Great Employees Want to Learn. Great Managers Know How to Teach.

“I’d like to work for a manager I can learn from.” This phrase has come up again and again in interviews I’ve conducted for my team at the World Economic Forum and from more junior folks who I’ve met through various mentoring programs. These people aren’t looking for someone to lecture them, they’re looking for someone who can help them build knowledge and skills as they work toward a valuable goal. As workers get more used to a fluid workplace, where longevity in one firm isn’t the goal and developing a portfolio of skills is more important, managers who can offer learning opportunities will be in high demand.

Having started my working life as a high school teacher, I’ve continued to find success when I use my teaching style to lead teams. Reflecting on how I’ve managed cases and projects, there are three traits which all good teachers share and managers in any field can learn: how to define and communicate goals, how to identify and build necessary skills, and how to create opportunities for growth. Put into practice, these attributes can help to create a positive environment filled with motivated and creative people, inside a school, a business, or any organization that relies on people to be creative and dedicated to shared goals.

Define goals and communicate them clearly

Every year, a teacher has to develop a plan for where the class will be at the end of the year with concrete steps for how to get there. The goal might be to improve reading levels by at least one grade or to show understanding of theorems in geometry. The same is true for any organization — you need to have clearly articulated goals that serve a greater mission. And just as it is not motivating in a classroom to say, “We need to read Animal Farm because it’s on the district’s curriculum,” it is not enough to say “We have to write a report on cybersecurity threats because the firm needs something to sell.” It’s far better to say, “We will accomplish this task together because it is an important factor in achieving our shared goals” (whether the goal is to become a better reader or to become a leading threat analysis company).

Good communication about goals goes both ways. Just as it’s the manager’s responsibility to communicate organizational goals clearly, it’s also the boss’s obligation to listen to employee’s personal goals and, where they align with the overall mission, support them and help build the skills necessary to achieve those shared goals.

Identify and build your team’s skills

The ability to understand and build skills is the core of effective teaching and a key management responsibility. A manager can’t lead a team if she doesn’t know what skills are needed to accomplish a goal and if she doesn’t know what the team is good at.

For a teacher, it’s standard to conduct formal assessments over the course of a year to gauge skills and measure growth. Very few organizations are going to sit all employees down for a formal skills assessment, but for adults, you just have to ask and observe. It is vital to discuss the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve success with your team and to understand, through discussion or through past experience what skills team members have and what skills they need to develop.

It’s also important, if employees are looking to build their own portfolio of skills, to ensure that they have opportunities to take on assignments that allow for that kind of growth as well. An effective manager should be able to ensure that employees enjoy a good mix of tasks they can succeed at using current skills and stretch assignments that represent opportunities for growth.

Create opportunities for growth

When an employee says she is looking for a manager she can learn from, the employee is implicitly saying that she values opportunities for growth. No one wants to feel stagnant or like they’re not achieving anything. Good teachers, and effective leaders, help those under them grow by giving effective constructive feedback and by fostering a growth mindset.

Thinking like a teacher is invaluable here as well. When a manager understands that she is helping to grow skills and achieve shared goals, rather than just assessing performance, it’s far easier to give useful and constructive feedback. Likewise, creating a work environment that promotes growth and a mindset for growth helps not only employees, but ensures that the team can make new connections and develop novel ideas.

Helping employees grow has an additional benefit to the manager who does it well — the opportunity for personal professional growth. One of the best career tips I’ve received was from Jim Snabe, the former CEO of SAP and current Chairman of Maersk. He said that, in every organization, his first task was to begin training his replacement, so that when the opportunity came for his next step, there’d always be someone ready to fill his role and continue the team’s success. The teacher-leader, by continually growing and teaching her own team, paves the way for her own success.

Source: HBR 26 Sep, 2018

How to Tell If You’re Delegating Too Much — and What to Do About It

Everyone knows leaders should delegate to ensure that they are working on the right projects and deliverables.  But if you find yourself frequently miscommunicating with your team on deliverables, hearing about issues at the last minute, and misunderstanding how your team set their priorities, it may be a sign you’ve delegated too much, leaving their employees to feel abandoned and unmotivated. At that point, it’s important to take back responsibility for certain tasks to insure you’re providing your team the guidance and structure they need. Here are three steps you can take.

Take on a symbolic project. Obviously, you don’t want to overcorrect and start doing a myriad of low-level tasks in order to reconnect with your team. But taking on a symbolic project or task can be a visible way of demonstrating your re-engagement, as well as helping the company and advancing your own learning goals. For instance, I coached one senior advertising executive who realized she had delegated too much. She decided to get back into the details by learning a new piece of software. This gave her a new skill to share with other leaders in the company and her own team. Her time spent on the software also helped in the long run because when it was time to delegate, she understood all of the specifics of getting the work accomplished.

Reset with your team. One CTO I coached realized he’d been delegating too much because he no longer had proper visibility into what his teams were working on.  He’d been frustrated that departmental projects he had delegated — such as a dashboard and internal training, (which he felt would differentiate their department in the marketplace) got lost and forgotten with looming client deadlines. To combat this, he scheduled an offsite to reconfirm the vision for the department and get everyone on the same page again about goals and expectations.

Source: HBR Sep 14, 2018

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How do you make leaders ready for the future of work?

Increased competition, globalization, a focus on optimization, tacking high customer expectations, and digitization are making “continuous change” the new normal for businesses. This means leadersneed to adapt and evolve. There is a need for a new leadership paradigm which will be critical for building and sustaining present and future leadership.

According to one definition by CCL, “Future readiness is about getting ahead of the curve. Future readiness brings together the right mindset and skill set to constantly get ahead, supported by having context relevant business and operating models which they review and revise constantly.”

One study shows that no more than 41% of organizations believe L&D programs at any leader level – from emerging and front- line all the way to the executive level – are effective.

Leadership readiness for the future starts with HR and business leaders proactively identifying much-needed leadership skills. Strategic thinking, influence, change-adaptability, creative thinking, empathy, cognitive abilities- these are only some of the critical future leadership skills. But HR’s role does not end with merely identifying these competencies and building competencies. HR leaders must frame a comprehensive leadership blueprint to sustain future leaders.

The leadership blueprint

HR leaders must focus on overcoming faultlines. ‘Faultlines’ are transition points in leadership careers where leaders cannot be successful if they rely only on skills and behaviors they used successfully in the past. Some examples of fault lines include moving from an individual contributor to a people-manager role, moving from an operational/tactical role to a strategic role, moving from strategy-execution to formulation.

The leadership blueprint for future success must not only help identify future leaders but also help them achieve greater proficiency in existing skills while building new skills. As a part of this, people must be trained to be aware of and better manage derailers. The leadership blueprint must take into account business as well as cultural challenges, both internal and external. According to DDI, Some factors to consider while building the leadership blueprint are: 

Experience

Knowledge

Personal attributes

Competencies

Tips to be future ready

A leadership blueprint should serve as the “guiding light,” but the execution is what will define leadership success.

Upskill and Reskill 

Make learning an organizational way of life. And create avenues for top-rung leaders to re-skill and re-learn especially in new-age areas such as technology, social, and media. 

According to one report, only 10% of board members surveyed report having professional technology experience. Make lifelong learning a habit at every level. Leverage digital learning channels such as mobile-based learning, micro-learning, massive open online courses (MOOCs).Cultivate a learning culture to bring about a mindset change. 

Redesign work and align talent 

The nature of work is changing, and future leaders must keep pace with these changes including‘anytime, anywhere’ work. HR must study how the impact of flexibility, autonomy, and continuous learning effect work processes and practices. This, in turn, can help the HR leaders to strategize about the future of work in the context of the company and the job role.

Strengthen the talent pipeline and encourage innovation

Future leadership readiness is about thinking long-term and planning ahead. Succession planning must incorporate elements of coaching and mentoring, employee development, productivity enhancement, career pathing, new ways of working etc.,

Exposure to new markets, and equipping your team will cross skilling opportunities will play a key role. According to one survey, 72% of respondents expressed that the need for globally mobile employees will increase during the next two to three years.

Innovation is critical if you want to outwit change. The leadership development program must encourage people to experiment and explore by building a culture of trust and collaboration.

Align talent processes 

The above elements can be achieved only when talent processes are in sync with the new leadership outlook. Whether it is the learning agenda or performance management, HR must work towards integrating the new leadership-focus into all the HR processes and workflows. 

While processes and implementations are one half of the equation, bringing about a mindset change is tough. Preparing your leaders for the future calls for a mindset change not only at the top but at the organization-wide level. 

HR must enable employees to think about the future by helping them unlock his or her potential – first individually and then collectively. This will require a high degree of collaboration and joint efforts from all the stakeholders. It will also require significant resources and sponsorship from current leaders. Sustaining future leadership success is amongst the most important leadership-mandates, it is also the most challenging. 

Source: People Matters

Be a Professional : Dress for Success

Corporate dressing helps you develop a magnetic personality which attracts other individuals. You need to have that charisma and dressing formally helps you in the same. Corporate dressing helps you create that first impression. Remember, first impressions are important and they help you throughout your life. If you fail to impress someone in the first meeting, you will never get a second chance.

The importance of a dressing for professionalism varies somewhat by industry. However, the correlation between the two is generally strong. Appearance ranked second only to communication skills when respondents named qualities most often associated with professionalism, according to a 2010 national poll conducted by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania.

The professional sense of dressing as a step by step learning and it takes time to develop a business sense so it makes sense to start it when you are perusing your professional courses. so that once you start the professional journey you are already ready to excel.

Matthew Randall, executive director of the CPE, said, "How an individual dresses for work can be a powerful extension of his personal brand. Clothes, accessories and even the footwear an employee chooses to wear help to reinforce or diminish his skills and qualities in the eyes of his employer, co-workers and clients."

The "Dress Code" Debate

Business attire has changed significantly over the years, especially in the last 20 years. Too many people have forgotten why proper business attire is important.

Some Institutions/companies prefer to allow and even encourage students or employees to dress freely or casually for comfort. This tends to work well in more creative work environments.

However, others will typically encourage and/or require a more defined and professional dress code to maintain a professional image of themselves and the business, where employees routinely interact on a daily basis with prospects, clients and business partners or students who are going to be a future business leaders and interact with them.

Conflicts arise when people prefer to dress comfortably or in the most recent styles rather than realize the importance for them to present themselves in a more professional or conservative manner. The major reason why dressing in proper business attire is important for every business professional is because it presents a visual image and sends a message that the people are professional.

How to choose a suitable business Attire

Although a one-size-fits-all or universal dress code may not be achievable or realistic, some universal guidelines are possible and could include the following:

Modest:

It is most important to get attention for great work rather than gaining attention for wearing the latest fashion fad or in appropriate leisure wear or sportswear found outside the office at a sports event, party or beach.

Comfortable: 

Wearing ill-fitting clothes – whether too tight or too loose or unsuitable for your body type – should always be avoided. If you are uncomfortable, it will make your work day truly awful. Find something that fits the outer and inner you. This applies to the fit of your attire and the comfort of the shoes you wear. Comfort needs to trump fashion in the choices made.

Outline Appropriateness:

You may have one Student or employee showing up in short gym shorts and another girl showing up in a dress that looks more appropriate for a Friday night out on the town, so in this case an appropriate dress should be chosen, which can serve to outline appropriateness.

Be mindful that basic etiquette must accompany appropriate attire. Appropriate attire must be combined with basic business and professional etiquette. The two are intertwined and integrated when presenting a professional image of yourself and your company. First impressions and overall judgments about people are formed by the way they dress. Since the way someone dresses affects the perception of a company's customers or business partners, it is important to maintain a standard of dress that creates a positive impression.