What is your organization’s biggest obstacle to transform your culture in response to market change and disruption? Forty percent responded that day to day decisions that are made to pay the bills, but undermine the stated strategy to change the culture. 24% was a lack of coherent vision for the future.”

If you’re a Senior leader who would like to get a pulse on your organization’s current culture the fastest way to do this is by listening. Listen to the current conversations happening between colleagues, what are people talking about, and what is the tone of those conversations – positive or negative?

If you like what you hear, encourage and expand those conversations. If you don’t like what you hear, start new conversations.

 

WORKABILITY – The Missing Link!

The term workability is not common in most organizations.

Although the elements of workability are vital, they are usually so embedded in an organization that no one really stops to think about “how” all the work is getting done and whether it is getting done effectively and efficiently with happy and satisfied workers.

Workability is all about people (conversations), processes (steps to completion), systems (ways of getting things done) and structures (equipment, tools).

It is a silence but critical piece of the HP Organization puzzle. Workability shows up in everyday life when the day to day works smoothly or is a daily challenge.

Workability is when that conference room projector works as it should when IT returns your call promptly, and when the printer rarely shuts down. All of these things create a high level of workability. A lack of workability is when there is miscommunication that leads to errors, the WIFI is sketchy and cannot be depended on for meetings, or when the processes and systems in place are outdated.

For example, in an organization, they have processes and IT structures in place that were built for a company of 100 people and are now needing to support 2,000 people. The needs of the organization have shifted, but the structures and systems in place have not changed, leading to a lack of workability.

The elements that makeup workability are often taken for granted that they will “just work”. “Just work” usually means a hardworking assistants, receptionists or other support staff has created workarounds and make-do solutions to get by and not incur additional expenses to upgrade what is needed to make things work properly.

Workability is critical for day to day operations in high-performance organizations, and it should hold a spot at the Strategic Planning table.

 

STRATEGY

Time to make some choices!

Strategy is often confused with planning. Planning is about creating timelines, tasks, and activities, whereas strategy is about defining what you want to do and why. What markets you will focus on, what products you will create for those markets, and which clients you want to attract. Strategy is about creating a focus and direction for what you want to achieve.

Southwest Airlines is famous for their strategic focus on low-cost airfare. Co-Founder and CEO, Herb Kelleher has spoken to the organization’s extreme discipline with their strategy and how he responds to customers that request perks that other airlines are providing.

“Southwest Airlines doesn’t do that. Maybe somebody else does, but we don’t. It greatly facilitates the operation of the company.”

 

Leadership Challenge:

Be intentional this week about noticing the level of workability in your life and how it affects your performance.

I coach C-Suite leaders and the one thing every C-Suite leader talks about is wishing for the gift of time to think and create. Meaning, time away from the day-to-day to clear your mind, remove distractions, and let your mind wander and see what happens. I have heard this referred to as a “thinking week”.

I have been talking and talking about taking a “thinking week” for years, and my own coach spoke about the benefits, and many top industry leaders highly recommend it, but the fear-based same stories kept on creeping up and replaying in my head.

I kept hearing, “you don’t have time”, “the office cannot live without you”, “what if something happens and I am not there”, and “I cannot spend a week away from clients”, and so on.

So, after I let my stories play out in my head, I made the intentional decision to make a different choice this year and face my fears – I said yes!

Before I packed my bags, I took some time to design my week away – what my intention was and what I wanted to reflect on and create. Creating this design was imperative to the depth of thought I wanted to have and the outcomes I wanted to receive.

 

I created a few questions to ponder:

What is my “Intention” for the Week?

To create a space where I am not distracted by day to day responsibilities to reflect on what myself and my team have created over the past year, and then design and create future possibilities for my business for the next 2 years.

 

What are my “Conditions of Satisfaction” for the Week?

• Be alone
• Off the Grid as Much as Possible
• Recharge Time in Nature daily
• Time in Reflection and Design daily

 

What are my “Potential Outcomes” for the Week?

What do I want to create through my week of reflection?

 

Review my performance as the CEO of Awesome Journey over the past year.

What are some of Awesome Journey’s accomplishments, and how would I rate my level of leadership?

 

What are my blind spots and how can I embrace them?

What do I not see and how can I embrace uncertainty?

 

5 Key Insights:

1. A quality CEO is not someone who has to have all the right answers all the time to move the team forward. A quality CEO is committed to creating and facilitating the space to ensure that every member of their team has a voice to support achieving our corporate goals.
2. I have come to realize that to become a High-Performance Organization there is a third layer of organization development underneath Culture and Strategy; I call it “Workability”.

To me workability means that quality agreements are in place, there are well-defined processes and structures that function properly, and all staff is living within a system of accountability. Accountability goes beyond just keeping a promise; true accountability is about supporting colleagues when they are struggling with keeping their promises.

3. Embracing transitions by learning to “Letting Go” to move forward. As I step into the mindset of being a Quality CEO I have come to realize that to grow the business I need to let go of control of every decision. I am learning to trust my team with their abilities and experience to execute decisions well without my input.
4. I prefer to avoid conflict, as I hear it as a criticism of myself. By doing this I create blind spots within myself and my business. If I were to embrace conflict and instead see it as an opportunity to learn and grow, then the conflict could serve me rather than trigger me.
5. I have a powerful presence that sometimes lands as forceful and aggressive. I am not always present or self-aware of the impact of my presence on others in a conversation. I plan to be more intentional about the impact of my presence and be conscious of the power my words or actions have on a person or group.

My week away also gave me an opportunity to think about how Awesome Journey has grown, developed and changed over the past year.

Through a focus on the business development process, we have achieved consistency in our company revenue giving us the ability to do stronger future planning. Our coaching quality has deepened through our commitment to an internal learning program under team coaching. The program has created an alignment of a team where we have gone from a mindset of “me” to a mindset of “we”.

Overall, my week away was very valuable and will be repeated next year. Taking the time to reflect enabled me to see what I have learned, what has been accomplished, and what is needed to move into the future.

 

Leadership Challenge:

To anyone who has been saying “I should do that”, or “I wish I could do that”, I challenge you to book the dates and set the location within the next 2 weeks.

The desire to create a culture of innovation has become a common organizational objective for many companies. If you have an organization that is innovative you are likely ahead of the curve and leading the pack. While it may be highly desired, it is not common or easy to create in most organizations.

Why?

By its very nature, innovation is all about creating what did not exist before, going into uncertainty and the unknown, and being creative to see what could be and discovering new possibilities.

According to Fredrik Haren, Swedish author of “The Idea Book”, only 45% of people feel they are creative at work and 2% of people feel their company does a good job at developing creativity in organizations (Global Leadership Summit 2017). This means that the creativity that leads to innovation is not something that just “happens” in a company, it is something that a company focuses on diligently to “create” within an organization.

How do you create creativity that will spark innovation?

Through many ongoing conversations.

 

Conversations about:

• Failure:

Failure is a great teacher, but many companies struggle to engage in conversations around any failures within the company because it can be uncomfortable or perceived as negativity, rather than as an opportunity to learn and grow.

For example, let’s say a key employee unexpectedly leaves the company. Many companies would regret the loss, but move on and not really look into why the person left. What may have been missing? Possibly a conversation to clear up any issues, a skill set that was lacking or under-utilized, or a missing or weak support structure? Looking at failures provides guidance for the future.

• Feedback:

Positive and negative feedback is necessary for recognition and improvements. Requesting feedback fuels conversations that lead to a deeper understanding of what is working, what is not, and how to move forward.

For example, if one of your key leaders came to you and gave negative feedback about a new person that was recently hired, how should you move forward?

A possible route could be to ask the leader what support they are looking for. From their perspective, what is missing for them to be able to build a positive relationship with this new person? The outcome of these questions will provide some direction for how to manage the situation.

• Learning:

It is important that leaders are continuously learning and bringing what they learn to the team. To do this, leaders must encourage learning and create structures around intention.

If an employee came back from a 3-day leadership course, how can you utilize what they learned? Rather than simply asking how it was, perhaps ask them for 3 things they learned from the course and how they can implement them to support the team. Is there a practice, process or new skill/competency to be implemented? Doing this expands the conversation and utilizes new knowledge.

• Experimenting:

Experimenting is the act of trying something new, where there is no certainty of the outcome.

For example, a company is expanding into a new market and notices that sales are sluggish and not meeting expectations. A team would likely need to question what they know, or what they have learned, about their new market and ideal clients, and experiment to see what works and what doesn’t work to effectively reach them.

• Accountability of Current Performance:

Accountability is often thought of as rigorous follow up, and can be seen as policing behavior, rather than as support to move the company forward.

For example, in an executive team meeting, a member of the senior leadership team is late for a meeting for the second time and no one has said anything. This leader is known for their punctuality, so this behavior is out of the ordinary. Typically, the background conversation or “cooler talk” becomes about how the leader is uncommitted, not trustworthy and cannot be counted on.

Instead of creating or supporting background conversations, another route could be to initiate an explorative conversation with the leader to hold them accountable. The conversation may be, “I sense there is something going on, as you are generally not late. What is going on in your world?”

The colleague has an opportunity to vent their frustrations and challenges they are currently having. Asking the question “how can I support you?” is an approach designed to get to the root of the issues and presents an opportunity to find solutions rather than just blaming or sitting in anger.

• Risks/Challenging Status Quo/Assumptions:

As times change and markets change, every company will need to accept a level of risk and adapt to find new ways to be competitive.

For example, if a company would like to expand into new countries or markets that other companies in the industry have tried and failed at, they must ask, why have others failed? What are we going to do differently, and what do we see that others have not seen that changes the game for us?

• Possibilities/Thought Provoking Questions:

Looking for what could be, versus simply accepting what everyone else does as the only way.

Being able to spot possibilities can create extraordinary opportunities. If you can see through the clutter that is complaints, frustrations and objections, you can see what others are missing. What are the complaints in the industry, what objections do you hear, and what frustrations do people vent about? All complaints and frustrations are hidden requests. Someone is speaking to a need that the market has not yet fulfilled for them. Uncovering these needs is the possibility no one else is thinking about.

All these conversations are designed to spark new thoughts, new ideas and new approaches. It is easy to get stuck in the minutia of the day to day issues, problems and struggles and forget to generate new ideas, thoughts and possibilities. Many people struggle with creative thinking as their day to day jobs are not necessarily designed to ignite this type of thinking, so it is important to inject new conversations into the dialogue, so it changes the background noise and creates an environment ripe for real innovation.

 

Leadership Challenge:

Inject one or two of the above conversations into your next team meeting and see what possibilities emerge!

Team meetings require something that is scarce for all busy executives – time!

Since time is scarce, attending unproductive and unorganized meetings can be incredibly irritating. You begin to wonder why you need to be there and what purpose it serves in your world.

Meetings are important as they bring a team together, but they must be designed with intention and purpose to be useful and effective.

When you consider that 50% of meeting time is wasted, and 39% of people doze off in meetings, you can see the importance that should be placed on well-designed, intentional meetings that generate future for the organization.

 

Intentional

What is the purpose of your meeting? Why is it necessary to gather everyone together?

Meetings should be used to discuss items that move your organization forward, and ideally not for items that could easily be determined via email or another communication platform. Many organizations gather to meet to provide updates to each other. A good question to ask is, could we provide updates through another communication mode such as email, Asana or other platforms, and use meeting time for other discussions?

Possible Intentions:

• Speak to the overall health of each department and the business overall
• Struggles or challenges Senior leaders are experiencing and utilize the expertise in the meeting to discuss solutions
• New initiatives, projects, and programs to keep the whole team in the loop
• Speak to what is working and what is not working

 

Conditions of Satisfaction (COS)

Conditions of satisfaction are the expectations everyone has for the meeting. You could also call these rules of engagement or ground rules; basically, an outline for how to get the most out of the meeting.

• Participate – everyone being prepared to contribute to the meeting’s agenda. Prepared notes, thoughts, ideas, presentations, etc. This speaks to how everyone should prepare to be able to participate.
• Be accountable for promises – when you agree to do something, ensure that you follow through. A lack of accountability within a team is a fast way to deteriorate trust within a team. If someone says they’ll do something, and they don’t; their word quickly becomes worthless.
• Be a deep listener – be engaged and present when others are speaking.
• Make it safe for people to share their ideas, concerns, personal fears – be respectful of whatever your teammates need to say. Having a high level of transparency and realness is invaluable in an organization, but first, everyone needs to feel that they can say what they need to say without negative consequences.

 

Communicate Through Dialogue Conversations

Most meetings are a monologue, meaning people talk at each other, not with each other. Through dialogue, people can have two-way conversations where their input is valued and contributes.

 

Support the Team

At times meetings can turn into a discussion about how certain things cannot be done. This is not effective for moving forward. Rather taking a stance about supporting your teammates on their initiatives and figuring out how to make something work tends to lead to people feeling supported and a more positive outlook on what is possible. Teams are built by supporting each other.

 

Team Agreements

Decorum is sometimes subjective for what everyone considers appropriate behavior in a team meeting situation. Having a pre-set agreement for things like cell phone use (taking calls, texting, surfing the net), bathroom breaks (this is an interruption that may stall the meeting), and punctuality (is there a grace period, or does the meeting start right on time). Having clear agreements for these situations removed any ambiguity provides clarity for what is acceptable behavior, and reduces the likelihood of irritation or frustration amongst the group. If any of the situations do occur, the team is within their rights to bring it up and request that the person respects the agreement that was made. This removes the uncertain around if the behavior is acceptable or not.

 

Meeting Rhythms

How often will you meet, who should be in various meetings, who creates the agenda, who leads the meetings, what role does everyone play in meetings? Having clarity on these.

 

Outcome

A successful outcome of any meeting is to generate action and to forward action that is in alignment with the organization’s strategic goals.

 

Questions

How would you rate the quality of your meetings?

Team participation – 1 – 5 – do your teammates come to the meeting prepared to contribute to the discussion?

Team engagement – 1 – 5 – are your team members mindful and present at the meeting?

Team performance – 1 – 5 – do your meetings put your teammates into action?

Team Accountability – 1 – 5 – does everyone keep their promises?

In every company, there is a constant evolution of change and development. New ideas, new approaches, and new emerging leaders. Emerging leaders are the future of companies. They are the ones facing the future head-on, and challenging the company to determine if the organization is ready.

As a member of the C-Suite and executive leadership team, how do you spot these rising stars and harness their skills and ideas? What signs can you watch for to know who has senior leadership potential?

 

10 Signs

1. Value Quality Work in Every Task

Getting the job done is not a tactical task for an emerging leader. Getting the job done right and achieving the tasks objectives and moving the company forward is more important than just getting it done. If getting the job done does not get the desired results, then the task should be reassessed and adjusted to achieve the goals; hence the task has a purpose that should be fulfilled.

2. Decisive

Make a decision and choose a direction. Emerging leaders know what they want and they make choices that align with their needs and future ambitions. They do not live on a teeter-totter in decision making. They have clarity with their direction and can, therefore, make choices for how to achieve their goals.

3. Fearless

No fear of stepping into new territory and going beyond their comfort zone. Emerging leaders fear a lack of movement more than they fear the what-ifs of moving into the unknown. They look beyond the obstacles and they see what could be.

4. Self – Directed

Create projects and actions to accomplish goals. They do not require substantial details and directions to accomplish their goals. They thrive in environments where there are vision and goals but are given the autonomy to create their way.

5. Desire to be Challenged in their Work

Emerging leaders are not comfortable being too comfortable. They are not interested in riding the wave of auto-pilot, as they experience boredom and restlessness. They have an internal desire to grow, develop, and make an impact. To do all this, they must be challenged and push boundaries to move themselves and their role forward. Emerging leaders get energized and motivated by projects and initiatives where they can learn and grow.   

6. Want Input and Feedback on their Performance

Emerging leaders want to know how they’re doing. They request feedback and are quick to modify their behavior in response. With a desire to continuously improve, emerging leaders seek out input on their performance and on their work.

7. Adaptable

Will shift and change as needed, or as the situation requires. If something is working, great – if something is not, they will question it and make a change. Their desire for growth and development puts them into a mindset of possibility, which leads to great adaptability when needed.

8. Make Offers

Emerging leaders pay attention to their surroundings and make offers when they see opportunities. They are not afraid to take the lead on projects and initiatives, and often volunteer to join or lead.  They present ideas that provide solutions that put people into action.

9. Agents of Change & Disruptors

Open to embracing change when it’s needed. Emerging leaders are about growth and development, which often means questioning and challenging the status quo when something is not working or when they see the possibility for another, more effective way. They are agents of change and disruptors.

They would like to discard the phrase “this is how we’ve always done it”. Emerging leaders do not believe that the past must dictate the future. They offer insights and new approaches, and they are not afraid to rock the boat.

10. Pay Attention to the Marketplace

They look beyond the company to the industry at large. Industries shift and evolve to make room for new technologies, approaches to business, and new products. Emerging leaders are paying attention to the bigger conversation happening to see what is trending and changing in the external environment. They have an intentional listening strategy, where they are paying attention to the bigger picture.

 

Leadership Challenge:

How many Emerging Leaders can you spot in your organization?

Now design a development plan for each of them to support your company’s future!

For leaders who are striving to differentiate their business by providing extraordinary experiences, this book is a must read!

The book provides quality insights about how to design “Defining Moments” that are the foundation of delivering an extraordinary experience.

The book defines a “Defining Moment” as a short experience that is both memorable and meaningful with four elements:

1. Elevation: a moment where you feel delight and awe
2. Insight: a moment of clarity and awareness
3. Pride: a moment of achievement or courage
4. Connection: a moment of social bonding with others

This book is packed with great examples of ways that organizations can design and harness “The Power of Moments” to WOW!! your staff and your clients.

In the book, Chip and Dan outline the importance of designing “Moments of Celebration” for staff when key milestones such as promotions, new business, or finding unique solutions to issues occur. Celebrations provide an opportunity for the company to bond and connect over wins and accomplishments.

Awareness of the importance of recognizing these moments are often part of what makes a great leader, great. Taking the time to appreciate your staff for key milestones being achieved provides the foundation for deepening relationships of trust. These moments show the human side of leadership and tell your staff that you truly care about them.

The Power of Moments

 

Challenge:

Where can you create “Defining Moments” within your organization?

 

It’s lonely at the top. Everyone says it because it can be very true.

You’re in a position of power, with everyone below you looking to you for guidance and direction. It is understandable that, according to a survey by RHR International, half of all CEOs report feeling lonely in their roles. In this group, 61% believe isolation hinders their performance. With over half of CEOs believing that isolation leads to lower performance, it makes you wonder why more CEOs don’t reach out for support.

In November 2017, two prominent CEOS in Alberta took their lives due to the pressures of overwhelming levels of stress that caused them to feel hopeless and powerless in their future.

As a CEO, it is a given that you will feel alone and at times be alone; this is the nature of being at the top of the heap. You are constantly stepping into the unknown and taking others into the unknown while playing a big game. You are guiding the vision, ensuring workability, and managing the high-stakes emotions that come with the stress of uncertainty and the what-ifs of big impactful decisions.

Your isolation begs the need for structures and practices to be developed and built into your world – the C-Suite world. Structures and practices provide a support system the C-Suite can depend on and trust when there is no one else who can relate or understand.

Creating a space and network for unfiltered, unbiased, and very real conversation is vital in the C-Suite.

Being perceived as weak, incompetent, or lacking in confidence for the future are all reasons why many C-Suite leaders keep concerns, issues, and problems to themselves. Bottling this all up internally creates a breeding ground for the development of unhealthy and sometimes detrimental coping mechanisms such as drinking, drugs, extramarital affairs, and unethical behavior, all triggered from the feeling of being alone with no one to turn to when things get tough.

Having external advisors is important for a sounding board to get real, unbiased feedback outside of the CEO bubble of appeasement.  External advisors provide a space where you can say, “I’m scared”, “I feel alone”, “I don’t know what to do”, without the risk of the perception of looking like a failure or being incompetent.

Structures such as a Psychologist, leadership or business coach, advisors (external to the company and preferably another industry), exercise routines, and mental practices for internal clarity are all healthy coping mechanisms for the stress inherent to the C-Suite.

Without structures in place, it is easy to fall into unhealthy coping mechanisms that have undesirable consequences.

Healthy Support Structures:

• Leadership/business coach
• Psychologist
• Mental practices (meditation, visualization)
• Exercise routine
• Self-reflection
• 3^rd party advisors (fellow colleagues who understand your role and who provide a safe place to be vulnerable and open. No judgment and confidentiality).

As a CEO you are playing a big game and committed to taking your team into the unknown where uncertainty is everywhere. It is important to be clear about your vision (where you are taking your team), understand and know how to manage your emotions (ability to manage and handle stress and uncertainty in a healthy way), maintain daily practices (to keep you grounded), and create support structures to ensure workability (people, processes, practices, tools) for a successful future.

 

Some resources:

How to Deal With Loneliness

How to Fight Isolation

As we begin 2018, now is a great time to review or create your Corporate Listening Strategy.

CEOs shape the listening in their organization.

Here are some questions for you to think about this week:

• What can you hear in your organization?
• What conversations are happening?
• What are you listening for? Is there workability, gaps, results?

Taking time to sit down and answer these questions honestly could make a world of difference in your business

What is real learning? As children, we are taught in classrooms through books and lectures, then expected to obtain the skills taught and apply them to our lives and our jobs.

While traditional learning may lead to increased knowledge and new skills, it does not usually lead to changes in behaviors, mindsets, and new ways of doing things (innovation). It is through real-life, on-the-court experiences that real learning truly occurs; learning that has the power to reshape organizations and individuals.

 

We have moved from a learning paradigm of:

(Read Information – Acquire Knowledge – Apply Knowledge) To (On the Court Experiences – Reflection on Experiences – Apply Lessons Learned)

While there is value to acquiring knowledge and new skills, on-the-court learning experiences tend to have a stronger and more lasting impact on new behaviors and new mindset because you have first-hand experience.

 

What does Real Learning on the court look like?

1. It is messy, painful, unpredictable and joyful

Real learning is just that – it is real and emotional. Everyone always says that they learned the most from their biggest mistakes. When things don’t go the way you had intended, that’s when you tend to see the gaps and what’s missing. Many leaders do not properly prepare their teams and their organizations for transitions and changes that occur within the organization; therefore, uncontrolled chaos ensues. Change by its very nature is disruptive and chaotic. It is important to understand the challenges that will be present and communicate how to deal with them and provide support structures.

2. Being Open

Be open to seeing beyond any irritation, tension or conflict to see what the breakdown (conflict, tension) is disclosing/revealing. Rather than dwelling on what’s wrong and who’s to blame, try asking yourself a simple question – what is missing – a conversation, skill, commitment, support structure?

• I am open to not knowing (willing to receive feedback)
• I am open to an inquiry (reflection, considering a different way, being challenged)
• I am open to a possibility (new ways of thinking and being)

3. Willing to Let Go

What am I willing to let go of so I can focus on what really moves the business forward?

Living in a mindset of excellence and redefining your relationship to mistakes.

• From a mindset of Perfection – Mistakes = failure (major breakdown)
• From a mindset of Excellence – Mistakes = stepping stones to move forward (new learning)

When you have a mindset where mistakes are simply part of the process and expected, you can view them as opportunities to learn more and growth rather than get frustrated by them.

Top 5 Reasons the C-Suite Struggles to “Let Go”

• Fear – Worrying about what might happen
• Habits – Old ways of leading – command and control vs inspire and enroll
• Emotions – Anger vs choose to be curious – what is this experience showing me about myself that I don’t want to look at?
• Narrow-Mindedness – Being right or a need to be right
• Status/Position – My point of view/my opinion matters most

4. Willing to take Risks and Embrace Risk

Be courageous in conversations and actions to support a new future possibility. The future belongs to those who say and do what others are too scared to say and do; those who take bold actions will create the future by moving forward.

5. Willing to be Vulnerable

As a leader, especially in the C-Suite, speaking to your fears and uncertainties can feel quite intimidating, but vulnerability is where real power in the boardroom lies. Being able to say “I am afraid/scared” or “I don’t know how to handle the situation” opens the door for support and your team to provide ideas and insights for solving challenges.

6. Embrace Breakdowns to Create Breakthroughs

Breakdowns are formed from the frustration that comes from not getting the results desired. When the desired results are not achieved, an environment of tension, conflict, miscommunication, blame and irritation become present and lead to high emotions and less constructive conversation. When you embrace a breakdown (rather than let it tear you down) and see it as a learning opportunity, you can deflate the high emotions and energy, and find your way to a breakthrough by taking Responsibility for your part in the breakdown, being curious rather than angry (asking what’s missing), and being courageous through conversations of action that lead to action.

7. Embrace 1^st Person Learning

There are 3 types of learning: 3^rd person (obtaining knowledge), 2^nd person (direct experience) and 1^st person (on-the -court experiences).

First person learning is real learning; where you reflect on “on-the-court” experiences and capture lessons learned to move forward. You embrace raw learning when you are “living and experiencing” the learning.

8. Embrace Being in a Learning Community

Learning in a community means to learn with and around others. When you embrace a learning community, you are embracing open dialogue, being open to new ideas and thoughts, being held accountable, being challenged, and hearing and responding to others’ opinions

When you embrace “real learning” you are embracing the opportunity for real change.

 “I can’t tell you how many business leaders I meet, how many organizations I visit, that espouse the virtues of innovation and creativity. Yet so many of these same leaders and organizations live in fear of mistakes, missteps and disappointments – which is why they have so little innovation and creativity. If you’re not prepared to fail, you’re not prepared to learn.”

“There is no learning without failing, there are no successes without setback.”

• Harvard Business Review – “How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon Learn from Failure” by Bill Taylor

 

Leadership Challenge:

Ask your team for some real feedback on your leadership and the leadership of the organization and be open to the real learning that comes from the discussion.