I’ve had the pleasure of leading our global work — either through new market expansion, international partnerships, or through our domestic U.S. clients taking Fierce across the world —  for almost 18 months and to say it’s been a learning year in 2019 would be an understatement.

Both internal to Fierce and external with our clients and partners, the learnings that have occurred for me this year center around a critical human desire for trust. And I would take it one step further and say not just trust, but trust that is built on transparency. 

This year, I led a team into an unknown place for our business: to take what is existing and build on it, quickly. 

My team trusted me a lot on this adventure. Our clients and partners are trusting us, and there were many times when on this journey, the trust was shaken. Not because of some devious desire to withhold, but because there is an art AND skill around being transparent. 

According to Tolero Solutions, 45% OF EMPLOYEES say a lack of trust in leadership is the biggest issue impacting their work performance.

That’s huge.

Just like most leadership components, we talk about them as if they are some innate talent you possess at birth. This is WRONG. Learning to be transparent is a skill! 

To be clear, I’m not talking about learning how to be honest or not to lie. That is different and a component of being able to be transparent (and also a very low bar to being a good leader).

What I am talking about is the ability to share information — often complex information — at a rapid pace and that often requires you to be ahead of events unfolding, and to share what is going on in a strong and simple narrative. When you do this, you build and sustain trust.

So, how do you to do this? Here are my three biggest key learnings:

1. Transparent emotions.

It might seem like adulting 101 to say you should be able to articulate what you feel about a given situation easily but shocker — it’s not! We are emotional beings and if you don’t include your own emotions in your narrative as you work with your team, clients, and partners you are doing this wrong.

At Fierce, we define a fierce conversation as one in which you come out from behind yourself, into the conversation, and make it real.

Susan Scott, Fierce Founder, and CEO discussed trust and radical transparency in a podcast interview with TalentGrow. She explained that “trust is built one conversation at a time, and it’s also lost one conversation at a time. Trust requires persistent identity, [which] means me showing up as myself completely, consistently, all the time, every day so that I’m not different depending on who I’m with.”

That “make it real part” includes emotion. The skill is being able to speak to the emotion in a way that specific, relatable and appropriate.

2. Transparency in decision-making.

I have a secret to share to the world: I don’t know everything. I am a leader and I don’t have all the answers…shocking! I had to break this news to my team and our clients/partners this year several times.

Articulating this poorly can actually lose trust — a leaders worst nightmare is that they are seen by their team and clients as inept.

Here’s the thing…I’m not talking about incompetence. I’m talking about being vulnerable enough, and honestly strategic enough, to be able to share what specifically the help you need from others is, because it’s humanly impossible to see all the different points of view that exist. 

This is the heart of our team model, wherein we explore how to make decisions by giving others the right information needed and asking the right questions to get the help you need.

You might hit initial resistance, because, isn’t that your job as the leader to come up with these answers? (No, it isn’t.)

That’s why this can’t be a one time event. Leaders must show up like this in decision-making situations consistently and then, over time, people will respond and trust will be built.

3. Transparent intentions.

Lastly, make your intentions known. Within your team are your values, goals, and mission for what is trying to be accomplished clear and defined.

Did your team contribute to the values, goals, and mission? Muddiness breeds our human instinct to tell ourselves a story and often that story is not positive.

Worse than muddiness is not actually seeking the input of your team members and clients/partners to help inform it. Creating a compelling narrative is the job of a leader but coming up with all the ideas yourself is silly…and I did that this year.

I did the thing you’re not supposed to do. I created a vision, goals and a mission for our expansion work and I never asked anyone for their input.

Not surprisingly, by July, I was dealing with a crisis in confidence by my team and some clients and partners. To shift the trajectory I rewrote the story quickly and asked those critical to its success what THEY think our values, goals, and mission should be.

While I’ll have to fill you in on how we execute against those in a future post, I can share that immediately the morale and trust improved.

In the end, remember that being transparent with intentions holds us accountable for making our intentions positive.

An article from Psychology Today titled “POSITIVE INTENTIONS BUILD WORKPLACE TRUST” affirms this idea: “Intention drives behavior. The intention behind our actions impacts our trust building ability. Positive intentions build trust; negative intentions don’t.”

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Tags: #Dishonesty, #Infighting, #Lack Of Transparency, #Power Games, #Role Clarity

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Let’s be authentically honest for a moment — I want you to sit back and think about how many times you find an excuse not to have an important conversation.

What rationalizations do you give yourself for validating your avoidance?

Here are some common justifications you may relate to:

• The person I need to talk to can’t handle criticism
• Maybe the situation will get better on its own
• This conversation may open up a can of worms that I’m not prepared to handle
• It’s not my job to say something

This list could go on and on because the truth is, we’re really good at coming up with excuses to avoid tough situations — especially when they involve conversations.

In fact, 70 percent of employees say they avoid difficult conversations with their boss, colleagues, and direct reports, according to Bravely.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU KEEP AVOIDING?

But, what happens when we avoid these important moments? What if missing the conversation is riskier than having it?

When you never have the conversation you’re avoiding, each person involved will make up stories about the situation in their mind because they are never invited into the conversation to understand your truth.

Whether it’s your boss never knowing you deeply care about a project or your colleague never knowing that you want your relationship to be better, neither person can know if you don’t have the courage to have a conversation.

When this happens, it can be incredibly costly.

Every single conversation failure each costs an organization $7,500 and more than seven work days.

On the flip side, it’s more economical to have an authentic, failed conversation because they are the beginning steps to a solution, no matter how small they may seem at the time.

When you have failed conversations, the kind that doesn’t go according to your plan, or you don’t get what you had hoped, at least you mustered up the courage and cared enough to take on the conversation — to bring it to that person. This matters.

This creates a place to move forward, a jumping board. The next conversation you have with this person may start with the words, “Last time, I didn’t approach it in the way that I had hoped to…”

This less fearful approach to conversations is not only a good investment for us individually but also for our organizations as well.

STOP AVOIDING CONVERSATIONS, START CREATING CLARITY.

When we avoid conversations, it makes our work foggy or ambiguous on our way to success, and any actions we take will require more time and resources or may fail altogether. Especially if we’re not sure where we’re going.

Clarity matters — and the best route to clarity is by having those conversations we’re avoiding and having them effectively.

There are no alternative fixes. When effective conversations happen, miscommunications are either resolved or prevented. Employees feel clear on their roles, goals, and action items, which leads to an increase in employee engagement and more effective work being done, which inevitably leads to overall business success.

Without these conversations, relationships will take a hit because there’s a lack of clarity either individually or organization-wide. Employees won’t feel part of a team and won’t be able to build strong relationships with each other when their directives or goals are unclear.

Instead, they may feel isolated, or even worse, like they don’t belong. This is bad for workplace culture and can lead to unhappy employees.

And when relationships are impacted, so are business results, including revenue. Think about this: 97 percent of employees and executives believe lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project. Imagine the role clarity would play counteracting this extraordinary statistic.

Clarity cannot happen if you are avoiding conversations. Your bottom line, individual goals, and team goals will all be derailed without clarity.

STEPS TO TAKE RIGHT NOW:

To begin addressing these problems in your organization, begin looking into areas where lack of clarity shows up. These are three common areas that we’ve often seen:

1. Goals and Purpose

If you don’t know what you’re working towards, your daily actions will have little context.

If employees and leadership have different goals, or if anyone is unclear of what their intended outcomes are, engagement suffers. Have conversations around expectations with everyone involved. Write a “Stump Speech,” as individuals and as a team, answering these questions:

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

2. Roles and Responsibilities

A formal job description gives employees a general understanding of their role within an organization, but when it comes to day-to-day tasks, that clarity may disappear. This is where delegation conversations are essential.

Delegating effectively can create clarity around, for example, whether an individual owns a certain task item or whether they merely need to weigh in on the task.

Employees need to know where the responsibilities of their role begin and end, and if (and how) those responsibilities might overlap with their coworkers.

3. Poor Conversations

As we’ve discussed, effective conversations are the solution for gaining clarity, and for conversations to be effective, they need to take place frequently and include clarifying questions. No more avoiding!

We have to be willing to communicate what we’re really thinking and feeling. Frequency is especially important when it comes to giving and requesting feedback.

Taking a “when you see it, say it” approach is best, as engagement improves when appreciation is out in the open and employees are clear on potential areas they can improve.

Feedback conversations, in combination with asking clarifying questions whenever anything is unclear, are the two conversational skills that can significantly reduce miscommunication.

When you stop avoiding conversations and create clarity in these areas, you improve engagement, and in turn, you get results.

CREATE A SAFE WORKPLACE CULTURE

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Tags: #Lack Of Transparency, #Miscommunication

The post Why Lack of Clarity in the Workplace is Costing Your Company appeared first on Fierce.

“Sometimes a dramatic intervention is required to stop the words in order to start a conversation.” —Susan Scott

Tags: #Disengagement, #Lack Of Transparency, #Time Constraints, #Turnover, #Unrealistic Goals

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This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Forbes and explains how both positive and negative emotions have a cascading affect with employee morale.

At Fierce, we have a term called an emotional wake. An emotional wake is what is remembered after you have left a conversation. Whether positive or negative, your emotional wake ripples out and affects your colleagues. It is contagious.

A negative attitude in the workplace is just as infectious as a positive one. Per Chris Cancialosi, Forbes, constant complaining can have devastating outcomes on a team including:

• It hurts productivity
• It makes you look unprofessional
• It brings people down

Fortunately, a consistently positive outlook can produce the opposite results. According to Positivity Strategist Robyn Stratton-Berkessel, what you focus on grows.

“It seems simple: you focus on joy and you grow joy, you focus on trust and you grow trust; you focus on integrity, you grow integrity. When you train your appreciative eye in this way, you see there is so much to be appreciated—from the glorious sunrise, to the smiles of your colleagues, and the feeling of satisfaction for a job well done.”

A change in perspective can alter the way an individual or an entire company feels about the work they do. If you focus on what is working instead of what is not, you’ll be surprised by how much there is to be grateful for.

Read the full article.

Tags: #Lack Of Transparency, #Unproductive Employees

The post The Surprising Power of Appreciation at Work appeared first on Fierce.

In our Fierce Coaching module, the goal is to ask questions in order to help an individual work through an idea or issue, in order to find a new path forward.

This week look for opportunities to do this with someone in your life.

Start by asking: What is the most important thing we should be talking about?

Don’t coach them because you want to share your brilliant idea, or because you’ve been in a similar situation and have all the answers. Coach them because every time you ask someone what’s the most important thing we should be talking about together, you give yourself and that person the opportunity, through conversation, to have new perspective at the end of the conversation.

Don’t miss this rich opportunity.

Tags: #Lack Of Transparency, #Miscommunication

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Providing open and honest feedback to colleagues and employees is the most important element of growth and professional development. However, providing this feedback consistently is not always easy for both manager and employee. Many people cringe at the words, “Can I give you some feedback?”

It is dependent on the manager to create enough trust and rapport with their reports to alleviate the fear and anxiety that is associated with a feedback conversation. By managing feedback in a positive way that helps the employee understand that feedback is meant to improve their performance and develop their skills, the individual receiving the feedback can approach the conversation calm and ready to listen.

Per Scott Halford, there are five tips managers can exercise to create productive feedback that sticks:

1. Create Safety. Research from Columbia University neuroscientists shows that if the person receiving the feedback does not feel comfortable, they are 70% more likely to not apply the feedback into their life.

2. Be Positive. Approach the conversation carefully and be sure to remain positive, which helps facilitate a sense of safety. If applicable, include just as much positive feedback as negative, if not more.

“Positive feedback stimulates the reward centers in the brain, leaving the recipient open to taking new direction. Meanwhile, negative feedback indicates that an adjustment needs to be made and the threat response turns on and defensiveness sets in.”

3. Be Specific. The more specific and clear the feedback is, the more likely the recipient is to act upon it. Ambiguity can kill the best of intentions when trying to create change and develop skills.

Read the other two tips and the entire article here.

Tags: #Confused Priorities, #Dishonesty, #Lack Of Transparency, #Unproductive Employees

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“Not often” is a common answer. And I’m here to tell you that “not often” is not often enough.

I used to work for an organization where employees received bi-yearly reviews. During these 30-minute meetings, my supervisor and I would go over the review forms and determine what was going well and where there was room for growth. The reviews were helpful when they occurred, but I wonder—if I had received this feedback months ago, or as issues were occurring, what difference would it have made for my own growth, the quality of my work, and the company? I’d bet money that it would’ve made a significant difference.

The Case for Frequent Feedback

Feedback (and how often it’s delivered) directly impacts performance and employee engagement. Hands down, employees perform better with more frequent feedback.

According to Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends, the lack of ongoing feedback within performance management is costing organizations in big and varying ways: “Creating a holistic approach to the employee experience demands better tools and programs to capture employee feedback continuously…[t]he neglect of regular employee feedback helps explain other challenges companies face today, including shortcomings in driving culture and purpose and providing a healthy work-life balance.”

Whether reviews are yearly, bi-yearly, or quarterly, one thing is for certain: there’s a lot of time in-between these reviews, time that’s full of precious opportunity. We’re missing out on opportunities to grow professionally, strengthen workplace culture, and drive results.

Professional development—especially with recently-graduated millennials now making up the largest percentage of the current workforce—is becoming the central intention behind feedback. Many organizations are thankfully catching on and moving away from the mentality that you either make the cut or you don’t. The truth is that skills can be learned, knowledge can be acquired, and if an employee has a desire to grow, they can. Frequent feedback can nurture and support this growth.

One of many downsides to infrequent reviews is that we may lose a degree of authenticity when we don’t express ourselves and instead think, I see an issue, but it’s not time for a formal review yet, so I’ll pretend there isn’t anything wrong for now. We’re also limiting rather than expanding the other person’s awareness of their own performance. They may not know what’s going on if you don’t tell them.

Frequent feedback can do much to strengthen relationships. Personal and workplace relationships are often considered different in nature, but at Fierce, our mindset is that relationships are relationships, regardless of the external circumstances that surround them. And the stronger our relationships, the richer our lives.

That said, if you’re having an issue with a spouse or friend, it’s ideal to discuss the behavior sooner rather than later. It wouldn’t make sense to wait for a bi-yearly or yearly conversation to say, “hey babe, when you put your dirty socks on the floor a few months ago, it really bothered me.” It makes far more sense, both for the health and sustainability of our relationships, to nurture them in the now rather than the later.

What Holds Us Back

Organizational policies and old systems in place are often the culprits of infrequent feedback. The transition out of this old yearly system will largely depend on whether an organization intends to improve employee performance. But policies aside…if we know frequent feedback nurtures success, what prevents us from following through?

In most cases, fear is the culprit. The idea of giving feedback in the moment makes us nervous. We fear the reactions of others, we fear hurting their feelings, we fear that they will misinterpret our intention, and we fear that our direct feedback will rupture the relationship. But here’s a thought that may help put these natural human fears in perspective: what we are fearing is their fear. And we can’t control what other people fear. To remedy, consider what we lose when we stay silent (authenticity and opportunity for growth) and what we stand to gain if we choose to supply more immediate feedback. Also keep in mind that giving feedback effectively is a skill set, and one that can be learned.

Realistically, infrequent feedback can actually heighten fear. Consider the anxiety that often goes along with formal reviews. I recall my hands feeling clammy and my heart racing before every bi-yearly review. Why? Because very little communication about my performance had taken place before the review, which created an unwanted air of mystery about whether my performance was up to par.

Another form of resistance that holds us back is the belief that we don’t have enough time. Let’s tear that excuse to shreds, shall we? Giving feedback in the moment can save time (and money) by creating immediate, rather than eventual, improvements. A few moments of feedback could potentially save months of mistakes, poor-quality work, or misunderstandings.

Another reservation that often occurs is that we may want to process what’s taking place in our environment before we communicate our thoughts or feelings to another person. If this is you, cut yourself some slack. Is it better to receive feedback the day after an incident, or six months from when it occurred? Go easy on yourself and give yourself what you need, even if it’s a bit of time to process.

If You Think Your Organization Needs More Frequent Feedback, Here’s What You Can Do

Plain and simple: have a conversation with your fellow leaders and propose changes to your organization’s feedback approach. Build your case and bring a list of solutions to the table, which might include leadership training intended to strengthen skills around feedback conversations and tool-based solutions such as feedback technology.

The same recommendations apply if you’re in a non-leadership role. And don’t wait for leadership to approach you with feedback. Ask for it, give it, and request that it occur more frequently.

What experiences have you had with the quality and frequency of feedback? How would you rate yourself and others? Share with us.

Tags: #Disengagement, #Inaction, #Lack Of Transparency, #Unproductive Employees, #Unrealistic Goals

The post Why Frequent Feedback Conversations Are Thriving (and Annual Reviews Are Dying) appeared first on Fierce.

Whether you’re giving (or receiving) feedback, confronting a colleague, having a collaborative meeting, or just engaging in casual conversation, your body language matters.

Body language alone can make or break a conversation. According to Psychologist World, human communication is 20% verbal and 80% non-verbal. Body language that doesn’t coincide with the message we intend to send can therefore lead to relationship ruptures, misunderstandings, and unwanted outcomes.

Body language is the primary language of emotion, and how others perceive our emotion influences how our communication lands for them. A study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at New York University and Princeton revealed that body language is an even more accurate determiner of judging emotion than facial expressions. In short, your body language plays a significant role in how successful your conversation is on an emotional level.

Although what we say verbally is important, our nonverbal expression can greatly influence whether our message is communicated effectively.

The outcome of a conversation can vary greatly depending on the type of body language you’re using. Ask yourself: how do I want the other person to feel when I’m speaking to them? What outcome do I hope to achieve from this conversation, and is my body language of reflection of that? If your objective is to strengthen the relationship, then being aware of your body language can help achieve this objective.

Two key words to consider when it comes to your body language are intention and accuracy. Honesty plays a role—the point is not to smile when you feel like frowning or pretend to be relaxed when you’re upset. The point is to let others know how you really feel while keeping your intended outcome or objective in mind.

That said, here are a few body language cues via lifehacker that may be interpreted as “uninviting,” unproductive, or misleading:

• Arms folded across the chest
• Crinkled eyebrows that create a scowl
• Excessive fidgeting
• Slouching
• Not making eye contact
• Appearing “dominant” in posture

To create warmer body language and what will likely be a more connecting conversation, try instead:

• Opening your arms – having an “open” chest
• Relaxing your shoulders
• Making eye contact
• Nodding to show understanding
• Being present/avoiding distractions
• Slightly mirroring the other person’s gestures
• Being at eye level to the other person

During your next conversation, pay close attention to your body language. What are you noticing? How can you be more intentional with your body language to improve the quality of your conversations?

Tags: #Hostile Work Environment, #Inaction, #Lack Of Transparency, #Negative Thinking, #Workplace Conflict

The post How Your Body Language Impacts Workplace Conversations appeared first on Fierce.

Mokita is a Papua New Guinean term for something that everyone knows but no one talks about. Papua New Guineans measure the health of their tribes by how many mokitas they have.

The fewer mokitas, the healthier the tribe.

In other words, the tribes that can talk about the difficult topics are the most healthy.

We have this concept in America. It’s called the elephant in the room. That thing that we know and feel compelled to not talk about, because the consequences may not be “pleasant.” The family gathering may have its own special elephant while your team meetings may have another.

Mokitas can show up everywhere. One could be that your one team member is always late, and although it has negative impact on everyone, no one ever says anything. It could be that your mother always pressures you on a particular topic, and no one ever tells her that it pushes the family apart. It could be that your board president thinks that a goal is attainable, and everyone else knows that it isn’t.

If you were that person, would you want someone to tell you? Consistently with our clients and work, the resounding response to that question is yes. People would rather know than be oblivious.

This week’s fierce tip is to write down three mokitas. Are they at work? At home? With your parents? With your friends? With your husband/wife?

Once you have mokitas identified, decide the conversations you need to have to make the environment healthier. Reference other fierce tips and considerations, so that you can prep to be authentic and real when going into the conversations.

Please share what gets in your way about addressing mokitas.

Tags: #Confused Priorities, #Disengagement, #Lack Of Transparency

The post Leadership Tips: Address Your Mokitas appeared first on Fierce.

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Harvard Business Review and argues for greater alignment between the executive suite and the chief human resources officer (CHRO).

An organization’s success depends on how well individuals work together to overcome obstacles and adapt to an ever changing business landscape. Yet most companies relegate their Human Resource department to a supporting role that is only brought in to implement decisions that have already been made. People Before Strategy: A New Role for the CHRO contends that by bringing the CHRO into the strategic fold, companies can better assign talent towards corporate initiatives to unlock the full potential of an organization’s human capital.

Is your organization prepared to bridge the leadership competency gap?

“Because a company’s performance depends largely on the fit between people and jobs, the CHRO can be of enormous help by crystallizing what a particular job requires and realistically assessing whether the assigned person meets those requirements… A wide gap between a leader’s talents and the job requirements creates problems for the leader, her boss, her peers, and her reports. So before severe damage is done, the CHRO should take the initiative to identify gaps in behavior or skills.”

Read the article.

Tags: #Confused Priorities, #Lack Of Transparency, #Unrealistic Goals

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