You can be interested and be an eager listener to what your team is passionate about, but never cross the line to pretending you care about something you don\u2019t. I can attentively listen to my team members tell me eagerly about their favorite sports team, their kids, or a hobby, but I never<\/em> fake that I\u2019m also into it if I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason for this should be obvious: If you fake it, and they find out, your relationship is burned. They will no longer like nor trust you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 \u27a1\ufe0f Did a friend forward this to you? <\/strong>Get every issue straight to your inbox by signing up here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: <\/em>This is a preview of our weekly leadership newsletter, Lighthouse Leadership Weekly (LLW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get this sent to your inbox every week, along with our latest long form essays on this blog, you can sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI use a trick with co-workers when we\u2019re trying to decide<\/em><\/strong> where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. <\/em>I recommend McDonald\u2019s.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can\u2019t possibly go to McDonald\u2019s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic!\u201d <\/em>- Jon Bell in this Medium post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Actually, it can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was reminded of this working with my team on a project this week. I made a suggestion that turned out to be pretty off upon further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, something magical happened when I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone was happy to tell me why it was wrong, and within 24 hours we had a fantastic solution we had otherwise been struggling to pull together over the prior week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It reminded me of this McDonald\u2019s story<\/a> I read many years ago, and I knew I wanted to share it with you here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting started is often the hardest thing. A close second is knowing exactly what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, bad ideas solve both of those problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you are staring at a blank screen, writing anything, even a horrible first draft can be all you need to get going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, when you\u2019re struggling to come up with an idea or gain clarity on what you want, bad ideas can help, too. As Bell wrote later in his post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s as if we\u2019ve broken the ice with the worst possible idea, and <\/em>now that the discussion has started, people suddenly get very creative<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em> The power of bad ideas is that it can help give shape to what a good idea should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take McDonald\u2019s literally. You\u2019re trying to decide where to go for lunch as a team. Any of these could be reasons people dislike the idea of going to the golden arches:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, if you look at the list of reasons why, you can see that following each of them would lead to eating at a different place. It also would potentially lead to a different way of solving the problem (a map for a closer place, different Yelp searches for some of the others, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n While anyone could suggest McDonald\u2019s-like ideas when a group is having a hard time deciding (or starting), as a leader, you are in the best position to be the one to say it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So next time your team is stuck on a project, think of a bad idea or solution. Suggest that and see how it gets your team talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know Gallup for their famous \u201cEmployee Engagement\u201d statistic they\u2019ve been tracking for decades, but there are many other numbers they track as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And one of them is whether people feel like they\u2019re \u201cthriving\u201d or \u201cstruggling\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see, things were pretty steady from 2009 - 2019, but then things started changing during the pandemic and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And unfortunately, that trend<\/a> has been in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see a steady climb in those struggling, largely at the expense of those thriving. And making matters even worse, those outright \u201csuffering\u201d is near all time highs, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of leaders get into management because they care about people. You enjoy inspiring and motivating others, and helping people reach their full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some of you also get thrust into leadership for any number of reasons that may not give you the full picture on how important caring really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking directly to those of you in the latter camp, you really do need to care about how your team is doing overall\u2026not just their performance within the confines of your office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, you can\u2019t help them with their divorce, miscarriage, sick parent or loved one, or other life challenges, but you can have empathy and a little understanding for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you can keep an eye out for ways you can potentially help them, which might just shift someone from struggling to thriving. Things I\u2019ve seen leaders do that made a big difference for someone who would count as struggling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These sort of accommodations are always hard to offer; they require some sacrifice by you and your team and should be made with great consideration and care. It\u2019s a balancing act to avoid seeming to pay favorite, not be taken advantage of, and minimize conflicts with other people\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, it\u2019s worth it, as Gallup\u2019s data shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen employees are thriving in life overall, <\/em>they miss 53% fewer days<\/em><\/strong> of work due to health issues and are <\/em>32% less likely<\/em><\/strong> to be watching for or actively <\/em>seeking new jobs.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So if you help your team members get out of a struggling situation, recognize this is what you\u2019re unlocking; showing up much more consistently at work, and retaining them for the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can tell you from experience that those 6 bullets above all had great outcomes where the employees who were supported by their manager stayed loyal for years to come. And those that stuck around returned to top form in time as the personal crisis that had them struggling passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next time you see an employee may be struggling, challenge yourself to show some compassion. Try to understand why they\u2019re struggling and then consider if, and how you may be able to help them. You may be surprised by the rebound benefit you get, and how good you\u2019ll feel helping another human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you investing in yourself? Have you grown as a leader in 2024?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the answer is no, or you want to do more, then this is your sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a great Cyber Monday deal<\/strong> on some of our most popular Lighthouse Lessons courses going on now<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you want to become a better coach \ud83e\udde2, learn how to be more of a servant leader \ud83d\udc97, or master hybrid & remote management skills \ud83d\udcbb, we have bite size, super-actionable courses to help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right. What makes our programs work so well is that we break down the most important concepts on a topic into bite-size pieces so you can learn even with the busiest of schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each week you get one lesson you can review in 15 minutes. In every lesson, we tell you exactly<\/em> how to apply it to your team that week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this approach, you learn quickly, and then reinforce it by putting it immediately into practice with your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And best of all? You<\/strong> buy <\/strong>the course of your choosing now<\/strong><\/a>, and start in the new year<\/strong>, so no conflicts with your busy holidays and end of year workload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if you want to build new skills in the most light-weight and effective way possible, all while supporting Lighthouse to help us continue this newsletter, our blog, and other efforts, this is your chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll see throughout our many blog posts, and sometimes in this newsletter, we\u2019ll use a Dilbert comic to help make a point. They\u2019re often the perfect mix of funny and surprisingly on the nose for situations we\u2019ve all experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s also why I keep an eye out for other things Scott Adams (Dilbert\u2019s creator) does; when he stays in his lanes of expertise around persuasion\/hypnosis and workplace observation, I find I can learn some interesting things from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And recently, I saw he had a new book called, Reframe Your Brain<\/a>, which is all about persuading yourself to make it easier to change in the ways that you want to most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, he writes about how if you\u2019re having trouble stopping drinking, reframing in your mind that, \u201calcohol is poison\u201d is a great way to reinforce that and simplify ideas like \u201cI hate hangovers\u201d, \u201cI never sleep as well after drinking\u201d, and \u201cit interacts poorly with my meds\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And interestingly enough, I actually have a friend who specifically uses that phrase to explain why he quit drinking (I don\u2019t know if he got it from Adams; I haven\u2019t had a chance to ask them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyways, while a lot of the book is more focused on personal goals and development, a few of the reframes are perfect<\/em> for leaders to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So whether you just like shortcuts, or would prefer not to buy a book from him, we\u2019ve taken 5 of the best reframes for leaders and put them in a post on the Lighthouse blog this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re clever, you can probably reverse engineer how they work and then make your own, or simply enjoy these 5 and try them out for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I actually ran two polls on my LinkedIn account last week, and both had interesting results, so I thought I\u2019d share both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, I was curious how leaders were feeling right now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was great to see that more than half of the respondents were optimistic, and of those that weren\u2019t, most were mixed, not outright pessimistic, by a rate of over 2 to 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, I also asked you about using AI, which most of you are automating tasks, versus getting feedback. It was also interesting to see that none<\/em> of you who responded are using it as a coaching tool:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can also see that this had our lowest response rate of any poll in quite some time, so I think it\u2019s time to move away from some AI discussions. It seems you\u2019re growing tired of it (reply and let me know if I\u2019m wrong!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, this week, we look at a common question that is still top of mind for many leaders even years after the pandemic shifted so many of us to at least partially remote work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s dive into this week\u2019s leadership topics\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\nTable of contents:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n\ud83e\udd58 Food for Thought<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Can McDonald\u2019s help you make better decisions at work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/good-vs-bad.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBad ideas lead to good ones.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I call it the McDonald\u2019s Theory<\/em><\/strong>: people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/im-lovin-it.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nManagers are the best people to practice the McDonald\u2019s Theory.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udcf0 News & Reports for Managers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rate of thriving employees hits new low.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/life-evaluation-1024x661.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhy should you care?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Isn\u2019t that worth investing in, especially for your best people?<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udecd\ufe0f Now is Your Chance <\/strong>to Get Your Black Friday Leadership Deal<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
All you need is 15 minutes a week to become a better leader.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udcd6 Your Leadership Long Read on Reframing Your Brain<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read: 5 Powerful Ways to Reframe Your Thinking as a Leader<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\u2753 Poll of the Week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/feel-about-future.png\" "\\"\\"")
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