Uninspired Archives - Fierce

This is Why Career Plans are Bad for Employees

Fierce — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Organizations must prioritize professional development if they want to retain talent. It’s that clear cut and simple.

This statement was controversial 10 years ago, but thank goodness it is more accepted today. Most leaders at some level will say yes, true, we need to provide professional development.

However, what is still quite controversial is demanding leaders to have growth conversations that put employees in the driver’s seat.

Let me be clear: many leaders encourage employees to be accountable for their own development, but it is a much different ball game when leaders have employees choose to drive and step into their own development.

According to GALLUP, 87 percent of millennials and 69 percent of non-millennials rate professional or career growth and development opportunities as important to them in a job. Yet according to CEB, 70 percent of employees are dissatisfied with their company’s growth options and choices.

Here’s the thing — what’s often missing from the career path conversation is an emphasis on allowing the individual to plot their own course of growth. Asking the right questions. Creating pre-planned paths for development can be beneficial for sparking ideas and providing options.

But, it’s important that the individual’s vision for themselves be the primary driver behind the plan.

Here’s a great example: I will never forget at our 2017 Fierce Summit, Brian Canlis, special guest and owner of Canlis restaurant, shared what he asks candidates during the interview process:

“How would being an employee at Canlis help you become the person you want to be?”

This question shifts the context of growth to where it becomes driven by the individual and their vision of who they want to become, rather than what they want to become. The who refers to the human being behind the work. And the answer is different for everyone.

How to Shift Your Growth Context

To some extent, integrating a self-driven approach will require organizations to redefine what growth means because it can be interpreted differently to others.

For example, growth isn’t always about promotions or gaining more knowledge in a particular area. Asking the question “who do you want to be?” is going to elicit a lot of varying responses.

A potential reality we need to keep in mind as leaders in the development conversation is that those we’re coaching may not know where they’re going or who they want to be.

When encouraging them to plot their own growth, some employees will know exactly who they want to become, while some will only have a vague idea. And others won’t have a clue.

Sample growth paths can be helpful in this area by providing a possible avenue. If employees don’t have a clue, sharing so different paths and explorations can be the biggest gift of all.

As leaders, we need to meet employees where they are. Providing sample growth paths that increase skills and accountability over time is important.

However, it is dangerous to assume that if individuals are provided with the right tools, that they will somehow follow specific paths. Exit interviews often reveal these types of disconnects.

A great example is a conversation I had recently with a young executive leader at a Fortune 500 company. He shared with me that he felt he had been given every development opportunity and resource to get to the next level of his career. That’s great, right?

Enthusiastically, I asked him how he felt about it all. To my surprise, he told me that he wasn’t sure the level his company wants him to attain is what he actually desires.

Worse yet, he said he feels his leaders aren’t responding to what he wants to build at the company, and instead he said they talk like “I owe them something” because an investment has been made in him. Woah. Talk about a disconnect.

In plotting a course of growth, plans obviously need to be intentional or they will fail. However, sample growth plans run the risk of being too prescriptive if we become attached to them.

People don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s important for organizations to walk the line of providing potential growth paths and being open to alternative paths that will naturally unfold when the individual is made an agent of their own growth.

Overly-prescriptive pathing is also a hindrance for organizations that want to be more innovative — it doesn’t work for people, and it doesn’t work for business.

One way to encourage employees to be an agent of their own development is to have them look for areas of opportunity that will help organizations be more agile. Too often the people deciding what that path is for business aren’t as close to the front lines of the problems, and these people need to be seeking the perspectives of those who actually are.

The front lines may be able to forecast job positions that aren’t needed now but may be needed in three to four years to come. Being aware of this potential need could provide additional growth options.

How Leaders Can Support a Self-Driven Path

Okay, so if I still have your attention, the natural progression is to ask: How do I shift the organizational mindset? I’d start with all people leaders. They need to be asking their teams:

“In what ways do you want to grow, and how can we fit that into the needs of the business?”

An important part of creating a growth plan is having a real, authentic conversation with yourself. Writing a stump speech is a great way to do this. Have your team members answer the following questions for themselves:

Where are you going?
Why are you going there?
Who is going with you?
How are you going to get there?

Keep in mind that not everyone will have an answer to these questions, and you must communicate upfront that it’s perfectly fine to not know. The main benefit of posing these questions is to ignite their thinking around growth and begin exploring possibilities together.

Whether an individual is certain or uncertain about the direction they want to go, having the right growth conversations will stimulate thinking and set their development on a positive trajectory.

One of the best ways to facilitate growth is to ask, “In what areas would you like to gain new responsibilities or grow your skills?” Then begin delegating new tasks in these areas.

Skillful DELEGATION is, in essence, a growth conversation. With this approach, newly-assigned decision-making opportunities become exciting and can potentially create more clarity in an individual’s growth plan.

It’s important for leaders to avoid dele-dumping, an ineffective delegation style where leaders assign tasks without consulting their team members. Dele-dumping often leads to stress instead of growth.

Another immediate way to support employees on their path of growth is to take an ongoing approach to FEEDBACK. When an employee is successful, acknowledge them right then and there so they can gain more awareness of the areas where they excel.

When things aren’t going so well, explore what they are seeing so they have an early opportunity to respond and learn. If feedback conversations are saved for bi-annual or annual reviews, employees completely miss out on daily opportunities for growth.

A core idea that we need to carry with us and integrate into growth conversations is that our success relies on others. It benefits others when you let them know the potential you see in them, and it can give people ideas and help them see what they may not see.

I know my personal growth is a direct result of all of the amazing people I have had the privilege to work within my career. I feel grateful for people seeing things in me and saying, “I think you would be great at XYZ.”

Although I’m accountable for my own growth, I’m inherently limited by my own perspective. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for the perspectives of others and their willingness to communicate what they saw in me.

Take your own growth into your hands, and help others do the same.

Tags: #Confused Priorities, #Rigid Thinking, #Uninspired

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The Best Way to Manage Difficult Conversations at Work

Fierce — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 08:00:00 +0000

The start of a new year (not to mention a new decade) often comes with a new set of resolutions and meaningful changes we want to make in our lives, both at work and at home.

When we try to put our intentions into action, we are often met with a universal barrier: fear.

We all experience fear to some degree. It doesn’t always manifest as sweaty palms, timidity, or heart palpitations, either. Sometimes the presence of fear is subtle and sneaky, finding its way into areas of your life where it often goes unnoticed.

We may not attribute certain things to fear, but if you’ve ever found yourself micro-managing other people, dominating a conversation, or lashing out at drivers on the road, fear might be the culprit.

At Fierce, we know fear well. Our leadership training programs are aimed at values and concepts that require a certain degree of bravery to fulfill, including initiating difficult conversations and overcoming the sometimes painful yet common obstacles to success that arise in the workplace.

What we’ve seen time and time again is this: In order to achieve positive, lasting results, fear must first be confronted.

The presence of fear isn’t an issue in itself, and you don’t even have to get rid of it. In fact, you can learn to operate despite fear. However, without investigating it more closely, fear can begin to operate outside of your awareness by showing up as inhibitions that prevent you from experiencing what life could be.

Fear is worthy of a closer look because it plays a causal role in the life you are automatically leading versus the life you’d like to be intentionally creating.

Psychology Today details how surface-level fears boil down to five main core fears that we all share:

Extinction (death)
Mutilation (dismemberment)
Loss of Autonomy (loss of freedom or control)
Separation (rejection, abandonment)
Ego-death (loss of identity)

As a brain exercise, let’s reverse these “don’t-wants” into “wants”:

1. We want to live life to the fullest.
2. We want to be healthy.
3. We want freedom.
4. We want to connect with others.
5. We want to know who we are.

If fear is getting in the way, it’s generally because we’re focused on what we don’t want and what we’re afraid of rather than what we do want.

One effective approach to exposing your own fear is to visualize how things would be different in the best-case scenario. Envision what your environment, your relationships, and your professional achievements would look like in full bloom.

Then, ask yourself:

What conversations have you been avoiding with colleagues? What personal perspectives or concerns are you harboring that have yet to be expressed?

What have you been telling yourself and others that you’d like to do but have yet to take on?

What’s something you’d like to see become reality but have “practical” reasons as to why you can’t follow through?

If you can answer the what aspect of these questions, fear is likely present.

So, what is the cure — the antidote — the alternative?

It’s simple: taking action. Taking action isn’t just a Pollyanna “you can do it” type of platitude — it’s backed by neuroscientific research. A New York Times article on rewriting traumatic memories explains how positive exposure to a feared scenario can lessen fear related to that scenario over time.

It may sound like a daunting task to confront fear, but the objective is not to get rid of fear altogether. Instead, it’s to become aware of it and take action in opposition to it.

Fortunately, baby steps suffice. You may not have that difficult conversation right off the bat, but you can begin planning and preparing for the eventual confrontation.

If you feel reluctant to act, dig a little deeper: if you were to begin taking positive action, what would be the worst-case scenario that could result? What or whom might you lose, and why?

The answer to this question may help you pinpoint the core fear. The greater our awareness of the core fear, the less likely we will be to cave under its weight and give into its well-meaning but often unnecessary warnings.

If you know what you want this year and are committed to following through, ask yourself: What conversations do you need to have to ensure success?

As we all know, actually having the conversation is harder than planning to have it. The good news is there are ways to learn how to have those conversations by taking advantage of training tools, such as webinars and workshops.

Be fierce and begin the process of confronting fear by taking an action today, whether it be big or small, towards what you envision.

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Tags: #Creative Block, #Negative Thinking, #Uninspired

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How to Make Learning Stick & Get the Most Out of Your Leadership Training

Beth Wagner — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If you are a leadership trainer — or a leader committed to your team’s development — you have probably asked yourself this same question at least a few times over the years: will this training actually work?

You’ve spent weeks or months researching or building just the right training program, you’ve delivered a stellar event, and you’ve left participants energized and raving about their experience.

But, there’s still that nagging concern, like a pebble in your shoe, poking holes at your success. Did they learn what I needed them to learn? And more importantly, will they do something with it?

There is little doubt that leadership training is an extraordinarily powerful tool for organizations looking to enable their employees to grow into the best, most productive versions of themselves.

That said, training isn’t something easily executed or maintained if you don’t have just the right components in place. It requires the best programs, employee buy-in, leadership support and the right tools to sustain the learning.

That last part — the right tools to sustain the learning — is something most organizations either overlook or struggle to provide for their learners.

It is one of the most common questions I get from leadership trainers all around the globe, “How do I make this training stick?”

To answer this question, we need to first acknowledge an important, yet frustrating fact: what worked for us in the past does not necessarily work for us now.

Think about it this way: how much of your childhood schooling do you actually remember?

If I were to test you on things you learned in high school history class (the American Civil War or the colonization of America for instance) how would you do? My bet is, not great.

I took 4 years of French in high school. You’d think 4 full years of conjugating French verbs and learning French sentence structure would mean I’ve got this for life, right? Wrong!

My poor French teacher, Mr. Regelbrugge, would be so disappointed in me. Day after day of studying, and I’m no better now than I was the first day I walked into his classroom.

Why is this?

As kids, we are asked to drink from a firehose of information. We are taught that if we take copious notes, read that chapter over and over and over to ourselves, or put it on flashcards, it will magically stick…for good! Not quite.

The reality is that most of the methods we’ve been taught for learning are not very effective. In their book MAKE IT STICK, Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III, and Mark McDaniel discuss two of these strategies that are often used but fail to promote long-term, deeper learning:

1. Massed practice. This is basically cramming for a test the night before. Repetition over and over again.

2. Re-reading of text. Going back over the text you’ve already covered, hoping to retain it, highlighting, underlining, reading out loud, etc.

Raise your hand if these are things you have done, still do, or encourage your learners to do! If your hand is up, don’t fret, you’re in good company. We have been taught these approaches to learning from a young age. So then, what’s the problem?

These methods are time intensive. They don’t result in durable, long-term learning, and they can create the illusion of mastery, while not actually mastering anything at all.

Mastery implies that not only do we know the concepts, but we also understand them at a deeper, more behavioral level. These methods simply produce rote memorization, not much more. (Thus, my failure in French fluency. Darn!)

So why do we use these methods so often if they’re not effective?

Because they do work…in the short term. Cramming the night before may help us retain information long enough to walk into class the next morning and regurgitate the facts on a piece of paper, or color in the correct bubble in that multiple-choice question.

It helps us test well, but it doesn’t help us sustain learning long-term.

So, if all the learning methods we have been taught isn’t actually helping us learn, what will? According to Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, the main takeaway if you want to achieve mastery in new information is:

The right amount of effort.

Minimal effort leads to minimal “stickiness”

In corporate America we have been lulled into believing that if we just schedule the workshop or the skills-training event, we’ve done our job.

Participants will show up, learn a few things, leave, and suddenly behavior will change! But it rarely works that way.

We need to see true learning as a continuous process, not something that starts and ends in the classroom. Think of it this way, the classroom is where new concepts are conceived…AFTER class is where true learning begins. The effort needs to continue long after class is over.

Increased effort increases adaptation

Mastering a skill is like building any other muscle. One strength training session at the gym is not going to give you rock hard abs for life. (I know, I wish it worked that way too.)

You need to apply consistent effort and allow those muscles to build over time. The brain is no different — forming new pathways in the brain requires effort. If we want to deepen our learning, we need to consider something called “neuroplasticity” or the muscle building part of our brains.

The more effort and time we spend on something, we become stronger at it, the less effort, it fades away. New pathways are formed through practice and effort.

So, while it would be nice if we could see instant results, the reality is we need to put in the sweat equity. That’s how it works.

That said, how can we approach learning in a way that will produce better results?

Here are a few strategies we should focus on from Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel:

Spaced. Spaced is the opposite of cramming. When we take in new information in increments, spaced out over time, it’s steadily reinforced and we’re more likely to remember it in the long term. A few things you can do to create “spaced” learning in your classroom:

Break up the learning. Are you trying to fit everything into a 9-hour day? If so, you may be doing more harm than good. At the very least you are throwing your resourced money down the drain. It isn’t serving your participants. What if you were to break up the learning into 3, 3-hour sessions over the course of 3 or 4 weeks? Again, promoting that steady reinforcement over time.
Start the learning process BEFORE the event. Consider sending out primers in advance. Share an article or two on the topic, ask your participants a few reflective questions to get them thinking about what they will be learning. We know it is important to warm up our muscles before using them at the gym, help your participants do the same for their brains. Provide “space” before the event for participants to “stretch.”

Reflection. Reflection is defined as “serious thought or consideration”. Once you’ve taken in and/or applied new information or new skills, it is important to reflect on the meaning and look for connections between what you learned and what you were able to do or solve with it.

Francesca Gino, a researcher at Harvard, did an interesting study a few years back titled “The Power of Reflection.” Through this study Gino and her team found those who took time to reflect on their performance/behavior outperformed those who did not by 20 to 25 percent. Reflection is a powerful learning and performance tool!

Distillation. Taking away what matters most. For the great majority of us, we can’t possibly remember every single word we read in a book. Distilling involves focusing your learning efforts on the concepts you’ve decided are most important for you.

As a trainer, allow participants to think about, discuss, and write down the concepts and ideas that matter most to them.

To do this, you may need to provide more instruction than simply “take some notes”. Ask questions like “Of these 5 data points, which one leaps off the page for you? Why that one?” Or, which of the 3 strategies discussed today resonates with you the most? Why? How can you leverage that strategy more when you leave here?

The more strongly something resonates personally with participants, the more likely it is to stick long-term.

In the end, the effectiveness of your learning strategies can make or break the effectiveness of your training initiatives.

If you want to grow as a team or organization, the actual strategies used during the learning process are critical.

Here are some action items you and your team can apply to keep the conversations going long after the workshop has ended:

1. Create a post-training plan. Be deliberate. Incorporate processes intended to reinforce behavior and create new structures around the material that become “action triggers.” This could include something as simple as creating a list of daily questions for yourself accompanied by a goal, why the goal is important, and how you can focus on effort rather than the outcome itself. Post this where you can see it.

2. Find the right resources. Find an accountability buddy to talk about what you’re learning and who can offer support when you run into challenges. Encourage leaders to be available to their teams as a resource and coach post-training.

3. “Study” appropriately. Implement practices such as spacing and distillation and provide options for your team. Commit to reflection – what went well? What could you do better next time?

Not all learning is created equal. The methods you apply will make all the difference in whether you, your team, and your organization are able to shift behavior, understand new material at a deep level, and achieve mastery.

LOOKING TO CREATE A HEALTHY, LOW-STRESS WORKPLACE?

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Tags: #Inadequate Training, #Rigid Thinking, #Uninspired

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How to Train Employees to Thrive in a Multigenerational Workplace

Fierce — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Millennials now make up more than half of the current workforce.

Sadly, despite this data, they bear a wave of criticism in the news, via social media and in the workplace. This uptick in critique can, at least in part, be explained by the simple reality that millennials (and generations even younger) are mixing and mingling with individuals from previous generations like never before.

This seems like it would be a good thing, yes? So what’s the problem?

Older generations are often stumped as to how to accommodate and deal with the supposed millennial mentality. Simultaneously, millennials feel frustrated, marginalized and unappreciated by their employers, even older co-workers who are seemingly stuck in their ways and less-than open to new ideas.

In her book, The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation, Caitlin Fisher says, “Generations before us completely drove the bus into a lake and it’s somehow our fault everybody’s drowning…the millennial generation has been tasked with fixing the broken system we inherited and chastised for not doing it right or for daring to suggest improvements.”

Ouch!

Simon Sinek, in his viral video on the difficulty of managing millennials in the workplace, says that millennials are perceived as lazy and entitled. He stresses though, that their desire for meaningful work combined with their innovative mindset can be a genuine benefit.

He argues that the millennial mentality has been largely influenced by unfortunate environmental factors outside of their control — including poor leadership and failed parenting. He advises corporations to make structural changes that nurture rather than alienate the younger workforce.

I could not agree more.

I’ll admit that I’m a Baby Boomer. I was promoted into my current role as SVP of Learning for Fierce Conversation just after my boss (a Millenial) was promoted into hers.

I will also admit that I had my concerns. Not about her ability, but about mine! What will it be like to work for (and with) someone who is so much younger than me? Will I be able to keep up? Will my ideas or even style of leadership mesh with hers? How will I handle her direction or critique, given that she’s closer to the age of my daughters than my own?

I can gratefully report that I have learned and grown — in exponential and surprising ways — because of her. She sees the world (and the workplace) differently than me. She steps forward in ways I wouldn’t have dared when I was her age. She speaks with a level of certainty and self-belief that I have now but certainly did not a couple of decades ago. She is impressive, strong, creative, compassionate, and quite amazing. And I am better because of it, because of her.

Had either she or I held the mindset of “I’m right and she’s wrong” because we belong to different generations, none of this would have been possible. Instead, in working side-by-side, recognizing each other’s differences and strengths (and honoring such!), we have been able to create a partnership that is stronger, better, and far more comprehensive than would otherwise have been possible.

It’s a far better and wiser choice to work with rather than against the individuals in our work environment, regardless of age. The “one of us is right and the other is wrong” mentality doesn’t get us anywhere and certainly will not merit the positive results we’re trying to produce.

In short, no matter which generation you identify with, there are ways you can take the first step, step up, and improve (if not enjoy) effective working relationships between the generations of your employees:

1. Encourage harnessing creative vision.

In all endeavors, there is a gap between where current and future reality, between where we are now and where we want to go.

Millennials feel the impact of this gap in acute ways: they want to take action and have ideas as to how! Leverage this passion and creativity by training employees to invite their perspective. Teach them to start the conversations that allow younger generations to share their vision of the future and the ideas they have that will potentially change the course of organizational decisions.

2. Teach leadership to welcome ideas for improving company culture.

A desirable workplace culture boosts company reputation as well as recruiting and retention efforts. Because millennials tip the scales of our workforce population, their input is crucial to creating the kind of environment that attracts and retains their peers. Train your employees to take actionable steps to gather their ideas:

Implement a suggestion box.
Appoint a culture committee with millennial members.
Hold company-wide meetings that allow open invitation to share ideas.
Send out surveys or feedback forms prior to and following social company events.

Be curious. Be open. Be willing to learn.

3. Promote meeting the desire for instant gratification.

Wanting results now rather than later is often associated with a millennial mindset. What if that’s an asset, rather than a detriment? Encourage employees to leverage this way of thinking and being by delegating responsibilities that invite the younger generation to develop efficient processes.

The millennial “need for speed” can enable increased productivity, reduced spending, improved technology and faster results. Promote asking questions such as:

What technology is available that we aren’t using that could potentially improve our process?
Is there a way we could make a specific process faster or more efficient?
What are some benchmark goals we can set for the very near future?

A note to those of you who aren’t a Baby Boomer like me: make your passion and creativity known! Don’t wait to be asked. Be proactive. Articulate your vision. Risk offering your solutions.

It may not always be received or implemented, but your willingness to offer your perspective — and potential solutions — helps you develop and grow! And….we need you! Your ideas. Your brilliance. Your heart.

This is an amazing time: four distinct generations exist in the workplace simultaneously.

Every one of them — and every one of us — are best served by being curious about and focusing on strengths, benefits, and distinct gifts. We need to teach all employees to be aware of (and then let go of) blanket statements and beliefs that create division.

At the end of the day, relationships are what matter. And those relationships are always served by curiosity, openness, and appreciation.

ALIGN VALUES AND BEHAVIORS IN YOUR COMPANY

Start by building an inclusive workplace culture

Find out how

Tags: #Cultural Change, #Generation Gap, #Uninspired

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6 Ways to Encourage Employee Development at Your Company

Fierce — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Is your organization actively fostering happiness amongst its employees? Better yet, does it even matter if employees are happy or not? Spoiler alert — it definitely does.

Gallup reports that between 55 and 80 percent of employees believe it’s normal to see work as something to be endured, not enjoyed, while according to Forbes, happy employees are up to 20 percent more productive than unhappy employees.

Imagine one of your employees jamming out on a guitar, lifting weights at the gym, or reading a textbook.

You may not make an immediate connection between these behaviors and revenue or results, but can these types of activities influence your bottom line? You bet they can, and it all comes down to encouraging personal development.

Imagine your employees coming into work each day feeling more rested, more accomplished, and that their employer truly cares about them. When employees know you care about their growth, they respond. It builds trust, commitment, and a host of other benefits that impact the bottom line.

Let’s break it down. Here are some big benefits your organization stands to gain by supporting employee personal development:

Retention. The average length of time employees spend at an organization is 4.6 years, while millennials stay with companies even less at an average rate of 3.2 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That kind of turnover gets expensive quickly.

Employees want to be part of an organization that facilitates their growth, and if it doesn’t, they’re likely to leave and take their talents elsewhere. A Better Buys survey found that retention rates are 34 percent higher for employees with access to development opportunities.

Engagement. When people feel their circumstances align with their values (such as growth), they are happier and more engaged because they feel valued and inspired by a sense of meaning. Tom Path, author of “Are You Fully Charged” says “the odds of being completely engaged in your job increases by 250 percent if you work on meaningful projects each day.”

Pursuing interests and goals related to learning, regardless of what they are, is individually nurturing and often builds skills that are translatable to the workplace. That employee jamming out on a guitar from earlier? Think about the stress they will blow off (and not bring to the office) while playing an instrument that they are passionate about, or the discipline and time management skills they’ll take back to the workplace from mastering their instrument.

Culture. Personal development supports a growth mindset and growth-oriented culture, not to mention creativity and innovation. Here are Fierce, we strongly believe you are the culture and it does not exist outside of you — as people develop and grow, your workplace culture will, too.

So, how can you provide development opportunities to your employees?

1. Offer personal development funds

Personal development funds allow employees to spend an allotted amount of money on any type of activity they choose. This could include anything from a music class to a pottery class or even a gym membership.

2. Allow flex time

If an employee is taking on-campuses courses or pursuing an interest that falls inside normal work hours, consider offering flex time. Flex time requires employees to work a set number of hours but during days and times that function with their pursuits outside of work. Accountability is needed here —give trust and hold your employees “able.”

3. Offer tuition reimbursement

Tuition reimbursement is an exciting incentive for employees who are interested in ongoing formal education. Higher education, especially in the United States, can be an astronomical out of pocket expense. Tuition reimbursement offers incentive for employees to bring new knowledge and skills to the workplace when they know they will be at least partially reimbursed for their investment of time and money.

4. Provide learning opportunities

Offer opportunities to educate employees on the latest advancements in training, technology, and industry. In addition to offering leadership development and training, stay up-to-date on unique opportunities such as local learning events and online courses. Offer to cover entry or sign-up fees if possible.

5. Offer participant-driven learning

Support autonomy and personal development by giving employees choices when it comes to what they’re learning and how they’re learning. Take different learning styles into consideration and provide options that allow employees to work at their own pace and in whatever manner will help them retain the information they learn.

6. Ask!

Have a conversation with employees individually. Ask them how they want to develop and what would help them feel more supported and satisfied. There’s no better way to provide personal development opportunities that will make a real impact at your organization than by asking employees directly what would make them happier workers.

It’s incredibly important to let your employees know that you not only support their personal growth, but you follow through by offering real opportunities.

Tags: #Accelerated Growth, #Creative Block, #Job Stress, #Turnover, #Uninspired, #Unproductive Employees

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2018 Year End Message: Embrace Changes You Most Need

Fierce — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

It is a rainy day here in Seattle, and I am next to my fireplace with a warm cup of coffee grateful to be sitting in the precious space between a year passing and a year to come.

There is so much to celebrate in 2018. I admire our amazing fierce team, they woke up every day devoted to helping others talk about what matters. I admire our courageous facilitators and clients who embraced change, who didn’t settle for status quo, and who helped their people and teams have the conversations they needed to have. I admire our international partners who continued to build their businesses in areas of both economic prosperity and instability, even amidst conflict and war, with our collective goal of creating a common language across continents. It is humbling work. Work that I consider a profound privilege and a serious responsibility.

From the depth of my heart, I look forward to the year ahead. Sharing more with you as a community—engaging with you and learning from you.

As we start on this new path, I will always lead with positivity. Not blind optimism, rather realistic optimism. I’ll encourage us to believe the future will be positive, all the while, being ready for all potential obstacles. This positive inclination started at an early age. I moved houses, schools, and communities every 18 to 24 months when I was young, I had to choose to thrive…or suffer. I experimented between those two choices often—it wasn’t always pretty. I’ve learned its best to lean towards the positive, to thriving.

I want us all to thrive. That means you. That means your companies, your families, and your communities.

Our mission at Fierce is to transform the conversations central to our clients’ success. Our vision is to better the world–one conversation at a time. I have been with Fierce for nine years and can say with deep conviction that fierce conversations, those real conversations where we come out from behind ourselves, are more relevant now than they were when I first started at Fierce.

And we have our work cut out for us. We are struggling as nations, as companies, as leaders, as families to navigate change and solve some of our biggest problems. Worse, we’ve elected people globally who lead with fear–whether it be a fear of change, fear of others, or fear of differing perspectives.

Collectively, we look to the wrong places to feel more alive–changes to the cars we drive, where we live, where we work, and what possessions we buy–rather than connecting more deeply with one another.

There are real obstacles ahead. We are often so busy trying to find something or someone to blame, that we miss talking about what really matters altogether. We talk around the issues and problems, and not directly as we should.

After thousands of hours of conversations this past year with our team, our community, and with myself, for us to truly thrive in 2019, it is necessary for us to let go of beliefs that aren’t working and embrace a very important belief about our own happiness as individuals.

It all starts with letting go of beliefs that aren’t working for you. Letting go is hard to do. It is hard with physical possessions, and even harder with that which we can’t see.

Imagine you are moving to a new home, and you only have one small box that you can use to carry your most prized items from one home to another. Years go by, and it is time to move again. You have accumulated more prized items, and yet, there isn’t enough space in that same box if you keep everything from a few years ago. You must make choices about what to carry with you in the next chapter.

The same applies to your beliefs. Beliefs run our lives. They are behind the curtain, we don’t even notice them. When did you last pause and reflect on your beliefs?

Start by looking at an area of your life where you are not happy with the results. Perhaps an area you want to see change in 2019. Interrogate reality and evaluate which beliefs are working and which are not. Let the old, ineffective beliefs go.

When you let go, you make room for new beliefs. Here is one that I believe is vital for all our future success: Happiness is an inside job. In other words, you are the only one responsible for your happiness–not your husband or wife, your mother or father, your boss, or your priest or rabbi. It starts and ends with you. That is a BIG deal, and the moment you step into that responsibility, the more control you have.

We are bombarded by false offerings of happiness. And yet, deep down we feel most alive and are most happy when we forge rewarding relationships with one another and have the conversations that matter.

And the most important conversation is with yourself.

I love the quote from author, Howard Thurman, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Do you know what makes you come most alive? Have that conversation with yourself. Inside is where you must start.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from one of my favorite books I read in 2018, Martin Marten by Brian Doyle.

People are stories, aren’t they? And their stories keep changing and opening and closing and braiding and weaving and stitching and slamming to a halt and finding new doors and windows through which to tell themselves, isn’t that so? Isn’t that what happens to you all the time?

It used to be when you were little that other people told you stories about yourself, and where you came from, but then you began to tell your own story, and you find that your story keeps changing in thrilling and painful ways, and it’s never in one place. Maybe each of us is a sort of village, with lots of different beings living together under one head of hair, around the river of your pulse, the crossroads of who you were and who you wish to be.

Embrace the changes that you most need–especially the inside ones–and make room for what you need most in the year to come.

Write your story in 2019, one conversation at a time. Make it fierce.

Fiercely yours,

Stacey

P.S. – If you want to learn more about what we see coming in 2019, check out our latest workplace predictions.

Tags: #Miscommunication, #Negative Thinking, #Rigid Thinking, #Uninspired

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Giving Thanks: 4 Ways to Start Sharing More Gratitude At Work

Fierce — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

As I sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with my family this year, I’m prepared for the conversation. A conversation that is the same and yet different with each passing year.

A conversation turned tradition in our home, a conversation where everyone is expected to participate, and a conversation that allows us to check-in with ourselves and one another.

This conversation – our tradition – always starts with the same question:

What are you most thankful for?

A simple question, yes, and a very powerful one for the connection that it fosters. Openly sharing love, gratitude, and recognition with the people who are most important in your life in of itself is a deeply personal and, at times, vulnerable experience.

To truly answer this question, personal reflection is a hard requirement.

When asked, you must first look back and ask yourself:

How have you personally grown over the course of the last year?
How does that growth compare to that of previous years?
Who helped you achieve that growth? Do they know it?
What did those individuals specifically do that helped you?

Looking back, I picture myself, a young girl at the table in my booster seat. At that age, my answer would have likely centered around my Barbies, the cranberry sauce, my cat…Naturally, all of things that made my world so sweet and fun.

In the years that followed, my reply of course would mature to focus more so on the people in my life – their impact and the memories we would create with one another.

So, as my family goes around the dinner table this year and openly shares our own thoughtful introspection, everyone gains a greater appreciation for one another – not just for the kind sentiments shared, but also for seeing how each of us have personally developed year over year.

Preparing for the conversation this year, I find myself not only thinking about the family members sitting down with me at the table, but also the dedicated team members whom I collaborate with each and every day at Fierce.

Bringing Family Tradition To The Workplace

This year has been more demanding than ever at work and, similar to the family tradition I shared above, I truly have learned the importance of creating space with team members at work to share specific appreciation and sentiments.

One of my favorite exercises is gathering a small group of individuals together, and focusing on one person at a time. One person is chosen, and the others go around the circle and share one specific thing that he/she appreciates about the person. The person receiving the appreciation is only allowed to say “thank you”…and receive that praise. Time and time again, I see relationships deepen in that space. It often brings me to a teary-eyed state, because I am so honored to be in the presence of these amazing people and to have the privilege of sharing in the journey together.

I have learned that we all need those moments — me especially. As leaders, we need to focus on the positive, and the impact and create moments with profound appreciation. This fuel is needed when tackling the tough challenges and taking on new and demanding endeavors. I’ve learned it is my responsibility to share and be vulnerable. And most importantly, create that space for it to happen.

Now, imagine if you were to ask a member of your team: What are you most thankful for?

Imagine how much you would learn about this person by simply asking this one question.

The Thanksgiving holiday in particular provides a great platform for leadership to spread warmth and thanks to colleagues in a way that can both strengthen your workplace culture and nurture the relationships that are essential to collective success.

Below are four ways to help you and your team to have this dialogue at work:

1. Take time out to connect.

The end of the year can be a hectic one filled with deadlines and quotas. The idea of taking time out of people’s already jam-packed schedules during the day might seem daunting, however, the break can actually rejuvenate a team’s spirit and make this last push more enjoyable.

Take your team out to lunch or throw a holiday potluck — kick back and make a point to enjoy each other’s company. This will remind your team that you realize they are working hard and you value what they do.

2. Take the lead.

While out at that same lunch or during that holiday potluck, lead by example. Share and recognize how you’ve grown in the last year and how your team’s efforts (remember, get specific!) have impacted that growth.

This recognition goes a long way and the numbers don’t lie. Combined data from Gallup and Globalforce shows 69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt efforts were better recognized and that 78% of employees said being recognized motivates them in their job.

3. Write it down.

Can’t find the time to connect with your team in-person? There isn’t anything quite like receiving a handwritten note. Now is a perfect time as any to put pen to paper with what you really want to say.

The time it takes to pick out the card, write the message, and even the physical act of handing it to your recipient shows you value and care about them.

In the busy bustle of day-to-day life, sometimes we just give a generic thank you. The problem? It can become routine and lose its impact. Make your thank you more meaningful by explaining how the person’s action made your day that much easier or better.

When you say ‘thank you,’ also communicate why someone’s kind words or actions really made an impact. Be specific. Paint the picture. You may be surprised by how much those who helped you enjoy hearing the effects they had. No thank you is too small, so share away!

4. Don’t get distracted.

The mentality toward the end of the year can be to keep your head down and finish strong. While it’s important to not lose sight of your team’s deliverables — their hard work is always worth mentioning.

If you have regular meetings with your employees, take time to verbalize why your thankful for them. Better yet, before the meeting, spend a little time and look at the projects they’ve been working on so you can bring specific examples of ways they’ve impressed you this year.

If you don’t typically have these one-on-one meetings, ask if you can schedule one with your employees and use the time to boost their holiday spirit.

Holiday Tradition Or Daily Routine?

While the holidays call for extra special attention to the importance of appreciation, why not practice gratitude throughout the course year? I’m talking 24 / 7, seven days a week.

At the office, expressing thanks shouldn’t just happen in the months of November and December. Make it a daily practice within your organization by making it a part of every meeting — be it a one-on-one, smaller work gatherings, or larger office meetings. Start each of these meetings by first expressing your appreciation — it could be as simple as a thank you for showing up, or a shout out to an employee going above and beyond.

Tags: #Demoralization, #Negative Thinking, #Uninspired

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Growth vs. Fixed Mindset: How Your Beliefs Impact You, Your Team, and Your Organization

Fierce — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 07:00:00 +0000

My interest in growth and learning led me to the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. It has opened my eyes to the ways in which we as humans tend to limit our own potential, both individually and in our organizations.

The concept of a fixed versus growth mindset is simple, yet the implications are massive.

According to Dweck, how you approach learning, and more specifically, how you approach yourself and others when it comes to growth, has the potential to drastically alter the direction and trajectory of your life and the lives of those around you. How you address challenges, how you cope with set-backs, and whether you begin to scratch the surface of your potential all hinges on your beliefs about growth and intelligence.

A fixed mindset is the belief that you have a fixed amount of intelligence and your skills and abilities cannot be developed. Granted, we all have natural limitations, but it assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are unchangeable, and success is somehow the affirmation of that inherent intelligence.

If your mindset is fixed, you may have thoughts such as…

“I’m just not good with numbers…”

“I’m not a natural athlete…”

“I’m not a people person…”

With a fixed mindset, striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs becoming a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. Regardless of the amount of practice and effort you put in, you believe that your growth and development is limited.

A growth mindset, alternatively, is about believing you can develop your abilities, intelligence, or skills. It thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. The growth mindset creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval. Thoughts look like…

“If I practice these equations, I can master them.”

“If I focus on improving, I can become a great athlete.”

“I can put myself out there and learn to work a room.”

If you have this mindset, you know that with intentional and focused practice, you can achieve a level of expertise in most anything you put your mind to. While not everyone can become an Einstein or Beethoven, a person’s full potential is rarely tapped into.

These two mindsets, which we tend to manifest from a very early age, determine a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

The major factor in whether people achieve expertise is not some fixed trait or prior ability, but rather, it’s purposeful engagement: where we place our focus and effort. It’s not always the people who start out the smartest that end up the smartest.

These different mindsets show up in our lives in different ways. Let’s look at a couple of different areas of life they impact and explore which mindset you may have in each of these areas.

Fear of Failure

I was recently on a call with a Fierce client, joined by my colleague Jaime Navarro, VP of Global and Channel Partners. During the call, she quickly built rapport with the client and helped them overcome their concerns in a way that if I had been leading the call, I don’t feel like I would have been able to do so skillfully. I thought wow, I’ve been doing this for two and a half years and I don’t lead calls this effectively. It would be natural to feel discouraged, but the truth is that I can learn from this experience. I had a choice in that moment to choose the path of growth or stay stuck in a fixed mindset and question my own self-worth.

It’s human to be impacted by failure and to fall into the trap of negative self-talk. The important part is to be aware of it. When you enter into the fixed mindset, your constant objective is to prove that you’re smart or talented. Any failure is unacceptable, and it’s humiliating and debilitating. Your goal is never about growth because you believe that’s not possible, so your goal becomes to validate and prove yourself.

The fixed mindset has even changed what failure means. To people living out of the fixed mindset, failure has been transformed from an action or event (I failed) to an identity (I’m a failure).

People with the growth mindset, however, seem to have a special talent for converting life’s setbacks into future successes. When you adopt the growth mindset and you truly believe that your traits and skills can be improved on and developed, you’ll start to have a great passion for learning.

Ask yourself:

How do I cope with set-backs and failure?

How do I cope with the set-backs or failures of others?

What kind of self-talk do you turn to?

When people believe their basic qualities can be developed, failure may still hurt, but failures don’t define them in a permanent way. If abilities can be expanded—if change and growth are possible—then there are still many paths to success.

Effort and Challenges

As I mentioned earlier, the major factor in whether people achieve expertise is not some fixed trait or prior ability, but rather, it’s purposeful engagement.

When you enter into the fixed mindset, you believe that effort is a bad thing. If you have to push yourself and exert any level of effort, it must mean that you don’t have a very high level of intelligence or talent. Effort, in this mentality, is for people with deficiencies. Risk and effort are seen as potential giveaways of their inadequacies, revealing that they come up short in some way.

The fixed mindset is about avoiding effort and risk at all costs…the growth mindset is about moving toward concerted effort and challenges with the goal of development.

People with the growth mindset believe that even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements. And what’s so heroic, they would say, about having a gift? This mindset believes that you need to work your hardest at the things you love the most. Achieving a level of mastery is not only possible, but a certainty through continued, consistent practice and effort.

Question to consider:

Are there areas in your life where you avoid being challenged?

Do you believe that if you put in effort, it says something negative about your intelligence or who you are?

Do you believe that the people are you can’t change or grow? Do you believe that how they are is how they will always be?

The Organizational Implications

Research into Enron following the scandal revealed exactly how a fixed mindset contributed to their downfall:

Leaders in the organization had a fixed mindset, and they were revered for their “innate” intellect and ability.
Everyone was deathly afraid of failure. It was a final evaluation of your competence and worth to the organization.
A toxic culture was created while leaders were hungry to get ahead by pulling others down. It was a constant battle to prove superiority over your peers and deliver great personal results even at the expense of the organization.
Ultimately, people were failing and too afraid to show it. It was covered up and all boiled over when the company was finally exposed.

Leaders with the fixed mindset carry over their beliefs to the people they lead. They believe that some people are inherently smart, talented or successful, and others are simply C-players that will never develop and never succeed. They believe there’s not much, if any, influence they can have over that person’s growth or development…so why bother? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch. When you change the definition, significance, and impact of failure, it changes the deepest meaning of effort.

Great leaders believe in the growth mindset, they believe in the growth of intellect and talent, and they’re fascinated with the process of learning. Great leaders create an environment of trust where it’s clearly communication to their people, “I’m going to teach you, and I’m not going to judge your talent.” They believe people can reach a higher potential.

So, what’s really at stake for organizations?

Here’s what you can expect when leaders have a fixed mindset:

A lack of innovation and accountability
A lack of vulnerability, trust, and honesty
People don’t seek new challenges and growth suffers
Effort is seen as a bad thing, which creates a lack of productivity
Political maneuvering, proving superiority, and seeking validation
A toxic work culture
Personal results come at the expense of organizational results

When this mindset infiltrates a company, the consequences are clear. It’s critical for the health of the culture, the people within it, and the organization to find a solution.

Aligning with Fierce

The content in Fierce programs address and help shift participants from a fixed to a growth mindset.

Foundations, for example, shows you how to provoke learning, tackle touch challenges, strengthen relationships, and shift the context filter that you have for yourself and others.

Another program that addresses this issue directly is Feedback. Those with a fixed mindset are only interested in hearing feedback that reflect directly on their current abilities, but they tune out information that could help them learn and improve. They even showed no interest in hearing the right answer when they had gotten a question wrong, because they had already filed it away in the failure category.

In Fierce Feedback, you develop a growth mindset by shifting your beliefs about feedback and learning how to give and receive feedback in a way that enriches relationships. You become attentive to information that could help them expand their existing knowledge and skill, regardless of whether they’d gotten the question right or wrong—in other words, their priority was learning, not the binary trap of success and failure.

Organizations need to collectively move away from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. You can begin making changes by having a conversation with yourself, and then with your team.

In what ways do you personally hold a fixed mindset, and how can you shift towards growth instead?

Are there any policies or behaviors within your organization that promote a fixed mindset? If so, how can you and your team work together to change it?

Read about our programs if you’re curious to know more and want to shift your organization from fixed to growth.

Tags: #Creative Block, #Negative Thinking, #Uninspired

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Mining for Solutions: How to Empower Your Employees to be Problem Solvers

Fierce — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Do you consider advice-giving to be part of your role as a business leader?

Even better, do you enjoy giving advice, solving problems, and suggesting best courses of action?

What if a guide wasn’t necessarily someone that tells you what’s the best route forward to reach your end goal, but instead helped you illuminate your path so that you—the employee, the friend, the mentee—could recognize the right path on your own?

This reminds me of a situation I experienced at Fierce recently.

The situation wasn’t unique. I was asked a question about the next steps to take in a small project we were working on.

While I had an idea of how I should respond, I quickly brushed that thought away. I didn’t want to make an error in assuming that I knew the answer and the next best steps. My truth was that I was a rookie and that disqualified me from dishing out some advice to myself.

That little voice of self-doubt gets quite comfortable once you open the door to let it into your mind. So I reached out to my boss only to discover that the next step was actually pretty obvious.

What’s stopping me from seeing the solutions that aren’t as obscure as I think—in the workplace, and even in my personal relationships?

Have a Mineral Rights conversation

In the Coaching program, you’ll walk through the seven steps in a Mineral Rights conversation. This is a conversation model that interrogates reality by mining for increased clarity, improved understanding, and impetus for change.

The goal of the mineral rights conversation is inspired by the literal action of mining: you dig deep into the layers of the ground, continuing to go deeper and deeper past temporary obstacles until you hit the “oil.”

Solutions are often obscured in layers of stratum: confusion, resistance, defensiveness, rational barriers, and emotional slush. You can’t rush through the layers at the same speed you would cruising along an open highway, because you’ll end up getting lodged into one of the first layers.

Have fun getting out of that sticky situation.

At Fierce, we believe that by engaging in deep and authentic conversations with your employees, you can discover the source of an issue, a conflict, a relationship that is falling apart, or an obstacle to completing a project successfully.

Your job as a leader is to tap into your employees and understand what’s really going on. You’re mining for clarity, and not just so that you can understand the issue.

First, connecting on a deeper level (where it’s honest and authentic) can enrich your relationship.

Second, this conversation is also helping your employee understand what’s really going on. And once they’ve reached this moment of clarity, they can then start digging around and realize that the solution is actually quite obvious.

This is what we at Fierce call an apostrophe moment. It’s that flash of blinding clarity. A “duh” moment.

All too often, the solution lies in you. We know it, deep inside, in the gut that we don’t always allow to chat with our head. Just having a safe space where a leader is listening to us in silence and only asking questions that prompt us to speak further allows us to dig deep and have what may be the most meaningful conversation you will ever have: the one with yourself.

Every conversation is with yourself and sometimes it involves other people.

Just taking the time to acknowledge this realization can be enlightening, as well as empowering. It can empower your employees to become more solution-oriented and solution-minded. It’s a cultural shift from a state of co-dependence on a leader or manager to one where there is more collaboration at all levels.

Be a coach rather than an advisor

The value behind the solutions that are generated in these conversations is that they are self-generated. It promotes self-actualization and contributes to the employee’s personal and professional development. As the leader, your job is to create the space for this conversation to happen. Ask the questions, listen, and let your employees create the solution.

They’ll come up with their own advice and it will be just what they need to hear.

Your job is to be the coach, not the advisor.

That process of digging deep and mining for the solution can be challenging. It’s tough to interrogate my own reality.

But if you don’t find solutions, you get stuck in a rut. And if you don’t have the conversation, chances are you probably won’t find the right solution on your own.

So how can a leader—acting as a coach rather than all-omnificent, advice-giver—prompt the conversation so that the mining can commence?

Ask clarifying questions

Have you ever heard of open-ended questions? These are questions that can’t be answered with a mere “yes” or “no”. Instead, they prompt everyone who is a part of the conversation to dig deeper. They lead to richer conversations that build the relationship and get to the heart of the matter.

The same practice applies to coaching employees to discover their own solutions. By asking leading questions and statements, you can mine for the root issues and, ultimately, the best solution.

For example, instead of asking your employee “have you ever thought about…?” before launching into what you think is an excellent piece of advice, say, “What have you thought about?”

Through this model, the employee is prompted to think: What have I thought about? What do I know? What are the details? What is the impact? How have I contributed to this issue? What do I think the ideal outcome is?

Every conversation that we have is with ourselves, and sometimes it involves other people. Through this conversation, you are not only having a conversation with your employee, you are prompting them to have a conversation with themselves.

Get real with yourself

An essential part of this process involves coming out from behind yourself into the conversation, making it real. Be curious. Challenge yourself to access the context that you have and that you want to believe is real. Your perception of the issue may be very different from that of your employee.

In her bestselling book “Fierce Conversations,” Fierce Founder and CEO Susan Scott talks about both the costs of being real and the costs of not.

“When we are real with ourselves and others, the change occurs even before the conversation has ended,” says Scott. “Insights about who we are and what we really want and need are already at work, rearranging our interior furniture, cleaning our internal closet of unnecessary clutter, revealing the way we must go.”

Ironically, the realities that we hold to be truth can be the very layers of stratum that are inhibiting the realization of the solution. As Scott mentions, they’re internal, so they may be subconscious.

Challenge these realities. Ask yourself why you are bringing these contexts into your current relationships, both at work and at home. Chances are, they are going to impact your ability to problem-solve. This exercise applies to everyone at all levels within an organization.

Ouch. That hurts. But so do growing pains. And uncomfortable is where change happens, where the “aha” happens.

And the brilliant result of a fierce conversation—where the employee is the problem-solver— is that the change that needs to occur (whether a plan of action or a shift in your attitude or perspective on the situation) has changed, within that moment.

How can you empower your employees even further to be problem-solvers in a fierce conversation? Explore the Fierce Coaching program to learn more.

Tags: #Creative Block, #Uninspired

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Fierce Goals, Fierce Purpose: Tapping into the Soul of Your Organization

Fierce — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 07:00:00 +0000

An area I’ve recently been placing a lot of thought and strategic focus on is purpose.

One reason for my focus in this area, aside from it being a subject that’s very near and dear to me, is that our company goals are quite ambitious this year. Among all of the drive, change, growth, collaboration, and hard work taking place to meet these goals, I know that it’s equally important to not lose sight of why we’re doing it.

When I was growing up, my dad was a career United States Navy Officer. For his career and his coworkers, every significant event—from change of commands to National holidays to retirements—there were speeches and conversations about purpose over and over and over. People sharing why they were proud to support the United States of America, why they were willing to sacrifice, and why they turned down more money to stay and support the organization of the US Navy. For the first eighteen years of my life, I attended many of these ceremonies and witnessed the deep connection people had with the purpose, and it stays with me to this day. In those people gatherings, there were no discussions of budget or scaling or growth. It was about the people and about the purpose. Sharing victories, failures, lessons.

A recent article from HBR really hit home with me. It highlights the need for organizations to discover an authentic sense of purpose and calls out the potential costs of hypocrisy:

“When a company announces its purpose and values but the words don’t govern the behavior of senior leadership, they ring hollow. Everyone recognizes the hypocrisy, and employees become more cynical. The process does harm…if your purpose is authentic, people know, because it drives every decision and you do things other companies would not…often an organization discovers its purpose and values when things are going badly—and [its] true nature is revealed by what its leaders do in difficult times.”

As leaders, where we place our focus during challenging times matters, whether it’s in the aftermath of failure or in the striving toward success. Purpose gives us and everyone we work with meaning beyond the circumstances that surround us as we move through our daily lives, and this is what sustains an entire organization, its culture, and its longevity. It is in fact the soul of the company. You may not be able to see it or touch it, but it’s there. You feel it.

One of my favorite quotes by American novelist Annie Dillard is, “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” We have to be connected to this why, including the emotions around it, or else we’re just going through the motions. I don’t believe “just going through the motions” is satisfying to anyone. And honestly, sometimes, we don’t really realize we are going through the motions until a sudden result occurs.

It’s our connection with purpose that allows our daily actions to tap into our own soul, the soul of the company, and what it truly means to be human.

In order to truly live out these ideas and take action as a department, I recently launched a new initiative called My Fierce Purpose. What this series entails is inviting a Fierce client to join our bi-weekly sales and marketing meetings via video to provide insight into their experience with Fierce and highlight authentic connections with self and others.

The intention of My Fierce Purpose is to connect us all with the change we are creating in the world, and I wanted to find a way to really have a call to action so our employees can reflect and solidify what their Fierce purpose is while also being inspired and challenged by others.

Our first My Fierce Purpose guest was Gary Wang, Leadership Development Specialist at Coast Capital, a beloved client of ours who has achieved monumental success with our programs. With Gary’s permission, I wanted to share a part of his testimonial with you:

“The beauty of Fierce is that it encourages people to embrace individuality and authenticity through storytelling and real-life situations. Fierce helps individuals connect with themselves and each other through facilitative, explorative, and nonjudgmental conversation—something people can hold and remember for a lifetime.”

If you’re interested in facilitating a similar activity in your company, here are some potential questions to ask your clients that will tap into purpose and get to the heart of how your work impacts others:

Introduce yourself, your role, and how you got introduced to (your company).
What does (your company) mean to you? What’s your favorite concept or aspect?
What result are you most proud of or your favorite story?
A question or two from the audience.

You can add questions for further exploration to really dig into why your clients and employees connect with your brand/product/company. When someone shares a personal story about how the programs have impacted their life and their relationships, the connection to why and the purpose of what we do is inevitable.

And that’s powerful.

Inviting clients to the conversation to share their story is one way to actionably introduce purpose into the conversation. If you want a few more ways to help your team tap into purpose, one of my previous blogs here can be an additional resource.

Another powerful step you can take in your organization is connecting with this concept of “smart plus heart.” Right now we have strategies and goals and tons of projects as we’re scaling the business, and I think because of that, there’s a need for really connecting to your heart as much as your head.

When I entered into my corporate career, and especially when I became a people leader, I have carried through the idea that when you treat people as whole beings, when you nurture their heads and hearts, and you create meaning together, there is really nothing too big to accomplish.

My call to action for leaders is to first tap into your own purpose with the organization. And then, do not wait. Start having conversations about purpose now so that you can begin tapping into where the magic lies—inside the soul of your organization.

Tags: #Accelerated Growth, #Uninspired

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