You’re right. You deserve high-quality, carefully considered feedback in your performance review. Your manager should take this seriously and do it right.

But often they don’t. It’s statistically likely that you (or a friend) will be blindsided by the performance feedback you receive. Let’s get ahead of it this year with some Powerful Phrases to ask for, and engage In a more meaningful conversation.

Powerful Phrases to Deal with Lazy, Vague, Frustrating Feedback

A few years ago, I wrote “Avoid These Infuriating Phrases in End-of-Year Feedback” to encourage managers to stop making stupid comments when giving a performance review.

This heartfelt post came from years of listening to high-performing employees vent their frustrations about frustrating phrases their managers said. If you’re a manager who struggles with performance reviews, please start there.

How to Respond to the Most Infuriating Kind of Performance Review

For the rest of you (or your friends), let’s prepare for that frustrating feedback this year and prepare you with some Powerful Phrases for when the conversation goes sideways.

1. “I don’t have much end-of-year feedback for you. You know you’re doing great.”

I hate this one as much as you do. If you’re hearing this, you probably are doing great, but it doesn’t give you much to build on or improve.

Some options to start your empowered response:

• “Wow, thanks so much! I appreciate your support. This year, I feel particularly proud about __________ (insert that accomplishment you expected them to bring up). I’m curious about your perspective on that _______(project, strategy, accomplishment). Why did that work from your perspective? What made that work so well, and how might I bring more of that into my work?”
• “Thank you! You know, one area I’m really working to improve on is _________. What is one suggestion you have for how I can be more effective in that arena?”
• “Thank you! I’m curious about what specifically you appreciate about what I’m doing here. I’m very focused on ensuring next year is even better, and I’d love your help in knowing what I should continue doing and ideas to help me really differentiate my performance next year.”

2. “I rated you as meets expectations for your end-of-year feedback. Your performance really was an “exceeds” but I had to make the math work out.” Or, even worse, “I could only have one person in that category.”

Okay, you have a serious right to be ticked off here. I’ve been there, on both sides of this awkward conversation.

And it’s probably too late to change the math or the rating. I know this because as a Verizon executive I’ve fought this battle many times for the high-performers on my team, and the answer was “pick one.”

Your manager may be as (or even more) frustrated than you.

In my article on infuriating phrases, my advice to your manager is to stay focused on results and behaviors, rather than the rating. And, to be clear about the criteria that they used to calibrate performance and where you met and exceeded those criteria and opportunities to improve in the future. To stay away from comparisons to other employees, or blaming other people for the rating they received.

And now, some options to start your empowered response: 

• “Oh, wow. That must have put you in a difficult situation. And, I’ve got to tell you, that makes me feel really ___________(insert emotion here, but try not to scream or cry).”
• “I’ve worked incredibly hard this year and I really don’t want to be having a similar conversation this time next year. Can we outline what I need to do for next year to make ‘exceeds’ (or whatever your rating equivalent is) the obvious rating? I’d love to build a plan to ensure I have the success I’m looking for.”
• “I really appreciate your support. And I’ve got to tell you I’m pretty frustrated. This affects my compensation too (if that’s true). I’d really like to talk to HR to express my concerns about this.”

3. “I know we haven’t talked about this before, but _____”

This one’s tricky because your manager certainly shouldn’t blindside you this way in your performance review. There are a few angles you might choose to take. If they’ve put something in writing that’s coming out of the blue, you might request to have that removed, requesting a fair chance to address it before it turns up in the documentation.

And, here are some empowering phrases that might be useful.

• “I appreciate your feedback and your desire to help me improve. I’m wondering what we could do to set up a more regular cadence of feedback throughout the year, so there are no surprises next time.”
• “I’m a bit surprised by this feedback and would like to take some time to digest it. Let’s set up a follow-up in a week to talk a bit more.”
• “Since this is the first time I’ve heard this feedback, can you please give me some time to address this before you put it in the formal review? Here’s my approach to improving in this area.”

4.”I don’t really have any specific examples, but it’s become a real issue.”

If you hear this in your performance review, and you can’t think of any examples either, I’d recommend you push for some examples.

• “I’m deeply committed to improving my performance in this arena. And, it’s really hard to understand what needs to change without some concrete examples.”
• “I really would like to understand this more. I’m struggling to come up with examples too.”
• “Can you please tell me more? I’d really like to get a better understanding of your concern here.”

5. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from other people about your performance in this arena. Who? I’m not at liberty to say.

As with most of these awkward performance review phrases, I would start with a gut check. If your manager is raising an issue and it feels true to you, then your best bet is to own it and work on it.

However, if this third-party performance review feedback feels unfair, then I would press for more information.

• “Hmmm. That’s tricky. I don’t see it that way. It would be really helpful for me to talk directly with those concerned. Can you please ask them to come to me with their concerns so I have a chance to talk with them directly about it?”
• “Have you noticed this issue yourself? Does this seem like something that’s consistent with what you’ve observed?”
• “I’d like a chance to better understand this issue. Who do you suggest I talk with to learn more?”

6. “Just write up your accomplishments and I’ll sign it.”

It’s a great idea to submit your accomplishments. After all, you’re closer to the work you’ve done and the impact you’ve made.

Say yes, and then…

• “I’d be delighted to write up my accomplishments (see How to help your boss give you a better performance review for tips on how to do that well).”
• “I would also really appreciate your feedback and perspective on my performance this year. When would be a good time for us to talk through my performance review?”
• “Here you go (hand them your accomplishments). I’m also really interested in your feedback on how I can make next year my best year ever. I got this great development discussion planner from Let’s Grow Leaders. I’d love to schedule some time to go through that.”

While lazy, vague, and frustrating feedback can feel super irritating, it also gives you a chance to take responsibility for your career development. Ask for what you need and giveyour manager the opportunity to rise to the occasion. Sometimes their insights will surprise, and help you make that next step.

Related Articles

12 Powerful Phrases For Navigating Challenging Workplace Conflict

How to Help Your Team’s Performance Stand Out for Better Recognition

The post Performance Review: How to respond to frustrating or lazy performance feedback appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Commitment is vital to effective teamwork, collaboration, and results.

One of the most frustrating aspects of teamwork is the feeling of futility – of spinning your wheels. You connect with one another, establish clear success criteria, get curious, and build on one another’s suggestions, but nothing happens. Your conversation needs to produce action, or nothing changes. And if nothing changes, it’s worse than if you never had a conversation. Now you’ve wasted time, trust drips away, and people lose hope. The answer is to build shared agreements – commitments – that move you from words to action. In this final installment of our “Great Teamwork Series,” we share 12 collaboration habits to create commitment and build momentum with follow-through and results.

More in this excerpt from our interview on Brainwaves Anthology with Bob Greenberg.

Click here for more insights on creating commitment.

12 Habits Great Teams Consistently Do to Create Commitment and Build Collaboration

1. Ignite Action: Turn intentions into activities

Habit: I get things going—moving the conversation to create specific plans

When your team has tight conversations that lead to meaningful results, trust and morale improve along with the team’s capacity to make even more meaningful decisions. You can help your team avoid endless discussions, analysis paralysis, and chokepoints by moving conversations to intentions to specific actions.

Related Article: Help Your Team Do More-Stop (over) Talking and Start Doing

2. Say “No” for a Better Yes: Explain tradeoffs and gracefully decline opportunities that derail critical effort

Habit: I keep us focused on what matters most and empower a strategic “no.”

Related Article: How to Say No at Work: Powerful Phrases to Stand your Ground

It’s never easy to say no at work. After all, you want to be helpful, responsive, and a team player. And yet, every time you say “yes” to something or someone, you’re saying “no” to something or someone else. One way to help one another create commitment and say no effectively is to start with a “yes.” Do this is by affirming the request and the value the request might represent—that’s the “yes.” Then bridge to the context, consequences, and decisions—that’s the “no.”

3. Keep Things Organized: Provide structure the team needs to work efficiently

Habit: I make it easy to collaborate and integrate our work.

Can everyone find the information, tools, and data they need to do their work? If not, you’re wasting time interrupting each other asking for what you need or in frustrating fruitless searches. A little organization will help everyone work more efficiently. (Just avoid the temptation to over-organize. You’ll know this happens when you spend more time on the organization system than you do on your actual work.)

4. Create Ownership: Verify that every task has a specific person responsible for its completion

Habit: I ensure we conclude our meetings or conversations by clarifying responsibility.

When everyone’s responsible, no one is. Guarantee that any conversation requiring action ends with a specific person taking responsibility to follow through on an assignment. The project may require a team. But one person has ownership and responsibility to follow through.

5. Respect Confidentiality: Build trust with appropriate discretion and privacy

Habit: I protect sensitive information.

Related Article: Confidential Information – What to Say When You Can’t Say Anything

It can be tempting to share private information. It feels like a shortcut to building intimacy and connection. But every time you violate confidentiality, you tell the person you’re talking to that they can’t trust you with critical information. When you can’t share information, be honest about it. For example, “That’s not something I can talk about. It’s important that to me you can trust  that if we’re ever in a similar situation, I won’t talk about it then either.”

6. Schedule the Finish: Create shared appointments to meet, discuss, and conclude tasks

Habit: I confirm specific deliverables and timeframes for when we will follow up on our commitments.

You’ve got more to do than time to do it. Your plan is going to get interrupted, and your interruptions are going to get interrupted. If you don’t have an intentional, focused way to finish what you start, it won’t happen. Effective teams consistently achieve meaningful results and build a healthy culture–but they don’t leave it to chance or a heroic act of willpower. They create commitment by scheduling the finish with specific, shared appointments to follow through. These conversations consider competing priorities and adjust accordingly.

Related Article: High ROI Leadership: Schedule the Finish

7. Hold Others Accountable: Practice peer-to-peer check-ins and closure

Habit: When people don’t follow through, I follow up with them.

Look at the research about high-performing teams and one universal characteristic jumps out. In high-performing teams, accountability isn’t just the manager’s job—the team holds one another accountable (and their manager too). When you talk to high-performing teams, it’s easy to see that this team accountability doesn’t just happen. They work at it. Help your team succeed by following up and creating closure for commitments.

Related Article: Great Teams Hold One Another Accountable (You Can Too).

8. Honor Deadlines: Get work done on time and watch out for barriers

Habit: I take our commitments seriously, and proactively talk about obstacles that might derail our deliverables.

The distractions that creep up and disrupt our follow through feel like a surprise. But are they really? When you lift your gaze, look outward and ask “is there anything that could prevent us from making this commitment?” you can help your team anticipate and deal with these disruptions before they interfere with your focus.

9. Keep My Team on Track: Help your colleagues maintain focus and avoid distractions

Habit: I ensure our team meets our obligations together.

One of the most tempting distractions that can take you and your team off track is other meaningful work. That new shiny assignment may be great for your career – and so is delivering the results you’ve promised. You can help your team maintain focus and a manageable workload by suggesting “Let’s get this done before we take on that new project.”

Related Article: Get Your Team Back on Track: Leading Through Distractions

10. Do What I Say: Keep your commitments

Habit: I follow through and keep my word.

Can your team rely on you? Your reliability directly affects your team’s trust in you. Can they rely on one another? Often, when reliability breaks down, it’s not because people lack integrity, it’s because they said “yes” to something without fully thinking through what it would take to keep that commitment. You can increase your reliability by consistently scheduling the finish and discussing tradeoffs. (See #2 and #6 above.)

11. Speak with Candor: Give the gift of truth, spoken gracefully

Habit: I address difficult issues directly and in a timely manner.

Direct, honest communication helps everyone know where they stand and minimizes drama within your team. The earlier you address challenging situations, the easier they are to resolve.

12. Celebrate Success: Acknowledge wins in all their forms

Habit: I acknowledge wins, progress and learning.

You get more of what you encourage and celebrate, so take time to recognize all that you and your team have achieved together. You can do this in the middle of projects to energize one another for the road ahead. Pay attention to the different forms of “wins” – it’s not just successful completion. You can celebrate learning, progress, and improved capacity.

Related Articles: True Gratitude: More Than Pleasantries or Recognition and Leading Through Rapidly Changing Priorities

13. Your Turn: What habit would you add to create commitment and build shared agreements?

Note: This article is part four of our 4-part Better Teamwork Series. Find the other parts here:

1. Better Teamwork: 12 Practical Habits to Build Deeper Connection
2. Great Teams: 12 Practical Collaboration Habits to Create Clarity
3. Creative Teams: 12 Habits that Foster Curiosity and Collaboration

The post Create Commitment: 12 Habits to Build Agreement and Accountability appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Is there anyone more beloved than Santa Claus? Today, the North Pole is a paragon of human-centered leadership and culture. But it wasn’t always that way.

In fact, Santa has a lot to teach us about leadership. You might have a fantastic personal brand and a world-renown altruistic mission, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore your leadership and culture. The North Pole used to be a very different place…

Nearly sixty years ago, the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television show documented the poor leadership and culture at the North Pole. Santa, Donner, and the head elf had created and took part in a toxic culture of ridicule that led to poor performance.

Donner rejected his son because of his nose. Santa ignored Rudolph’s obvious talent and leaping ability because of the red glow. And the head elf ridicules Hermey’s aspiration to be a dentist.

The North Pole’s leadership and culture at the time was a great example of what we call “trickle-down intimidation.” The leaders take their cues from what happens at the top. Santa’s leadership led to dysfunction at every level. The toxic courage-crushers got so bad that the North Pole lost some of its top next-generation talent as the victims of the abusive leadership looked for opportunities elsewhere.

There’s a lesson for leaders in what happened all those years ago. When people have to use all their courage just to survive harassment, ridicule, or being overlooked for bringing their authentic selves to work, they can’t possibly bring creativity or innovative solutions to their work. They’re too busy surviving.

The North Pole Today: Can Leadership and Culture Change?

In this human-centered leader TV exclusive exposé, Karin Hurt asks hard questions to find out what has changed – and how.

We were so happy to find out Santa’s a fan of Courageous Cultures. In our world of rapid change, a courageous culture is your competitive advantage.

Start by eliminating toxic courage crushers. Then, invest in leadership and culture where leaders consistently show up with curiosity, ask people for their ideas, and build an infrastructure for courage. You’ll be on your way to high performance, high engagement, and teams who consistently share ideas, and solve problems, with leaders who reward contributions from all levels.

By the end of that frosty Christmas Eve, Santa had seen the worth in every member of his team and encouraged Rudolph’s true strength, competence, and talent. Performance soared.

The North Pole leadership team built a culture where Hermey could bring his best self to work and everyone would eventually benefit from the dental care. And if you have a team member whose ultimate passion lies outside of your work, support them. How can you help them learn all they can while contributing now? The message it sends to your team about your loyalty and commitment to them will come back many times over. (Not sure about your people’s goals? Use this Developmental Discussion tool to find out!)

Your Turn

Santa’s leadership is a cautionary tale for every leader. Do you build on your team’s talents, strengths, and competence or do you waste time, energy, and capacity focused on irrelevant “weaknesses”? Have you allowed a caustic culture of shame, blame, or intimidation to take root?

If so, Santa also shows us a positive path forward. Leadership and culture can change – and it begins with you.

Do you have the culture you want? If not, how can you avoid Santa’s leadership problems? How can you focus on the talents your people bring to work? And not obsess about the characteristics they don’t have (that don’t matter)?

How to Read Courageous Cultures With Your Team

If you missed our Courageous Cultures Leadership Book Club event, you can catch the recording here.  And, in the article below, we’ve compiled a long list of supplemental FREE resources to help you encourage courage and get more remarkable ideas from your team.

Leadership Book Club: How to Read Courageous Cultures With Your Team

The post How Did Leadership and Culture Improve on the North Pole? appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

I don’t know about you, but we love a good “year-in-review” list. There’s something about looking back over the entire year and seeing what stands out. More than the list itself, it’s the conversation that it provokes that each of us finds compelling: “Really, that was your favorite…. interesting.” “Oh, I almost forgot about that one. That WAS a big deal.”

What are your year-in-review highlights? How would your highlight reel compare to the year-in-review highlights from your team?

A “what stands out” conversation can be a great team builder for your end-of-year meeting, or to enhance your December one-on-ones.

7 Questions to Help Your Team Reflect on the Year

Here are a few questions to help you facilitate a year-in-review conversation.

1. What are your personal bests?

One fun way to do personal bests is to give your team a list of potential “best ofs” to choose from, and have each team member pick one or two personal bests to share.

Best…

• Day (this one can be a lot of fun, and great for storytelling).
• Accomplishment (it’s always interesting to see which people choose– it’s a great indicator of what matters most to them).
• Contribution to the Team (also interesting to see what people see as their “best of,” and, of course, this can set the table for additional gratitude).
• Customer Win (it’s easy for “going the extra mile” for customer stories to go unnoticed. Here’s a chance to share.
• Idea (Celebrate the I.D.E.A.s (the remarkable ones), and even the great ones you were not able to use.
• Comeback (Filling the room with great come-back stories is always energizing).
• Collaboration (This is a chance to talk about when teamwork was at its very best)

Of course, a good follow-up question is… what made these best-ofs so great? And how do we get more of that next year?

2. Which of our projects/efforts/contributions was most impactful to the organization?

This is a great way to help your team consider how their work aligns with your organization’s strategic priorities.

This works well, even for frontline employees who may not be involved in projects with a capital “P.” Invited them to talk about ways they have contributed to improving results.

The natural follow-up conversation is to talk about how your team can continue to contribute in meaningful ways.

3. How have you grown this year personally and professionally?

Probes: In what areas have you developed? What development and training were the most impactful? What new skills did you learn? Which areas of your performance have most improved?

4. Who helped you most this year? How? What difference did it make?

Even if you’ve already thanked someone, you can’t go wrong with including gratitude in your year-in-review. A quick lightning round of this question is a great meeting starter.

5. What’s your biggest lesson learned?

What did you learn and how? How will you apply that learning in the future?

6. What would you do differently if you were to live this same year again?

Closely related to the lesson learned, this question is a good one to set the stage for strategic changes, priorities, and new habits for next year.

7. What important question should we add to our year-in-review discussion?

This question empowers your team to identify specific areas they would like to talk about as part of the end-of-year review.

We would love to hear from you. What questions would you include in an end-of-year review?  What would you include in your best of highlight reel?

The post Year-in-Review: 7 Questions to Help Your Team Reflect on Success and Key Learnings appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“Hi Karin, we’ve just received word that after much debate and deliberation, there is a company-wide mandate that EVERYONE must return to office at the beginning of the year.

I know my team is not a fan (and quite frankly, neither am I). I get the rationale, AND it’s going to make all of our lives a bit harder.

We’re past the point of making a case; I’ve been told that this is no longer up for discussion. It’s time to communicate this to my team. The timing is terrible. It’s so close to the holidays I feel like the Grinch who delivered bad news.”

What’s the best way to communicate this to my team #AskingforaFriend

4 Approaches to Get Your Team Past the Disapointment and Moving Forward Productively

As a leader, not every decision you make will be popular. Sometimes you’ll be tasked with delivering news that you know won’t be popular. So, how do you communicate these tough decisions effectively? In the video above, I share four strategies that can help. Here’s a bit more.

1. Create Clarity

Communicate the ‘Why’ Behind the Decision

• Explain the Rationale: Your team will be more receptive when they understand the “why” behind the decision. It’s easy to assume they know. But keep in mind, they’ve not been in the same meetings as you. They haven’t heard the case from both sides of the argument. What seems obvious to you, might not be clear to them. Be transparent about the factors that led to the decision to return to office.
• Anticipate Questions: Prepare yourself for the questions your team might have and address these proactively in your communication.

Communicating the Decision Clearly

• Be Transparent: When you’re worried about how people will respond, it can be easy to throw the bad news in the”diaper genie” and disguise it with spin and ambiguous language. Better to speak the truth.
• Be Direct but Empathetic: Acknowledge that the news might not be what the team wants to hear, but it’s necessary.

2. Cultivate Connection

Creating a Supportive Environment

• Open Dialogue: Encourage your team to share their feelings and concerns.
• Reflect to Connect: Show that you’ve heard them by reflecting on what you’ve heard them say. “It sounds like you’re really frustrated.” “What I’m hearing you say is that the commute is going to create childcare issues for you.” The Powerful Phrases Connection G.O.A.T.s work well here.

Maintaining Team Morale

• Focus on the Positive: Highlight any potential benefits or opportunities from this change.
• Provide Support: Offer resources or additional support to help your team adapt to the change that comes with the return to office initiative.

3. Cultivate Curiosity

Encouraging Team Involvement

• Brainstorm Together: Invite your team to share ideas to make the transition smoother. A great question to start is by asking “How can we…” make the most of this situation?
• Respond with Regard: Respond to their ideas with gratitude (thanking them for their contribution), information (what will happen next– even if it’s not something you can do), and an invitation to continue contributing.

Focusing on Innovation

• Think Forward: Discuss how this decision might lead to new opportunities for growth, innovation, and collaboration.
• Encourage Creativity: Challenge your team to think creatively about how they can turn this situation to their advantage.

4. Create Commitment

Ensuring Understanding and Agreement

• Recap the Plan: Summarize the key points of the decision and the plan moving forward.
• Check for Understanding: Make sure everyone is on the same page and understands their role in the implementation.

Setting the Course for Action

• Schedule the Finish: Lay out clear, actionable steps for how to proceed.
• Regular Check-Ins: Schedule follow-ups to assess progress, address any issues, and provide ongoing support.

Communicating unpopular decisions like return to office is undoubtedly challenging, but it’s a part of the leadership journey. By creating clarity, cultivating connection and curiosity, and creating commitment, you can navigate these tough conversations with more confidence and empathy. Remember, the way you communicate can significantly impact how your team receives and reacts to the decision.

Have you had to deliver difficult news to your team? What strategies worked for you? Please share your experiences, and let’s learn from each other.

Related Articles:

How to Stay Productive as You Return to the Office

Leadership Communication: How Do I Get Everyone On the Same Page?

Human-Centered Communication with Lizabeth Wesely-Casella

The post 4 Powerful Communication Strategies for an Unpopular Return to Office Decision appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You take performance management seriously. You care deeply about your team, their results, and their long-term career success. If you’re reading this, it sounds like you’re feeling a bit frustrated and stuck, because your well-intentioned accountability conversations aren’t fixing a repeated issue. If this sounds familiar, today’s Asking or a Friend is for you.

“Karin, there is this person on my team that I really care about and want to be successful. But they have one important behavior that’s SABOTAGING THEIR SUCCESS… and they don’t seem to be able to fix it. I keep having the conversation AGAIN and AGAIN. What can I do? #askingforafriend

Human-centered performance management means giving meaningful feedback that reinforces clear expectations and gives space for emotions, support, and reflection. It’s a two-way conversation that helps the employee identify their own next steps. When you’ve had this conversation, and your employee repeats the past behavior then you know you need to escalate the conversation. Here’s how.

Performance Management with the A.R.T. Method

Let’s Grow Leader’s A.R.T. Method of Advanced Accountability is a popular technique in our foundational leadership development programs. The A.R.T. Method helps you escalate the conversation in a way that continues to build the relationship while striving for results.

Step 1: A – Action

Most feedback conversations start by discussing a specific action. The first conversation you have with someone about their performance should clearly address the specific behavior that is problematic – being late for meetings, dismissing a colleague’s ideas, or not following through on a task. You could use our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method to map out this conversation so it’s supportive and collaborative.

Step 2: R – Repetition

So if you’ve had two Action conversations and your team member repeats the behavior, it’s time to move to R-Repetition.

You can still use the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method, but this time instead of pointing out the problematic action, you will call attention to the repetitive pattern. For example, “I’ve noticed a pattern where you’re arriving late.”

If it’s a repeating pattern, it’s possible the person isn’t aware of their actions and they aren’t noticing the consequences of their behavior. When you address the issue, it makes it clear to them that you notice and can help them identify something they weren’t even unaware of.

The key to this performance management step that can bring about change is to ask for a specific commitment about what they will do differently. Then work together and agree on a time to “schedule the finish.” This means scheduling a time when you’re going to check in on progress and discuss how it’s going. When you schedule the finish, make sure you follow through and check in when the time comes.

Step 3: T – Trust

When you’ve had a recent Repetition conversation and the behavior happens again, you will need to escalate the conversation once more. This time your performance management conversation is about not keeping their commitment and the erosion of trust because of it. When you tell your team member what you’re noticing it won’t be about the original action.

Now the problematic behavior is them not keeping their commitment.

What to say when you have a trust issue

Here’s an example of what you could say if you get to the T – Trust part of the A.R.T. Method:

“Do you remember the commitment you made last Friday? So here’s the thing. I noticed that this week, you didn’t keep your word, and I’m concerned.

Listen, I want to be able to trust you. I know you want to be able to trust me as your leader, as your manager. You’ve got to be able to take my word and bank on it. And I want to have that same relationship with you. Right now, that’s not happening. I want to see you succeed. I want the best for you. It’s important that you achieve all of your goals here, and this is going to prevent that. So what’s happening here? How do you think we can fix it?”

I’m curious, what would you add? What are your best practices for addressing repeating performance issues?

Managers, for a detailed overview of the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method, see our article How to Provide More Meaningful Performance Feedback.

And if you are ready to accelerate team performance and positive, sustained culture change, check out Team Accelerator, our manager-led program.

The post Performance Management: How to Give Feedback to a Team Member Who Isn’t Changing appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Let’s talk about getting more leadership better visibility and recognition for YOU – and YOUR TEAM’s – work.

Today’s #AskingForaFriend came in from our Micro-Learning Lab.

“I’ve always had trouble “selling” my (or our) job to higher management. I thought the work should speak for itself. However, in a very busy environment, the message may get lost. How do I ensure that management knows of our achievements and realizes how much work the team does?“

Three Ways to Position Yourself for Better Exposure

1. Position Your Team Strategically for Better Leadership Visibility

In order to achieve better leadership visibility, set clear and measurable MITs (Most Important Things) that align with the bigger picture. If you need help creating clarity, this article is a great place to start. Or, drop us a note. We’d love to chat.

By setting specific MITs for your team, you show the impact of your work. And, track progress toward bigger organizational goals.

Provide regular updates on your team’s progress. You might even use our 5×5 communication technique to expand leadership visibility to your work.

This can help build trust and credibility, and demonstrate the value your team brings. Additionally, by regularly reviewing and adjusting your goals as circumstances change, you ensure your team REMAINS aligned with strategic objectives,

2. Build Cross-Functional Relationships with Other Departments

Help your team build deeper, collaborative relationships with other departments.

When people in other departments talk positively about your team, you get better leadership visibility without saying a word. Great work never happens in a vacuum. And some of the best recognition comes from peers.

By collaborating effectively with other departments, you can also gain a better understanding of the organization’s overall goals and priorities. This helps better align your work with strategic priorities (see above). Which, in turn, helps gain support from senior leadership, Think of this as the leadership visibility snowball effect.

Furthermore, when YOU help OTHER DEPARTMENTS gain visibility and recognition, you pave the way for future collaboration. By working together and sharing successes, you can create a positive feedback loop that benefits everyone involved.

3. Invite Senior Leadership to Meetings

For more leadership visibility, invite senior leadership to a meeting and strategically share your work. It’s not bragging, it’s useful. Just be sure you’re ready to nail it. Not all executive exposure is good exposure. See Also: 6 Reasons to Give Your Team Better Executive Exposure.

A few tips to keep in mind (and more tips here on presenting to executives)

• Be transparent and authentic in your communication.
• Let them know the intent of the invite, and topics to discuss.
• Provide any relevant background or context.
• Be an excellent steward of time.
• Avoid overselling or exaggerating your accomplishments.
• Focus on presenting an accurate and honest picture of your team’s work and progress.
• Emphasize your commitment to working collaboratively towards shared goals.
• Use data to back up your claims and present them in a meaningful and compelling way.

Final Tip

When presenting your team’s work to senior leadership, be sure to emphasize the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Highlight the contributions of individual team members. Demonstrate how their skills and expertise complement each other to achieve shared goals. This helps demonstrate your leadership skills and your ability to build and manage high-performing teams. Additionally, by emphasizing collaboration and teamwork, you reinforce your commitment to a culture of shared ownership and responsibility.

And psst…Dear Leader…if you want to bring human-centered practical leadership training to your teams, visit our Team Accelerator page. Learn about our manager-driven team development program to sustain company-wide change, from the inside out.

And now, your turn. How do you help your team’s performance stand out so it’s impossible to ignore? How do you ensure that they get the attention they deserve? Leadership visibility does more than improve morale, it also leads to better creativity, innovation, and courage.

This article will also help.

How to Help Your Team Reflect on Their Accomplishments

The post Leadership Visibility: How to Ensure Your Team Gets the Attention They Deserve appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Every truly high-performing team has one thing in common: They spend time in candid conversation talking about what’s working and consistently look for ways to improve. They look at the work they’re doing and ask “how can we” do this EVEN BETTER?

And they enjoy and celebrate their success.

And yet, when you’re neck deep in urgent deadlines, fast pivots, and navigating uncertainty and change,  it’s easy to postpone those vital conversations to “someday when we have more time.” And of course, that someday may never come. Or, that conversation gets lost in the sauce of all the other important conversations at your end-of-year offsite.

But what if you carved out an hour a month to have the most critical conversations to lead your team toward high performance? Here are ten important questions to start with when building a high-performing team. What would you add?

10 Vital Conversations to Build a High-Performing Team

1. What is our vision for a great team culture?
2. How do we better leverage the strengths of every team member?
3. How do we best communicate?
4. What are our most important strategic priorities (and how do we best achieve them)?
5. How can we build deeper trust and connection?
6. How do we enhance the effectiveness of our meetings?
7. What can we do to give more meaningful feedback?
8. How will we hold one another accountable (with compassion)?
9. How will we celebrate success and learn from mistakes?
10. What ideas do we have to improve our team’s performance?

1.  What is our team vision for a great team culture?

If you are really looking to build a high-performing team, the most important place to start is with a clear definition of success.

An easy way to do this is to invite everyone on your team to draw two pictures: one of the team as they see it now, and one as they would like it to be. Discuss the themes and approaches for getting to your desired state.

Or, you can go a level deeper and involve your team in defining key values and behaviors critical for your team’s success. See How to Build a Great Team Culture.

2.  How do we better leverage the strengths of every team member?

Click on the image to download our “Land in the AND tool.

Another characteristic of a truly high-performing team is that they truly understand the strengths and gifts each member brings. They encourage confident-humility and focus on results and relationships.

Team members know their strengths, own them and use them. And, they know and admit their vulnerabilities and ask for help.

If you’re looking to help your team “land in the and” of confidence and humility AND results and relationships, click on the image to the right to download this free high-performing team conversation tool.

3.  How do we best communicate?

Our clients tell us that one reason our leadership programs lead to sustained culture change is that everyone adopts a common vocabulary.

High-performing teams have a habit of “checking for understanding” to ensure key messages are received and “scheduling the finish” to ensure everyone is aligned on what “done” looks like.

4.  What are our most important strategic priorities (and how do we best achieve them)?

If you’re a regular reader of our blog or books, you know we’re all about the MIT (Most Important Thing). One of the biggest differentiators of high-performing teams is that they have real clarity about what success looks like, and the critical behaviors to achieve them.

One of the most important one-hour investments you can make is to talk about your MITs and how you will achieve them. This Creating Clarity article gives you a clear road-map to do that well.

5.  How can build deeper trust and connection

click to download conversations starters.

Trust starts with connection. Sure, building trust takes more than an hour, but it can start by having deeper conversations. Our B.E.C.O.M.E. model is a good place to start, as are compassionate conversations starters. Click on the image to the right to download those conversation starters to use with your team.

6.  How do we enhance the effectiveness of our meetings?

When should you have a meeting? Who should be included? Which meetings make sense? Which needs to go? How can you enhance your asynchronous communication to eliminate meetings and help level the playing field for remote team members across different time zones?

How will you make decisions in these meetings? We’ve been helping so many teams have these important conversations. And, it’s pretty amazing the progress that can be made in an hour.

7.  What can we do to give more meaningful feedback?

Another characteristic of high-performing teams is that they “ditch the diaper genie” and have important, candid conversations that will help one another to grow and improve. And, it’s important to set the stage for this 360 feedback upfront.  

8.  How will we hold one another accountable (with compassion)?

It’s easy to think about accountability as your job as the manager. But the truth is, the highest-performing teams hold one another accountable. 

It’s worth an hour to not only talk about shared accountability but also to give your team a practical tool to do that well. Our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. method is a good start. 

9.  How will we celebrate success and learn from our mistakes?

High-performing teams take time to celebrate success and learn from their mistakes. They look down the mountain and see how far they’ve come. They make plans about how to celebrate and when it’s most important. And, they master the art of post-project celebrations. 

10.  What ideas do we have to improve our team’s performance?

Okay, if you’ve been following any of our research or writing on Courageous Cultures (download the first few chapters of our latest book for FREE here), you knew this was coming. High-performing teams have strong psychological safety and encourage one another to share their ideas. 

This conversation can start with a well-spent hour. Of course, to continue to build a truly high-performing team, we also encourage you to build this into your regular meeting cadence and one-on-ones.

Introducing the Let’s Grow Leaders Team Accelerator Program!

Imagine if you had a structured, scaffolded way to easily hold these critical conversations for building a high-performing team. That’s why we’ve built our new Team Accelerator Program. In just one hour a month, you have the framework and support tools you need to hold these conversations with confidence.

Your team will become more connected, efficient, and focused on what matters most.

Get a free Team Accelerator Demo for a first-hand view of this practical approach to building a high-performing team.

Your turn: What conversations do you think are most important when building a high-performing team?

The post How to Build a High-Performing Team: Ten Vital Conversations appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Passion is good. You want team members who love their work and serve their customers with passion. We are big believers in the power of purpose. Connecting what you’ve asked to why it matters is a powerful source of motivation. However, there is a problem with passion that can erode your influence, your team, and entire companies.

Recently, Amnesty International was in the news for what might seem like a strange reason. The human rights organization lost five members of their leadership team following a report revealing a toxic workplace culture.

How does an organization with such a noble purpose as fighting human rights abuses around the world end up with a “toxic culture of secrecy and mistrust?”

It might seem strange, but it’s actually more common than you might think – and it’s not limited to charitable organizations. You can easily find yourself in the same situation if you fall into the Passion Pit.

The Problem with Passion

The Passion Pit is the name I gave to the strange contradiction of organizations that do good work but have poor culture – cultures that are caustic, toxic, and abusive.

You might think that for an organization like Amnesty International, the negative culture, burnout, and employee anxiety would result from the difficult work they do. Observing human rights abuses like torture would be emotionally draining and take a toll on anyone.

But that’s not the problem. According to the report:

“The stress, burnout, anxiety, depression … were more often reported to stem from their working conditions–challenging managers, mistreatment by colleagues, bullying–than from stressful tasks such as interviewing survivors of violence and torture.”

I’ve watched this same dynamic happen before. I’ve lived it as an employee and I’ve witnessed it as a leadership trainer and consultant.

The Passion Pit happens when leaders use people’s passion and commitment as a substitute for sound leadership and management.

If They Really Cared, They Would …

I was working with the CEO of a regional service organization who did amazing work but was having a horrible time keeping employees.

As I reviewed my initial findings with her, she said something that stopped me cold. Rather than address the organizational dysfunctions, the clearly abusive and bullying managers, and the lack of clarity that frustrated employees, she said, “If people really cared about what we’re doing there, they’d get it done.”

That’s the Passion Pit.

This CEO was sincere. She believed in their work, but she was blind to their leadership and management problems (and her contribution to them).

Her perspective was so twisted that she interpreted people’s behavior only as a sign of their commitment–not as the healthy indicator of major issues it was.

Diagnose Your Passion Pit

When you say, “If they really cared about what we’re doing here, they would …” carefully examine what comes next. If your next words would be something like:

• “tolerate that abusive or dehumanizing person …”
• “sacrifice their health or family …”
• “stop asking for clarity or priorities and just work harder …”

I invite you to consider that the person isn’t the problem. Passion isn’t the problem. These are powerful signs that your culture, processes, and leaders need help.

You’re asking people to swim against a powerful current. People can’t fight the culture every day just to do their basic work.

Solving the Problem with Passion

You’re a motivated leader and you care. (You wouldn’t have read this far if that wasn’t true.)

If you suspect that the Passion Pit is at work in your team, one direct way to solve it is to change your language from “If they really cared, they would …” to “If we really care about our people successfully serving our customer, we would …”

Here are some places to start: “If we really care about our people successfully serving our customer, we would …”

• Give every employee a trained leader who helps them to succeed.
• Ensure everyone knows what matters most.
• Ensure everyone knows what they need to do today to succeed.
• Give each person the training, encouragement, coaching, and challenge they need to grow.
• Hold ourselves accountable for keeping our commitments.
• Not tolerate bullying, harassment, or any other negative behavior that has no place in a great team.
• Structure intense work in ways that motivated people can sustain over time.
• Celebrate success–big and small.

As you implement these steps, you’re on your way to building a culture that supports and energizes your people. You’ll release their natural motivation and you’ll make it easier, not harder, to the work that really matters.

Your Turn

When the work is important, it’s easy to fall into the Passion Pit – that’s the problem with passion.

This is a short list to get you started. Leave us a comment and share one way you complete the sentence: “If I really care about my people successfully serving our customer, I will …”

The post The Hidden Leadership Problem with Passion appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.