The New Leader with Ian Daley

“As a leader, make sure you are clear about your employee's duties and responsibilities.” – Liz Kislik

A few months ago, I read a highly relevant and specific article in HBR about managing underperformers. One of the best I've read in a long time.  So, I had to find the author and invite her on the show to discuss it!  Fortunately, Liz Kislik agreed, and we had a revealing conversation about a tricky scenario that many leaders have encountered.

Liz is a management consultant and executive coach who helps leaders move their companies and careers forward. She's written for HBR, Forbes, Entrepreneur and has also graced the stage as a TEDx speaker. She holds a BA from Yale and a MBA from NYU; I'm sure I could've spoken to her for hours about my fondness for New York City!

In today's episode you'll learn:

-What causes an underperformer and their manager to view things so differently

-How to spot a pattern of subpar performance with an objective lens

-How to address this type of scenario skillfully, for both the organization and employee

-And much more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

#management  #leadership

Why It’s Important to Set Your Expectations

The leader is always responsible. Although your team certainly needs to be responsible for themselves, you are still responsible. So the first job is to make sure that they understand what their duties are. You should also let them know how they’re expected to perform, and what your standards are for their performance.

It’s on you to make sure that they actually understand what you’re expecting from them and how you evaluate them. Because it’s unfair to hold them responsible for not meeting your expectations if your expectations haven't been explicit and concrete.

How to Manage an Underperformer

But the nuance with somebody who thinks they’re fine is they don’t think they need to change anything. And the longer they repeat that mistake or undesirable behavior because no one calls them out for it, the more they think it must be okay. And that ends up doing all kinds of damage. Other people may start modelling their behavior after this person because they seem to be doing fine or they may go on to make new or even more dangerous mistakes. You have to catch these things when it’s still small.

Setting Expectations For Performance

Some people - whether it’s pride, lack of understanding, or actually having been damaged in prior work relationships - they have trouble letting you in and hearing what you’re really saying, or they get oppositional about it.

So whether it is their refusal to do what you ask or their inability to understand, at some point, if somebody isn’t delivering on performance, you have to go through whatever your company’s process is and consult with your HR, to figure out either how to change their job responsibilities so they’re not in a position to damage the rest of the group, or to actually say this person does not belong in this job because they’re not delivering. And then you do the corrective action or do whatever the steps are to move them out.

Links and Resources

Connect with Liz: LinkedIn, Website

Managing an Underperformer Who Thinks They’re Doing Great by Liz Kislik (article)

How to Retain and Engage Your B Players by Liz Kislik (article)

The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander (book)

“A mentor of mine pulled out his business card and wrote on the back of it: never forget when you were a sales representative.” – George Frangos

Anyone in the sales profession knows the challenges that both sales reps and managers have faced over the last 12 months. In this episode, we hear firsthand about the experience of a pharmaceutical sales leader and how their team has forged ahead amidst the storm of COVID-19. My guest today is George Frangos, Director of National Sales, HIV at Gilead Canada.

George has held progressive roles in sales, analytics, marketing, training and sales leadership over the last 16 years.  And he was also part of the panel that hired me into my first head office role at GSK over 10 years ago! 

In today's episode, we discuss:

- The biggest challenge faced over the last 12 months, and how teams can push through it

- How sales reps can successfully adapt during a crisis by focusing on themselves first

- The power of employee development, and how it brings value to an organization

- Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead and much more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

How Sales Reps Can Stay Productive During Lockdown

Business continuity is critical whether we have a pandemic or not, especially with chronic conditions such as HIV, which is the space we work in. I challenged my team to come up with a plan to be productive even during the pandemic, and we called it the “Work From Home” plan. So we developed a week by week schedule which allowed us to work on our individual development plans, and also team development plans.

Leadership Struggles During the Pandemic

It’s tough to convince your team or to assure them that they have nothing to worry about. We’re all high performing individuals and we make sure that we deliver hard results for our organization. But it’s tough to have frank discussions when the pandemic is something that we haven’t experienced before.

Remember Your Humble Beginnings

Most sales leaders have been a sales representative at some point in their life and in whatever industry they are in. And it’s important to remember those days because you’ll be able to empathize with your teammates and understand exactly what they are going through. It will help you make decisions, create empathy, and to listen and understand their needs as individuals and as professionals.

Links and Resources

Connect with George: LinkedIn

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek (book)

“Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. I've never forgotten those wise words a mentor once shared.” – Norma Beauchamp

I recently sat down with a wonderful and inspiring human being, one of those people who has seemingly overcome every hurdle life has thrown her way. And with a smile to boot! That person is today's guest - former president and CEO of Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Norma Beauchamp.

Norma currently serves on the boards of Extendicare, Dialogue, Aurora Cannabis, The Ontario Caregiver Organization, ALS Canada, and is a Council Member of the National Research Council of Canada.  She also serves as a regional ambassador for Women Get On Board.

In today's episode, Norma shares her hard-earned wisdom and some wonderful lessons that many of us need to hear right now. From building an impressive corporate career and raising a family, to facing down cancer twice - and winning.

You'll learn how to:

-Avoid making problems worse by dealing with them faster

-Leverage a positive attitude when the chips are down

-Always stay in control by owning your response to challenges

-And much more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Breadth Vs. Depth of Experience

This was during the Sanofi time: I moved every two to three years into different roles. I moved into Training and Development, and into Marketing, Business Development, to being the Director of Sales, and then running the Business Unit. And I think the message here is to be open to learning. Learn as much as you can. And even if they’re lateral moves, the thing is it gives you much more breadth and prepares you for much more opportunities as your career progresses.

On Being Adaptable, Especially in the Midst of COVID

Learning is key but being adaptable is more valuable. Look at what we’re living through right now with COVID-19. We have to be agile, we have to be adaptable; we need to pivot and we need to change. So many industries have pivoted this year and the speed of change has been incredible. So learning and growing brings a lot of value to any person who is developing their career forward and has high aspirations for themselves.

How to Deal With Roadblocks In Your Career

I have lived in a time when roads were blocked for me because of my gender, and I had to figure out how to navigate my path forward. And this is my advice for people who are currently facing roadblocks in their career path: you just have to be firm about knowing where you want to go and know that there are other ways to get there. Be creative in trying to go around that roadblock.

Links and Resources

Connect with Norma: LinkedIn

Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model

Situational Leadership by Dr. Paul Hershey (book)

The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D. and Spencer Johnson M.D. (book)

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (book)

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown (book)

“If you can, as much as you can, turn that camera on because your strategy is to connect.”– Gina London

My guest today is Emmy-award winning CNN correspondent, Gina London.  She is an internationally recognized communications expert, and has consulted with such organizations as Deloitte, SAP, Heineken, and the US Dept of State.

Gina has lived and/or worked in more than a dozen countries, so her insights come from deep experience, along with a track record of 10+yrs in TV, radio, print, and digital.

In this episode you'll learn:

- Why strategy, structure, and delivery underpin all great presentations, and how to embed that in your everyday work

- How to avoid letting team members hide off camera (don't "facilitate their fade away!")

- The "AIM" methodology that ensures your virtual presence is like a media pro.

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Strategy

Why are we doing virtual? We know it’s because of the pandemic, but what is our goal in a virtual setting, when we still want to connect with that human being on the other end?

If you are getting fatigued with the number of your Zoom meetings and your inclination is to turn that camera off, be in your sweats all day, I’m here to urge you to turn that camera back on. You don’t have to be dressed in a suit and tie, but wear something a little sharper because it’s going to help you focus better and engage better with others when you’re on camera.

If you can, as much as you can, turn that camera on because your strategy is to connect.

The AIM Strategy (Audience, Intent, Message)

Your Audience needs to come first because you care about them the most. What are their hopes, dreams, and fears? What are they thinking about? How can you make your message – whatever it is – even if it’s just a short “Let’s talk about this new project that we need to get off the ground, and we’re excited about it,” well, why would the audience be excited about it first? Lead with that.

I’ve had clients write their whole agenda for a meeting and I say, “OK, what is the team thinking of?”

Thrash your agenda, make the agenda from the point of view of the audience, lead with that and these small tweaks can make really powerful differences.

Intent is simply, “What do we want to accomplish with this meeting?” Too often they’re often too broad or not defined at all. Once you decide collectively, or on your own, what is that intent, make sure you articulate it (your Message). Don’t leave your audience guessing what they’re supposed to do with whatever it is you’re blathering about. You’ve got to have a clear, memorable, hopefully positively emotional message that will inspire people to action. And those are the fundamentals of strategy.

Play with the structure. Everything that you deliver or that you message around, or if you’re going be talking about that project, it doesn’t have to be always chronological.

If there’s something interesting or visionary, lead with that. Get people excited, start with a cool story.

Links and Resources

Connect with Gina: LinkedIn  |  Twitter

https://languageofleadership.org/

We are kicking off a new season with special guest, David Burkus. David is an author, professor, and keynote speaker who has been ranked as one of the world's top business thought leaders by Thinkers50.  Today I'm excited to share relevant and practical insights from his brand new book, Leading From Anywhere. You can purchase a copy here.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• why different personalities aren't the secret to great remote teams, and how to leverage culture to spur performance,
• 3 ways to create remote meetings that actually hit the mark (hint: being funny doesn't always translate),
• forward thinking hiring practices for the future,
• why cutting yourself some slack right now is important; leading remotely is a skill, and takes time to build

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Important Elements of a Team Culture

What I think was interesting was the elements of culture that mattered. When we talk about culture and when we think about a place like Google, we actually think about what Edgar Schein would call “artifacts of culture.” We think about the things that we can see, the rituals, the free food, the crazy office layouts…and we think that’s culture.

It turns out, Project Aristotle not only showed that it wasn’t just culture, it was these specific elements of culture like whether or not people had a sense of impact and meaning in their job, whether or not they felt like they were a part of a team and that team was doing good, impactful work for the world, but especially for the company, whether or not there were clear expectations and whether or not people knew what to expect of each other on a team.

The biggest one, and this was a surprise for an organization like Google, the predominant element of a thriving team culture was a sense of psychological safety, whether or not people felt free to express themselves fully, bring their whole selves to work, speak up when they have an idea that goes against the grain but could be valuable, and whether or not that team had interactions that were marked by a sense of trust and a sense of respect.

Presence does not equal productivity.

I think a lot of those calls stem from a misconception in the mind of too many leaders that presence equals productivity. When you’re managing a remote team, you don’t get the ability to see what time they come to the office, how late do they stay, how long are their lunch breaks and all these little things that actually have nothing to do with outcomes, but we use as a proxy – it’s never been that good of a proxy, but it’s easier to measure so we do it. And then when you flip to remote work, you trade presence for responsiveness.

Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, right after Yahoo! started building these elaborate playgrounds of offices, the hidden agenda behind those was always to get people to get people [to come to the workplace] as much as possible on the assumption that they would not work more productively.

And yet, distributing companies, companies that are marked by trust and autonomy have been outperforming them precisely because they’re focused on outcomes and not necessarily activity and how much of it is being done on campus.

1. Host the meeting, but another person should handle the tech side of things. One, a lot of tech stuff is going to go wrong. When people are trying to figure out why they’re on mute when their computer is telling them they ‘re not on mute and all that stuff, you don’t need that to derail what you’re doing. Second reason is you can have that other person watch you, your demeanor, the way you’re interacting, what you say and how you say things so you’ll learn how to have more respectful communication that resonates with your team.
2. Allow for socialization before and after the meeting.

Links and Resources

Connect with David: LinkedIn | Twitter

https://davidburkus.com/

Leading from Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Leading Remote Teams by David Burkus

Books by Peter F. Drucker

Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader by Ryan Hawk

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, Updated and Expanded by Michael D. Watkins

The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger L. Martin

“Own your own attention. Own your own energy. Put some boundaries up.” – Catherine Harrison

In today's episode I speak with entrepreneur, recovering corporate leader, musician and author Catherine Harrison.  Her first book, "Three Colors, 12 Notes" just launched, and we'll delve into what brought the book to life and how it can help you navigate a turbulent year.

Catherine's background as both a creative artist and corporate leader makes for an interesting conversation!  She's a great example of someone who brings their whole self to work.

In this episode, we cover:

• How to own your attention in a distracted world vs. technology owning you
• Catherine's biggest leadership blunder and how you can learn from it
• The concept of human-centered leadership and what that really means in practice
• Her favorite books for new leaders, and a whole lot more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Don’t let your ego drive the bus

One that comes to mind that I immediately consider a real gaffe on my part, one I’m still embarrassed about, was when I let my frustration get the better of me, and I let my ego drive the bus.

You lead different human beings with different personalities and tendencies and preferences and things that really irritate you.

I remember a specific instance when I was getting really tired of an individual who had a grandstanding personality. For whatever reason, it showed up in different ways that were irritating to me. I’m human; everybody’s human. I chose, on one occasion, to let my frustration get the better of me and put him in his place.

I felt awful afterwards. I still do. Even in my body right now, the reflection of that, makes me feel really uncomfortable. To me, I look back and I go, “Wow, what a young and stupid, ego-driven, unempathetic, non-human-centered leadership choice that was. Shame on you.”

Be a human-centric leader

I believe so vehemently that a good leader recognizes how important it is to uncover, discover and celebrate the different aspects of yourself, to bring your best self into the workplace where you’re investing your energy, and how are you investing the time to get to know yourself – your positives, negatives, ignored points, what you can really bring, where  you should actually delegate.

When you get to know yourself better, and you start to reconnect to your humanness, you become a more human-centric leader. That enables you to pull out the potential of these people that you’re hiring.

In so many ways, we are living in a culture, even a global culture, of binary thinking – you either are this human-centered, touchy-feely leader or you’re a very strategic, results-oriented leader that gets things done. And I completely disagree with the binary nature of that.

I believe so passionately that a good leader has to be all of those things and more. You can, in fact, be very clear, firm, strategic, focused on results, give clear feedback, be a disciplinarian, be very results-oriented, and also be an empathetic, open-minded, curious leader who’s willing to be courageous enough to go, “My bad, poor decision” or “We’re really dropping the ball all over the place, help me understand how I am contributing to that.”

I think that leaders who embrace all of that stuff are the ones who not only get things done, but they get things done in a way that there isn’t a trail of bodies behind them.

Links and Resources

Connect with Catherine: LinkedIn

https://purplevoodoo.ca

Three Colors, Twelve Notes: The Alchemy of Curiosity, Creativity and Human-Centered Leadership by Catherine Harrison

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. By Brené Brown

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley Klemp

Catherine’s tip: Figure out when your best energy is. Turn off your devices.

“I had to step back and learn that my job is to help others shine. It was all about communication, motivation, vision, and lifting up others. I would say that was the first real key lesson in leadership that I had to learn the hard way.” – Dennis Geelen

Recently I sat down with Dennis Geelen to learn more about his new book, The Zero In Formula. Dennis is the founder of Zero In, a consulting company that works with small to medium sized businesses, to help them implement creative strategies to be more customer centric and innovative.

In this episode, we cover:

- The hardest management truth Dennis ever learned, and how you can leverage self-awareness to elevate your game
- Why innovation doesn't necessarily equate to technology, and how small changes can create big results
- How customer-centricity is often missed, and how to ensure you get it right
- The simple 3 step formula to drive customer-centric innovation throughout your organization
- and more!

Don't forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts if you find this episode valuable!

A key lesson in leadership

The biggest lesson I think I had was, “OK, now that you’re in a leadership role, things need to change.” I didn’t realize that in the beginning. I kept wanting to be that go-to guy, keep being very involved in the operations, keep being very hands-on. And I quickly had to learn, now that I’m in a leadership position, it’s not about me anymore.

I had to step back and learn that my job is to help others shine. It was all about communication, motivation, vision, and lifting up others. I would say that was the first real key lesson in leadership that I had to learn the hard way.

Create a customer-centric foundation

There’s so much noise out there. You need to market yourself, you need to brand yourself, you need a good sales funnel, and there’s so much information coming at us.

Sure, some of those other things are good, but not if you don’t have a good foundation. Right?

You have great marketing and sales, but at the end of the day, if you’re not creating a good experience for those customers once they land with you, if there’s nothing different or innovative about you, they’re not going to stay.

The key here for me is “intentional”. You are intentional about being customer-centric, and you are intentional about being innovative.

What does that look like on the innovation side?

I like to give different principles that I believe need to be followed in order to be an innovative company.  One, you’ve got practices in place that are designed to create new ideas. Do you have practices in place? Do you have regular brainstorming meetings? Do you have ways of gathering ideas from your employees? That’s one way of being intentional.

Are those ideas coming from a diverse group of people? You want to have perspectives from all areas of your company – people from sales, operations, marketing, leadership, they all see it differently. Get those perspectives and make each of those people feel included, like their idea and their perspective matters just as much as the next person.

Links and Resources

Connect with Dennis: LinkedIn

http://zero-in.ca/

THE ZERO IN FORMULA: The Definitive Guide to Building a Disruptive and Sustainable Business through Customer-Centric Innovation by Dennis Geelen

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss

Dennis’ Productivity Tip: Organize and prioritize your day

“Stop thinking that you have to be all powerful and mighty because you have the word “leader” in your title. Be relatable, champion their cause…just be a human. Be a human being – that is the best way in which to lead.” – Dan Pontefract

Recently I sat down with Dan Pontefract to learn more about his new book Lead, Care, Win.  With the state of the world as it is, Dan's latest book couldn't have come at a better time. It's a playbook for leading in the 21st century, shattering old notions of management and highlighting examples of those who lead with heart - and how that translates to better relationships and results.

Dan is the founder and CEO of The Pontefract Group, a firm that aims to improve the state of leadership and organizational culture.  He's the author of three books (Flat Army, The Purpose Effect, Open To Think), and is the former Chief Learning Officer at Telus.  Dan also writes for both Forbes and HBR.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How the rat race impairs your leadership ability and what to do about it
- Nine leadership lessons to improve your ability to lead both yourself and others
- What the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs can teach us about ego and purpose
- What you can do right now, today, to start becoming a more caring leader

My only regret in this episode is that we didn't have time to discuss the genius of Eddie Van Halen!

Enjoy this episode and be sure to grab a copy of Lead, Care, Win! If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Be a Relatable Leader

I believe wholeheartedly that respect, empathy, being personable, i.e. human, admitting to your mistakes, apologizing when you’ve made a mistake, and even asking for help and feedback and not pretending you know everything are fundamentally the keys to being relatable.

If leaders would just do one of those six sub-behaviors, like saying sorry, they were an arse in a meeting, or they forgot to send the email, or they were promising an introduction to a client or a partner or a VP and they failed to do so…just say sorry. Relatability is admitting that you’re fallible, and that makes you human, and thus more humane.

When you’re relatable, it’s not just the whole “putting yourself in the shoes of others” – it’s not as simple as that. It’s about thinking, feeling, and then doing. And if you can sort that three-pronged approach to empathy out, you’re a relatable leader.

Seek out and share knowledge

I think there’s a bit of a pretense that leaders tend to have.

• When you’re the smartest person in the room, I argue you’re in the wrong room.
• When you believe that your stuff is far more worthy to be held by your own and not to be shared, you’re unworthy of the title “leader.”
• If you think that you shouldn’t be offering up your experiences and expertise to the team, to colleagues, to peers, being a mentor, sharing your knowledge, again, you’re unworthy of the title “leader.”

You have a responsibility to actually seek out knowledge and competence and intellect. You can’t be meek.

When you think about your “stay present” quotient, you believe that things are happening so fast that there’s just no time to plan. You’re addicted to back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back meetings, you don’t know how to build in “me time” into your calendars so you that you can process the data, the information, the intel and the need to get stuff done.

But equally important as a leader, when you're not staying present, you’re not there for your people. Meaning, in a one-on-one meeting, how often does that leader get distracted because the phone buzzes and they think that that call is more important than that meeting they’re in?

My urging and yearning of leaders is to remember how important it is to be there, marinating in the moment, with either the team member or the team meeting itself, and that being “on” all the time is a ludicrous strategy.

Links and Resources

Connect with Dan: LinkedIn

https://www.danpontefract.com/

http://leadcarewin.com/

Lead. Care. Win.: How to Become a Leader Who Matters by Dan Pontefract

Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization by Dan Pontefract

The Purpose Effect: Building Meaning In Yourself, Your role, and Your Organization by Dan Pontefract

Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively and Make Better Decisions by Dan Pontefract

“Looking back at it now, there’s a time and place to be aggressive, but it often makes sense to slow down a little bit.” – Doug Hart

Today my guest is Douglas Hart, Vice President International at Terminix and President, ServiceMaster Canada. I enjoyed Doug's straight-shooting approach and practical nature. No leadership platitudes here, just real-world advice from a leader in the trenches.

Doug and I go back many moons, having competed in various tennis tournaments as kids.  Was great to hear about his career and catch up after 25+ years.  The power of podcasting!

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How slowing down can help you accelerate your long-term performance as a new leader,
- Why changing your leadership style may not be the right move in a crisis,
- What approach worked effectively for Doug this year, and how you can leverage it,
- What surprised him most about 2020 so far...
- and a lot more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Move towards the same vision

I went from being a marketer to hiring 14 people from different disciplines. It was my first experience in leading teams. I didn’t have a ton of experience in some of their functional areas, but I definitely discovered early on that you have to trust people in their ability to do their functional position, provided I’m guiding and coaching, but to get everybody aligned to the same objective and the same vision – I think that’s critical. That’s probably the first real lesson I learned in leadership.

Slow down a little bit

When you’re a young and ambitious leader and you’re highly motivated, you want results, one of the things you can do is sometimes not include people the way that you should.

I had opportunities to leverage more functional expertise and peple with more experience than me, and in fear of slowing me down in terms of trying to find consensus, I potentially at times did not seek that alignment and just went forward.

Looking back at it now, there’s a time and place to be aggressive, but it often makes sense to slow down a little bit. You’ll still get there, you’ll still be highly successful, but bring in all those resources and get alignment – you’ll be much better off for it in the long run.

I’m of the feeling that I think there’s been learnings here that not everybody needs to go to the office every day, for full business hours. I think that’s not a necessity any longer. We are likely going to move to a hybrid solution where we will actually move to a smaller office footprint and figure out how that looks like. We will also give people flexibility to work from home.

I don’t think my leadership style has really changed, but I do enjoy and I do miss having at least some degree of working together in person. Some of these water cooler conversations, or just bantering around the office – those build relationships.

Post-pandemic, we’re going to have a new hybrid. It’s going to be somewhere in between the old and the new.

Links and Resources

Connect with Doug: LinkedIn

The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer

Doug’s Productivity Tip: Keep your schedule structured and do some physical activity 3-4x per week.

“One of my taglines is human-focused business strategy because I truly believe that humans are the core of every business, and we have to remember that.” – Céline Williams

As a leader in 2020, you were hit with the pandemic gut punch in April. And depending upon where you are in the world right now, the second wave of Covid is already underway or expected.

In today's episode we talk with Culture Strategist and Executive Coach Céline Williams about leading through the rest of 2020.  Celine is the founder of Revisionary, a consulting firm focused on leadership, culture, and strategy. 

In this episode you'll learn:

- What has worked effectively this year when leading remotely
- What hasn't worked about remote leadership (and why)
- 4 simple ways leaders can re-adjust their approach for the second wave of Covid (and how to make those changes stick)
- Why productivity tools and apps aren't all they're cracked up to be...and more!

If you find this episode valuable, please subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Talk about your (second wave) remote work plan NOW

There’s a lot of really temporary, band-aid solutions that are happening that are not sustainable, especially if we don’t know how long the second wave is and especially if you care about your people being happy and healthy and having a good employee experience, team experience, culture experience.

The first thing I would say is, everyone needs to be taking a look at how cobbled together their remote plan is. For a lot of companies, and for a lot of teams inside certain companies, this remote work plan is not a plan. It was a “We are all working from home starting Monday” – full stop.

That’s not a remote work plan. When you are actually implementing a remote work plan, it’s a 6-12 month plan to get everything lined up from technology to hardware, to ways of working, the new rules around meetings, to how we communicate. All of that stuff, in an ideal situation, is 6-12 months of planning. People had less than a week. It’s crazy!

I want to acknowledge that I recognize that everyone is doing their best inside these circumstances, and that is phenomenal, and people are doing as well as they can.

If you are leading a team that was thrown into remote work without that plan, and is still either fully, half, partly doing that, the more planning you can do for the second wave, the more you can start to have conversations around what people really need, what their experiences have been, what has or hasn’t worked for them.

The earlier you can start to have that [conversation], i.e., now, the more successful the second wave of remote work is going to look for your team and your company.

Be open to other people’s remote work experiences

I think the thing that as worked well consistently when people have done it is really not assuming that your experience is everyone’s experience, and asking questions and being very open to other people’s experiences.

I have seen lots of leaders who have made assumptions that because they are having a specific experience – their kids are older, or they don’t have kids, they have a home office that’s set up separately – they assume that “This working from home is easy! This is great! I don’t have to commute!”

That is not the experience of all of your people, and when we assume that, you are doing them a disservice because you are not acknowledging their experience and you are not creating a safe environment for them to share their experience.

One of the things that has not worked well is, people have not changed the type or number or quality of their meetings and just moved them on to Zoom. That is a massive failure.

When we are working remotely, we have to change the type of meetings we’re having, we have to put a different structure around them. I know executives who literally spent 8 straight hours a day on Zoom meetings for the first part of this pandemic, because that’s just what their schedule had.

I think the starting point for all of it is evaluating the types of meetings that people are having – are these the best use of our time right now?

Links and Resources

Connect with Céline: LinkedIn

[email protected]

http://revisionary.ca/

Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni

The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John C. Maxwell

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

Productivity TIP: Find the type of music that, when you’re working, doesn’t draw your attention away from the work that you’re doing.