People Matter. Know Thy Team and Be HUMAN!
We’ve all seen the parodies of bad bosses. Office Space and The Office should be required in any business course on leadership. It’s easy to know how to not be the cliché “bad manager”. Yet, leaders these days are trying to avoid being that jerk while forgetting what it’s like to be a GREAT leader.
There are so many books and blogs on this subject. The sheer volume written on leadership is indicative of its importance in the workplace. It also shows that we keep failing our teams.
So where’s the golden nugget of knowledge? Where to start being a good leader?
That’s right, it’s simple. Be a person, with a heart, emotions, thoughts, frustrations, dreams and goals. We’ll get into a lot of those areas in other posts, but I want to focus on the whole-ness of your humanity.
Most organizations start with a single person or a small group of inspired people with a good idea. Fast forward to when the company finally makes it big, goes public, is sold…and it’s not that same small group of committed individuals. Somewhere along the way, it’s grown into a team. Then multiple teams. Then divisions with their own sets of teams. The farther from those founders, the more likely the organization morphs into a faceless giant.
We’ve gotten better dressed in fancier offices, but there’s a fine line between modern organizations and outdated industrial revolution manufacturing factory floor workers. Heck, at least they got to punch in and punch out — now we’re expecting everyone to be on 24/7. The growth of any organization robs the workplace of a certain humanity.
Now it’s time to lead a team with different backgrounds, skills sets and motivations. You may be replacing a beloved boss or coming in to turn around a sinking ship. There are so many variables, but there’s one thing to remind yourself.
You are a human being. They are all human beings.
Get to know your team. Not superficially. Not water cooler banter about the local news. Not in passing or in trite ways. But really develop relationships with everyone and gain deep insight into their drivers.
This takes time, but is a more than great investment. It starts when you first walk in to the room to meet your team. Some suggestions on how to build this humanity into your team…
The night before taking the helm, you should have a nervous excitement. It’s like the first day at a new school. Your slate is wiped clean (unless you have a reputation in the organization or industry of being an incredible leader…or a terrible leader. Hate to say it, but there’s little middle ground when it comes to a reputation).
If you are staying up the night starting to figure out how you can successfully lead a team, it’s too late. This first impression should take a while to plan.
Everything is a signal to your team. Where you park, how you walk in, your first minutes in the office. Do you call a short meeting or a long presentation? Do you meet with folks individually or not? Do you bring your lunch or flee the office? The signals start immediately, and your team will be looking at every little thing you do.
2) Performance reviews help
Ah, the dreaded performance review. Seems like this outdated concept shouldn’t be on this list. Yes, terribly run, overly formal-for-no-reason and unproductive reviews should be out the window. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, as there IS a need and room for fruitful reviews.
I’m also a believer in consistent, ongoing productive feedback in a more informal setting. Informal coaching with help you establish a relationship with your team and keep communications open. Even outside of this coaching, having a structured performance review is a great idea.
With so much constantly swirling in our minds, inboxes, slack channels…it’s rare that in the workplace we get to take an unimpeded look at the work we do. For me, that’s the best part of a formal performance review. Sitting in a quiet room with your team and drilling down into how they are performing, ways to improve and how you can help.
As you veer between professional and personal development, dig into what they are saying. Have their motivations changed? Are they looking to make shifts in their life? What skills do they want to be learning? Getting to the core of where each member of your team is, will help you lead them better.
3) Really notice the small things — they usually aren’t so small.
When I was in Houston, leading the turnaround of The Princeton Review’s call center, I inherited a team that that was horribly underperforming. Some of it was their fault. Some of it was management’s fault. I could gain their trust over time, and with the backing of TPR’s senior leadership had an incredible turnaround success.
There was one incredible sales rep named Connie. She was a product of the South with a buttery drawl and kind soul you could tell just by saying hello. She was one of the top sales reps in the call center as she took her time to get deep with callers and establish trust. I was always in awe when listening to her sell.
Over time I noticed that her energy and sales would ebb and flow every few weeks. She would go from being punctual and gregarious to showing up late and being withdrawn. Connie had a stiff upper lip and didn’t want to talk with anyone about it.
Although in the larger picture of this role, a bit of tardiness and a drop in the performance wasn’t the biggest issue, I took note and had a series of informal talks with Connie. Instead of talking about the issue of tardiness, I talked to her about life. Instead of trying to “fix” the problem of low sales, I talked to her about her background.
And then we had a revelation.
Connie worked for TPR for almost a decade, but she never told anyone else in the company her secret. She had a history of battling cancer and it was threatening a return. Her “performance issues” were due to medical appointments and the physical and mental drain of battling a deadly disease.
After some tears, we devised a strategic roadmap. She could continue to work full time but allow for treatments and space for her to cope with the illness. Over the next months, I was so happy to see her not only win the battle over her illness but do so with dignity and continue to be one of our highest selling reps.
4) Trust
In turning around the call center, one of the issues I discovered was that our sales reps were also in charge of customer service. Want a way to zap talented sales reps? Give them customer support calls.
It’s something that had “always been” at the call center, so people stopped complaining before I had arrived. Siphoning off the support calls to a separate team was a welcome surprise to the team, who could now focus on only taking sales calls.
In building a new support team, I tried to think of the best and worst experiences I’ve had with phone support. When representatives were understanding, engaging and acted like real people I had a good experience. When they were robotic, scripted and curt, even if the problem was solved, my view of the company would be tarnished.
So, I set out to find great customer support reps — an unforgiving role that demanded cool confidence.
After interviewing dozens of candidates, two bubbled up to the top of the pack, but were risky choices. The first was an unemployed sarcasm-filled man with a pronounced stutter. The other was a college student with a meek demeanor.
On paper these seemed like the worst choices and I heard from a lot of people what a mistake these hires would be. I wavered a bit, but knew I was making the right choice and hired them both. I gave them a chance to develop this new support role with me and trusted them implicitly.
Why did I hire them? Although quirky on paper, both individuals had revealed that they were empathetic human beings with wit, humor and patience. Sean’s stutter made him relatable and humanized to callers. Lauren’s meek demeanor off the phone gave way to a bubbly personality on each call.
Without a doubt these two didn’t fit the mold of a “typical” customer service rep, but I trusted them to care for our customers and they didn’t disappoint.
I’ve seen so many leaders put up walls and barriers to make themselves less mortal and more untouchable. Those facades feel empowering and give a sense of invincibility, but they also createunnecessary tension.
Put down the idea of being an aloof executive and dig in with your teams. Get to know them individually and as a unit. This humanization will give you the best opportunity to lead them into battle and get their maximum efforts and positive results.
This was written while listening to the vinyl album:
Originally published at tomvranas.com.
