The foundational five
According to Harvard Business Publishing, five foundational capabilities are important for all people managers, but especially for those in frontline leader roles. They formulated the five based on insights from authors, leaders, and researchers.
In this newsletter, I want to share how I help leaders and potential leaders develop these capabilities. Harvard describes them as follows.
1. Develops others
by coaching and delivering ongoing feedback that energises employees instead of draining them.
2. Leads teams that deliver
by using strong interpersonal skills to build team cohesion, focusing on what matters, and providing meaningful work.
3. Leads authentically
by demonstrating behaviours that are aligned with one’s principles and values, as well as earning the trust of others through empathy, self-awareness, and the ability to admit mistakes.
4. Communicates for influence and impact
by strengthening communication skills required in person and across distances, dealing effectively with conflict, and managing difficult conversations.
5. Champions inclusion
by helping all team members feel a sense of belonging, curbing biases, and celebrating diversity.
Develops others
This is more than just putting your employee on a run-of-the-mill training program.
Development comes about through constructive feedback, learning, and growth that meets the needs of each employee and their aspirations.
Coaching and mentoring
When you coach, you provide constructive feedback so your employees can make specific improvements. You are usually focused on short-term goals and enhancing skills, performance, and effectiveness.
When you act as a mentor, you are looking at long-term goals such as career direction. You provide guidance and support and act as a sounding board. You share your insights, experiences, and wisdom to help your employees navigate their career journey.
Feedback must be provided regularly. I suggest at least fortnightly so your feedback is delivered in a timely manner that allows your employees to adjust. Providing feedback twice a year as part of the performance review process is pointless. There is no opportunity for the employee to respond to something you observed happened three months ago, and you are only sharing that observation at the review. Remember to recognise the achievement as well as the areas for improvement.
When developing leaders, I use a structured feedback approach, the CEDAR feedback model, created by Anna Wildman.
1. Provide context
2. Give examples
3. Diagnose the situation
4. Determine the actions to be taken
5. Review progress
I supplement this guidance with a discussion of active listening. Active listening is a critical skill and fundamental to successfully giving and receiving feedback.
Learning and growth
You must determine what motivates and inspires your employees. What are their short and long-term goals? How do they plan to achieve them?
This information can be discovered in coaching and mentoring sessions. It allows you to determine the learning and growth activities to help your employees achieve their short - and long-term goals.
It is important that you know your employees’ learning styles and strengths. There are many styles, including visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetics. Your employee may use one or more of these techniques to learn and grow. It is your role to find the most suitable learning channels for your employees and ensure they have ample opportunity to apply what they have learned in the real world of work.
Leads teams that deliver
When leaders recognise and reward employees for their contributions, they feel valued and connected. They are engaged and motivated.
My recognition workshop examines the five pillars of recognition: fulfilling, authentic, equitable, embedded in the culture, and personalised.
Employees must have meaningful work that gives them a sense of purpose. I work with leaders to recognise that there are two sides to the “purpose” coin: work purpose and organisational purpose, and employees want to share both.
Employees want a sense of purpose from their work. They must know how their work contributes to the team's and organisation’s purpose.
Leaders must see their employees as people first and foremost rather than as workers.
I aid them in the development of their social and interpersonal skills.
· High levels of self-awareness
· Ability to communicate and listen effectively
· Facility for working with a diverse workforce
· Theory of mind – the capacity to infer how others are thinking and feeling
Leads authentically
Leaders must demonstrate that their words and behaviours are aligned with their espoused values. They must work to gain the trust of others.
In September 2023, I wrote a newsletter about the lack of trust between employees and employers. I introduced the Trust Matrix, which I used to help leaders evaluate the level of trust in their teams. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. It is a team exercise, so while the leader is accountable for reinstating or improving trust, the whole team can share the responsibility for making it happen.
Having measured it, I help leaders focus on the components of trust that will have the greatest impact.
There are two aspects to the matrix – character and competence – within which there are 12 components.
Character reflects how you are on the inside, your intent, and the level of integrity you display in your relationship with others. These depend primarily on the level of development of your emotional intelligence and social intelligence. Intent is demonstrated by caring, transparency, and openness; integrity is demonstrated by honesty, fairness, and authenticity.
Competence reflects how you are on the outside, your capability, and the results you deliver. These depend primarily on the level of development of your mental intelligence, your education, and what you have learned during your professional career. Capability is demonstrated by skills, knowledge, and experience. Results are demonstrated by reputation, credibility, and performance.
Communicates for influence and impact
I work with leadership teams to increase the effectiveness of their communication and help them become active listeners. Too often, leaders believe they have communicated when they have done no such thing. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
Communication should be a conversation.
A Little Less Communication and A Little More Conversation Please Part 1
A Little Less Communication and A Little More Conversation Please Part 1
Active listening is a critical skill. You cannot empathise if you do not listen, provide direction, provide support, coach or mentor, communicate effectively, and the list goes on. Listening is the foundation of all the other things a leader must be capable of. My active listening workshop is one of my most popular offerings.
I help leaders have the courage to have hard conversations and not avoid them. Firstly, they must not label them as “difficult” conversations.
When leaders label a conversation as “difficult” in advance, they see the situation through a particular frame that will make them feel uneasy, nervous, or anxious. Reframe the conversation as a positive one. Rather than thinking they are giving someone negative feedback on their performance, they see it as a conversation that will help them grow and develop. They offer an alternative solution rather than saying “No” to an employee.
The hardest conversation should not be the first. If an employee is not performing and it has been decided that letting them go will be the best for them, the team, and the organisation, there should have been many conversations before that final one. There should be no surprises. There must be a mutual understanding of why the conversation is taking place. If this is a termination conversation, leaders must ensure they have engaged HR for advice.
Leaders must ensure that data and facts, not hearsay, support hard conversations. The conversations must happen promptly. There is no room for procrastination. The situation could deteriorate and make the conversation harder than needed if held earlier.
Leaders must deliver these conversations with empathy, be able to listen, and actively ensure mutual understanding.
When leaders do not have a hard conversation with a team member regarding their behaviour or performance, it can devastate the rest of the team. They will be aware of the person’s underperformance or conflictive behaviour. They will suffer due to the behaviour itself and potentially be forced to pick up the slack. When leaders do not have the conversation, they essentially say they do not care and that the team should tolerate the situation. When they have the conversation, they are saying that neither they nor the team should accept the situation, and they will take action to rectify it. When the team knows the leader will have these conversations, when necessary, they know the leader has their back and there is trust.
Champions inclusion
One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is providing a sense of belonging, curbing biases, and celebrating diversity. I find that this is not due to a lack of commitment to do it, but rather a lack of understanding of what it is and what it entails.
I quoted Julie Kratz in a February newsletter, who defined the lack of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging problem.
“Mistrust, fear and lack of education continue to hold organisations back because most C-suites are composed of white males. There's often a lack of understanding of diversity and inclusion issues due to their own limited lived experiences.”
I help leaders recognise their cognitive biases because when they don't, it can be extremely dangerous, not only to them but also to the team and the organisation.
In two newsletters, I explored 10 cognitive biases that every leader must know.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about the need to burst the groupthink bubble so that leaders leverage different viewpoints.
I run workshops with leadership teams, helping them appreciate all the dimensions of diversity and help everyone feel a sense of belonging. I also talk about psychological safety - what it is and what it is not - and how to create it. When there is an environment of psychological safety, employees feel heard, valued, and respected.
Summary
When you master these five foundational capabilities, you will get the best from your team. Remember that continuous change requires continuous transformation. To remain the best leader you can be, you will need to learn and develop continually. Be prepared to learn, unlearn, and relearn.