Organizations and leaders have long sought to keep employees happy and satisfied with their workplace to increase retention and lower the costs associated with attracting, hiring, and training new employees.

In a recent article by Rinkal Choudhary, it was noted that the employee attrition rate in India skyrocketed from 6% in 2020 to 20.3% in 2022. (Further investigation shows that that number hit a high of 28% in 2022 before declining to 18% in 2023.) Those numbers would cost any leader many sleepless nights with the constant worry about how to encourage employees to stay.

In their efforts to gather essential data to determine why employees are leaving, many organizations conduct exit interviews.

Famed organizational psychologist, top-rated professor at Wharton, and best-selling author, Adam Grant, suggests we should rethink this practice and consider entry interviews to explore an ongoing relationship with newly hired employees.

“You should check in with employees periodically to ask them these questions so you know what’s going well and what’s going badly. It’s your job to invest in making this a place that they would want to stick around at,” he says.

For years, Gallup has helped organizations and managers assess the current level of employee engagement by deploying twelve key questions, half of which managers should be regularly discussing with their people:

• (1) I know what is expected of me at work.
• (4) In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good at work.
• (5) My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
• (6) There is someone at work who encourages my development.
• (7) At work, my opinions seem to count.
• (11) In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

The work we have been doing at Fierce, Inc. with leaders at organizations of all sizes around the world focuses on building ongoing connections with people through conversations. Companies, careers, and lives are transformed when we connect with others at a very deep level, recognizing that the conversation is the relationship.

Employees stay or leave, gradually then suddenly, one conversation at a time.

Employees are savvy individuals. You have to do the work – invest in your relationships with them through ongoing, robust, fierce conversations – every day. Look for meaningful ways to provide intrinsic rewards that each individual finds valuable. In the hierarchy of needs, you have to get base compensation packages right before you start looking at reward systems. The benefits of non-monetary incentives are that you can reward people almost immediately, they are memorable due to the emotional chord that they often strike, and they help with attraction and retention.

Some of the top ways to incentivize employees without money, according to an article by the Academy to Innovate HR, are to provide extra opportunities for professional and personal development and through one-on-ones. Also on the list is the reminder to ask your people what they want. The best way to do that, of course, is to have the conversation – today.

The post Employee Retention: Build Better Connections Through Conversation appeared first on Fierce.

Have you ever felt like you were being micromanaged?

Isn’t that a frustrating experience at work? I had that experience a few years ago and it particularly rankled me because I really value autonomy.

I love it when I’m given a direction and set free to go and accomplish the goal. A few years ago, I was working in some version of learning development which has been most of my career. I was feeling really accomplished and capable and had been at this organization for a while and really had some successes there.

The change that happened that led to me feeling micromanaged was a new manager, a new director of the area came in, a Vice President.

I was responsible for the learning development function within the HR function and I started to sense that he was really looking over my shoulder and micromanaging. Wanting to check all of the things that I was doing, dotting “I”‘s and crossing T’s and it just didn’t feel comfortable.

I ended up falling victim to him, I gave the power to him. In Fierce accountability, we talk about, given that all of these things are true and the fact that he was essentially micromanaging me, the question then to ask myself was, what can you do?

It took me a while to get there, if I’m honest. I did, like a lot of us do, we go into that negative spiral and I told myself stories and I believe the stories about him micromanaging. Sometimes I even talked to my colleagues who felt the same thing and then we would band together and say, oh, it’s all about him, he’s terrible, we’re right. he’s wrong.

Then finally I heard myself. I woke up, because again, the other thing that we talk about at Fierce is that our lives, our careers, our companies succeed or fail gradually than suddenly one conversation at a time.

Oftentimes it’s the missing conversation that can cause things to go haywire.

Knowing all of that, it all had been stored up in my brain and I suddenly recalled it for myself and I realized I need to have a conversation.

I tapped into another Fierce tool, which is the delegation conversations, specifically the delegation tree, that model that talks about having decision making rights at different levels, of root, trunk, branch and leaf. It’s a really simple process, I could then have the conversation with this new manager and explain how it worked. I said, here’s a list of all the things that I’m currently responsible for, here’s where I feel like I should have the rights to make some decisions without you or with you.

It enabled us to talk about all the things that I had on my plate that I was responsible for and get his input on why he had moved some things, and why he was looking a little bit closer. It also gave him an opportunity to say, you’re right, I have been looking a little bit more over your shoulder and it’s not about you, it’s about me. I’m doing that with everyone. I’m trying to learn more about how this company functions and shame on me, I should have said that to you and I apologize for that.

I really appreciated that. It shifted me. I took action, had the conversation, he was wonderful, open and it enabled us to enrich the relationship and find a path forward successfully. I shared a joke, my decision making tree is looking a lot like a stump because you’re keeping me at the trunk level and requiring me to have a conversation before I do anything.

It enabled us to lighten the spirit a little bit and also to kind of recognize that’s what happens when you pull everything back as a manager, you get that name of micromanager.

I wanted to share that with you because I know that from time to time we can feel like we’re being micromanaged and it sometimes just requires a clarity of alignment through a conversation and our decision tree, our delegation model can help to provide that.

I wish you well and hope that if you ever feel micromanaged and loss of accountability that you can think of Fierce and get ready to have that conversation and change your life and change your world.

The post How I Overcame Micromanagement appeared first on Fierce.

It’s the height of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and that means for many of us it’s vacation time. Kids are not in school, they’re home if you have kids and maybe work is slowing down or it’s you’d rather be outside doing recreational sort of things. I know there are some parts of the world, especially this year, it’s far too hot to be outside, so you might as well be in an air-conditioned area.

This time of year it’s harder, when you’re going to work, to find ways to stay motivated and continue to focus on the work in front of you. I wanted to take a few minutes and share some ideas on how to continue to keep yourself motivated, and also if you’re responsible for the work of others, to encourage others to stay motivated as well.

If you happen to ever look at my LinkedIn profile, you’ll notice that my tagline says “changing the world one conversation at a time”, and that’s the work that we do here at Fierce, and it’s what draws me here. Borrowing a term from Jane Fonda, as I approach the third act of my life, I am doing work that fuels me. I’m finally aware of what that is and have the ability to do that kind of work on a regular basis.

Motivation tends to be around every corner and under every sheet of paper and in every e-mail that I get some opportunity to do the kind of work that that fuels me. It relates also to what draws me to this work that I’ve been doing for most of my career, which is something in the human development field, so people I find are fascinating.

Don’t get me wrong, people can be incredibly frustrating as well, I don’t have to tell you that. I know that I’ve said more than once over the course of my career, if it weren’t for all these people, my life would be so much easier. I also recognize that it weren’t for if it weren’t for all these people, I may not have a job. People are incredibly fascinating as well and that’s what drives me to this work.

Finding meaning in your work is important and sometimes it’s not obvious, so look for the connection between what you do and the impact that it has on others. I’ve heard for many, many years throughout most of my life that you get what you give.

If you’re ever in a point when you’re feeling less than motivated, something less than happy, one sure way to improve your own mood is to focus on giving back to others and giving something to others. If you can find that connection in your work, that’s really the Nexus of finding the motivation and finding the connection between your purpose, it’s not always easy. Sometimes you have to look for ways to find that impact.

I for many years, quite frankly, all through my undergrad years, I put myself through school by working third shift overnight in a supermarket frying Donuts. Not incredibly obvious how that’s improving the lives of others. In fact, now with 20/20 vision, in hindsight, I recognize I may have been doing more harm than good to others and from a health perspective. Yet at the time, what fueled me was the recognition that these little sweet breakfast treats or anytime of the day treats were providing some joy to people. I would come in for my next shift each day and looked for the donut case and I’d have some great joy if it was mostly empty. That means people liked what I made and it sold out and I took some satisfaction in that and it got me through, got me through my undergrad, you know.

It’s not always obvious, you know and finding ways for yourself can be hard. As a manager, part of our role is to help the people we are responsible for, to make that connection between what fuels people on your team, what the goals are and connect that to the strategies, mission and vision of your organization. That’s part of our job. If you can do that for yourself, great, and do that for others as well. It’s a wonderful way to create that connection to help others to stay motivated.

Finally, a really big piece is some appreciation can really go a long way. You don’t have to do work that changes the lives of others. It doesn’t have to be what we all do. I think that could be exhausting and frustrating and confusing if our lives were changing all the time. Yet we do need to feel that what we do is valued and appreciated by those around us. A sincere thank you, whether it’s from the person that you report to or it’s from somebody that’s outside of your area or somebody that’s not even at work, just somebody in your life that you value and appreciate. When they say a sincere thank you and congratulations, that can really go a long way towards motivating.

I wish you well this summer, and if it’s winter because you’re in the southern hemisphere, then keep up the good work. Summer’s coming around the corner and continue to focus on what is it that fuels you, what brings you happiness and how can you share that with others and give something to others and and provide an impact for others. I think that in and of itself will continue to motivate us all to keep doing whatever it is that we do.

The post 5 Tips for Staying Motivated and Productive During the Summertime appeared first on Fierce.

When I’m thinking about improving a skill, to focus on something to be better, I often go to the definition of the skill of the word. For me, words matter, and I like to know how do others define it. When it comes to collaboration, I looked it up on the “interwebs” and found that it means to work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something. It’s that last bit that I really like to focus on if I’m looking to produce something or create something or get a different outcome.

That’s why I focus on collaboration, I like to think I know a few things, but I’m certainly not as brilliant as I am with a group of smart people around me. So with that end in mind, there are three things that I encourage you to also embed in your practice to get to those results you’re looking for. Whether it’s to produce something, to create something, or to get better results.

The first thing is to be genuinely curious

Really expand your horizons to achieve better outcomes by having a variety of ideas represented in options shared by others. When you’re doing that, think about who is not like you, and who thinks differently. In our terms, from a Fierce perspective, we often introduce a team conversation with the idea of a beach ball. Every single one of those stripes is represented by the different people that are part of your organization, that is part of your think tank, helping you to collaborate to get the outcome you’re trying to achieve.

As you’re adopting that curious mindset, focus on learning, growing, and expanding, instead of just trying to be right and that will help you to seek the outcomes that you’re trying to achieve. The other thing is to think about when you’re seeking input from others, pay attention to what they’re saying, really listen to understand. Sometimes it’s natural when you have others that provide opposing input or opposing perspectives, or something you hadn’t considered. It’s almost natural to dig in your heels and come back with why your idea is the one that you’re proposing.

Intellectually I know it makes sense, if you’re trying to collaborate, you should be open and this is one of the best ways to stay open is to focus on your listening.

Truly listen to understand…

where the other person is coming from, what are they representing, what is it they’re saying and not saying? Really appreciate the diverse perspectives that others can bring when you’re collaborating. The other advantage to listening well, so that you understand where the other person’s coming from, not just their words, but also the emotions behind them, you leave them with a powerful, uplifting emotional wake. People remember that, and they’ll want to come back and collaborate more with you in the future.

The other thing to keep in mind, to embed in your practice as you’re collaborating, is really for yourself, push those boundaries. The longer any one of us holds on to a view or a perspective, the harder it is to appreciate different ones, from a different perspective. We tend to really love our well-worn grooves because they’re easy and they require little expended thought or action, right?

Make it a practice to make yourself uncomfortable

maybe once a week, if you want to start off slower once a month. You decide where you are, but really find those things that put you on the edge of your comfort zone, because that’s where you really have to pay attention.

I had a colleague once that was an expat in Belgium, and she described how just the simple act of leaving the apartment with her spouse and forgetting the key took an entirely different amount of effort than if she had done that at alone. The need to really pay attention to the surroundings and understand where everything is. It was all new, so all of her senses were heightened.

That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about when I’m asking you to consider pushing your boundaries. Things like taking part in a group where you aren’t the expert, where you know very little about the subject to offer a perspective, maybe even taking on leading a project that’s not in your functional area, to really learn, understand and make yourself uncomfortable.

When you’re in those settings and there’s a lot of people talking, whether it’s a team meeting, group meeting, seminar that you go to, wherever you are, where other people are around. Raise your hand and ask the question that will reveal to others that you’re still learning, you don’t know it all. That’s the sort of thing that will help you to expand and to grow and to develop some new, well-worn paths for yourself.

The other thing to keep in mind if you’re pushing your boundaries is to…

Seek the unfamiliar

Where are those mouse traps in your functional area of the business that needs some reconstruction or better opportunities to get those outcomes you’re looking for? Really push comfort level, I know that sounds like a lot, it’s almost become a trite expression and yet it’s so powerful. We learn more when we are paying close attention when all of our senses are heightened, and that’s often on the fringe of where we’re comfortable.

If you’re looking to improve your collaboration skills, keep in mind embedding those 3 practices that I just mentioned. Be genuinely curious, and listen to understand what others are saying. Push your own boundaries to expand your view of the world.

Remember to close where you started. Ultimately, start with the end in mind. Why are you collaborating, what outcome is it that you’re trying to achieve, and what do you want to create and build? With that in focus and these three tips embedded in your thinking, your success is practically guaranteed.

The post 3 Ways to Improve Your Collaboration Skills appeared first on Fierce.

With the holidays behind us and a fresh, clean, New Year ahead of us, it’s probably time to take stock on the strategies that we use to achieve our outcomes. I’ve got three that I tend to use, I keep it really simple and I just want to share them with you in the event that they might be helpful to you as well.

Of course, first and foremost, set clear, measurable goals and then write down your plan on how you expect to achieve them. Make sure you’re checking to see if there are any of your skills that need some cleaning or some honing and integrate that into your plan as well.

Once you’ve set the goals and you have a plan in place, start talking with those around you and share it with them.

Your peers, boss, direct report, team, the people around you, that can provide some feedback so you can course correct along the way as necessary, or give you some encouragement to keep going to achieve your goals.

Remember to be flexible, right? There are multiple ways to achieve outcomes, give yourself some grace to take some different paths. It’s also important to really get a true sense of who you are. And that reminds me of the quote from Peter Drucker, a business expert, who said “Most people think they know themselves really well and most people are wrong”.

Even the most self aware among us need some feedback from people, some outside sources of information, to get a true sense of who we really are, so have those conversations. Establish some relationships and some with some trusted colleagues, mentors and people around you who can give you some information to get a better, truer sense of who you are.

Take some self assessments, get some information, collect some data on yourself or even use.

Consider using our app pulse by fierce, which tracks your heart rate variability so that you can get a better sense of what causes you stress throughout the course of your day, your week, your month and equipped with that information, you can take necessary steps to ensure optimal performance so you can achieve your goals as successfully as possible.

Finally, pay attention to how you integrate everything into your life in a way that brings you true joy.
Use a journal to track your energy and your emotions throughout the course of the day, your week, your month, your year.

After you do that, not only will you have a record to that you can review and adjust and course correct going forward, just the mere act of writing things down helps to slow your mind and to help you to achieve greater focus.

Now I know there are all sorts of things that can bring pressure and stress in our lives, and I’m not going to contribute to yours by telling you to have a great year. Instead, what I will do is to wish you the year that’s just right for you.

Be well.

The post Key Strategies to Start the New Year Right appeared first on Fierce.

I was doing some self reflection the other day and was struck by this notion that where I am in my career and in my life, goes way back, I can trace it back to my childhood. I was a child of the 70’s and the 80’s and watched far too much television. What I recall from that is that I was often frustrated by these shows that I watched.

There was all kinds of discord and disharmony and it all came back to communication. Person A was not clear in their communication to person B. It caused that person to behave in a certain way, which was less than desirable. Or person A chose not to communicate, not to say something, it led person B to behave in a certain way. While that’s good television and it’s keeps you coming back, it’s not good for our lives and companies that were a part of.

Good communication can be incredibly powerful to organizations and individuals alike.

The work that comes out of the Gallup organization with focusing on workplace engagement shows us the importance of creating clear expectations for people. We all want to know clearly, what’s expected of us and where we have room to bring our strengths to bear.

We can recognize companies like Cognize, out of the UK, has shown us how costly miscommunication can be. It causes rework, duplication of efforts or missed opportunities that exist in the workplace day after day. Good, powerful, strong, clear communication can help to avoid that and to minimize that.

While that can be overwhelming, because communication can be so broad to define and can feel really overwhelming. What we focus on are the conversations that each one of us has day in and day out. They’re the work of every single one of us in an organization, the workhorse of an organization like yours and like mine. They get things done. Conversations determine what’s going to happen or not going to happen based on what you’re talking about, who you’re talking with, and who shows up to the conversation.

Which then leads us to ask, as individuals…

How do I do it, how do I communicate more effectively?

Here are a handful of things that I encourage you to try to put into practice for yourself over the course of the coming days and weeks. See what impact they have on your communication and your conversations.

The first one is to be fully present from conversation to conversation. Be here, prepared to be nowhere else. Show up, get rid of your smartphone, put it out of arm’s length. Close your e-mail so that you don’t hear the ping of a new e-mail showing up in your inbox. Really be present with this person in front of you so that you can focus on the conversation and achieve the outcomes that both you and they desire.

The other thing I’d encourage you to put into practice is some curiosity. I know a lot of people are consider themselves to be very clear and straight shooters, they tell it like it is. Maybe you’ve said that before. You’ve heard others say that which I think is great.

Being able to name things without judgment is critical for all of us.

What I would ask you to consider for yourself is, why do you believe what you believe you know? How did you come to that understanding? Is there some data that you might be missing? Is there new data for you to consider that might in fact cause you to shift your view of a certain situation? Or perspective to expand your view of the information in front of you.

Getting curious and interrogating your own reality, your own view of the world, is essential and you do that in in the course of a conversation by being curious.

One more thing I’d encourage you to put into practice is paying attention to how you leave people feeling after your conversations are over. Every single one of us has, within our power, the ability to lead people with an afterglow after we’re done talking with them.

The unfortunate truth is that we can also leave an after taste, or even aftermath. I invite you to take responsibility for the emotional wake that you leave behind. You own it and pay attention to it.

While communication is broad and it can be overwhelming, it doesn’t need to be

I invite you to pay attention to the conversations you’re having with those around you. The people that are most important to you, colleagues, managers, direct reports, people at home, people that you love and that are valuable to you.

All of this can be achieved one conversation at a time. One conversation at a time, starting with the next one that’s in front of you.

The post The Power of Good Communication appeared first on Fierce.

Let’s face it, not everyone you work with is going to be your cup of tea. The same may be true about you. Regardless, there are three things that you can start doing today to combat toxic employees that you work with.

The first thing is to start with yourself. Do a self-scan, right? Ask yourself if you’re behaving in ways that other people might label as toxic. And then just like the oxygen mask that falls down on the airplane, take care of yourself before you start addressing the needs of those around you. Also ask yourself, what is it about them that leads you to label them as toxic?

How much of that is truly about them and their behavior? And how much of that is about you and just your perception of them and the fact that they just whatever, for whatever reason, they’re not your cup of tea. And then ask yourself, is their behavior a reaction to what you’ve done or maybe what you haven’t done? Especially, for example, if they’re a direct report of yours, have you set clear goals and expectations? Are you providing ongoing feedback to help them course correct or providing praise to encourage them to keep going?

That leads us to the second thing that you can do to combat toxicity in the workplace. Stay current with people. Provide feedback as much in the moment as possible, respectful of their privacy, and certainly not wanting to embarrass them. And then once you start be consistent with your feedback, even if you’re frustrated and you feel like it’s falling on deaf ears, really keep at it. Otherwise, silence is compliance, and you’re essentially telling them that what they’re doing is absolutely fine. And then, to encourage the other person to be open to feedback, model it yourself. Ask them for some feedback, right? Even if it’s hard to hear. Lean in, get curious.

Look for something in there that you can perhaps use and incorporate into your behavior. Ultimately be appreciative. Say thank you. Show them that you’re open and you are a work in progress as well. And that you can change. The third thing you can do is confront their behavior with them. For us, it’s a deeper conversation. You just take some preparation. Part of the preparation for you as you get ready to have that conversation is to shift your context. Many of us go into these confrontation conversations with the mindset of a conqueror. This is why you’re wrong. This is what you’re doing. This is bad, and you should stop, you need to change. I’m even using this as if it were bad.

We encourage people in our confrontation model to adopt an explorer’s mindset. Really get curious, start the conversation you’re prepared for, but let the other person know what their behavior looks like from your perspective, right? And within that, let them know what you may have done or what you may not have done that has contributed to their behavior. After all, if you want them to be accountable, you should start with yourself and model some accountability and then get curious with them.

Ask them what their behavior looks like from their perspective. Really listen. By the end of their time, they should feel really heard and understood. It doesn’t mean you completely buy into their perspective, but you’ve heard them and you understand what their perspective looks like. At that point, it’s time to work together and collaborate with them to chart a path forward, to recognize we can’t stay here, we can’t go backward. What’s it going to take for both of us to move forward? What have we both learned and what are we both prepared to do to get to a better place together and commit to that?

Get some commitments from them and commit to what you’re going to do and check in with each other along the way. This isn’t going to change overnight. And you might even want to set some milestones, some things that you can celebrate along the way towards this path of this ideal future state that you’ve set with each other. So those are the three things that you can start doing today. First, start with yourself. Provide feedback in the moment for deeper conversations. Confront their behavior with them, shoulder to shoulder with your explorer’s mindset. And then also know in the end.

The other thing that’s also true for you, that’s within your control is that instead of falling victim to the toxicity that exists and you’ve tried everything you feel like you can to help them to see a better path, one thing you can do is to step away. We can all choose to do that for ourselves. That may mean that you are moving into a new role or a new department or even a new organization, or if they’re on your team and they may need to find a new role, it’s a better fit for them. And so to help them down that path to a better state, that’s also within your control.

All right, we wish you well. And if there’s anything that we can do to help you and support you as you combat toxicity in the workplace, absolutely reach out at any time

The post 3 Steps to Combat Toxic Employees appeared first on Fierce.

So, we were recently working with one of our clients here at Fierce, helping them map their leadership competencies to our suite of conversation models that they offer in their organization. So, as I was thinking about that work recently, it made me wonder if there’s a way to encapsulate, in really broad terms that are easy to recall, all the tools that Fierce offers leaders at every level in every organization.

We tend to call it the anatomy of a Fierce leader, which I think actually has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Sounds like something to aspire to. Also, because I tend to think of things, strategically in large buckets and because I’ve long been a fan of three things, the simplicity of that, which nerd alert, I think comes from my undergrad years where I learned the power of the Ciceronian triplet.

There are three buckets that I’m thinking of that the Fierce leader emphasizes or embodies, there’s the self, there are others and then there’s the organization or the strategic, big picture level of things. I also tend to think in pictures or diagrams. So, imagine that there’s this series of concentric circles and they start with you at the core, the leader at the core, and then they ripple out from there. So, to begin to think about this, I invite you to do a self-assessment. What are your strengths? What are you known for, in your organization? What are your superpowers?

At the other end of the spectrum, think about those things that maybe are part of your development plan. If you’re an ever-evolving, ever-growing leader, one of those things, you’d really like to build, those underdeveloped muscles.

Among the key attributes of a Fierce leader, we tend to look at them as exhibiting high resilience in an ever-changing world.

They’ve got high integrity, they tend to be trusted, high in trustworthiness. They also tend to model compassionate accountability for those around them with, high emotional intelligence, they’re really self-aware, and they’ve got a passion for personal and team development. They’re always growing, always developing, and always working to develop those around them.

We love working with leaders at every level, to build, flex and stretch those muscles. We tend to look, at this level, for the self. The Fierce Foundation is where it all begins. We’ve also got our accountability model, which seems to support this work, to still start working with yourself, and our coaching model, to work with yourself and those around you as you’re beginning to build your muscle as a leader or strengthen your muscle as a leader. There’s also our delegation model, which, quite frankly, we tend to think of as an underutilized way to develop those around you and by the way, create some space for you to grow and develop and take on some more things.

At that next circle out, emanating from you at the core, thinking about others, your team, the people you work most closely with, your peers, and your supervisor. Think about how effective is your work with them, a Fierce leader practices, inclusiveness, and they tend to leverage diversity in all its forms. They also create psychologically safe environments that really foster risk-taking and vulnerability, both of which are essential for the resilience necessary for innovating. They tend to collaborate with others to make the best possible decisions. They don’t shy away from the big decisions, they tend to welcome them because of the way that they leverage their connections with those around them.

Many of our models support a leader’s development at this level, including Fierce resilience.

Our team model, which we tend to refer to as a beach ball model. If you imagine the beach ball, with all of those different stripes, which represent the different perspectives of all of the people in the organization, or at least on your team. That’s you, Fierce leader at that team level, and then the furthest circle out of those concentric circles emanating from you at the core, is the strategic level, the organizational level.

We found that when a leader can pull together and practice all of our conversational models, that are already at their fingertips, in their leadership toolbox. They’re fully equipped to lead change with transparency and they really are great at developing high-performing teams. They’re seen as organizational rockstars, quite frankly, who bring their company’s vision, mission, and strategy to life, in everything that they do.

If I just described you, because if I have, sincerely, congratulations on being a Fierce leader. If not, and it sounds like the kind of leader you aspire to be, please reach out. We’d love to help you get where you want to go.

The post THE ANATOMY OF A FIERCE LEADER appeared first on Fierce.

So I’ve been reading some articles lately, as I’m sure all of you have, it’s hard not to find these on a regular basis about this thing, termed the great resignation. It’s a result of this worldwide pandemic that we’ve all experienced over the past two plus years.

It makes sense, people take stock of their lives when a major event happens and wonder, “Am I Am I getting the greatest return on this investment of my time and energy?” For some people, it may cause them to leave. And it leaves behind organizations and people who wonder, where are these colleagues going. These these high performers often that have decided to go somewhere else. So what we find is; that a great antidote to the great resignation is a high performing team. Those don’t happen overnight and they don’t happen organically. Accompanied with that, there is some some data that stands out that really is striking.

Recent surveys that have been conducted show us that only 43% of employees report a positive climate within their team, less than half, and only 27% of employees say that their leader consistently encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.

Nearly seven out of 10 employees see no reason to speak up at work, either when they see something that isn’t happening quite right, or when they have an idea to help improve the performance of the team or the organization.

Coupled with that information, we’re also seeing higher level, higher reported levels of burnout, which is a result of stress, again, no surprise there, given what we’re all working through. As more and more people hand in their their notices, leaders are left scratching their heads, trying to reconfigure all of these puzzle pieces to make their their organizations and their teams work.

High performing teams, keep people in place, keep people thriving and working together.

Another key element of that is this notion of psychological safety. It’s a critical leadership component that enables and sustains those teams. Let’s talk about what I mean by high performing teams; some things that are present in a high well oiled machine, you know, teams that really thrive together. Those are led by leaders who leverage the diversity of thought and experience, that exists in their teams. That’s as teams come together, and they’re in that forming stage.

Leaders learn to appreciate and rely upon those different perspectives as they’re making their high impact decisions. Our team conversation model is designed to help leaders do just that, we refer to it as the beach ball model, because each person’s perspective is a different stripe on the ball and no single individual, in any organization has that the entire perspective. We tell leaders, if you stand here, you get a variety of different perspectives and enables you to make the best possible decision.

Another key component of a high performing team is the richness of feedback that occurs every single day, whether it’s peer to peer, individual to boss, and boss to direct report, all the way around, every single day. People stay current with each other, they provide insight. It’s hard for any one of us to have a true objective view of ourselves. We need feedback, we need our colleagues to help us stay on track, we need to help our colleagues stay on track as well. Our feedback model here Fierce, is designed to do that for colleagues and for teams in a highly efficient and very effective way.

Another component is of a high performing team is that they enrich relationships at every level as they work through conflict. Conflict is inevitable as people with with strong opinions come together to try to make the best possible decisions and to help an organization thrive. Those high performing teams are enabled by leaders who share perspectives without laying blame. And of course, the alternative that many of us have experienced, probably far too often in our careers, are leaders who avoid conflict at all costs, they prefer the nice to the kind, and they’re left again scratching their heads, wondering where all their high performance have gone as they’ve left because they’re the leaders aren’t taking care of those issues. High performers say, I’m not going to stay here, I’m gonna go someplace else where I’m truly appreciated, where I don’t have to pick up the slack of my lower performing colleagues.

Our conflict or confrontation conversation model is designed to help enrich the relationship and address the behavior of a colleague whose performance is off track. Embedded in all of that, is this notion of psychological safety, the cornerstone of any high performing team. It fuels people to take risks, and to not fear that they’ll be judged or punished, if they speak up, whether that’s to share something that they see that’s off track or to share an idea for successes, as I mentioned earlier. It also allows individuals to show some humility and to say, You know what, I don’t know everything, and I’m still learning as well.

It’s really about creating this culture of mutual respect among each other. It’s about building high levels of resilience at every level of the organization. As you look around and you’re checking your team, wondering what’s going on, noticing that that things aren’t functioning as smoothly as you’d like, and maybe you’re losing some key colleagues. Reach out, give us a call here at Fierce conversations. We’d love to have a conversation with you and see what we can do to help you to improve your conversations and your life, one conversation at a time.

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Human beings are social animals. You’ve likely had to rely on those around you many times in your life to achieve a desired outcome: a winning score, a successful project, a savvy business strategy. Now recall the best, brightest example of such a team you’ve experienced. What made it so? What qualities were in place for you to hold it in such high esteem? Cool outfits? Attractive people? Popping soundtrack? Sweet! Sounds like fun.

I’m guessing the reality is closer to open lines of communication, a common understanding of what success looks like, and mutual support and appreciation. Closer to reality? I thought so. I do like a good soundtrack, though!

High-performing teams, like highly successful individuals, need to be nurtured and developed over time; they don’t spring to life overnight.

Bruce Tuckman taught us years ago, that groups develop in stages:

1. We come together and enrich relationships (Forming)

2. Our individualities create some tension (Storming)

3. We learn from each other and develop cohesive practices to tackle common goals (Norming)

4. We start to click as a cohesive group and produce outstanding results (Performing)

This process isn’t linear

We experience false starts, get curious, dig in, and try again until we start to flow.

Some teams muddle through and experience the toxicity that, unfortunately, often results. At Fierce, we invest in people and groups every day to help them navigate the natural tension that is part of forming high-performing teams. Communication – conversation, which determines what will happen in every organization and requires us to be with each other, fiercely focused on our mutual future – is at the very foundation of this work.

We inform individuals of the power of enriching relationships (Forming), tackling tough challenges (Storming), and interrogating reality and provoking their learning (Norming) along the way to becoming high-performing teams.

Over the course of our 20+ year history of working with clients in a wide array of industries, we have leveraged our Fierce resources to empower the people who make organizations – large and small – thrive. We firmly believe that while no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a company, a relationship, or a life – any single conversation can. It’s in our DNA, and we want to share those genes with you

Reach out to learn more today!

The post What it Takes to Develop High-performing Teams in the Workplace appeared first on Fierce.