Whit, a newly minted divisional leader, walks into her office building with the enthusiasm that matches the balmy May morning.
She is a talented marketer and a trusted colleague who doesn’t shy away from demanding projects. Coupled with her ability to develop her team and her eagerness to learn, it’s no wonder that her senior leadership has identified her as a high potential.
Whit has just come back from a leadership program and she’s excited to put her learning into immediate practice. She walks through her office door eager to take the day on. Whit opens her e-mail, proud of her first quick win of the day (vowing that she won’t check e-mail between 7:30 at night and 8:00 in the morning). She recently read an article that checking e-mail less frequently reduces stress. While only having adopted a nightly technology fast in the past two months, she has already seen significant productivity gains and she feels calmer.
Thirty-two new e-mail alerts appear on Whit’s laptop screen.
Four of those messages are marked urgent. Whit starts to lose focus when she reminds herself of her promise to stay out of the weeds. Knowing how easy it is to become hijacked by other peoples’ urgent issues, Whit takes a few deep breaths to regain her focus and calmly reviews her inbox. In two minutes, that Whit needs to deal with personally are flagged. Upon closer inspection she evaluates who else on her team would be better suited to address the other e-mail queries.
Whit realizes that three emails are better handled by Keitha, a marketing manager within her group. She forwards these messages to Keitha and encourages her to respond to them in the order she feels is best.
Delegation is a new leadership skill for Whit.
A year ago, she went through the company’s 360 feedback review, where her manager and three of her direct reports described that she was a little controlling as a leader. Whit has since learned that giving her team autonomy about how they do their work is far more important than doing the tasks the way she would have done them. She genuinely cares about her team and wants to empower them. In delegating, she is helping her team develop their own capacity, while freeing her up for work most suited to her strengths and capabilities that will move the business forward.
Whit dashes of to her 9:00 a.m. brainstorming meeting with her team.
The team is nearly all assembled as she takes her seat at the table as the clock strikes nine. The brand manager asks if they should hold off starting the meeting until the last two team members arrive. Whit smiles and informs the group that meetings from now on, start and end on time.
At first, the group exchanges puzzled glances across the table. Whit recognizes this body language, pauses, and states that the organization has a culture of being late to meetings and as a result, meetings start late and often end late, perpetuating the cycle of tardiness, which reduces productivity.
Everyone nods in recognition that late arrivals aren’t just tolerated, but as Jim from Finance pipes up “We worship lateness”. After an open discussion, the attendees all agree that meetings will start and end on time.
The team starts each meeting with a minute or two of gratitude.
Each team member shares something they are grateful for ranging from a new puppy who is finally house trained, to acknowledging a team member’s extra help in analyzing market research data, to celebrating a second anniversary with the company.
For some, at first this act of gratitude seemed a bit fluffy but Whit knew this activity had teeth. She recently read that positivity is a learned skill and that people are more engaged and innovative when they feel grateful. This is a three-minute investment that will pay dividends. Whit noticed a marked increase in collaboration since starting this gratitude practice. Now the team jumps at the chance to be the first to share their piece of gratitude.
Delegating Leadership
Han, the meeting timer and tech facilitator, (the team rotates through all the meeting roles), displays the cloud software the group uses for their brainstorming work on the whiteboard.
Han asks the team to come up with three program upgrade recommendations on sticky notes, a method called brainwriting. This simple analog approach to brainstorming ensures that each member of the team has the same opportunity to participate, no matter how junior or introverted they may be. This method avoids group-think, the psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group, often unwittingly agreeing with the most senior, or most vocal in the group.
The team quickly comes up with 43 ideas which are displayed on the screen at the front of the room so the team can review the suggestions together. Within 15 minutes the group has whittled the list down to seven items. Each team member is assigned to take one idea away to investigate further. They have three weeks to collect data, survey the market and come back to the team with their recommendation. The meeting goal (actively involve the entire team to come up with at least three-to-five new ideas for the brand launch) has been met and the meeting is adjourned a few minutes early.
Whit heads back to her office. Based on a recent conversation she had with her executive coach, Whit has blocked time off for reflection between meetings. This gives Whit the edge she needs to stay fresh and leverage the learning from every meeting.
In the reflective time she has at her deck, Whit reviews her accomplishments against the plan she created on the previous Friday.
“The Friday Win List:“
1. Put learning from leadership development program into practice within 24-hours
2. Only check e-mail and texts between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
3. Stay focused on important issues that will move the business and my work forward
4. Actively delegate to the team
5. Start and end meetings on time
6. Include gratitude reflection as a standing meeting agenda item
7. Observe body language to develop empathy and influence
8. Actively include all team members in meetings to enhance engagement and innovation
9. Block off time between meetings for reflection
It’s only 11:00 a.m. and Whit has accomplished more than most do in a day.
What habits can you adopt to accelerate your leadership?
