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#Leadership : How To Conduct Layoffs With Dignity. Times of the ‘Digital Pink Slips’, How Did your Former Company Do?

March 7, 2023/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Anyone who says layoffs aren’t personal when most of us spend the majority of our lives at work so we can provide for our families is mistaken. To the employee, layoffs are personal because it’s more than just business. That’s why when we think of layoff best practices, the process should be transparent and empathetic. Unfortunately, not all companies conduct layoffs in a manner that would be described as respectful. For example, organizations like GoogleGOOG -1% recently relied on email to announce layoffs to unsuspecting workers. One employee even thought the early morning message was from a scammer trying to capitalize on the current wave of job cuts. As it turns out, the 20-year company veteran was let go via a generic email—not the most personalized method.

Despite some poorly managed layoffs, others have been handled with dignity and respect. Take Stripe, for example. When CEO Patrick Collision emailed employees, he shared the broader context and admitted that leadership made mistakes leading to the layoffs. He even went so far as to create a Stripe “alumni” group to support those affected and help them move on to other companies.

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While layoffs are never a positive experience, there are ways to soften the blow. Here are some tactics that display empathy and compassion for employees at a time when they are most vulnerable.

Develop a communications plan

A well-thought-out communications plan is at the heart of an empathetic layoff. According to Harvard Business Review, the essential elements are:

Rationale: a clear and honest explanation as to why the layoff is taking place

Key messages: what actions are being taken, and how will the company be positioned for the future

Audiences: consistent messaging to other parties, including investors, media and business partners

The communications plan should be developed well in advance with buy-in from all C-level executives. Then, on announcement day, the CEO should be the key spokesperson.

Prepare your management team

Once you have the strategy, prepare the team delivering the news. Managers should receive training on dealing with employees’ questions, pushback and emotional responses. It is also advisable to develop scripts that clearly explain why the layoff is taking place, severance package details, and other support that will be provided. Arming managers with essential tools and resources will make them feel better prepared to handle these difficult conversations.

Tell them in person

A one-on-one conversation should take place between the employee and their direct manager. This meeting may follow an initial email notification as long as a live discussion happens within 24 hours. In that meeting, explain to the employee the business reasons for the layoff and what comes next. Sometimes it’s difficult for people to absorb information about severance packages when the news comes as a surprise. In that case, move through the exit meeting quickly and let the employee know they can contact you in a few days once they have reviewed the information. Overall, these private sessions give affected employees a sense of dignity and allow them to react, process the news and ask questions.

Admit mistakes

It’s important for CEOs to accept responsibility for the decision to lay off workers. For example, with Meta’s recent layoffs, Mark Zuckerberg stated, “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here.” They should also admit their mistakes and how they plan on correcting them moving forward. In Collision’s email to Stripe employees, he highlighted how the leadership team overestimated the internet economy’s near-term growth and grew operating costs too quickly. Then he went on to say that they would correct those mistakes.

Consider remaining staff

A layoff can be just as difficult on remaining employees as on those who are let go. It’s called layoff survivor guilt—a term that refers to experiencing remorse that one had survived a layoff when your colleagues didn’t. These workers might encounter an array of emotions, including guilt, sadness, relief and anger. They may also feel anxious because they wonder whether their jobs will be next on the chopping block. As a result, the productivity of remaining employees tends to decline following a layoff. According to a study by Leadership IQ, 74% of employees who kept their job say their own productivity has declined since the layoff. To offset these concerns, be honest about the company’s future and plans for future layoffs. It’s also a good idea to set up a Q&A session to go over the reason for the layoffs, which employees were impacted and what the next few days will look like.

Ultimately, it’s not what happens but how you handle it. Competent leaders understand that every former employee is a potential future customer, client or partner. Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Make them feel like human beings, and in return, you’ll be rewarded with a company reputation that will stand the test of time.

Forbes.com Author: Caroline Castrillon Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

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Forbes.com – March 5, 2023

#Leadership : #MangingPeople – Why Companies Should Stop Trying So Hard to Make their Employees Happy. A Must REad for Every #Manger !

June 22, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Companies often promise their employees happiness to attract and retain the brightest talent—but in reality, if you want happy employees, you need to hire happy people.

The thing is, happiness isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and is extremelydifficult to deliver. Offering perks like free yoga in the office, catered lunches, or gym reimbursements could theoretically make some employees happy. However, it may not mean anything at all to those who value flexible work programs or better learning opportunities.

Guaranteeing your employees happiness will result in an ongoing uphill battle. There will always be individuals in the organization who are unhappy, no matter what the company provides in terms of perks and benefits. To create a great workplace environment, you need to make a simple paradigm shift. Stop trying so hard to make your employees happy, and focus on their satisfaction instead. Here are three ways that you can do that:

1. GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW AND DEVELOP

Employees won’t be engaged unless they’re doing meaningful, challenging work. That goes beyond leveraging their skills and knowledge in the current role.

You might argue that just like happiness, “meaning” is a subjective thing that differs from employee to employee, and you would be right. However, there is a way for you to cultivate this kind of environment. As Stephanie Vozza previously wrote for Fast Company, you can remind your team why their work matters in the context of bigger organizational goals. As Bill Donoghue, CEO of the training provider solutions Skillsoft, told Vozza, “Every individual needs to feel a sense of ‘I matter,’ that showing up every day makes a difference.”

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2. CREATE A CULTURE OF CONSISTENT FEEDBACK

Of course, you can’t help an employee grow without understanding their goals, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. That’s why you need to ensure that there is a culture of continuous feedback.

Don’t create the expectation and practice that feedback only happens within the confines of an annual review. This kind of structure makes it drastically less effective and creates more anxiety than improvement. According to a 2016 survey by data firm Clutch, 68% of employees who receive accurate and consistent feedback feel fulfilled in their jobs.

Creating this kind of culture goes beyond instructing your managers to do so. You need to establish transparent processes and guidelines, and train managers so that they’re aligned and consistent in how they approach the employee experience.

Feedback shouldn’t be a one-way street either. Employees need to be able to provide feedback up, down, and across the company, and they need to have the opportunity to share their ideas for improvement with the company. Employees that feel their voices are heard are nearly five times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work, according to a 2018 Gallup survey. When companies encourage employees to take an active role in their own growth and development—as well as contribute to the development of their manager, peers, and company culture via feedback, they will naturally feel more invested and engaged.

3. FOSTER A SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND BELONGING

The third pillar of employee engagement centers on creating a strong sense of community, belonging, and support within the workplace. Companies should make it easy for employees to connect with those who have similar interests or experiences—like creating affinity groups for women in tech or new parents. While the company can’t possibly form and manage all of the employee interest groups that people want, you can provide a platform for employees to do so organically.

Many companies spend time and effort trying to bring happiness in the workplace—but they’re putting their focus on the wrong thing. Companies should strive to maximize employee satisfaction. When you create an environment where employees feel engaged, you’ll probably find that happiness comes naturally.

Author: Deena Fox is the CEO and Founder of Brightfox.

FastCompany.com | July 21, 2019

#Leadership : 5 UnSpoken Rules of Being a #Manager that No One Tells You About…You’ll be on the Receiving End of More Information Than you Want. Use that Privilege Wisely.

August 8, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

After many hours of hard work, your employer made you a manager. For the first time in your life, you have several employees reporting to you. You’re excited to make your mark and take your career to the next level. And you should be–your company has recognized that you have leadership potential, and they’re giving you an opportunity to shine.

1) YOU’RE GOING TO BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT, SO USE IT WISELY

As a manager, you are either loved or hated, but never ignored. It can be an uncomfortable situation to be in, even if one of your goals is to be more visible to the company leaders and your team. When you are in the spotlight, people are watching you and forming opinions about you. That means they’re reading your words, actions, and gestures more closely than they were before.

To be clear, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You do not need to change your personality or be a work martyr (in fact, doing so can hurt your performance.) You should, however, acknowledge the impact of your new powers, and see it as an opportunity to define your work culture.

For example, one of the authors of this article, Terra, is a single career mom. On Fridays, she’ll often have to leave for midday elementary school events. When she says to her team, “I’m leaving for Jake’s Halloween party at school, and I’ll be back in two hours,” she is telling them that she values work-life balance and family, and giving them implicit permission to do the same. If she is not upfront about where she needs to be, her team might not realize that it’s acceptable for them to leave work from time to time for family obligations.

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2) YOU’LL HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COWORKERS THAN YOU WANT

You’ll also find that as you become the go-to source for complaints, you’ll hear things you never thought you would. You’ll listen to accounts of workplace dramas, or even allegations against one of your coworkers. You might also find that you’ll receive complaints about subject matters outside of the office. Employees will come to you about their personal troubles–from health issues to breakups.

As a manager, it’s not your job to solve all of your employees’ problems. There may be occasions when it’s appropriate for you to take charge of the situation, but other times you need to direct them elsewhere. The key is understanding which situation warrants what treatment. You might have to use trial and error to gain this insight, but just be aware that whatever actions you take can have a broad impact on the company.

3) YOU’LL SPEND MORE TIME THAN YOU WANT ON LOW PERFORMERS

When you start managing people, you’ll distinguish your high performers from your low performers. If you’re not careful, you can spend far too much of your time on the latter. That’s why it’s important to identify whether their issues are a matter of capability, skills, or knowledge–and whether it’s something they can overcome. If you don’t think they can change (and you’ve given them plenty of opportunities to prove themselves), then you should think long and hard about whether you should keep them in your team. After all, the time that you’re spending on fixing that person’s mistake is the time you’re not spending developing (and empowering) your high performers.

However, if you believe that they can improve, think about incorporating “coachable moments” in your day-to-day interactions with them. These are on-the-job situations when you can offer feedback in real time. Mollie, for example, ensures that when she is explaining something to a new employee or a low performer, she can point to what a high performer in her team has done. This way, not only is she giving her star employees the recognition they deserve–she is steering her low performing employees towards becoming a high performer (rather than berating them for their mistakes.)

4) YOU’LL BECOME THE DESIGNATED EXPLAINER

The job of the manager is to translate strategy into the day-to-day actions of their team. You’ll find yourself consistently reiterating the company’s strategy and goals, and explaining the connection between the two. At first, you think you’re fine with this arrangement; after all, you know the answers! Then one day it happens: no matter how often you’ve repeated the company’s new priorities–someone in your company still doesn’t get it and asks you to explain it for the millionth time.

Unfortunately, this is one job requirement you’ll just have to weather. And just as people will come to you bearing their personal problems, they’ll also ask questions that you might not know the answer to (for example, issues around HR and benefits.) As a manager, you should have enough knowledge of company policy to answer these questions at a high level, but if it’s something beyond your area of expertise–make sure that you direct their queries to someone who knows the answer.

5) YOU MIGHT FEEL ALONE FROM TIME TO TIME

Sometimes, being a manager means holding on to information that no one else can know, which can be isolating. Sometimes it means being at odds with other managers when it comes to resource allocation. And sometimes, you’ll face circumstances you never imagined you’d be in.

You might be tempted to share these information with your employees. That’s what you used to do, after all. But as managers, we know that at times, it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep specific information confidential. If you must talk about it to someone–try to find an external mentor that you trust. That way, you can maintain your composure at work without violating your obligations as a manager.

Being a manager involves a lot more than just taking on more responsibilities–in fact, it’s a whole new job in and of itself. By being aware of these five points, you can have a plan for tackling potential challenges before you face them. Just understand that there might be instances where you don’t get it right the first time, and that’s okay.

Terra Vicario is the chief marketing officer at Viventium–a cloud-based software and HR software solution. Mollie Lombardi is the co-founder of Aptitude Research Partners–an independent research-based analyst and advisory firm.

FastCompany.com | August 8, 2018 | BY MOLLIE LOMBARDI AND TERRA VICARIO 5 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : How I Got the Attention of #SeniorLeaders When I Was a #Temp …As an #Intern or #TempWorker , it Can be Difficult to Impress Senior Leaders . Two Professionals Share their Strategy on How they Successfully Navigated this Process.

May 15, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When Tida Jarjou was hired as a temp employee at a broker dealer in Stamford, Connecticut–her first role out of college–she found herself in a team meeting with four white males. “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][I] realized I was the only African American and woman on the team,” she told Fast Company. She felt self-conscious. “I was worried that my chances [of obtaining a full-time position] were slim and that the only slots available would go to the white males instead of me,” she says.

But Jarjou did land a full-time job with the company. The week of Thanksgiving, senior management gave its workers the option of working half a day. Most of Jarjou’s colleagues took this option, but Jarjou decided to stay behind to demonstrate her commitment to her work.

She ended up dealing with an angry client, who demanded that their issue be fixed right away. Jarjou knocked on the door of the only other person in the office, who happened to be the company’s CMO. They resolved the matter together. Less than two months into her job, the company offered her a permanent role. She discovered that the CMO had spoken highly of her as she was the only temp who had asked for his help.

As a junior employee, intern, or a temp worker–it can be difficult to gain the attention of senior management, let alone impress them. It can feel even more daunting when many of those senior managers don’t look like you. Two professionals told Fast Company how they navigated this challenge early in their careers .

PERCEPTION AND PRESENTATION MATTERS

Office dress-codes might be on the way out, but it can make a difference in how others perceive you. Charreah Jackson, a senior editor at Essence and author of the upcoming book Boss Bride: The Powerful Woman’s Playbook for Love And Success, told Fast Company that when she interned at the magazine between her junior and senior year, she made a special effort to dress like the editors did. “I just remembered thinking, I never want to signal my age,” Jackson said. By looking like a young editor, rather than an intern, she was presenting herself to be taken seriously.

Jarjou echoed this sentiment. Three years after her job at the broker dealer, she decided that she wanted to transition to the New York finance world. She ended up getting a role as a “floater” for JP Morgan Chase, an associate that filled needs for various investment teams on a short-term basis. Once again, Jarjou had to prove herself to get a permanent position. She answered phones and dealt with clients –illustrating that she was a self-starter who understood the business. “I tried to be as polished as I could. I made sure I really dressed for the job that I wanted. I listened to the conversations that the associates were having. I joined Toastmasters to practice my public speaking and focused on how I presented myself.” She eventually joined a team as a full-time investment associate.

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TREAT YOUR ROLE LIKE AN EXTENDED INTERVIEW

Jackson and Jarjou both treated their temp positions and internships as an extended interview process. Jarjou told Fast Company, “I showed a sense of urgency working as a temp and didn’t rest on my laurels.” At the broker dealer, the workers’ output were measured in the customer relationship management system. “I knew anything that was quantifiable–where I could show my value–was the best way for me to control my output. I knew that I might not have the same social leg up as the white men on the team, but what was in my control was the quality of my work output. I stayed longer, I asked the right questions, and I showed genuine interest in the business.”

Jackson made a special effort to study the industry and the publication during her internship, and later on when she was hired on contract as an editorial assistant (she was eventually made into a full-time online associate web editor a few months later). In addition to making an effort to ask as many questions as possible, she also stayed in touch with different members of the team when her internship ended and she went back to college for her senior year. Every month or so, Jackson would come up to New York from D.C., and organize a meeting with a different staff member from Essence. One day, she was introduced to the new web editor, who happened to be hiring for an editorial assistant at the time. She ended up hiring Jackson.

KEEP YOUR EGO IN CHECK

Jarjou believes that her willingness to be vulnerable was critical to her success. “Had I been so consumed with my ego, worrying about myself and how the CMO might perceive me if I approached him, I would have missed the opportunity to make a positive impression on senior management and wouldn’t have added value to that client’s experience,” she told Fast Company. She also knew that what the CMO thought of her wasn’t something she had control over, and as a result–it wasn’t worth spending her energy on.

START BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BEFORE YOU NEED THEM

When Jackson started her internship at Essence, there was one piece of advice from their editor-in-chief that stuck with her–build relationships before you need them. Now that she is on the other side, Jackson said that she is amazed at how many interns don’t stay in touch when they finish their internship, only to contact her when they graduate and are looking for a job. “Every hiring decision is made by a person, [so] you really need to make [building relationships] a priority,” Jackson says. During her internship, Jackson would go out of her way to find commonalities between her and the senior editors, and give (genuine) compliments on their work.

Jarjou agrees. Even when the senior leadership doesn’t look like you, there are always ways to show that you are not so different from each other. “I like to think of it as a matter of education. Consider building rapport with higher-ups and help them to understand you just as much you want to understand them.” She acknowledges that it’s important not to lose yourself and pretend to be someone else in the process, but she had to have an “interest of the majority” in order to find her place there. “It’s a dance that you have to do, you have to figure out what other people are doing. Assimilate to the extent that you’re comfortable. I don’t think it hurts to do that.”

FastCompany.com | May 15, 2018 | BY ANISA PURBASARI HORTON 5 MINUTE READ

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#Leadership : How to Gain your #Employees Trust, take Care When #Changes Need to be Made…One of the Greatest Threats to #EmployeeEngagement is UnCeremonious or UnDignified Dismissals.

April 10, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

I was at a conference last month and had the chance to hear from several people who had read my book, “Fired: How to Manage Your Career in the Age of Job Uncertainty.” One of them told me their organization was having to do a reduction in force. It was going to be a very difficult–the organization’s leaders truly cared about their employees. She then shared that and her boss used the book to make sure as they planned the layoffs, they did everything they could to help the employees affected transition successfully.

Another person at the same conference told me that she too is having to look at organizational changes and that the book is helping her think more intentionally about those affected.

I am glad to see that my book is having an impact with leaders who truly care about their employees and their organization’s culture. I had hoped it would help leaders with tough decisions as well as people at the other end of them.

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One of the greatest threats to employee engagement is unceremonious or undignified dismissals. We’ve seen them in the news. You may have witnessed them at work. Someone is perp walked out the door. Or at 4:55 pm there is an email saying someone “…is no longer with XYZ Company.” Or maybe you’ve heard managers blame or scape goat the person who was let go. The remaining employees who see their friends treated poorly in a termination wonder, “Am I next?” or “Is this company worth my loyalty?”

It is so difficult to let someone go, whether they “deserve” it or not. Handling these gut wrenching decisions with grace and dignity helps leaders keep the trust with their employees.

As one of my book reviewers, John Franklin wrote,

“This is a must read for everyone, whether you have been fired or not, and in doing so, will expand our understanding of others and will make each of us more compassionate human beings.”

I am grateful that these leaders took the lessons learned in the book to heart. Please share your stories with me as well on my web site www.jobuncertainty.com

Dr. Nancy Koury King is a contributing author on the FSC Career Blog (https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/) & is a participating member of the FSC LinkedIn Network ( www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork ) .

As mentioned above, her publication of the book, “Fired: How to Manage Your Career in the Age of Job Uncertainty” & is available on Amazon below.

https://www.amazon.com/Fired-manage-your-career-uncertainty/dp/1978407130

First Sun Career Blog | April 10, 2018

#Leadership : What My Son With Autism Taught Me About #ManagingPeople …Recognizing & Working with Colleagues’ Different Cognitive Styles Helps Get the Most Out of Everyone.

February 17, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

I like to think I was a considerate colleague when I worked in an office. I paid attention to cultural and gender differences. I made an effort to run inclusive meetings and write inclusive articles.

But for all my attention to diversity, I didn’t pay attention to one crucial form of difference: the way people think.

It took my autistic son to wake me up to the truth. For many years, I struggled with my son, who had been variously labeled “oppositional,” “difficult” or…well, there are words that we can’t put in a newspaper. We had hourly conflicts, and he had near-daily meltdowns.

It wasn’t until he received his first formal diagnosis—initially for ADHD, rather than autism—that I realized his brain was just wired differently from mine. I was able to recognize how often I was asking him to do something he couldn’t do, rather than something he wouldn’tdo. Even more important, I started to see the connection between his wiring and his talents, like his mathematical ability and his extraordinary vocabulary.

Once I recognized those distinctions as a mom, I started seeing them in my professional relationships, too. Just as my son had a learning and communications style of his own—and strengths that came along with it—my colleagues and I each had our own distinctive wiring that shaped how we approached the world. Recognizing that, and learning to deal with each other’s ways of thinking, makes for stronger understanding and smoother communication. And better business.

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Around the table

These different styles of thinking showed themselves most clearly in meetings. After my son’s diagnosis, I started to pay attention to how different members of the team did or didn’t participate in our regular sit-downs.

For instance, my own wiring pushes me to jump in, get as many of my ideas on the table as possible, and then push toward a decision. But one smart young man, who was absolutely brimming with ideas, wasn’t apt to speak during meetings. He once explained to me, “I need time to reflect before I’m ready to share my ideas.”

After that, I started breaking our meetings into two parts: part one to lay out our goals and any relevant background, plus invite ideas from people whose wiring was set up to present ideas the way I did. In part two, I’d invite input from those who needed time. Our meetings became much tighter and more effective, and we started to tap into the wisdom of our whole team.

Then there were those people—kinetic learners—who I realized aren’t built to sit still. To think or learn to their full ability, they need to move around, such as pacing or jiggling their knee or leaving the office at lunch to do a thousand-calorie workout.

I used to treat those colleagues like caged border collies who could wait until the weekend to run off all their energy. You could say I wasn’t the most understanding colleague, and sometimes manager.

Looked at Differently

About one-quarter of adults surveyed said they had at least one neurodiverse condition. Among those, the percentage saying that at their most recent employer they experienced:

*Multiple responses allowed.

Source: Wilder Research online survey of 437 adults, 2016

But with my new mind-set, I started to schedule walking meetings whenever I was huddling one-on-one and didn’t need to take a lot of notes; I used voice dictation on my phone to capture key takeaways as we walked.

Getting outside and moving around not only helped my kinetic colleagues think more clearly and creatively, but also helped me discover that moving around gets me thinking differently, too.

Another area helped by my new way of thinking involves nonverbal cues. It never dawned on me that many people’s wiring isn’t set up to read throat clearing or glances at a phone as signs that it’s time to wrap up a chat, so they need more direct signals. But now if I find someone isn’t picking up on my cues, I say explicitly, for instance, “I need to end our conversation now so that I can get back to work.”

Such a simple thing—but I was totally blind to it before my son opened my eyes.

Making things concrete

Turning this new lens on others inevitably led to turning it back on myself. In what ways was my wiring getting in the way? How was my way of thinking and relating to people keeping me from being as creative and productive as I could be?

I have always been someone who remembers ideas and theories more than facts and anecdotes, but I had never thought about how that affects my professional relationships. I just noticed that I often had to repeat an idea three or four times before my colleagues finally understood or retained it. “Why can’t they understand the idea of aggregating and tagging social-media content?” I might fret.

Once I started peppering my conversations with specific, concrete examples for each of my abstract ideas, I found my colleagues were much faster to embrace my ideas on everything from software projects to marketing campaigns.

Soon, it took fewer repetitions for me to get my ideas across—but I also became more patient with the repetition, because I realized that I wasn’t speaking their language.

As I became more conscientious about working with my colleagues’ diverse thinking styles, I also learned to acknowledge and ask for help with my own style—even when that help involved admitting a weakness. I have long realized that I have challenges with what psychologists call “executive function”—namely, the ability to break a project apart into component tasks and organize those tasks so that they can be completed on time. I’m the kind of person who has a messy desk and can easily miss deadlines, so I’ve gradually built up a set of digital tools and habits that mostly compensate for my state of mental disorganization.

Remind me

Once I embraced my new perspective, however, I stopped feeling like my executive-function issues were something to apologize for—just as I no longer expect my colleagues to apologize because they don’t speak quickly at meetings or prefer to walk and meet. I’m just wired differently. I still make an effort to keep myself organized by paying careful attention to my digital tool kit, but I supplement that with an additional strategy: openly acknowledging my limitations. When I start working with someone new, I let them know that I am not great at keeping track of tasks and details, so I invite them to remind me if anything slips.

Recognizing all these variations hasn’t crowded out my concern for other kinds of diversity in the workplace. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for using differences in thinking as an excuse for gender bias or cultural insensitivity.

If anything, noticing different thinking styles has helped me become more effective in working across a wide range of differences within the workplace. The more I acknowledge and embrace my colleagues’ quirks—not to mention my own—the more I’m able to tap into their unique strengths.

Ms. Samuel is a technology researcher and the author of “Work Smarter With Social Media.” Email her at reports@wsj.com.

WSJ.com | By Alexandra Samuel Feb. 16, 2018 4:01 p.m. ET

#Leadership : How To Get Your Point Across To These Five Personality Types… Not Everyone Thinks the Same Way. Here’s How to Repurpose a Three-Decade-Old #Management Theory to Tailor your Message to Just about Anybody.

January 31, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The VP of finance for a major multinational company recently came to me with a problem. “I’ve been trying to start a conversation with the VP of marketing, and he won’t talk to me,” he said. “Whenever I try to ask him what he thinks about my ideas, he doesn’t respond.”

I asked him to describe the marketing VP to me. As he talked about his personality, I thought of a potential solution: “Don’t ask him what he thinks about your ideas,” I said. “Ask him what’s wrong with them.”

A few weeks later, I heard back from my client. “Your advice was amazing!” he said. “We spent two hours discussing issues, and he wants to meet with me every week now!”

Why did I give him that advice? Because as he described the marketing VP to me, I realized what type of speaking approach would most likely resonate: one that appealed to his colleague’s problem-solving personality.

While psychological research has progressed quite a bit since Edward de Bono released his influential book Six Thinking Hatsin 1985, I find framework still offers a handy set of metaphors for adjusting your speaking style to fit listeners’ thinking styles and personalities (though I typically prefer sticking to just five). Here are five ways to frame your message, riffing on de Bono’s 33-year-old idea, according to the people or person you’re communicating with.

1. PROBLEM SOLVERS

A “black hat” approach to speaking is all about solving problems. When you’re addressing someone who thrives on figuring out puzzles (like that VP of marketing), you need to focus on what’s wrong with something–usually in solutions-oriented, technical terms.

Let’s say you’re tasked with giving a presentation about productivity. With a black hat approach, your key message might be, “By reducing the gaps in our sourcing systems, we can increase productivity.” Then you’d go on to point out what those gaps actually are, and guide your audience toward brainstorming ways of closing them.

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2. DATA GEEKS

Analytical thinkers typically require a slightly different approach. The “white hat” approach to speaking is objective and straightforward. Rather than emphasize the problem areas, you lay out all the relevant information you’ve got–focusing on data and analysis. You’ll also want to rely more on charts and statistics to get your message across than you otherwise might.

So if you’re taking a “white hat” approach to your productivity presentation, you’d analyze your team’s output in terms of amount of hours saved, money saved, and forecasted benefits–all backed up by hard facts and concrete numbers. Your key message might be, “By improving our system, we can increase productivity by x and contribute y to the bottom line.”

3. TEAM PLAYERS

Sometimes you’re speaking to people who aren’t exactly number crunchers but think in terms of shared purpose and teamwork. In that case, your goal is to connect with the hearts of your listeners with an emotional appeal that inspires belief, propels action, and instills a feeling of togetherness.

A “red hat” approach to the productivity issue would be more of a pep talk; you’d discuss how increasing morale and building team spirit can increase productivity. Your key message might be, “By working together, we can conquer new frontiers and build an organization that keeps getting better and better.”

4. CREATIVE TYPES

The “green hat” approach to speaking focused on creativity. If your listeners are “outside the box” thinkers, you’ll need to use visual imagery to get your audiences to imagine possibilities they may not have even considered.

In your productivity presentation, you’d want to discuss potential innovations that could help increase productivity. Rather than analyze the past, you’d brainstorm programs and initiatives you could try in order to boost productivity in the future, encouraging your team to think inventively. Your key message might be, “By innovating, we can propel the organization to better results and discover new opportunities we haven’t even imagined yet.”

5. OPTIMISTS

Finally, if you’re speaking to glass-half-full thinkers who are good at looking at the bright side, you should do the same. Stress the positive and focus on what’s ahead–like a bright beacon guiding everyone to safety and security.

Taking this “yellow hat” approach for your productivity presentation would mean focusing on what’s going right already, and where it’s bound to take you if you stay the course. Your key message might be, “By capitalizing on our strengths, we can catapult our company to new heights with our customers.”

As de Bono himself realized, these strategies are all about being flexible. Our personalities are highly contextual–more tendencies than fixed properties–and people change “hats” all the time. Your room full of yellow hat optimists might turn into black hat problem solvers when the going gets tough. So always think about what your message is, and to whom you’re delivering it. You’ll find a little color can go a long way.

FastCompany.com | January 31, 2018 | Anett Grant

#Leadership : 3 Signs You Have Succumbed to Helicopter Management…There is Nothing Efficient about Hovering Over the People you Hired because you Trusted they Can Do the Job.

October 24, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Helicopter parenting took off in the 1980s, when paranoia was at an all-time high over child abductions, and the U.S. was in an economic boom that made things like SAT prep classes and expensive extracurriculars the standard. For years now, there have been discussions about how helicopter parenting is ruining America’s children and we know that helicopter managing (more commonly known as micromanaging) can be just as damaging to an entire company as it can be to an individual’s career.

However, few of the guilty are conscious of their overbearing ways. As a Stanford dean wrote in a book on the rise of helicopter parenting on college campuses titled “How to Raise an Adult,” even she — an academic writing about the phenomenon — failed to fully realize that she and her husband did a fair amount of helicoptering in their own home. You can notice helicoptering, dislike it and still be guilty of it.

Just as certain cultural factors seeded this style in parenting, others have seeded it in the workplace, making it more tempting than ever to micromanage. The rise of open offices, real-time messaging and collaborative tools like Google Docs make it downright easy to jump into a team member’s work and take the reins.

Like helicopter parenting, helicopter managing often comes from a good place. You don’t want to see your reports fail and you want your team to succeed. That’s why, as Harvard Business Review writes, “Micromanagement has a way of spreading in organizations, where goals and accountability are intricately nested. What your team delivers affects what you deliver, and so on up the chain of command — so the pressure is on everywhere to make sure everyone comes through.”

If you’re being micromanaged, you’re more likely to micromanage your own reports, and then inefficiency spreads throughout the organization. This inefficiency can stunt growth and hurt the company long-term if it’s not rectified.

Here are a few signs you’ve slipped into helicopter managing:

1. Your employees are getting testy.

You ask for status updates multiple times before something’s due, you make to-do lists for your team members, you jump in and offer advice when a team member hasn’t asked for it, and when you ask your employees the status of something, they usually reply with “I’m on that and will update you in our next meeting.” Not every exasperated employee is being micromanaged, but if your entire team is getting irritable, you might want to take a look at your management style.

The habit of overly checking in within open office environments can feed this exasperation. “Wide-open workspaces and copious real-time data on how individuals spend their time can leave employees feeling exposed and vulnerable,” writes Ethan Bernstein for Harvard Business Review. “Being observed changes their conduct. They start going to great lengths to keep what they’re doing under wraps, even if they have nothing bad to hide.”

It’s easy to fall into a vicious cycle. You might intervene to make sure you support employees every step of the way, the same way well-meaning helicopter parents can now spy on their kids’ homework. But when you insert yourself too much, they often feel less empowered to step up, and then you feel more like you need to direct, thus creating an unhealthy dynamic that never stops.

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2. Your team isn’t failing — ever.

Everyone needs to fail every now and then in order to grow and, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll realize that some of the most important lessons you ever learned were because of failure — even minor failure. And while it’s really important to note here that employees are by no means like children, there are still parallels in the relationship: failure is a difficult thing to watch both as a manager and a parent. Slate writes, “When children aren’t given the space to struggle through things on their own, they don’t learn to problem solve very well… The other problem with never having to struggle is that you never experience failure.” Substitute “employees” for “children” in that statement, and it’s equally true.

It’s extremely challenging for as a manager to see an employee do something that you know will not work out. You’ll always be tempted to jump in, and you also can’t always let people fail. Being too hands off could cost the company millions, so you have to find a balance.

People think not micromanaging should be easy — it sounds like less work, in theory. However, one of your jobs as a manager is to find the times it’s okay to let an employee try something new and perhaps fail, as long as you take the time to walk your team member through anything that goes awry and how to improve next time. The whole process can feel painfully slow and less than efficient, especially when you see the mistake before it happens, but it’s still good management.

So don’t deny your team members the opportunity to learn from occasional failure. Ultimately, these small failures will grow your team members in ways that will help grow the organization, too.

3. You’ve lost sight of the big picture.

Suddenly you’re nearing the end of the quarter, and you realize you’re still carrying too much of the workload of your team, and it could even affect your overall success for your larger corporate goals. Sometimes when you get too in the weeds with everyone else’s day-to-day tasks, you fail to see the big picture and think strategically about what needs to happen to achieve your goals. It’s also tough to hit your goals and grow in step with your company when your team isn’t growing at all.

Realistically, you can’t hit big picture goals and intricately manage every moving piece at the same time — it becomes too easy to lose focus. Similarly, helicopter parents might achieve amazing goals along the way, like getting their child into a top school or ensuring they play piano well, but they often miss the big picture goal, which is raising an independent adult.

Sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and ask yourself if you’re a helicopter boss. However, you have to recognize when it’s happening, and not just because you’re risking a bad reputation as a manager: it’s harmful to a company’s bottom line. The good news is that micromanaging is a bad habit that can be broken — it just takes recognizing it, stepping back, and training rather than “doing”. Sometimes the hardest part of parenting and managing is letting go, but doing so is key to the health and growth of everyone involved.

Entrepreneur.com| October 24, 2016 | Katie Jansen, Chief Marketing Officer, AppLovin

#BestofFSCBlog : #YourCareer -Management is a Minefield-10 Things the Boss Wishes You Knew. Over 42K Reads!

September 30, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

If you’re a part of the rank-and-file, it can be hard to get inside the head of management or your company’s leadership team. They seemingly make decisions merely to anger or stir up the lower-level employees, and the boss can be amazingly inept or unable to respond to employees’ concerns. They can devise and deploy stupid rules with little logic or reasoning, and some even seem like they’re out to get you if you rub them the right way.

It can be hard to figure out what’s going on in the C-suite. But you have to realize that the boss is only human, and has a job to do. As difficult as it is to try and rationalize or figure out the logic behind some decisions, empathizing with the decision makers can be just as hard. Giving it a shot, though, may go a long way to explaining some of their flabbergasting decisions.

What kinds of things do managers wish employees better understood? Here are 10 things bosses wish employees could empathize with, to realize that being in charge doesn’t necessarily mean that every day is a picnic.

1. “I have a boss, too.”

You have a boss, and your boss has a boss. That means that the same issues or negative feelings you’re harboring toward your boss? Your boss is harboring many similar feelings toward their boss. Everyone’s a part of the chain, when it comes down to it. Even the CEO — they answer to shareholders.

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2. Honesty goes a long way

If you can get something done, great. If not, don’t pretend that you can — just tell your boss so they can figure out an alternative. If your manager or team leader is counting on you to take care of something, especially after you’ve assured them that you can do it, they’re banking on the fact that you will. Don’t blindside them at the last minute by coming up short. Just be up front about your ability to handle a given task.

3. Scheduling is very difficult

In certain businesses and workplaces, scheduling employees is a nightmare. If you’ve worked in a restaurant, for example, you have an idea of the juggling act that building a schedule can be. Many employees have school, families, or other jobs they need to attend to, and asking for a day off at the last minute isn’t as easy as slotting in another name.

4. 9:00 does not mean 9:10

Some jobs allow for some leeway in when you come and go to work. Others do not. If your boss needs you at work on time, that means you need to be there on time — not 10 or 15 minutes late. You may send the message that you’re not coming in at all, and send the rest of the staff scrambling to cover your station. Everybody’s late from time to time, but if you make it a chronic habit? You’re only giving your boss ulcers.

5. If you’re quitting, let them know

People quit jobs all the time. But there’s a reason the “two week” rule exists — it allows both parties, the quitter and and the employer, to have some time to cover their bases. Yes, companies lay people off with little or no warning all the time, but if you have a good relationship with your employer, or don’t want to burn any bridges on the way out, give a heads up so they can replace you.

6. They don’t want to be there on Saturday or Thanksgiving either

Yes, working nights, weekends, and holidays sucks. Nobody wants to be there, not even management. But the world doesn’t stop just because it’s your favorite holiday, or because it’s Sunday. Somebody has to work, and somebody has to take the reins. If you’re complaining about having to work Black Friday, your complaints are probably falling upon deaf ears; your boss is probably just as stoked to be there as you are.

7. The boss isn’t out to get you

Management doesn’t want you to fail. They’re not typically setting traps or land mines for you to walk into, to give them a reason to dock your pay or write you up. They want you to do your job and be good at it. If you’re doing well, it makes your manager look better. Sure, some employee-employer relationships can fray, but it’s rare that someone in charge is gunning for you. Paranoia isn’t going to help.

8. They’re your boss, not your friend

Ever hear about awful parents who try too hard to be “cool,” and let their kids run amok? It’s similar in the workplace. Your boss is there to manage you, not be your bud. While you may have a good relationship with your manager — which is great — you don’t need to tell them how trashed you got last night or invite them to smoke a joint with you during a break. Respect the relationship, and professional boundaries.

9. Management knows you’re screwing around all day

Do you really think nobody realizes that you spend half of your day surfing Facebook, Snapchat, and Reddit? They know — so you don’t have to scramble to cover your tracks every time you’re on your phone and somebody walks up behind you. Of course, if you’re on the sales floor or in a customer service position, then this can be a real problem. But managers know that you’re not always being productive.

10. Saying “I don’t know” is OK

Sometimes, you’re not going to know the answers. Not sure how to work a machine or piece of equipment? Ask for a run-through. Does a customer have a complicated issue or question? Don’t B.S. them, and give them bad information. Even if it’s a little uncomfortable, ask for help from a higher-up, and treat it as a learning experience.

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CheatSheet.com | September 30, 2016 | Sam Becker

#Leadership : How to Fire Someone So They’ll Thank You For It… Firing People is Never Fun, But it can Leave Everyone Better Off if it’s Done Right.

August 28, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

In an earlier post, I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

That was the next lesson from our new CEO, JT McCormick. He showed us how to fire someone, not just with dignity and respect, but in a way where they actually thank you for the experience. Literally, three of the five people he fired wrote him emails thanking him afterwards.

Here’s exactly what he did:

1. Transition from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

As I wrote in the last post, before you fire someone you should identify where they’re not performing, show them, set clear objectives, and give them the coaching they need to achieve them. If you’ve done this, and they nail it, grea — you won’t have to fire them.

As you are working through this process, you generally know if they are going to make it or not. If they don’t look like they’re going to make it, then the process to fire them starts. You start to move from from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

Done right, the processes naturally flow into each other, because they’re both about empathy. “Once you shift to coaching them out, it’s a very delicate series of conversations to get this person to see that they’re not a fit, see why they don’t fit and where they can’t grow with the company, and maybe see a path for them towards something else,” McCormick said. “The first coaching out conversation is diagnosing whether they’re not performing because they’re in the wrong chair. Ask them, ‘If you could do any job in the company, what would it be?'”

If you get a decisive answer, McCormick said, then you have to evaluate if they have the skills for that role. You can even test them in that role.

If you get an answer like, ‘I’m not sure’, then go one step further and ask them if they could create any role in the company — for themselves, what would it be? Have them describe the perfect job for themselves. “If they can’t tell you that,” McCormick said, “then it’s obvious, and not just to you. They’ll start to see this isn’t the place for them.

“The best result here is that they describe a job that does fit them really well, but does not exist in your company. Then they not only see that the company isn’t the right place for them, but that a place does exist for them somewhere else. So the real thing you’re trying to understand yourself, and help them to see, is not only are they not performing, but they’re probably not performing for a reason, and so the best thing possible for them is to move jobs.”

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2. Make the dismissal about their dignity and humanity, not corporate HR rules.

Once the decision has been made to fire them, it’s time to stop coaching them out, and fire them. Now you make it completely about them. During the firing conversation, don’t focus on why you’re firing them; that groundwork has been laid already. Now it’s time to help them.

In the firing conversation, McCormick said, don’t focus on the negatives of what they’ve done. “We’ve already talked about this over the past few weeks, so why do that? I’ll go over it quickly, and then move on. I want to focus on the best plan of action for the exit so this person can move on with their life. You want to do right by them.”

This also means not talking to them in a dry, corporate, distant style. It means talking to them and like a human, and treating them like someone you know and value and care about.

“Big corporations have turned firing conversations into these HR nightmares where they’re afraid to say or do anything,” McCormick said. “The conversations are so cold and cutthroat, they really dehumanize people. To hell with that. You know this person, they are a good person, treat them like it.”

But this also means not pretending everything is fine. It’s not. They’re getting fired. “On the startup side,” he said, “the problem I see is that entrepreneurs let their feelings get in the way of saying what needs to be said. You have to be able to have a straight conversation with someone regarding the stark truth of what’s happening. Candor is a way of being kind.”

And sometimes, this means letting them say goodbye.

McCormick expands on that thought — “For many people, if they aren’t a complete asshole, you let them say goodbye, especially to the people they were friends with. Especially in startups where some of these folks were key in helping the growth of the company. You let that person save face and exit gracefully. You don’t escort them out with security, like they’re some animal. You treat them with respect by showing them you care about them.”

3. Let them know you will support them, and then actually do it.

That final conversation also needs to let them know, very clearly and specifically, what you are going to do to help them now. Remember — for you, this is the end of their tenure at your company. But they’re not dying. For them, this is their life.

For starters, McCormick said, his company gives the best severance package possible. “If possible, I like to pay eight weeks severance. To have a two month safety net to find their next opportunity really makes them feel safe and cared for, and they can relax,” he said.

McCormick tells employees not only will he write them a recommendation, but he’ll tell them what he’ll say in it. “I give them suggestions about what jobs to go after, based on our earlier conversations about what they want. I even offer to refer them to places I think they will be a good fit with.

“And most importantly,” he continues, “I tell them that this doesn’t have to be the end of our relationship. I’ll answer any questions, and I’ll give them any advice or help I can. Email me. Call me. Text me. I’m here for you if you need me. And I mean it. Most don’t take me up on this, but they still appreciate it, because they know it’s real. And they feel valued and cared for, even while being fired.”

And it works. Done correctly, McCormick said, the fired employees will learn a lot about themselves, and will eventually end up in a better place in their life because of what they learned from the process. “And they will email you and thank you afterwards.”

I never would have believed this until I saw it happen. Three different people from our company sent our CEO thank you emails after they left. His coaching had helped them see things about themselves, and his candor and kindness had been a real benefit to them.

Firing people is never fun, but it can leave everyone better off if it’s done right.