Leadership in Chaos: 11th edition.
Leaders Digest

Leadership in Chaos: 11th edition.

By 12th July 2024 July 16th, 2024 No Comments

Leadership in Chaos: 11th edition.

reframe reviews, the value of values, meaning-full days.

“The leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask”.

Peter Drucker

Justin Bettman

Performance: reframe reviews.

 Maintaining a culture of high performance isn’t easy. And despite the challenges, reviews are obviously a critical part of that. Harvard professor and co-author of Thanks for the Feedback and Difficult Conversations, Shiela Heen discussed how to master the difficult art of receiving and giving feedback on the Tim Ferriss podcast. She outlines that reviews aren’t just about performance. More importantly, they’re about listening and making people feel seen. Listening to understand “how to get the best out of me.” She says, “It’s not just that we have difficult conversations in our most important relationships; those conversations ARE our relationships”. A great way to reframe reviews.

A thought for leaders: Like any good relationship, feedback always has a past and a future. When we see feedback and reviews as future opportunities, the process and experience of giving and receiving them shifts. And that, according to Shiela, is about focussing on three kinds of feedback to learn and grow:

  1. Appreciation (encourage me to keep going).
  2. Coaching (help me be better – learn, change, improve).
  3. Evaluation (tell me what’s good and bad, rank it).

Justin Bettman

Culture: the value of values.

 Company values are important to a business. We like to believe they give the company a unique culture. But do employees live or uphold them? A recent study by MIT actually revealed no correlation between the cultural values published by companies and how those values are viewed by their employees. A good example is Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater. His book Principles rose to fame, promoting a positive culture of radical transparency. People scored each other after every meeting, and the scores were updated on a company league table. Turns out the company was “a kaleidoscope of contradictions and a barely veiled weapon for abuse” that “created a climate of fear”. Zero correlation between values and behaviour.

A thought for leaders: If values matter, then be clear about them. People can’t deliver against values (or culture) if they don’t know or understand them. Here’s four simple steps you can take to avoid values being hollow or, worse, contradictory to behaviour.

  1. Communicate what the values are (it’s likely most don’t even know).
  2. Provide specific behavioural guidelines (e.g. integrity means this, not that).
  3. Avoid generic values or make them distinct (make them unique, human and local).
  4. Explain why they matter (why they help us succeed e.g. by doing this, we ___ ).

Justin Bettman

Leadership: meaning-full days.

 The 5 day office week might be dead. But how many days are enough to keep people engaged? Gallup’s workplace research found that remote-ready employees in collaborative jobs, who work on-site 2-3 days a week, are more engaged and have higher wellbeing. But (and it’s a big but) they also found that 80% of employees who said they received meaningful feedback in the past week were fully engaged in their jobs. Regardless of how many days they worked in the office. Meaningful feedback gives a x4 lift in engagement and is a great manager’s most important habit. The issue however, is they also found that only 16% of employees said the last conversation with their manager was extremely meaningful.

A thought for leaders: It’s a simple thing feedback. So simple, it can be de-prioritized. Or worse, forgotten. But it’s critical for engaged employees. And the more meaningful the feedback, the more engaged people are. Giving meaningful feedback means doing a few different things. Like recognizing or appreciating recent work (x4 times more likely to be engaged). Or connecting the person to the right resource internally. Or clarifying goals and priorities. Simple, but meaningful stuff.

Justin Bettman

Effective Conversations: GreenLine Conversations®

 It’s that time of the year again! As we approach the end of the year, it’s performance review season. So, this week, we’re sharing resources from our GreenLine Conversations® Library.

As highlighted in this edition, if we reframe our approach to performance reviews, they can be an opportunity for reflection, embedding values, and, when done skillfully, increase engagement in the workplace.

Take this opportunity to set the stage for an even more successful year ahead.

The link below will bring you to a series of videos in which you will hear the co-founder of GreenLine Conversations®, Blair Steinbach, outline the skills and methodology for a successful performance review:

…If you would like to know more about GreenLine Conversations®, let us know by completing the form on the link below:

  • Find out more about GreenLine Conversations®You can follow Flow Group on Linkedin here.

    P.S. This month’s featured artist is Justin Bettman, with photos from an ongoing project, #SetintheStreet, in which he builds elaborate sets out of unwanted materials and furniture, much of which is found on the street. After shooting the photos, the sets are left up on the street, where passersby can shoot their own photos and share using the Instagram hashtag #setinthestreet.