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Greatness Magnified

Three Ways to Create a Healthy Workplace Ecosystem

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A number of years ago we were looking for a cottage. We met a great realtor who was excited to be able to help us find our first leisure property. Every time he’d get out of the car, he would do a very interesting but strange thing; he would go right down to the water, take a look around, and within 30 seconds say either, “You can’t buy this place” or “Let’s go inside for a look around.”

We made the assumption that he was rather obsessed with the waterfront. After about the third day of us looking, we said, “Out of curiosity, why do we have to base our judgement on the waterfront?” He shared, “It’s not actually the water. I’m looking to see if there’s any frogs in it because you see, frogs have such sensitive, delicate skin that they can’t survive in an unhealthy body of water and ecosystem.”

What he was explaining to us was that the evidence of frogs was more accurate than any water testing and health records; he could tell, simply by the habitat, if it was hospitable or not.

The same applies to any work environment. People make an impression about your workplace within a minute of setting foot in it. When it comes to clients, new staff, potential partners, they’re looking for how healthy your workplace is, and if they want to do business with you (or if they have no choice, if they can expect a good experience or a less pleasant one). You may be so immersed in it that you can’t tell. You may also feel powerless to change it if it’s not as healthy as it could be. In this blog, we’ll show you what you can do about it, no matter what role you have on the team.

Here are a couple of things you can think about to ensure your team has a healthy ecosystem. Perhaps you’re reading this blog because you’re in a position of deciding if you want to remain in that ecosystem or not. All the more reason to see what can be done about it before you jump ship.

Signs of a healthy ecosystem (anyone can initiate):

1.Celebrate each other

As much as we think people have thick skin, everybody needs to feel acknowledged, appreciated and valued (rather than just told what is needed, how to improve and what to do differently). On the surface, someone may seem tough as nails. But within all of us is the need to do meaningful work and feel valued for it. This is at every level – coaching clients in the c-suite to business owners to folks just starting their career – they share their deepest regrets, their pains, their frustrations, plans they’re not sure about, not feeling valued – and it impacts their energy and productivity. We need to celebrate each other – in small and large ways – on an ongoing basis. When people are working so hard, they need to feel that their greatness (their talents, passions and virtues) are being cultivated, appreciated, tapped into, utilized and valued.

Do you celebrate and value your staff, peers, boss, partners?

2.Ensure every voice is heard

When you listen to an environment with a lot of frogs, they croak in the night. My son loved to catch pollywogs when he was younger, bringing them home to my parent’s pond and watching them grow. Perhaps to my mother’s chagrin, as they would be so loud, croaking all night long, keeping her awake. But you knew they were there!

Do you know what your talent has to say? Do you hear lots of ideas? Do you hear people chatting with each other, interacting on a social level, getting to know each other as people? Are they connecting, sharing and contributing their best ideas to important projects, pitches, clients and problems? Or is there silence? In a meeting, around the office, meeting with you, if you hear little to nothing, that’s a good indicator that there’s some toxicity present such as mistrust, disengagement, or inter-team tension. This can’t be ignored.

Do you ensure every voice is heard?

3.Growth

When a healthy ecosystem exists in nature, the population of its inhabitants grows. Do you have people who want to come and work with your team? Is there a lineup of people waiting to get in, and therefore, do you have a stack of resumes waiting for the first vacancy? Are people inquiring about your organization to become your client, partner or next hire?

There’s a number of organizations I’ve worked with, that never have to post a job advertisement because as soon as somebody leaves, through natural attrition, they are the best recruiters for that team, that organization, and know who to recommend. Do you have people who want to grow and be part of that team, and are the people who are already there, growing and nurturing as well? Or are they stale and stagnant and there is just no appreciation or acknowledgement for the importance of growth within the team?

I hope this has given you a perspective on the importance of focusing on healthy team ecosystems. If you feel that this is valuable, subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can continue to get your dose of Greatness Magnified, for your work, family and for your life.

Four Overlooked Practices to Onboard Top Talent (So You Don’t Lose Them)

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Outside our house, they are replacing the road. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that there was very little attention to the foundation of it. I have to say, I don’t have high hopes that this road is going to last, but metaphorically, it occurred to me that this is often what I see in organizations; that some of the most important practices, such as recruiting and onboarding top talent, lacks a strong foundation.

New employees and even existing employees that don’t have a sufficient foundation in which to be successful may feel lost, confused and frustrated. We have a hard time recognizing their greatness when they’re struggling. We are at risk of losing them before they’ve even changed their LinkedIn status if we don’t do a better job of onboarding top talent well.

We already know there is a talent shortage that shows no signs of easing until 2030 (Deloitte), and yet we continue to ignore the little things we can do to ensure we retain our best staff. It costs thousands of dollars to recruit, retrain, and mentor new staff (to the tune of up to three times their annual salary) not to mention the burden it places on those having to do the recruiting, training and mentoring! Let’s not also forget that other people need to pick up the workload when there’s a vacancy or people are not performing to optimal capacity and ability.

When you give people the right foundation you keep them longer. The quality of their work is better and they feel a greater sense of pride in both their work and the organization they work for. So, what can an organization do to make sure that people have the right foundation?

Here are four often overlooked practices to onboard new talent well:

1.Give Information

Rarely, from the thousands of people I speak for in organizations in any given year, do I hear of job candidates receiving sufficient information; what are the unique challenges of the job, team and project, what will be the biggest priority, what skill or expertise is most needed that is currently lacking? Now you may be thinking that this isn’t information you release until after you make a hire, but isn’t it important for the candidate to ensure she or he feels good a fit? Couldn’t it make it easier to converse on what she or he would do differently, to fill a gap, to expedite the learning curve?

Instead, we treat the recruitment process as requiring candidates to go on a big hunt, that they need to go searching for all of the latest trends and research and what is the company about and what’s the history. That somehow this will prove how much they want the job. What about assuming they want the job, and that good research skills are not more important than their critical thinking skills to share what specifically they would do if they are the successful candidate. How about if they came to an interview with a 90-day plan based on what they knew? Might you be able to gauge commitment that way, and he or she can hit the ground running on day one!

Here’s the suggestion: give them some information that is normally only shared with folks within, show them you trust them and want them to be successful even before they get the job, and see how they leverage that intel. If you don’t have somebody that you can trust at the very beginning, it sets up the recruitment process to be an “us and them”. Why not start off on the same side?

If you have decided you’re going to give your precious time to interview them, don’t potentially waste it by finding out they’re a bad fit when they’re sitting across from you. Give them homework. Ask them to figure out what they would do in scenario X. List the top three biggest challenges you see and reflect on what strengths and expertise they’d bring with them. If they decline the interview as they don’t know how to answer the issues or they don’t want to put in the time, you’ve just gifted yourself at least an hour of your workday!

2. Provide a realistic job preview

When you have those people that you shortlisted, maybe you’ve got one or two superstars. Before you make the final decision, offer the opportunity for them to learn more about you by coming on site to the work environment. They can meet their colleagues, peers and boss. They can get a sense if there’s going to be a good fit. Show them their workspace, let them sit in on non-classified meetings, have them join someone for lunch. All too often, we bring somebody into the organization and then we make introductions, give tours, etc. We assume that an artificial environment of a job interview(s) is sufficient to figure out a fit. Sometimes it’s sufficient but it has a huge cost when it doesn’t work out.

You may be with a progressive company where you have tools and assessments and other checks and balances (and hopefully you don’t lose a good person along the way because there have been so many checks and balances that take so long they get stolen away from you). Let’s assume that you get the right person at the end of the recruitment process. Who’s to say though that they’re still going to be the right fit from a human standpoint when they’re actually with their colleagues and clients on the job?

3. The orientation system

Do you have an orientation system? Not just everybody getting into a conference room and hearing one speaker after the next deliver a series of slide decks (some content that people should know already) but an actual personalized orientation approach?

We need to ensure that your new talent is being oriented to what is most important from the very beginning, and that will be unique to the role, person, team and work context. Are they being oriented so they can create a clear 90-day plan by the end of the week? Do they know what help and resources are available, and who they can ask for help and direction? Do they know their most important priorities?

And let’s not forget the importance of the human touch factor. Can their boss, boss’s boss or the owner of the company meet with them for a half hour in the first week? Do they have their phone, email and extension set up? Do they know how to use them? You would not believe how many people need to struggle through without even the basic systems to do their job well. It also sends a poor message about how important (or unimportant) they are.

4. Recognition the very first day

Recognition the very first day will really set you apart. Do you recognize people that very first day? One of my clients celebrates new people on their first day by putting a card or a mini sign on their keyboard that communicates, “Welcome to the organization. We’re celebrating you!” My speaker’s bureau projects a welcome sign at reception, expressing how excited they are to have a new team member joining! Some write a handwritten note that says, “The things that impressed me most in your job interview are …”

Do something that’s really fun or meaningful. Something that’s reflective of your culture, that shows that person that they are already known, valued and appreciated. You know what the alternative is, so do the foundation work and be informed about the greatness of the person who’s coming into the organization.

It’s such a missed opportunity to onboard and support new talent. We need to know those folks before they even hit the ground running with us.

The ripple effect of their comfort, them being able to be part of a solid foundation, means that the individuals they work with are going to be able to rely on them, are going to be able to see their greatness and be supported by them so much faster than if they were spending time trying to get oriented to that on their own. If you give people a policy manual and have them sit on their first day locked in a room, is not creating a great first impression. Let’s turn the 30% satisfied and 70% dissatisfied, numbers around. A great onboarding experience can help in this quest.

Three Strategies to Lead your Team through Effective Coaching

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One of the common themes I see emerging in 2018 is the topic, “Leader as Coach.”  What we’re seeing is that as the coaching field continues to evolve and grow, more people are experiencing the benefits of having been coached and want employees to experience the same benefits. They are also realizing that they can begin that movement by being more coach-like in their leadership approach.

However, leader as a coach is not always a natural fit. For one thing, it’s not always the right approach. When we have a crisis situation, when there’s a very clear way of doing things and when it is the leading practice, being directive is often what is required. However, to assume that all leadership scenarios require a directive approach is shortchanging not only your employees but your peers and organization as well.

The world of business and our organizations is complex and competitive. It’s fast-moving and evolving. It requires innovative solutions, new approaches, and flexibility that a directional leadership style simply doesn’t utilize. In fact, our employees may have the best strategies to manage the challenges they face daily; they are closest to the work, the customer and the product. Organizations practicing continuous improvement and LEAN have known this for years and are light years ahead of their competition and they stay consistent in this method. Being more coach-like as a leader enables you to share the responsibility of creating new possibilities and products through to solving long-standing issues. Not only that, it allows you as a leader to demonstrate daily how you value your top talent, and authentically provide meaningful ways for individuals to contribute their expertise, ideas, and enthusiasm. In other words, stay engaged and contribute.

To be clear, this blog is not trying to profess that all leaders need to become coaches (you already have enough to do). Nor is it in fact ethical for you to officially be a coach to somebody who reports directly to you (according to guidelines set out by the governing body of coaches, the International Coach Federation). Rather, this blog is about exploring a few core coaching principles that helps to make any leader more effective and get out of firefighting mode; to enable you to harness, nurture and value the talent that you already have for the good of all.

Here are three key strategies that are essential to being more coach-like.

  1. Be Visible.

In terms of being more coach-like, you could certainly be more visible that only seeing employees in a meeting or the boardroom. And this applies to every level of leadership. It’s incredible the number of walk-throughs I’ve done with a new organization I’m working with and when I ask about leadership, people will tell me who has been around lately, how interested they were in what they had to say, and how valued they made them feel when they communicated with them. There’s nothing more powerful than when you’re physically where the value is created and you’re able to use inquiry rather than direction to be able to harness the best from your employees. Get out, get curious, and act on the good ideas or lines of thinking you hear. Circle back with folks what you learned and if there are some actions, ideas or opportunities you’re acting on. Now that’s a way to compliment your top talent…listen and utilize their wisdom…and watch them give you more of it!

  1. See Complaints as Opportunities.

My co-author Brenda Zalter-Minden used to say to leaders, a complaint is merely a poorly worded request. In other words, the individual’s greatness is in there, it’s just perhaps very well masked! But when you take a curious stance, you can listen past the complaint to the suggestion or opportunity. Inquiry allows you to learn rather than get on the defensive. Not easy to do if you’re tired and feeling burnt out, but all the more reason to do less firefighting so you aren’t as burdened. Perhaps after your line of inquiry to figure out the suggestion under the complaint you don’t change a thing, however, the person will feel valued and validated by you seeing them as resourceful rather than a problem.

  1. Ask Good Coaching Questions.

At risk of stating the obvious, being coach-like requires you to ask good coaching questions! In other words, open-ended questions as opposed to yes, no, maybe, sorts of answers. They allow the person to think differently to help you dig a little deeper. They deepen the understanding and assume the person is resourceful, rather than what we often do which is listen to speak (where we’re not really listening!)

If you would like to look at some examples of helpful coaching questions, here are some from our deck of coaching cards:

  • Suppose the issue that we’re focused on actually was disguised as a great opportunity, what could that be?
  • What value could you add without even trying?
  • Who would have a different perspective on this?
  • How do others describe you/the team/the organization at its best?
  • Imagine your ideal day or shift, what would be different?

The power of these questions is that you are opening up the possibility of what solutions you could find, as opposed to trying to have all the answers. It allows new leaders, or people who have less experience, to immerse themselves in their team and to get a good read on what’s going on, through the power of questions. You’re able to share the spotlight with your employees and peers, valuing them for their experience, wisdom, and engagement. You can have the same benefits by asking powerful questions of your customers as well, making them feel a part of your organization and learning what they most need from you.

One last thought. Why not consider bringing a more coach-like approach into your family life as well? I can tell you as the mother of two teenagers, they would much prefer that I ask them questions than telling them what to do! That this is a way of being and thinking that can help to build any relationship.

What other suggestions do you have to fuel a coach-like approach as leaders? Will you share them in the comments section below?

For other free resources to help keep you strong as a leader, feel free to hop over to my website for the Cool Stuff page and download many helpful, tools to use.

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