Leadership Today - Practical Tips For Leaders

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**Leadership Today – Practical Tips For Leaders**

Practical tips for leaders. Hosted by psychologist and founder of Leadership Today – Andrew Beveridge.

Leadership Today is a weekly leadership podcast for managers, team leaders and executives who want practical, evidence-based leadership advice. Hosted by psychologist Andrew Beveridge, each episode translates the latest leadership and organisational psychology research into simple strategies you can use immediately. Discover practical tips on leadership, management, coaching, emotional intelligence, difficult conversations, delegation, employee motivation, psychological safety, team effectiveness, change leadership and workplace performance.

Go to www.leadership.today for episodes and more information.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 94 - Addicted to Insights? Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

Summary

Have you had an 'aha' moment lately? New research provides clues into why some of us find insights so addictive.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 94 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we explore the power of insights, including what's going on in our brain when we have them, and some practical ways to have even more insights.

There are few things in life better than an 'aha' moment - that point where you've been grappling with a problem and the solution just suddenly pops into your head. It can feel quite different to solving something by working away at it methodically. Ideas can come as a slow steady slog, but sometimes there are leaps.

Researches earlier this year discovered that these sudden insights can, for some people, trigger the brain's reward system. That an insight can activate the same areas that highly pleasurable activities and even addictive drugs work on.

To explore this, the researchers presented each person with a series of anagrams while using a high resolution EEG to monitor brain activity. Let's say, for example, that you were presented with the letters ABSIS. Those letters could also make up the word BASIS. But how did you solve that? The participant would press a button to confirm whether it was an insight or more of an analytical process. So the word BASIS might just pop into your head, or you might mentally start shifting the letters around in a more analytical way.

Researchers can actually see the moment when the insight occurs as it is accompanied by a burst of gamma-band brainwaves right before the person indicates that they have had an insight solution. So what did they discover? Not surprisingly, they found that insight solutions were faster than analytical solutions. Insights pop into our head much faster than our ability to consciously think through potential solutions. What is really interesting is that many people also showed a second burst in the orbitofrontal cortex - a region of the brain just above the orbits of your eyes, thus the name, which is associated with reward and pleasure. This reward burst occurs just a tenth of a second after the insight, so it is too quick to be the result of conscious thought. It turns out that for many people the insight itself is inherently pleasurable, rather than something that we decide should be pleasurable.

The researchers wanted to understand who is more likely to have this reward response, given that not everyone experiences it. To do this they had participants complete a questionnaire on reward sensitivity - the extent to which people were driven more by gaining rewards than the fear of loss. They found that those more focused on gain rather than loss were also more likely to experience a natural reward response when they had an insight. It's easy to see how that might lead people to spend more time chasing that reward, therefore investing more effort into creativity and insight generation.

So what does this mean for me as a leader? Well, let's assume you don't have a high resolution EEG lying around the house. Although I will point out that EEG units that hook up to your phone are becoming far more accurate and affordable if you did want to strap one onto the old melon to take a look under the hood. If that's not an option, here are some other suggestions:

Pose yourself problems to solve. This sounds kind of obvious, but if you don't present your brain with a problem to solve in the first place, you're not going to have an insight.
Keep positive. Researchers found those in a positive mood solved more problems via insight than those with lower mood. There are lots of benefits to having a positive mood.
Focus on what you have to gain rather than lose. That will encourage a more insight-based approach to problem solving.
Aim for low attention moments. As we have discussed before, people never come up with their best ideas while sitting at their desk. Make the most of those low stress, relaxed moments. Sometimes I pose myself a problem before I go to bed or just before I go for a run. I then don't try to actively solve the problem - I just let it sit. It's amazing how many times I have an insight when I wake up, or when I'm cooling down after that run.
Celebrate solving something hard. Even if it doesn't get your reward circuit going in the moment, maybe that piece of chocolate a little later will.

If you did want to delve into the research further, I've provided a link in the episode notes although, full disclosure, it is a pretty dense bit of reading.

And let me know your insight stories - what works for you? You can make contact via the leadership.today website. Have a great week.

Reference

Yongtaek Oh, Christine Chesebrough, Brian Erickson, Fengqing Zhang, John Kounios. An insight-related neural reward signal. NeuroImage, 2020; 214: 116757 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116757

Episode 93 - Is the Problem Worth Tackling? Sep 04, 2020

Show notes

Summary

People will bring complaints about colleagues to you as their leader. How do you figure out if an issue is worth tackling? There is a simple question that can help.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 93 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we explore how to figure out if a potential issue between staff is worth tackling. This week's podcast is going to be even shorter than usual, but I can assure you it will save you countless hours.

I'm sure you've had this experience as a leader before - if you haven't, it's only a matter of time before you do. Someone in your team, let's call them Jan, comes to you to discuss an "issue" they're having with a colleague - let's call the colleague Steve. Jan wants you to do something about this problem with Steve. Maybe Jan thinks Steve is talking too loudly on the phone, or heating something obnoxious in the microwave for lunch, or there's some kind of vague personality clash about Steve smiling too much, or Jan just thinks Steve isn't pulling his weight. You ask Jan whether she has discussed the issue with Steve directly. "No". You then ask Jan whether she would be comfortable to have that conversation with Steve directly. "No". And now we're stuck.

What is our role as leader at this point? The general principle is simple - we should encourage the person with the issue to talk directly to the person they are having an issue with. But what if they don't feel comfortable doing that, and still want you to do something about the perceived problem. And what if the perceived problem sits right on the fence. It can be challenging to know when to intervene and when to just let things slide.

There is a question to ask at this point that can save everyone a lot of time and confusion. It's simply this - "What's the business issue?"

Steve's loud talking on the phone might be distracting and frustrating other people. The business issue is lost productivity and engagement. That's worth tackling directly.

Steve's smelly microwaved lunch is wafting into the reception area, and several clients have complained about the smell. The business issue is the impact on our reputation with clients. That's worth tackling.

Steve is smiling too much. Well, I'm struggling to find the business issue there. It's not worth tackling.

Jan thinks Steve isn't pulling his weight, but you have the results to suggest that he is. Again, there's no business issue there.

Using the business issue test with the individual raising the complaint can be really helpful. That will help Jan to work out what things are worth her worrying about versus those things worth letting slide.

I've found the business issue test really helpful in highlighting what are real problems worth tackling, and what are interpersonal issues that might need to be navigated in a different way.

Well I hope you found that helpful. I received a couple of really encouraging emails from listeners to the podcast this week. You can always get in contact via the Leadership.Today website (he says, clearly fishing for a few more). And, if you do have time, a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this makes a huge difference.

Just a quick reminder about our online workshops and webinars. Go to the Live page on our website to find out more about the seven different workshops we offer, and also to register for an upcoming free monthly webinar. I would love to have you along.

Have a great week.

Episode 92 - Five Ways to Stop Zoom Killing Your Focus Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

Summary

Video conferencing has rapidly increased in popularity, but the cognitive and attentional load can make it exhausting. In this week's Leadership Today podcast we look at five ways to stop Zoom killing your focus.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 92 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at five ways to stop Zoom killing your focus.

Zoom and other video conferencing services have seen a rapid rise in popularity. People have flocked to video conferencing as the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting, particularly when trying to build social connection. During a global pandemic, video conferencing has proven to be a lifesaver for many people forced to work from home. It's a testament to the quality of Zoom that the brand name is now synonymous with web-based video conferencing. We are becoming increasingly dependent on access to Zoom, as evidenced by a recent outage that disrupted millions of people including online schooling and businesses.

And Zoom isn't just a back up for when we can't be face-to-face. Research conducted last year showed Zoom was rated positively for qualitative data collection in health care interviews, coming in ahead of face-to-face, phone and other video conferencing options when they factored efficiency into the equation.

Amidst all of that success and celebration there are recurring and largely anecdotal concerns emerging about the impact of video conferencing on our attention and energy levels. People report feeling drained and exhausted at the end of a full day of Zoom calls. It's too early for there to be specific research about why this might be the case, but the field of attention research gives us some clues to why Zoom is killing our ability to focus.

Let's face it, weird things happen on Zoom calls that would never happen in a 'real' meeting. We see people fixing their hair as they stare at themselves. People keep looking away from the camera to a second screen so you end up having a conversation with their ear. People eating anything looks disgusting - seriously, stop eating while using Zoom. We see people talking but no words are coming out - you're on mute! Surprise people and their pets appear out of nowhere. People keep trying to talk at the same time which leads to a flurry of "no, no, you go first". As we look behind people it feels like we are in a dozen different rooms at once. And, while we're talking backgrounds, why not include an even more distracting virtual background? Sure, you're on a beach, or drifting through space. In a sign of just how confused we are, we even feel the need to wave goodbye at the end of a Zoom call. It's exhausting.

What are the challenges of Zoom calls, or indeed most other video conferencing tools? There are three main issues:

Visual distractions. We are not used to seeing ourselves in action, and it's easy to become fixated, or at least distracted, by how we look. It's easy for the meeting to then feel like a performance. Simultaneously seeing multiple faces is also strange. We wouldn't normally have people lined up in a grid like the start of the Brady Bunch, but rather be attending to one or two faces at any point in time. Reseach has repeatedly demonstrated that visual distractions significantly decrease our ability to focus and increase stress.
Auditory distractions. The inability for everyone to speak at once is a real issue. The small delays and "loudest person wins" nature of Zoom make auditory processing a challenge. The audio itself is of a higher quality than a typical phone call, but it still feels more draining than a landline phone call due to these artefacts.
You can't look into someone's eyes. I might try to fake eye contact by staring at the camera, but then I can't see you. Thankfully, research demonstrates that people are lousy at figuring out if we're making eye contact in real life anyway. In fact researchers found that we can't pick the difference between someone looking into our eyes versus looking predominantly at our mouth. But on Zoom, the distance between the camera and the person's face is larger than a real human face - the effect of not making eye contact is more pronounced.

All of this leads to an increased cognitive and attentional load. We end up suffering from what researchers call continuous partial attention.

So Zoom - is it worth it? That largely depends on the work and what you're trying to achieve. If you're after interaction, trust and engagement, it's hard to beat face-to-face. If face-to-face is not possible, Zoom is a great backup. We just need to recognise and manage the risks.

In particularly we need to minimise visual distractions - research has show that this leads to a 16% boost in performance for time-sensitive, high focus work, while also reducing stress by 18%. Reducing auditory distractions will also help.

So how do we reduce distractions and the cognitive and attentional load of Zoom calls and meetings. Here are five suggestions:

Hide the self view. Check that your video feed looks okay at the start of the call, then use the menu on your own image so you can no longer see yourself. Just keep in mind that others can still see you - there's a reason webcams have little lights on them to show when you're on. Search Zoom call fails on YouTube for some great examples.
Use the speaker view. Rather than having everyone on screen at once in equal size boxes, shift to just being able to see the speaker. I've found this really helps me to focus on one person at a time, rather than trying to attend to a sea of faces.
Mute when not speaking. Muting yourself reduces the audio distractions for others. We need to treat a Zoom call like it's not fully duplex, particularly as group sizes increase. Despite any claims to the contrary, the experience of multiple people trying to speak at once is far more painful on Zoom than in real life.
Make it interactive. In the field of online learning there's a popular myth that people can't attend to any video that's longer than 6 minutes. There doesn't seem to be much concrete evidence to back that up and, in fact, research shows that you can increase beyond that easily by making the video more interactive. The same principle applies to Zoom calls. Use polls, chat, breakout rooms, annotations, reactions - anything to spice things up and make it less of a presentation.
Reduce the length of your meetings. Recognise the cognitive and attentional load by making meetings shorter. As a rule of thumb I reduce the length of Zoom calls by a third to what I would expect people to engage in face-to-face.

And if none of that works, hey, here's a crazy idea - why not try a phone conference call instead? Use a bit of variety and gain ideas and input from your team about how to improve things.

Now I'm sure a lot of these technical issues will become smoothed out over time. Someone will figure out how to mount a camera behind a screen to mimic face-to-face, and I'm sure the audio challenges will reduced. Perhaps people will listen back at this episode in 5 years and think - well, how quaint! However, keep in mind the broader principle that focus and distractions are enemies. Anything we can do to reduce visual and auditory distractions at work are going to make a difference, whether it's online or in an office.

What have been your Zoom experiences? Make contact via the Leadership.Today website and let me know. I love a good story. Have a great week.

References

Archibald, M. M., Ambagtsheer, R. C., Casey, M. G., & Lawless, M. (2019). Using Zoom Videoconferencing for Qualitative Data Collection: Perceptions and Experiences of Researchers and Participants. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

Haworth Human Performance Lab. Visual Distraction Effects on Deliberate Focus Work. 2017 http://media.haworth.com/asset/96533/VisualDistractions.ResearchReport.201708.Johnson.pdf

Kathy Roper and Parminder Juneja Distractions in the workplace revisited. May 2008 Journal of Facilities Management 6(2):91-109

Nitza Geri, Amir Winer, Beni Zaks. Challenging the six-minute myth of online video lectures: Can interactivity expand the attention span of learners? Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management Volume 5, Issue 1, 2017

Shane L. Rogers, Oliver Guidetti, Craig P. Speelman, Melissa Longmuir, Ruben Phillips. Contact Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Eye Contact Illusion. Perception, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/aug/24/zoom-apologises-after-being-hit-by-partial-global-outage

Episode 91 - Team Meetings That Bring Out The Best In People Aug 21, 2020

Show notes

Summary

In this week's Leadership Today podcast we look at a structure for team meetings to bring out the best in your people.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 91 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at how to structure team meetings to bring out the best in your people.

A study released in July 2020 looked at the impact of pandemic-related lockdowns on over three million people across North America, Europe and the Middle East. Scouring through de-identified data from a technology firm, they found the number of meetings per person increased 13%, as did the number of attendees per meetings (14%). However the average length of meetings decreased by 20%, with an overall impact of people spending 12% less time per day in meetings. So more, shorter meetings with more people, but less time per day in meetings overall. But how effective are all those meetings?

In episode 89 we looked at ways to make meetings better. Last week in episode 90 I shared a monthly one-on-one meeting structure. This week we round out our focus on meetings by walking through a team meeting structure I have been using for years.

You will find the structure in the show notes. It includes:

Positives

What's going well?

Negatives

What's not going well? What's getting in the way at work?

Priorities

What are the current priorities as a team?

Support

How can we best support each other?

Interesting

What is on the horizon that we are noticing?

Anything else to discuss?

Action Items

Review action items from previous month

Add any new action items

It's important to start off with the positives and a reflection on what is going well. Depending on the size of the team this might involve some time for people to share the positives in twos and threes before summarising them back to the broader team. It's really easy to skate right past the positives. We have a tendency to underplay our successes as we shift our focus to the next big thing. However celebrations are important. Use the positives part of the meeting to recognise these accomplishments.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the discussion of positives is followed by negatives. We can sometimes be scared of talking about the negatives and what's getting in the way at work. As I've shared before, frustrations have a disastrous impact on well-being and productivity. We need to air the negatives, but also bring a focus on improvement and action.

Next we cover priorities. To be clear, this isn't about having each individual share their own priorities, but rather looking at priorities at a team-level. This discussion helps everyone to have a shared understanding of what really matters.

That leads naturally to a discussion around support. Given the priorities and challenges we have discussed, how can we best support each other? That includes supporting each other by sharing around the work load, but could also include other ways of offering support.

I always include a section in team meetings focused on interesting things. This could include things that people are noticing in the organisation, observations about clients, customers or competitors - really anything that might be of interest that doesn't neatly fit into the positive or negative categories.

The final section of the meeting is focused on action items. We take this time to review any action items from the previous month, and add any new action items.

As per the monthly one-on-one meetings I discussed last week, I share this agenda with the team, and then circulate a bullet point summary of what we discussed afterwards, just in a Word document, with the most recent meeting at the top of the document. That document helps new team members to quickly come up to speed by reviewing the main points from the last few team meetings.

If you are running your team meetings exclusively online, I would add some time at the start of the meeting as a quick check in to see how people are doing. This is particularly important for new team members who may not have met others face-to-face. You might also profile a different team member each month, having them share something about themselves like a favourite holiday destination including a photo. Building trust and connection is very difficult online, so it's worth building that into your meetings if they are exclusively online.

And you may be wondering about the monthly timing for these meetings. By all means you can meet with your team more often than monthly, however I believe it makes a big difference to have a more formal meeting once a month.

As always I love receiving feedback on episodes. You can make contact via the website at Leadership.Today. That's where you'll find today's show notes, complete with the meeting structure that you're welcome to adapt for your team. Have a great week.

Reference

Collaborating During Coronavirus: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nature of Work

Evan DeFilippis, Stephen Michael Impink, Madison Singell, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Raffaella Sadun

NBER Working Paper No. 27612 Issued in July 2020

https://www.nber.org/papers/w27612

Episode 90 - Monthly One-On-One Meetings Aug 14, 2020

Show notes

Summary

Monthly one-on-one meetings - we all know we should have them, but we might be less clear about what to discuss. This week we revisit a structure for monthly one-on-one meetings that will take your leadership to the next level.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 90 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we revisit a structure for monthly one-on-one meetings that will take your leadership to the next level.

For those playing the long game with the Leadership Today podcast, you might recall that we discussed monthly one-on-one meetings way back in August 2018 with episode 4 in the context of performance reviews. I think it's a topic worth revisiting all on its own, because so few leaders have structured one-on-one meetings with their people.

Over the past month I've been running quite a few of our online workshop, The Six Daily Practices of Remote Leadership. Towards the end of the one hour workshop I typically mention that I have examples of one-on-one and team meeting structures, and participants are always keen to take a look. I think as leaders we often want to do the right thing, but we're not sure what the right thing is. The theory is great, but it's even better to look at what all that research ends up looking like in practice. So this week's podcast is extremely practical, and you will want to review the show notes at the Leadership Today website where you can highlight and copy the one-on-one meeting structure. Next week I'll share my monthly team meeting structure.

Now I'm not saying that these structures are perfect for everyone in every situation, but I have road tested them with hundreds of leaders, and also applied them with the people and teams that I lead. They have really helped me to lead effectively, and I'm sure they will do the same for you as well. You are welcome to adapt them to your needs.

I suggest you have a more structured one-on-one meeting each month. You may already be meeting with individuals more often than that, but this structure will help you to make that a little more formal and interactive. Here's an overview of the structure and topics.

Performance

What are you currently doing well?

What do you need to work on?

Priorities

What are your current priorities?

What goals need to be added, removed or updated?

Manager Support

What's getting in the way at work?

How might we address this?

Training and Development

How is your development plan progressing?

What training and development experiences might be beneficial?

Other

Anything else to discuss?

Action Items

Review action items from previous month

Add any new action items

I share this agenda with people, then ask them to come prepared to our meeting with bullet points under each topic. I also come prepared with my own bullet point thoughts. I'm clear about my intent for the meeting - this is as much about helping them as it is about helping me. It's not a performance review - it's a structured update to help us to work together more effectively.

Let's start with performance. We don't talk about performance enough and, as a result, people are often uncomfortable with performance discussions. Discussing performance each month helps to normalise it. People are expected to come to the meeting prepared with a list of what they think they are currently doing well, and also what they need to work on. When we as their leader do the same, it's an opportunity to build a more comprehensive picture of their performance. Some people are overly hard on themselves and just focus on their development needs. As a leader you can build them up by pointing out what they're doing well. Others might overestimate their performance or understate their need for development. Including discussion about what they need to work on helps highlight that we all have things to work on. The moment we think we're perfect is the same moment we confirm that we're not perfect.

Next up is priorities. There may be priorities for your people that you're not aware of. Discussing priorities helps you to establish and clarify what the priorities are from your perspective. This additional clarity is like oxygen for your people. If you've ever worked in a role that lacked clarity around priorities, you know just how debilitating that can be. Here we also talk about goals. This isn't just to track how the person is going against their goals, but also an opportunity to add new goals, remove goals that are completed or no longer relevant, and to update other goals. In that way we're not treating goals as "set and forget" - it's helping to recognise that circumstances change, and a monthly revisit of goals is extremely useful.

Next is manager support. People face frustrations that they may not otherwise share with you unless you ask. They may not think a frustration or obstacle is worth raising with you. So we need to ask the question directly - what's getting in the way at work? Now, just because we ask the question doesn't mean that, as a leader, we take sole responsibility for fixing the issue. It's far better to work with the person to help them to remove the obstacle wherever that is possible. But there will be occasions where something needs to be addressed at your level, to either remove the frustration or reduce the impact on your people.

It's easy to let training and development plans slip, so it's great to explore progress on a monthly basis. With staff who are at earlier points in their career I spend time in this section building their resume. We discuss what they can now do that they couldn't do a month ago. This is a great way of highlighting the progress they are making, as it's very easy to not reflect on what development has been achieved. You can also use this section of the meeting to explore other development opportunities. Keep in mind that this isn't just training courses - it could be shadowing someone from another team, working on a new project, or presenting at a team meeting. Help expand the possibilities for development even further.

The section called other is a chance to discuss anything else that doesn't fit into the headings we've covered so far. We want to give our people every opportunity to share with us whatever is on their mind.

At the end of the meeting there is time to cover any action items that were committed to the previous month, and also an opportunity for the leader and their direct report to add any actions for the coming month. This helps both you and those you lead to be accountable for actions to which you have agreed.

I find these meetings take around 45 minutes to an hour with new staff, gradually settling in to around 30 to 45 minutes over time. It's not a great deal of time and effort to invest in your people.

I encourage you to give this one-on-one meeting structure a go. You might even share this episode with your team to introduce the approach. The feedback I've had from people who have implemented it has been very positive, and I would love to hear how it goes for you as well.

Have a great week and I look forward to sharing a team meeting structure with you next week.

Episode 89 - Better (and Fewer) Meetings Now! Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

Summary

The amount of time leaders spend in meetings has increased dramatically over the past 50 years. But so too, thankfully, has our understanding of what makes a meeting effective. It's time to have better (and fewer) meetings now!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 89 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at ways to have better (and fewer) meetings now!

Over the past 50 years, the average amount of time leaders spend in meetings has steadily increased from below 10 hours per week in the 1960s to now approaching 23 hours per week. And the recent proliferation of video conferencing has removed the travel time between meetings altogether. We can now move from meeting to meeting without even leaving our desk. As a result, many of the clients I am working with describe an increase in meetings with remote working, and the associated demands that places on their time.

Research into the attitudes of senior managers towards meetings identifies 65% of people who see meetings getting in the way of completing work. A similar percentage, 64%, see meetings being at the expense of deep concentration work. It's hard to get into the flow if you have meetings scheduled every other hour.

Other research by Desmond Leach and colleagues looked into the factors that lead meetings to be rated as effective by participants. They examined a range of factors including the use of an agenda, keeping minutes, punctuality, the appropriateness and comfort of the room facilities, the number of attendees, the length of the meetings and the use of a chairperson. Of all of these, they found the three most important factors were:

Agenda use - distributing an agenda ahead of time, sticking to it during the meeting and completing all the items on the agenda
Punctuality - both starting and finishing the meeting on time
Facilities - having an appropriate room that is setup well, and that is comfortable and quiet

The researchers noted that these three factors are important independent of the type of meeting. So whether the meeting is for routine issues, information sharing, or emerging problems the three key factors are agenda, punctuality and facilities.

Of course with so many meetings now occurring online, it's easy to translate the meeting room facilities finding across to the technology platforms we are using. When we are meeting online, the technology is the setting. Video conferencing software continues to improve dramatically, but does call for a different skill set to be used effectively. If you have used a particularly clunky platform, you know how detrimental that can be to the meeting, independent of the agenda and punctuality. What I call 'mixed mode meetings' are particularly challenging - where you have some people individually online, and others sitting together in a room or across several rooms. It's extremely difficult to maintain a balance between the two types of meeting attendees. It's for that reason that I recommend either having everyone in the same room, or having everyone individually online, but don't mix the two unless you have the high end technology to pull that off.

Bringing all of that together, here are five ways to have better (and fewer) meetings now:

Begin by asking "Does this need to be a meeting?" Meetings are most effective when you need real time interaction, where people are Interdependent and generating new ideas. Being in the same place at the same time allows people to build on others ideas in real time. It's also appropriate to call people together for celebrations, milestones and recognition. However, if it is one-way information sharing or updates without discussion, switch it to another format using video, email or collaboration software. There's no need to have everyone together at the same time for information sharing.
Set some shared expectations for those scheduling and facilitating meetings. Some organisations require a meeting to have a clear purpose and agenda before it can be scheduled. In addition I would look carefully at the attendee list in terms of the role each person is expected to play in the meeting. If you can't identify why someone is required, then save them the bother and don't invite them. The excuse of inviting people 'just in case something comes up' is not a good enough reason to eat into their time. It's a lazy way to lead.
Make meetings shorter. Parkinson's law states that work will expand to fill the time available, and the same is true of meetings. Yet suspiciously few meetings are scheduled for less than an hour in length. Why not give a 20 or 30 minute meeting a go. And make sure you complete the agenda. Desmond Leach's research demonstrates that people become particularly frustrated when a long meeting doesn't complete the agenda.
Start and finish on time. Punctuality really matters to people. I've seen some organisations that are brilliant at this, with everyone ready to go at the appointed time. Unfortunately, for every one of those organisations, there are others where people routinely arrive 5, 10 or 15 minutes late - with the person chairing the meeting simply waiting for everyone to arrive. That's a great way to encourage people to arrive even later next time.
Look for improvements. It's important to leave time at the end of the agenda to reflect on the effectiveness of the meeting. That might include discussing what we did well and what we need to improve.

We all need connection and collaboration. Following these research-based tips will help ensure you're only having the meetings that really matter, and that we're making the most of the investment of people's time and energy.

While I have your attention can I please ask you a favour. If you haven't already, please provide a rating or review wherever you download your podcasts. There's a reason why every podcast host asks you to do it, as it really does help others to find the podcast. Have a great week, and I look forward to sharing some more practical leadership research with you next week.

References

Stop the Meeting Madness. Leslie A. Perlow , Constance Noonan Hadley and Eunice Eun, Harvard Business Review July–August 2017

Perceived Meeting Effectiveness: The Role of Design Characteristics. Desmond J. Leach, Steven G. Rogelberg, Peter B. Warr, Jennifer L. Burnfield, Journal of Business Psychology, 2009 24:65–76.

Episode 88 - To Impress, Do Less Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

Summary

You've heard the well-known Oscar Wilde quote "Be yourself - everyone else is already taken". Yet we often tempted to be something that we're not. But the research shows us to impress, do less.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 88 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week discover that a great way to impress is to do less.

You've heard the well-known Oscar Wilde quote "Be yourself - everyone else is already taken". Yet we often tempted to be something that we're not. We often try to present ourselves the way we think others want to see us, rather than as we truly are.

If that sounds like you, you're not alone. Research shows that, when given the opportunity, 66% of people try to impress by catering to the other person's needs. In addition, 71% thought catering would be the best approach. Research also demonstrates that trying to impress is precisely the wrong strategy, especially when it comes at the expense of being ourselves.

This is particularly the case when we don't know much about the people we're trying to impress. That could include a presentation, a job interview, a sales pitch or a range of other scenarios.

To explore this further researchers set up a scenario where people were applying for a fictional job. Participants in the study were then placed into one of two groups. The first group was encouraged to be themselves - to try to be genuine and authentic. The second group was encouraged to try to position themselves in the way they thought aligned with the interviewer's expectations and interests - to cater to their needs. Those who were encouraged to just be themselves were 26% more likely to be hired than those who tried to become something they weren't in an effort to impress.

A second study was conducted at a forum where entrepreneurs were pitching ideas to a panel of judges. The entrepreneurs who were genuine in their approach were three times more likely to be selected by judges than those who tried to cater to what they thought the judges wanted to hear.

Why is being yourself better than trying to cater to what you think people want to hear? Researchers suggest three main reasons:

It's cognitively hard to not be yourself - we're not thinking at our best
It's emotionally draining to not be yourself - we're not as aware or in control of our emotions
We're anxious because we can't fully anticipate what the other person may want or expect - we're putting effort into guessing at their needs and interests

Taken together it's a recipe for poor performance.

Being yourself makes the best impression. Guessing at others' needs is far less effective.

Now the next step is if we can genuinely take others' interests into account. To do that, we need to ask people about their needs and interests. Then we don't need to guess at their needs, and we can still be ourselves. We can be genuine, informed and empathetic. That sounds much better than guessing at others' needs and pretending to be something we're not.

I hope you found that helpful. As always, the research referenced in this episode is available in the show notes at our website - leadership.today

While you're there, why not check out our upcoming webinar. Each month we run a free 45 minute webinar on a wide range of topics. If you can't make the session, you will receive a link to a recording to watch at your own time.

Have a great week, and I look forward to speaking with you again next week.

Reference

To be or not to be your authentic self? Catering to others' preferences hinders performance. Francesca Gino, Ovul Sezer, Laura Huang, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume 158, May 2020, Pages 83-100

Episode 87 - Take a Break! Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

Summary

We routinely prioritise activities that have a deadline over far more important but not urgent activities. That includes our tendency to sacrifice breaks when we're busy. But a break might be exactly what we need to boost our performance.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 87 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at the importance of taking breaks to achieve even higher levels of performance.

Researchers call it the mere urgency effect. It's the finding that people routinely prioritise tasks with a deadline independent of their importance, over far more important tasks that don't have a deadline. So even if another activity has much greater potential for outcomes, we will instead focus on a task with a deadline even if it isn't really that important. The researchers found that this effect is even more pronounced in those who consider themselves to be 'busy'.

Being busy and being effective rarely go together. We have work cultures that celebrate busy-ness above all else. I remember being cc'd on a farewell email which repeatedly spoke about the long hours this person worked, and how they had earned a rest in retirement. There was no mention of the outcomes they achieved, the difference they made to the business, or the legacy they left in others - just the long hours and the well-earned rest. Is that what you want to hear at your retirement?

The science shows that we need both stress and recovery to be truly effective. Long hours without breaks are not good for productivity and performance. Taking this to the next level, a few organisations have trialled four day weeks. In these cases employees were paid the same as they would have received for a five day week but only needed to work four days. The shorter of the two studies, with Microsoft Japan over a 5 week time frame, saw significant productivity increases of 40%. Another organisation, Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand, found job performance was maintained, but other factors such as engagement, work/life balance and stress all improved markedly. People could deliver just as much if not more in 20% less time. Clearly when it comes to performance not every hour is created equal.

This contrasts with recent research from the UK which showed 82% of people don't always take breaks. This is despite breaks being legally required for shifts of over 6 hours. The research showed that some people always take breaks, some people rarely take breaks, but most people fluctuate. Even though people were aware of the health and well-being benefits, completing tasks was still prioritised over taking breaks. A break is often seen as optional, and one of the things that is first to go when we get busy. The research also demonstrated that pressure from managers made a difference both ways. The manager sets the tone as to whether breaks are normal or not. We need to be careful about what we role model to our people. If we say 'take a break' but routinely eat lunch at our desk, guess which behaviour your people are going to follow?

Here's the problem - If we see breaks as just an opportunity to boost an individual's well-being at the expense of productivity, the work will always win. But the science is clear - breaks increase our productivity. Way back in episode 29 we talked about chronotypes - that our energy and attention levels fluctuate across the day, with most people favouring the morning, while some favour the afternoon and evening. But we're not victims of our chronotype. We can recharge our energy and attention levels through frequent breaks.

Some years ago I undertook some consulting work with a power plant. The production team was focused on, not surprisingly, production. In their minds the best scenario was to run the plant continuously and never give the plant a break. Then there was the maintenance team. In their mind the best scenario was to never run the plant so everything could be maintained at peak condition. Now those are extreme perspectives and the leaders in those areas wouldn't express it that clearly, but their actions bore it out. The pressure to run the plant at 100% collided with the risk that the entire plant could be taken out by equipment failure. But the owners and senior leaders tended to favour production over maintenance. The business made money through production, but only ever seemed to lose money through maintenance. Interestingly, even several significant unplanned outages didn't change their perspective. Clearly well-planned maintenance together with realistic production is the best scenario.

As human beings we face the same dilemma. Time doing work is favoured over long-term productivity and performance. "Just get it done" is the norm, not "make sure you refresh and re-energise".

Is there another way? How might we avoid the mere urgency effect? Here's how you might make a change:

Implement a trial and experiment on yourself. What works for others may not work for you, so prepare to try a few different approaches.
Measure your productivity - track it with numbers. This will give you a baseline measure that you can use for comparison.
Remove the choice to take breaks - schedule them in and take them. Make breaks as important as a meeting with your boss. I suggest putting them in your calendar so others can't book meetings over the top.
Use breaks to tackle those important but non-urgent activities like refuelling, exercise, connecting with people, or planning for the future. Don't just fritter the breaks away on time wasters like social media.
Measure your energy, attention and productivity across the day. Use an hourly reminder and rate each factor out of 100%.
Keep experimenting. Play around with how long you work before a break, with the length of breaks, and with what you do on those breaks. Implement a new trial.
As a leader, encourage your people to do the same.

I trust this helps in taking you out of the world of mere urgency, and allows you to deliver even greater results while also looking after yourself and others.

As always, the references used in this episode are in the show notes at the leadership.today website. And while you're there, follow the "on demand" link to find recorded webinars and our Boost Your Assertiveness online course, all available with a free 7 day trial.

References

Mike Oliver, Karen Rodham, Jennifer Taylor & Claire McIver (2020) Understanding the psychological and social influences on office workers taking breaks; a thematic analysis, Psychology & Health, DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2020.1764954

Meng Zhu, Yang Yang, Christopher K Hsee (October 2018) The Mere Urgency Effect, Journal of Consumer Research.

Episode 86 - Don't Be So Hard On Yourself Jul 17, 2020

Show notes

Summary

When things inevitably go wrong, it's far better to treat yourself like your best friend rather than your worst critic. A little self-compassion goes a long way.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 86 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at the importance of self-compassion when we're faced with setbacks and disappointments.

It was early in my career and it had been a crazy week. We had a client event coming up and needed to get physical invitations out to people as soon as possible. I put my hand up to organise the invitations and get them out the door the same day. After some quick design work and a proof read by a colleague, the invitations were on their way to clients. As the team sat together on the Friday morning that same week, a few printed invites were handed around. I received a few congratulations for having the invitations out so quickly. It was at that point that one of the Directors said "we have a problem here". I thought he was joking, but the look on his face said otherwise. It turned out that in my haste I had put the wrong street name on the invitation, automatically inserting the street from my previous workplace. At that point, the person who had proof read the invitation and given it the all clear helpfully pointed out that they hadn't proof read the invitations "for the details". I was well and truly thrown under the bus. Over 20 years later I can still remember the feeling of embarrassment, disappointment and frustration.

We've all had moments like that when we feel like we've let others down. They can really play havoc on our well-being and productivity. So how do we best respond in those moments? Research demonstrates that a little self-compassion goes a long way.

Researcher Zessin and colleagues describe self-compassion as "a positive and caring attitude of a person toward her- or himself in the face of failures and individual shortcomings". Self-compassion is about remaining positive about ourselves, and also treating ourselves in a kind way. Their analysis, combining 79 research papers, found that self-compassion is crucial for well-being. That if we are positive and caring towards ourselves, we are going to be far better off when things inevitably go wrong. We can then maintain our composure and be able to perform more effectively.

Research demonstrates that, when we mess things up, it's natural to experience negative emotions, reduced self-esteem, and even to feel excluded from the group. Self-compassion appears to buffer individuals from these adverse impacts, helping people to experience fewer negative emotions while still feeling a part of the group that they let down.

Other research shows that those with greater self-compassion feel less stressed when they end up procrastinating. So even if it is just ourselves that we're letting down, having self-compassion can help a lot.

I was eventually able to see my invitation error as a mistake that anyone could have made, and to draw out learnings from the situation. But it took weeks, not moments, to get to that point. So how do we move to acceptance faster? How do we boost our self-compassion?

To answer those questions, it's helpful to explore the different elements of self-compassion that researchers focus on. Self-compassion is often divided into three components: self-kindness, mindfulness and common humanity. Each provides an insight into how to build our levels of self-compassion:

Self-kindness - here we acknowledge the pain, but are then kind to ourselves. A helpful approach can be to consider how you would respond to a friend in the same situation. We're often far more compassionate to others than to ourselves. Taking the perspective of a considerate friend can provide a useful vantage point to put our failures into perspective.
Mindfulness - this is about being aware of our emotions and keeping them balanced. When things go wrong it's normal to experience negative emotions, but it's important to not let ourselves tip into exclusively negative territory. It can be helpful to focus on what we have learned through the situation. We also want to challenge our negative self-talk. Journalling is an approach that can help. The act of writing out the details of the situation and how we are thinking and feeling about events can make it easier to challenge the negative response we might be experiencing.
Common humanity - here we are recognising that everyone experiences challenges and set backs. Part of our common humanity is a tendency to get things wrong. Mistakes and growth can go hand in hand if we allow them to. I've found that if things are hard then I'm probably learning something - I'm sure that's true for you too.

So how are you when it comes to self-compassion? It's far better to act like your best friend rather than your worst critic. Allow yourself to experience the pain and take responsibility when you do mess up, but be kind to yourself so you can move forward.

Well, would you believe it has been two years since I launched the Leadership Today podcast. In that time we've had 86 main episodes and 13 Midweek Motivate episodes - 99 in total. Over that time we've cracked it onto the management podcast charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Singapore, Uganda and the United States. All of this was to help thousands of leaders to achieve results through people for good. I'm really thankful for the people I've met along the way, and look forward to extending into our third year. And, as is apparently mandatory at the end of all podcasts, if Leadership Today has been helpful to you, a great way to say thanks is with a rating and review, or just sharing the podcast with a friend. Have a great week.

References

Zessin, U., Dickhäuser, O., & Garbade, S. (2015). The relationship between self‐compassion and well‐being: A meta‐analysis. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being, 7(3), 340-364.

James H. Wirth, Ashley Batts Allen and Emily M. Zitek Self-Compassion Buffers Against the Negative Effects of a Poor Performance. Social Psychology, May 2020.

Sirois, F. M. (2014). Procrastination and stress: Exploring the role of self-compassion. Self and Identity, 13(2), 128-145.

Episode 85 - It Turns Out Development Isn't Quite 70/20/10 Jul 10, 2020

Show notes

Summary

The most widely cited model when it comes to development is 70/20/10. While it is often referenced, it is also frequently misunderstood. This week we look at why development isn't quite 70/20/10.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 85 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges. This week we look at why development isn't quite 70/20/10.

The most widely cited model when it comes to development is 70/20/10. While it is often referenced, it is also frequently misunderstood. The idea is that organisations and individuals should focus development opportunities around three different areas:

70% of development should be "on the job"
20% should be with "other people"
10% should be through "courses"

So where did these suspiciously rounded-off figures come from? 70/20/10 was coined by Bob Eichinger, Mike Lombardo and Morgan McCall in the 1980s with the Center for Creative Leadership. They arrived at the figures based on responses from senior executives about their key development experiences. The 70/20/10 proportions were a rounded-off representation of the themes coming through those reflections. Despite the widespread acceptance of the model, it has also received a number of criticisms, most of which are unfair. For example, some suggest that 70/20/10 is saying that formal learning isn't important, or that the 'on the job' component is passive. Neither of those really reflect the model and the authors' intent.

One reasonable criticism is that the work was based on a relatively small number of US executives who also turned out to be predominantly male and white. Anyone who is familiar with research into leadership will recognise this isn't the only place where this has been a problem. In fact some argue that the bulk of psychological research has been conducted on university and college students - hardly a representative sample of the population. In addition, it does suffer from what we could call 'survivor bias'. When we ask existing leaders to reflect back on what made them successful, we're staring back in time to what made these people successful during the 1970s. A similar criticism can be levelled at research based on successful entrepreneurs who gain an almost cult-like status. If we ignore all of the unsuccessful entrepreneurs whose businesses failed, it's hard to gain a true perspective on what really made the difference for the successful ones.

The original intent of the model was to encourage organisations to proactively focus on the development of their people, and that a great way of doing that is through the work they conduct, the people they interact with, and the occasional more formal training they undertake. If we accept that original intent, it's easy to see that 70/20/10 is a helpful guide when considering development opportunities.

Since the original study the Center for Creative Leadership has updated the figures using a broader and more diverse sample. They have drawn out some interesting nuances to the model. Their latest research shows that the 70% "on the job" element is actually made up of challenging assignments (45%) and hardships such as business mistakes or losing a job (22%). So the 70 is actually 67. The updated 20% "other people" is actually 23%. And the 10% "courses" is actually 5% coursework and 5% personal life.

I'm sure you will appreciate that calling 70/20/10 the 45/22/23/5/5 model is far less catchy, so it's okay to stick with 70/20/10. What I find most interesting is the picking apart of the "on the job" component.

As I flagged earlier, often "on the job" is misinterpreted as passive learning - that somehow learning and development will just happen as people go about their day job. But the "on the job" element is not just business as usual. As CCL have highlighted, 45% of our leadership development tends to be through stretching and challenging assignments. We can take a proactive approach to giving people challenging accountabilities and roles in the context of their development goals. That would go a long way towards helping people to grow and develop. The tension we face in doing that is organisations typically want people who can already do the job, whereas individuals typically want jobs that allow them to develop. So organisations will need to shift towards seeing appointments and promotions as development opportunities, at least in part. We can still assess whether people have potential, but even the best tools still require us to roll the dice a bit on talent. Taking this approach may actually reduce the certainty that someone will work out. But it does reinforce, again, the importance of the "20" (or 23) part of 70/20/10. If we're going to stretch people, then we really need to surround them with people who can support and encourage their development. Giving someone a stretch assignment is far more like growing a plant from a seedling than it is like screwing in a new light bulb.

You might want to think about and discuss with your people the kind of stretch assignments that might aide in their development. If I think back through my career, I really wasn't ready for my first consulting role, my first people management role, my first executive leadership role, or for running my own business. Each transition felt like jumping into the deep end of the pool yet again. But it always felt like I had people around me cheering me on who were prepared to jump in to rescue me occasionally if that's what it took. In summary, 45% of our development is likely to come from challenging assignments. Work with your people to help identify their development goals and options to safely stretch them.

I find the 22% of development coming from hardships really interesting. Does it mean that we should manufacture hardships for our people? Obviously not, although I do occasionally think that's what some leaders are trying to do. Rather we should see hardships as a key element of development. They are a great chance to learn, provided people see them that way and are supported to draw out the key development outcomes. Of course, hardships are more likely as you take on greater responsibility. As you work with people to give them challenging assignments, you're also increasing the risk of hardships. Think back over the hardships in your own career and how much you learned. For me the global financial crisis was one of the greatest business hardships I've experienced. I don't think it's coincidental that the development gained through that tough time coincided with me being in a stretching role.

Here in July 2020 we're still in the midst of a global pandemic. Are we helping our people to use this hardship as a development opportunity? Are we taking that mindset into it ourselves? Perhaps one way to help ourselves and our people come through this time is to focus on the opportunities to stretch and grow.

In all of this, the 70/20/10 model reminds us that we each need an opportunity to reflect and build on the learning through connections. Provide people with the opportunity to connect and reflect on hardships and learning. Be there for your people as they are stretched beyond what they think they can do. If we do this, we will all emerge stronger and more capable.

As I wrap things up and on a more personal note - how are you going? Can I encourage you that if you're finding these current circumstances challenging and stressful then, congratulations, you're a human being like the rest of us. Hopefully this episode reminds each of us of the opportunity to emerge stronger, and the need to support others through to the other side, whatever that might look like. Have a great week.

Reference

Putting Experience at the Center of Talent Management By: Joan Gurvis, Cindy McCauley, and Milynn Swofford. Center for Creative Leadership

https://cclinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/talentmanagement.e-1.pdf