LEADERSHIP FORESIGHT & 5 simple shifts to let go, learn faster, and thrive in the future of work.

by Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley, Fast Company Magazine, 5/8/23.

… McGowan and Shipley share five key insights from their new book, The Empathy Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work. Listen to the audio version—read by McGowan—in the Next Big Idea app.

1. Shift your perspective: your workforce is now empowered

… We are experiencing the attitudinal shifts that come with generational changes in the composition of the workforce… These trends combine to give workers power and agency in all aspects of their working lives.

2. Shift your mindset: you work for them

Increases in employee turnover, a lack of engagement, and a rise in disengagement are often collectively framed as employee dissatisfaction—in other words, “their fault.” In reality, these are leadership failures: Leaders must adapt and make fundamental shifts to their leadership approach. The first shift is from managing people and processes to enabling success. The team doesn’t work for you; you work for them. Your success depends on their success.

3. Shift your culture: peers as collaborators

…Today you are likely managing a team of people who have skills and knowledge that you do not. Furthermore, each team member likely has unique skills and knowledge that are not duplicated across the team. You need to create a culture in which your team sees peers as collaborators who make them stronger rather than competitors they must beat.

TEAM BUILDING & How 14 Agencies Break Down Silos To Boost Cross-Team Collaboration.

by Forbes Expert Council, Forbes Magazine, 4/10/23.

…Below, 14 Forbes Agency Councilmembers explore the measures their agencies are taking to encourage collaboration among different departments.

1. Hosting Knowledge-Sharing Lunches

“Share-and-learn” lunches between departments. – Louise Mezzina, Mojo

4. Creating An Onboarding Boot Camp

Each week, for a half day, we gathered all team members together to train on roles and responsibilities, processes and host team-building activities. – Korena Keys, KeyMedia Solutions

6. Promoting A ‘One Team’ Mentality

To break down silos, we have adopted a “one team” mentality and work daily to form integrated teams and include people from different departments to contribute to brainstorms, strategy sessions and training. We also incorporate Insights Discovery training where people learn more about their own communications preferences and how to work with opposite preferences to form the strongest teams. – Rebecca Hall, Idea Hall

7. Using Slack For Collaboration

Slack is a great tool to help break down silos and promote cross-team collaboration. By bringing all employees under one umbrella, it creates a feeling of unity and encourages communication. This helps foster a sense of belonging to a larger team, rather than just subteams. – Bryanne DeGoede, BLND Public Relations

8. Incorporating Checks And Balances Into Our Workflow

The major component of my agency’s cross-team collaboration mojo lies in our workflow operations—we always make sure that someone from each of our writing, editing and client relations departments puts eyes on key deliverables, whether they’re for our media partners or our clients. This acts as a system of checks and balances that allows us to both support and optimize each other’s work. – Nicole Rodrigues, NRPR Group, INC

9. Having Cross-Team Meetings

We have a cool weekly meeting where teams can cross-share information. We also have our “PaperStreet Day,” where teams try to work on each other’s projects and help. A better understanding of what a developer, designer, writer or marketer has to do makes the work go more smoothly in the future. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

10. Rotating Positions To Expand Skill Sets

We practice job rotation by regularly transitioning employees between different roles so they get exposure to various departments and can expand their skill sets. It works, as we have strategists manage video projects, designers take part in qualitative research and so on. I see the passion that it inspires, plus people delight in discovering they have capabilities they weren’t aware of. – Tom Silva, Silva Brand

12. Doing Weekly Joint Training Sessions

Every Wednesday, our entire team joins a joint training session. Sometimes these focus on SEO training, while other times they focus on content strategy, content development or Web design. Other times, we discuss new standardized processes. And yet other times, we share decks from conferences at which we’ve spoken. This approach to training helps to align our collective understanding and knowledge. – Tom Shapiro,Stratabeat

14. Doing A 10-Minute Daily Huddle

10Fold’s daily huddle spans across five offices, five practice groups (including digital) and our operations team. This 10-minute meeting is used to update everyone on agency news, solve persistent challenges, discuss industry events and celebrate wins and outstanding performance. Alignment comes from collaborating in the meetings and hearing the same message at the same time. – Susan Thomas, 10Fold Communications

WFH (WORK FROM HOME) & Work patterns continue to shift nearly three years into the pandemic. Friday & Thursday now most popular days for hybrid workers to take off.

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: when the pandemic began leaders, hoped that people working from home would take off days earlier in the week (e.g. Mondays) and then work harder later in the week. But the opposite seems to be true with more people today taking off Thursdays and Fridays than any other day during a five day work week.

This has implications for the leader and the church staff. The staff may prefer taking off days later in the week, which also are nearer the weekend and may frustrate Sunday preparation plans.

But there is a silver lining. Church volunteers may be more available on Thursdays and Fridays than other days during the week. This is because remote workers are increasingly taking those days off. Read this article to learn more.

A shift in the most popular remote-work days has puzzled the experts

by Matthew Boyle and Bloomberg, Fortune Magazine, 12/16/22.

Hybrid workers are settling into a pattern of staying home twice a week, but it’s not the days you’d expect.

While many companies’ flexible-work plans have sought to get people in the office Tuesday through Thursday, and work from home Monday and Friday, it turns out that workers are staying home more often on Thursday.

That’s according to new data from WFH Research, a team of academics including Stanford University’s Nicholas Bloom that has compiled data on the actions and attitudes of tens of thousands of American workers since the pandemic began.

Friday ranks as the most popular day to work from home over the past six months, followed closely by Thursday, while Wednesday is the most common day to be on site.

The findings show how work patterns continue to shift nearly three years into the pandemic, and also reinforce how difficult it is for companies to enforce strict mandates about returning to the office, especially in a stubbornly tight labor market.

CRITICISM & Casey Stengel’s advice on what to do with the critics on your team.

by Tom Crenshaw, church leader, author and soon-to-be certified member of the http://www.MissionalCoaches.network, 1/18/22.

How does one become wise? The answer is simple. He walks with wise people. The Bible reminds us that, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20).

… I love the old story told by the late Casey Stengel, who managed the New York Yankees to numerous World Championships. One day, Billy Martin, a former player and manager himself, asked Casey the secret of managing success.

Stengel’s response to this rookie manager was classic. He said,

“On any team you will have 15 players who love you and who will run through a wall for you. You will also have five players who will hate your guts and fight you every step of the way, and finally you will have five who are undecided about how they feel about you. The secret of success is to keep the five guys who hate your guts away from the five who are undecided. When you make out your rooming list, always room your losers together. Never room a good guy with a loser. Those losers who stay together will always blame the manager for everything, but it won’t spread if you keep them isolated.”
Casey Stengel, famed NY Yankee manager.

What was Stengel saying? Simply this, “Bad company corrupts good character,” or as one pastor friend of mine puts it, “Holy friends hinder bad behavior.”

The Bible teaches, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17) Putting ourselves in touch with wise, stimulating, faith building, positive thinking, moral living, people will help us move ahead in our own Christian life.

Thomas Fuller was right when he said, “it is best to be with those in time we hope to be with in eternity.”

If you enjoy this you may want to follow Tom Crenshaw’s articles on Biblicalleadership.com at https://www.biblicalleadership.com/contributors/tomcrenshaw/ Tom is a certified Missional Coach and part of the MissionalCoaches.network

INNOVATION & Creativity Conquers Uncertainty. Here’s How To Hire For It

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: years ago when I began my PhD work I began by finding and analyzing churches that are creatively sharing the Good News. One of the most important factors is hiring creative people. But hiring committees often err on the side of the safe bet. Here is an excerpt from a new research-based book that explains how do you spot someone that’s creative and get them on your team.

by Chaka Booker, Forbes Magazine, 6/1/20.

…According to an annual global study conducted by IBM, 80% of CEOs anticipate this increase in complexity, but only 49% believe their organizations are prepared to deal with it. The same research shows that creative thinking has become a prerequisite for success. Clearly, organizations need talent that see things differently than others. They need creative thinkers who can help move organizations in unanticipated and ultimately successful directions.

Interviewing for creativity

Determining if someone is creative isn’t easy. Even when asked to describe their own creativity, people find it difficult to do so. Steve Jobs echoed this sentiment during an interview for Wired magazine in 1996, “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”

Most interview questions don’t acknowledge this reality and instead ask candidates to give examples of creative solutions they’ve generated in their work experience. These types of questions focus primarily on ideas and results, not on the process. Assessing ideas and results, however, requires understanding the candidate’s context. A candidate may describe something that was creative within their context, but to you it may seem lackluster. Or, vice versa, it may seem creative but was par for the course.

This is a problem you cannot solve. Regardless of your understanding of the candidate’s context, your opening question still needs to be a traditional one. Start by asking any of the following standard creativity questions:

Have you had a project which required you to think “outside the box”? If so, what ideas did you generate and what was the result?
Have you come up with an innovative idea or solution recently at work If so, what resulted from the idea?
Have you faced a problem at work that you solved in a unique way? If so, what was the outcome?

Asking one or two of these questions is still valuable because it sets the foundation for addressing the challenge that Steve Jobs identified. Next you need to ask questions that specifically help you understand the candidate’s mental process.

The link between artistic and professional creativity

Creativity is hard to assess because it is a mind state that people enter to generate results. It is often more recognizable when examined via the artistic creativity exhibited by musicians, poets, dancers, or other artists. For this reason, a considerable amount of research on creative mental processes has been done with artists. Fortunately, artistic creativity and the creativity needed in the working world are related. Studies have shown that whether a person is a chief operating officer or a sculptor, a similar mental shift occurs when they think creatively. Dr. Joel Lopata, a Professor of Psychology and Creativity at The Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, found that, “When artists—or people in general—work across domains…they are in what can be called a distinct creative mental space, which is distinct and different from a rational, logical, and analytical state.”

TEAMWORK & 3 Reasons Why You May Want People Who Are Chronically Late On Your Team, According to Research

by Rebecca Hinds, Inc. Magazine, 3/1/19.

…Despite your valiant attempts to confront perpetually late co-workers and cure chronic lateness, you’ve probably been less than successful. It’s not all your fault. There are psychological reasons to explain why people are perpetually tardy…

1. Optimism

According to Diana DeLonzor, author of Never Be Late Again, individuals who are perpetually late tend to be more optimistic. As optimists, latecomers are likely to look at the bright side of things….

Optimism is a highly desirable trait in the workplace… Research by the University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman, as outlined in his book “Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life”, found that sales professionals who are optimistic outperform others by 37 percent.

2. Creativity

… According to research, creative individuals aren’t adept at filtering out distraction. Their mind moves freely from one idea to another without constraint. While this proclivity spurs creativity, it also causes their minds to wander from calendar invitations and show up late to commitments.

3. Low levels of neuroticism

Some highly punctual people express anxiety about being late. Being late feels unsafe and results in stress… a 2006 study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, habitually punctual people exhibit higher levels of neuroticism.

Neuroticism can be toxic to the workplace. Neurotic people are more likely to be moody and experience depression…

TEAMWORK & “Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” #WarrenBuffett

by Michael Schwantes, Inc. Magazine, 3/24/18.

… Your success is only as good as the people whom you surround yourself with.
Pick your network wisely, it could make or break you. Billionaire Warren Buffett once told a 14-year-old kid at a Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting one of the keys to his success: “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

He taught a life lesson for all of us about absorbing the very qualities and traits of successful people further down the path than us — people with skills and traits that will elevate and make us better as leaders, workers, and human beings.

From “6 Smart Habits That Will Lead to a Fulfilling Life” read more at … https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/6-inspiring-lessons-about-success-most-people-will-learn-too-late-in-life.html

TEAMWORK & Team Leaders Should Play Favorites (but Only in Moderation)

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: I’ve been an out-group member of a leadership team as well as an in-group member, and I can confirm what we all know: the latter is preferable. But why does this happen? It has to do with experiences that are embedded in our brains. The experiences foster “LMX” for “leader-member exchange” which can be stronger with certain people than others. But it will be helpful at times and hurtful at other times. Read this Harvard Business Review article to beginning learning the difference.

by Bradley Kirkman, Hui Wang, Ning Li and Yang Sui, Harvard Business Review, 4/10/17.

…But whether leaders think it or not, one of the most consistent findings in our (and others’) research is that almost all leaders do treat members differently — mostly without knowing they’re doing it. This works a lot like subconscious biases that, when revealed to people, almost always result in feelings of surprise and embarrassment. Leaders can’t help having implicit ideas and preferences for what they want their team members to do and to be like. And those preconceived notions lead to what researchers have called “differentiation” in the level of relationship quality leaders have with members, with relationship quality often referred to as “leader-member exchange,” or LMX for short.

When a leader and a follower share a high level of LMX, that follower typically exhibits the types of positive outcomes all leaders want to see, such as high performance, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior, or going above and beyond one’s typical job responsibilities. Those with high LMX are also more committed to their companies, more satisfied with their leaders, and less likely to quit their jobs. So if high LMX generates all of these positive outcomes, why don’t leaders build high LMX levels with all of their followers? We have already mentioned the effects of implicit leader preferences — a lot of differential treatment occurs naturally and without a great deal of conscious thought. Beyond the subconscious explanation, however, is one that is more practical: leaders today simply don’t have the time necessary to build high-quality relationships with everyone in their team. This is even more complicated in lean organizations, in which many leaders have responsibility for large teams (and often several teams at once).

Fortunately, research suggests that playing favorites can be healthy for motivating high performance in teams and individual members alike. In fact, the effects of LMX differentiation — or the extent to which leaders form relationships of different quality with members in the same team — can be positive for both team and individual outcomes, depending on whether certain conditions are present. For example, our colleagues Berrin Erdogan and Talya Bauer at Portland State University found that LMX differentiation has no effects or positive effects on individual team members as long as those team members perceive that their leaders have created a team climate characterized by fairness. That is, there are no effects or positive effects when leaders provide resources to team members using fair and unbiased decision-making procedures. Specifically, Erdogan and Bauer found that more LMX differentiation was associated with increased helping behaviors among team members when members believed they were working in a fair team climate. Similarly, Bob Liden of the University of Illinois at Chicago and his colleagues found that LMX differentiation was associated with higher team performance but only when there was a high level of coordination, communication, and integration within the teams (known as team interdependence).

COMMUNICATION & 5 Ways to Motivate a Team

The 5 Communication Habits All Leaders Need to Motivate a Team” by Marcel Schwantes, Inc. Magazine, 1/18/17.

A global leadership study revealed that 85 percent of companies reported an urgent need to develop employees with leadership potential.

…

For this conversation, I’m going to simplify the practice of great leadership communication down to 5 principles.

1. Communicate in “we” rather than “I” or “you” language.

As a leader, you may not be consciously aware of the role language plays. It can build up or tear down your tribe. There are things you may choose to say that will either empower or disempower.

There are certain “I” or “you” statements you want to avoid, as it may come across as critical or bossy, as if employees are there to serve you and your needs, instead of the reverse. (If servant leadership is a new business concept for you, start here)…

2. Communicate with radical honesty…

Their HR team put together a Crucial Conversations®training that is rooted on radical honesty to step up and handle high-stakes issues to improve company-wide results.

Results were dramatic. Teams reported better synergy and team unity, and found new ways to help each other. Their sales team used the learned skills to drastically improve interactions with customers.

3. Communicate with the aim of developing trust first…

In his phenomenal book The Speed Of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey says that a team with high trust will produce results faster and at lower cost. But should you first earn the trust of your people? Or does trust develop from having a belief in your people first — their strengths, abilities, and commitment?

In other words, which of these two statements would you agree with?

A. Trust is something that people must earn.

B. Trust is something that should be given as a gift.

If you chose A, you’re in the majority. Conventional thinking says that people have to earn trust first, and if they violate that trust, it becomes difficult to earn it back, right? But if you selected B, pat yourself on the back. It has been found that, in healthy organizations, leaders are willing to give trust to their followers first, and they give it as a gift even before it’s earned.

4. Communicate through regular praise and recognition.

Did you know that receiving recognition is the most important performance motivator? It’s also a powerful way to get employees motivated…

The companies in one large Gallup study that displayed the highest engagement levels use recognition and praise as powerful motivators to get employee commitment and loyalty.

…

Praise should be given once per week.

5. Communicate the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Companies with leaders who “sweep things under the rug” will eventually be exposed as not trustworthy. The flip side is transparent and truth-telling leaderswho will explain current realities and bring everyone into the conversation for unity. Such leaders will win hearts and minds of loyal employees.

LEADERSHIP EVALUATION & Are You A Good Boss? Test Yourself With These 5 Questions

by Lisa Quast, Forbes Magazine, 1/2/17.

… A Gallup study of 7,272 U.S. adults revealed that 50 percent had left their job to get away from their manager to improve their life at some point in their career.

Poor people management skills also negatively affect employee happiness and productivity, with managers accounting for up to 70% of variance in employee engagement scores.

Want to find out how good you are as a people manager? See how many of these five questions you can answer with “yes.”

Have you clearly defined and communicated the vision and strategy for your group, department or organization?

Have you worked with each employee to help him or her understand the role they play in contributing to the success of the organization?
According to a Robert Half Management Resources survey, 53 percent of workers are unable to make the connection between their day-to-day duties and how they impact the company’s financials.

Do you meet regularly with each employee for progress discussions?

… This doesn’t mean meeting once a year with employees to provide performance feedback – it means holding regularly scheduled two-way communication sessions, providing ongoing feedback year-round, giving credit where it is due, and being unafraid to have difficult conversations.

Do you empower your employees to succeed by delegating challenging and meaningful work?

People want to succeed and they want to continue learning. If you don’t provide opportunities for growth and help employees build on their strengths, then you won’t be viewed as a good people leader.

Do you recognize great work?

This doesn’t mean throwing out a “nice job” comment every now and then. Backhanded compliments – an insult disguised as a compliment – also don’t count. Recognizing great work means providing recognition and rewards that reinforce positive behavior, increases employees’ sense of progress and keep them motivated.

TEAMWORK & Here Are The Optimum # of Members You Should Have on Your Team, According to Science

by Marissa Levin, Inc. Magazine, 8/30/16.

The right number.

The ideal number of team members is two.

“Pairs are the simplest and most stable bond in chemistry and in life. Humans form pairs in love and marriage and as friends. Adding a third person to a pair often complicates matters, and some trios can be explosive,” says Karlgaard. There are four main categories of team pairings:

Occasion pairs come together for a specific project. They band and disband quickly. They don’t always like each other but they need each other.
Similarity pairs are often ideally paired and work together in complete harmony. They can become too interdependent on each other.
Difference pairs consist of partners that compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They are opposites attracting.
Inequality pairs include leader/follower or mentor/protege pairings. There is always an imbalance among the partners.

For medium-sized teams, five-nine members is the optimal number for building closeness. For larger groups, 11-18 team members is the maximum number of people someone can trust.

For much larger teams, 150 and 1,500 are magic numbers.

…researchers and entrepreneurs Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone distill the process of creating the highest performing teams in their best-selling book, Team Genius: The New Science of High Performing Teams…

keywords: LEAD 600 teams teamwork

STRESS & Good Leaders Model Well-being Practices #TakeTimeOff

“Help Your Team Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout” by Rich Fernandez, Harvard Business Review, 1/21/16.

… Model and encourage well-being practices.

Worker stress levels are rising, with over half of the global workforce (53%) reporting that they are closer to burnout than they were just five years ago, according to a Regus Group survey of over 22,000 business people across 100 countries. And while stress can be contagious, the converse is also true: when any member of a team experiences well-being, the effect seems to spread across the entire team. According to a recent Gallup research report that surveyed 105 teams over six three-month periods, individual team members who reported experiencing well-being were 20% more likely to have other team members who also reported thriving six months later. Takeaway: understand and prioritize activities that promote well-being for yourself and your team. They could include such things as offering personal development tools, like mindfulness and resilience training; explicitly encouraging people to take time for exercise or other renewal activities, such as walking meetings; or building buffer time into deliverables calendars so that people can work flexibly and at a manageable pace.

Allow time to disconnect outside of work.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, workers around the world spend 34 to 48 hours at work each week on average, and many engage in work or related activities after business hours. McKinsey Quarterlysuggests that “always-on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy.” And one of the most significant findings in employee pulse surveys that I’ve seen in companies large and small is that employees have an exceptionally hard time disconnecting from work…

STO LEADERSHIP & My Answers to Questions About 3-STRand Leaders: Strategic, Tactical & Relational

by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 9/25/15.

I have written extensively on the importance of team building with complimentary leaders, including creating a questionnaire to help you find your leadership mix. Called STO Leadership (Strategic, Tactical and Relational [previously I designated operational] Leaders) a student asked important deeper questions about it. Below are my answers which help expand (with his good questions) the importance of understanding Strategic-Tactical-Relational leadership.

Here are the questions from the student, with my answers embedded in them.

Student: Do tactical leaders have to have equal or exceeding competency as the relational leaders they are leading in the given subject? (I would lean toward, ‘no’)

Whitesel: Tactical leaders are good at analysis, usually more than content. Thus, they enjoy balancing either bank statements or cultural/evangelical mandates. Therefore, analysis trumps content, so no they do not have to have exceeding (or even equal competency) in a given subject with the leaders they are leading.

Student: I have a suspicion that strategic leaders are also not the best at developing new leaders. Just last night someone on my board said, “we need to disciple these people, how are we going to do it?” I just drew a blank. She was right, but I didn’t know what to say. Not because I didn’t want to do it – I just can’t figure the process.

Whitesel: Right, the process often is beyond the strategic leader’s skills. That is why strategic leaders need tactical leaders as their closest partners.

Student: I have attempted to employ some of these things (like holding volunteers accountable) and it blew up in a huge way. The people may not have thought me ‘wrong’ but they did think me ‘mean.’ In a family church structure – peace is more important than production.

Whitesel: Strategic leaders are not good at holding people accountable (neither are tactical leaders). For example, a strategic leader on a board may say, “Joe and Mary aren’t around much anymore and they seem dissatisfied. I think we should ask them to resign from the administrative board if they are not going to support our mission.” The tactical leader on the board replies, “They haven’t given money in a month, and I’ve noticed they’ve been absence four out of the past five Sundays.” As a result the board votes to ask for Joe and Mary’s resignation. What is happening is that a relational leader is missing, to be the go-between between the S and T leaders and the volunteers.

Student: This read helps me put people like Nouwen into perspective. I have a hunch, and I may be completely wrong, that he is a strategic leader. When I read his writings it seems he has a difficult time prescribing process and practicality. Wonderful matters and paints a beautiful picture of the Christian in his book “In the Name of Jesus” – but what really does he want people to do?

Whitesel: Exactly, at a conference I was listening to a very strategic thinker-author one day and another one the next. Their speeches are largely one “catch phrase” after another. I don’t think many pastors were getting ideas that would help back home.

Student: To verify what Whitesel shared about a strong focus on strategic leadership to the neglect of tactical, I checked out the DVD’s to the 2007 leadership summit put on by Hybels and gang. The messages from 2007 include the following: “Vision to Die For,” “Strategy and Leadership,” “Living for the Greater Good,” “Building Humanity,” and “Whatever You Do, Inspire Me.” These are all strategy/vision appealing messages. I think those that are more tactical oriented are just not popular by attendees, and they are presented by speakers who are brought back perennially. I know I have left feeling more inspired than equipped.

Whitesel: You summarized it well, “more inspired than equipped.” 😉

STO 3-STRand STRand #ThinkTankOH

TEAMWORK & When to Give Feedback in a Group and When to Do It One-on-One

Roger Schwarz, August 19, 2015, Harvard Business Review.

… Give feedback in a team setting when:

One or more team members are experiencing negative consequences caused by other team members.

Team members are the source of the feedback.

The issue involves most of the team.

… Give feedback one-on-one when:

Other team members are not being affected by the behavior and have no information to provide.

You want to help the team member prepare for receiving team feedback or coach the team member after receiving feedback from other team members.

… Underlying this approach is the principle that team members are accountable for giving feedback directly to those with whom they are interdependent. Apart from team members doing their own work, this is the most basic form of team accountability. Leaders are continually exhorting their employees to work as a team and to be accountable to the team. But, if you always provide the feedback, you take away the opportunity for your direct reports to develop this essential skill, and you undermine the accountability required to function as a team.

If you’re thinking that it makes sense to give feedback on team issues in a team setting, but you’re concerned that your team doesn’t have the skills to do this, you’re not alone. Many leaders share this concern. You can begin changing this by talking with your team about how you expect team members to be accountable to each other — not just to you or the larger organization. If you share your expectations for your direct reports, agree on how you’ll work together, and give your team the skills to meet the agreed-upon expectation, you’ll find that problems get addressed sooner, fewer issues land on your own desk, and your team becomes a more productive, cohesive unit.

LEADERSHIP & 6 Things Real Leaders Don’t Do (Like Boss People Around) #ForbesMagazine

by Lynn Ryan, Forbes Magazine, 10/8/15.

People get hired or promoted into leadership roles every day. Sadly, when they get the job they may get little or no training on how to lead a team…

No one tells them “The trick to leadership is to have people want to do a good job — not to please you, but for themselves!” The greatest power source on earth is a team of people who are energized around a common goal…

Real Leaders Don’t Boss People Around

…What kinds of obstacles could slow people down and frustrate them? Bureaucratic processes are a big problem in many if not most organizations.

A good manager is willing to take on stupid processes and get rid of them, or soften them or figure out a way to work around them so his or her team can keep winning…

Real Leaders Don’t Bark Out Orders

Real leaders don’t bark out orders. They may have a goal in mind, and when they do they’ll say “Jane, you’re the expert. If we can get that pricing model completed this month we’ll be able to launch it at the sales meeting next month.

“Does that sound like something we can do? What do you need from me to make it easy for you to reach that goal?”…

Real Leaders Don’t Second-Guess Their Team Members

…Often the reason that people pad the dates on their schedules is that they’ve learned through harsh experience that when they honestly say “I can have that done by Friday” a poor manager will say “Then get it to me by Wednesday.”

If you don’t trust your teammates, that means you don’t trust yourself to hire trustworthy people. That’s your problem, not theirs!

Real Leaders Don’t Blame Their Employees When Something Goes Wrong

… It is easy and tempting to diagnose an employee with all sorts of problems and to characterize him or her as lazy or careless, but you hired Jack. You trained him. Until you take responsibility for Jack’s difficulties, you’ll stay frustrated and you won’t learn a thing.

Real Leaders Don’t Bring the Hammer Down Right Away

Real leaders don’t turn to disciplinary measures at the first sign of trouble. They ask questions, thoughtfully and compassionately, instead. They look for gaps in an employee’s understanding of his or her job….

TEAMWORK & How Great Leaders Build Loyalty

CONFLICT & How to Break Through Deadlock on Your Team

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel; “Each member of your team has Assumptions, Interests and Relevant information (AIR) which you must understand before getting them to ‘jointly find a solution.’ Assumptions are preconceived notions. Interests are what they want to personally get out of the solution. And relevant information is their knowledge that they don’t want you to ignore. Asking yourself what is the AIR of each person (write it down!) and jointly developing a solution is the key according to this Harvard Business Review research.”

Read more at … http://s.hbr.org/1JUgaUC

DIRECT REPORTS & The Breaking Point is 10-12 Direct Reports

by Lighthouse: A Blog About Leadership & Management, 7/4/15.

The breaking point: 10-12 direct reports

We’ve had managers of all levels of experience and team size use Lighthouse to help them manage and motivate their teams and the common pattern we’ve seen is managers struggle most with more than 10-12 reports. It’s at 10-12 people that the complexity and demands become too great for even a well-trained, experienced manager. Just look at the diagram above and how a team growing from 6 to 10 people causes the lines of communication to grow from 15 to 45 (and 66 by employee #12!). But don’t take my word for it, here’s what some experts have said:

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, has a “2 Pizza Rule” which really translates to ~8 people, since a pizza is normally cut into 8 slices and 2 slices per person is a reasonable amount.

Michael Lopp, author of Rands in Repose, uses the formula 7 +/- 3, which crucially takes into account how much time you could be committed to in 1 on 1s with everyone on your team.

Tomas Tunguz, VC at RedPoint Ventures deep dives into the concept from many sources to conclude “roughly 7″ and explores how “Span of Control” and “Span of Responsibility” impact it.

The consensus appears to be that double digit team sizes are generally a sign of trouble for a manager. So what do you do? Start developing leaders on your team.

TEAMWORK & the rapid complexity that arises when your team or small group exceeds 10 people.

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “This image from StackOverflow shows the rapid complexity that arises when your team or small group exceeds 10 people.”

TEAMWORK & Keys to Developing Leaders When Your Team Grows Too Big

by Lighthouse: A Blog About Leadership & Management, 7/4/15.

…As your team grows, it becomes geometrically more complex to manage your team. As this image from StackOverflow below shows, every person you add to a team adds many more lines of communication, making everything harder for your team. And as a manager, you’re caught in the middle of this. As your team grows, there are more tasks to delegate and outcomes to manage, more communication issues to navigate, and more interests and motivations to consider. As those issues build up, it then becomes easy to have soft skills slip. Unfortunately, it’s exactly then, when you don’t give everyone the attention, feedback, and coaching they need, you all lose. Your team can easily slip into disorder or simply resentment for you as you break promises, forget what matters to them, and struggle under the growing stress.

The breaking point: 10-12 direct reports

We’ve had managers of all levels of experience and team size use Lighthouse to help them manage and motivate their teams and the common pattern we’ve seen is managers struggle most with more than 10-12 reports. It’s at 10-12 people that the complexity and demands become too great for even a well-trained, experienced manager. Just look at the diagram above and how a team growing from 6 to 10 people causes the lines of communication to grow from 15 to 45 (and 66 by employee #12!). But don’t take my word for it, here’s what some experts have said:

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, has a “2 Pizza Rule” which really translates to ~8 people, since a pizza is normally cut into 8 slices and 2 slices per person is a reasonable amount.
Michael Lopp, author of Rands in Repose, uses the formula 7 +/- 3, which crucially takes into account how much time you could be committed to in 1 on 1s with everyone on your team.
Tomas Tunguz, VC at RedPoint Ventures deep dives into the concept from many sources to conclude “roughly 7″ and explores how “Span of Control” and “Span of Responsibility” impact it.

The consensus appears to be that double digit team sizes are generally a sign of trouble for a manager. So what do you do? Start developing leaders on your team.