We’re trying something new here at Steve Rudolph Coaching: vlogs! Take a break from all of your reports and emails to watch my 5-minute video about giving tough feedback remotely. Learn all six skills you need to practice to improve as a remote manager-coach. After, check out all our other great resources.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring. –Steve
The remote work environment not only creates a vacuum of human connection but also fosters a blurry view of work performance. Managers, in partnership with their team members, must proactively pursue two prized output dimensions:
Team disengagement and sub-par performance thrives in the backwaters of ambiguity and uncertainty.
“Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.”
-Brené Brown, Dare to Lead
Communication should provide three core needs for all employees to do their best work:
3 Distinct Remote Manager Conversations to Elevate Team Engagement, Accountability and Performance
#1 Manager Conversations that Provide Direction
Key elements include:
Coaching Tip: These items are commonly known as expectations, or in stronger language, non-negotiables. Effective managers manage around clear expectations, not personalities.
#2 Feedback Conversations that Provide Clarity
Coaching Tip: High-performing managers create feedback-rich environments and grasp that smaller, sooner conversations are better than larger, later conversations.
#3 Coaching Conversations that Provide Support
Coaching Tip: View a disciplined coaching process as a strategic, competitive advantage. High-performers want to work for a manager who will grow and develop them, and sponsor them for next-level leadership opportunities.
“The meaning of a word is the action it produces.”
-Ashley Montague
Managing a remote team can be a confusing, and often, stressful experience. But this new world of telework also presents an excellent opportunity to elevate your leadership communication skills! Pierce the fog of remote work confusion by regularly engaging your team in these three distinct and powerful conversations.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring. –Steve
Plus 5 Coaching Tips!
Managing Remotely Webinar Series
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically shifted work from the office to your employees’ living rooms. For many managers, the challenge of coaching a remote team is vexing. How do you ensure high productivity while maintaining a positive and collaborative culture?
Here are 5 Core Manager Skills to create an accountable, engaged, and healthy remote team:
Skill #1 – Elevate Engagement by Stepping Up Yours. The lack of daily in-person interactions creates an energy vacuum. Your team doesn’t need a cheerleader. But they do crave intentional leadership that provides clear direction, facilitates esprit de corps, and brings a positive outlook during uncertain times.
Coaching Tip: Communicate regular appreciation to your team for their energy, collaboration, and results during these challenging times.
Skill #2 – Be Vigilant About Tending to Your Culture. Passionate and unified cultures are strongly correlated with improving performance across a host of key business outcomes (Gallup). Complacency or business-as-usual is your enemy. Cultures, like gardens, are healthiest when receiving attentive care.
Coaching Tip: Begin your weekly team meeting asking each member to quickly share A) what success they had the past week, B) where they are struggling, and C) what help or input they need from the team.
Skill #3 – Establish Sacred Meeting Schedules. It’s vital to understand that “employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are almost three times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings” (Harvard Business Review). Clear routines, like meetings, provide team members with structure that fosters certainty, lowers anxiety, and enables high productivity.
Coaching Tip: Three meeting examples that drive Kevin Kruse’s, CEO LeadX, team’s remote work.
Skill #4 – Clarify RRA (Roles, Responsibilities, Accountabilities). Gallup’s research found that high employee engagement was most strongly correlated with a positive response to the statement – I know what is expected of me at work. Further, the ultimate prize of effective collaboration is enhanced when each team member understands how everyone’s part fits into the big picture. Ambiguity is a remote manager’s worst enemy.
Coaching Tip: Post everyone’s RRA to a project management software or a Google document for high visibility.
Skill #5 – Focus on Growing Talent. Telework is an excellent opportunity to engage your team members in career or skill development conversations. The International Coaching Federation reports that “83% of employees indicated career support positively impacts their engagement.” The same study showed “85% of individuals agreed, or strongly agreed, there is nothing wrong with staying in the same job if they can try new things or develop new skills.”
Coaching Tip: Your weekly one-on-one meetings are the mechanism for providing effective feedback. These deeper conversations strengthen your relationships and send a sincere message that you care about each team member.
Managers who are intentional about prioritizing relationships, collaboration, and accountability will engage their teams in healthy and productive remote work!
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring. –Steve
“Nothing decays employee moral more than a leader who doesn’t know his or her own mind.”
–Peter Drucker
A manager’s primary goal is to bring out the best in people and inspire positive, accountable action. A manager’s words reflect her clarity of thought, or not. Vague, muddled, contradictory communication crushes initiative and invites cynicism and confusion.
The antidote is purposeful, redundant over-communication that can end up sounding, well, routine, yet potent.
Examples of routine, yet focused, leadership communication:
“Number one, cash is king…number two, communicate…number three, buy or bury the competition.”
–Jack Welch, Former CEO, General Electric
“We put customers at the center of everything we do. We listen intently to our customers’ needs.”
–Mary Barra, CEO General Motors
“Fewer things done better.”
–Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn
Engage your team in these three routine, yet potent, communication techniques:
#1 Unified Purpose – Conduct a rich conversation about your organization’s, or department’s, reason for existence. Or, answer your big “WHY.” Passion and alignment are predictable outcomes when clarity of purpose is identified and committed to. Contrarian leaders appreciate that this routine conversation is often, paradoxically, inspiring and motivating.
#2 Roles and Responsibilities – Nothing frustrates employees more than vagueness surrounding who is responsible for what and how performance is evaluated. Work ambiguity is a productivity killer. Often, one routine conversation to understand causes of misalignment and a forward path of action will result in big performance payoffs.
#3 Autonomy – Once lanes of authority are agreed upon, shift the conversation to empowerment. Autonomy is a primary driver of employee engagement, and is a highly prized condition for attracting and retaining a talented workforce. Progressive managers are vigilant about inviting team members into routine conversations about how work can be organized to bring out each individual’s greatest contributions.
The quality of managers’ communication directly affects employee morale and performance. Commit to speaking with more clarity – be purposeful, be redundant, and be just a little more routine.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring. -Steve
Check out our newly redesigned resources page for more great manager-coaching tips!
Inspiring and effective managers embody a paradoxical leadership style. They relentlessly drive business results while equally expressing care and concern for their people.
The following descriptors are commonly shared by many to describe the “best boss” they’ve ever had, while highlighting the seemingly contradictory dimensions of effective managers:
It’s important to note that striking this balance is often challenging for female leaders; through no fault of their own. These complexities are beyond the scope of this article but the following quote reveals one dimension why:
“When a man is tough, there is the underlying implicit belief that he is tough and fair and that that’s acceptable. But when a woman is tough, it seems as though there is no option that she is being fair because it’s unreasonable for any women to be tough.”
–Soraya Chemaly
So how does a manager deal with this dichotomy? By developing and embodying the two core capabilities below.
#1 Communicate clear direction while inspiring people.
An early mentor of mine often said, “Steve, I expect perfection but will settle for excellence. I have confidence in you and our team that together we will deliver a distinct experience for our clients.”
Note the three key elements driving this statement: Clarity of expectations, ensuring I felt valued, and communicating core values (e.g. teamwork and collaboration).
Paradoxically, this boss created a productive and safe workplace by consistently holding us accountable, being candid with feedback, being very approachable, and being open to our ideas. She equally emphasized the task and the relationship.
Gifted leaders embrace what Jim Collins coined – genius of Yes/And thinking and reject the tyranny of the Either/Or.
#2 Manage less and coach more.
Good managers are clear and fearless in setting specific expectations, monitoring results, and providing quality feedback that fosters trust and engagement. Great leaders coach people to be their best.
Effective manager-coaches are skilled at:
New managers will experience early success if they internalize that being firm and strong does not conflict with being caring and kind.
Tenured leaders need to appreciate that strong company performance is correlated with workplace psychological safety. A reminder that the soft skills are the hard skills to master. Building a collaborative, results focused culture is also smart for attracting and retaining top talent (a ubiquitous source of manager stress today). Being tough yet kind is simply good for business.
Keep it Simple. Keep it Focused. Definitely Keep it Inspiring! -Steve
As always, check out my other blog posts for even more great manager-coaching tips!
Carl, a very seasoned and capable production manager recently shared, “I’m going to retire early because I can’t take the stress anymore.” Business volume and complexity had overrun Carl’s traditional top-down management approach. When I pressed Carl for why he feels like he must make all the decisions his answer was revealing, “I’ve always been the go-to guy and senior management expects me to solve every problem.”
Carl suffers, in part, from hero syndrome, the strong need to be right, to be Mr. fix-it, to be chief firefighter. Additionally, a traditional control management structure reinforces team members to be order-takers, not co-owners of accountability and outcomes.
“All failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.”
–Max McKeown
Distributed leadership, as opposed to a control management style, is partially defined as, “Leadership activity as a whole is stretched, or distributed, across many people.”
Accountability for results, quality, and decision-making gets distributed to team members. Through its 14 Lean Management Principles, Toyota embodies distributed leadership by empowering teams to solve problems, accept accountability, and make localized decisions.
“A successful company is one that can learn effectively.”
–Ariel de Geus
Managers who suffer from hero syndrome will also quickly suffer from burnout. A single person can’t possibly put out all fires. That’s why firefighters come in teams. By following a distributed leadership structure, the hero-manager can help shape a hero-team, which lessens the burden on any one individual.
Keep it Simple. Keep it Focused. Definitely Keep it Inspiring! -Steve
As always, check out my other blog posts for even more great manager-coaching tips!
Listening is the simplest “soft” skill that a manager can have, but it may have the most impact. Workplace communication is the key to understanding your people and your organization. Often, the difference between success and failure will be determined by if your employees feel comfortable talking to you and if you listen to what they say. To ensure that your employees communicate, be an active listener.
“The human brain discloses information in layers, therefore our questions should match this biology.”
–The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld
Active listening can go a long way to help your business run smoothly. Not only will your team members trust you to communicate, but active listening will trickle down your organization. In due time, you’ll find that your team will actively listen to customers more. And, customers love to be listened to!
Keep it Simple. Keep it Focused. Definitely Keep it Inspiring! -Steve
As always, check out my other blog posts for even more great manager-coaching tips!
Analysis of many commercial flight disasters concludes that faulty communication between the flight crew and captain, not mechanical failure, led to tragedy. In other words, first officers and flight engineers had critical information of concern but failed to communicate that information in a direct and effective manner. CRM (crew resource management), in part, aims to train flight crews to assertively and respectfully speak up when they possess critical data. Averting disaster is achieved at the intersection of quality communications, leadership, and decision-making.
Managers, like flight captains, need to create psychologically safe environments that encourage reps to share real time data and concerns. In a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world, a rich flow of relevant information enables collective sensemaking to occur.
“Business agility is creating a learning organization this is faster and better at learning about themselves and their customers.”
-Jason Bloomberg (Forbes)
Managers – Create a CRM-like work culture by implementing these 4 best practices
A fast paced and complex marketplace demands that managers create a feedback-rich work environment where reality is being openly and accurately discussed. Flawed communication may not result in tragedy at work, unlike on an airplane, but it can be the deciding factor between success and failure. Managers who think like successful flight captains greatly increase their chances of landing the plane safely!
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring.
Check out our other blog posts too!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
-Aristotle
Assuming a person possesses key core traits – initiative, genuine care for others, drive for results, to name a few — then the craft of management is learnable. Mastery of management skills, like any discipline, is built upon mastering fundamentals.
Increase your likelihood of success in 2019 by implementing the following 7 Manager Skills until they become managerial habit. These competencies may also lower your stress and bring more fun into your work.
Reflect and look ahead in this New Year. Have you developed your manager blue print for success? What are your top development goals that will inspire others, build a cohesive team, and put up big results?
Consider identifying at least two skills, implement them with regularity, solicit feedback from your team, and become the boss that nobody wants to quit.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring.
Engaging a disengaged team member can be one of the more vexing manager challenges. And, the associated symptoms can be costly:
Gallup pegs the cost of lost productivity due to absence, illness and stress-related work problems in excess of $350 billion per year nationwide.
-Forbes
Disengaged
narratives run the gamut but here are a few common themes:
“You manage things; you lead people.”
-Grace Murray Hopper, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral
While the root causes for employee disengagement are varied, reflective managers must confront the brutal fact that they may be co-responsible for the current situation. In the spirit of self-development, a few diagnostic questions can help understand the problem:
“Management has always gotten what it models and tolerates.”
-Anonymous
Following candid self-reflection, here are 5 Steps for re-setting the relationship, gaining alignment on work expectations, and establishing milestones and measurements:
Step 1: Take part ownership, if necessary, of the situation and be direct with team member. It might sound like, “I apologize for not being more candid in the past, however, your current work contributions are below expectations.” The objective is to re-calibrate an effective work partnership, not be liked.
Step 2: Establish regular, structured and substantive one-on-one meetings. It’s common to hear managers say, “I stopped having one-on-ones with this employee because they ceased to be productive.” Well structured, focused one-on-ones is a trusted process for charting a new path forward with disengaged employees.
Step 3: Present facts and examples where the team member is falling short of performance expectations. Present a written list of non-negotiable work expectations. Establish clear consequences for not meeting the expectations and gain agreement from the team member. Building trust begins with making professional agreements.
Step 4: Set up the team member for success. You are not crafting an HR performance improvement plan (PIP), yet. You might have to if the team member doesn’t make forward, measured progress. First, establish clear, incremental steps for immediate action. In other words…
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”
-Lord Kelvin
Step 5: Inspect what you expect. Monitoring, evaluating and providing regular feedback on progress are the heavy lifting of good management. Remember, your (or your predecessor’s) historical hands-off management style have enabled the employee to work in a silo. The antidote is an over correction – a very hands-on style that could last several months. These situations rarely develop overnight and neither will the solutions.
The source of many employee disengagement scenarios is often a disengaged manager. At some point the manager failed to commit to the 5 steps above. If you fell off the management horse, get up, dust yourself off, and recommit to engaging your people.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Definitely keep it inspiring.
