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Lead From Here episodes
- Data is Your Friend as a Leader | Lead From Here #70
This is building off of episode #67 (https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leadfromhereco/episodes/How-to-Drive-Change-in-Your-Company--Lead-From-Here-67-e2eljk5) as I got a couple emails from people saying that they have tried change and it didn't work. First off, depending on your company and leadership culture...you may not be able to drive change. If that is the case, it's up to you to either deal with what you have or find somewhere else that has a better culture.
More to the point of this video, the message I got all had the same thing in common...they had a feeling and tried to drive change on that alone. Some cultures may be open to this, but MOST won't. They want data to show that there is an opportunity to improve somewhere, and then they want tests that are backed up by data to prove it. Getting comfortable with data is key to being an effective leader.Getting data to support change, isn't just about changing policies, processes or how you do business...it's also about changing perceptions. Perhaps your team is seen as struggling or failing...you need to be able to prove that your team is or isn't. If you can't, people will make assumptions based on what they perceive instead of what the reality is.I hope this was helpful, if you have any questions, hit me up on any social platform or email at the website below!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #podcast #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #failure #listening #activelistening #empathy7 min - Start with Listening and Empathy When Things Go Wrong | Lead From Here #69
I received an email from a listener and I thought it would be a good topic to cover on today's episode. This person's team had just suffered a major failure. The team is struggling to cope with it, people are wondering where to go from here and ultimately...they want to know how to restart this team effectively.
I am going to sound like a broken record here, but you start with listening and empathy. The team is hurting, if you have a good team of solid performers, a big failure truly HURTS. I can cause shame, frustration, anxiety, anger, and a host of other emotions. With that the best thing to do is let them release those emotions. There is a good chance you will take the brunt of the vitriol, and rightfully so, you are the leader, it's your job to take it.The key here is to make sure you keep your boundaries, hate and demeaning talk isn't acceptable...as long as you are good there, the main key is to not let it go one for months and months. I made that mistake before and I thought I was helping by letting them complain and be frustrated for weeks and weeks. Maybe there was a therapeutic aspect to that over time, but whatever I was doing, it wasn't leading.After a few sessions (at most) of frustration and commiserating, where you told them I hear you, I understand how you feel, etc. etc...it's time to start pivoting their negative emotions into things that will bring about a positive outcome for them AND the rest of the team. Venting is great for a spell, but as soon as it drags on, it becomes unhealthy. You can't avoid sitting in the mud with your people, but you can eventually help pull them out and start getting back to a path of balance and fulfillment.I hope this was helpful, if you have any questions, hit me up on any social platform or email at the website below!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #podcast #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #failure #listening #activelistening #empathy6 min - Know Your Audience as a Leader | Lead From Here #68
In Episode 27 we talked about Executive Presence, this video is a follow up based on a conversation I had in response to the original video wanting me to dive deeper into the layers of communication and how they differ.
The three main areas of communication are to your leaders/executives, your peers and finally the people that report to you. They all have differing levels of nuance depending on the situation.When you are speaking with your leaders or executives, it's important to keep the conversation very concise and efficient. They need to know WHAT you are asking for and WHY you need and HOW it will help the business. Make sure you do that in as few words as possible. They have countless people reaching out to them for approval, help, questions, guidance, etc. If you start to ramble on or the ask isn't concise, you have already lost their focus, which means you have lost the room.When it comes to speaking with your peers, it't important to understand the context of the context of the meeting/convo. If you have a trusting peer group and you all get along well, it's good to let your guard down, be vulnerable, ask questions and for help when needed. Given that they are also leaders, leading teams, they have a lot on their plate, so it's important to still stay fairly concise in meetings that aren't happy hours or one on ones.Lastly, how do you show up for your people? It's important to keep your guard down and not be afraid to be vulnerable. With that being said, it's important to be concise in a different way with your team. Make sure you very clearly communicate the goals and strategy for the path ahead. If you ramble on or are not clear and concise, instead of wasting their time like you are with the executives, you are being confusing and unclear in the approach to the upcoming work. Which may seem like not a big deal, until you are halfway done with a project and realize you are on the wrong path.Communication is VERY important and understanding how to approach conversations based on your audience will help you lead your and manage up effectively.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care of youreslf!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #executivepresence #knowyouraudience #communication5 min - How to Drive Change in Your Company | Lead From Here #67
Driving change at a company can vary depending on the size and maturity of a company. If a company is a small startup, it's likely that change is a part of their DNA. When you are small and just starting out, you are usually more nimble and people have a higher failure rate tolerance than at a major corporation! On the other hand, if you work at a massive corporation, change will be a much more painful and arduous process. They already have documentation and onboarding procedures and best practices and HR. It will take significantly more effort to drive change in a company like that.
Great, so you want to drive change...what are the key steps to do so? Gather data and start to build an understanding of the ROI (return on investment) of the change. This will be crucial in getting your idea/change approved by the executive team. Once you have your ROI and your go ahead, it's time to test! Pick a team or a customer or whatever small segment of the business you are planning to change and start testing your change. This step it's important to understand if it's working, so knowing what to measure and measuring it, will allow you to compare current state and your new proposed changes.Your new idea works better than the current state and your bosses all agree to implement...now what? Now you get your key stakeholders within the teams or sales or account managers and you educate them on the change and rally them to be the owners of the new change. Utilizing your data gathered in the testing phase, you can help get them excited about the change, which will help ensure adoption of the change. From there, you just monitor and step in to help when things are going sideways in the process of change.It's not for the faint of heart, but the ability to create effectual change in a company can be the difference between the life and death of the business.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #change #changemanagement #drivingchange5 min - How to Interview Your Next Boss? | Lead From Here #66
It's important to bring the right attitude and tone to an interview with a potential next boss. If you get the opportunity to interview your next boss, it's important to not make the same mistake I made 10 year ago. I had been working at a company for a couple years and had seen a few bosses leave in my time at the company...they all flamed out and I carried the flame while they were there and after they left. When the time came to replace this role with a new person, I went in and told the potential boss that I didn't know why he was here, he was just going to flame out like the rest of them...stop wasting everyones time. DON'T DO THIS.
Instead come in with an open mind and a helpful attitude. There is a good chance that one of these candidate will be your next leader, so it's important that you get it right! Ask them their leadership philosophies, ask them about other places they have led and how that worked out. Ask them how they intend to change things and how they will involve the current leadership group. Give THEM time to ask questions, the questions they ask and the way they respond to your answers can give you some really clear insights into how they will be as a leader.The main goal is to show them that you are key resource for guidance and information. That way when one of them gets hired, you will be top of mind when they need information or want to have help in rolling out changes.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #interviewing #interview #nextboss #interviewboss4 min - How to Interview an Individual Contributor? | Lead From Here #65
The biggest issue I see amongst leaders as they look at hiring...is wanting to be too involved in the technical details of an interview. You are leader, you aren't in the team. Your job is to figure out if the candidate is the right fit culturally and more generally as a person. Focus on their work ethic, how they learn, their appetite for growth, fixed or growth mindset, what motivates them, who are they.
The technical details should be left to the people that are actually in the teams doing the work. Yes, you are the leader, so you have a clear picture on what is happening in the team. You aren't the one in the team doing the actual day to day technical work of the team. Make sure people that are within the teams are on the panel and have them focus on the more technical side of the interview.
If you take your assessment of the individual from a cultural perspective and pair that up with your teams technical assessment (they will have culture opinions too)...you will be able to develop a complete profile of every candidate that comes through your panel. Which usually will lead to you picking the right person for the job and the culture.
I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
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5 min - How to Interview a Potential Leader? | Lead From Here #64
Interviewing is something that a lot of people stress over. I am here to tell you that it is important to do your best to hire the right candidate...with that being said, it's ALWAYS a guess. Take the ego out of it and just make the best call you can. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it crashes and burns.
When it comes to leaders, it's important to remember that they are also a guess...there is just as much risk as with an individual contributor.So how should you interview a potential leader for your company? Get as specific as you can. It's important for you to get a good understanding of how he responds in high pressure situations, in failure, in success and so on. The best way is to ask very specific questions like, "Tell me about a time when a team you were leading failed. How did that impact you individually and how did you communicate the failure both to the team and your own leaders?" Questions like this get right to the heart of it, you will listen for ownership, humility and team impact. If they blame everyone and don't take ownership, then that is a major red flag. If they take all the blame and don't work to hold people accountable...that is a different red flag.What if the leader has no actual leadership experience? If that is the case, I would recommend hiring someone from within the teams to take on this role. Someone that is ACTUALLY interested in becoming a leader...your best technical resource may be your worst leader. Plus you already know them.If you don't have that person in your teams and you are hiring from outside the company...make sure you ask as many questions around their leadership values as possible. Like "Talk me through what kind of leadership style you work the best with and is that the same way you lead?" If they can't get into specifics on what has worked for them or that they would look to emulate, they probably aren't ready to jump into leadership.The key is to ask as many situational questions you can, even if they have led before. Ask them how their leaders handled difficult situations for the teams they were a part of.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #interviewing #interview #leadershipinterview5 min - Embracing Uncertainty as a Leader? | Lead From Here #63
Uncertainty as a leader can feel confusing and frustrating, especially when you are new to leadership.
When you are in uncertainty or ambiguity as a leader, it's important to protect your team from that. It's your job to understand where the company is going and while there my be uncertainty, understand what you need your team to do in this moment. You won't always be able to keep uncertainty and ambiguity out of the team...but when it needs to be in there, make you explain it very clearly, what the plan is, what the risks are and that you as the leader are ultimately to blame if it's the wrong plan.If you are able to keep the majority of the uncertainty out of the teams, you are doing a fantastic job as a leader. Being able to give your people very clear, tangible goals and next steps is the key to being a successful leader, leading successful teams.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #ambiguity #uncertainty #clarity4 min - How to Drive Collaboration as a Leader? | Lead From Here #62
If you work in a company of any size above 20 or 30 other people, you have almost certainly heard people talk about the need for a focus on collaboration, or breaking silos...or whatever business buzz word they like. This can make this topic feel a little cringey to some.
The reality is collaboration is the key to moving quickly, solving big problems and creating really healthy teams that are less likely to implode when a single point of failure leaves the company.Collaboration takes time to get in a groove and what derails more efforts is that people can slow down a bit out of the gate. So if you aren't preparing your leaders AND your teams for that expectation, people will tend to get nervous about the change in pace and start to opt out of wanting to be involved. Prepare your teams and your executives that you will see a minor slowdown as the teams find a new groove and learn to work in a more connected manner. It will feel clunky and a little redundant, but in the long run it will become an exponential force to be reckoned with.Communicate, build trusting teams and executive groups...then pull your resources together and let them flourish. It won't have the first week or the first month, but eventually, they will more efficient, more stable and generally happier.I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #collaboration #breakingsilos #collab5 min - How do People Fit Into Failure? | Lead From Here #61
Failure is proving to be a topic that isn't going to go away on this channel. People seem to have a lot of concerns about it and how to communicate it.
I got an email recently asking for guidance on how to navigate a very large failure by him and his team. They had a big goal that they all set together and they missed in a big way. He wanted to know, how do I communicate the failure and help them understand the weight without making them feel bad or demoralized? I want them to own it, but I want them to focus on improving and learning...not just feeling bad.It always comes down to you, the leader...you failed. It's your fault. That is the core source of the problem when you are talking to peers or your leaders. If you aren't doing that, you aren't leading. If you are pointing at people individually when asked "what happened" by your boss or execs at your company...you failed your team, your people and ultimately your leaders.This doesn't mean you don't handle the miss and you don't coach the people involved...especially if the people involved are repeat offenders in missing goals or deadlines. When you are dealing with the team directly, you should be laying out a path for learning and growth out of the failure and then individually pushing those that dropped the ball to improve and grow. Sometimes it might be it's time for them to move on (I am not saying fire someone on their first mistake because of a big failure), maybe they just need a little push or coaching.There are a lot of ways failure can pan out depending on how healthy your company is, but at the end of the day, any companies doing anything of value are taking risks every single day. Failing, learning and moving forward are signs of a healthy, impactful team. Keep pushing and keep learning from those failures and you will come out the other side better for it!I hope this was helpful, thanks for being here! Take care!-------------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://leadfromhere.co/#leadership #leadercommunity #leadfromherepodcast #leadfromhere #failure #fail #leadershipfailure4 min
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