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Awful Meetings

9/27/2022

Leaders consistently rate their own meetings much more positively than attendees do. When managers assume their meetings are going smoothly, they are less likely to solicit feedback and seek opportunities to improve. As a result, frustrations that attendees experience don’t get fixed (irrelevant agenda items, unnecessarily long duration, lack of focus), leaving employees disgruntled and disengaged.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Steven G. Rogelberg, Chancellor’s Professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and author of The Surprising Science of Meetings, helps managers improve their meeting skills. Among his tips:

Assessment: Take a few minutes after each meeting you run to reflect on attendee behavior, conversational dynamics, and content that was covered. Were people distracted? Conducting side conversations? Did you do most of the talking? Consider inviting attendees to offer advice so you can identify your meeting strengths and weaknesses and create a plan for improvement.
Preparation: When it comes to meetings, especially regularly scheduled ones, people tend to show up and wing it. Before a meeting, force yourself to make deliberate choices: What will be covered; who should attend; what is the best time and place? Doing the same thing every time can cause attendees to “glaze over.”
Facilitation: People often view meetings as interruptions of their “real work.” To mitigate such an attitude, greet people at the door and express gratitude for their time. Begin with a purposeful opening statement explaining why you have gathered. As the conversation gets under way, adopt a stewardship mindset, asking questions, engaging others, modeling active listening, drawing out concerns, and managing conflicts.
Reassessment: Even when managers proactively diagnose their meeting problems and learn to better prepare for and facilitate the gatherings they lead, there will undoubtedly be room for continuous improvement. And so the process begins again.

What have you done to improve the caliber of team meetings? To join the conversation, click "comments" above.

If you would like to learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication, visit our online learning programs.

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Reward Effort, Not Outcome

9/20/2022

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In a commencement address at Stanford, Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke four words that encapsulate years of research on the psychology of human motivation: "Reward effort, not outcome.”

Pichai is tapping into the power of creating sources of intrinsic motivation: People are moved to do something because they enjoy it, love the challenge, or find it intriguing…not to gain a reward or avoid punishment. This strategy he says, works well not just with your employees but also with your kids. Although it might seem counterintuitive, science backs up this approach. Here’s why:

Your employees (and kids) will procrastinate less: Being driven by results that please others (extrinsic motivation) can reduce long-term productivity. When we become singularly focused on a goal and the steps required to reach it, we can fall into the trap of socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP). Research shows SPP is linked to anxiety and depression—and to avoid those feelings, we may procrastinate.
They will think outside the box: When effort is rewarded we are more likely to take risks. Risk-taking is how innovation occurs. Additionally, research suggests that intrinsic motivation spurs creativity.
They will stay motivated: Focusing on what really motivates us about what we do--how emotionally invested we are in it, how interested we are in it, how it contributes to our sense of self—is an endless well, and is therefore a very sustainable type of motivation.

When was the last time someone celebrated your effort regardless of outcome, and how did you respond? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. We would love to about your experience!

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Onboarding From Afar

9/6/2022

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As any manager who has tried it can tell you, onboarding new employees remotely is a challenge. And a bad onboarding experience can have long-lasting negative fallout. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, James M. Citrin and Darleen DeRosa, co-authors of Leading From a Distance: Practical Lessons for Virtual Success, offer recommendations for companies large and small who want to make onboarding strategies succeed.

Get off to a fast start: Create a plan to mitigate first-day nerves and allow new employees to feel welcome and gain confidence. Appoint a dedicated onboarding liaison, and try to set up their technology ahead of time to minimize breakdowns.
Establish Strong Relationships Across the Organization: Virtual settings make spontaneous relationship-building less likely. Be proactive about setting up a mix of formal and informal one-on-one interactions between the new hire and colleagues. Some companies set up a “shadow week” in which the new hire attends a wide variety of team and stakeholder group meetings.
Explain the company culture and how work gets done: Make unspoken assumptions explicit. Spend more time than you generally would in a face-to-face environment talking about what is typical and atypical across various cultural dimensions. Create the space for your new colleagues to ask about the way things are done.
Set clear expectations and connect the individual’s role to company mission and vision: A new hire should have a clear picture of what success looks like for the first 100 days and beyond. Then they can prioritize and accomplish some quick wins that create a strong foundation and build momentum for future success

Did you onboard remotely, and what was your greatest challenge? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. We would love to hear about your experiences!

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Awful Meetings

Reward Effort, Not Outcome

Onboarding From Afar

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