Leadership Style
Leadership was the topic of our first-ever virtual GLOW session. With thanks to the technologies of today, our GLOW community is still able to connect, inspire and empower one another in both personal and professional ways during the unnerving times surrounding COVID-19. While the welcome hugs and handshakes were missed, there was still great energy and invaluable insights shared.
Leadership is at the forefront of any manager’s success and working on strategies, best practices and tactics to constantly improve is what separates the great leaders from the average managers.
Taking a collaborative approach to this subjectively experienced topic, the session kicked off with members sharing what they think makes for a good and a bad manager. From challenging, performance-driven approaches to more empathic and personal ones, leadership styles vary from industry to industry, workplace to workplace and even from coast to coast.
Here are some of the qualities GLOW members attributed to a successful leader:
Building trust
The most fruitful leadership styles begin with mutual trust between a manager and their direct report. Trust has a profound impact on individual and organization-wide performance. It builds the foundation for motivation, loyalty, and teamwork.
“Your team needs to know that no matter what, you have their back.”
Taking it personally
People work for people, not companies. Caring personally about your direct reports is the foundation of trust building. While many managers shy away from getting too personal, it is important for your direct reports to know that the value you see in them exists beyond their professional contributions to your team.
“Work isn't just a job, it's a big part of your life. When there’s care and thought put into the relationship and team, everything you do becomes much more meaningful.”
If you want to learn how to balance caring personally while still challenging your direct reports, Kim Scott’s best-seller “Radical Candor” offers a high-performing framework to apply in your day to day.
Investing in direct reports’ career growth, goals, and aspirations
Careers define a large proportion of one’s livelihood. As a manager, it is your responsibility to mentor your direct reports’ growth to help them to develop their skillset, figure out what it is they want to contribute to and know what it is they're great at. If they are unsure of what it is, exactly, they want to do, try implementing a side desk project program to give allocated time to direct reports so that they can empower themselves to learn more about their own interests organically. This will not only contribute to their performance but will also help you to know when they are ready for the next step in their career - whether that be at your company or elsewhere.
“I want my direct reports to be better at that role than I ever could have been”
Reward and recognition
The desire for validation is one of the deepest human needs. Reward and recognition not only fulfill more basic monetary needs but also much more personal ones when awarded the right way. Conversations around promotions and raises should often be initiated by the manager to show that their direct reports’ work is being actively acknowledged and valued. However, managers should be careful that they are not awarding their direct reports with small raises and title changes as a mechanism for consciously or unconsciously limiting their long term growth. Moreover, giving credit when due is also one of the most powerful ways to empower your direct reports.
“The best leaders never take credit, but they always take the blame”
Asking for feedback as a manager
No matter how many theories or research studies available, the best leadership and management style is one that is unique to each person and situation. There really is no one-size-fits-all. The best way to overcome this subjective barrier is to simply ask your direct reports for feedback. Once you have built trust and shown that you care personally about them and their careers, this will not be as hard a conversation as you may have once thought. Once they have relayed to you what they like/do not like about your management style, be sure to commit to implementing their feedback and to check in with them on a regular basis on this topic.
In regards to tangible best practices managers can immediately put into practice to strengthen their relationships with their direct reports, 3 key strategies emerged:
Personality & communication compatibility exploration
Co-workers spend more time with each other than they do their own friends and families. It is important to take the time to really get to know one another, and personality tests are a great way to create a comfortable space for people to express and explain who they truly are so that your team can find a better way of working together.
Below are 3 of our GLOW members’ favorite tests to implement. Build a spreadsheet with columns that align with learnings from the test. Have your direct reports take the test and migrate, in their own words, the most important learnings into the spreadsheet. Make sure you take the test too and then sep up a time to go through the test results and spreadsheet with your team so that there is an open dialogue they can continue to expand upon:
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
The Insights Discovery Personal Profile
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
OKRs
OKRs (objectives & key results) empower individuals to take on their own leadership. By allowing your direct reports to set their own measurable goals, they will have the individualistic motivation to achieve those goals while contributing to the overall performance of your team and organization. At the beginning of each year, quarter, month or week sit down with your direct report to help them decide what their tangible goals are and how they aim to achieve them.
Require your team to send updates (either weekly or monthly depending upon the timespan the OKRs are set within) to track their progress and motivation. Just because you are letting your direct reports be their own leaders does not mean your job is done. Be sure to leverage your 1:1s to check in with them to show that you are invested in their growth - both professionally, and personally.
Mood lifters
It’s the small things that make the biggest difference to the happiness of your direct reports, and by showing you are actively implementing practices to improve their wellbeing, your relationship with your direct report will only continue to grow.
Below are a few ideas to improve the morale of your team:
Sacred Hours & Wellness Wednesdays
Give your team 1 hour a week or 1 Wednesday a month to block off their calendar whenever they want to go and do whatever they like. The sacred hour and wellness Wednesday are intended to create boundaries, promote healthy work-life balance, and to serve as a small reminder that there is more to life than a work to-do list.
Creative Fridays
Dedicating a day in the week to a specific cause or purpose is a great week to break up the work routine to give your direct reports ample headspace to think about their overarching personal and professional goals. Creative Fridays give your team a whole day to explore new creative projects or ideas they might have for the company. No meetings, no deadlines, just isolated time to focus on the bigger picture.
Coffee & Snacks
We hate to admit it, but snacks really do make our days so much brighter. Simply asking what your direct reports’ favorite coffee and snacks are and providing them in the office will give them the small pick-me-ups they may need throughout their days.
The most effective way to ensure high-quality leadership is to make sure you are hiring the right fit for the role from the get-go. Your vibe attracts your tribe, so make sure you’re hiring based on compatibility and complementary skills and personalities.
We ended the evening by having the group share their go-to best practices for hiring. Here are our GLOW members’ tips to help you hire the right person for the job and for your team:
Strategic sourcing
If you are planning to hire for an open role, the first thing you should do is take a look at your current team and think about what might be missing in its energy and dynamic. Do you need someone with more feminine qualities if you have a confrontational team or would the team benefit from a more aggressive style approach? Find what is lacking and then look to fill it with your new hire.
Intuition
While we might have an ideal candidate in mind on paper, we might not always find them and even if we do it might just not feel right. It is important to enter your recruiting and interview process with trust in your gut instinct and intuition.
Interview questions
The questions you ask in the interview process are extremely important. Think out of the box but do not go in with the aim of throwing off candidates to a point where they are stricken with nerves. Asking questions like “what drives you?”, “what do you want to contribute to in your career?” or “what are the top 5 most important characteristics needed to succeed in this role?” will help you to determine the motivations of the interviewees as well their suitability to the role and culture at your company. The accountability in their answers is of the highest value so be attentive to not just what they respond, but the confidence they respond with.
Work & project samples
A lot of people can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? Providing candidates with a project as part of the interview process will help you to learn if they are timely, detailed orientated, and experienced in the field their resume says they are.
References
References are the most insightful way to know the compatibility of candidates for your team before it’s too late. Do your due diligence and reach out to references to ask what it was like to work with this person and whether if they, given the chance, would hire them again? If so why? Be nice, friendly and approachable to get authentic and unguarded answers from the reference.
Leadership is something our GLOW network is continuously striving to build and improve upon. Whether you decide to work with a leadership coach or join a network like GLOW, having support is quintessential in your journey to becoming the best possible manager you can be. Thinking about how you can become a better leader is the biggest step you can take, action and results will soon follow if the intention is there. We hope these tips and practices help you as much as they did us!