Diversity and Inclusion
MERILEE KERN | May 04, 2021
In many ways, being an effective leader boils down to your ability to influence people—a proficiency that is driven by one’s emotional intelligence (EQ). Leadership is more about soft skills—the ability to inspire, persuade, guide, sway and communicate in a way that’s “heard” rather than just “listened to”—than it is about being the best relative to hard skills. As a leader, if you do not understand your team’s motivations and feelings, you will never be able to establish an optimally-functioning team and reap the copious rewards related thereto. The result is needless opportunity loss.
To become more adept at such soft management skills, leaders can actively work to improve their EQ. This effort includes—and actually starts with—understanding your own emotions and triggers. What motivates and demotivates you, evokes feelings of stress or satisfaction, compels you to go “above and beyond” or not participate at all? You can conduct these inner exploration exercises on your own in a journal or daily walk, perhaps, while some leaders amp up the effort by conducting self-assessments with a coach, mentor or therapist.
“If you are to lead with maximum efficacy, you must build an enthusiastic following,” notes leadership authority Andrew Wyatt, author of the new book, “ Pro Leadership: Establishing Your Credibility, Building Your Following and Leading With Impact.” “This requires relational and people skills as well as all of the related soft skills that contribute to one’s EQ. And, a leader cannot staff EQ out. You must to have it yourself. Those who don’t will need to develop it to realize truer and more unencumbered success.”
According to Wyatt, whose eponymous company develops leaders worldwide through coaching, speaking, training and consulting, the good news is that everyone can develop their EQ. Unlike IQ, which pretty much is what it is, EQ can be nurtured, developed and increased. Below are a few excerpted insights from Wyatt’s book on why EQ matters to leadership, how to lead amid different EQ/IQ types and developing your leadership EQ—both in your organization and within yourself.
Why EQ Matters to Leadership
Pro leaders must have the ability to influence others to follow them, and the most important ingredient in influence is relationship. The key to a winning relationship is winning the heart, and doing so is not possible without EQ. You may have a high IQ and natu¬ral giftedness in your vocation, but if you are unable to influ¬ence others—you may be effective as a manager—you will never be a leader.
Remember, leadership is about people, and people will fol¬low with their head for only so long before they eventually grow weary and peel off or fade away. But if, through your rela¬tional abilities, they feel your love and care for them, they will follow you even when times get tough. That is why it is vital to your leadership to allow your EQ to lead.
But EQ alone won’t be enough. In fact, it must be balanced with IQ. Although IQ is not a natural leader attribute, and as a result is best relegated to the back seat, it is important to the success of any enterprise. Your role as leader will be to balance both EQ and IQ, to manage the balance and tension between the two. That balancing act will be manifested through how your team works together.
Recall that EQ builds companies and IQ builds products; it is not possible to have one without the other. At the same time, one is not valued over and above the other. Although the theme of this lesson is to let your EQ lead, that does not make it more valuable than IQ—both are required to win.
3 Types of Players
When filtering for EQ and IQ, there are three categories of people you will find. I have worked with, followed, or led all of these: EQ dominant; IQ dominant; and EQ/IQ flexible. A strong culture, organization and team will have all three types of players on their roster. Where the two dominant types will normally be position players, most pro leaders will be flexible. Let me explain.
To be great a company, you must add value through offering a great product. IQ builds products. People who are IQ dominant have high IQs—a natural gift that, when applied, results in great products that add value to people’s lives. Consider the advances in medicine, science and technology. None would have been possible without the work of IQ-dominant people.
To successfully lead an IQ-dominant player, you will need to first satisfy their intellect through a clear and rational articulation of your vision and strategy. Next, they need to be enlisted in forming the tactics you will employ to accomplish the strategy. Since they are the product designers, they will want to have shared ownership of the product before they follow your lead and buy into your vision. Once you have satisfied their intellect, you are free to win their hearts.
The second player type is the EQ-dominant individual. This person is also a position player. You will most often find them in advertising and creative positions, client service, marketing and sales—critical roles if a company is to be successful. Rarely will they build a product, but their EQ is invaluable in product development, specifically in refining products in order to bring forward the product the market is demanding. These individuals are valuable because they understand the basic truth that no one has ever bought anything; they are sold on something.
To lead EQ-dominant players, a leader must always start with the heart. You must offer a creative vision and strategy and they must see you as the courage behind the plan. They want to be led, from their heart to their head. And while you must appeal first to their creative side, you may not ignore their rational side because that is where their fears exist. As their leader, they will naturally look to you for courage and to help them overcome their fears.
The third type of player on your roster will be what I define as EQ/IQ flexible. Every great leader I have met or studied fell into this category. The defining characteristic of this person is her ability to balance EQ and IQ—specifically, having the ability to discern which attribute needs application to a particular circumstance and to execute the proper timing of the use of the attribute. In athletics, this is called hand-eye coordination. All athletes have it to one degree or another, and the degree to which they do is what separates the amateur from the professional. EQ/IQ flexible personalities have the ability to walk into a room and immediately judge the chemistry, while subsequently activating the attribute most suited to the current environment. Whether a board room or a lunchroom, they are comfortable in both environments because they have the ability to adapt instantly to each environment.
This is my personality type and, as a result, I find these people the most difficult to lead. Nevertheless, to lead EQ/IQ personalities effectively, start with their heart by appealing to their deepest motivations. But don’t stop there. You will need to follow with the logical argument as you clearly build your case. If you win them to your cause, they will become your greatest ally because they will naturally become spokespersons for that cause. However, this is a two-edged sword. If you lose their trust—or if they simply do not accept your vision and the mission—it may hinder their work. In the end, these personalities are a strong proof-source that the true measure of leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.
Developing EQ in Yourself and Others
Setting an EQ standard starts where every other cultural development begins, with leadership. That would be you. Based on the principle you read about in the last chapter, to develop a culture-wide EQ you will need to start with yourself, beginning with your attitude toward the people you are leading. As humans, we naturally favor ourselves. That means, if I am an EQ-dominant person, I will naturally be drawn to other EQ-dominant people. The same is true for the IQ-dominant person. This is fine for friendships. However, favoring one trait over the other in your organization will create a culture of favoritism, resulting in dysfunction caused by this imbalance. As the leader, it is critical for you to have no favorites, with the ability to defend both camps.
Developing EQ among your leadership team is a necessary activity of pro leadership. These leaders realize they cannot succeed alone. As John Maxwell astutely commented, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others.” The extent to which you foster EQ among the members of your inner circle is the extent to how far your leadership team will go. To do this as a leader, you will need to start at the same place you did with your cultural EQ: your attitude. Leadership development of any type is a process, not a destination. It is a journey that never ends. When you stop developing, you stop growing.
No matter what your own EQ level is, ongoing personal development is always important. Read all you are able to find on the topic. Second, if you don’t have one, consider working with a coach. Third, join a peer group or start one yourself. It is true that iron sharpens iron. Developing EQ is not a solo sport, you will need to have some people to rub up against. Leadership is a lonely business; you need to have someone to talk to, a safe environment to share and people who will tell you the last 10 percent—that bit of information most people won’t tell you.
“IQ builds products, but EQ builds companies and followings. So, as you step out today to lead, let your EQ lead the way,” Wyatt urges. “Develop your EQ, your culture’s, your team’s, and your own. Do so, and you will have taken a big step in developing your following and your pro leadership abilities, putting yourself in a prime position to be able to motivate the people you lead.”
Read MoreDiversity and Inclusion
MERILEE KERN | April 22, 2021
Amid the known inequity of women holding corporate board seats and, further, those chairing boards, newly-released ‘Dear Chairwoman’ book features highly personal stories of challenges, perseverance and success from some of the world’s most esteemed C-suite women executives and board members/chairs with corporate behemoths the likes of The Coca-Cola Company, MGM Mirage, JPMorgan Chase, Alaska Airlines, Nordstrom and more.
The numbers are dishearteningly revealing. As recently as late 2020, women reportedly held less than a quarter of board seats among America’s largest publicly-traded companies on the Russell 3000 and, even on a global scale, women also held less than a quarter of board of director (BoD) seats that year. In fact, not only do countless global companies not have a single woman on their board, the paltry percent of women who actually chair boards exemplifies an even greater disparity. This as approximately 7.4% of the 500 largest public U.S. companies (by revenue) claim a female chair.
Given the critically important purpose of a BoD—with fiduciary shareholder representation mandates that include corporate management, as well as oversight and tactical decision-making like that related to personnel and senior executive hiring and firing, executive compensation, dividend policies and payouts, company resource management and more—gender diversity is a fundamentally key way to represent all stakeholders. Moreover, various reports—like that in the Harvard Business Review—detail how gender diversity improves overall board performance, while studies show that corporations with female directors are often more profitable.
Although the benefits are undeniable and notable, strides are being made via initiatives like Senate Bill 826 (SB 826) requiring all publicly held companies headquartered in California to have at least one woman on their board—those businesses with six or more directors must include at least three, while boards of five must have at least two. As well, NASDAQ recently announced proposed listing requirements, seating women in board rooms continues to be an uphill battle. A myriad of recent news reports are a testament to this hard truth.
With this understanding and amid her life’s work helping advance women executives, leadership diversity authority Rika Nakazawa has authored the newly-released title, “Dear Chairwoman: Letters from Today's Trailblazing Women Board Leaders to the Fearless Directors of Tomorrow” (HAL HOUSE, Paperback). The book features the extraordinary voices and personal stories of women leaders from around the world who have trailblazed their way to the board room, which are availed as letters to enlighten, prepare and inspire the next generation of women in business and government to pursue board-level positions. With each leading with the salutation “Dear Chairwoman,” these letters are infused with the energy, personal experiences and front-line perspectives to motivate young women to not only pursue board governance early, but also claim the “Chairwoman” title when taking that senior-most seat in the board room.
The book is replete with letters from some of the world’s most esteemed women executives who have ascended the senior leadership ranks at premier companies such as Microsoft, and who sit on boards for global behemoths the likes of The Coca-Cola Company, MGM Mirage, JPMorgan Chase, Alaska Airlines, Nordstrom and more. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Gavriella Schuster, one of the title’s contributors, notes, "This book is wonderful because it enables young women to understand the story behind the stories. The 40 very different stories showcase just how many paths to success there are and what drives the women behind the stories. It affords every reader the opportunity to see themselves in someone’s story and restore their faith and confidence in their own story."
Mastersfund Managing Director and book contributor, Gillian Muessig, also underscores the value of the book’s personal story approach, stating, “’Dear Chairwoman’ illuminates the road taken by women on their way to today's boardrooms. Everyone's path is a bit different. It's the similarities that reveal how the road is paved.”
Davidson Technologies EVP AI and book contributor, Lisa Hammitt, further asserts the book’s importance—particularly amid current events—having noted, “Post Lean-in, post #MeToo, COVID, the stay-at-home economy ... ‘Dear Chairwoman’ courageously calls on tribal elders with engaging folklore to guide leaders through a rite of passage, in a time like no other.” The book, and the unique stories therein, are even resonating with male allies—for themselves and for preparing their daughters for the workforce—as exemplified by their multiple 5-star ratings on Amazon.
Also notable relative to “optics” is the fact that, of the women who do chair boards, few use the word “Chairwoman” on their LinkedIn profiles or in biographies at conferences and events—instead using monikers like Chairman, Board Chair or Chairperson. “While moving from ‘Chairman’ nomenclature to ‘Chairperson’ is progress towards solving for unconscious diversity bias in companies all over the world, the absence of the use ‘Chairwoman’ is intriguing and is an archetype I’m focused on changing.”
“Dear Chairwoman” is a fitting book for Nakazawa, who is a senior leader, entrepreneur, investor, board director and frequent public speaker on technology-powered business transformation and diversity in leadership. As Co-founder of Austin, Texas-based BoardSeatMeet, Inc.— a company powering high-performance board rooms with gender and racial diversity—Nakazawa’s career has been focused on advancing women's leadership in governance, technology and business across industry verticals and global dimensions.
A technology industry veteran, Nakazawa herself has served on multiple venture boards in next-generation computing and artificial intelligence ecosystems. She is committed to deepening the intersection of analog and digital experiences through transformational innovation and the pursuit of purpose-driven collaboration.
As for “Dear Chairwoman,” Nakazawa underscores the book’s intention of sharing key insights from women who have shattered all kinds of proverbial ceilings and ascended to board of director positions—some chair seats—in U.S. enterprises and around the world. “The stories from these extraordinary achievers are offered in the form of personal letters to the next generation of women leaders,” Nakazawa said. “They illuminate each leader’s journey to the boardroom, including the challenges experienced along the way and triumphs realized as they are fulfilling their roles within them.”
Fulfilling indeed.
Read MoreTalent Management
MERILEE KERN | January 07, 2021
Expert’s game changing performance management strategy a boon for business owners, department heads and human resource managers
If you want to be the best and grow your business, not only do you have to hire and reward the best ... you must either develop or remove the rest. It’s that simple. Toward this end, you might be surprised to learn that traditional, so-called “tried-and-true” performance management methods fail. One top offender is the ubiquitous and erroneously exalted Performance Review.
According to leadership expert and executive coach Roxi Bahar Hewertson, CEO of Highland Consulting Group, Inc. and AskRoxi.com, “This HR ‘tool’ will not help your business achieve ANY of its growth results. In fact, leaning on performance reviews to assess staffers can greatly increase the likelihood of achieving the exact opposite results.”
Business leaders and human resource professionals have had a doctrine hammered into them that annual evaluations or reviews are sufficient to document employee performance. According to Hewertson, who just released her highly anticipated second book, “Hire Right, Fire Right: A Leader’s Guide to Finding and Keeping Your Best People,” the problem with that logic is it’s short-sighted and often inaccurate. “There are times when managers need to fire someone, but find that nothing in that person’s ‘personnel file‘ indicates a problem, and too often the opposite is true,” she says. “This is a chronic problem when supervisors don’t like to (or don’t know how to) deliver ongoing constructive feedback when it’s needed—all year long rather than during one ceremonial yearly event. This is the stuff grievances, arbitrations and lawsuits are made of and, quite often, are legal battles lost by management for good reason. Having an annual performance evaluation or review isn’t a panacea. It’s more akin to “using a broken crutch for a broken leg.”
In fact, studies are emerging that further substantiate such performance evaluation shortcomings. A recent U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health study published in 2020 provides evidence that “performance feedback discussions can have counterproductive effects by increasing the recipient’s self-serving attributions for past performance,” with unintended associated effects including “lower feedback acceptance” and “lower motivation to change.”
Businesses need something far more effective because the “old way” is just not going to help retain your best talent, engage your high potentials, or course correct below-par performance. Ultimately, annual performance evaluations are a waste of management’s time and your organization’s money while exacerbating opportunity loss. And, “nearly everyone hates to give and receive them,” Hewertson says.
There’s a better way.
Hewertson advocates that businesses wholly replace formal Performance Reviews with a Personal Dialogues (PD) Process. A PD is not a traditional performance evaluation. As Hewertson explains, it is instead a powerful and highly strategic conversation between a supervisor and an employee that happens at least once a year and is followed up by check-ins that happen quarterly at the very least, sometimes even more frequently.
“It’s important to establish a protocol and methodology that managers and employees understand and agree to follow,” she says. “Instead of dreading the ‘annual review’ meeting, a PD is a two-way conversation that both parties can look forward to. It’s one that builds, versus diminishes, rapport and trust. The PD is intended to engage both parties in positive ways and add real value.”
Prepping for a Productive Personal Dialogue
Hewertson recommends completing two full annual cycles to allow the process to normalize within your organization’s culture. “You’ll likely find that both staff and supervisors may be initially resistant to the change, but will begin looking forward to these powerful conversations,” she notes. “This is, in part, due to the increase in trust and synergy these conversations generate between the supervisor and the employee as well as the measurable positive business results. The Personal Dialogue process can become a rock-solid cornerstone of dynamic cultural change.”
Hewertson suggests that the PD is scheduled at a mutually convenient time and place allowing enough time for both parties to thoughtfully consider and answer the PD questions thoroughly. Hewertson, has had hundreds of these conversations, sometimes in her office, in the employee’s workspace, in a park, on a boat, at a restaurant and even at a botanical garden.
You might throw up your arms and say, “That’s crazy! I don’t have extended lengths of time to spend with each of my direct reports!”
Consider this: What if you DO NOT spend that time with your employees? You’re already spending some of that time now on performance reviews, and dreading it, with the result likely to be a waste of your time, and theirs. In fact, it’s now known that there is a predictable loss of retention of top performers after traditional performance evaluations occur and productivity often goes down among satisfactory employees. Clearly this is not a smart business strategy.
If that weren’t incentive enough, consider how much time and money your organization spends recruiting and onboarding staff. Or, if they’ve been with you for a while, add up how much time and money it will cost you to replace even one of them if they leave because they aren’t happy in the job, aren’t feeling heard or valued, aren’t engaged are underperforming and don’t know it ... or all of the above?
“Acquiring and retaining talent is a relational, not a transactional, process,” Hewertson says. This is among the fundamental concepts she shares in her book, “Hire Right, Fire Right,” in which she also defines and explores the ARC employee life cycle: Acquisition (hire right), Retention (nurture right), Closure (fire right). Her book meticulously guides decision makers through each of these three key interactions relative to both new and existing employees. “Leaders need tangible and tactical tools, like the PD process as one example, to help ensure their organizations are well equipped to not just take on these talent management challenges ... but actually win on these key fronts. By following this kind of highly strategic system for developing employees, decision makers can dramatically boost employee retention rates—and revel in the resultant ROI benefits.”
The Personal Dialogue Process
Hewertson’s PD process involves three perspectives: (1) the employee’s perspective; (2) the employee’s beliefs about the supervisor’s perspective; and (3) the supervisor’s perspective. Individually, the supervisor and the direct report write down answers to a series of ten questions (below) prior to their meeting where they will present and discuss their respective answers. “It’s insightful to see how accurate or inaccurate the employee’s ‘reading’ is of their direct supervisor,” she says. “They both gain valuable insight about how much they are, or are not, on the same page and can respectively course correct on the spot.”
Hewertson’s PD process for each question goes like this:
The supervisor asks for the employee’s thoughts and listens carefully to the answers without interruption, asking for clarification where needed.
The supervisor asks how the employee thinks he/she (the supervisor) will answer, listens without interrupting and asks for clarification where needed.
The two parties discuss a and b.
The supervisor then shares her/his thoughts, without interruption, and the employee asks for clarification where needed.
The two parties discuss where they are the same and where they differ. It is not unusual for an employee to have a different view from the supervisor about strengths and areas for improvement. Employees can underestimate their accomplishments and be overly self-critical—and vice versa.
Post meeting, the supervisor and the employee share their final notes with each other, or combine them, so they have the same record of their conversation—including where they agreed and disagreed.
If required, both sign a form for the official “personnel file” that simply says they had the conversation and when, but notes of their meeting do not get filed centrally.
“This process creates the opportunity for the employee to be heard first,” Hewertson underscores. “When the supervisor shares his/her views, they both can then compare similarities and/or differences of their perceptions for each question and of each other. This prevents a one-sided monologue and it reduces the likelihood that employees will say what they think their supervisor wants to hear. Instead, it opens up new topics to explore and keeps assumptions in check. Applying rigor to this conversation creates greater trust and understanding, which is a key ingredient to greater engagement and retention.”
Below are Hewertson’s ten primary questions and, of course, businesses can and should adapt the questions to suit their own culture and needs. Hewertson cautions you not to stray too far from this format if your goal is to have a dialogue instead of an evaluation. These questions offer the opportunity for a rich and meaningful discussion and come from decades of Hewertson’s experimentation and concerted field testing.
The 10 PD Questions (all open-ended)
Please note 3-5 things you have done especially well in your job in the past year.
How did you measure your own performance this year and what were the results?
Please note 3-5 things you would like to have accomplished but didn’t. Why? Are any of these a priority for the coming year?
What have you liked most about working here this year?
What have you liked least about working here this year?
What goals and projects are most important to you in the year ahead? How will you know you’ve been successful? Are there any factors—personal, supervisory, or organizational—that might block you from accomplishing your goals?
What skills, education, experiences, or assistance (including from your supervisor) do you think would help you accomplish your goals and increase your job satisfaction?
What behaviors of yours help you in your interactions with others? What behaviors of yours get in your way in your interactions with others? Please give specific examples of each.
Who are you developing to succeed you in your position and what is your succession plan? (If this is not relevant to this person’s position, leave out or replace with a question that is relevant to the position.)
What has gone well, and what needs to be improved in your relationship with your supervisor? Please be as specific as you can.
Hewertson also advises that managers be ready to offer one more question, “Is there more?”
“There may be times when a staff member hasn’t shared the whole story about something, or the discuss may have made them think of something they hadn’t initially considered,” she says.
During the PD, performance is discussed in the context of the employee’s overall experience with the job. But Hewertson also clarifies that the nature of the discussion also provides a way for the supervisor to demonstrate respect, honors the employee’s dignity and recognizes the employee’s shared professional partnership by delving into their job, achievements, hopes, disappointments, goals and needs. “During this conversation, ongoing expectations and metrics for the future are agreed upon, with full transparency between both parties,” she notes. “It also gives the supervisor ample opportunity to openly appreciate and recognize the employee’s positive contributions.”
It’s noteworthy that Hewertson’s PD process can be used with any employee, unionized or not, nonexempt or exempt, frontline staff, managers or senior staff. The wording may be adjusted where appropriate for the nature of each employee’s role, but the intent of each question should be kept true. “While some employees will be entirely satisfied with their status quo, they still have hopes, goals, opinions and things that matter to them in their specific workplace—all of which need to be heard,” Hewertson says. “You’ll never know what is truly important to your employees or what material insights will arise, unless you engage in meaningful conversation and ask the right questions.”
While the PD process requires more planning, time and thought, it has the powerful upsides of increasing employee engagement, building trust and driving positive versus negative ROI for any organization.
~~~
Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304587/
Read MoreEmployee Experience
MERILEE KERN | November 17, 2020
Interactive microlearning tech teaches execs & employees how to effectively address and resolve critical and angst-inducing issues via interactive real-world scenarios—in just 15 minutes or less.
The benefits of simulation-based training are indisputable and innumerable. Given its power and efficacy, this methodology is used in a litany of sectors beyond aerospace and military, where it gained its initial foothold. These include everything from manufacturing and retail to healthcare, fitness, fashion and hospitality, reports indicate. No longer reserved for mammoth corporations, now businesses of every size and scope can benefit from highly optimized interactive cyber-training innovations. This in the form of short-burst microlearning 3D simulations that are now as accessible as they are effective. Such brief, easy-to-digest content, which learners can access on their own time, provides numerous posthaste benefits. At its highest level, modern 3D simulation remote training methods can immediately teach employees how to effectively navigate difficult conversations and communicate in a way that drives optimal outcomes and enriches relationships—all irrespective of where that employee is based.
This kind of interactive microlearning technology, which complements any in-person training initiatives, is helping companies rapidly improve internal and external communication skills relating to sensitive subject matter and operational mandates. This includes reducing customer confusion, rectifying unconscious bias to create a more inclusive culture, stemming microaggressions, promoting conflict resolution and de-escalation, conveying appropriate and consistent responses to crises like COVID-19, driving feedback conversations that enhance employee relations, empowering employees to constructively escalate issues that aren’t discussed outside of “water cooler whispers” and more.
So powerful is this approach, Allied Market Research indicates the virtual training and simulation market size, currently valued at $204.41 billion, is projected to more than double and reach $579.44 billion by 2027. This and other such forecasts reflect the extent to which companies are now requiring their executives and managers to participate in virtual training and simulation to become better prepared for real-life situations. Not surprising given the several points of substantiation. For one, global consulting firm Accenture underscores that “experiential learning has long been argued as the most effective way to learn, and studies have shown that learning through experience increases learning quality by up to 75%.” The firm indicates this approach allows companies to recreate real-life situations, reduce travel costs to outside training and increases repetition of experiences to allow employees to practice more. As one case in point, it notes that major retailers like Walmart leverage the technology to train managers to prepare for key events like Black Friday—with potential benefits including an 80% savings in training time.
“3D simulations help companies provide employees with interactive bite-sized learning sessions that provide a quick and easy way to engage in real-world scenarios, explore emotional responses and receive immediate feedback so they can reflect on their own performance—all in a safe virtual environment,” said Ed Beltran, CEO of Fierce Conversations—a company spearheading customized simulations that teach employees how to handle difficult customer conversations like those relating to the coronavirus pandemic, diversity and inclusion and other notorious, angst-inducing points of contention.
“This kind of training can address and resolve veritably any on-the-job challenge,” he says. “The overarching goal of microlearning immersion is to help employees become expert conversationalists by knowing what to talk about, how to talk about it and why it matters for the bottom line of the specific employer. This is why the most effective 3D simulations are those that are ‘bite-sized’—as in 15-minutes or less—and also fully customized for each business and situation. In this way, businesses can efficiently address several critical issues via interactive real-world situations, all with the look and feel of your own location, organization and audiences. Personalized avatars are also used to recreate scenarios and build empathy, and immediate feedback helps employees learn and improve with each session.”
Learn and improve they do, as gamification capabilities are shown to maximize learner engagement and knowledge retention. In fact, interactive learning is not only shown to boost learning engagement by 50%, but it also enhances knowledge retention by more than 20%. “It also scales cost effectively per learner so employers can mitigate training expenses,” Beltran notes. Duration is also key. According to Software Advice, most employees (58%) would more likely use online learning courses if they were broken into “multiple, shorter lessons” and creates more than 50% higher engagement. Additional metrics indicate microlearning in segments of three to seven minutes “matches the memory capacity and attention spans” of most humans.
So, next time you need to address internal complications or generally enhance operations, consider opting for interactive 3D simulations rather than those long, boring training videos. You know, the ones that cause employees to lose interest and are hard-pressed to truly resolve the issues at hand—especially when you need that genuine resolution fast. Such customized 3D real-world microlearning, practiced virtually, can get to the heart of challenges that employees are facing today with immediacy. The result will be conversations that make a real, meaningful and measurable impact.
Read MoreMERILEE KERN | June 08, 2020
While some contest, or outright refute, whether or not former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said “success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts,” the power of that statement looms large irrespective of origin. Amid the wildly unforeseen fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, this quote is rather prophetic. It speaks to prosperity not being taken for granted and the notion that failure in and of itself isn’t a death knell and. Relative to business, specifically, it also evokes many questions about the very nature of “courage”—a concept oft characterized by the demonstration of “strength in the face of pain or grief.”
Of course, it’s presumed that successful leaders can and should inherently be courageous, but in what exact regard is courage a mission-critical managerial quality? To what extent should a leader exude courageousness versus humility? What actions, or results thereof, exemplify how courageous–or not–a leader is? Can a wholly well-intentioned show of courageousness backfire and end up doing more harm than good?
We’re currently living in an unprecedented, decidedly challenging point in time when courage seems to be the order of the day. In an attempt to garner some crystal clarity on how this is actually defined and perceived when in practice, I took these and other questions to an assortment of experts and leaders in the business community. The result of that outreach is as eye-opening as it is inspiring, with salient inputs including this top-line wisdom.
Stick to your guns.
By its very nature, the notion of courage connotes danger and evokes a sense of fear. Were there not peril, valor need not be required. To this point, Douglas A. Hicks, dean of Oxford College of Emory University, underscores that courage not only enables someone “to take risks that others fear in order to achieve something important,” but also that doing so requires a backbone. “Courage is not about sticking one’s finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, what others are saying. It requires both self-confidence and resolve. CEOs show courage when they commit to keep employees on the payroll in (the) face of recession and do whatever it takes to create long-term profitability,” he said.
Stacy Caprio of Her.CEO concurs, offering that “a courageous leader has the ability to look at the data and make decisions, even when these decisions go against the grain of public opinion, the media and general public panic. Not many leaders have this ability, but a true leader is able to make decisions independent of mass fear and panic.”
For those businesses that aren’t exactly linear with some kind of denotable beginning and end, instead operating as a continuous, ever-evolving process (like health care, education and financial management), Nicola Wealth Chairman and CEO John Nicola urges that “courage comes from the consistency of your message, your ability to support it and the loyalty of your people delivering it in all environments.” Not only germane to one’s actions, Nicola points out that moxie also manifests in a passive sense by “choosing to do nothing in the face of unrelenting pressure to act.” This as a courage of conviction, based on principles of an individual leader, a leadership team or the company at-large.
Amid the ever-unfolding coronavirus-driven challenges and during prior catastrophic events like the “dotcom crash” and the Great Financial Recession of 2008, Nicola has leaned on corporate ideology for sustenance. “During each of these periods we were under pressure to sell as markets dropped, to not rebalance and try and catch a falling knife, to go into cash and ride out the storm,” he said. Yet, Nicola instead mustered his courage and chose to “to do what we believed the right thing to be was”—a decision he says ultimately resulted in significant performance benefits for his firm’s clients.
How important are these kinds of instincts? Southwestern Family of Companies CEO Dustin Hillis knows all too well, lamenting a time at the company when he had doubts about the sustainability of the business model—multiple facets therein—at that time. “Instead of having courage and actually boldly testing new models, and at the risk of my own income and reputation, I went against what my instincts were telling me. As a result, we went $1 million in debt and almost had to shut the business down. Making the pivot to change the model to what we ended up ultimately doing with coaching and consulting was twice as hard as it would have been two years earlier when I first had the thought. But I did not have the courage to actually take action on what the numbers, the feedback and my instincts were telling me.”
With this, it’s understandable that Hillis currently defines courage as “being afraid and taking action anyway.” He also advocates owning and being daring amid that distress. “True leaders are the ones who acknowledge they are afraid and up against a significant challenge, and yet they persevere and double down on activity during the hardest of times,” he said.
Jennifer McCollum, CEO of leadership development firm Linkage Inc., further substantiates that courageous leaders stick steadfast to their personal standards. McCollum cites her firm’s research findings, which she says are drawn from 100,000 leadership assessments with data from more than one million leaders, revealing specific behaviors that make a leader courageous. One of the three found is “acts in alignment with personal values in challenging, conflicting or ambiguous situations.” With courage as a character trait not to be discounted as a key determinant of a leader’s overarching achievements, McCollum clarifies that, through her firm’s study over 30 years on what the most effective leaders do, “we know courage is a critical leadership practice that differentiates the most effective leaders from the rest.”
Embrace vulnerability.
According to Aaron Velky, CEO of Ortus Academy, courageous leadership includes the decision to be truthful and vulnerable. “Whether or not the truth is easy to share and whether or not you know what speaking the truth will create as an outcome, courage is the ability to offer up where you are and what is real so that someone can process it individually.” Bravely delivering hard messages is not enough, however, as Velky goes on to clarify that, “When we share truth we have to be prepared to listen, but listening is vulnerable, and that's important too. Courage is owning what we are experiencing. Vulnerability is sharing it—the good, bad and emotionally jarring.”
Being able to admit and share regarding future uncertainties also speaks to vulnerability as a facet of courageous leadership. In fact, Velky says that the decision to acknowledge not only what is truthful and known, but also the unknown, is another distinct decision a brave leader makes. To demonstrate courage, Velky asserts that one needs to be fiercely committed to recognizing what and how much you don't have figured out. “Stating the unknowns mitigates the toxicity that is felt when you hide fears and the reasons to have them. Fears are OK, the unknown is OK—once you acknowledge it.”
One business leader who’s walking that highly-exposed walk of vulnerability is Mylen Yamamoto Tansingco, CEO of Cropsticks, Inc.—a social and environmentally-minded B Corporation operating in the foodservice and hospitality industry. “I do not have all the answers and I'm not going to pretend I do either,” she’s refreshingly quick to admit. As case in point, Tansingco publicly shared what Cropsticks is currently going through amid COVID-19. In her YouTube video titled “Can my business survive?,” she shared her company’s small business story in endearing, unguarded and highly personal form. “I'm hoping to keep our community motivated and feel seen during this time,” though she understands this is not without some level of risk. “I hope it doesn't become a ‘courage fail’ after this all over,” she said. Yet she took the leap of faith into that unknown anyway.
Fortune 500 speaker, writer and coach Heather Coros contends that courage is contagious. She emphasizes that curiosity and innovation is only accessible in the brain when a sense of safety is present. “If you’re expecting your team to lean-in, then they need something that feels safe to lean against. By being that safe space, you give the gift of strength and vulnerability to the entire team. And as we know, vulnerability is essential to highly preferred skills like transparency, clear communication and team cohesion.” Perhaps most importantly in this post-pandemic era is Coros’ estimation that “courageous leadership creates a sense of stability amidst the chaos.”
Be undaunted, despite.
Uniquely drawing on her experiences as a stand-up comedian before entering the corporate world, Jennifer Jay Palumbo, CEO of Wonder Woman Writer, LLC, feels that being a courageous leader is accomplished by having unwavering poise. “You have to believe in yourself and your idea no matter how the person in the room reacts or not,” and “trust that you're talented and smart enough to figure it out and still accomplish the task at hand.”
Mike Zaino, President and CEO of TZG Financial, likens this kind of requisite resolve among organizational leaders to that of an underdog continuing to fight with relentless persistence despite prior outcomes. It’s “getting knocked down seven times, and standing up eight,” he says. Yet, such doggedness should not be above reproach, as Zaino further points out that it certainly takes courage to not just hear—but accept—constructive criticism. “You’re either learning or you’re dying,” he says.
The idea that courageous leadership requires a willingness and ability to fail and “get back up again,” no matter how many times it need be performed, is one that’s shared by Mercy Project, Inc. CEO Chris Field. What particularly captures my imagination is Field’s belief that, for courageousness to be a leadership asset, it must be a concerted choice—a daily decision—rather than happenstance. “Courage is a muscle, one we must exercise and grow by being courageous ... one decision at a time,” he submits. “Courage takes many forms, but none of them happen by accident.”
While conveying courageousness certainly takes chutzpah, Women Presidents’ Organization CEO Camille Burns cautions that it’s important to exude confidence without arrogance. “I think people often confuse risk-taking with being courageous,” she said. “Taking a risk is a bold move. But it is even more courageous to fail, to accept that something you tried did not have the outcome you wanted or expected.”
Even so, risk-taking does certainly take its fair share of bravado and duly illustrates leaders with this attribute. Tim Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of NerdWallet, points out the prospect for growth moments during times of crisis--namely the one we’re currently immersed in. He appreciates the extent to which COVID-19 has ushered in a defining time for business leaders, offering, “Even though we’re navigating unprecedented uncertainties, I see this as a huge opportunity for the type of courageous decision-making and smart risk-taking that leads to immense personal and professional growth,” he said. “In fact, I can track most of my greatest periods of personal growth to a prior crisis.”
Crises aside, Chen’s colleague Kelly Gillease, NerdWallet CMO, sees an opportunity for courageous risk-taking with frequency. “Great leaders exhibit courage in small ways every day by encouraging risks and bigger thinking or being vulnerable and empathetic when a situation calls for it,” she said. As for the afore-mentioned chutzpah, “having a willingness to call out the elephant in the room” is also courageous behavior that Gillease indicates she strives to model.
When endeavoring to connote courage, attitude is also the name of the game. It’s important to temper said chutzpah so that it doesn’t come across as overly audacious. A haughty demeanor is never one that’s particularly welcomed in business, but this kind of disposition can veritably doom an executive’s image—especially when attempting to navigate a gaffe. “When someone does not acknowledge what they do not know, or the mistake they have made, it is a courage fail,” Burns warns. “Sustained naivety is when you deny the fail, or when you try to blame it on someone else or block out the writing on the walls. If there is no learning derived from failure, there is no achievement. Then, it is a double failure.”
All told, it’s apparent that courageous business practices are guided not just by guts and grit, but also by focused and unwavering guidance that keeps a leader on course. Just ask Field, who muses, “Courage is knowing our North Star and regularly checking to make sure we're still headed there.”
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