Preparing for a New Leadership Assignment

As a leader, how do you prepare for a new leadership assignment? 


Many leaders know when their next promotion is coming, but few take advantage of this time to prepare. Instead of waiting for an official announcement, start with "phase zero." Use your insider status to become familiar with your new unit's people and performance and to discern the opportunities and challenges of your upcoming assignment. In the weeks leading up to the transition, carve out at least 30 minutes a day for this endeavour. Look through company documents, such as performance reviews and reports on services and operations. Identify problems and develop hypotheses for solving them. Turn to colleagues who have supervised the role, interacted with it, or previously filled a similar one. Ask them questions that will help you understand what to expect for the transition.




Adapted from "Get Ready for Your Next Assignment" by Katie Smith Milway, Ann Goggins Gregory, Jenny Davis-Peccoud, and Kathleen Yazbak.

Providing Effective Feedback

As a leader, how effective are you are providing feedback?

Feedback is problematic. Leaders often dislike giving it and the members of your staff rarely get enough to help them learn and to change their behaviors. But feedback, both positive and negative, is an important tool for learning, effective work, and career growth. Next time you talk with someone about their performance, follow these four steps:

• Be specific. Feedback needs to be actionable. Use concrete examples to back up your observations. Avoid generalizations. Instead, describe the behavior clearly and specifically.
• State the impact. Tell the person how his behavior is affecting you, the team, or the school/organization.
• Prescribe. Be specific about what needs to change. Often employees won't know what to change unless you tell them.  Be sure to check for understanding.  Does your staff member truly understand what you expect of them?
• Do it often. Get in the habit of praising good performance and identifying troublesome behavior.

Adapted from Guide to Giving Effective Feedback (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Helping Your Team Define How it Will Work

As a leader, how do you help your team define how it will work?

Most leaders know to help their team define goals, but the conversation shouldn't stop there. You also need to agree on the mechanics of how the team will get the work done. Here are four things that need to be clear on every team:

• Roles and responsibilities. Every member needs to know their tasks and how their work will contribute to the overall goals.
• Work processes. You don't need a notebook full of procedures, but agree on processes to carry out the basics—such as decision-making or communicating.
• Rules of engagement. Establish a constructive team culture. Discuss the shared values, norms, and beliefs that will shape the daily give-and-take between team members.
• Performance metrics. How will you measure team progress? Define the measures for meeting the goals, and the consequences for not meeting them.

Adapted from "For Your Team's Success, Remember the How" by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback.

Avoiding or Reconnecting after Giving Tough Feedback?

As a leader, after giving tough feedback, do you avoid or reconnect with your staff member?

Hearing that your performance is lacking in some way or that you've made a mistake can be harsh, even alienating. That's why as a leader, you need be thoughtful when delivering difficult feedback to your staff. You probably know to do two things: first, articulate what your employee is doing well, and second, provide input on problematic behaviors or gaps in performance. But don't forget an important third step: reconnect. After hearing difficult input, a staff member may avoid you or feel s/he can't come to you for advice.  Equally, you may feel ill-at-ease and unintentionally avoid the person.  Reestablish your relationship and reiterate what you value most.  Highlight something you can compliment - the person's writing skills or thank him/her for asking tough questions during meetings. You can also check in on a personal matter: Ask, "How was your daughter's play?" or, "Did your wife hear back about that new job lead?" Do this at the end of the feedback session or wait until the next day. Just be sure to connect so s/he is comfortable continuing the relationship with you.  You can help a colleague improve their performance and maintain their dignity at the same time.


Adapted from Guide to Giving Effective Feedback (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Sometimes They Need to Know

As a leader, how much do you share with your staff?  How do you share it?

As leaders, we have many conversations in our offices with many different people or groups.  In some cases, significant discussions take place.  Some of these discussions end up in important decisions.  However, just because the conversation happened in your office and it was held with a group of key stakeholders, it doesn't mean that your staff knows what's going on.  How do you share important discussions, decisions, or information with all staff? 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about how you share - or not! - the conversations you have:

• Who needs to know?
• Does everyone need to know?  If so, why?
• Who would like to know?  And just because they'd like to know, does it mean you share with them?
• Who might be affected by the discussions or decisions?  How will they find out what was discussed?
• Might you be missing additional thinking if some people are left out of discussions?
• How do you share discussions / decisions / information? 
• Do people have a variety of ways to access information from you?
• What might be the impact if some people don't know about the discussions or decisions?

Communication is a critical aspect of any school/organization.  People can feel included - or excluded - based on their access to information.  Exclusion from information can have a negative affect on both performance and morale.  In 2012, communication has never been easier.  Multiple methods of sharing information (bulletin boards, memoes, Twitter, email, etc.) have made it possible for everyone to have virtually immediate access to information. 

Don't risk damaging staff morale or their performance because you - as the leader - neglected to share information. 

Performance Appraisals

As a leader, how do you handle performance appraisals?

One of the important tasks any supervising leader must assume is engaging in performance appraisals with members of your staff.  Performance appraisals can be seen as an annoying task that needs to be completed to get it out of the way until the next appraisal cycle comes round......or......it can be an opportunity to celebrate the good work of your staff, to support their professional growth, and to build capacity for ever-better results.  The difference is huge - a mundane task or a celebratory process focused on growth.  What makes the difference?  It's the leader - and how the leader engages in performance appraisal processes. 

If you'd like to lead a work culture that doesn't fear but embraces performance appraisals, it's up to you as the leader, to change your processes.  A few things to consider when doing performance appraisals:

• Who does the talking?  Is it you, the leader/appraiser, or do your staff members have more of the 'air time'?  This is a chance for your staff to present themselves and their work to you.
• Do staff members have a chance:
• to articulate their work,
• to explain why they work in the way that they do,
• to talk about what they believe their greatest strengths and accomplishments are,
• to describe from their own perspective where they believe they need to grow?
• Do you use coaching questions in the conversations?  True coaching questions mediate thinking and are non-threatening.  They open up honest conversation.
• Do your staff members have an opportunity to provide evidence of their work that demonstrates their strengths and accomplishments? 
• Who decides what the next steps - or growth goals- are?  As the leader/appraiser do you tell your staff member or do they have the opportunity first to explain to you what their growth needs to be.  You might be very surprised that they likely know even better than you what they need to learn next in order to grow professionally.
• Once the performance appraisal process finishes, is that it?  Done?  Or do you take the opportunity to check in with your staff to see how they're doing with the growth goals that were set?  Friendly, on-going monitoring - if done well - can be encouraging and motivating without seeming like you're checking up on them.

Performance appraisals can be a time-consuming, routine task or it can be a growth-oriented celebration of each staff members' work.  It's up to you as the leader, to create the culture by your actions.

Getting Feedback as a Leader

As a leader, how do you get feedback on how well you're doing?  No leader improves without feedback from multiple sources. But getting people to be honest about your performance isn't always easy. Be sure to give your staff (students, parents, clients, customers) a way to supply you with the candid information you need to improve.  A simple Stop/Start/Continue process will work.  You can do it by asking these three questions:

• What should I stop doing? Ask which behaviors stand in your way of success.
• What should I keep doing? Inquire about what you do right, and should continue to do.
• What should I start doing? Once you've stopped unproductive behaviors, you'll have more time and energy for new behaviors.

Adapted from "Three Questions for Effective Feedback" by Thomas J. DeLong.

Motivation 1.0 and 2.0

As a leader, do you motivate your staff by rewarding the good and punishing the bad?

Motivation 1.0 - trying to survive.  From roaming the savannah to gather food to scrambling for the bushes when a saber-toothed tiger approached, that drive guided most of our behaviour.

Motivation 2.0 - to seek reward and avoid punishment.  Harnessing this second drive has been essential to economic progress around the world, especially during the last two centuries.  The Motivation 2.0 operating system has endured for a very long time.  Indeed, it is so deeply embedded in our lives that most of us scarcely recognize that it exists.  For as long as any of us can remember, we've configured our organizations and constructed our lives around its bedrock assumptions.  The way to improve performance, increase productivity, and encourage excellence is to reward the good and punish the bad. 

From:  Drive by Daniel H. Pink
Published by:  Riverhead Books



Check tomorrow for..........Motivation 3.0