On learning agility, soliciting honest feedback, and identifying talent
This is the content from the November 2022 newsletter - enjoy! And be sure to sign up for the newsletter if you enjoy this kind of content :-)
Why should your talent management strategy consider value?
This article provides some interesting 'food for thought' for leaders and organisations by challenging the traditional view of "talent" sitting at the top of the hierarchy in an organisation. It instead poses the idea that critical roles are found right through most organisations, also making a distinction between value 'creating' and value 'enabling' roles.
One of the reasons I've always liked this article is because it provides some helpful language for recognising those employees who make a HUGE difference to overall success, but are often overlooked due to their work being less visible to others. Indeed, I'm revisiting this concept at the moment with a client as we roll out a program aimed at helping leaders to support growth and development within their teams. Another key message relates to the fact that talent management and succession planning is not a "once and done" activity, but instead "must become a frequent, agile process in which the CEO and executive-leadership team participate as actively as they do in financial-investment decisions".
How can you encourage honest feedback from your team?
Here's a great article on the role that leaders need to play in creating a feedback culture within their team and organisation. More specifically, it explores five barriers that might prevent employees from sharing helpful feedback, along with some tips and strategies that leaders can employ to address these barriers. It's no secret that I'm a massive fan of the idea that leaders (and especially senior leaders) need to 'go first' when it comes to soliciting feedback. Given this, I definitely agree with the suggestions about demonstrating empathy and humility, openly calling out any potential awkwardness, and framing feedback conversations as a learning opportunity (i.e. to promote psychological safety).
My experience suggests that the final barrier of "suspicion that nothing will change as a result of the feedback" is often overlooked. Indeed, this is a complaint I've often heard over the years, and one that (in my opinion) is a critical 'make or break' factor in truly creating a feedback culture. A variation of this barrier is when leaders have in fact taken feedback on board and are trying to shift their thinking or behaviour, but haven't made this visible to others. This is a factor I often integrate into my leadership coaching and (qualitative) 360-degree feedback programs, by having leaders regularly follow up with those who were brave enough to share feedback in the first place.
Anyway, that's enough of me sharing my opinions! If you're keen to take a look, you can read the HBR article here.
How can you help a team member who is perceived as "difficult"?
While a super quick read, this might be interesting if you've ever encountered a similar problem in your team. Columnist Alison Beard answers a reader's question about handling an apparent personality 'clash' between some team members, and what to do about someone who is perceived as difficult to work with. What I like most about Beard's response is that she highlights the importance of the leader openly 'calling out' any inappropriate or disrespectful behaviours being demonstrated within the team, rather than letting these continue or writing the situation off as a personality clash that can't be solved. She also emphasises the need to provide clear and specific feedback to those involved, to clarify future expectations, and to help those individuals engaging in behavioural change.
In my experience, these situations emerge all too often and sadly, aren't addressed often enough. In many cases, this escalates to the point where teams begin to struggle due to a lack of psychological safety - and frankly, resentment towards the leader for not "doing something". I also enjoyed the examples of things you can actually say when facing situations like this.
If you think it might be helpful, you'll find it here.
How can understanding our biases strengthen Learning Agility?
I recently stumbled across this podcast episode while prepping for a lunch n' learn session on the topic of learning agility. It's a conversation about 5 'mind traps' that can limit our capacity to respond flexibly when faced with complexity or ambiguity - a constant challenge for today's leaders! As explained in the interview, these biases have all evolved as a result of some innate, human needs - to have certainty, to experience a sense of autonomy and control, and to connect with other humans. To me, many of the key insights were closely aligned with other work I love on similar topics, such as the SCARF and SAFETY models of psychological safety and Adam Grant’s work on "thinking again".
Despite the potential overlap, I really enjoy the way Garvey Berger has positioned these key ideas given her focus on helping leaders to handle complexity. I know I’ve added her Mind Traps to my reading list! You can find the interview here on Spotify, or here on Apple Podcast.
Why are employee recognition and appreciation both important?
Although a few years old now, I've always enjoyed sharing the findings from a 2019 workhuman study where respondents reported that the #1 thing they wished their managers would do more often was to show more appreciation. Years later, after collecting over 50 million data points, feeling appreciated and valued still consistently ranked as super important for their users.
Hence why I love this TEDx talk by Mike Robbins about the power of showing appreciation to others - not for what they do, but for who they are - an important distinction when thinking about recognition vs. appreciation. It's a great talk for anyone who is keen to adopt a strengths-based approach to leadership, build greater levels of psychological safety, or take the first steps in creating a feedback culture within their organisation.
I was recently reminded of this video as a result of debriefing a client after wrapping up a team strengths program, where we saw the power of appreciating others' qualities in action during our workshops! You can watch the TEDx talk here.
Do any of these listening barriers get in your way?
This month I'm sharing a resource that I often use in programs, given the critical role that listening plays in having more productive and meaningful workplace conversations. It's a little infographic outlining 10 common things that get in the way of listening, given we are all humans with busy, overthinking brains and minds!
You can download a copy here, and share this link with anyone else who might find it helpful. When sharing this I usually suggest a couple of steps to begin noticing your own listening habits. The first step involves downloading the resource and saving it somewhere handy - on your desktop, in your task list or on a Trello board (whatever works!).
Then, create some time in your diary to regularly reflect on your listening, noticing which barriers came up for you in different situations.
After you've been doing this for a while, step back and consider any broader patterns that might be emerging. Are there specific barriers that keep coming up for you? What types of situations, people, or environments seem to 'trigger' some of these automatic listening habits? Let me know if you try it out!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to share with anyone who might find these insights helpful, or who might want to sign up and join the community.
