Leadership Today - Practical Tips For Leaders

This week we have a replay of our 25th April 2020 episode on four ways to build hope. We will be back with a brand new episode next week. See you then!

This week we have a replay of our 4th April 2020 episode on how to avoid micromanagement. We will be back in two weeks with a new episode.

Is it possible we are approaching learning and development the wrong way? What if we allow people to fail early before we even teach them the basics? This week we explore research around the counterintuitive idea of productive failure.

Hello and welcome to episode 110 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore research around the counterintuitive idea of productive failure.

How do you think about failure? For most people, failure is something to be avoided at all costs. However, failure and mistakes are usually a critical part of learning. In fact, if we want to learn and develop, we probably need more productive failure. Failure that pushes us forward and leaves us better off.

I know that seems counterintuitive, so let's look at some research that illustrates the point.

How do we normally teach people something new? Well, in schools, universities and colleges around the world the process usually goes like this. First we walkthrough the concept and provide an example. Then we give people a chance to apply what they have learned through a practical activity. Then we provide feedback to people based on how they performed during the activity. Learning complete. And we've reduced the likelihood of failure in the practical activity by making sure people understand the theory first. But what if we varied the order of those elements in the learning process?

Researchers explored precisely that using students in an undergraduate biology course. Some students followed the traditional method I just outlined. However, the researchers also took some students through a very different process. In that instance they started with an activity where students could problem solve without instruction. The students then received feedback about how they went. And, finally, there was a walkthrough of a model expert approach to explain the concepts. Basically this approach forced students to get things wrong and receive feedback early. The students had almost no chance of getting the initial activity 100% right. That provided a rich opportunity for feedback. After all, everyone was likely to have failed the activity in some way. Following that feedback, the students were primed to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts at play in the activity. But did this alternative approach work?

It turned out that the students following the non-traditional approach of productive failure had an average result that was five percentage points higher than the group using the typical approach. That's pretty impressive. However, the most impressive increases came for students who typically struggled to learn. Those students saw even greater increases in their scores as a result of being allowed to productively fail, receive feedback, and then understand the theory.

So, how does your workplace view failure? What kind of reaction do people receive when they get things wrong? How many opportunities are there for your people to safely, but productively, fail while learning something new? Maybe it's time to change the way we think about failure and how we develop our people.

Well I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, the research referenced in this episode is in the show notes. And we've got a really exciting opportunity for groups to learn on our Leadership Today On-Demand platform. If you do want to try that out with a group just get in contact at our website www.leadership.today or send an email to [email protected] for more information. I look forward to signing up some more people for a trial and I will see you next week.

SIGN UP FOR A FREE 30 DAY TRIAL OF LEADERSHIP TODAY ON-DEMAND

Sunita G. Chowrira, Karen M. Smith, Patrick J. Dubois & Ido Roll (2019) DIY productive failure: boosting performance in a large undergraduate biology course. npj Science of Learning volume 4, Article number: 1

Trust is an essential part of effective leadership. This webinar explores practical ways to build and maintain trust within and beyond your team to improve engagement, openness and performance.

Want more similar content? Start your free 30 day trial of Leadership Today On-Demand here: https://leadershiptoday.vhx.tv/browse

Community really matters, but can be hard to build when we're in a hurry. In this episode we discuss the single best question to build community (at least the best I've come across!).

Hello and welcome to episode 109 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we discuss the single best question to build community.

I've spoken before about five things research indicates are difficult to build when we're not all in the same place at the same time. They are:

1. Community

2. Collaboration

3. Culture

4. Climate

5. Capability

Today we're focusing on the first one - community. Building community in our teams and organisations is extremely important, both from an employee experience perspective, but also for performance. This is true whether you are currently working remotely, are back in the office or, more likely, some mix of the two.

The catch now is that we are often needing to build community and connection at speed. Research shows us that the shift to online meetings has resulted in more meetings with more participants per meeting, but shorter meeting times. You're also far less likely to have all of your team in the same place at the same time, so the opportunities to build connections are fewer and further in between. We therefore need to be intentional about building community. We can no longer leave such a central part of workplace culture to chance now that the proverbial water-cooler discussions have all but disappeared.

Community is about what we have in common - that's where the word comes from. It's about shared characteristics, beliefs and interests. We build community when people share things about themselves with each other. As leaders, we want to give people a chance to learn what they have in common. This can be challenging though. We want people to be personal, but also to feel safe. We don't want people to feel as if they're being forced to share too much at work. But it also needs to be inclusive. If you ask people to talk about their children or a favourite pet, what happens for the people who have neither?

I was working with a team recently, and one of the members shared about how hard it was in that team if you weren't into sport, as most of the non-work conversations would revolve around football. What was a well intentioned effort to build community by talking about something non-work related left several team members feeling out of place.

As a result, I'm sure you have come across some great 'get to know you' questions. Here are a few that I think are quite good:

• What career did you want to have when you were a child?

• What's one thing about you that surprises people?

• What's something you want to become an expert in?

• What qualities do you value in friends?

As I said, these are all quite good questions, but you can only ask them once. If you keep asking about dream jobs as a child people will check out of the conversation, or think that you're not listening to them in the first place.

Recently I came across what I think is the single best question to build community. As is often the case, it's not my idea - a participant shared it during a workshop about building trust in a remote context.

In every team meeting they would ask each person to provide a five star recommendation. What is one thing that they would recommend to others? Now, importantly, the recommendation can be for anything. It can be a recipe, a car, an event, a restaurant, some music, a book, a holiday destination, a product - the options are almost endless. The question works so well because it's 100% inclusive, and it's what I would call evergreen - you can ask it every week and people can come up with something new to recommend. Plus, it's interesting to hear people answer the question. After all, who doesn't love a new five star recommendation?

So - remember the question - What is your five star recommendation? I would love to hear how you go using it in an upcoming meeting - I'm planning to use it on Monday.

Speaking of five star recommendations, if you're enjoying the podcast, how about providing a rating and review? It really does make a difference in helping people to find the podcast.

If this episode interested you, then our upcoming webinar on (Re)Building Trust will also be worth joining. Go to the Leadership.Today website to sign up, or you can watch a recording after 19th March via Leadership Today On-Demand. There are links in the show notes. Have a great week.

This week we explore three keys to dealing with defensiveness.

Hello and welcome to episode 108 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore three keys to dealing with defensiveness.

I am sure, like me, that you have needed to work with a defensive person before. Perhaps they just don't want to hear some feedback that is being provided. Or they quickly blame others when something goes wrong. Maybe they are resistant to new initiatives and changes. All of this defensiveness can make a leader either escalate things or just try to ignore the person.

The most important thing to appreciate is that defensiveness is functional. It serves a purpose. When we have done something wrong, defensiveness is an effort to minimise the perceived harm to ourselves and others. How does that work? Well, let's say you come to me with a problem that I have caused. I might defensively respond that it is no big deal. That's because I genuinely hope that it is no big deal. I'm even trying to convince myself that it's no big deal. So I argue back, resist accepting feedback, misrepresent what happened, or even misremember what happened. That's right - we can be so defensive that we actually change our memories of the event to protect ourselves. While those responses may protect me in the short term, it doesn't change that what I have done may indeed be a big deal.

Research demonstrates that defensiveness has a broad range of negative impacts. Team unity and collaboration suffer. The defensive individual's connection with the workplace suffers. A key part of psychological safety is feeling you belong. The defensive individual reduces that sense of belonging through their actions. In addition, when faced with someone who has done something wrong, we tend to push them to one side and to exclude them. This makes the person even more defensive and takes us even further away from a resolution and progress.

Researchers Wenzel, Woodyatt and McLean found that defensiveness is strengthened by negative social responses. Our natural reactions to the defensive person makes the situation even worse. We enter a cycle of increased defensiveness. But thankfully their research also indicates three keys for dealing with defensiveness:

1. Help people to belong. As people feel more respected, valued and secure in the group, their defensiveness tends to fall away. After all, you don't need to be defensive if you know that you will still be accepted and supported even if you make a mistake. You can value the person even if you disagree with their opinions or actions.

2. Normalise apologies. Saying 'sorry' is not a sign of weakness, rather it shows a strength of character to admit when you're wrong and apologise for the impact on others.

3. Talk about values. Wenzel and colleagues found that having people share their values reduced defensiveness. If I value honesty and openness, reminding myself of those values will make me less defensive.

Try these three approaches out this week to reduce the level of defensiveness amongst those in your team. As always, details of the research referenced in this podcast is in the show notes, and a big thanks to Lauren Staveley who did the research on this one.

Now for a quick moment of celebration. The Leadership Today Podcast has just passed through 100,000 downloads. When I kicked this podcast off in July 2018 I had no idea the global reach and impact it would have on so many people. And so, can I ask you to do me a favour? This week, please tell three colleagues or friends about the podcast and help them to track it down. And, for bonus points, take a minute to provide a rating and review wherever you download this podcast. That all helps to spread the word. Have a great week.

Michael Wenzel, Lydia Woodyatt, Ben McLean. The effects of moral/social identity threats and affirmations on psychological defensiveness following wrongdoing. British Journal of Social Psychology, 2020; 59 (4): 1062 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12378

It is day five of the radical reflection challenge - well done! Today we are reflecting on reflection. I know that sounds like we are just about to disappear into ourselves, but hear me out. Hopefully this week has shown you just how powerful reflection can be when we make it a regular practice. And while we would all agree that reflection is important, it is rarely urgent. As a result reflection will always be pushed down to the bottom of our priority list unless we prioritise and schedule it. My challenge for you today is to identify how you will continue reflection beyond the challenge.

We started the week thinking about our values. Without reflection it's easy for our lives to drift away from those things which matter to us most. On day two we considered what success means to each of us. It's all too easy to take on someone else's definition of success and find ourselves chasing that down. But by reflecting on what success means to us, we can set goals for the various seasons of our life that will help us to feel a sense of fulfilment and purpose. On day three we explored learning and growth. We often overlook just how much we have learned, so can feel stuck. I believe growth needs to be intentional, so pushing ourselves into new areas is important. And yesterday we focused on gratitude. Hopefully you have had a chance to try out some of the gratitude techniques we discussed.

One simple thing you can do to continue reflection is to schedule a time in your calendar to complete this challenge again in 3 or 6 months from now. That is a clear goal you could easily set and achieve.

I also think that building reflection as a habit is really important. This is going to be far more effective than bursts of reflection a few times per year.

So today I am asking you to reflect over various time horizons. Often we end up focusing on too short a time horizon, usually measured in weeks and months rather than years and decades. A quote attribute to Bill Gates sums it up well - "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years."

I think it's important to identify your focus for the decade. What is the season you are in? Where do you hope to be in 10 years? Make it a clear picture. What will it look and feel like? Now you can always revisit that - I'm not asking you to set it in stone - in fact you should revisit it. That's the same for every other level of reflection. So we start by thinking abut a decade, and then work back from there.

• Focus for the year. What is the theme for this year? What are a few key words to sum up this theme?

• Focus for the quarter. What is the one thing that will make the biggest difference this quarter? What is a key theme for the quarter?

• Focus for the month.

• Focus for the week.

• Focus for the day. What can I do today to make progress?

I think we can keep this really practical. For example, at the end of the week you can take 15 minutes to look back at what you have achieved over the week, and set your focus for the following week. That's a simple routine you can schedule into your calendar so it becomes a habit.

To round out this week of radical reflection, I'm asking you to reflect across these various time frames. When you first do this it will take some time. But when you have done it once, it is then about week to week maintenance. Schedule time for regular reflection to return to those areas of focus.

I hope you found this week's challenge helpful. I encourage you to check out all of the other resources we have at Leadership Today On-Demand. The link is in the show notes, or just go to leadership.today to learn more. There's something new every week to help you to become an even better leader. We will be back to our regular podcast episodes from next week.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKBOOK

WATCH THE CHALLENGE VIA LEADERSHIP TODAY ON-DEMAND

Welcome to day four of the radical reflection challenge. The week is flying by. I hope you have found the three topics to date helpful. As a reminder, we started with values, then moved onto success, and yesterday we looked at learning and growth.

I believe today's focus on gratitude can have a fundamental impact on your optimism and well-being. Gratitude is both a trait and an emotion or state. It's an outlook we bring to life, and it's also something we experience at a point in time.

We can practice gratitude - that is, we can actually take time out of our day to be grateful. Researchers have shown a regular practice of gratitude improves sleep, physical health, relationships with others, mental health and life satisfaction. It also reduces the risk of burnout. So, if I had a pill to sell you that did all of that I would be a billionaire. Thankfully gratitude is completely free, however it is also often elusive.

Taking the time to consider things to be grateful for changes our outlook on life. We start to seek out the positive things and focus our attention on those. And, just like a muscle that can be developed with exercise, we can develop our muscle of gratitude. We can shift it from something passing to something that characterises us - from a state to a trait.

The focus of the reflection in your workbook today is all about gratitude. I've included a few activities you can try out in the coming weeks to build gratitude. The first is a gratitude journal. It's a really simple process but research shows some significant benefits after even short periods of three weeks. The idea is to identify three new things each day that you are grateful for, and note them down - either using a notes app or in a physical journal. The second is a gratitude letter. This involved writing a letter expressing your gratitude to someone, typically someone that you haven't fully thanked to date. The third idea is an act of kindness. To each day intentionally do something nice for someone else. It could be someone you know, or even someone you come across in your day. Try one or more of those gratitude building ideas out today.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKBOOK

WATCH THE CHALLENGE VIA LEADERSHIP TODAY ON-DEMAND

Welcome to day three of the radical reflection challenge. We are at the midway point of our challenge, so it's a great opportunity to think about how you are doing. You might want to consider what's working well or not so well for you in this challenge. Perhaps you might mix things up and try moving your reflection and review to a different time of day, or vary the location.

Today's focus is on learning and growth. I love the quote from John Henry Newman who says "Growth is the only evidence of life". I would go so far as to say that growth is the purpose of life. Without growth we cease to truly be living.

The catch with growth and learning is the discomfort they create. Learning new things means making mistakes, falling short and occasionally bruising our knees. Learning something new creates uncertainty and, generally speaking, we hate uncertainty.

You have probably come across the Johari Window before. It's a simple framework that compares what we know about ourselves versus what others know about us. There are some things we know about ourselves that others also know - that's the arena that is on display. Then there are things we know about ourselves that others don't know - that's the things we mask. There are things others see in us that we don't see in ourselves - that's the blind spot, which could either be good or bad. That leaves one more option - those things we don't know about ourself that others also don't know. That's where the greatest opportunity for growth occurs. It is where we try genuinely new things. So today's questions in your workbook ask you to consider your learning and growth over the past year, but also challenge you to look forward to new challenges and opportunities for growth. Take a deep breath and dive in. I will see you again tomorrow.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKBOOK

WATCH THE CHALLENGE VIA LEADERSHIP TODAY ON-DEMAND

It is day two of the radical reflection challenge. Yesterday we explored our values and the need to reassess our lives against these values from time to time. Today we are focused on success.

Success is a tricky topic to cover for a range of reasons. Success is different for different people. Society tends to portray certain things in the context of success - whether that be wealth, fame, beauty or anything else. There is a risk of chasing others' definitions of success. It is all too easy to adopt someone else's view of what success should be, rather than having our own definition of success.

Here are a few key thoughts about success:

1. You can and should define what success means for you. If you don't define success, then someone else will. It is all too easy to climb a ladder only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall - don't let that happen to you. You define success for you.

2. It's okay for your definition of success to change over time. It is sometimes easier to think of success relating to seasons of your life. For example, your idea of success might be different when you're studying, early in your career, in the middle of your career, later in your career, and in your retirement. Sure, your values may be consistent, but it is fine to change your definition of success to reflect the season you are in.

3. Success is accomplishment. It is completing or achieving something. It is a point in time - a moment when you know you're successful. So if you want to be successful, you need to set goals. And once you have been successful, you need to set some new goals.

4. Success can feel pretty pointless by yourself. We are created as social beings. Are there people you can team up with in pursuit of success? Are there people you can cheer on? Then why not partner up with them.

You will find some questions to help you reflect about success in your workbook. Make sure you note down some thoughts.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKBOOK

WATCH THE CHALLENGE VIA LEADERSHIP TODAY ON-DEMAND