You’ve got a team of high performers who know what they’re doing and have the results to match. These are the people you count on—the ones who hit deadlines, solve problems, and drive success. But lately, something’s off. They’re still doing a good job, but… The attention to detail you could count on isn’t there. Results have dropped. You had to remind them to get that basic task done—again.

What’s going on? Should you intervene? Are they distracted, disengaged, or worse—burned out? How do you address the situation without coming across like a nag or micromanaging babysitter?

It’s normal for even your best people to experience periods of decreased performance. The good news is that with a collaborative approach, you can address the issue, help them get back on track, and strengthen your relationship.

Let’s look at why your high performer’s results might dip, and the practical steps you can take to help them course-correct without undermining their autonomy.

Why High Performers Hit a Slump

First, it’s critical to understand that a decline in performance isn’t always a sign of laziness, disengagement, or incompetence. High performers aren’t immune to challenges, and their slumps often have specific root causes:

Burnout from Overwork

High performers often take on more than their share of the load (be careful to avoid punishing strong performers by over-relying on their ability). Over time, this relentless pace can lead to burnout, diminishing their energy, creativity, and focus.

Unclear Priorities

Times of rapid change can muddy your top performers’ usual clarity. When everything feels urgent and important, even your best team members can lose focus on what matters most.

External Stressors

Personal issues—like family challenges, health concerns, or financial stress—can spill over into their work life.

Boredom or Lack of Challenge

High performers thrive on growth and new challenges. If their work has become repetitive or lacks a sense of progress, their motivation can wane—especially when they feel that the “basics” are little more than busy work.

Lack of Recognition

Even the most internally motivated people need to feel valued. If they feel taken for granted, they may disengage.

Hidden Barriers

Sometimes, a decline in performance isn’t about motivation or effort—it’s about obstacles they don’t have the tools or authority to remove.

Practical Steps to Address the Slump

Now that we’ve looked at reasons for the downturn, here’s how to address the situation in a way that supports your top performers and helps them find reclaim their mojo.

1. Start with Curiosity

Whatever is happening, you don’t have all the information. It’s time to get curious and learn what’s really going on. Begin with a one-on-one conversation, but frame it as an opportunity to connect, not a reprimand.

Try saying something like: “I’ve noticed a shift in [specific result or behavior]. I know you’re capable of incredible work, so I wanted to check in. Is everything okay? How can I support you?”

This approach keeps the conversation collaborative and shows you care about them, not just their results.

2. Invest in Clarity: Revisit Priorities

Sometimes, a dip in performance happens because high performers are trying to do too much. Help them clarify what’s most important right now.

You can make this a collaborative conversation by asking:

• “What’s taking most of your time and energy?”
• “What feels like it’s pulling you away from your major priorities?”
• “How can we adjust your workload or expectations to ensure you focus your energy where it matters most?”

These questions help them reset their focus while empowering them to take ownership of their time and tasks.

3. Address Burnout Head-On

If you suspect burnout, acknowledge it directly. Your high performers may not realize they’re running on empty—or worse, they might feel guilty about admitting it.

For example: “You’ve been carrying a lot recently. I wonder if you’ve had a chance to rest and recharge. What do you need to bring your best self to work?”

You might need to adjust their workload, encourage time off, or provide extra resources to lighten their load.

4. Reignite Their Passion

When the issue is boredom, work with them to identify growth opportunities, challenges that excite them, or a chance to invest in others. Earlier in our careers, we both thrived with managers who challenged us with new projects or gave us a chance to invest in an exciting opportunity.

You can ask:

• “What’s a project or skill you’ve been wanting to tackle?”
• “How can we align your work with your long-term goals?”
• “You know why this matters more than anyone. Can I ask you to spend a few minutes teaching our newer team members?”

High performers thrive when they feel stretched and engaged, so show you’re invested in their growth.

5. Clear Barriers Together

If there’s a hidden obstacle, they may not feel comfortable bringing it up unless you ask directly.

Try:

• “What’s getting in the way of your success right now?”
• “Is there a tool, process, or resource you need that you don’t have?”
• “How can I advocate for you to remove any roadblocks?”

When you step in to remove barriers, you reinforce your role as a partner, not a micromanager.

6. Recognize Their Contributions

When results dip, it’s easy to hyper-focus on the problem and forget the bigger picture of their contributions. Take a moment to remind them of the value they bring to the team.

You might say:

“I want you to know how much I appreciate [specific contributions]. You make a huge difference here by… [describe the specific outcomes].”

“I know what you’re doing isn’t easy. Here’s why it matters…”

Recognition helps restore their confidence and reinforces your trust in their abilities.

What Not to Do

While you focus on helping your high performer rebound, avoid these common pitfalls:

Micromanage: Don’t hover or constantly check in—it signals a lack of trust and can further demotivate them.

Assume Intent: Avoid jumping to conclusions about laziness or disengagement. Start with curiosity about what you observe, not judgment.

Ignore the Issue: Hoping the slump will resolve itself can make the situation worse. Your silence tells them that either you don’t care about them or that their performance never mattered to you. A timely conversation shows you care and helps them course-correct.

Your Turn

When you approach a high performer’s slump with curiosity, support, and respect, you  don’t just help them get back on track—you reinforce your partnership. High performers want to know you see them, value them as well as their results, and that you’re invested in their success.

When you address the downturn collaboratively, you also build a culture where it’s safe to talk about challenges, recalibrate priorities, and grow. This doesn’t just benefit your high performers; it strengthens the entire team.

Remember, the key to leading high performers isn’t perfection—it’s partnership. You’re not there to babysit or nag; you’re there to guide, support, and inspire them to be their best.

We’d love to hear from you: what’s one way you help your high performers pull out of their slumps?

You might also like:

• Retaining High-Performing Employees: Practical Ways To Support Your Best Talent [VIDEO]
• How to Manage a Strong, Arrogant, Maybe Even Toxic High-Performer
• What to Do When a High-Performer Quits (With Video)

The post When Your High Performers Hit a Slump: How to Support Without Micromanaging appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Think about the business culture you’ve always wanted for your organization—the energy, the purpose, the unwavering alignment toward a common vision. Now, think about how much easier it would be if every team member, from the executive team to the front lines, shared that same drive and commitment. Imagine a workplace where people aren’t just showing up for a job. They fully invest in a shared purpose that pushes your organization forward every day.

This kind of culture doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional, visible leadership and a clear, consistent message that speaks louder than words. There are three critical steps senior leaders must take to make this vision a reality:

1. Visibly Model
2. Comprehensively Communicate
3. Intentionally Amplify

Lasting Business Culture Change Starts with Senior Leaders

Our favorite definition of culture comes from marketing guru Seth Godin. Culture is simply “People like us, do things like this.”

But one of the major culture challenges organizations face is that senior leaders might know what activities and habits matter most. But those same leaders struggle to communicate that knowledge and transfer behaviors throughout the organization.

True culture change requires your deliberate action, consistent messaging, and intentional reinforcement at every level. As a senior leader, your commitment to modeling, communicating, and reinforcing the culture sets the tone for lasting change.

1. Visibly Model

What you do matters way more than what you say.

Every decision you make, every action you take, tells your people what’s truly important in the organization. To drive culture change, you must align your actions with the business culture you want to create.

And it’s not just how you act when you’re with your peers. Or how you reason through a decision.

How can the entire organization visibly see you act out the culture you want?

What you do matters way more than what you say.

Here’s a quick gut check: If a new employee, with no training or handbook, watched a film of all your activities for a couple of weeks, how would they describe your culture?

Here are three examples of how you might align your visible actions with your business culture:

Decision-Making Transparency: Making a sound decision isn’t enough to change culture. Everyone needs to understand the reasons for the decision. Be clear about why you make the decisions you do. Explain not only the “what” but the “why” behind strategic choices. This transparency shows your team the values that guide decision-making. And it will help them make similar decisions in the future.

Prioritizing People in Meetings and Conversations: If you want a culture where people feel valued and heard, demonstrate this by giving people your full attention. Put away your phone. Show them that every voice matters by actively listening and encouraging contributions.

Living the Company Values: Identify three behaviors tied to your organization’s core values and commit to visibly demonstrate them each week. For example, if “innovation” is a core value, consider how you can visibly invite new ideas, tolerate a reasonable level of risk in pursuit of innovation, and respond with regard—even when you can’t use an idea.

When your team sees you model the change, they’ll begin to believe in its importance. A cultural shift won’t happen until everyone can see it—and that starts with you.

2. Comprehensively Communicate

Once you’re visibly modeling the desired business culture, the next step is to communicate throughout the organization. This is where a 5 x 5 communication plan is essential. How will you and your managers communicate at least five times, through five different channels?

Your communication strategy should build a culture where everyone:

• Understands the ‘why’ behind the change
• Clearly sees how it relates to their role.

The more you communicate—and the more you empower others to communicate—the more natural the change will feel.

Here are questions to consider as you build your communication strategy:

• How will you connect what you are asking to why it matters – in a way that makes sense to every person in every role?
• How will you ensure that your teams communicate the new business culture habits with fidelity? (How will they cascade communication? And how can you ensure they know how?)
• What are one or two strategic stories you can include in your communication to bring the habits to life? (For example: share a time you struggled with the tension between two values and how you made your decision.)
• How else might you get creative and have fun with communicating your culture, values, and relevant habits? (Check out this list of 101 ways to communicate–even with hybrid and remote teams.)
• How can you engage everyone in the organization to make the culture their own? To ask questions and explore or challenge areas that don’t make sense to them?

3. Intentionally Amplify with Celebration and Accountability

Everyone can see you and your team model the culture. You’ve clearly communicated and engaged everyone to understand what the change looks like in every role.

Now it’s time to build momentum with celebration and accountability.

Celebration and accountability are two sides of the same coin. They both close the loop of an intention. You set out to do something.

When you succeed, celebrate!

When you don’t, follow through with accountability: what can you learn for next time? What needs to change? Is there a way to renew the commitment and follow through now?

Celebration and accountability amplify your business culture. They tell everyone what matters. So don’t leave them to chance. Plan your celebration and accountability strategy from the start.

Celebrate Early Wins and Small Steps

As soon as you see behaviors that reflect the new culture, acknowledge them. Whether it’s a team reaching a milestone or an individual embodying the values, celebrate the moment. Tell these stories. Highlighting these achievements reminds everyone that the change isn’t just words on a wall. Change is real and happening.

Set Clear Expectations for Accountability

Hold yourself and other leaders accountable for embodying the culture. Equip everyone to give feedback—even junior employees should feel empowered to respectfully hold senior leaders accountable. This shows that the new culture applies to everyone, regardless of role.

Continual Reflection and Adjustment

Culture change isn’t a one-time project; it’s an ongoing commitment. Regularly evaluate the progress and adjust as needed. Have a quarterly or semi-annual culture review where you discuss what’s working, what needs adjustment, and what new behaviors need reinforcement.

Celebration and accountability go hand in hand. When you make a big deal out of the behaviors you want to see and create space for accountability, you’re building a self-sustaining culture where people take pride in maintaining the values and behaviors you’ve established.

Want a Blueprint for Your Culture Change?

Sustained business culture change requires intentional effort.

One of our favorite things is to work with senior teams to build your leadership blueprint. Together, you’ll identify the specific habits that will help you model, communicate, and amplify your culture and achieve breakthrough results.

Let us know if you’d like more information.

The post How to Lead Sustainable Business Culture Change: A 3-Step Framework for Success appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You’ve got a clear focus on what matters most. Your team seems to work well together, but then you get that call: “I need to talk to you about …” or a team member suddenly explodes at their teammates and storms off the floor. It’s conflict, a disagreement, or a clash of personalities. Handle it well and you’ll build trust and influence. But ignore it or respond poorly and not only do you lose trust and credibility, but the conflict distracts your team from the work that matters most. Team conflict can feel like quicksand and a distraction from your work, but it’s an excellent opportunity to improve morale, productivity, and processes.

8 Ways to Deal with Team Conflict

1. Hire for Conflict Communication Skills
2. De-escalate Heated Conflict in the Moment
3. Reflect to Connect
4. Gather Information with Three Quick Questions
5. Diagnose the Situation: Is this a vent or a problem that needs to be solved?
6. [For Problems:] Discuss and Choose an Appropriate Solution
7. Schedule the Finish
8. Bonus: Equip Your Team with Powerful Phrases to Resolve Conflict Together

Team Conflict is Unavoidable

Early in my (David’s) career, my boss Jim, the Executive Vice President, took me to lunch at a popular spot for business meetings with a bustling dining room. Apparently, he’d seen me struggling with a common problem new leaders face and chose this lunch to deliver some coaching.

As we waited for our food to arrive, I got up to wash my hands. Jim stopped me for a moment and gave me an assignment: “Take the long way through the restaurant to and from the washroom. Walk slowly and catch the bits of conversation you hear.”

I followed his strange instructions and when I returned to the table, Jim said, “Of the conversations you heard, how many of them were complaining–about their boss, a co-worker, or a problem at work?”

“Half or more, from what I heard,” I answered.

He nodded. “And that’s normal. It’s human nature to complain. You can’t respond to every complaint you hear. Not every complaint needs a solution. And complaints don’t necessarily mean anything’s wrong.”

It was an important lesson for a young leader: conflict between people is unavoidable. But there’s always a leadership opportunity when a team member brings you a complaint. Depending on the circumstance, it may be an opportunity for that person to grow, for you to improve your leadership, or a moment to connect, build a stronger team, or a better process.

How to Address Team Conflict Productively

Here are eight steps you can take to address conflict effectively, build healthy professional relationships, and help your team maintain their focus on what matters most.

1. Hire for Conflict Communication Skills

As a leader, you have two choices to build teams that are good at conflict resolution: either hire for the skills or teach the skills.

What doesn’t work is expecting people to have skills you haven’t specifically checked out or taught them. And the fastest way to build a team that’s good at conflict is to hire for those skills. You can do this with a few behavior-based interview questions. For example:

“Tell me about a time when…”

• “A coworker seriously irritated you. What happened? What did you do? What was the outcome?”
• “You radically disagreed with your manager. How did you handle that?”
• “You weren’t able to do your work correctly because of someone else’s behavior. How did you address the situation?”

While many people will describe how they stayed silent, kept their head down, or got frustrated and left, you’re looking for the candidates who spoke up and shared their concerns elegantly.

2. De-escalate Heated Team Conflict in the Moment

A quarrel between teammates escalates into a shouting match. Seemingly out of nowhere, an employee swears, slams a door, and storms into the breakroom or parking lot.

Many managers respond to these heated moments by getting sucked into the drama or trying to ignore it altogether. But either way, the situation won’t improve.

When tempers flare, your first job is to re-establish a safe working environment for the entire team. That means taking a breath and making sure you are calm, centered, and don’t react to the drama. Next, if the people involved are still in a public area or with the rest of the team, move the people involved to a more private space where you can talk.

Rather than talking right away about their unprofessional behavior, begin the conversation by getting the facts. Ask “What happened?”

As you hear their side, check for understanding: “So what I hear you saying is that there were too many people in your space and you couldn’t get your work done. Do I have that right?”

If the person is distraught and says things like, “You don’t understand!” You can help de-escalate the conversation by calmly and quietly saying, “You’re right. I don’t understand. And I’d like to. Can you tell me what happened?”

As you confirm the facts, you can also de-escalate the situation by acknowledging and checking on feelings. For example, “It sounds like having all those people in your space was very frustrating?” (More on this in #3 below).

Once you’ve heard the other person’s perspective and acknowledged their feelings, you can guide the discussion to solutions. This depends on the specific circumstances, what happened, and if they can safely return to their work. An apology might be in order, along with some coaching to help them deal with their frustrations productively. The next steps can help you know what direction to go.

3. Reflect to Connect

When a team member comes to you with a frustration, complaint, or problem, (even if it’s not an explosive situation) the most effective thing you can do to build a productive conversation is to acknowledge their emotion. When they know you’ve heard them, it diffuses some of the emotional intensity and builds a connection that allows you to move to constructive next steps.

We call this process of acknowledging emotion “reflect to connect” because you are reflecting the emotion you observed and making sure you understand what’s on their mind.

For example: “It sounds like you’re really frustrated with the lack of response from marketing and that’s sapping your motivation. Do I have that right?”

Note: you’re not telling them that their feelings are right or wrong. When you reflect, you are checking for understanding and creating a common starting place for the conversation.

4. Gather Information with Three Quick Questions

Once you’ve acknowledged the person’s feelings, your next step is to get more information. Your actions going forward depend on the specific circumstances so it’s vital to know what’s happening. There are three questions you can ask to quickly assess the situation:

• What do you want me to know?—We learned this question from trial attorney Heather Hansen. It’s a fantastic question to help draw out what is most meaningful to the person who brought you the issue.
• How might I help here?—The power of this question is that it quickly reveals whether the other person just wants to blow off steam or has a problem. It also gives you insight into how they perceive the problem.
• Should the three (or more) of us talk together?—This question is helpful in those situations where you suspect the person might have a motivation other than solving the problem (like undermining a colleague or currying favor). For people who complain and want to dump their problems on you, it helps maintain mutual responsibility.

5. Diagnose the Situation: Is this a vent or a problem that needs to be solved?

After you ask these three questions, you will likely have enough information to diagnose the situation. Here are some of the most common types of team conflict to look for:

• The person just needs to vent and get a frustration off their chest.
• There’s a misunderstanding.
• One party is unresponsive or sees priorities differently.
• People are working toward different goals.
• There’s a style or personality conflict.
• You discover toxic behavior.
• There are structural issues with a process or systems causing the conflict.

6. [For Problems:] Discuss and Choose an Appropriate Solution

If the person doesn’t need any action and just needed to blow off steam, your reflect-to-connect will likely be all they need to get back to work. For problems, however, the solution will depend on the specific situation. Here are a few examples:

• If you identify a misunderstanding, equipping the person to have the discussion and clarify what’s happening might be appropriate.
• Sometimes you’ll find that you caused the problem. Perhaps your statement of goals is unclear or you haven’t clarified how values should resolve when in conflict. In these cases, your best path forward is to convene the interested parties and give them the clarity they need.
• For other cases of unresponsive peers, personality or style conflicts, or other situations where a discussion will help, you may bring the people together and discuss the situation and come to a mutual understanding of the way forward.
• When you discover toxic or abusive behavior, you and/or your HR team may formally intervene.
• When you uncover structural issues, fix them if you can. If you can’t take immediate action yourself, let your team know how you will advocate for them and help them work through the specific challenge.

7. Schedule the Finish

Whatever the next steps you and the people involved agree on, be sure to schedule a time in the future when you will all review what happened and ensure that everyone followed through on their commitments and responsibilities. Scheduling the finish ensures that you won’t repeatedly have to revisit this same team conflict.

8. Bonus: Equip Your Team with Powerful Phrases to Resolve Conflict Together

Click here for FREE Sample Chapters

One of the most effective ways you can help your team to resolve conflict is to give them the tools to have meaningful conversations with one another and the expectation that they will use them. The highest-performing teams don’t shy away from conflict. They embrace it and understand that every disagreement is an opportunity to build relationships and improve results.

When there’s a lack of clarity, help your team ask questions of one another, like:

• “What would a successful outcome do for you?”
• “How does this look from your perspective?”
• “Here’s what I understood _______. Did you hear it differently?”

Equip Your Team for Mutual Feedback and Accountability

One of the most important set of powerful phrases to help build feedback skills is the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method for accountability conversations. Its balanced approach will help your team members build their relationships while achieving results. And for those situations where they can’t resolve the issue because the problem is a lack of clarity at a higher level, they will be able to figure that out and come to you with a solution request, rather than a vague complaint. 

Your Turn

Team conflict can be productive–and certainly shouldn’t consume you with other people’s drama. You will energize your people and maintain productivity when you acknowledge their emotions, ask a few key questions, create an appropriate path forward, and follow up to ensure everyone followed through.

What would you add? Leave a comment and share your best tip for helping your team resolve conflict, build better relationships, and get back to what matters most.

Related Articles:

Team Conflict: How To Surface and Discuss Simmering Issues (Video)

9 Mistakes That Sabotage Collaboration and Destroy Trust

The post How to Deal with Team Conflict and Get Everyone Back to Work appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Do you ever mutter, “Will they ever get anything done if I don’t follow up? I’m sick of hovering and I’m sure it feels like I’m micromanaging.” Ironically, the higher your sense of urgency, the more you’ll encounter this problem. The solution? A few consistent communication tools will help you motivate employees to meet those deadlines—without constant oversight.

Why Focusing on Urgency Won’t Solve the Problem

Telling your team to “act with urgency” or “be more committed” won’t help them move any faster.

Why not? Because words like “urgency” or “commitment” mean different things to different people. (On a scale of 1—10, David’s sense of urgency is an 8 while Karin’s sense of urgency is an 11. We can both claim we’re acting with urgency, but Karin will usually be faster.)

And if you want proof that people have different definitions of “urgent,” go ask five people to define the word “soon.” You’ll get five different answers.

Your people see their work differently than you do. Some value speed. Others value quality. Still others focus on impact or process.

Instead of focusing on vague words like “urgent,” you can motivate employees to move faster (and lower your stress) through a few consistent communication habits and removing barriers to speed.

5 Essential Communication Skills to Motivate Employees to Have More Urgency

When you want to build a culture where people move at a crisp pace, your first job is to eliminate misunderstanding. You can help everyone get on the same page and quickly deal with conflicting priorities by using these communication tools.

1. Schedule the Finish

If you’re a high-urgency leader and you’re frustrated with your team, this conversation will solve many of your problems.

Stop leaving follow-through to good intentions, will power, or different interpretations of “soon.” Instead, schedule the finish.

Scheduling the finish means you have a conversation about feasibility and competing priorities. The conversation ends with an appointment for follow-through at a specific time, listed on the calendar of everyone involved.

When you schedule the finish, there are two types of tasks that need your focus: routine tasks and delegated assignments.

Schedule the Finish for Routine Tasks

These routine tasks can be frustrating. You might think, “This is part of your job—why can’t you just get it done?” If that sounds familiar, try grouping these routine tasks into buckets and setting shared deadlines.

Here’s the key question: with no extra conversation between you and your team, if we asked them, “What does your manager expect in terms of when these tasks should be done?” would they give me the same answer you would?

(Not sure what they’d say? Ask them—their answers might surprise you!)

If everyone agrees about what success looks like, great. But if their answers differ from yours or they seem unsure, it’s time to set clear expectations for each bucket of work.

You can apply the same approach to ongoing tasks, too. The goal might be something like “finish this weekly.” For example, if an employee handles customer contact and needs to document conversations and actions, you could aim for 100% completion by the end of the day every Wednesday and Friday.

Schedule the Finish for Delegated Assignments

Your team members constantly decide where to put their time. A clear finish line with mutual accountability helps everyone make better decisions.

For example, you have a conversation with one of your team members about following up on a customer complaint. She agrees the customer issue needs investigation.

Before you leave the conversation, you say, “Let’s schedule the finish. Can you and your team investigate what happened, then make suggestions on how we can address it by Friday at 3?”

Your team member mentions another project that’s due that same afternoon. Upon reflection, you decide the customer issue is more important and give her team until Tuesday to complete the first project, so they have time to deal with the customer’s issue.

You conclude the conversation by making an appointment on your calendars for 3 pm Friday, when she will brief you on their findings.

2. Check for Understanding

This next communication tool to create a culture of timeliness reduces misunderstandings. Check for understanding means to ensure that everyone in a  conversation has the same comprehension of what you agreed.

Checking for understanding is not asking “Do you understand?” Instead, you might say, “Before we wrap up, let’s check for understanding. What are we doing next? What’s our goal here? And when are we meeting to follow up?”

3. 5 x 5 Communication

Any message that is critical to your team’s success requires consistent communication. 5 x 5 communication means that you communicate critical content at least five times through five different channels.

This repetition and variety ensure that everyone internalizes the message.

5 x 5 communication will help you reinforce not only when things should be done, by more importantly: WHY that timeframe is critical

4. Address Conflicting Values and Priorities

One way you can unintentionally frustrate your employees is by creating conflict and expecting them to resolve it. Leaders do this all the time because every value or priority will conflict with another value or priority at some point.

An easy example is the tension between urgency and quality. You can always do something faster – if you are willing to sacrifice quality. How should your employees resolve this tension?

The worst thing you can do is leave them to their own devices and then get upset when they don’t make the decision you would prefer.

Instead, address these conflicts head on. Own them. Talk about them. Have senior leaders tell strategic stories about how you’ve dealt with these conflicts in the past and how you hope your team will resolve them in the future.

5. Close the Loop with Celebration and Accountability

Early in my (David’s) career, the CEO asked me to take on a special project. He had a clear finish line, and I worked evenings and  through the weekend on top of my regular work to get it done.

When I (quite proudly) brought the finished project to him, he looked confused. I reminded him what he had asked me to do. He laughed and said, “Oh, we’re not doing that anymore. We’re going a different direction.”

Ouch.

You can probably imagine that I didn’t treat his future requests with the same urgency.

This was a pretty awful example of not closing the loop.

Every time you ask something of your team, you create an open loop. You have an intention—and you fulfill that intent. Or you don’t.

Either way, you need to close the loop. If the team did it, celebrate. Acknowledge their work. And if they didn’t do it, have an accountability conversation. See what the team can learn. Can they get it done now? Or learn something to help for the future?

Closing the loop builds momentum. It tells your team that you truly value their follow-through.

Motivate Employees by Removing Roadblocks

Roadblock #1—A Missing “Why”

Your team needs to understand the reason for their work. What’s the why? A missing why creates roadblocks to urgency because other tasks with well-understood “whys” will take priority.

Use your 5 x 5 communication strategy to answer the questions your team is asking: What business purpose does this urgency serve? How does it improve the customer or employee experience?

Connecting timelines to meaningful reasons “why” will also help you avoid the next roadblock…

Roadblock #2—False Urgency (or Everything’s Urgent)

You lose credibility when everything is urgent. Soon, your people tune out your requests. “Oh, everything’s always a last-minute emergency with him. Don’t worry about it.”

As soon as people can’t take you seriously, you’ve become a barrier to timeliness.

Roadblock #3—Risk Aversion

We once spoke with a vice president who told us, “I’d rather be late and get it right than early and wrong. I’ll get yelled at for being late, but our President loses his s*** if I make a mistake.”

This President was also frustrated that his team didn’t move quickly enough. He was his own roadblock.

How do you respond to mistakes?

Your people pay attention to your responses.

You might say you don’t want them to spend tons of time building giant decks filled with microscopic columns of data. But if you get angry when they don’t have a specific number at their fingertips, they’ll ignore what you say and pay attention to what you do.

Remove this roadblock by clarifying risk tolerance and celebrating healthy risk—especially when it doesn’t work out.

What is the range of accuracy you expect in their reports or assignments? Clarify acceptable risk up front and treat mistakes as learning opportunities.

Roadblock #4 – Managers Don’t Understand or Aren’t Accountable for Their Communication

Do you feel like your team has a good sense of urgency, but you struggle to motivate employees throughout your organization to move quickly? If so, this roadblock is certainly part of your problem.

Equip your managers with the five communication skills in this article and hold them accountable for using these tools. When your team consistently schedules the finish, checks for understanding, communicates key messages five times, five different ways, addresses values and priority conflicts, and practices accountability and celebration, your culture will improve.

Urgency at a Human Scale

People can’t work at speed or with high stress forever. Part of the reason you have a conversation when you schedule the finish is to ensure that workloads are manageable. But even then, a culture of urgency can burnout your best employees and undermine long term success. Here are three suggestions to help you avoid these pitfalls and practice urgency at a human scale.

1. Know Your Race

When you run a 100-meter sprint, you run as fast as you can for the full race (under 10 seconds if you’re a male Olympian sprinter).

But when you run 100-kilometer ultramarathon, you don’t sprint. You don’t run anywhere near as fast. In fact, you might even stop running to eat a snack.

What race are you running? There are times to sprint. And there are times to “run” at a more sustainable pace, take breaks, and rest. Help motivate your employees with a sense of urgency appropriate to the “race” they’re running.

2. Don’t Use Urgency to Address Problems with Process or Systems

If you have constant “fire drills” or “all-hands-on-deck” scrambles to deal with problems, you’ll burnout your team.

Instead of using urgency to address problems repeatedly, solve the problem. The first time it happens, yes, you need to respond. But now you know it’s an issue. What process or system do you need to fix to prevent it happening again?

Focus on long-term solutions that save urgency for when you really need it. Your team will have energy to respond and trust you when you ask for it.

3. Engage your Team and Ask Them for Their I.D.E.A.s

A final way to practice urgency at a human scale is by helping your team to own challenges and solutions.

Do you need to accelerate a project? Create a consistent scheduled finish for routine tasks? Find a faster way to get your customer what they need?

Start by defining the opportunity and why it matters. Then ask your team for their solutions. “Here’s why this is important—how do you think we can do it?”

You can give them the I.D.E.A. model to help them contribute quality suggestions:

I—Why is the idea Interesting and strategically relevant?

D—How is the idea Doable?

E—Who do they need to Engage to make the idea work?

A—What are the specific one or two next Actions to implement the idea?

You’ll get more meaningful ideas. Your team will own the improvements – and often come up with better solutions than you could.

Your Turn

We encourage you to be your own consultant: go ask your team for their understanding of timetables and why critical tasks are done when they are. Explore the gaps. Use the communication skills, remove the roadblocks, and build your culture.

And of course, we love working with organizations like yours to help you infuse these communication skills, motivate employees, and build a culture where people thrive. If we can help, give us a call or write us.

The post How to Motivate Employees to Have More Urgency appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Tired of sitting through endless PowerPoint presentations that never answer your question? Does your team drown you with emailed essays and spreadsheets without clear conclusions? Help your team provide more useful information and drive clear decision-making by asking yourself three questions.

Why Your Team Wastes Time with Vague Reports and Frustrating Presentations

When your team doesn’t give you the information you need, there are usually a couple of factors at play.

Often, they simply don’t know what you want or how you want it. They don’t understand how you’ll use the information or what happens next.

Sometimes, they’re looking for approval (look at how hard I worked on all this data!). Or they deliver vague reports and drown you in data to keep out of trouble and avoid your anger or criticism.

Three Questions to Help Your Team Give You Useful Information

You can solve for all these issues and unlock your team’s potential by asking yourself three questions.

1. Have You Clearly Asked for What You Want?

You know what you want. You need a clear recommendation and point of view from the people closest to the issue.

But do your people know that?

If you haven’t clearly asked for what you want, the answer is always “no, they don’t.”

And you almost certainly want that report or analysis differently than their last manager.

When you communicate what you want, think about the following questions:

• What will a successful report or presentation do? Are there specific criteria the team needs to meet? Clarify the criteria right away.
• How will you use the information? If you want raw data to analyze, let them know. If you want a single recommendation with one page of analysis that you can pass to the next level, tell them.
• How much analysis and precision do you need? Sometimes you need a general direction and a quick summary. Other times, you need maximum confidence and for the team to take the time to make sure it’s right.
• How do you like to get information? You might prefer to read a report and then ask questions. You might like a verbal presentation.
• When do you need it? Schedule the finish and ensure they can meet the timetable.

Take the time to clarify what you want. Your team can’t meet expectations they don’t know about.

2. Have You Checked for Understanding?

Once you tell them what you need, check for understanding. You don’t know that they have it and will truly present useful information until you hear them explain it in their own words. For example, you might say:

“If there aren’t any other questions, let’s do a quick check for understanding. What will a successful report do for us? How and when will you present it?”

Note: asking “Do you understand what you need to do here?” is not a check for understanding. You need to find out what they understand.

3. Are You Responding or Reacting?

You asked for what you want. You checked for understanding. But people still bring you vague reports or slide decks with hundreds of irrelevant slides.

Now what?

The next step is to pay attention to how you respond (not react) to your team. If you react poorly, you’ll get more useless information.

We’ve worked with many frustrated senior leaders frustrated who see too many data dumps and endless PowerPoint presentations.

But ask their team what’s going on and they’ll tell you, “It’s a total waste of time. No matter what I present, they’ll tear it apart, tell me I’m an idiot, and go in a different direction. Why waste my time? I don’t need the grief and will just to have redo everything I’d already done.”

When your team doesn’t bring you useful information, of course it’s frustrating. But you can avoid this negative spiral and help them do better next time by choosing a helpful response.

Here are tools to handle the two most common problems:

1. When They Didn’t Do What They Agreed

You asked for a one-page summary with bulleted recommendations you could include in the Board presentation. Due Thursday at 5:00. You checked for understanding and everyone agreed.

But you got a massive PowerPoint presentation with four spreadsheets of data in a microscopic font—on Friday morning.

Your best response here is an accountability conversation. You can use our I.N.S.P.I.R.E. method to have this conversation. Your part of this conversation could look like this:

I – Initiate: “My intent here is to help you prevent rework and for you and the team to be as effective as possible.”

N – Notice: “We agreed that you would present this information in a one-page summary with bulleted recommendations. This isn’t that.”

S – Support: (not really needed here as the problem is self-evident)

P – Probe: “I’m curious what happened?”

I – Invite: “Can you please get the one-page summary we agreed to done today? How can we ensure you do these presentations accurately going forward?”

R – Review: “I’m hearing that you just forgot and scrambled to get it done at the last minute. And that your solution will be to get it in your calendar with the details going forward. Do I have that right?”

E – Enforce: “We have another one of these reports coming up in two weeks. Let’s schedule time on Friday afternoon. I’ve just sent you a calendar invitation. We’ll spend ten minutes to go over that next report and fine-tune it before you submit it.”

2. When You Disagree or Can’t Use Their Recommendation

Your team gave you the information exactly as you requested. But just this morning, before their presentation, you got some information that changed the strategy. Now their recommendation doesn’t make sense.

Or maybe, now that you see their data, you disagree with their analysis.

How can you respond in a way that doesn’t discourage, disempower, or deflate?

The answer is to Respond with Regard. There are three steps to respond with regard: gratitude, information, and invitation. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage. So here’s how your part of this conversation might sound:

Gratitude: “Thank you so much for putting this together. I really appreciate the thought you put into it and for caring about where we’re heading.”

Information: “So this morning we learned that the joint venture that would help this project work isn’t going to happen. As I look at your analysis, that understandably played a big role.”

Invitation: “I would love to get your thoughts and recommendation knowing that this partnership isn’t happening. Let’s talk through when we can do that.”

Or, where you see things differently, your information step might sound like:

“Looking at your data, I’m coming to a different conclusion than yours. Here’s what I’m thinking. What am I missing? How do you see it differently?”

Your Turn

When you consistently ask yourself these three questions, your team won’t just give you useful information. You’ll improve morale, efficiency, and make better decisions. We’d love to hear from you: how do you help your team move from vague reports and data dumps to meaningful information you can use?

You might also like:

• Managing Up: Turning Information into Influence with Your Boss
• Help Your Boss Stop Wasting Time with Bad Delegation
• How to Get Your Team to Stop Sending You Frustrating Email Communication

The post No More Vague Reports: How to Help Your Team Give You Useful Information appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

When your manager asks you for information, don’t just answer their question. Have a perspective. To get better at managing up, ask yourself three questions that will turn information into influence.

The Problem: Why Your Boss Is Frustrated

Every day we hear from frustrated executives buried in data. Their team sends them reams of information without context, PowerPoint decks that don’t answer the “obvious” question, or vague answers that lead to more questions.

And it’s all unnecessary. If your manager asks you for information and your answers don’t build your influence, or worse, cause frustration, you probably made one of a few mistakes.

Presenting Information: Common Managing Up Mistakes

Avoid these common mistakes when answering questions and presenting information.

Mistake #1: You Misinterpret or Underestimate the Ask

You’re swamped and moving fast. There’s so much to do and then your boss asks for an update. And you want to be responsive, so you quickly throw together a chart that shows the last twelve months. But you don’t explain why February’s numbers were so different. Now your manager wonders why you don’t care about the obvious issue.

You’re so close to the project that your focus is on twigs and leaves, not the tree…and much less the forest. Your manager asks you for information. So you bury them in minutia that’s meaningful to you – but they wanted your perspective on the project’s success. And now they have to ask again.

Your manager asks for your analysis. So you put together a tight description of what’s happening and why. But you don’t make any recommendations. And your frustrated manager wonders, “What am I supposed to do with this? Shouldn’t you be able to solve these problems?”

Mistake #2: You Think Your Boss Thinks Like You

Everyone has a natural style of how they get information and make decisions. But these styles differ from one person to the next.

Maybe you prefer to read. So you prepare excellent written emails and reports – that your manager ignores. Because she prefers to listen and talk through the information. Or, you like to see all the data when deciding, so you give them everything. But they just want a summary, or your suggestion.

Mistake #3: You Try to Stay Out of Trouble

Your manager asks for an update and you bury the bad news in a spreadsheet or a hundred-slide presentation. Rather than interpret the data and risk a negative reaction from your manager, you dump it all on them and leave them to figure it out.

Or you don’t offer a point of view or recommendation because you worry about how your manager will react.

After all, they can’t get mad at you if you said nothing wrong, right?

Well, wrong…of course they can still get upset. And now, to make it worse, you didn’t actually do your job because you didn’t lead.

Mistake #4: You Try to Look Too Good

There’s a time to show your work. But going overboard makes you look insecure, not competent.

When you showboat and point out how outstanding you are, you cast doubt as to your true capabilities. Worse, in the effort to show off, you miss the chance to genuinely help and build the influence you want. You’ll have much more influence managing up when you add true value.

Three Managing Up Questions to Turn Information into Influence

Avoid these four mistakes and add value by asking yourself three key questions. If you aren’t confident in your answers to any of the questions, use these communication tools and Powerful Phrases to maximize your influence.

1. What does your manager need?

This is the most important question to make sure that you add value. What does your manager actually need?

Ask yourself this question a couple times, from different angles.

Because your manager might not ask for what they need.

They’ll ask for what they think they need. Or they ask for the first part, but not the second and third pieces. Maybe they don’t understand the issue as well as you do, so they ask the totally wrong question. Or they don’t specifically ask for your recommendation, but they expect you to have one.

Here are ways to think about what your manager needs:

• How will they use the information? Will they make a decision? Pass it to someone else? Implement your suggestion?
• Quick or detailed? What level of confidence do they need? Do they need a precise, accurate answer, or is a quick range enough for now?
• Do they need nicely formatted to share with others or just an email with a simple answer?
• What are the next three questions your manager would naturally ask? Answer these.

Always have a perspective. Whether your manager asked for it, you need to be read to offer a point of view. You are closer to the work. What would you recommend?

If you’re not sure what your manager needs, there are a couple of questions you can ask to help clarify:

• Check for Understanding by saying, “Here’s what I’m hearing you need and how you will use the answers I give you: ________. Do I have that right?”
• When you don’t have enough information to check for understanding, you can draw out more information by asking: “I want to make sure I get you what you need. What will a successful update do for you?”

2. How do they need it?

When you work with a manager frequently, you can ask this question early in your relationship. If you don’t know the person making the request, include this question in your first conversation:

“How do you like to receive information?”

Some possibilities to explore include:

• Written, diagramed, or spoken
• Bullet point summaries or analysis
• Numbers, narrative, or both

When you can’t know how they need it, try this: start with a one-page brief, bulleted summary of key information and your recommendations. In the following pages, give them the data and analysis. Then make yourself available to discuss the report.

3. When do they need it?

You don’t want to waste time if they need it quickly. Nor do you want to drop everything and abandon your work to provide a report that could wait until next week.

The tool to help you manage these priorities is Scheduling the Finish.

You never want to leave a conversation that requires action without scheduling the finish by addressing three factors:

• Ideally, when will the task be complete?
• Is this workable, or do you need to resolve competing priorities?
• Is the scheduled finish on your calendar (and the calendar of anyone else involved)?

For example, your manager asks for an update on the sales figures for your newest product. You know she prefers written bullet points and the ability to ask clarifying questions.

First, you ask how she’ll use the data and whether she wants the actual data or a trend analysis. Then you schedule the finish by asking, “Ideally, when do you need this?”

She asks for the information by tomorrow afternoon.

You have time at 4:00 pm available to meet. But you also have to attend a marketing update in the morning that won’t leave you time for her update.

So, you tell her, “If I can skip that marketing meeting, I can send you the information at 3:00 and then we can do a quick video call at 4:00 so I can answer your questions? How does that sound?”

Your Turn

You can master the art of managing up, increase your influence, and get your manager the right information at the right time by answering three critical questions: What do they need? How do they need it? When do they need it?

We’d love to hear from you: what’s one of your best ways to get your manager the information they need to lead well and make good decisions?

You Might Also Like:

• Help Your Boss Stop Wasting Time with Bad Delegation
• Powerful Phrases to Win With a Moody Boss, Even a Dropper of F-Bombs
• Managing Up With Grace (How to Give Your Boss Better Feedback With Video)

The post Managing Up: Turning Information into Influence with Your Boss appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Are you hanging on to a familiar way of doing your work or leading your team because it’s comfortable? If it’s been a year or more since you experienced a significant change for yourself or your team, you might be missing out on great opportunities to build morale, build your career, and enjoy your work. Managing change is critical for your success—too much change, too quickly creates instability. But resisting natural, healthy change will prevent growth and stagnate your team.

Resisting Natural Change

Off the east coast of North Carolina and Virginia, a set of barrier islands known as the Outer Banks stretches over a couple hundred miles, guarding the inner sound from the worst of Atlantic storms. On a recent visit, our brother-in-law Steve, who’s visited these beaches and dunes for decades, took me on a driving tour and pointed out some changes he’s seen over the years.

He pointed across the road at a five-foot rise of sand you could walk across in a few steps. “To climb that dune, you used to have to work at it and scramble on all fours. It was huge.” We drove a little further and earth-moving equipment worked to keep blown sand from obliterating the narrow strip of asphalt road as the wind seemed to fight to reclaim and reshape the island.

Then he showed me the Oregon Inlet where private deep-sea fishing boats enter and leave the sound. “In the early 1800s the inlets all closed up and there weren’t’ any islands at all. It was a straight stretch of sand. Then, in 1846, a hurricane carved out the inlet. These days, sand keeps filling it in, and they have to dredge it out regularly so the fishing boats can get in and out.”

The Outer Banks are a land of change. And it takes an incredible amount of work to prevent that change. And some day, given a big enough storm, the change will probably happen anyway.

The visit reminded me of the mountain west where I grew up. In the mountains, lodgepole pine forests evolved to burn periodically. Quick burns opened the forest floor to new plants, refreshed the soil, helped cones to disperse seeds, and prevented disease or insect infestations. Decades of fire prevention along with climate change, created huge, intense burns and stands of diseased dead trees. Resisting that natural change came at an enormous cost.

Resisting Business Change

You’re certainly familiar with companies like Blockbuster and Kodak who resisted change and faced extinction. It’s easy to shake your head and wonder how those leaders could have let that happen.

But the CrowdStrike bug that crashed Windows PCs, snarled airlines, and interfered with hospitals’ ability to access patient records had a similar cause. Microsoft tried to shift its approach to security two decades ago, but regulators prevented them from doing so.

Why?

Because the software giant had always allowed open access to their computers’ kernel and some companies had built their entire business model on that access. (Access that Apple and Linux have never allowed.)

When Microsoft tried to do what Apple and Linux have done, the companies who relied on kernel access went to regulators who ruled in favor of the status quo, rather than allowing developing technology to address the situation. And that decision created the conditions that allowed the CrowdStrike crash to happen. (For a full analysis, check out Ben Thompson on Stratechery: Crashes and Competition.)

Again, it’s easy to point the finger at regulators who get stuck in time and cling to the way things are.

But intentional change isn’t easy.

Build Your Ability to Lead Change

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 67% of respondents reported that their manager was stuck in “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking.

And you don’t have to look very hard to find places you might be stuck. I’ve been guilty of these at times:

• Holding on to a team member that you should promote or give other opportunities outside your team—because you don’t know what you’d do without them.
• Hanging on to team member that you really should move off the team—because then you’d have to find someone new and train them.
• Continuing the stale team-building activity everyone loved five years ago—because it always worked before.
• Refusing to decide—because going one way or the other will take effort.
• Resisting new ideas from team members—because hearing them out might mean you don’t have the answers you thought you did or will require you to act.
• Hoping against all evidence that the recent changes you’ve experienced will “go back to normal” – because acknowledging the change will require energy and effort to explore a new path forward.

But ignoring or resisting these moments of natural change won’t work forever.

The status quo’s comfort and ease are illusions. If you don’t invest in managing change, the changes will happen to you.

That team member will leave. Or they’ll stay and everyone else will leave.

Your credibility suffers. Your career lags. And you’re stuck frantically trying to do what used to work, working harder, with more stress, and missing out on what’s possible.

Two Questions to Find the Flow and Know What’s Next

One of the easiest ways to lean into natural change is to ask yourself this question:

What are you up to?

As a team leader, manager, or executive—what are you getting up to?

• Is there a problem you’re trying to solve?
• Are you helping your team to grow?
• An opportunity to explore?
• Some improvement or process you’re implementing?
• What are you learning?

When you’re up to something, you’re managing change. You can’t help it. You’re moving, flowing, and growing. Once you’re up to something, you can start managing change:

• Challenge yourself and your team to answer strategic or these UGLY questions to uncover possibilities:
• Ask your team for their I.D.E.A.s.
• Consider competing values and priorities.
• Make decisions about what matters most.

When you get up to something, you collaborate with natural change and create the future, rather than have it happen to you.

A second question you can ask yourself to find the flow of natural change is:

What’s happening in my industry?

No matter what kind of work you do, there’s something new to learn. Technology changes. Trends shift. Someone somewhere is innovating. And it’s easier than ever to learn what’s happening.

You might not apply what you learn immediately. Changes in the business environment, shifting tastes, or new AI applications may not affect your work tomorrow (though they could).

But knowing what’s happening and being informed will give you the perspective to be better at your work and be a better leader for your team.

What if My Boss Isn’t Managing Change and Doesn’t Want To?

If you want to get up to something or start learning more about what’s happening in your industry, but you worry that your boss just wants you to “focus on doing what needs to be done,” there are two possibilities:

You need better results.

We’ve worked with many leaders who were eager to get up to something new, but weren’t succeeding at their current work. You’ll be much more influential in selling a new idea or approach if your current work is solid. Master that, then build on your success.

You’re doing well and your manager fears change.

If you can objectively show your success, but your manager still wants you to limit your focus to doing what you’re asked, they might be the one hanging on to what they know.

In this case, keep doing your work well—and get up to something anyhow. You’ll have opportunities—the world needs more thoughtful, innovative problem solvers than ever. “Just shut up and do your work” isn’t a path to the future. What you learn will serve you and your team.

And you don’t need permission to learn.

Your Turn

Managing change is a critical leadership skill. Sticking with what’s familiar feels safe and comfortable, but change is inevitable. You can lean into change and become a more innovative, creative, and adaptable leader by taking initiative to move and actively learning.

How about you? We’d love to know one of your favorite ways for managing change and leaning into the future.

And if you want to help your team or organization drive innovation and improve results:

The post Managing Change: How to Cultivate Forward Thinking Leadership appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

When your organization or team communicates effectively, you’re nimble. You can respond to change quickly. But if your organization doesn’t invest in effective workplace communication, you’ll face a constant series of misunderstandings that waste time, create conflict, and drag down everyone’s performance. One easy-to-use workplace communication tool will eliminate most of these frustrations, save you time, and improve performance and morale.

Stop Asking “Do You Understand?”

Every moment of communication with your team or customer is precious. Especially in hybrid, remote, or fast-moving organizations, you’ve got to make every interaction count.

But one of the worst ways to waste these precious moments is by asking, “Do you understand?”

If the person answers “yes”—well, you know nothing more than you did before you asked. They said “yes,” but what does that “yes” actually mean?

Maybe they think they understand (and whether they do or not, you don’t know). Or maybe they just told you yes because that’s what they think you expect to hear.

Perhaps they just want to move on and get to their next task, so they say “yes” hoping to leave the conversation.

Regardless of the person’s intent, when someone tells you, “yes, I understand,” you know nothing more than you did before you asked. And you rarely learn about problems in understanding until later when things go wrong.

Now, if they tell you “no, I don’t understand,” that is better in the sense that now you have new information. But you still don’t know where the confusion happened or what to do about it. And it required the person you asked to have the courage to admit they didn’t understand (which shouldn’t take courage, but often does).

Maximize Your Workplace Communication ROI: Check for Understanding

You can make the most of every conversation and eliminate hours, days, even months of frustration, headache, and heartache by shifting away from “do you understand?” Instead, ask an open-ended question that helps both of you immediately figure out how well you grasp what one another has said. We call this a “check for understanding.”

Check for Their Understanding

When you check for understanding, ask the other person what they understand (not if they understand). There are many ways you can do this. Here are a few examples:

• “Let’s check for understanding here, what are the next steps we will take?”
• “I’d like to make sure we’re on the same page. What’s happening now?”
• “What’s your understanding of our agreement?”

All of these questions are open ended – the person answering will share what they know. There is no yes/no pressure to be right. It’s about sharing their perspective so we can move forward efficiently.

As you hear them summarize in their words, you’ll know what they know and where they are missing critical information. Now you can clarify and ensure everyone has what they need.

Check for Your Understanding

When you are on the receiving end of communication from a colleague, team member, supervisor, board member, spouse, child, friend – or anyone else, you can use the check for understanding to make sure you’ve got it.

This time, you’ll repeat back what you understand and ask for clarification. For example:

• “I’m hearing that we need to move this project up to deliver this Friday and that we should postpone our work on the marketing effort until next week. Do I have that right?”
• “It sounds like we’ve agreed to add a full-time person to this team. If that’s right, I’ll talk to HR to get it posted.”
• “It seems like this task will take about five hours, is that what you had in mind?”
• “I’m hearing that competing data requests from other teams are keeping you from getting what you need to complete this on time. Is that right?”

In all these examples, you don’t allow yourself to assume you understand. You double check. Sometimes you’ll extend that check for understanding to add more clarity. For example:

• “Thanks for confirming. So, what I see happening next is that the product team will be worried. How will we communicate the change with them?”
• “Okay, so not five hours. You want a 30 minute estimation. Are you comfortable with a range then as opposed to a specific number?”

Whether you check for their understanding or yours, now everyone has the same information.

Organizational Check for Understanding

One of the most frustrating parts of life in organizations that grow beyond one level of organization is cascading communication. We constantly hear the workplace communication frustration of senior leaders who don’t understand why everyone isn’t on the same page.

The problem usually stems from a lack of – you guessed it, checking for understanding. But there are usually two or even three checks that need to happen.

If you’re a senior leader who has information to cascade through the organization (and it’s not passive information – people need to do something with it), you need to ensure that everyone’s got it and acts on it. Here’s how you do it:

1. Start with your direct report team.

In addition to the key message, clarify with the team that part of their responsibility is to ensure that their team understands and acts on the message. Check for understanding with your direct reports. For example, “Okay, if there aren’t any more questions, let’s check for understanding. What needs to happen next? By when?” Make sure they’ve got cascading and ensuring understanding as part of their next steps.

2. Skip-level check for understanding.

Once the cascading timeline passes, have some conversations with people who report to your team. Ask then, “What is your understanding of [topic / key message]?”

Listen to what they say. If they have it wrong, don’t chastise them. Instead, gently correct: “Oh, actually, here’s what’s happening… What questions are coming up for you?”  Then you can wrap up with another check for understanding: “Just to make sure I’m communicating as clearly as I hope to, what are you hearing me say here?”

3. Coach the managers whose people don’t have it.

This is a critical step if you want a nimble, responsive, accountable organization. You’ve got to hold your team member responsible for their team’s understanding of the message. If their team doesn’t have it, that’s your team member’s responsibility.

Check in with your team member. Let them know they had some folks struggling with the message. Check with them about how they’re communicating. How are they checking for understanding themselves? Are they? (Or are they falling back on “do you understand” and failing to learn what people actually know?)

If the manager continues to struggle, it may help to attend a meeting where they will be communicating and observe how they do it and then coach them after the meeting. This rarely takes more than once or twice before they figure it out and ensure clear communication.

Eliminate Common Workplace Communication Barriers

Once leaders learn how to check for understanding, there are four common obstacles that get in the way of clear communication.

1. Concern that it takes too long

We get it—when time is short, every second feels precious.

But the investment in clear understanding gives you back so much time later that you won’t spend cleaning up misunderstandings, re-doing work, and solving unnecessary conflict.

2. Feeling like people should be “better than this”

“These are professionals. They should get this the first time.” We hear this one quite a bit.

Frankly, it’s nonsense. Human communication is challenging at the best of times and no one gets it right every time. Heck, we teach these concepts nearly every day, and we still have frequent misunderstandings where we’ll use the same word, but interpret it differently.

One of your most critical leadership responsibilities is communication. You can’t inspire, motivate, or take a group of people anywhere if you can’t communicate. And you haven’t communicated until everyone has shared understanding.

3. Intentional misunderstanding

When you hold everyone on your team responsible for their communication, you may discover a few folks who have been hiding behind intentional misunderstanding. After all, “if I leave it vague, I don’t have to follow through or disappoint anyone. I can’t be accountable for that.”

You and your team will coach some of these folks to greater accountability that will help their performance and relationships. Others may not want it and you’ll ultimately coach them out of the organization.

4. Avoiding negative emotions

Managers who struggle to check for understanding often want to avoid dealing with negative emotions.

If that key message is going to irritate or concern some of their team, they may deliver it without force. They might share the message, but not check for understanding because doing so opens the door for how people feel about the issue.

The person could say, “Yeah, I get it. Here’s what you’re saying. I just don’t like it.” Now what?

Help your managers learn to listen deeply, reflect what they hear—check for understanding about the team member’s concern and how they feel, and go from there. (And model this yourself.)

The next step might be to relay the employee’s concern to you. It might be to acknowledge how they feel and then ask for enrollment: “I hear that this is disappointing for you. I’m not asking you to feel differently. Is it something you can still do?”

Help your managers learn to listen and acknowledge without having to solve every problem or complaint and you’ll improve their ability to communicate.

Your Turn

In our leadership development programs, participants consistently rank the check for understanding as one of their most valuable tools. When you master this powerful workplace communication tool and infuse it throughout your team, you’ll be on your way to a nimble, responsive, and productive organization.

We’d love to hear from you—how have you used the check for understanding in your leadership? Do you have a story of a time people weren’t on the same page? Let’s hear your story!

The post Workplace Communication: Stop Asking “Do You Understand?” (and do this instead) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You care about your employees and their mental health. You want to talk with them. But these conversations can be tricky and sensitive. And of course, you also care about their work and their productivity. What do you do? 

Today I bring expert insights from Angela Gaffney of East West Family of Companies from Beaver Creek Colorado.

2 Easy-Ish Ways to Do an Employee Well-Being Check-In

Angela and I would also be curious about YOUR best practices. How do you check in on your employee’s well-being in a way that feels connected and appropriate?

Employee Well-Being Check-in Best Practice 1:

At the beginning of training programs or meetings, ask employees to reflect on the emotions they’re carrying with them on a sticky note.  
Then put the sticky notes up so they are visible. You can even group them into themes and notice the patterns.  

Then give people an opportunity to share/discuss at their tables– creating awareness of each other as humans.

This normalizes being okay to say “I’m not okay.”

This connection makes the collaboration on the work at hand easier as people are more sensitive to one another.

Employee Well-Being Check-in Best Practice 2: Nourish Discussions

Another best practice is to hold “Nourish Discussions.” These facilitated small group gatherings provide an opportunity to discuss what is happening in their lives. They share challenges and strategies to cope. It’s all about supporting one another.  And, opening the door for those conversations to take place.

I’m a big fan of using one-on-one meetings to have these kinds of conversations. What I thought was unique to Angela’s approach was that they were group conversations– allowing employees to strategize and share ideas. 

Providing time and space for these employee well-being check-ins, shows you recognize the struggle, care, and are invested in supporting your teams.

What would you add? What’s one of your favorite best practices to support your employee’s mental health and well-being?

The post How Do I Do a Well-Being Check-in Without… (Asking for a Friend) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

No one needs destructive, anger-fueled conflict at work. It’s corrosive and makes work miserable. But there’s another kind of workplace conflict that’s not only vital for a vibrant culture, but this kind of productive workplace conflict is also  the fuel for innovation, quality of life, and the better workplace today’s teams crave.

Who Wants More Conflict at Work?

In our World Workplace Conflict and Collaboration Survey we asked over 5000 people in 45+ countries about their experiences with workplace conflict. 70% of respondents said they’re experiencing the same or more conflict at work than just a few years ago.

But when you look into the 30% who say they have less conflict at work, half of those say the reason they’re experiencing less conflict is that they’ve hit the escape button. They said left a conflict-prone workplace. They told us they’re working from home and avoiding people.

And that might sound good—after all, who wants more conflict at work? Well, the answer is—we should all want…if not more, at least better, conflict at work.

To see why, let’s dive a little deeper into another question. We asked about the consequences of conflict at work. And many of the negative consequences you would expect were top of mind: stress (55%), employees leaving (33%), reduced productivity (30%).

But also on the list of consequences were:

• Improved quality of work (12%)
• Positive policy change (10%)
• More innovation or creativity (8%)

And these are just a few of the reasons you might need more conflict, not less, in your workplace.

4 Benefits of Workplace Conflict

One way to look at workplace is that the question isn’t ultimately about the quantity of conflict, it’s about what kind of conflict you have.

Most of the time, when people think of conflict, they immediately think of intense argument resulting in anger at one another, the silent treatment, or other forms of social violence (like shunning, discrimination, or harassment).

But with the right tools, conflict can also produce a much more pleasant workplace that’s more inclusive and does a better job serving its clients or customers.

Here are just a few benefits of productive workplace conflict:

1. Improved Workplace

Think about the values that guide your workplace. No matter what those values are, the values will conflict with one another at some point. Radical flexibility might come up against serving the customer with excellence. Now what?

These are productive conflict conversations that every high-performing culture will explore. As you have these conversations, you and your team can act more often in alignment with your values. You can change policies that don’t align with your values.

And you’ll have better relationship because trust is built on connection, credibility, reliability, and knowing that you have one another’s best interest at heart. Meaningful conversations that explore different perspectives and approaches improve all of these relationship-building attributes

Here are 12 Powerful Phrases to help your team genuinely connect and increase understanding.

2. More (and more effective) Solutions

When you and your team can safely challenge one another’s assumptions, you open yourself to a much larger and meaningful source of answers to your problems.

Your first solution is almost never as good as it could be with some exploration, revision, and poking holes. Invite the conflict – ask people to challenge your thinking. Show you what you haven’t considered. And create better solutions together.

Here are 12 Powerful Phrases to help your team show up with more curiosity.

3. Smarter Teams

Expectation violations are one of the biggest sources of workplace conflict. Each of us have understandings of the way the world works and we put those assumptions on other people. And of course, they won’t live up to them. How could they? They don’t even know the expectation exists.

Sometimes YOU don’t even know you have the expectation until somebody violates it.

Digging deeper when expectation violations hit will increase clarity. Actively seeking different perspectives helps you view problems from many directions and make more efficient and meaningful choices.

Speaking up with the information that only you have gives others a chance to make smarter, more informed decisions.

All that increased clarity makes everyone smarter.

Here are 12 Powerful Phrases to help your team invest in greater clarity.

4. Better Work

Combine those first three benefits of a better workplace, more solutions, and smarter teams and you can’t help but do better work.

Building trusted relationships, examining how you’re doing your work, and creating freedom to evaluate what doesn’t make sense gives everyone a chance to reduce waste, decrease avoidable employee turnover, and eliminate unintentionally destructive systems that undermine your culture.

Here are 12 Powerful Phrases to help your team create and keep meaningful agreements.

Make Me Smarter

If, despite all these benefits, you still hesitate to approach conflict situations with curiosity, or worry about “losing” to someone else’s perspective,  one way to overcome your hesitation is to focus on getting smarter.

What if you approached every disagreement as an opportunity to become smarter? Instead of looking at your colleague, boss, or team member as an obstacle, what if, instead, you asked them to make you smarter?

You might not say the words aloud (though you certainly could if you have a good relationship) but entering the conversation with the assumption that the other person has something that will make you smarter is a powerful way to sidestep that troublesome insistence on being right.

Your Turn

These are just a few of the benefits of productive workplace conflict.

We’d love to hear from you: What would you add? Have you been part of a conflict that you are grateful for? What made it productive?

The post Transforming Tension: How to Embrace the Benefits of Workplace Conflict appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.