Developing leaders vs. leadership development

Developing leaders vs. leadership development. Is there any difference? Yes, indeed. And the chances are that not knowing the difference is costing you a lot!

Many organizations, top management, and talent management professionals don’t really understand the difference.

This incorrect paradigm results in billions of dollars in leadership programs that largely go to waste.

In this article, I want to clarify the differences and share pointers to maximize the return on investment (ROI) of their leadership development efforts..

Keeping pace with the VUCA world

Senior leaders today face an extremely challenging business environment. The rapid pace of change, global competition, and changing customer preferences are just a few of the many challenges.

The acronym VUCA, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, is an apt description of a business world leader that leaders must learn to adapt to and thrive in.

Hence, the pace of learning and leadership development must keep pace with these rapid changes in business conditions.

Developing leaders is a priority

In countless surveys over the years, CEOs and top executives have confirmed the importance of developing leaders. Leadership development is usually one of the top 3-4 priorities of organizations. Organizations are spending a lot of time, money, and effort to develop leaders.

In 2014, in the United States alone, an estimated $60 billion were spent in various initiatives to develop leaders.

Now that we are at the end of 2020, that figure probably has grown even larger. Add to that – the worldwide investment in developing leaders by organizations outside of the United States – in Europe, Asia (especially China and India), South America, and the rest of the world – Organizations are spending staggering amounts of money on developing leaders.

Leadership development is not working!

One would think that with such enormous amounts of money spent, the state of leadership in organizations must be at a peak. Unfortunately, it is quite the opposite.

While most CEOs consider developing leaders their top priority, only a minority of the CEOs think their leadership development initiatives are effective. This is echoed in survey after survey over many years. What are the reasons for this discrepancy?

Read: Is your leadership development effective? Or is the money going down the drain?

Too much focus is on leader development and not enough focus on leadership development

Let me explain the distinction between leader development and leadership development.

Leader development can be defined as developing the knowledge, skills, abilities, confidence, and behaviors of an individual leader to make her more effective. The focus is often on developing the individual. It lacks a comprehensive and systemic perspective.

Leadership development can be defined as building an environment where people in the organization develop leadership skills, abilities, behaviors, and attitudes.

It is about building a network of relationships amongst individuals where they support one another and work towards a greater good. It is about building a leadership culture.
Leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Leadership involves people, and hence it is a social and interpersonal process.

Watch: Drive Business Results by Leveraging Leadership

Research by McCauley and Day

Here are some pointers from the research by McCauley and Day, as listed on Wikipedia

• “Leadership development is defined as the expansion of a group’s capacity to produce direction, alignment, and commitment (McCauley et al.), in contrast to leader development which is the expansion of one’s ability to be effective in leadership roles and processes.”

• “Leader development is described as one aspect of the broader process of leadership development (McCauley et al., 2010).”

• “Leader development focuses on developing individual knowledge, skills, and abilities (human capital), whereas leadership development focuses on building networked relationships (social capital) among individuals in an organization.”

• “In leader development, the focus is on intrapersonal skills of self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation; leadership development focuses on interpersonal skills of social awareness and social skills (Day, 2000).”

• “Leader development keys in on the assumption that effective leadership occurs through the development of individual leaders, whereas leadership development is a function of the social resources that are rooted in relationships (Day, 2000).”

Please don’t call it leadership development!

In fact, the researchers argue that what most organizations coin as leadership development should actually be labeled as leader development!

Leader development is a subset of leadership development. Unfortunately, too much of the focus of organizations has been on developing individual leaders. And the consequences of this wrong paradigm can be seen in the outcomes.

Agreed that many methods and processes for leader development can be improved, but this single-minded focus on developing leaders at the expense of leadership development is a major culprit for huge amounts of investment going down the drain.

Focus on the seeds or the soil?

This difference in leader development vs. leadership development can be nicely explained using a simple analogy. If you want to plant an apple orchard, should you focus only on the quality of the apple seeds? Or should you consider the soil in which the seeds will be planted?

Even if you have the best seeds, if the soil and the environment in which the seeds are planted are not suitable, the results will be disappointing at best. To grow the best apple orchard, you cannot choose one over the other.

You have to focus both on the seeds and the soil. In good soil, an average seed will flourish. In bad soil, even the best of the seeds may wither.

Going from leader development to leadership development

In the same way, organizations should not focus only on developing individual leaders but also devote equal focus and resources to organization-wide leadership development.

“Organizations cannot choose one or the other approach, but instead, a bridge must be anchored on either side of leader and leadership development for effective development to occur (Kegan, 1994). Therefore, it is important to develop the intrapersonal capabilities to serve as a foundation for interpersonal competence and link both leader and leadership development together.”

If you only develop individual leaders, will it result in effective organizational leadership? Not really! We may develop the individual’s leadership capacity.

Still, it does not necessarily mean that the individual will be able to apply these skills effectively unless supported by the team and the company culture.

Read:  The fundamental problem with executive education and leadership development programs

How do you increase the focus on leadership development?

Here are some pointers on how to enhance the focus on leadership development to ensure that you are getting a good return on your leadership development initiatives

• Stop sending a few people to episodic leadership development programs!

When organizations send just a handful of leaders to short-duration episodic leadership programs, it is a complete waste of time and money.

A three-day program at a B-school on “Influential leadership” may look good on a leader’s resume but does little in terms of changed behavior at work.

First of all, such programs assume that all participating leaders need the same instruction to convert them into an ideal “influential leader.” Each leader is different. The context and culture of the organization they work in are different.

The “case studies” taught have little relevance or application to each leader’s specific situation and circumstances. No wonder such programs do little to benefit the leader or the team in terms of improvements at work.

• Customize leader development to the individual and the context

Standard cookie cutter “leadership programs” don’t work. They assume that all leaders need the same improvement, and a standard curriculum would address that need.

The fact is that each individual has different strengths and different improvement areas. They have different backgrounds and experiences.

They each work in a culture that is unique to the organization. Unless we identify and work on individual improvement areas specific to the leader, there is little chance of improving the leader at work.

• Involve the leader’s team members in the leadership development initiative

As mentioned earlier, leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is a social and interpersonal process. Involving team members in the leader’s development is one of the best ways to extend leader development into leadership development.

This can be done through 360-degree feedback, collecting suggestions for the leader’s improvement, and assessing the team members’ improvement. Involve team members at every step of the way.

• Have a comprehensive long term leadership development strategy

Leadership development is a process, not an event! Some organizations track the man-days spent on leadership development. Others track

how many leaders have been “trained” in leadership. The number of different programs and topics is also part of the tracking measurements. Such disjointed programs have little benefit.

A comprehensive leadership development strategy that spans years and covers the entire population of leaders is needed.

Read: How we helped our FMCG Client to move from leader development to leadership development

Let us help you move from leader development to leadership development

• Stakeholder centered coaching program

Our leadership and team coaching programs are stakeholder centered. It means that the leader’s team members are involved at every step of the 12-15 month process.

The team members share anonymous feedback on the leader’s strengths and improvement areas.

Based on the feedback, the leader selects improvement areas that are specific and customized to the individual leader.

Then the team members give their inputs and suggestions on how the leader can improve – month after month.

The leader implements these suggestions during their day-to-day work with the team members. They also anonymously rate the leader’s improvement via three surveys during this 12-15 month process.

• Benefits cascade to the entire team

Watching the leader make all the efforts to improve eventually spills over and cascades down to the team members. The best way to lead is to lead by example.

With this process, the leader leads by example, and the impact spills over to the team.

The entire team gets better. And the transition from leader development to leadership development takes root.

• Start with leaders in an entire section or division

We also advise our client to cover the leaders in an entire section, division, or throughout the company. For a relatively smaller organization, the entire company may go through the process in one shot.

For a larger organization, it may take 3-5 years. But it is really impactful. And helps the organization to transition from leader development to leadership development.

It also has a multiplier effect as many leaders, and their teams are improving simultaneously.

• Less time and money than sending people to a 5 day B school program

Our coaching program that lasts 12-15 months costs less than sending the leader to an episodic, short-term program at a reputed B-school. It also takes much less time away from work.

We come to the leader (in person or virtually) and spend approximately 1-2 hours per month during the 12-15 month process. The rest of the time, the leader in applying the learnings at work with his/her team.

• Guaranteed results or you don’t pay

In fact, we guarantee measurable results. We offer a no-growth no-pay clause for our leadership interventions. It means that if the leader does not improve, you don’t have to pay us.

Who decides if the leader has improved? It is through three anonymous assessments of the leader’s improvement by his/her own team members.

Stop wasting money on developing leaders and start implementing leadership development in your organization today!

Let us help you with leadership development and a culture of leaders at all levels in your organization. Why should you trust us?

• We are the largest leadership coaching network in the world.
• In 2020, Global Guru ranked this program, the number 1 coaching development program globally!
• It is 95% effective in a study of 84,000 leaders on 4 continents
• And best of all – we work on a no-growth no-pay guarantee

Read: Which is the best leadership development program?

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Conflict management at workplace is one of the essential skills for managers and team leaders. Having the right conflict resolution strategies can make the difference between a constructive conflict – where the goal is to come to the best solution for a particular issue.

A destructive conflict – where emotions run high, tempers may flare, relationships are strained, and performance suffers. Unresolved conflict is expensive. It wastes time and money. It is often the case in many workplaces. Fortunately, with proper conflict management at the workplace, it is also easy to address.

Here are some examples of workplace conflicts

• Manager and subordinate disagree on the performance evaluation

• Manager gives detailed instructions on tasks, but the employee hates the manager’s “micromanagement”

• During discussion, one employee, tends to raise his voice, other feels insulted, and it starts an argument

• Heated arguments and hurt feelings between departments – during the budget discussion meeting

• Giving feedback on an assignment – boss thinks it was bad, the employee completely disagrees

And there are many more that may you see at your workplace.

Conflict management definition

Conflict is a serious disagreement between two or more people or groups, usually because of the differences in their opinions, intentions, needs, or interests. Conflict arises when opposing parties are not able to come to an agreement or a compromise.

Conflict management definition – the process and techniques of managing conflict at the workplace to reduce the negative impact of conflict while taking advantage of the positive impact of any conflict.

Is conflict good or bad?

That brings us to the next question. Is conflict good or bad? Can conflict have a positive impact?

The work we do today is complex, uncertain, ambiguous, and constantly changing. There are no clear answers, and there are no decisions that are 100% correct.

Any plan or strategy is a hypothesis and the best guess based on the information available at the time. It has to be proven right through the process of trial, error, learning, and course correction.

Hence, conflict of ideas is essential to fostering learning, creativity, and innovation, better decision-making, and improved performance on the team.

On the other hand, destructive conflicts in organizations can lead to a variety of undesirable outcomes. Stress, anxiety, strained relationships, decreased productivity, missed deadlines, poor customer service, and higher turnover are some of the negative effects of a destructive conflict.

Conflict management at the workplace and having the right conflict management strategies are essential to ensure that team members have a balanced outlook on the conflict. Conflict is inevitable. Conflict of “ideas” is even desirable.

Conflict is not a problem. Conflict can be good, or it cannot be good bad. The way team members perceive conflict and the way leaders approach and manage conflict makes all the difference.

Patrick Lencioni’s concept of the conflict continuum

Patrick Lencioni, the author of the book – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, proposes the conflict continuum concept.

At one end is artificial harmony, where everyone agrees, only superficially. At the other end is destructive conflict – where people are at one another’s throats.

Artificial harmony

If people remain silent and avoid conflict, it leads to what Lencioni calls artificial harmony. Everyone on the team agrees to everything, but only superficially. They avoid conflict in the meeting. They hold back their ideas and opinions during the meeting.

But then there is the meeting after the meeting! Around the water cooler, at the coffee break, where they question the ideas and decisions made in the meeting. Needless to say, they are not committed to the decisions and course of action.

They may even sabotage the decisions and course of action taken, especially because their ideas were not heard in the meeting. Artificial harmony has a negative impact on the engagement, commitment, and performance of the team.

Image Source – https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSIBr6aEE4I/VuCvaMGBntI/AAAAAAAADH8/LHSKtIXAaWk/s1600/Lencioni-5.png

Teams have to learn and be comfortable to engage in constructive conflict. Conflict allows all ideas, opinions, points of view to be put out in the open.

They can then be listened to, discussed, and debated. The ultimate goal of the team is to come to the best possible solution to a work problem.

Unless different points of view are considered and evaluated, you may leave many good ideas on the table.

Destructive conflict

However, conflict can also get out of hand if it is not managed properly. Tempers may flare. People dig in their heels. They want to get their way. They are unwilling to listen to the other’s point of view.

There are personal attacks and insults. Relationships are strained. Opposing parties not only avoid collaborating on future projects, but they may also even attempt to sabotage others’ efforts.

The ideal conflict point

Somewhere between the two extremes, probably right in the middle, is the ideal conflict point. Everyone’s ideas are considered and debated, and decisions are made. The benefit of ideal conflict is that it allows a better commitment from the team to the final decision.

When everyone’s ideas are considered and listened to, people commit to the final decision, even if it was not the decision they had proposed.

Lencioni observes that people tend to err on the side of artificial harmony not to spoil their relationships with team members. He suggests that teams should try to move towards the ideal conflict point and not fear going a little beyond it to the other side.

The real test of a team’s health is when teams can go past the ideal conflict point and then return to normal without any collateral damage. Once teams have done this, performance accelerates.

Differences are inevitable – destructive conflict is preventable

Why does conflict arise? We all have different backgrounds, education, experiences, attitudes, perceptions, needs, and abilities. No two individuals are exactly alike, and no two individuals will always have the same opinion in every situation.

We see the world through our own unique perspective. It is through the lens of opinions, assumptions, experiences, and biases.

Unfortunately, our unique perspective is subjective, incomplete, flawed, and distorted. We think that we see reality as it is. The truth is that we all see our own little version of reality.

Five blind men and the elephant

A fantastic example of this is illustrated by the story of five blind men and the elephant. The first blind man holds the elephant’s tail and concludes that the elephant is like a rope.

The second blind man grabs the elephant’s leg and proclaims that the elephant is like a tree’s trunk. The third blind man leans against the elephant’s side and declares that the elephant is like a wall. The fourth blind man holds the elephant’s ear and thinks that the elephant is like a fan.

The fifth blind man holds the elephant’s trunk and concludes that the elephant is like a python.

Each one of these five blind men is both right and wrong. Right because from their perspective and their lens of the world, their assumptions are correct.

However, they are also wrong. To get the whole picture, we must look at the elephant from all perspectives. To resolve the problem, we need to consider all perspectives (each one of them is probably partially right) and understand the whole problem (be able to look at the whole elephant)

Two main sources of workplace conflicts

The main sources of workplace conflicts are interpersonal reasons and organizational sources. Here are a few examples of both

1. Interpersonal sources of conflicts

a. Difference in personalities of the people involved
b. Difference in communication styles
c. Difference in motivation
d. History of working together
e. Difference in education, background, experience, approaches, etc.

2. Organizational sources of conflicts

a. Unclear job descriptions
b. Ambiguity in roles
c. Competition for limited resources
d. Company politics and silos
e. Perception of inequality (or favoritism)

Conflict management at the workplace – Conflict resolution steps

There are many tools and frameworks available to understand and resolve conflicts. I am going to discuss two popular tools and their conflict resolutions steps

Conflict resolutions strategies with the LECSR Tool

LECSR is an acronym<>

L – Listen
E – Empathize
C – Clarify the issue
S – Seek Permission
R – Resolve

The LECSR tool allows conflict management at the workplace through both conflict prevention and conflict resolution. As soon as you see the signs of a disagreement turning into a conflict, call the involved parties and apply the six steps of LECSR to the situation.

Listen

When we speak, we are only repeating what we already know. In the example of five blind men and the elephant, each person may end up repeating what they know.

Listening allows others to share their perspective so that the listener can consider other perspectives. It also conveys to the speaker that you are interested in their perspective.

Listening is one of the key leadership skills. Listening is an active process. Almost all of us can become better listeners at any age or any stage of our careers.

Listen without interrupting. Listen without judgment. Keep an open mind and be curious. Listening does not necessarily mean that you agree with the other person’s perspective. It means that you understand their perspective.

Paraphrase what the other person said and get a confirmation of your understanding of their perspective. If emotions are high, allow other parties to vent their feelings without interruption and without taking them personally. Be genuinely interested and concerned.

Here are some pointers

“Tell me more about….”
“Can you give me an example of that?”
“When, how, where, what happened….”

Empathize

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. To see, understand, and feel things that the other person is experiencing.

Again, it does not mean that you agree with their perspective or position. It means that you understand them. Empathy is not sympathy.

Sympathy is when you feel compassion or pity for someone’s predicament. Empathy is experiencing the situation as the other person sees, feels, or understands.

With most reasonable people, they want to share their inputs. They want to be heard and understood. This is a critical step. Unless this hurdle is overcome, people may not be able to move to the next step.

Here are some pointers

“I understand where you are coming from.”
“If I were in your situation, I would probably be doing the same thing.”

Clarify the Issue (conflict)

After listening and empathizing, the next step is to clarify the conflict situation.

Before resolving the conflict, establish a clear understanding of the situation from all sides. Paraphrase the situation and explain the positions of the conflicting parties.

Here are some pointers

• “What you’re saying is… is that correct?”
• “If my understanding is right, this is what you are proposing.”

Seek Permission

If you are lucky, you may end up diffusing conflict just by listening, empathizing, and clarifying. The involved parties may now be ready to sit together and resolve the conflict themselves.

However, if the conflict is not yet resolved, avoid the tendency to jump in with advice. Unwanted advice is almost always unwelcome.

Too many managers and leaders tend to jump into “advice” and “problem solving” mode. There is a critical step here to seek permission first.

When you seek to understand, you may find you tend to problem-solve instead of listening. Keep on track by being someone who seeks permission.

Before you ask questions, make sure that you have asked the person if they are ready for you to ask. (Perhaps they have more to share first.)

You can wait to tell your side after the other person has expressed all of his/her concerns and feels clearly understood.

Here are some pointers

• “May I bring up a few points that you may have missed?”
• “Can I propose a couple of ideas to consider?”
• “Now that we understand each other, can we brainstorm some ideas to move forward?”

Resolve the Issue

Now that both parties have listened, empathized, clarified the issue, asked for permission, and discussed options – they can start to resolve the conflict together.

A conversation framed in this way prevents escalation of conflicts and allows the issues to be resolved. Sometimes we may have to agree to disagree or have a solution that does not satisfy all the parties completely.

With the conflict resolution steps in LECSR, conflict can be brought out instead of suppressed. Conflicts can be diffused, and they may seldom turn into destructive conflict.

Read: Everything you ever wanted to know about executive coaching and leadership coaching

Conflict management at work – Conflict resolution strategy

Conflict resolutions strategies using the Crucial Conversations framework

Another viral and research-based tool for resolving conflict is the framework of the Crucial conversation. It is from the best-selling book – Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzer

What is a crucial conversation?

The book defines a crucial conversation as – “A discussion between two or more people where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.”

In other words, a crucial conversation is a situation prone to conflict. Managing crucial conversations is akin to conflict management at work.

Crucial conversations have three characteristics.

• The stakes are high – may be a budget allocation meeting or a performance appraisal conversation

• Opinions vary – each department thinks that they deserve a larger portion of the budget, the employee thinks she deserves the promotion – boss may think otherwise

• Emotions run strong – High stakes and varying opinions are often accompanies by strong emotions. If not handled properly, things may quickly get out of hand during a crucial conversation.

Examples of crucial conversations (or conflict situations)

Crucial conversations are part of our professional and personal lives. Apart from the examples shared earlier, here are some examples from the book or conflict situations or crucial conversations

• Giving the boss feedback about her behavior

• Critiquing a colleague’s work

• Talking to a team member who isn’t keeping commitments

• Talking to a coworker who behaves offensively or makes suggestive comments

• Giving an unfavorable performance review

• Talking to a coworker about a personal hygiene problem

• Ending a relationship

• Asking a friend to repay a loan

• Asking a roommate to move out

Read: The Collateral Damage of Poor Leadership Behaviors

Three possible outcomes of conflicts aka crucial conversations

1. We can avoid them.

2. We can face them and handle them poorly.

3. We can face them and handle them well.

This is akin to our fight or flight response that is programmed in the primitive parts of our brains. Our brains are continuously scanning our environment for any danger.

This comes from the time when early humans lived in the African Savannahs. This is a survival mechanism that has helped humans survive against stronger and faster predators.

When you see a sabre tooth tiger – taking quick action – either be ready to fight the tiger or flight – run-away was the key to survival. In our modern world, we rarely face any life-threatening situations. Crucial conversations and conflict situations trigger this response.

We can fight the situation. We run away from the situation. We can get violent, or we can remain silent. Neither of the two options is productive.

We have to learn to manage crucial conversations well and learn conflict resolution strategies.

The crucial conversation framework offers a research-based conflict resolution strategy.

Image Source – https://www.thinksmarterworld.com/crucial-conversations/

7 step process for conflict management at the workplace

Here are the 7 steps of conflict management strategy using the framework of the Crucial conversation

Step 1: Start with Heart

In the heat of the conflict, we sometimes lose track of the desired outcome, and things may get personal. Start with heart means asking the following questions and keeping them in the forefront during the conflict resolution process.

• What is the outcome that I desire?
• What is really at stake here?

Here are some more questions to ask before going into conflict resolution discussions

• What do I really want for myself?
• What do I really want for others?
• What do I really want for the relationship?
• How would I behave if I really wanted these results?

Almost always, our relationships at work are not transactional. Ideally, we would want to resolve the issue and maintain a good working relationship. Knowing this allows us to keep our emotions under check.

Step 2: Learn to Look

Look for signs of a crucial conversation between yourself and others. Indicators can be physical, emotional, or behavioral. Tightening of stomach muscles, anger or fear, shouting, pointing fingers, etc. We want to identify and reinforce the mutual purpose and create a dialogue around how to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

Monitor the conversation – are we in dialogue more, or have we moved to attack or defensiveness. Use statements like “It seems like we have moved away from dialogue into being stuck in our positions” or “I’m sorry. It seems I haven’t allowed you to explain your point of view.”

Step 3: Make it Safe.

When emotions tend to run high, and conversation has moved away from dialogue, do something to get back to safety. Offer apologies, humor (self-deprecating humor – a joke on self and not at other’s expense), a tea break, or a 10 minute time out are good ways to diffuse tension and make it safe again that the dialogue can proceed.

Read my article on – Psychological safety at work – Why you need it and how to develop it

Step 4: Master My Stories

As human beings, we cannot perceive reality as it is. We tell ourselves stories about the situation and make up our own version of reality in our heads. This stirs up emotions based on our interpretation of reality. And then we act accordingly. For example – Let’s say your spouse is late from work. What would be your reaction? It would depend on how you interpret the situation and what story you tell yourself.

If you tell a story that he/she may be involved in an accident, then your emotions may be of concern and worry. If you tell a story that he/she doesn’t care about you and cares only about work – you may feel angry and upset. If you tell a story that he/she is late because he/she may be cheating on you – you will probably have emotions of jealousy, anger, despair. How you behave when your spouse arrives home depends on the story you have told yourself.

It is very important to realize the stories we are telling ourselves about the situation during a crucial conversation. We may end up twisting facts, ignoring data, and living in our own imaginary world. Here are some pointers

• What is my story? How has my story led me to these conclusions and emotions?
• Do facts support my story?
• Separate your interpretations from the data and facts
• Change your story and revise your response accordingly

Step 5: State My Path

Start by stating your perspective and your interpretation of the event. State clearly that this is your version of the story. Use mitigating phrases. Use I statement instead of you. State facts, not opinions. Here are some pointers

“I have noticed that you arrived late three days last week.”
“I did not get any response from you for my last four emails.”

Step 6: Explore Other’s Paths

Just as you stated your path, the next step is allowing others to state their paths – how they arrived at their position in this conflict or crucial conversation. Be curious and non-judgmental. Listen with empathy. Paraphrase what you understand. Here are a few statements that will help you explore other’s paths.

“Here is how I see things. Do you see this differently?”
“What’s going on that makes you come to this conclusion?”
“I’d really like to get your take on this”
“This is how to see it. Have I misunderstood?”

This will allow both parties to understand each other. Emphasize the areas where you agree. Clarify areas where there is a difference of opinion. Once again, emphasize mutual purpose and mutual respect.

Step 7: Move to Action

Agree on the next steps. What will happen? Who will do it? By when? How will we report/monitor progress?

Read: Psychological safety at work: What is it and why do you need it

Conclusion

Conflicts at work and in personal lives are commonplace. Conflicts around ideas are desirable to find the best solution to a particular problem. However, conflicts may get out of hand if not managed properly. Conflict management in the workplace is an essential managerial and leadership skill.

The two conflict resolution strategies discussed were the LECSR tool and the framework of the Crucial conversation. Use them both to sharpen your conflict management skills in the workplace.

Get the best leadership coaching to improve conflict management skills for your leaders and teams

We offer Marshall Goldsmith coaching in India, the middle east, and southeast Asia.  It is the best coaching program in India because it is the same executive coaching process used by Marshall Goldsmith to coach CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide. We guarantee measurable leadership growth or don’t pay at all.

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

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Reference

https://virtualspeech.com/blog/crucial-conversations
https://sourcesofinsight.com/crucial-conversations/ The crucial conversations framework for understanding and resolving conflicts
Velsoft – Conflict resolution – LECSR framework

Diversity and inclusion at workplace yield “dividends” in many respects. Lack of diversity and inclusion acts as a “tax” on work teams’ engagement and performance.

Diversity and inclusion at workplace – the backdrop

In just the last four decades, we have witnessed significant advancements in computers, the internet, mobile phones, technology, logistics, supply chain, and many other related areas.

The end of the cold war between the Russian Federation and the United States, signified with the fall of the Berlin wall, opened up relations and trade between the two superpowers and the rest of the world. Business is now global, and the world is now interconnected.

It is now common to see diverse employees in all aspects of the word – gender, ethnicity, language, religion, country, race, color, age, sexual orientation, political beliefs, or any other ideologies.

In a global and interconnected business world with a diverse workforce, diversity and inclusion have become essential leadership competencies. Research has shown that diversity and inclusion at workplace improve both employee engagement and financial performance.

What is diversity?

The dictionary definition of the word diversity means having or being composed of different or diverse elements. Diversity at the workplace refers to a mix of diverse employees in terms of race, religion, gender, physical ability, language, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, etc. However, diversity is also about openness to any differences – intellectual, political, ideological, social, cultural, beliefs, attitudes, abilities, physical attributes, or even preferences.

Similarity and differences

We are similar in many aspects. As human beings, we all have similar needs and wants. We want to earn a good living, take care of our families. We want to be loved, accepted, and be happy.

We are also different in other aspects – No two human beings are exactly alike! We are all unique and one of a kind. We can notice the visual differences immediately. Race, disability, language are some such examples. There may be differences in ideas, opinions, preferences, life experiences, approach, and so many other areas if we go further.

Diversity – The anthropological perspective

Nomadic age

For over 100,000 years, human beings and early humanoids lived a nomadic life as hunter-gatherers. They had no permanent structures and moved from place to place in search of food and shelter. They stayed in their own groups and didn’t trust other groups, especially if they looked and behaved differently.

Agricultural age

The discovery of agriculture allowed humans to settle in one place and form societies. The agricultural age lasted about 10,000 years or so. Human beings learned to settle down, form bonds with other people, and agriculture and trade flourished. We learned to live and interact with different people. But their interactions were limited to within the geography or their villages or kingdoms they lived in.

Industrial age

Then came the industrial age. Most farm jobs were lost due to mechanization. People moved to cities to work in factories. They learned to work and live with people from different backgrounds and cultures. This was probably the beginning of diversity in the workplace. The industrial age lasted about 200 years.

The information age

In the last four decades, we have moved from the industrial age to the information age. The rapid advancements in computers and technology in the ’70s and the ’80s started shifting from the industrial age to the information age (or the digital age).

By the late ’80s and early ’90s, internet and mobile technologies accelerated the shift digital or information age from the industrial age.

Thomas Freidman’s 2005 book, The World is Flat, captures this shift quite comprehensively. The convergence of technology (transatlantic cable with high internet speed) and events (the Y2K – the year 2000 computer problem that needed programmers that the US did not have enough of) allowed India, China, and many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing.

Soon, India became the back office of the western world. The global shipping, supply chain optimization, and relatively cheaper and reasonably skilled labor force; allowed China to become the manufacturer of choice for the entire western world.

The last decade – 2010 to 2020 – has brought even better technology for global communication and collaboration. As a result, the workforce in multinational companies is now even more diverse and even more global. A manufacturing company may have plants on several continents.

A software company may have employees collaborating on the same project from several different countries. Companies, both large and small, have to learn to employ and deploy a diverse workforce, often worldwide.

What is inclusion?

Here is a good definition of inclusion from SHRM “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.” Inclusion is a culture and a workplace environment where diverse employees feel comfortable and included and can contribute and thrive.

In the United States, equal opportunity and affirmative action laws have mandated companies to follow fair practices in hiring and promoting employees. There are penalties for any systemic discrimination based on any attribute of Companies took notice and made some progress in diversity by hiring people from varied backgrounds. For many years, companies considered diversity as something that they had to put up with. However, in the last decade or two, companies have started understanding the benefits of a diverse workforce and their inclusion.

Diversity by itself doesn’t lead to inclusion. Organizations need to do much more than hiring people with diverse backgrounds. They need to establish practices, policies, culture that allows everyone to feel that they belong irrespective of their backgrounds. It is about valuing people for who they are and what they bring instead of focusing on differences. It is about being intentional to overcome our unconscious biases. It is about systematic and concerted efforts towards the goal to include everyone irrespective of their background. It is about challenging the status quo and business as usual.

What is the opposite of diversity and inclusion?

The opposite of diversity and inclusion may be discrimination based on race, religion, gender, physical ability, language, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, etc. Companies have made some progress in terms of diversity, but a lot more needs to be done.

For example – Gender inequality in the workplace. Although women comprise over 50% of the population, there are just a few women CEOs or board members in companies worldwide. Women get paid less than men for doing the same work. The World Economic Forum’s gender gap index’s worldwide average was at 68%.

Companies are making a concerted effort in the right direction. You can see titles of chief diversity officer or chief inclusion officer in large companies to foster diversity and inclusion at workplaces.

The impact of Millennials on diversity and inclusion at workplace

Millennials have entered the workforce in large numbers, and they have seriously challenged the work practices that have spilled over from the industrial age mentality. Millennials demand workplaces where everyone is respected, treated with dignity, and has equal opportunity to learn, grow and prosper. Millennials are more purpose-driven, and they care less for profits at the cost of social justice. Millennials are a now significant percentage of the workforce in the western world. Companies have changed a lot of policies to accommodate them.

Impact of Social movements on diversity and inclusion at workplace

The world has seen several social movements that have either helped or hurt diversity and inclusion at workplace and in communities.

Divisive politics and policies: Politicians use divisive tactics to shore upvotes and gain power. One prime example is President Trump in the USA. His divisive politics and policies have encouraged fringe elements to commit discriminatory practices. His administration has also encouraged divisive politics and led to divisive parties’ rise with extreme views across Europe and Asia.

Black lives matter movement

The video of a white police officer choking a black man George Floyd despite his repeated pleas, “I can’t breathe,” spread like wildfire across the world. It brought to light many aspects of racial discrimination and infuriated people from all around the world. It was a tragic incident, but it sparked a movement that will surely help the cause of diversity and inclusion at workplace and communities. The Black Lives Matter movement has compelled and empowered companies to address racial disparity and take positive actions.

Me too movement

On October 15th, 2017, American actress Alyssa Milano sent a message to her follower on Twitter’s social media platform. The tweet read – “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”
Within 24 hours, the post went viral and generated thousands of replies, comments, and retweets. Ordinary women and celebrities from around the world shared their personal stories of sexual harassment or assault.

A majority of them spoke up for the first time about being raped, fending off aggressive bosses or co-workers, and having to remain silent for fear of losing their jobs.

What are the benefits of diversity? (Why is it needed?)

For many years, companies thought of diversity as something to be “dealt with.” Talent acquisition departments had diversity quotas. They did their best to check the boxes and report annual diversity numbers. For example – if a company hired an employee who is female, belongs to a minority race, and is partially disabled – it meant that the company could check off three separate boxes against their diversity quotas!

However, in the last couple of decades, research has shown, and companies have realized the benefits of diversity and inclusion at workplace. Diversity and inclusion at workplace is not just the “right thing to do,” but it also has significant business benefits.

Larger talent pool:

Diversity starts with hiring practices. Hiring a diverse workforce allows companies to tap into a larger talent pool. It can be people who understand the local culture, speak a local language, or are familiar with a particular country’s statutory requirements.

Varied perspectives:

Diversity fosters a larger variety of ideas and approaches. If you have employees from the same college or cultural backgrounds, it can lead to groupthink and stifle change and innovation.

Better team performance:

Research has shown that diverse teams perform better. However, there is a catch. It is inclusion and psychological safety on the team. To take advantage of diverse teams and workforce, leaders and organizations must drive fear out and create a psychologically safe workplace.

The business case of diversity and inclusion at workplace

Diversity and inclusion are humane values. Any human being who means no harm to others deserves to be treated fairly and respectfully. We also feel that diversity and inclusion at workplace should help engagement, change, innovation and performance. Can we make a business case to be for diversity and inclusion at workplace?

In an article in 2015, Mckinsey’s research found that top companies (those ranked in the top 25% for diversity in terms of gender, race, or ethnicity) are more likely to have above-average financial returns to their industry average. On the other hand, companies in the bottom 25% were statistically less likely to achieve above-average returns.

In the United States, EBIT earnings before interest and taxes rose 0.8% for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team of a company. In the UK, higher gender diversity on the senior executive teams brought in the highest financial returns. EBIT rose by 3.5% for every 10% increase in gender diversity.

Mckinsey concluded that diversity is probably a competitive differentiator that gets better with time. Many other studies have found a correlation between diversity and inclusion and better organizational performance.

Diversity and inclusion at workplace – a core leadership competency

Diversity and inclusion have become a core leadership competencies for the 21st-century leader. Without this competency, the leader will have a difficult time utilizing the talent of the diverse workforce.

Organizations have made significant progress with diversity. Inclusion remains a challenge. One of the essential ingredients of a diverse and inclusive workplace is the leader’s behaviors.

Our Global leadership 360-degree assessment, GLA 360, includes the competency of “Appreciating diversity” as one of the emerging competencies. This assessment allows the leader to gauge herself on 15 different competencies, including the competency of “appreciating diversity.”

Read more about the Global leadership assessment (GLA 360)

We also offer leadership coaching that helps the leader develop the essential competencies of a global leader. In fact, we are so confident of our coaching process that we often work with our clients on a no-growth no pay basis. If the leader doesn’t measurably improve – as anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members – you don’t have to pay!

Read:  Three employee engagement strategies that every leader must know

Ways to foster diversity and inclusion at workplace

Here are some of the multiple ways organizations can foster diversity and inclusion at workplace

Organizational policies

• Recruitment and performance management are two essential policies to ensure both diversity and inclusion at workplace. Have a clearly defined recruitment process to reach out to diverse communities and colleges to attract and hire diverse talent.
• Ensure a good performance management process that eliminates any biases – gender, race, age, etc. and promotes and rewards people based solely on performance.
• A good onboarding process allows a new employee to know and work with all the team members quickly.
• Acknowledge and celebrate a variety of religious and cultural practices. Allow people flexible holidays for the festivals they celebrate.
• Regular training on sensitivity for all employees and team leaders.
• Clearly define anti-discriminatory policies and enforce them publicly and visibly. This encourages the right behaviors while discouraging and punishing any inappropriate behaviors that violate the policy.
• Having a forum to discuss diversity issues openly and report problems anonymously.

Foster a culture of psychological safety

Here are a couple of definitions of psychological safety.

“Being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career.”

“Psychological safety is the belief or perception of the team members that one will not be punished, humiliated, or face any consequences for openly sharing their half-formed ideas, silly questions, concerns or mistakes.”

Simply put, psychological safety is the answer to this question – Can I be myself, or do I have to hold back on this team? Inclusion and a sense of belonging are enhanced in a culture of psychological safety.

Here are a few ways to foster psychological safety on your team

• Be inclusive in interpersonal settings & in decision-making
• Conversational equality and role rotation in meetings
• The leader role models vulnerability
• Demonstrate curiosity and listen genuinely

Read:  Psychological safety at work – Why you need it and how to develop it.

To quote Dr. Amy Edmondson, the pioneer of the research on the topic, “Psychological safety at work takes effort. It’s not the norm. But it’s worth the effort,”

In conclusion

Diversity and inclusion at workplace are not just about headcount numbers and recruitment policies. Progressive companies know that diversity and inclusion are a competitive advantage that allows them to outpace competitors. Diverse and inclusive workplaces result in higher employee engagement, lower attrition rates, higher commitment, openness to change, and higher innovation levels. Diversity and inclusion is a critical leadership competency for the 21st-century workplace. Coaching leaders on diversity and inclusion is one of the best ways to improve your organization and stay ahead of the competition.

References

The inclusion dividend – Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off – 2013

Feedback is a gift! Leadership feedback is a huge favor! I am sure you have heard the phrase – feedback is a gift. What is the feedback? Why is it a gift? And why is leadership feedback a big favor? These are the points I am going to cover in this article.

What is the feedback?

Simply put, feedback is any information you receive about yourself. Feedback may be subtle, or it may be obvious. Any of the following fits the bill of feedback.

• Review of your cooking by a friend
• Your spouse’s comment about your outfit!
• Your spouse’s comment about your outfit!
•  When your son’s eyes light up when he sees you in the audience at the school play
• When you are the last one to be picked on a team!
• When you wear a sweater that your mom knit
• When the colleague doesn’t invite you for her b’day party
• How many likes (or not) on social media
• Your boss’s feedback on your work
• Your annual performance review
• A formal 360-degree feedback

Feedback is what gets ranked, judged, thanked, commented on. In fact, feedback is everywhere if we observe closely

History of feedback

The term feedback originated as a scientific term in the 19th century. The feedback loop was used in electrical and sound circuits. After the 2nd World War, industrial relations and performance management were started in organizations. The management version of the feedback started then. Feed corrective information back (to the workers) – and hence the feedback. Today the term is widely used in both personal and professional contexts.

 

 

Why is feedback a gift?

Let us think of a successful consumer product. How do you improve it? The simple method to improve it is to ask some representative sample of consumers. Ask them to rate the product. Then ask them for suggestions on how to improve the product. Without feedback from customers, there is little chance of improvement.

As it is true for a consumer product, it is also equally true for us as individuals and employees. How do I become a better friend? Ask my friends for feedback and suggestions to become a better friend. How do I dress better? Well, ask for feedback from others on your dressing. Then ask how you can dress better. How do you become a better spouse? A better father? A better sister? Well, you get it by now. Ask for feedback on how you are doing currently, and then ask how you can become better.

Feedback is a gift because feedback allows you to improve. There can be no improvement without feedback. Feedback is essential for learning and growth.

In today’s workplace, feedback plays a crucial role in developing talent, improving morale, aligning teams, solving problems, and boosting the bottom line.

Leadership feedback is a huge favor.

As we move up the career ladder, the quality and quantity of feedback go down. When we are in a position of power, people avoid giving us honest feedback in managerial or leadership positions. We only get watered down feedback or even plain flattery. Why? First of all, we are uncomfortable giving honest and candid feedback to someone to their face. Secondly, they may be in danger of facing the consequences. The leader may retaliate, punish, or give a lower performance rating, or hold back a promotion.

When a team member gives honest feedback to a leader on her face, he is doing the leader huge favor. They are overcoming two things. First is the discomfort of telling someone the unpleasant truth. Second, they are taking a risk to their standing, reputation, punitive consequences, or career growth. Hence their leadership feedback is a huge favor. Feedback is a gift.

What is even more interesting is that they could have chosen to share the same feedback to others – behind your back and unknown to you. They chose to give you feedback on your face. Probably because they care and they want you to improve. If they talk behind your back, you would not know. And it will deprive you of the opportunity to get better.

Read: Leadership feedback and the CEO disease.

If feedback is a gift, why is it so painful?

If feedback is a gift, why does it feel more like a dentist appointment to pull out a tooth? Why do we tend to avoid it? Why are we afraid of it? Why do we tend to reject it?

We often complain about a spouse’s snide remark on our dressing. We hate our mother in law’s critical review of our cooking. We may dislike our colleague’s candid comments on our presentation. As employees and leaders in organizations – we dislike performance reviews and 360-degree feedback.

Read: Leadership lessons I learned from my son about feedback vs. feedforward

Feedback sits at the intersection of these two basic human needs.

According to author Sheila Heen, receiving feedback sits at the intersection of two basic human needs.

First is our drive to learn. Human beings are naturally wired for learning. A human baby comes into the world with just a few basic survival skills. And yet, we teach ourselves to walk, to talk, and hundreds of other skills. We love learning. But learning about ourselves, especially honest and critical feedback, is not a pleasant experience. And the culprit is our second basic human need.

The second need is our longing for acceptance.

We all want to be loved, cared for, respected and accepted for who we are. Candid feedback makes us feel like we are being rejected. We feel like we are not enough. It hurts our pride and wounds our ego.

The tug of war between these two basic human needs – our need to be loved and accepted as we are and our need to learn and grow – is the main reason for the unpleasantness of receiving feedback.

Accepting feedback is a gift.

Do you remember a special teacher or a mentor in your life? Why are they special, and why do we remember them fondly? Because they taught us a lot. They helped us learn and grow. How? By giving us feedback in a loving, caring, and supporting way. The way they gave us feedback didn’t cause resistance. In fact, it may have challenged or inspired us to do better. It is great to have such teachers and mentors in our life.

But they are a rare breed. The rest of the people in your life who will give you feedback are mere mortals, just like you and me. If we reject feedback from everyone else, we are depriving ourselves of learning and growth. We cannot hold back our learning waiting for such special mentors. We need to learn to accept feedback as a gift – from everyone else around us.

How do we learn to accept all feedback as a gift?

By recognizing the three triggers that stop us from doing that. The three triggers are

1. The truth triggers:

The content of the feedback itself sets truth triggers off. We think that the feedback is wrong, unhelpful, or simply untrue. We think that their advice is wrong, their evaluation is unfair, who they are to tell me about this, don’t know the whole story, etc. We may go into the defensive mode or even counterattack. Sometimes we do it in real conversations, but almost always in our minds! We replay the tape again and again – with our own editing.

When your spouse tells you that you were aloof during the visit to the in-laws – it triggers a defensive mechanism. You may retort by saying, was I supposed to tap dance and greet everyone?

2. The relationship triggers

The relationship triggers are set off by the person giving the feedback. The feedback is tainted by the relationship between you and the feedback giver. What authority do they have on this topic to give me feedback? Or after all the things I have done for you, this is how you repay? The emotional baggage and the long history of the relationship may come in the way of our ability to listen to and understand the feedback. We go into counter-attack mode and discredit the feedback giver.

When your boss criticizes the report, you delivered, do you start thinking, why is he such a jerk? Does he always do this? His own reports are the second rate. And on and on.

3. The identity triggers

Identity triggers are unrelated to both the content of the feedback and the relationship with the feedback giver. Something about the feedback stirs up a deep pain from inside – mostly from our past. Someone may make a casual remark that you are clumsy. It may bring up painful childhood memories of how you always dropped things, and everyone ridiculed you and called you clumsy. We may feel overwhelmed or threatened – as this relates to our own identity.

 

Overcoming the triggers and accepting feedback as a gift

It is human to have these triggers for feedback. However, they keep us from engaging in a conversation and learning more about the feedback. They deprive us of the opportunity to learn and grow. We lose an opportunity to understand the other party and improve the interaction and the relationship.

Being aware of these feedback triggers is a good way to learn to accept feedback as a gift. Remember that there is no improvement without feedback. One of the best tools is to ask for feed-forward – which refers to asking for future suggestions.

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader:  Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective:  Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth:  as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

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Culture eats strategy for breakfast is a quote attributed to Peter Drucker, the management guru. What is the meaning of the quote? Peter Drucker was talking about organizational culture and how it impacts the execution of strategy in organizations.

Culture not only eats strategy for breakfast, but it may also eat change agility for lunch and innovation for dinner. Any strategy that doesn’t take into account the culture of the organization is likely to fail.

Leaders in organizations tend to focus more on strategy. The strategy is relatively easy to understand and create. Culture is complex and intangible and hence tends to get less attention from top leaders. But ignoring culture leads to underperformance and may even lead to the organization going out of business.

What is strategy?

Strategy can be defined as the method or plan that the organization chooses to achieve its long-term goals. The strategy is deciding the direction and choosing the path to get there. The strategy is often decided by the top management and communicated to all organization levels to execute it. One of the important aspects of deciding a strategy is to consider the organizational culture.

What is culture?

Here are a couple of definitions of organizational culture.

Stated, organizational culture is “the way things are done around here” by Deal & Kennedy, 2000

“Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations.”

It is how people in organizations do things. It is the attitude of the people. It is also the unwritten rules and norms that employees follow. Just as every individual is unique, every organization has a unique culture. Starbucks, Google, Tata group, etc., are some examples.

When we talk about these companies, we have a perception of the culture – how the employees in this particular company get things done.

Starbucks may bring to mind a culture of customer service. Google brings to mind the casual way of work, the open offices, the employee perks, and a culture of innovation. Tata group may bring to mind their values, ethics, and care for employees.

The unwritten norms

Culture is the way people do things in an organization. Those are the unwritten rules that exert influence on the behavior of the employees.

For example – let’s say you join a new company. The work timings are from 8 am to 5 pm. That is the written rule probably in the HR manual.

However, if you see most of your team members working late till 6 pm or later, what will you do? Will you leave work at 5 pm? Probably not. You will learn to follow the unwritten rule to stay at the office until 6 pm.

Culture is often invisible and intangible. But it exerts a powerful influence on how employees think, feel, and act. Over time and with reinforcement (either intentional or accidental) from the leaders, it becomes self-perpetuating and self-sustaining.

The culture iceberg model

Edgar Schein, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and an organizational culture expert, has proposed the culture iceberg model. Culture lives at three distinct levels.

1. Artifacts:

Artifacts are the things at the surface level of the organizational culture. It includes “visible” symbols of the culture. Things like offices, furniture, how people dress, language, tone, practices, ceremonies, etc.

Often people misunderstand the artifacts as the culture – as it is the visible part. But there is much more. Just like an iceberg, the majority of the culture lies beneath the surface and is not visible.

2. Espoused values

Values are often advertised on the company office walls and the company websites and brochures. Edgar Schein calls these as espoused values.

Often, there is a discrepancy between the values on the wall and the actual behavior of leaders and employees in the organization.

3. Basic assumptions

These are the beliefs and assumptions that people refer to when doing their work and interacting with others. These beliefs are often unconscious. They may even be perceptions and feelings that are taken for granted.

This is the deepest level of the cultural iceberg. It is the most difficult level to understand and improve.

How culture eats strategy for breakfast

Culture has inertia and loves the status quo. It resists all attempts to change. Even if the strategy is brilliant, it cannot succeed without considering culture as a factor. Is the culture supportive?

Then the strategy has a good chance of getting implemented. Otherwise, it is quite likely that the culture will eat the strategy for breakfast! Culture and strategy are two sides of the same coin.

Often strategy gets attention, and culture doesn’t. Companies pay a heavy price for ignoring culture while working on their strategy.

Planning a strategy without considering the culture is like planting the soil without considering the type of soil. If you plant the right seed in the wrong soil, the seed will die.

Similarly, if you have a strategy for which the culture is not conducive, it will fail miserably. Culture and strategy are interrelated, and they reinforce each other.

How do we create a culture where change, innovation, and growth?

Successful companies invest time, money and effort in creating cultures that differentiate them from others. Culture is a strategic advantage and a competitive differentiator. Culture impacts the performance and productivity of the organization.

It dictates how employees interact with one another, how they treat customers, how they think about quality, and how they deliver value to customers, investors, and society.

Industrial age vs. information age

In the last three to four decades, we have rapidly moved from the industrial age to the information age. In the industrial age, the value was delivered by standardization.

There was only one right and most efficient way to do things. And everybody had to do it the same way. The pace of change was slower, and there were relatively long periods of stability before there was a change in process, technology, competition, or customer demand.

In such an environment, the culture of command and control leadership thrived. Employees had to be controlled to maximize efficiency. They were rewarded and punished using the carrot-and-stick approach to management.

However, in the information age, the pace of change is frenetic. Competition is global. Advances in technology create continuous change and transformation.

Customers constantly demand more and better value and service. The best way to deliver value in the information age is to learn, change, and innovate faster than the competition.

Employees need to contribute. Management has shifted from control to empowerment. Command and control generate fear. And fear inhibits creativity and innovation. Companies have realized that culture is an important driver of performance and hence there is now a consistent focus on creating a culture where employees volunteer their discretionary effort instead of doing just enough to keep their jobs.

In fact, no 21st-century organization can afford a culture of fear. In fact, the opposite is true. Organizations create “psychological safety” so that they can maximize the contributions of their talent.

A good culture is where employees feel motivated, empowered, and rewarded. In return, they treat customers with care, concern, and respect. This becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. It can also work in the opposite direction. Unmotivated and disempowered employees take out their frustrations on customers. This creates a toxic culture that impacts the performance and profitability of the company.

Today, in a competitive and global business world – both customers and employees have a lot of choices. If they don’t feel valued, cared for, and respected – they may prefer to engage with a competitor who does value them.

Read : “Psychological safety – What is it and why do you need it?” 

Culture as a strategic and competitive advantage

Several research studies have indicated that companies that proactively focus on creating and managing their culture significantly outperform companies that let culture happen.

Instead of culture eats strategy for breakfast, the new approach is to think of culture as a strategic and competitive advantage.

Companies like Google have found that creating the right culture is key to attracting and maximizing the talent pool. Google’s spent 2 years, millions of dollars, immense brainpower, and analytics ability to find out what makes teams successful. To their surprise, they found that who is on the team didn’t matter much.

What contributed to the team’s success was the team culture and team norms. Now, this is true even for Google where most of the work done is highly technical and all of the employees are highly intelligent and carefully recruited.

How leaders contribute to creating a high-performance culture that drives the strategy

Leaders have a critical role in creating a culture that supports the strategy.

One of the best ways the leader creates a culture is by role modeling the desired behaviors, coaching the next level of leadership, and ensuring the right structures that support the right cultural norms.

Read: Your Executive Leadership Development – Sink, Swim or Setup for Success

One of the best examples of a leader driving organizational culture change and creating a high-performance culture is Alan Mulally’s turnaround of Ford Motor Company.

When Alan took over Ford, it was on the way to reporting a $17 billion loss for the year. In his 8 years as the Ford CEO, he steered the company through the Financial crisis of 2008 (without taking a bailout), restructured the massive global company, returned the company to profitability, and doubled the stock price.

And he didn’t do it just by cutting jobs and laying thousands of people off. In a company where unions rule – his approval rating stayed at 90% or more during his tenure.

This is a fantastic case study on how instead of a culture eats strategy for breakfast, creating a culture can drive it.

Read: Organizational Culture Change – The Ford turnaround story by Alan Mulally 

What kind of culture are your leaders creating?

The first step is to assess the leadership behaviors that create the culture.  Are your leaders creating the culture intentionally or accidentally? 

Are they exhibiting the behaviors that create a high-performance culture?  Or do their behaviors stifle engagement and performance? 

Assess your leaders for the behaviors which are creating your company culture using our Global leadership assessment GLA 360.  Find out more.    

In conclusion

The culture eats strategy for breakfast is true for many organizations. Leaders love talking strategy. It is tangible and visible. It is easier to understand and to create.

Culture, on the other hand, is intangible, invisible, and difficult to understand. Consequently, it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. But it exerts a powerful influence on every aspect of the organization.

Culture lives at multiple levels. Often culture is confused with artifacts. Just changing the artifacts is NOT changing the culture.

Casual Fridays or ping-pong tables may be good. But they are just the visible part of the cultural iceberg. Changing culture means changing the underlying beliefs and assumptions – the deepest part of the cultural iceberg. Leaders play a critical role in creating and sustaining the organizational culture.

One of the leader’s most important jobs is to create a culture that supports the strategy they want to implement. In fact, organizational culture is a strategic and competitive advantage.

Reference

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329140215

Guaranteed measurable results delivered for our FMCG client

Here is the real-life case study of one of our clients who approached us with specific issues and how we delivered measurable results for them. This case study outlines a sample of challenges growing organizations face and how our stakeholder centered coaching process helped deliver behavior change and a high-performance culture. While you are reading the case study, you may see your organization facing similar issues and the leaders facing similar challenges. We deliver guaranteed and measurable results through our stakeholder coaching process.

Team coaching is essential in today’s work environment. How do you improve team effectiveness?  Team coaching is the answer that is effective in terms of time, investment, and effort.

Teams have become more important than ever – team coaching should too.

To deal with rapid change, organizations have become flatter and leaner.  Power and decisions are decentralized.  The days of a single “heroic” leader are gone. Networked team leadership is taking the place of hierarchical leadership.

Teams have become an integral part of getting work done.  Most organizations get the work done through projects that involve multiple people working in teams.

An article, published in The Harvard Business Review in Jan-Feb 2016, title “Collaborative Overload,” states that ‘‘the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more’’ over the last two decades.

To quote Michael Jordan – Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

Synergy vs. Dysfunction on teams

It is true in sports and business.  In cohesive teams, the whole is a lot greater than the sum of its parts.  When teams work in synergy, they achieve extraordinary performance. 

In dysfunctional teams, it is vice-versa – the whole ends up being a lot less than the sum of the parts.  Egos, personality clashes, individual agendas cause a delay in work and result in the team’s underperformance. You can put a group of 6-10 high performing individuals on a team, and their performance together may be less than optimum or just downright disappointing. 

More often than not, teams don’t live up to their expectations. A majority of the work teams fail to harness their full potential or utilize their team members’ collective intelligence.

Read another article – Poor Leadership Behaviors & its Collateral Damage.

Common team problems

Teams are plagued by common problems listed below.

• Lack of trust
• No alignment or commitment to goals
• Individual agendas
• Big egos and personality conflicts
• Silo mentality
• Unclear or fuzzy goals
• Unclear roles and responsibilities
• Lack of accountability
• Gossip and talking behind people’s back
• Lack of commitment
• Difficulty making decisions
• Lack of psychological safety  (link to PS article)

Optimizing individual performance is not enough.

For decades, talent management has focused on measuring, managing, and optimizing individual performance.  Performance management focuses on assessing, developing, and rewarding individual performance.  But it is not enough.

Individual performance seldom translates into the performance of teams or workgroups.As more and more work is now done through multi-functional teams, talent management professionals need to understand and focus on measuring, managing, and optimizing teams’ performance.

What is a team?

There is a difference between a group of people vs. a work team. We all intuitively know this fact.  Let’s define what a team is to clarify it further.

Here is a popular definition from Jon Katzenbach

“A small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals

and approach, for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

There are a few keywords that differentiate whether a group of people is a team or not.

• Small – It would be not easy to manage a team of 50 people – then it will have to be subdivided
• Complementary skills – diverse and complementary skills are essential.
• Common purpose – purpose fuels and drives the team members.
• Performance goals – everyone is ultimately measured against the performance goals.
• Mutual accountability – they hold one another accountable.

Let’s take the example of a soccer team.  A small number of players, who have complementary skills, have a common purpose of winning the match or the championship, have performance goals (individual and team goals), and hold one another accountable for achieving the goals.  A soccer team fits Katzenbach’s definition of a team.

On the other hand, if you have a group of high potentials in an organization, they will not be considered a team.  They may or may not have complementary skills, nor do they have a common purpose and performance goals, and they don’t hold one another accountable.

Google spent 2 years and enormous amounts of resources studying over 180 teams to figure out the answer to the question – What makes teams successful?  Read the article.

Team coaching vs.Team building

“Team building” activities get a lot of attention from learning and development professionals. When do I say the word teambuilding, what immediately comes to mind?  Most people start thinking about activity-based indoor or outdoor gatherings of colleagues.

Almost everyone has attended such an activity that has a picnic-like atmosphere. These activities are fun and a welcome relief from the otherwise boring classroom training.  

Participants involve themselves in indoor or outdoor games and competitive activities. Rope courses, tree climbing, races, fire walking, and dozens of other adventurous activities challenge the participants. A resort setting and a picnic atmosphere engage the participants.

All in all, it is a fun experience for the participants.  The level 1 feedback (on Kirkpatrick’s scale) from such activities is usually excellent.  The participants, the HR or L&D department, and the training agency are all happy doing such activities once or twice a year, especially around winter months when outdoor weather is conducive.

Do these outdoor team building activities really improve the team’s behavior and performance at work?

So here is the question. Do these outdoor team building activities really improve the team’s behavior and performance at work? The simple answer is no. 

Despite the good feelings outdoor team building generates, hardly anything changes at work in terms of better behaviors conducive to developing a cohesive and high-performance team. 

Singing songs, walking or fire, climbing trees, and holding hands have little to do with teams’ real-life work and behaviors.  All in all, they are a waste of time and money. 

Outbound team building, although popular, has done little to bring in the behavior change that can transform team cohesion and performance. 

Holding hands, singing songs, climbing trees can be entertaining. But it has little to do with actual work.

Read my article on How to build psychological safety on teams. 

What is team coaching?

David Clutterbuck defines team coaching as follows.

Helping the team improve performance and the processes by which performance is achieved through reflection anddialogue.

When most people think of team coaching, they think of sports teams!  Very few managers and talent management professionals know about team coaching.  

The above definition serves both sports teams and work teams very well.

Unlike team building, team coaching, on the other hand, is a comprehensive approach to manage team interactions at work. 

It is time and resource-efficient, which is very well suited for teams who are too busy to go to training programs or indoor/outdoor team building activities.

Team coaching without time-wasting!

The popularity of individual coaching across the world acts as a testament to coaching’s effectiveness as a developmental tool. 

Can team coaching also be as effective for teams, as individual coaching is for individual performance?  The answer is a resounding yes!

Read my article on individual coaching or executive coaching. 

Our TEAM Coaching –  Year-long Executive Coaching program using Stakeholder Centered Coaching

TEAM coaching engagements create measurable leadership growth for the leader and the team as a whole using Marshall’s unique Stakeholder Centered Coaching process.  The team coaching approach has several benefits.

Resource-efficient

Since one executive coach works with all team members supporting each other in this TEAM coaching process, the whole coaching program is very time efficient. It reduces coaching fees per team member while still delivering a majority of the benefits of 1:1 coaching for the leader.

Changing leaders and teams at the same time

The team articulates one leadership growth area, and each team member defines their own leadership growth area that relates to the team focus. This creates an interdependent team effort with a common focus on producing results for their individual effectiveness and team productivity simultaneously.

Create a Team Culture of Openness to continuous change

When team members collaborate as stakeholders in the TEAM coaching programs, it creates an open culture for leadership and team culture change. Furthermore, team members feel comfortable using feedback and feedforward to drive change for themselves and their teams.

Insider expertise

Team members should be able to provide expert advice and an insider view of each other as it relates to their business, their people, and their team culture challenges. They become de facto coaches.

Coaching is a leadership skill.

Some organizations use coaching as an ‘executive intervention’ or to ‘fix a problem,’ but this is a suboptimal approach to coaching. Coaching is a leadership skill, and leaders in organizations should be skilled coaches to help their teams develop and grow. As we expect effective leaders to be highly skilled in, e.g., communication, decision making, and empowerment, leaders should be highly skilled in coaching others. TEAM coaching is a great program to instill coaching as a leadership skill in the organization.

In the TEAM coaching process, team members supporting each other as stakeholders and coaches while implementing their action plans to make change visible. This program is ideal for leaders and their (cross-functional / project) teams to measurably change their individual and collective effectiveness. This happens while they lead and develop their teams, and at the same time, develop their coaching skills further to roll out this coaching process with their direct reports.

TEAM coaching can be a very effective and cost-efficient way to grow leaders, change teams, and develop the organizational culture.

Read our other article Organizational Culture Change Example – Alan Mulally Ford Turnaround Story.

Reference:  Coaching the team at work by David Clutterbuck

If you enjoyed reading this article, you would enjoy reading my other articles

Executive and Leadership Coaching in India

360 degree feedback- A complete guide with a questionnaire

Psychological safety (PS) at work – Why you need it and how to develop it

What is psychological safety at work? Why do we need it? How to develop it in your team and your organization. In this article, I am going to answer these questions.

Do you remember the Colombia space shuttle disaster?

On January 16th, 2003, the space shuttle Colombia blasted off into space on its 28th mission.It was a sunny day in Florida, and everything seemed to be perfect about the launch. But things were not perfect.

A piece of foam had broken off from the outside of the rocket and hit the wing area during the lift-off. On Tuesday, January 21st, five days after the launch, a team of engineers at NASA had their first formal meeting to assess the potential damage from the piece of foam that had struck the wing.

They agreed that NASA should immediately observe the wing area impacted, even if the impact was minor. This could be accomplished by others using other satellites or powerful telescopes on the ground.

The team of engineers selected Rodney Rocha, an experienced but mild-mannered engineer, to convey their recommendation.

Rodney Rocha attempted to inform his superiors and request them to observe the wing’s possible damage, but he was simply brushed aside. One manager told Rodney Rocha to stop being a “Chicken Little” – referring to the cartoon character who was always running around afraid and warning others that the sky was falling.

Despite his severe concerns about the mission’s safety, he had no choice but to keep quiet.

On 1st February 2003, the space shuttle Colombia disintegrated into pieces while returning to earth. Seven astronauts, including mission specialist Kalpana Chawla, died in the tragic accident.

NASA suspended any further space flights for the next two years while investigating and eliminating what could have caused the disaster.

The investigation confirmed that the cause was the friction caused due to the damaged tiles on the wing. The same damage that Rodney Rocha and his team of engineers were trying to bring to the mission control’s attention.

Why did Rodney not speak up? Why was he not forceful? What could NASA have done to create an environment where Rodney, or anyone else on the team, could voice their concerns in an assertive way?

Psychological safety at work

The answer to the question is to create psychological safety at work. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor, and researcher coined the term Psychological safety.

She defines it as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”

Can employees express their doubts, concerns, issues they know about? Or are they uncomfortable speaking up? Now think about your workplace.

Have you held back from expressing an opinion in a meeting? Or have you agreed to something you weren’t sure about, just because you didn’t feel comfortable in saying it?

Do you sometimes keep quiet even when you have questions but don’t want to look “dumb” in front of others?

This is what happened to Rodney Rocha. He did not feel safe to be more assertive and emphatically ask the manager to consider his concern and do the needful address.

Psychological safety at work was missing on the NASA team.

Boeing 737 Max problems & lack of psychological safety at work

Organizations frequently face the grave consequences of lack of psychological safety, as NASA did.Besides the loss of lives, there was severe damage to NASA’s reputation, and they had to halt the space program for two years.

Boeing 737 max aircraft tragedy is another example of such consequences of lack of PS at work. In March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner was grounded worldwide after 346 people died in two crashes. First, it was the Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018.

The second flight was the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. There were 387 Boeing 737 aircraft at that time, which served 8,600 flights per week for 59 different airlines. All of them were grounded, causing severe damage to Boeing’s reputation worldwide.

The groundings became the longest ever of a U.S. airliner. Boeing also had to suspend the production of the 737 max aircraft indefinitely.

In November 2018, Boeing launched a new automated flight control system for the 737 max aircraft. Later in the post mortem done by FAA and NTSB, they found that employees had serious concerns about the automated flight control system.

They did not feel comfortable enough to voice theirs against the backdrop of a multibillion project’s delivery timeline pressures. Later in the interviews, the employees said they were afraid to speak up as they thought they might lose their job.

Whether that would really happen or not, it clearly shows that these employees did not feel PS at work.

Do these kinds of things happen at your workplace?

Now you may think that I would have reacted differently to these kinds of situations. Or you may think that this doesn’t happen on my team.

Let’s say you are working on a cross-functional team. Someone uses a jargon word during the team meeting. Some acronym, let’s say GSH!  Everybody on the team agrees that GSH is very important.

Now you don’t have a clue what GSH means!  Do you feel safe enough to make yourself vulnerable and ask in the team meeting – “I am sorry – I don’t know what GSH means.

Can any one of you explain it to me?.” Or would you just nod your head in agreement and make a mental note to check out later what GSH meant.

Or in a similar situation, the team is enthusiastic and gung-ho over a particular investment in new technology.  Everyone agrees in unison while elaborating on the benefits and ROI of this technology.  You have serious doubts about the benefits and ROI.

Do you feel comfortable disagreeing with the majority? They may be right, and you may end up looking like a jerk who is not a team player!

All too often, employees choose to keep quiet instead of speaking up. Why?  Because of the interpersonal discomfort of looking incompetent, not a team player, or negative.  And there is a cost to people not speaking up.  Most of the time, these costs are not as dramatic as in NASA and Boeing.

These are small costs in losing a moment of learning or having a different perspective of exploring a new idea.  Over time, these small costs add up.  Learning, change, and innovation suffers.

What does psychological safety at work look like?

Can the members of the team members do the following without fear?

• Offer their ideas and opinions no matter how different from the team goals or consensus or superior’s ideas
• Express their concerns and doubts to superiors
• Admit openly that they don’t know about some things at work
• Ask for help openly and comfortably when needed
• Are willing to try new things and take risks even if it means making mistakes or failing
• Admit to mistakes immediately and openly so they can be rectified
• Feel comfortable being themselves without any fear or concerns of social stigma or other repercussions

Can team members do the above-mentioned things – without the fear of being socially labeled or humiliated as being incompetent, or the crazy one or not a team player?

If they can, there is a high degree of PS at work, or else there is a lack of PS on the teams.

Psychological safety at work is not these things!

One of the concerns that most leaders have is how I have PS and accountability on my teams? Doesn’t having one means sacrificing the other? Not really.

They are two different aspects that are both important to instill in teams.

Psychological safety at work often is confused with certain qualities that are not conducive to high performance. Psychological does not mean the following.

1. Just being nice

Being polite and being nice at work is fine. But having PS means disagreeing with an idea or opinion without fear. It allows diverse perspectives and expertise to put on the table to take the best course of action.

2. Reducing performance standards

Amy Edmondson says that psychological safety does not mean reducing performance standards. Both of them are separate, and a leader can instill both in their teams.

3. Lack of accountability

A team can be accountable to one another and yet not have psychological safety. The opposite is also true. Accountability is a leader’s responsibility, and so is PS. Both are separate things.

The diagram below shows the four quadrants of psychological safety vs. accountability. The four quadrants are the apathy zone, anxiety zone, comfort zone, and learning zone. Ideally, the leader should work on PS and accountability to get the team into the learning zone.

Why do we need psychological safety at work?

20th-century standardization paradigm

Henry Ford is quoted as saying that – I wish people just brought their hands at work and left their brains home! He probably was right for the kind of work that happened at his assembly line in the earlier part of the 20th century.

Industrialization in the 20th century was all about standardization, focusing on the single best way to do things and get everyone to do it efficiently. Ideas and opinions of the employees were a distraction and a nuisance. They simply reduced the efficiency of standardized and repetitive assembly line work.

Knowledge work in the 21st century

Arguably the most insightful management consultant, Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” way back in 1959 in his book “The Landmarks of Tomorrow.” Way back then, Peter Drucker predicted information would change the way people would work in the future.

The value of work will not be derived from physical labor using their muscle power, but instead with the intellectual work using their mind power. He predicted that knowledge workers would be the most valuable assets of 21st-century organizations.

Today, a majority of the workforce is employed doing what Peter Drucker correctly coined as knowledge work. Engineers, architects, accountants, lawyers, physicians, computer programmers, web designers, finance professionals, technical writers, researchers are just a few of the knowledge work professions.

VUCA world of the 21st Century

Today, in the 21st century, we also live in a VUCA world. VUCA is a term coined by the US army to describe the Iraq and Afghanistan wars situation. VUCA is an acronym for Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Change is rapid. There are no standard solutions or defined processes.

We have to make decisions even when we don’t have all the information or all the answers. Business strategy and solving of problems are all a hypothesis – an experiment, if you will.

We need the collective intelligence of diverse teams with specialized expertise. Unlike Henry Ford in the early 20th century, we definitely need people to bring their brains to work and put them to good use!

They need to share their ideas, opinions, and expertise – to help solve problems in a continuously changing world. Find new ways of doing things – cheaper, better, faster than the competition. Change and innovate or face extinction. We need to utilize the talent of your team to the highest possible level. How do we do that?

Psychological safety is essential to survive and thrive in the 21st century.

In an environment that was fairly stable and the processes and outcomes are well defined – like Henry Ford’s assembly line, PS may not be essential.

It may still be good to have, but not essential for business performance. But in the VUCA world of the last two decades – as with NASA’s space shuttle launch or the Boeing 737 max production – PS is essential for change, growth, innovation, and performance.

What does it take for organizations to survive and thrive in a VUCA world? It is creating psychological safety at work teams to utilize the team’s collective intelligence to keep ahead of the rapid change.

Uncertainty and interdependence

Amy Edmondson’s research has shown that psychological safety is essential for high performance on teams when the teams’ problems involve uncertainty and interdependence.  There are no set answers.  There may be entirely new situations.

It may require inputs from multiple team members who have various specialized expertise.  In most of the work done today in large organizations, uncertainty and interdependence are often present.  And hence PS has become an essential element of team performance.

Read: Poor Leadership Behaviors & its Collateral Damage

Google’s quest to figure out what makes teams successful

Individual brilliance is great, but team cohesiveness is more important. Most of the work done today is in projects involving multiple people working in teams. Talent management’s primary focus has been on measuring and managing individual performance.

But it is not enough. Analyzing and improving individual performance does not translate into the performance of teams or workgroups.

Google spent 2 years and enormous amounts of resources studying over 180 teams to figure out the answer to the question – What makes teams successful? They found five factors that are essential to any high-performing team. The most important factor? It is “psychological safety at work.”

Read: What makes teams successful? – Google’s Project Aristotle came up with these five factors that matter 

How to create psychological safety at work

Amy Edmondson suggests three types of actions leaders can take to improve the psychological safety of their teams.

1. Setting the stage

Leaders have to define the context. The vision and direction. But it needs to go a step further. Define the purpose, a cause greater than themselves, to make a difference.

Once that is done, the next step is to communicate clearly the business environment of uncertainty, complexity, and interdependence. If leaders don’t point out uncertainty and complexity clearly, people may conclude that they are supposed to know everything about their jobs.

If they don’t, people will conclude that they may be branded as simply incompetent if they make mistakes and may need to face the consequences.

A leader’s job is to make it safe for people to fail. This is not about the failures caused by incompetency or not following a standard protocol (when it exists). That is not the kind of failure a leader should tolerate.

On the other hand, when there is a need to experiment and try new things – failure should not only be tolerated and accepted, it should be celebrated! It is also OK not to know all the answers!  It is OK to experiment!  And it is OK to fail!  Or else, there may be no change, no growth, and no innovation.

Read: Alan Mulally’s most successful business turnarounds of all time at Ford Motor Company

2.Inviting engagement

Leaders often mistake the silence of a team member for their agreement. Often it is not the case. People don’t like to speak up due to social discomfort or lack of psychological safety. Or there are just a couple of vocal team members expressing their opinion.

The leader’s job is to invite opinions and ideas from everyone on the team, especially the silent team members. When everyone on the team agrees with the leader without having any opinions of their own, it is a sign for the leader to invite engagement. The leaders should watch their body language while listening to diverse opinions. It should not give away the leader’s like or dislike for a particular idea.

Asking questions is one of the best ways to invite engagement. The leader may ask any of the following questions, or a semantic version of these, to invite engagement.

• I don’t know a whole lot about it…..  You have a lot of experience here.  What do you think about this?
• What do I not know about here?
• What am I missing? What have we not considered yet?
• You have a lot of experience in ……  What do you think we should do?
• You haven’t spoken on…    What are your thoughts?
• There is a lot of uncertainty about …..   So whatever we do is a hypothesis.  We won’t know it until we try?

3. Responding productively

As a leader, what do you do when a team member completely disagrees with your ideas or opinions? Do you dismiss the team member? Do you override her opinions? Or do you ask more questions and more inputs to understand where they are coming from? Do you treat them respectfully? Do you get visibly annoyed or upset?

Listen to all ideas, acknowledge and thank the person. Continuously ask questions like – what do you think? What do we not know about…? Etc. Acknowledge risks inherent in ambiguity and uncertainty. Reinforce that failure is OK when the team is experimenting and learning new ways of doing things.

The following diagram from Amy Edmondson’s book gives a nice summary of the 3 steps to create psychological safety.

Image source – Fearless Organization book by Dr. Amy Edmondson

Watch: Leader’s Role in Creating a Psychologically Safe Workplace

How to measure psychological safety at work

Do members on your team feel safe psychologically? Measuring PS is simple and easy. Amy Edmondson has 7 questions you can ask your team to gauge the level of PS at work in your team.

For each of the 7 questions, each team member rates their perception of the team on a Likert scale of 1 to 7. Note that the item numbers 1,3 and 5 are expressed negatively and are hence denoted with an (R). You can also use a Likert scale of 1 to 5.

1. If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you. (R)
2. Members of this team can bring up problems and tough issues.
3. People on this team sometimes reject others for being different. (R)
4. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
5. It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help. (R)
6. No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
7. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.

This simple 7 question tool has proven quite accurate in predicting teams’ psychological safety – as per Amy Edmondson’s research. 

Complimentary Psychological Safety Assessment

Do you know the level of psychological safety on your team?  We are happy to offer you a complimentary psychological safety team assessment for your first team. Schedule a quick conversation to find out more.

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In Conclusion

To solve today’s VUCA world’s problems, organizations need to use all team members’ collective intelligence, expertise, and collaboration. A leader’s job is to create a culture where people can share their ideas, opinions, and concerns openly and freely. In other words, a leader’s job is to create psychological safety at work. When it is lacking, people leave, performance suffers, and growth and change stall. When you have it, continuous sharing of ideas, experimentation, and learning happen on teams, which allows the company to change, innovate, and thrive in the VUCA world.

Get the best leadership coaching to improve Psychological safety at work in your teams.

Increase transparency, dialogue, candor, and psychological safety on your teams with our team coaching and team assessments. We offer Marshall Goldsmith coaching in India, the middle east, and southeast Asia.  It is the best coaching program in India because it is the same executive coaching process used by Marshall Goldsmith to coach CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide. We guarantee measurable leadership growth or don’t pay at all. 

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective:Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

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References – The Fearless Orgnization – Book by Amy Edmondson

Online leadership masterclass – Invest in Yourself

Online leadership masterclass – is it worth the time and effort? In this article, I will share my take on the benefits and limitations of Online leadership masterclass and courses.  You can also enroll for a 15-day test drive and get all-access to one of the best online leadership courses. The link is at the end of the article.

Can you learn leadership online?

It is a valid and critical question.  Traditionally, leadership training has been done in person.  Then came E-learning or online learning. From the early days of E-learning, technology has progressed by leaps and bounds.  Interactive content, Blended learning, Instructor-led training, and other multi-pronged approaches are now used by most large companies, business schools, and content vendors as a part of their online free leadership curriculum.

There are some benefits and limitations of online leadership courses free or paid.

Benefits and limitations of online leadership masterclass

The benefits of an online leadership course

• No time away from work.
• No need for travel
• Byte sized learning
• Better retention and application of the learnings
• Anytime, anywhere, any device access.
• Cost-effective as compared with in-person training
• Time-efficient
• Flexibility to learn whenever convenient

The limitations of an online free leadership course

• Needs structure
• Must be based on proper instructional design
• Needs the self-discipline to complete
• No interaction with other learners
• It can’t clarify doubts with the instructor.

Factors that have helped the spread of online leadership courses

In the last decade, there has been a confluence of factors that has made online leadership learning possible.  In fact, these advances have made online leadership courses, free or paid, engaging, useful, and often more effective than attending in-person leadership courses.

The magic of instructional design

• The entire curriculum is designed with the learner in mind.
• Whets the learner’s appetite for learning
• Better recall and retention of skills
• Measurement of learning is built-in.
• Flexible – anywhere, any time, and any device

The advances in technology and software

• High definition video
• Simulations
• Animations
• Learning management systems
• Customizations and learning paths
• Individualized tracking and measurements

These advancements in technology provide the learner with an engaging and stimulating experience that rivals any classroom training course.

Neuroscience – the science of learning

• Byte sized learning
• Small quizzes and tests to aid retention
• Learning aids
• Blended approach – get the benefit of online, face to face.
• Scientifically designed tools and apps to reinforce learning
• On job application and habit formation
• It helps form habits and accountability.

The application of neuroscience to learning design has resulted in more engaging content, better retention, and more effective application.

The pandemic has necessitated and accelerated online leadership masterclass and courses

The unprecedented spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed a variety of things almost overnight!  Training programs in general and Leadership training and coaching, in particular, have been affected severely.  Prestigious B-schools have had to take their leadership courses online.  So have most vendors of leadership courses.  Covid-19 pandemic has shifted leadership learning from in-person to online.  Online free or paid leadership courses are now a norm are likely to stay that way even after the pandemic may be over.

Conclusion: Online leadership masterclass are often more effective

The result of the confluence of these factors?  Basically, the learners get access to the best content scientifically designed and delivered by some of the world’s best teachers. The online leadership courses, free or paid, are most of the times more effective due to the confluence of the factors discussed above.

We have an online leadership masterclass that takes a blended approach of in-person coaching, online learning.

Invest in Yourself with the Leadership Masterclass online leadership course test drive7

How can the leadership masterclass benefit you?

• Get more work done efficiently from your team
• Earn the respect of all team members
• Get satisfaction and fulfillment from your career
• Get recognized and promoted as a leader
• Survive and thrive in the next normal and a VUCA world
• Avoid mid-career crisis
• Find exciting new job opportunity
• Future proof your leadership skills

Enroll in our special 15-day test drive coaching package for an unbelievably low investment of $99

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Inclusions in the 15-day test drive coaching package

• 45 minute live coaching session-via video call – $299 value
• 15 minute live quick check-in session with the coach – $99 value
• Get access to a scientifically designed online platform for small daily actions, microlearning, accountability, support, and habits – $99 value
• Get 24/7 access to the coach via an online platform – priceless!
• 100% no questions asked money-back guarantee any time during the first week – Risk-free!

Benefits of the 15-day test drive coaching package

• Discover your leadership strengths and improvement areas
• Gain clarity and decide on improvement areas
• Create, commit and make progress on your action plan with small consistent actions
• Get support and accountability of the coach and the online platform
• Micro learning customized for your specific needs
• Jump start your leadership development
• Experience coaching firsthand and then decide if coaching is right for you

The power of a scientifically designed online platform

• Your daily co-coach and accountability partner
• Actions from coaching insights happen in real life
• Leaders get busy and “things” come up in real life!
• Customized actions and worksheet and timely reminders help you take small actions daily
• Help you form small habits that make a huge difference over time

Features of the online platform

• Create customized actions, worksheets and metrics for you
• Create projects, tasks, and action plans suitable to your needs
• Coach will “observe” all your actions via online platform
• Encouragement, support, and accountability

Just one click access to all your activities

• Everything in a single place – actions, metrics, notes, journal and more
• Convenient one click access on any device
• Track and measure every aspect of your development plan
• Timely reminders of actions and activities
• Create actions, metrics, worksheets, journal with coach
• Two way communication with the coach on a continuous basis

All of this for an investment of only $99 for 15-day access and two live personal coaching sessions

Benefits

• Self-reflection and assessment of strengths and improvement areas
• Discover fears, limiting beliefs, and obstacles
• Accountability to self and coach
• Be more self-aware of blind spots.
• Tap into the inherent potential to discover solutions
• Gain clarity and focus
• Create actionable plans and take consistent action
• Gain more job and life satisfaction
• Contribute more effectively to the team and the organization
• Take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments.
• Work more easily and productively with others (boss, direct reports, peers)
• Communicate more effectively
• Gain confidence and build momentum
• Change behavior at work

Coaching is the most effective developmental tool, bar none!

Bill Gates reiterated in his TED talk that “everybody needs a coach.”  Training is a (mostly) waste of money and time. Get a coach on your side.

Benefits of leadership masterclass from an organizational perspective

• Empowers individual leaders and encourages them to take responsibility
• Increases employee and staff engagement
• Helps identify and develop high potential employees
• Help identify both organizational and individual strengths and development opportunities.
• It helps to motivate and empower individuals to excel.
• Help leaders transition up and across within the organization.
• Help leaders overcome derailing behaviors.
• Aid succession planning
• Build a leadership pipeline

Based on the process designed by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith – World’s number 1 thinker and executive coach.

Read: Which is the best leadership development program?

How much should you invest in your own development?

Brian Tracy says – invest 10% of your earnings in your own self.  The best investment you can make is in your “earning ability,” especially in times of rapid change and turbulence.  Think about your annual salary.  The transformational leadership coaching package’s investment will probably be a lot less than 10% of your annual CTC.  And the benefits will last for years!

Think about how much money do you spend on a vacation?  Or a vehicle?  Or on mobile phones and other gadgets.  Those are expenses.  The Transformational coaching package is an investment in yourself that pays many times over.

Set an appointment with us to get the best deal for your leadership coaching package.

Do you want leadership masterclass for the leadership team in your organization?

If you are in top management or HR, L&D, etc. Think about how much money your company spends on leadership training every year. And you do that year after year! Instead, invest in the most effective leadership development coaching backed by research to be 95% effective.

Do you have an otherwise good leader but

• Is a know it and Doesn’t listen to the ideas and opinions of others? What does that do to that leader’s team members? Are new ideas discussed? What happens to their performance?
• How about a leader who doesn’t develop her 2nd line?
• How about a leader who loses his temper and doesn’t get along with others? Works in silos.

DDI estimates the financial cost of a single leader to be $126,000 per year!  What would it be worth if these leaders improved in their bottleneck areas?

With LMC, you can make it happen. Create a culture of transparency, dialogue, openness. And the culture, in turn, will supercharge team engagement and performance. Connect for special pricing for a group of 5 or more leaders.  Get guaranteed and measurable leadership growth (in their bottleneck areas) with our leadership coaching packages.

Set an appointment with us to get the best deal for your leadership coaching package.

Are the current leadership development solutions effective?

Here are some points to ponder regarding the current leadership development solutions.

• Here is a survey of CEOs from large MNCs – from a couple of years ago.  While 89% of the CEOs considered leadership development a top priority, only 10% believed that their leadership development has a clear business impact. Numbers are similar in multiple surveys over the years.
• Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concluded – “Companies Invest in Leadership Development, but the Money Is Largely Wasted.”
• Kristi Hedges rightly pointed out in her aptly titled article in Forbes – “If You Think Leadership Development Is A Waste Of Time You May Be Right.”

The current way organizations are developing leaders is simply not working.

Is there a better way to develop leaders that provide guaranteed and measurable results?

The answer is yes!  First, let me discuss one of the largest studies on what makes leadership programs effective.

What makes a leadership development program really effective?

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied various leadership development programs at 8 MNC companies, involving 86,000 leaders. The companies varied in size, type of business, industry, number of leaders, and leaders’ levels.

• Lessons from 86,000 leaders at 8 large multinational companies
• What was common to all these leadership development programs?
• What didn’t matter to their effectiveness of leadership development?
• What really mattered? Read the article on What really makes a leadership program effective.

Here is the conclusion in brief.

• This is the key effectiveness of leadership development programs and behavior change at work.
• If your leadership program doesn’t have consistent follow up as part of the program design – don’t waste your money on it!
• Along with a well-defined leadership development process, consistently follow up with stakeholders is the key to the ANY leadership development initiative’s effectiveness.

Learn more about the GLA 360 tool and download a sample report

Evolution of people development – Leadership training vs. leadership coaching

Some companies regularly conduct so-called leadership training programs. This is to check the boxes and for ISO requirements – how many pieces of training, how many man-hours, etc.

Other companies may have realized that they need to measure impact. Now, most companies measure Kirkpatrick’s first level evaluation – which is jokingly known as the feel-good feedback – whether the participants liked the training or not.

A few companies have evolved to the next stage. They realize that “training programs” are NOT having any business impact. Then they opt for long-term training intervention instead of just short-duration training programs. They add assessments and follow-up to help on job behavior change of the leaders. Even then, the statistics on leadership interventions’ effectiveness, even those from big named B schools and top-notch vendors, are depressingly low.

Companies or L&D depts do this training for years, sometimes decades, with little impact on the performance.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concluded – “Companies Invest in Leadership Development, but the Money Is Largely Wasted.”

Progressive companies and individual leaders realize today – that leadership development training is a waste of time. A minority of the companies have realized that Coaching is the most effective way to change the leader’s job behavior and have a business impact! They invest in coaching. It includes individual assessments. It is customized to each leader’s needs. There is consistent follow-up over a long period of time. There is 360-degree feedback, regular progress assessments, and individual coaching.

Why waste time, money, and years of effort on training that have little business impact. Instead, get the LMC – coaching for your leadership development.

LMC individual assessments, personalized coaching, customized curriculum, and scientifically designed online platform help you change job behaviors and regular assessments. Unlike training that only creates awareness and intellectual knowledge, LMC focuses on applying at work and lasting behavior change.

Get leadership coaching for your leadership development.

Now there is a perception that coaching is expensive. But that is incorrect. Compare the cost of coaching for an entire year with getting a certification

or attending a one-week-long leadership program at a B school; it will cost you more than entire years’ worth of coaching. While training and certifications mostly end up forgotten in a few days, coaching delivers a measurable ROI for years to come.

Get 15-day test drive ALL access to LMC now and become an inspiring leader.

Leadership training vs. Leadership masterclass 

Think about the last leadership program you attended in the past. You probably learned a leadership model or a case study and gained some intellectual knowledge. How much of it did you apply at work? Did it change your on-job behaviors? Statistics show that most leadership programs do nothing more than waste the money and time of the participants.

Kristi Hedges aptly pointed out in her article in Forbes magazine – “If You Think Leadership Development Is A Waste Of Time You May Be Right.”

I may read a book on 100 ways to appreciate a team member, but don’t apply a single one! What good does that do? Nothing!

Leadership masterclass is different. The entire focus is on learning by doing. Applying it at work along with your team. Changing long-ingrained behaviors at work and forming different and better habits. As long as you commit to completing the daily actions – in about 30 minutes a day, you will change your work behaviors and be recognized by your team members for doing so! LMC is both time and cost-effective solution for your leadership development.

Is leadership behavior change easy?

Think about a leadership area where you can improve to become a better leader. Most leaders select one or more of the following areas.

• Manage team performance better
• Listen to and involve team members.
• Emotional control in stressful situations
• Communicate more effectively
• Delegate more effectively
• And dozens of other such behaviors.

So here is a question. How long have you been trying to get better? Most leaders say that it has been years! How much does it cost you in terms of your leadership brand value? Now think about a few of the leaders in your organization. Do they exhibit one or more of these ineffective habits? What could this be costing you and your team in terms of team cohesion and performance? DDI estimates that the cost of a single poor leader at $126,000 per year!

With leadership masterclass, we deliver measurable growth in the leader’s bottleneck areas – as anonymously assessed by the leader’s own team members.

With leadership masterclass, we deliver measurable growth in the leader’s bottleneck areas – as anonymously assessed by the leader’s own team members.

Behavior change is one of the most difficult things to do. It is simple to understand but very difficult to implement consistently! For successful leaders like you, it is even more difficult! No wonder we carry these ineffective habits for years, even decades.

LMC – the free online leadership program – is designed to help you with positive behavior change at work. It simply works! We deliver measurable leadership growth – guaranteed!

Read: Leadership Feedback & the CEO disease!<

Organizational Culture Change – leadership masterclass for your leadership team

Every leader has some strengths that make them successful. Every leader also has some bottlenecks that prevent them from achieving further leadership success. Leaders need to leverage strengths and improve in their bottleneck areas to achieve the next level of success. LMC allows you to do exactly that. Leverage your strengths and overcome your bottlenecks.

Now imagine that in your organization, the top leadership team goes through the LMC. Each of these leaders improves in their bottleneck areas and leverages their strengths. What would that mean to the performance of the organization? It will change organizational culture to a more open, focused, and high-performance culture. Get LMC for your top leadership team to institute organizational culture change.

KF Hay group identifies 5 factors that impact the organization and account for 65% of the bottom line. What about the other 35%?  Leadership behaviors account for 35% of the bottom line!  Leadership behaviors are the single largest factor and are the only factor completely in the organization’s circle of influence. Leadership development is the best tool to accelerate performance. Get LMC for your leadership team. It is the most cost-effective option. Speak with us for LMC for your entire team. We will deliver guaranteed and measurable leadership growth for your leaders, or we simply won’t charge you anything!

Leadership online masterclass – is an amazing value!

What does it cost to attend a 5-day leadership course at any top B schools – Harvard, HEC, Instead, IIM, ISB, etc.? You can check it yourself!  It runs into tens of thousands of USD per leader. Then add the cost of the leader’s salary for 5 days, travel and accommodation costs, and a lot more.

The worst part is that much of this training never converts into on-the-job behavior change.  Not because the content is not effective.  The content and delivery are definitely world-class.  However, behavior change at work never happens with a short duration program.  The content is general in nature and not customized for each leader.

With LMC, you will get all the tools for on job behavior change at a cost that is much less than a 5-day program at a reputed B school.  LMC costs less for an entire year of leadership coaching and customized learning.

• A scientifically designed online platform
• One-click, anywhere anytime, access
• 2 live sessions per month with the coach
• Customized actions and worksheets, and timely reminders help you take small actions daily.

Leadership awareness may happen in a training session, but leadership behaviors happen in real life when the leader interacts with his/her own team.  That is where leadership development really happens.

LMC excels in the on-job behavior change of leaders.

Get 15-day test  ALL access to LMC now and become an inspiring leader.
Image credit -Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Which is the best leadership development program worldwide?

In this article, I want to discuss research and an evidence-based approach to making any leadership development program effective. It is based on a study of 84,000 leaders on six continents.  I will also talk about probably the best leadership development program in India and worldwide.

The business context and importance of leadership development programs

• The business environment is highly competitive
• Change and disruptions are continuous.
• Leadership development is one of the top priorities of companies – based on multiple surveys of CEOs and boards done over many years.
• Companies spend significant sums of money on leadership development.

Is leadership development effective?

At some point of time or other CEO’s, boards and talent management professionals have asked these questions to themselves and to external consultants that offer and often claim to have the best leadership development programs.

• Does leadership development work?
• Does it have any measurable impact on leaders?
• Which developmental activities are effective and which are not?
• Which are the essential elements of an effective leadership program that helps leaders make positive and sustainable changes in their behaviors?
• And which is the best leadership development program in terms of its effectiveness?

Most leadership development programsare a waste of time!

An estimated $62 billion was spent worldwide on leadership development initiatives in 2014.  And yet, the numbers on the effectiveness of leadership development programs are both shocking and depressing.

Watch: If you think most leadership programs are a waste of time, you may be right! 

Here is why most leadership development programs fail.

The primary reason for the ineffectiveness or failure of leadership development initiatives is the fact that there is a fundamental problem with most of them.

Read: Why leadership training fails and the fail-safe solution for it

An extensive study of leadership development programs at EIGHT large multinational companies

In 2004, Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan reviewed various leadership development initiatives in eight large multinational companies. It was a comprehensive study of over 86,000 leaders and executives globally, at these eight multinational companies.

Although the desired outcome for all companies was identical – sustained change in behavior at work – they used various tools and approaches.  It included classroom-based training vs. on job practice, short-duration training vs. long-term interventions, coaching vs. mentoring, internal trainers and coaches vs. external trainers or coaches, etc.

A variety of approaches to leadership development programs at these eight companies

hese companies and their leadership development programs varied and included –

• A defense contractor – Over 1,500 managers (mid-level to C-suite and the CEO) received a training program for two-and-a-half days.  Each leader went through 360-degree feedback.  An external consultant conducted the report sharing and debriefing session with the leader.  All leaders received three reminders to follow up with their colleagues.
• A diversified services conglomerate – Over 6,700 managers (mid-level to C-suite and the CEO) received a two-day training program along with individual feedback from an external coach.  Participants knew that a follow-up and measurement after the program was part of the plan.
• A telecommunications provider – Over 280 managers, including the C-suite team, received a one-day training, followed by multiple one-on-one coaching sessions with an external coach.

What was common to all these leadership development programs?

There were clear expectations established from the beginning.  Each participant had to

• Take part in 360-degree feedback.
• Have a debriefing session with an internal or an external consultant
• Identify one to three areas to improve.
• Discuss these improvement areas with their team members
• Use the team member’s collective intelligence and observations to get suggestions on how to improve.
• Routinely follow up with team members to keep getting suggestions for improvement.
• Agree to be anonymously rated by their team members anywhere from three to fifteen months from the start of the leadership development program

Different measurement criteria for leadership development programs’ effectiveness

Instead of using the Kirkpatrick’s first level of evaluation – often known as the feel-good factor evaluation – Goldsmith and Morgan measured participants’ increased effectiveness because of the leadership intervention.  This increased effectiveness – was not determined by the leader or the facilitator – but instead anonymously assessed by team members of the leader who had taken part in the leadership development.  It is like companies getting feedback from the consumers of their products or services.  Here, the product or service is Leadership, and the consumers are the team members of the leader.

So what matters most to the effectiveness of leadership development programs?

What causes on-job behavior change in leaders?

Besides the comprehensive study of 86,000 leaders at eight large multinational companies in 2004,  Goldsmith and Morgan also conducted a second study with 248,000 people in 2014.

This second study followed the stakeholder centered coaching process that has the following three steps.

1. The leader got 360-degree feedback from coworkers and team members.
2. Based on the feedback, each leader decided 1-2 improvement areas to work on
3. The process of improvement included asking for regular feedback and suggestions for improvement from coworkers.

Regularly, monthly, or every couple of months, the leader had to ask the team members these questions.

• How did I do during the last month or two – to improve my behavior?
• Please give me suggestions on what I should do (or stop doing) in the next month or two.

Every 3-4 months, the leader was anonymously rated by his/her team members, through a mini-survey.  The question was simple – Has the leader improved in their chosen 1-2 improvement areas? The rating scale was a Likert scale from -3 to +3 as below.

• – 3 Much Less Effective
• – 2 Noticeably Less Effective
• – 1 Little Less Effective
• 0 No Change
• +1 Little More Effective
• +2 Noticeably More Effective
• +3 Much More Effective

It is the key to behavior change because of any leadership development program

Let us look at the following three graphs to understand the most critical factor essential for the success of any leadership development program.

Exhibit 1:  My Coworker Did No Follow up

This first chart shows the Likert scale ratings of leaders by their stakeholders at various companies.  Here there was hardly any follow up by the coworkers.  Exhibit 1 below looks like a standard bell curve distribution.   What does it show?  It shows that there was a negligible difference made because of the leadership development program.  Instead of attending leadership development, the leaders could watch TV, and you would still end up having a bell curve similar to the one in exhibit 1 below.

Exhibit 2:  My Coworker Did Some Follow up

This second chart shows the Likert scale ratings of leaders by their stakeholders at various companies.  Here there was some follow up by the coworkers. Following up r The follow up meant that the leader involved the coworkers, and they provided feedback to the leader on his/her behaviors.  As you can see below in exhibit 2, the peaks are shifting to the right.  What does it mean?  With some follow up by coworkers, there was some improvement in the leader’s behaviors and hence the ratings.

Exhibit 3:  My Coworker Did Consistent, or Periodic Follow up

This third chart shows the Likert scale ratings of leaders by their stakeholders at various companies.  Here there was a CONSISTENT OR PERIODIC follow up by the coworkers.  The follow up meant that the leader involved the coworkers, and they provided feedback to the leader on his/her behaviors – CONSISTENTLY and PERIODICALLY.  As you can see below in exhibit 3, the peaks have shifted all the way to the right.  What does it mean?  It means that with CONSISTENT AND PERIODIC follow up by coworkers, there was a significant improvement in the leader’s behaviors and hence the ratings.

It is a significant discovery. What didn’t matter?

• The size of the company
• The business or industry of the company
• The leadership intervention type

What really mattered?

• The leader’s willingness to listen to a team member’s perceptions (via 360-degree feedback)
• The leader’s willingness to take action on improving and focus on just 1-2 areas to get better
• The leader’s willingness to involve team members (they have a ringside seat to a leader’s behaviors)
• Most important of all – consistent follow up of the leader with the team members and vice versa.

One additional factor that stood out from the best leadership program for executives

Leadership is not the relationship between the trainer and the leader or the coach and the leader.  Leadership is a relationship between the leader and her team members.  Kouzes and Posner’s study of Leadership for over 35 years proves this point.

To quote Kouzes and Posner

“Leadership is about relationships. Leadership is a relationship.  Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.  Through that relationship, leaders turn their constituents into leaders themselves.”

The best leadership program for executives in India and worldwide!

With the claim of the best leadership development program, there should be enough data to back it up.

These two studies – the first one in 2004 of 86,000 global leaders at eight multinational companies, and the second one of 248,000 leaders in 2018, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that follow up is the key. It also proves that Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder centered coaching leadership development program in India and worldwide is the best and most effective leadership development program.

Here are the results to prove it!  95% of the people using this program improved. Let me repeat that – 95% of the leaders using this leadership development program improved.

The best leadership development program worldwide

• Marshall Goldsmith’s leadership development coaching program is the largest leadership coaching program with over 3000 coaches in 55 countries.
• We have used this process with leaders in a large variety of companies (across companies, across countries, across cultures, across industries) to deliver measurable leadership growth.
• In fact, we are so confident that this process works – we often work with our clients on a no-growth no pay basis.  What does it mean?  If you hire us for your leadership development program, we will deliver measurable leadership growth – not as judged by the coach, or by the leader, but as anonymously rated by the leader’s team members!

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader : Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results!: We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

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References: Leadership is a contact sport by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan. 

360 degree feedback- A complete guide with free pdf questionnaire

What is 360-degree feedback? A complete guide of what, why, and how of 360 degree feedback with a free downloadable pdf questionnaire and a sample report. Plus 360 degree feedback best practices and guidelines.

What is 360-degree feedback?

Download the link for the 360-degree questionnaire pdf and the sample report at the end of this article. The 360-degree feedback is a talent management tool. As human beings, it is virtually impossible to see ourselves completely objectively.  The 360 degree feedback allows the leader to find the gaps between their own perception and how others team members perceive them.  The 360 degree feedback is usually administered to help mid to senior-level leaders increase their self-awareness and consequently support them to become better leaders. This tool allows leaders to see the gap between their own self-perception and how others view the leader.

Why the name 360-degree feedback?

In any work environment, usually, the feedback flows from top to bottom. Most employees get feedback from their direct managers about their performance and behaviors, and they in turn give feedback to their direct reports. This feedback is unidirectional or from a single rater or a single source.   The direct manager’s perception can be inaccurate or biased. In contrast, 360-degree feedback comes from all directions. The word 360-degree refers to “all-around” or all directions as there are 360 degrees in a circle.   The 360-degree feedback is solicited from people who work above, below, and across the employee for a particular employee.  These are usually boss(es) or direct manager(s) (above), direct reports or subordinates (below), and peers (across).  Sometimes, 360-degree feedback can also include vendors or customers.  It depends on the role of the person undergoing the 360 degree feedback process. The 360-degree feedback is also known as multi-rater feedback, or multi-source assessment, as multiple people are rating a single employee, and feedback or assessment comes from multiple sources.  The United States Army pioneered the 360-degree feedback process and started using it in the early 1940s.  However, since the 1990s, it has gained popularity and become a permanent talent management tool for most multinational companies today.

Importance of feedback – an example

Let me give you an example to elaborate on the importance of 360-degree feedback. Imagine that you are in the soft drinks business and are planning to launch a new cola.  How do you ensure the success of this new product?  How do you ensure the success of this or any new product or service?

The customer feedback process

Here is a typical process most companies would follow. They concoct the cola and then offer it to some sample consumers. They then ask for their feedback on the cola. If most of the consumers like cola, you probably have a winner. Usually, this does not happen. You may get some feedback like – the cola does not have enough flavor, too much sugar, not enough fizz, etc. Based on their feedback, the product is modified. We then offer the consumers the “improved” product and ask them to provide feedback again. Usually, after a few iterations of feedback and improvement, you get a reasonable level of certainty that the product is likely to succeed. On the contrary, there are many examples of products and services that management was really excited about but was launched without proper customer feedback. Unfortunately, the customers did not share the management’s enthusiasm, and hence the products failed miserably.  The “new” Coke and Crystal Pepsi are examples of such products in the soft drink industry.  However, the importance of customer feedback is obvious and important for any product or service in any industry. Without good quality feedback from consumers, there is little chance of improving any product or service.

Who are the consumers of your leadership?

Now here is a question. If you are a leader, who are the consumers of your leadership? The answer is obvious, isn’t it?  The people who are at the receiving end of our leadership are our consumers. These include direct reports, peers, and bosses. Sometimes it can also include customers and suppliers. As mentioned earlier, the term 360 refers to feedback from all directions. From those who are above the leader, below the leader, and across from the leader.  The term multi-rater feedback or multi-source feedback refers to feedback from multiple raters and multiple sources. The purpose of 360-degree feedback is to help improve performance by providing the leader with an awareness of his/her strengths and weaknesses.

Why 360-degree feedback or multi-rater feedback?

The higher a leader moves up the career ladder, the less likely she is to get honest feedback. When a leader moves up the career ladder, both the quality and quantity of the feedback are reduced. Leaders tend to get more positive reinforcement than critical feedback that may help them improve. This constant positive reinforcement often makes the leader think that everything they do at work is fine. In reality, that may not be true. The leaders only hear the positive aspects of their performance or behaviors.  They seldom get the “negative” or “constructive” feedback that is essential for improvement. Team members around the leader usually avoid giving any negative feedback to the leader. First, as human beings, we are uncomfortable giving feedback to anyone!   It is just a human tendency to avoid such an uncomfortable situation. Second, they may be afraid of the consequences if the leader may dislike their honest or critical feedback.  This is especially true if that person is your boss.  The perception (whether it is true or not) is that giving your manager honest feedback may upset them and can have career consequences.  Hence it creates a tough situation. While the leader needs candid feedback to get better, she hardly receives good quality feedback that will help her improve.

Using collective Intelligence and reducing biases

Turnow (1993) describes the rationale for feedback as follows 360-degree activities are usually based on two key assumptions:

1. Awareness of any gap between how we see ourselves and how others see us increases self-awareness
2. Increased self-awareness is key to improving performance as a leader.

Hence the 360-degree feedback becomes a foundation block for management and leadership development programs. With feedback from multiple raters who work closely with the leader, team members’ collective intelligence provides a more comprehensive and accurate picture of a leader’s behaviors and performance. Besides, multiple raters minimize the biases inherent to any human interaction. The higher the number of raters, the more likely the individual biases will cancel out. This results in a more complete and more accurate picture of the leader.

Why is it difficult for leaders to get honest feedback?

There are several reasons leaders don’t get honest feedback as they move up the career ladder.

• Leaders don’t ask for feedback!
• Team members feel uncomfortable giving feedback.
• Team members often don’t know how to give feedback.
• Fear of consequences–fear that leader may take revenge.
• The leader may get defensive when someone tries to give feedback.
• People have learned to tell you what you want to hear (not what you need to hear!)
• As leaders, we may really not listen nor act on any feedback, which stops any further feedback.

Get honest and constructive feedback.

That is where 360-degree feedback helps. It is anonymous feedback. What does it mean? It keeps the identity of people providing the rating or feedback hidden. The best way to get honest and useful feedback for leaders and senior executives is through 360-degree feedback. Similar to our cola example above, there is little chance of improvement for a leader without honest and constructive feedback. The feedback and improvement loop allows an employee or a leader to improve. Besides, 360-degree feedback is usually administered by an external agency not connected with the organization. This brings a neutral third party who is more objective. Feedback providers also trust an external agency more than an internal human resources team to protect their anonymity.

How does 360 degree feedback work? 

Download the 360-degree questionnaire pdf and the sample report at the end of this article.Administering 360-degree feedback. The following are the steps in administering the 360-degree feedback process.

Select the raters

For each leader or employee for whom we administer, we compile the list of people giving the feedback. First, it is the leader’s own feedback, aka Self. Other groups are the boss(es), subordinates, peers, etc. Usually, the people who frequently interact with the leader are chosen to observe the leader and hence provide feedback. For each group, like subordinates and peers, there are at least three or more raters, and we average their rating. This helps protect the anonymity of individual rater.

Conduct pre-briefing sessions

Conduct pre-briefing sessions for both leader and the stakeholders The pre-briefing sessions are crucial for the success of the 360 degree feedback process. In general,  people avoid giving honest feedback, even in anonymous settings. It is important to explain to the stakeholders the benefits of the process to them, the leader, and the team. It is also important to assure their anonymity so that they can give honest feedback. It is also important for the leader to understand that feedback sometimes is like bitter medicine. It is needed if the leader wants to get better.  An experienced coach conducting the debriefing sessions can really set the stage for the 360-degree feedback efforts’ success. If this step is skipped or not done properly, it may compromise the entire process’s effectiveness.

Distribute assessments

Based on the competency framework (which competencies make the leader successful in his/her role), the competencies to be rated are decided. For each competency, we include several questions. We decide on the rating scale for each question. Usually, the rating scale is from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. For a sample 360 degree questionnaire pdf, please click the link at the end of the article. We distribute an online survey link of the assessment consisting of the survey questions via email to all the raters.

Close the survey

Once enough raters have submitted their ratings, the survey can be closed, and the process then goes to the next step.

Analyze data and generate reports

Once the survey is closed, the online system crunches a lot of numbers. We then produce a detailed 50 plus report is then which can is shared with the leader and the sponsor (the Human resources department of the manager)

Host debriefing session

The debriefing session shares the report with the leader and has two objectives. The first is to help the leader make sense of the data and convert it into actionable insights. The second is to make the leader aware and help him/her accept the feedback and develop an improvement plan. An external coach certified and skilled in using the 360-degree feedback tool is the best person to share the report with the leader. Why? There are several reasons.

• The external party not associated with the company brings in a neutral and unbiased perspective.
• A skilled facilitator helps create awareness in the leader’s behavior without causing resentment.

It makes the leader aware of her strengths and improvement areas in terms of the perception of all team members. Usually, the leader also prepares an individual development plan as part of the debriefing.
Read the article: Everything you ever wanted to know about executive coaching.

Hiring a leadership coach to debrief

A skilled coach helps the leader to interpret the results of the feedback.  The coach helps the leader convert data into actionable insights. The coach also helps develop an IDP or individual developmental plan. Some companies are under the incorrect impression that providing feedback will motivate the leader enough to change. However, research has shown that these plans hardly ever get converted into consistent actions by the leader. After the feedback session, hiring an executive coach drastically improves feedback, resulting in behavior change at work. Without proper support and follow-up, the value of 360-degree feedback can diminish, and it may lose credibility and cause distrust in employees to undergo this process.
Read: How to find the best executive coach for you or the leaders in your organization.

360 degree feedback advantages and disadvantages

What are the advantages and disadvantages of 360-degree feedback?

Advantages to the leader

• It increases the self-awareness of the leader.
• Help identify strengths and improvement areas.
• Starts an open dialogue around the leader’s behaviors and their impact
• It can act as a launchpad for the leader’s improvement and career growth.

Advantages to the team

• It gives a voice to all team members on how they see the leader’s behaviors.
• The leader’s openness to receiving feedback cascades down and improves team dialogue
• It improves team communication and engagement.

Disadvantages of the 360-degree feedback

• If not administered correctly, sometimes it may deliver biased feedback, either too positive or too negative.  Hence it is important to sensitize the leader and the raters of their roles and responsibilities.
• It is time-consuming and tedious. Hiring an external consultant who has expertise in the 360-degree process helps a lot. They can help improve both the quality and speed of the process.
• In a culture of high distrust, it may spoil relationships between the team and the leader.

360 degree feedback Guidelines and best practices

What are some guidelines and best practices to implement 360-degree feedback?

• Agreement, involvement, and support of the top management – they should themselves take part in it and encourage others also.
• Use it as a developmental tool and not for performance management.
• Select the relevant competencies and design questionnaires based on them.
• Ensure that the leaders understand the benefit and are not threatened by the process
• Keep the questions short, simple, understandable, and specific.
• Sensitize the stakeholder, assure anonymity, so they share honest feedback
• Ideally, get an external agency with expertise in this process which can help ensure all the above points.  We can help.  Find out more about our 360-degree tool that is used by everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
• Conduct a debriefing session that generates awareness and acceptance in the leader
• Prepare a development plan – and Individual development plan or IDP
• Follow up with executive coaching sessions to help leaders form new habits and change behaviors successfully – read more about what executive coaching is and how it can help.

Which is the best 360-degree feedback tool?

For mid-management to C-suite levels, probably the best tool is the Global Leadership Assessment or GLA 360 tool.

What Is the Global Leadership Assessment GLA 360?

The Global Leadership Assessment (GLA360) is a 360-degree feedback tool based on extensive research and designed and tested by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. He has been awarded and recognized worldwide and is considered the #1 Leadership Thinker and the Executive Coach to Fortune 500 CEOs. The research included the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, global thought leaders and their inputs, and international business executives of multinationals on six continents. A statistician creates most assessments. In contrast, the GLA 360 is created based on inputs by the leaders and for the leaders. A real-life leader, in all likeliness, will know a lot more about leadership than an academician or a statistician. You are assessed on competencies that have made real leaders in multinationals successful. You are compared with actual leaders, which gives a more accurate assessment helpful in the real world. The GLA 360  measures the following 15 competencies that matter to real leaders on 6 continents. It shows leaders the areas they need to develop to succeed in a competitive business environment.

Comprehensive survey

• Easy to administer as an online survey including data collection monitoring – anywhere in the world
• 15 competencies in 5 clusters, scientifically validated
• 72 questions (5 points Likert scale) plus 3 open questions for verbatim feedback
• Norm group of 2,800 international leaders from a wide range of countries, ethnicities, ages, organizational levels, industries, and educational backgrounds
• Available in multiple languages (English, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Dutch, German, and French)

Get the best 360-degree feedback tool for your team.

We offer GLA 360, a tool designed by the world’s number 1 leadership thinker Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.  It is based on solid research and compares your scores to a norm group of successful leaders worldwide. We can administer the 360-degree feedback for you or your team anywhere globally and in multiple languages English, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Dutch, German and French.

Cost-Effective & All-Inclusive Solution

360-degree feedback is an effective tool for leadership development.  It is also complicated and requires the expertise of a certified professional to understand.  We offer a cost-effective and all-inclusive solution for your 360 degree needs.

Here are the inclusions

• Globally used and validated GLA 360 instrument designed by the world’s number 1 leadership thinker Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
• Unlimited number of respondents or raters for each leader
• Available worldwide in multiple languages
• Complimentary sensitization session for leaders via video call
• Complimentary sensitization session for raters (team members of the leader) via video call
• Individual and confidential behavioral Interviews with ALL team members of the leader
• Report generation – detailed report that is 50+ pages
• Quantitative/objective – 360 degree feedback report
• Qualitative/subjective – Compilation of the feedback from the interviews
• Debriefing session with the leader to Decide the leadership growth areas for the leader
• Confirm the growth areas with the leader’s manager and/or HR
• Help the leader prepare an IDP (individual development plan)
• Start the executive coaching for the leader and deliver guaranteed and measurable leadership growth (optional)

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation to explore the GLA 360 tool – We deliver it virtually across the globe. Click the button below to schedule a conversation. SCHEDULE NOW!

360-degree questionnaire pdf

What are some sample 360 feedback questions?The GLA 360  instrument we use measures the 15 competencies that matter to real leaders on 6 continents. It shows leaders the areas they need to develop to succeed in a competitive business environment. We can group the feedback providers or raters under the following groups.

1. Boss (or bosses)
2. Peers
3. Subordinates
4. Others
5. Vendors (only if required)
6. Customers ( (only if required))

Here is a sample question under self-awareness competency “Is aware of how his/her actions and decisions affect others.” The raters give a score of 1 (being lowest) to 5 being highest. So, in this case, if the rater thinks that the leader is quite aware of his actions and decision on others, she may rate the leader a 4 or a 5. On the other hand, if the leader is clueless about how his behavior or actions affect others, he may rater the leader a 1 or a 2.

Download a sample 360-degree questionnaire pdf and the sample report by entering your details below

Next steps post the 360 degree feedback.

What is the next step after the debriefing session? Debriefing session creates awareness of the leader’s strengths and improvement areas.  The leader will also prepare an IDP.  Is that enough for behavior change and improvement?  Unfortunately, the answer is no.  Not because the leaders are not committed or lazy.  But because leaders get busy.  They handle relentless demands from multiple stakeholders.  Urgencies and emergencies are a norm and not an exception.  In such an environment, the individual development of the leaders takes a back seat, and things go back to their default mode. Leadership development has similarities to fitness goals.  Can you lose weight and get fit on your own?  Of course, you can.  But as we all know from personal experience, it is not so easy. Fitness goals often top the new year’s resolution lists.  Gyms are crowded in the first week of the new year.  By Valentine’s day – crowds at the gym are back to normal. Instead, if you hired a personal trainer to help you achieve your fitness goals – would that improve your chances of success?  Research shows that the chances go up 1100% Similarly, you can achieve your leadership development goals on your own.  But we know from experience that it is not easy.  Hiring an executive coach increases your chances exponentially. 

360 degree feedback for leadership development and Executive Coaching for your leaders

We offer Marshall Goldsmith executive coaching worldwide.  It is the best coaching program because it is the same executive coaching process used by Marshall Goldsmith to coach CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide. We guarantee measurable leadership growth, or you don’t pay at all. We are also offering Global Leadership Assessment GLA 360 and executives across the globe. We can administer the GLA 360 for any country in the world online available in multiple languages ( English, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Dutch, German, and French).
Read: Which is the best leadership development program?

We offer our New Age Leadership – NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).

It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

Click the button below.SCHEDULE NOW!

Summary and Conclusion

• 360-degree feedback is one of the best tools available for the development of managers and leaders.
• It increases the self-awareness of the leader and hence leads to improved leadership behaviors.
• Hiring an external agency is the best way to implement 360-degree feedback.
• Feedback report sharing and preparing developmental plans are essential.
• Using a leadership coach’s services can help leaders convert the IDPs into action plans into job behavior change and improvement.
• Download our FREE 360-degree questionnaire and sample report.
• Or connect with us to get GLA 360 degree assessments and multiple value additions for one low price for your leadership team, delivered anywhere globally, in multiple languages English, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Dutch, German and French.

References: Human Resource 360 Degree Feedback by Mohammad Rouhi Eisalou Harvard Business Review

How to get promoted and avoid mid-career crisis

Most leaders suffer from a mid-career crisis. This is when they feel stuck in their careers and career growth stalls. How to get promoted and avoid a mid-career crisis? Read how you can use this one tool to supercharge your performance and career growth.

Rapid growth at the start of the career

If you are like most professionals, here is what happens. When we start our careers, there is a period of rapid learning and performance improvement.

Over a period of a few years, we become good at our profession – whether we are a doctor, an engineer, a teacher, a musician, a scientist, or a leader. The sad part for most of us is that we stop getting any better. We hit a plateau, and more often than not, it acts as the ceiling for our performance level, often for the rest of our lives!

Hitting the plateau and the mid-career crisis

How do we get better in our profession, even when we are reasonably good at what we do? How do we become better leaders? How do we get past the plateau? How do we get great at something? How do we take our performance to the next level? How to get promoted and avoid the mid-career crisis?

These are the questions Dr. Atul Gawande asked himself. Dr. Atul Gawande is an American surgeon and an author – has written four New York Times bestsellers and is a public health leader – has won several awards for his research to improve healthcare. He did some research on how to improve his performance and finally found the answers. In his TED talk, he describes how he got past his plateau as a surgeon. Watch Dr. Atul Gawande’s Ted talk here – Want to get great at something? Get a coach

The traditional view of professional development – How to get promoted?

The traditional view in most professions–leaders included–is that the individual is responsible and capable of managing their own career and performance improvement. School, college, on-job training, etc., help the professional learn. Then she practices these skills at work and gets better. Most professionals use this approach to become successful in their careers.

Dr. Atul Gawande also used the traditional approach to become a good surgeon. For the first five years of his career, he had significant learning and improvement as a surgeon. His complication rates dropped steadily until they leveled off around five years into his career. Although he was a successful surgeon, he had hit a plateau.

Read: What are the ego traps and Leadership Derailers leaders fall for?

A coaching approach to professional development – How to get promoted after the mid-career crisis?

The opposite view comes from the field of sports. In sports, no matter how good you are, the expectation is that you can get better. You are never done.  And you don’t do it on your own. Everybody has a coach. The average player has a coach, the good player has a coach, and the greatest in the world also has a coach.

Would the sports coach analogy work in other professions? Can it help avoid mid-career crisis and help how to get promoted?  Dr. Atul Gawande wanted to see if it would work for his own profession as a surgeon. He hired his professor Dr. Olsteen, who had retired at that time, to observe and critique him during the surgery in the operation theater. Initially, this idea sounded absurd to him.

Coaching creates awareness and growth. 

It was a painful process, and sometimes it seemed like things were getting worse; he didn’t want to work on doing things differently; he didn’t even like being observed. Although unpleasant, this was a different level of awareness.

He recalls the first surgery that he performed with his coach Dr. Olsteen observing him. Atul’s perception was that the surgery went without a hitch. It was quite flawless. Dr. Olsteen had a different idea. He had a page full of notes and observations to share–how the spotlight was off the wound, and the surgery was performed with reflected light, how his elbows were raised, which is not a good position for a surgeon, and on and on.

Achieving performance improvement after the plateau, avoid mid-career crisis, and get promoted faster

After two months of continuous feedback from the coach, he started improving again. This was the first time he had seen improvements since five years into his career.  His stalled career growth started again, and he avoided the proverbial mid-life career crisis. A year after the coaching ended, he got even better as the surgeries’ complication rates dropped even further.

Dr. Gawande found this fundamentally profound. Great coaches act as external eyes and ears and provide a more accurate picture of your reality. They break down your actions into fundamentals, help improve each area, and then build it back up for improved performance.

Using coaching for leadership development, avoid mid-career crisis, and get promoted faster.

Leadership development is similar.  Leaders hit a plateau and often suffer from the mid-career crisis. How to avoid it, hit career growth, and how to get promoted? The answer lies in coaching!  One-on-one coaching with an experienced leadership coach has proven to be the best and most effective leadership development method.  A coach helps the leader to become more self-aware. Understand their strengths and improvement areas. The coach helps the leader to devise a strategy to utilize strengths and overcome derailing behaviors. The coach also provides support and accountability while the leader tries new behaviors and keeps working until these new behaviors become habits.  How to get promoted and avoid a mid-career crisis?  Improve your performance through coaching!

Get the best leadership coaching to get promoted faster.

Read: Everything you ever wanted to know about executive coaching.

We offer our New Age Leadership – NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results!: We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

Click the button below.

SCHEDULE NOW!

References: How to Cope With a Mid-Career Crisis I originally published this article on my LinkedIn Profile.