Michal's blog

Practical guide to managing people

I have often been asked to share some common situations new team leads face and that come up in my coaching practice. Here are a few that I hope to be instructive but not definitely not comprehensive. (It's an excerpt from my talk at 'Software Team Meet up'. There are many wonderful and much longer guides to being an effective first-time manager; my favourite book on the topic is ‘First Break All the Rules”.

In my humble opinion, the primary purpose of your role as manager is to keep your people engaged, productive and growing. Here are the ways I think that can be done effectively:

 

Effective 1:1's

• Ensure your folks are challenged, engaged and highly productive

• It’s an opportunity for mutual feedback

• Creates deeper and clearer mutual understanding of motivation

• No surprises at formal checkpoints (performance reviews)

• It’s investing time for them and you

• Keep regular and consistent meeting times and agenda - it’s an important indicator of your commitment to them

 

Agenda - powerful questions:

1 Version:

   •    How do you think you are doing?

   •    How do I think you are doing?*

   •    How will you know? what information do you need? then what/what’s next?

   •    How is the team doing?

2 Version:

   •    What was the highlight of your week?

   •    What could have gone better?

   •    Is there anything blocking you, or that you need from me?

   •    How am I doing?

   •    How are you doing?

   •    Is there anything else I haven’t asked about that I should have

For more depth behind this model check out Fred Kaufman’s “Conscious Business” model for Communication: Listening, Ask Questions, Validating, Summarize, Express, Negotiate, Commit(ments)

 

Setting stretch goals to achieve your organizations Objectives & Key Results

 

A good number is 3-5 goals at any one time. Structure your direct reports’ goals so that they support your goals, which in turn support your company’s goals. The best goals are a balance of personal development/learning and outcome-based goals that line up to your team's Vision and Organizations’ Vision/Goals.

 

These goals must be within your and your staff’s control. It’s a collaborative process where you provide the context and you want to give them lots of room to define how they plan to accomplish them.  Goals are best when they are specific, reasonable and have a timeline associated with them.

Examples of personal development goals you might pick are: improve my Python coding skills so that I get faster and better and the number of bugs in my code are significantly reduced,  find 5 creative ways to acquire customers that result in x more customers over y period of time etc.

 

Most successful folks focus on breaking down large goals into mini-goals or milestones both because it's easier to manage and because it feels good to see your progress over time.

 

There are a great many resources around goal setting

   •    Chapter 2 of Becoming the Evidence-Based Manager

   •    http://topachievement.com/smart.html

   •    https://www.gv.com/lib/how-google-sets-goals-objectives-and-key-results-okrs

 

How to course correct poor performers

When people are experiencing a performance struggle e.g. they are not meeting your expectations or missing clear goals/deadlines, here's what I recommend:

Step 1:

   •    1:1 verbal discussion (you and the employee) about issue, and

   •    use this guide:

1.   Put them at ease

1. Ask permission to give feedback

2. Choose a suitable moment

3. Provide feedback in private

2. Be specific and observable

1. • Stick to observable facts

2. • Avoid judgment, opinions and comments

3. • Avoid absolutes (e.g., never, always, constantly)

3. Explain the impact

1. •Describe specifically how the behavior promotes or hinders desired results

4. Work together on next steps

1. • Confirm - you may not have the whole story

2. •Understand– simple confusion is common

3. •Help -involve other person in identifying options

 

If issue issues persists please continue to Step 2

 

Step 2) Involve HR and/or create a Performance Improvement Plan

By this point the person is no longer surprised by the issue. In my experience people generally choose to either try and improve or acknowledge this isn’t a good fit for them and negotiate a departure.

 

Step 3) A performance plan sets clear expectations of items needing resolving/repairing and the ultimatum clear-- with a hard date set.  For example: 30 days to do X and Y, if not met, then termination. Signature or some other form of clear accountability on part of employee

 

Step 4) Success — a new skills is built and level of achievement is possible or negotiate their termination - transition to leaving e.g. will they have time to wrap up, do you want them to go, what will fair compensation be (consider how you would want to be treated in the same situation).

Know that many folks in this same situation have turned things around and are now highly successful as a result of this practice. Sometimes the sting of direct feedback is what we need to find focus and performance.

 

Delegating to continuously build your next team leads

 

The main principle behind this approach requires that you allow for failure. It will feel incredibly difficult to let go - to feel the sting of watching someone on your team potentially fail. It’s probably among the hardest things to do. This is a four step approach:

Phase 1: requires that you offer support and guidance

Phase 2: tactical instruction, describing the how and why

Phase 3: support and guidance, encouraging and championing their success thus far and course correcting

Phase 4: let them go - celebrate success

 

A word or few, on adding new team members

 

1 - hold a 1:1 meeting and cover the following:

a - share the vision of the team,

b-  relevant history of your team in the context of your organization

c- discuss a preliminary set of SMART goals for the person e.g., get up to speed on, focus on, etc.

d- set frequency for check-ins on progress and time to get to know each other e.g., weekly or bi-weekly and time of day

2 - Have a fun (whatever fun means for you) team type session to welcome them. in that session you can share with each other this:

a - strengths and what that means to each person e.g., i'm an activator and in this job that = ...

b - learning e.g., I can contribute this great stuff/skills/experience to team and would really like to learn x, y, or z (you could also add dislikes e.g., i hate filing but will do it in a pinch)

c - logistics/style e.g.,  never call me before 10am cause i'm a late riser; I like direct and timely feedback

 

Please ask me to provide more insights for you in whatever situation you may find yourself. email me :)

Career Growth and Transitions aka Mountain Climbing

 

Many of my coaching clients are in varying stages of career transition and growth - particularly defining ‘What’s next?!’. I like the metaphor of mountain climbing as we consider a career choice(s) going forward. Are you climbing the next peak? Are you resting as you reassess the next climb? Are you at the top surveying what you’ve accomplished? Figuring out where my client is in their climb can help us work together to determine where they should go next.

 

Personally, I’m at the top of a recent peak, having taken a good rest and reflected on what I’ve just accomplished. Now I’m assessing where I’m going next and what I’ll need to be successful. It’s from this lovely perspective that I’ve been able to articulate six key elements into a Framework I need to evaluate my path and my ‘Stake’ for my next significant climb: Vision, Values, Commitment, Structure, Health and Financials.

 

What do I mean by a ‘Stake’? A Stake is a statement that represents your rallying cry, your motto, a notion that will sustain and propel you forward. It is also something you are tethered to (much like a stake in the ground) that you can return to over and over again to be reminded and re-energized. A Stake typically takes the form “I will be ___ so that I can do ___.” It’s important to capture both elements of being and action. How you are or how you aspire to be in order to achieve whatever great action you intend to undertake. (The concept of ‘Stake’ is based on the co-active leadership model).

 

When I was on the plateau resting and rejuvenating, my Stake was “with laughter and steadfast focus I open the door to my new way” (I wrote more about this in a previous blog post). That gave me the way to be able to process my recent experiences and get myself ready for my next climb. Now that I’m ready to climb my next mountain, I don’t yet know what’s at the top of this next mountain except that I know enough to know it when I’ll see it. So for now my stake is “grounded confidence so that I can bend (be flexible) while I climb”. That’s all I need now to start climbing.

 

This is where my framework comes in, when we climb mountains we know where we’re heading - up - but the path there isn’t always straight. Sometimes you need to handle switchbacks, sharp right or left angles, etc. In the software or startup world - we call those pivots. In a career landscape, these are milestones and data points. As I climb I may find that a working assumption is validated or denied which requires a course correction etc.

Leveraging the book Change Anything, which is based on research in human psychology to help people create new habits to support lasting change, I defined key elements in my framework I could use to evaluate where I want to go next. My next step or stage or climb in my career is likely to span a minimum of 5 and more likely 10 years. I want to be sure that I am choosing the mountain carefully and am as prepared as possible to tackle it. Here’s my framework for that assessment.

1. Vision: how does this opportunity line up to your big ass Vision for your life? or this stage of your life?

2. Values: how does this opportunity align with your values?

3. Commitment: does this opportunity give you a sense of commitment, purpose, motivation? Will it stand through the tough and the easy times ahead?

4. People/Team: who will you be surrounded with? do they inspire you? will you learn from them? what do you like about them?

5. Structures:

1. Economics/Financials: how do the economics of the opportunity line up to your needs over the time period proposed e.g. if you’re joining a startup do you get equity and salary, what’s the risk of the equity, does the salary cover your cost of living, etc

2. Environment e.g. geographic location, office, What is the physical environment and how does that support what you need e.g. working from home or an office, is it in the same city you live or will you be commuting, is there travel, is that good? etc

6. Health: how will this career move support your ability to maintain overall health, physical, mental and spiritual?

Many career paths are straightforward, there is a role, title, or position you aspire to within your company or industry. What is not typically as clear is what it will take to get there - your path. That’s where the climbing comes in. What do you need to climb? what knowledge? who can you rely on as allies for your climb? what will serve as data points to let you know you’re on the right path?

I hope your Stake and this Framework strengthens your capability to grow in your career and helps you have fun climbing :)!