Leaders Letter 203 - Disconnected Or Disengaged Leadership
30+ Actionable Ways To Improve Your Leadership Skills In Simple Steps
Dear leaders, how do you feel your company is performing at this phase of the year?
Do you sense the company culture shifting from under your feet?
Disconnected OR Disengaged Leadership?
Often as a leader, you are intentionally disconnected from the day-to-day, sometimes even week-to-week. The benefit headspace, the risk if the team around you do not provide great updates you will be 10 to 14 days behind performance movements and that causes real issues.
As a leader, you have to understand how connected you are or make a conscious decision of how removed you want to be. There is no right or wrong answer, my guide to most is you should be no more than 3 days behind performance.
A leader is always judged on how engaged or disengaged they are.
Founder Mode Or Focus Mode?
Despite the recent narrative around ‘founder mode’, (below is a good video explaining what founder mode is and is not from Airbnb CEO & co-founder Brian Chesky) we have to be connected to what is happening and the why behind it.
Our ultimate role as a business leader is to know when to (i) step up, (ii) step in or (iii)step out of the running of the business and our departments.
Expected: If you are deliberately focusing on stepping out and allowing your management team around you to own these areas this is what you are expected to do and likely mimicking your former bosses.
Unexpected: what is not said often enough is; once your focus is too far away from the general flow of the business, you have to decide how you re-address the balance.
If you aspire to be an effective execuitve or in the future a long-term CEO knowing when to take this action and then apply muscle memory is frequently the difference between good and great executives.
Time To Step Up OR Step In
There are ways that you can step up as a leader and gain a better grip on company performance and company culture.
Often it’s about working smarter and harder (sorry there are rarely shortcuts with performance and culture) there is a BUT, there are several smart ways to step up or step in to help re-address issues within your business.
Being intentional and encouraging deliberate actions and behaviours is what good leadership is.
Formalise Your Approach - Make It A Ritual, Not Routine!
A quarterly check-in and agreement on formalised action plans will help you and your management teams to be more empowered to make better decisions.
Making something a collective ritual is creating a shared experience you look forward, versus, becoming routine which is seen as boring and “doing it again”. Rituals are experiences we long for within the business world, we will do anything to get out of another routine x or y.
As executives, we are often overly busy and time is stolen from us, however, this methodical approach creates a tactical and actionable plan to understand patterns, understand signal over noise and purposefully improve performance.
FYI: Culture often takes longer to address than performance optimisations.
Ways To Improve Your Read Of The Business
Short Term
These are activities you can take in the short term, roll out for mid to long-term success and are low effort x low cost. There are time investments you will have to make and decide what to remove from your current commitments and workload.
MIM - the most important metric updates and ownership notes from colleagues and discipline owners - big hint: go a level deeper with the layering up metrics. Many C-Suites are missing the laddering and when performance drops it takes 5 to 10 people out of their day-to-day to uncover these. If required create a checklist that the teams go through and you can review it together.
You’d be surprised how this connects teams and leadership, and rebuilds trust for both sides.Cross-functional Check-Ins - I hate dotted lines as a concept, it is confusing and goals often conflict with that said, I do believe there should be more accountability and check-ins cross-functionally. Not as formal as reporting lines but the ability to connect managers and leaders together and remove some of the politics that can be at play and gain valuable insights and feedback. This can be done asynchronously or in real-time.
Reverse Mentoring - a powerful way to understand the business and sections of the business are connecting to up-and-comers or internal influencers to help you understand the business
Work Alongside The Specialist Managers Inside Your Business - specialist managers rarely exist they went out of fashion in mass layoffs however you will have great dedicated managers who will understand performance and motivations far better than someone who has too many direct reports and struggles with check-ins
In All-hands Meetings Step Back & Observe How The Teams Behave - with what signals employees are putting out and their reactions to what is being said. If you can read body language and not hosting this is a critical part of understanding culture and how the company employees feel about leadership and the direction of the company
Meet The Official Number 2s - despite the inbuilt competitive nature of number twos, you will find out a lot more information and more in-depth information from formal number twos while building rapport with future executives.
I personally believe more time should be spent cross-functionally with different management heads and less on update meetings.Create Fortnightly Performer Awards - I personally don’t enjoy being recognised with awards at bigger awards in front of the whole business, however, I know many love the recognition from their peers and an opportunity to be praised publicly. This is an affordable way to gather feedback and create healthy competition.
Remember it is about finding the right blend and for many managers it is knowing what stage is their team members stage.Set Alerts For Your Company - this can be overwhelming if you are at a well-known or buzzy brand but often it will pull in interesting takes and forum discussions you wouldn’t be privy to without a tool or suite of tools. This will be something your Marketing team should have set up. Sentiment analysis might also help here (there are extra costs with detailed alerts but there are ways to leverage AI and a new alternative approach to classifying information and the language used will be critical for adapting messaging)
Introduce Fika - A Swedish way to connect over coffee and a cake/pastry or snack, this is usually a great way to connect and have open conversations. Go deeper with fika and encourage how the company can fund this, especially with how many team members struggle in hybrid settings
Small Reward System - many employees prefer a well done, a thank you (this is often called Trivialization Effect in behavioural economics) or a small meaningful gift over a costly present. Consider how you integrate small rewards for good behaviours and how team members can reward colleagues with thank you’s that total up to smaller rewards. Think Coffee’s, simple collective lunches and things that colleagues can enjoy together.
Mid Term
These are activities you can take in the mid-term with smaller investment needed, these recommendations will impact your mid to long-term success and are mid effort x higher reward activities. Some of these recommendations will require operational shifts.
There are time investments you will have to make and decide what to remove from your current commitments and workload.
Skip Meetings - skip meetings are designed to keep up to date with information flow and how your teams are performing, I believe skips are incredibly important and act as a leveller if you have game-playing managers or specialist department heads who struggle to communicate or to connect to some of their team members.
Cross-functional Pods Aka SWAT Teams - I have rolled this approach out three times across three different organisations, it is specialists working together on core projects or problems. It will create buzz and better measurable work while gaining more feedback. If there is a way to develop SWAT teams in your business I’d highly recommend looking at this specialist approach as this can galvanise change and growth. (Here is my deck for SWAT teams and how to think about them more deeply)
Review Manager’s Performance - review the (manager) reviews is a quick and easy way to enable you to understand how managers are actually performing (away from performance numbers and official goals set) and if they are issue creators or problem solvers. If they are issue creators you will need to address this and introduce a step in the plan.
Gain Insights From Industry Experts - this should be seen as an investment - speaking to industry experts to discuss what they see in your industry, while understanding shifts within your market, understanding the performance of competitors and taking in recommendations to progress forward.
CSAT Scores (Or Ratings) - something that has been used for years but is a real indicator of performance done right is customer satisfaction scores. You can take alternative measures of CSAT and create your own guide from a tweaked version of feedback baked into your product or asking for more detailed feedback in 1-2-1 user interviews or testing sessions.
Quarterly Business Reviews With “Tier 2” Of Management - QBRs are great ways to look at previous performance but struggle with looking ahead and re-reviewing the vital areas of performance. Revisit this with the heads of departments and their experts to understand performance and create owners and co-owners of QBR actions and department plan tweaks based on these discussions.
Regular Executive Coffee Drop-ins With HR - create regular touch points with the HR department and HR partners to understand official requests, feedback and any behaviours that are concerning. Ensure these are away from official leadership meetings to build a better relationship. Many HR teams will be reactive to Leadership teams and often senior HR managers will struggle to get their voice heard and do not want to be the bad news team, by proactively engaging with HR you create strong bonds of trust.
Introduce Exiting NPS Scores - often it is too late to gather detailed feedback most managers dislike feedback from staff who have chosen to leave them but an exit score will help you understand how they have changed over time especially if you keep a matrix of your team members. I did this with leadership teams and it is enlightening when key people leave in good or ‘bad’ times.
Review Glassdoor Reviews - some executive teams obsess about their internal scores and the bad reviews. The neutral reviews are also indicators of what’s happening or perceived to be happening and often it is something you can address or reduce down. Be mindful, most Glassdoor reviews will be on the negative end of the scale and score, consider this like having a bad meal and telling anyone who will listen, versus keeping a place a secret and not telling many people. Glassdoor can be doom and gloom so potentially look to review monthly as a leadership team versus worrying about each review and asking for instant feedback unless critically important.
Review The Reviews - if you are selling products or multiple SKUs you are likely on a review site or many. Review the reviews is an interesting leadership tactic that is often overlooked, understanding the language used and direct feedback on customer support and success will help you speak to customers and address small papercuts that will otherwise be overlooked as will not fit into a traditional stack rank model
Search Teams/Slack For A Set Of Important Keywords - a possible grey hat tactic, this isn’t always going to surface brilliant examples you want to hear about and share with the wider business, however, this is likely to highlight examples in the open conversation where you are not working hard enough or ignoring clear signals. It is important not to rely on this as a way to review peers and team members, many of this is seen as semi-private and a safe space.
Read Peer-to-Peer Reviews & Awarded Perks - this could be seen as another grey hat tactic but this is a way to understand the language and sentiment colleagues use with each other and how they praise and reward colleagues. Some will always be popular but those who go over and above and are called out for this is a sure sign they are on the right path and a great colleague.
I have previously found this is a way to pick out high performers that haven’t been seen by management yet.Feedback Cycles With Freelance, Consultants & Agencies - often overlooked and never actually undertaken, discussing with external resources provides you with a whole new perspective and allows you to understand how the company operates. Many consultants are experienced and won’t be scared to provide true feedback.
Roll Out Internal Podcast - a former recommendation made here, internal podcasts allow personality and professional expertise to shine through while making it lighter and more digestible than huge long emails and a space on the wiki. Roll out an internal podcast for performance highlights, great teasers for new campaigns and a way to connect with the different leaders across the business
Long Term
These recommended activities are for the long-term success of your business, requiring sufficient time investment and a dedicated budget assigned to gain the maximum impact. The recommendations require time to bed in and repetition to gain full traction and importantly trust. Some of these recommendations will require operational shifts.
Review carefully and ensure you assign time wisely.
Customer Panels - if you have decided to be an innovator or be a company that builds without constant customer feedback customer panels are great ways to understand how products are being understood, how they can be improved and can be a VIP service for important customers
Run Company Awards - one of the best ways to see engagement and understand the motivation of team members is a running an annual company awards, voted for by the employees. If you want to see how the teams see each other and celebrate each other awards are a great way to connect teams and bring people together under a celebration.
Hire/Appoint A Culture Community Manager - every time I mention a culture and community manager I receive feedback, I cannot emphasise enough how HR is mostly not trusted and cannot ‘control’ culture, whereas a dedicated person or mini team can help understand, feel and help to shape and mend key areas of the subculture. In a company of over 75 (and under 2000) a single culture community manager will be a valuable hire or internal hire and someone the leadership team will trust and empower to help steer the company forward
Speak To Headhunters & Recruiters For Honest Feedback From Candidates - this approach brings forward red flags and conversations will provide you insight from outside-in. A slightly political edge to this is understanding how other departments are doing and what they’re lacking in or doing badly.
Sometimes it can be good to load up your arsenal...Create Internal Conferences - a larger piece of work but I have only ever had great experiences with setting up internal conferences and bringing in great external speakers and setting challenges. You will see more about your people this way and a chance for them to share experiences
Regular Round tables - this can be with colleagues or bringing in external experts to discuss key areas, round tables are good ways to engage and build confidence in new areas alongside understanding how engaged team members are with questions and attendance
Lunch and Learns - a quick and easy way to engage team members, bring in experts and see engagement levels. I recommend offering a time slot on the same morning or afternoon that doesn’t eat into lunch breaks.
There is a lot here, and many you can take to your next leadership team meeting and address issues within the business. If you need help with any of these and would like outside assistance, hit reply or drop me a direct email.
Thanks and have a great week and good luck discussing this with your senior leadership team.
Danny Denhard