You know what's tragic? When a leader can't get out of their own way.
I was catching up with a friend recently and they were lamenting how their company was doing well, but might not make it.
No, it wasn't a sales or marketing or product issue. The issue was the founder. They were a total tyrant and a jerk to their employees.
And a lot of people were just about ready to throw in the towel, which would be a real shame for something so preventable.
Don't be that leader.
Listen to your team. Pay attention to areas you can improve, and do your part to try to get better or minimize any such issues.
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In today’s edition, we cover a classic lesson from Dale Carnegie, some interesting data on hybrid work challenges from Gallup, and some other great subjects:
Let’s dive in…
Table of contents:
- 🥘 Food for Thought on Praise the Classic Way
- 📰 News & Reports for Managers on Improving Hybrid Work
- 🪴 An Opportunity for You on A High-impact, Low Cost Way to Grow Your Managers
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🥘 Food for Thought
"I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism." -Charles Schwab, former executive at US Steel, and Bethlehem Steel Company.
As I re-read this month's Book of the Month, How to Win Friends and Influence People, I'm reminded of this timeless lesson: praise and positivity makes a big difference with your team.
The truth is, we could all use to be more positive and praise a bit more.
And if you did, I think you'd find it makes a big difference on your team.
Schwab believed in it so much he remarked, "I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among me people, the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in person is by appreciation and encouragement."
Praise your people!
It doesn't take a lot of time, but the effort you put into praise can make a big difference. It's why leaders like Schwab, Sam Walton of Walmart, Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Richard Branson of the Virgin Empire all have been quoted by us and swear by the approach.
Make it a habit.
The key is to make it a habit. And like any habit, you have to build it over time.
So what I want you to consider this week is how you can start to build that praise and positivity muscle; how can you start to make it a routine behavior for you?
Here are a few ideas you can try:
- Challenge yourself to add at least 2 positive comments to every document you review: This is a simple one I recently tried. Rather than only commenting on problems on drafts of Lighthouse blog posts, I started calling out things I really liked, too. Guess what? I've gotten more of those things.
- Share credit any time you talk about a win: You may think that a "Good job, team!" is enough when you post it in chat or a quick email, but that's a missed opportunity. Take 2 extra minutes to craft the message talking about how Indra did X really well, Tommy did Y superbly, Kayla did Z great, etc, and see how people light up seeing you noticed their contribution.
- Schedule time end of week to praise one person in detail: I learned this one from a friend who is an engineering manager. He has a habit of taking 10 minutes every Friday before he signs off for the day to choose one person he works with (whether peer or direct report) to go praise specifically and in detail. He says it's been *huge* for improving his relationships and morale.
We all know we should praise more, yet it's easy to go weeks without praising certain people on your time.
It's time to change that.
Try one of the approaches I just shared, or let me know your idea for what you would add.
Reply with your suggestion, and I'll share the best ideas I heard next week.
📰 News & Reports for Managers
📌 Most hybrid workers aren't talking about hybrid work challenges.
If you don't talk about a problem, it doesn't just go away. Typically, that means it festers and gets worse.
That's why I was really interested when I saw Gallup had a new dataset out about hybrid work. Let's take a look at some of the most interesting results:
1) Are you talking about the challenges of hybrid work? Many teams aren't.
This is the crux of the problem, which sets up the rest of the data we'll review:
"Half of hybrid workers (48%) are on a team that has not discussed an informal or formal plan for how to collaborate effectively in a hybrid environment."
You can't just start working as a hybrid team and expect everything to go smoothly. There is a reason that even before the pandemic we were writing posts about the challenges of partially remote teams. It's literally the hardest setup to manage effectively.
And the first step to improving your hybrid team is to have some real discussions about it.
2) You need to have a plan, then tell everyone your plan...
This should seem pretty basic, yet the data shows it's not happening.
The good news is, simply having a plan for working together in a hybrid environment has many benefits according to Gallup:
- "2.2 times as likely to say their organization’s hybrid policy has an extremely positive impact on their team’s collaboration
- 66% more likely to be engaged at work
- 29% less likely to be burned out"
Should it really be surprising though?
Miscommunication, difficulty getting things done, or being a remote employee left out, are all good reasons to be frustrated at work, and puts you on a path to be disengaged and potentially eventually burned out.
But what really caught my eye is who does and doesn't know the plan. It turns out, the problem lies squarely on the shoulders of managers and leaders:
"Individual contributors are more likely to be without a plan for hybrid collaboration (51% no plan) than their managers (46%) and leaders (39%), showing gaps in how well hybrid work is arranged throughout organizations."
Put simply, leaders are more likely to know a plan, yet a decent proportion of them aren't communicating it down the org chart clearly.
Are you doing your part?
3) Get the fundamentals right.
Gallup found that all of these helped improve team engagement, yet way too many teams aren't doing these simple, fundamental things:
Now, fortunately, only 6% are doing *none* of the above, but really, if you have a hybrid team and you're in the 33% not having regular check-ins, what are you even doing? How can you have a pulse on your team or communicate anything?
And if you don't set clear standards and guidelines, don't be surprised if your team makes up their own.
And chances are, everyone will come up with what's best for them individually, not coordinate it across your team. That then is exactly how you end up with a team that doesn't communicate well, isn't working the same hours, and is failing at being an effective hybrid team.
That list above isn't hard. How many are you doing of:
- Having frequent check-ins/1 on 1s with everyone, including more often with your remote team members?
- Setting clear guidelines for when people need to be online and available, and how to handle times you need to be offline during that time.
- Being clear about when work from home is okay and when it's not, and when you need everyone together for a specific purpose.
It's kind of amazing to see that Gallup is showing so many people are missing these basics, but this should either remind you how low the bar is to be a good manager, or give you a swift kick to get back to the fundamentals.
4) Talk about the elephant in the room! It's not going away...
Once you have a basic plan that you've clearly communicated to your team, the next step is iteration.
No plan is perfect, so the best thing you can do is make it a habit to occasionally talk about it and work to improve it.
Fortunately, Gallup also surveyed to find out how often most people are talking about how hybrid work is going:
1 in 4 teams are never talking about it. I can't imagine things are going well there.
Yet, even to check in at least once a quarter is only ~1/3rd of respondents.
You don't need to talk about this every week, but it certainly makes sense to check in semi-regularly. My recommendation would be monthly if you have big problems, and if things are going relatively well, then once a quarter is probably enough.
But there is always room for improvement, so never just stop talking about it. Teams change in size, makeup, and location. And any of those shifts can turn a stable, happy team into one struggling again.
So don't get complacent, nor cocky. Remember that good leaders are always looking for improvements and checking to make sure things are still going as well as they think.
If you're managing a hybrid team, ask yourself a few questions this week:
- How clearly have you communicated your guidelines and expectations about hybrid work? What could you change or add?
- When was the last time you checked in with your team to see how they think hybrid work is going? It's probably time again.
- What problems do you notice on your team that may be related to your hybrid work setup? Check with your team to see if they agree.
🪴 An Opportunity for You on A High-impact, Low Cost Way to Grow Your Managers
Did you know if you have a group of 6 or more managers you want to train, you can take our Lighthouse Lessons programs any time you want?
That's right.
Which means if you have a subject and you really want your managers to learn about and start taking action to improve, you can do so right now.
You can choose from any of our 8 programs which cover common problem areas you'll want your managers to improve on:
- The Coach's Clinic: All about how to give feedback that improves performance and praise that motivates in a variety of situations.
- The Mindset of Great Managers: Teaching you the fundamentals of leadership. Perfect for new managers you want to start living out servant leadership behaviors.
- The Secret Habits of Senior Leaders: Giving rising managers the skills they need to grow beyond managing ICs and prepare to manage other managers well (and often a great follow-up to the Mindsets program).
- The 1 on 1 Master Class: Showing you the many ways to use your 1 on 1s to bring out your team's best and make the best use of that crucial time week after week.
- Lead from the Heart: Our course in partnership with best-selling author & leadership coach Mark C Crowley, which teaches you how to be a heart centered leader that creates top performers.
- Mastering Motivation: Based on the principles of the 10 motivators and de-motivators at work revealed by psychology researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the program helps you better motivate your team with a variety of actionable tactics.
- Remote Management for the Long Haul: Our classic program that teaches you how to get the most from your team when they're not in the same location as you.
- Mastering Managing Up: Boost your relationship with your boss with our actionable lessons that show you how to do your part to improve your most important relationship.
And best of all, when you train your managers on one of these programs, you stack all of these benefits:
- Everyone is learning Lighthouse quality level material you know and love.
- Every lesson includes easy to apply actions, so your teams start feeling the difference starting week 1.
- You also get our Group Discussion Agendas which make it easy to meet to talk about the lessons without *any* prep time by you. Just open it and choose your favorite topics and questions to have a great discussion.
- The Group Discussions then build bonds, help your managers support each other, and gives you an easy way to mentor or develop your managers.
So if you've been meaning to get around to growing and developing your managers, there's no better time and no easier way to do so then signing your group up for a Lighthouse Lesson program.
You'll also be supporting Lighthouse, so we can keep providing this newsletter free to everyone.
If you're interested in improving your managers, and one of the above topics resonated, you can learn more and sign up to discuss your questions and preferred timing here.
