Collaboration Tips for Control Freaks

Many in leadership are, by nature, “Type A” personalities. We all know them: passionate, driven, competitive, outgoing, and generally like to be in control. They likely got to where they are because of some of these traits, and their ability to continue to lead has a lot to do with them as well. This personality type is by no means exclusive to leaders, but let’s just say it’s not uncommon.

So what happens when these particular leaders start working with colleagues, stakeholders, or other leaders who share these personality traits? Strong personalities can clash if each one wants to be at the helm. If success is dependent upon successful collaborations, then these leaders will need to go through a major mindset adjustment. Leaders who refuse or resist these mindset adjustments can end up making detrimental decisions that can cost companies a lot of time and money. Gallup Research from 2020 shows that these kinds of unilateral decisions can cost companies up to $1.2 trillion per year due to disengaged employees.

Luckily, a new article from HBR.com has some tips for these folks who are obliged to work with others even if they are not temperamentally inclined to do so. If you consider yourself to be this sort of “Type A” leader, or if you know someone who is, give it a read and see if there are lessons that can be learned. It is imperative that leaders continue to cultivate their decision-making abilities, and there’s no question that stronger collaboration leads to better results for everyone.

Why Not Every Top Performer Makes a Great Leader

Most companies love to promote from within. Not only is this a way to recognize high performers and reward them for their work, studies show it also helps motivate employees and leads to more employee retention. Sometimes, however, even the most skilled and high-performing employee may not be cut out for a leadership role, and this is a difficult truth to face.

Often times it is assumed that these employees will develop leadership and management skills once they are put in these positions, but some just never get there. It’s easy to forget that what makes a great employee is NOT always what makes a great manager. Problems in management usually start small, and come down to the simple fact that the newly-promoted employee is unprepared to juggle the different challenges that come along with leadership. Complaints or mistakes begin to accumulate, and entire departments begin to crumble.

So how can leadership be proactive about promoting the right employee? A new article from Chief Executive Magazine lays out some very insightful tips to identify the right person for the job. First off, choose a high-performer that has had success in a variety of circumstances. This adaptability is a big indicator or success down the line. Next, choose someone who is always willing to listen and learn. This blog shared an article several weeks back on how much continued learning plays a role in becoming a great leader. Those unwilling to learn often contribute to toxic work environments. Third, does the employee have the potential for growth? Do they communicate and problem-solve well? If so, they will transfer these skills into a managerial role. Fourth, internal motivation is key. Self-motivation and focus are always desirable traits in leadership. Those who aren’t usually need to be managed, not vice-versa. And lastly, if the employee is a good fit culturally, they will likely become great leaders. If their values align and they are comfortable in the work environment, many employees will grow into successful managers even if they hit a few early bumps in the road. Take a minute to read the full article here before it’s time to promote your next high performer.

3 Lessons in Low Turnover

The last few years have been a rollercoaster when it comes to employee security and company turnover. On the one hand, we’ve seen the Great Resignation, on the other, rounds of layoffs. Even in uncertain times, employee retention and maintaining low turnover rates manages to be a top priority for many companies. Many in leadership assume that a competitive salary is enough to make a difference in employee retention. Studies show, however, that employers need to take a comprehensive approach to keeping their best employees happy in other ways.

Inc.com has a great new article with three suggestions for these comprehensive measures. The first centers around building trust among employees and management/leadership. Cultivating an environment in which everyone feels heard is essential to building this trust. If an employee feels as though they are not being heard, as though their ideas are not valued, that employee is much more likely to seek a more supportive and trusting environment.

The second tactic is to promote community by holding employee-led events. These differ from the traditional team-building exercises in that employees are able to promote something that they are passionate about. Whether it be weekly yoga sessions, daily meditation breaks, or annual events that are important culturally such as Pride celebrations or International Women’s Day; when employees can share their passions with the team, everyone grows together as a community.

The third strategy is something that some businesses are learning about the hard way. One thing that we have seen from the COVID pandemic is that employees are largely demanding more flexible schedules. This is especially important if that employee is a caregiver to someone outside of work (children, aging parents, an ill relative, etc.). Those who have to keep working once they leave the office (or clock out if they work from home) need more flexibility with holiday time to actually feel like they are able to take a break. The more flexible a holiday schedule/PTO is, the better employees can support their own individual needs in this area. Check out the full article here for a deeper dive and in-depth examples from companies across the country.

The Power of Vicarious Learning

Goodness knows the past few years have been a test for all of us in weathering crises. This applies to us not only as individuals, but also as business entities. Unfortunately, many businesses have not been able to withstand the repeated storms. So what sets those businesses apart that are able to maintain resilience in difficult times? In Wharton’s newest Nano-Tool for Leaders, Wharton Dean Erika James and Simmons University President Lynn Perry Wooten introduce how the concept of vicarious learning can be the secret to surviving. Adapted from their 2022 book; The Prepared Leader: Emerge From Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before, this nano-tool will help guide any leader into absorbing knowledge from others who have lived through similar situations.

Recovering from a crisis takes adaptability, innovation, and resilience. This recovery process inevitably leads to lessons learned, and greater experience gained. But what if there was a way to integrate those lessons and experience before the crisis occurred? The main step in this Nano-Tool is to learn vicariously from others’ experiences, be they competitors, leaders in the industry, or organizations. James and Wooten take this opportunity to lay out some simple action items that any leader can use to start taking in information prior to disaster striking.

The first takes place prior to a crisis, and the focus is to drive a culture of learning within the business or organization. Take the time to read up on industry standards, competing businesses and any outcomes they experienced, and which red flags are signaling trouble. Secondly, during crisis management the focus is to remain open to all input and learn from as many different sources as possible. With this, management will consistently drive toward recovery. Lastly, after the initial issues have been dealt with, it is imperative to reflect on how things were handled and which lessons were learned. Putting together a review will directly translate into readiness for the future.

These Nano-Tools are a wonderful resource for leaders. Check out the full article here, and use the action items to get you started on your journey of vicarious learning. There’s even a PDF version for extra convenience!

Microstress and Performance

While the name might imply something small, there’s nothing insignificant about microstresses. The idea behind a microstress is the same as the idea behind a microaggression; a stress or burden that is so fleeting that it does not trigger the usual stress response in the human body, but over time results in a cumulative effect that could potentially damage our physical and emotional well-being. Luckily, Rob Cross and Karen Dillon from HBR.org have published a new article on the science behind microstresses, and how to cope with them in order to keep the long-term effects at bay.

Unlike major causes of stress in our lives, microstresses can be so minor that in the moment they can actually seem harmless. As they accrue, however, they create ripple effects that will impact individuals’ following days, weeks, or even years in negative ways. While the authors were conducting the research that eventually led to this article, they interviewed many prototypical “high-performers”. During their interviews they found that despite their success, many of them felt overwhelmed without even realizing it. When asked to pinpoint the moment when they lost their sense of control, no one mentioned one specific issue. They all spoke about the relentless stresses they felt from all the small events (AKA microstresses) that accumulated over the years.

in striving to understand how to deal with this cumulative effect of microstresses, the authors list most people’s first assumption that things like meditation, mindfulness, or practicing gratitude. While these practices can help, they also have the side-effect of making us more resilient to these microstresses in the first place. So they began to approach the idea of actually eliminating some of these microstresses in our lives. Imagine how significant that could be if we just eliminated a few of these negative thoughts or interactions. Take a few minutes to read the full article here, then share it with your team, family, or friends!

Jazz and the Art of Generative Conversations

Any fan of jazz music will tell you how enjoyable - or even euphoric - it can be when multiple musicians, instruments, and sounds come together. The blending of notes, rhythms, and improvisations coming from multiple artists are what set jazz apart from other types of music; what make jazz unique. So how can observations from this style of music help us with what we call ‘generative conversations’? Just like in a jazz performance, generative conversations bring together people with different skills, experiences, and perspectives in order to solve a problem creatively.

In the context of running a business, generative conversations can - but rarely do - occur organically. Usually one team or individual attempts to push through their own point of view or solution to a problem, while others get ignored. Luckily, a fantastic new article from Wharton lays out some simple and effective techniques for facilitating these conversations in a business setting, and uses neuroscience to explain how solutions are come to in this process. In particular: play by the jazz rules.

By following the unique aspect of improvisation and cooperation allow teams to take a step back from problem solving into exploring the challenge directly. This serves the dual purpose of gathering more information about the existing problem, while also not overloading the team on the most glaring or obvious parts. In other words; be curious rather than determined.

Just like in jazz, this method of problem-solving allows our minds to open and be creative in a way that otherwise wouldn’t happen. By entering into a mindset of exploration and structured dialogues in which participants alternate between speaking and listening, teams can improvise to reach breakthrough solutions to complex challenges. Check out the full article here and see if all these steps can be put together for your team to build a unique set of problem-solving techniques.

How Managers Can Help Teams Focus

It’s no secret that we are constantly bombarded with distractions. Unless we are asleep or perhaps making space to meditate, our world is filled with things that want to sap our attention away from what we should be focusing on. Until recently, however, no one understood how profound these distractions are.

A new article at HBR.org by David Allen and Justin Hale profiles the research of the Crucial Learning resource center, which conducted a study of 1,600 employees and managers to assess focus. What they found was that nearly two-thirds of all employees rarely if ever do an hour of deep, focused work without distractions creeping in. Shockingly, one-third of participants said that they could only focus on a task for a maximum of 10 minutes before becoming distracted. The detrimental effects of these constant distractions are far reaching. They include feelings of overwhelm, stress, lack of motivation and/or energy, and unfulfillment. At the end of the day we likely all say we’ve been very busy, but how many of us have really been productive?

So what do managers and those in leadership do to help employees stay focused and prioritize tasks effectively? The authors lay out 7 helpful tips that will be able to help productivity and focus from the moment employees check their first email in the morning to wrapping up at close of business. And they should know. They are, after all, the authors of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Check out the full article here and see if the tips will apply to your team!

A Trick to Reduce Turnover

Turnover. The dreaded subject no one wants to spend their precious time on. There’s been a lot made of this topic in the past couple years, what with the Great Resignation and all. Even if resignations might be slowing a bit, no one in leadership wants to deal with having to replace valuable lost employees. In a new piece by Maurice Schweitzer, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Professor of Management at Wharton, he shares one intervention management and leadership can take to help reduce turnover rates.

If leadership wants to retain employees, simply reorder their assigned tasks. In the largest field study of it's kind, Schweitzer and his colleagues found that employees are far more likely to quit when given many difficult tasks consecutively. When they are given a more balanced workflow of difficult tasks followed by less challenging tasks, morale remains higher and employees are far more likely to stay. Seeing as there is always difficult work to be done, this can be a bit of a challenge in and of itself, but maintaining a balanced workflow can be one of the most powerful tools in retaining and motivating workers.

This study explains how employees associate their satisfaction with their job with the “Peak-End” rule. Most of us follow this rule for any experience. We tend to remember the “peak”, meaning the best, worst, or most extreme moment, and the “end”, the most recent moment associated with the event. Therefore; if an employee is constantly having to deal with extremes in their workload, they will associate more negative feelings with their job in general. The original paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, connects the behavioral psychology of the findings with practical steps management can take to make sure employees maintain this balance. Give it a quick read and see if the practical tools can help leadership with employee retention at your company.

How to Have a Good Year

Welcome, 2023, goodbye, 2022! At this point, as we approach midway through January, hopefully everyone is settling in nicely to the new year. Hopefully we are all sticking to our resolutions, but it’s also likely some of them have fallen by the wayside, and that’s okay. In a fantastic new article from Chief Executive Magazine, Dan Bigman interviews Caroline Webb, author of How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavior Science to Transform Your Working Life (Currency, 2016). Ms. Webb assures us that while it is definitely beneficial to have some resolutions in mind for the coming year, in order to truly make it a great year for life or your business, there are a few specific things to focus on.

The absolute first thing: set better goals. These goals can be as lofty as one can dream, but unless small bites are achieved regularly, we don’t get the release of dopamine that our brains thrive on and that continues to motivate us. Second; acknowledge tensions. Ms. Webb even recommends going so far as to write them down, then reevaluate where balances need to shift. Third; connect with others. Here is where peer-to-peer groups like Vistage are invaluable (email for more info). Fourth; focus on certainties. In a world full of uncertainties, manage certainties first to gain a sense of grounding and focus. Fifth; evaluate how time is spent. Literally sit down with last month’s calendar and figure out where time is going. And lastly; take some time for some self-care. Remember: it isn’t selfish. Check out the full article here and have a fantastic year ahead!

New Year's Resolutions for Your Business

Most of us are used to making New Year’s Resolutions for ourselves this time of year. Whether it be to get more sleep, exercise more, or keep in better touch with our loved ones, these goals are usually personal, not related to our businesses. But while we’re at it, why not make some resolutions on the business side of things?

Just like with our personal goals or resolutions, research shows that small but consistent tasks make them far more achievable in the long run, ultimately turning these actions into habits. Inc.com has come out with a great article to close 2023, with over 20 (yes, over 20!) recommendations on how to manage a business using the “bite-sized” method. Beautifully, if these methods are stuck with, the results will be compounded over the course of the year, leading to even better results within your business. Check it out and see what you can do for your business in 2023. Happy New Year!