Good morning leaders, a quick pondering for you today.
After speaking at a conference pre-pandemic, I was asked if I could join a panel discussion around how to improve business performance. My “role” was from a Growth perspective as there was already a CEO and a COO on the panel and the original panellist couldn’t make the event.
A theme of questions arose from the attendees, what do you do to improve performance or receive fresh ideas and perspectives when performance maybe stagnates.
The others on the panel provided good answers and offered ways to trust internal staff and double down on what got them there.
I recommended something different.
A performance panel.
The panel is not too dissimilar to what you likely have internally, a group of people who analyse and discuss performance, review the data and make recommendations on the next set of actions.
My difference, you introduce formal external advisors to your panel.
Why?
Not stuck to doing it way its always done
Not restricted by knowing details of the roadmap constraints
Help with getting out of the weeds
External intel, often knowing what others are struggling with and if there are changes your internal team are unfamiliar with
Less panic = less stress. Calmer environment to review and attack potential issues
New ideas – fresh approaches often help
If you are a department lead you spend too much fighting on behalf of your team, external assistance and expertise will greatly help support or guide
This can work across the board, it can work from adding Operations, Marketing, Growth, Product, Technical, HR and company culture representatives.
You will have to onboard the panellists, you will have to brief them well and allow access, the formal agreements can work like non-executive directors and can be formalised to a few days per month.
For the existing department leads, ensure they are prepared to share insights, they are comfortable in asking for help, curious about what is recommended, and take some time to build the connection and trust, this will be key when they look to roll out the recommendations of your panellists.
This week consider how you could improve not only performance when there is a dip but company-wide performance when there are opportunities to grow, hire smarter and develop departmental plans and your company-wide strategy with external advisors.
When defining the key ingredients for company culture, there are four pillars that will always guide you towards building a good foundation.
The 4c’s of company culture are: 1/ Campfire 2/ Competition 3/ Community 4/ Collaboration
Here are eleven of Focus’ top tips to improve your company culture:
Agreed Principles & Approved Behaviours – the best companies understand the boundaries of each team and understand the principles that drive them forward and the agreed and approved behaviours are universally agreed are driving the people and company forward. Knowing that humans are designed to understand guidance (remember many believe rules are made to be broken) and boundary lines will help all employees from the least to most experienced. Key for success: review and update agreed principles and behaviours every six months
Eat Together: Have a food you all can eat and eat together, whether in person or virtually. The connection that is made around eating at a campfire setting is priceless. Key for success: create this as a ritual
Drink Together: Enable rotating “coffee chats” across the business, this should be randomised and connect colleagues from all areas of the business, including the “most senior and most junior”. Key for success: create this as a ritual
Show & Tell: Create a company show and tell – enable departments to demo what they are working on, encourage departments to create games and interactive elements to explain what the department does and how they feed into the business Key for success: create this as a ritual
Forums: Regular Forums focusing on show and tells – take it a step further than standups and recurring meetings, enable teams (not just departments) to show their work and demonstrate the value. Have this open to the whole company, these forums could be optional to attend for companies with over 350 employees; if you can record these, share and have a record on your wiki these drive companies to create connections, coach, collaborate and curate collectively. Keep for success: ensure feedback is provided (not opinion) and there is applause. Applause creates herding
Games: Create a company-wide game that teams are mixed up for, so they can compete against each other and build bonds with colleagues they rarely work with. Key for success: Small disposable games not touraments work best
Captain: Use a captain system in meetings, rotate the owners of regular meetings and intros a captain who steers the meeting. This helps to remove HIPPO’s owning the meeting, it can remove status games, it helps to evolve individuals and places respect at the heart of the meeting. I have gone so far in buying a captain armbands and ensuring the captain wears the armband in each meeting. Visuals help, thats why flags exists, thats why unforms work, thats why adding ranks to uniforms exist, thats why captains wear armbands in sports. Key for success: Ensure everyone supports and respects the captain in every meeting
Caring & Causes: Create a cause the company supports and creates squads to dedicated days to supporting the agreed cause. Awaydays supporting charity and non profit days are popular, curating how many of the team go together are important and varying how they can support is important. Connecting smaller groups of people to support these together is important, creating mini herds of teams drives movement within your business. Key for success: Report back with videos and images of the cause each herd supports
Storytell Failure: Create failure of the month storytelling – when failure is discussed and openly understood, companies can move forward and help a learning culture to develop and remove stigmas against failure. Companies who celebrate together in the good and the bad have the best company culture. Key for success: Thank the storyteller and engage with their failure
Unsung Heroes: Something that is rarely celebrated but should be are the unsung heroes in your business, the ones who go over and above the roles to ensure success happens, not just on projects but with developing and mentoring others. Key for success: Call out unsung heroes formally and informally
Agreed Anthem: Have an anthem (a song, a sound or even a poem or film clip) that whenever played recreates a connection. Key for success: Refer to the athem and play regaulrly
Best of luck rolling these out for your business, remember you can roll out some at a time to help start the ball rolling.
Welcome to the podcast series fixing the broken world of work, it has been a mission of Focus to deliver the best content to business leaders and managers so they can make their workplaces better and help to develop their teams and departments.
Season 1 is action-packed with brilliant stories, tips and actionable advice.
Each Fixing The Broken World Of Work Podcast is broken down below with why listen and the important topics we discussed, this should help you decide which podcast to start with.
Listen to the podcasts below and don’t forget to follow on your podcast app of choice:
Why Listen: Briony talks about her incredible transition from Marketer to facilitator and coach. Briony tells her very personal story and journey, from her own struggles with mental health to helping so many with breathwork, meditation and the future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Briony and I discuss:
Mental health and why it is so important to be aware of
How mental health is evolving How your mental health can help to transform physical health
Why early morning open-air swims have been so important to Briony and her journey
Why Therapy and therapists role in peoples lives are so important, hint it’s more than the therapy sessions
Why breathwork is so important to tackling anxiety and stresses
Why our bodies are driven by our breath and controlling our breath
Why Personal development starts with you
Everyone is facing similar challenges – it’s how you find the best course of action
Why retreats are going to be so popular and a necessary part of life and work
Sharon Aneja – Founder @ Humanity Works Consultancy
Why Listen: Sharon takes us on her incredible journey and why being a Positive Psychology coach is so important to her and for any workforce. Sharon shares a couple of brilliant frameworks and practices to improve any business.
What Sharon and I discuss:
The importance of mental health and wellbeing
Why psychological flexibility is so important
Why command and control management fails their people and their business
Why businesses and managers wait for people to get stressed and burnt out rather than proactively addressing such important topics
The awakening businesses require
Why gamification can be negative
the opportunity to be able to partner with organizations who are courageous enough to want to get to the heart of issues
How a routine operation changed Sharon’s life completely
Why Listen: Jo has over twenty years in helping to transform businesses and business leaders. Listen to hear how to help shape organisations and make businesses more successful.
What Jo and I discuss:
Why a client that actually want to do change better are the best clients
Why coaching and mentoring is invaluable
Why the next phase of return to the office is so important to set company culture
What leaders need to remember – leveraging other people’s skills when they are better at things than they are
Why Listen: Having helped some of the biggest names in business Andy will help you understand that business is about people and why workshops are so powerful for businesses that want to succeed.
What Andy and I discuss:
Leadership and the challenges of leadership
The lack of joy in work and bringing it back
The science of how the mind works
The power of storytelling
The art of running brilliant workshops for executives
Facilitating the right environment for the best ideas to flourish
Why Listen: As a multi-time business builder, Matt provides unique insights into how his leadership in the software space can help to improve conversations and goal setting not just through software but a combination between software and people.
What Matt and I discuss:
The power of the conversation
Importance of communications and priorities
Setting people up to have the right conversation with the right frameworks
Structured conversations having better organisation outcomes
Building software to empower teams to have the most important conversations and the resistance when software tells you what you should prioritize
Workplace safety “where people feel in a safe place to say what needs to be said to share their ideas, to disagree, to, problem solve, to innovate, to share ideas”
Why Listen: Luke has helped to transform his agency Reddico company culture from struggling to hire to becoming one of the best places to work in the UK and why company culture and self-management is so important.
What Luke and I discuss:
How company culture should be shaped
Why self management system can and does improve agencies and businesses
What it took to get to a world class 96 NPS score
Empowering individual’s to do a really amazing job is a key factor to success
Why circles (like SWARM’s) helps to get the best work done
Company culture is the marketing tool, not a PR tool
Why Listen? Peter is helping shape leaders and TEDX coaches to improve their leadership and delivery on essential messaging. If you are a leader of a startup to a large business this is a podcast for you.
What Peter and I discuss:
How to step up as a leader
Why leadership is often the smaller unspoken steps we take, such as mental nods, gestures and the tone we use when speaking
Why storytelling is more than a buzzword and will take leaders up many steps
Bias – how we can overcome bias in our teams minds
How to rebuild trust when may have lost trust from your team
How to tackle remote and hybrid work leadership differently
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Andy Jassy took charge as the Amazon CEO on July 5th, one of his first acts as CEO was to send a powerful internal masterpiece, his memo to his colleagues.
What is most interesting is the language he uses, the tone he influences with and the number of we and brand references Andy makes.
This is a brilliant masterclass of internal communications and a way to align the company around his vision and how they will get there together.
Andy Jassy centre’s the memo around the past, the present and the future by referencing the team that made it possible and how important workplace culture is to him and the organisation moving forward.
In the email memo, Andy Jassy uses brand references (in orange below) to form togetherness, he uses strong connecting language (in red) to reinforce how important the brand is and how far the company has come as a collective.
Andy makes references to speed (an essential characteristic of Amazon and highlighted in blue) and references former boss and now chairman of Amazon Jeff Bezos (read the focus lessons from Jeff Bezos)
Here are the five business books I highly recommend reading by the close of 2021.
Including the Netflix culture book, Adam Grant’s take on thinking again, Matthew Syed’s way of rethinking the way we think and collectively learn, how to form better habits by Prof BJ Fogg and world war 2 inspired book by Malcolm Gladwell.
No Rules Rules – Reid Hastings & Erin Meyer
Why read it?
Great to understand how high-performance culture can be built and can be taught and if you do not fit, you can be moved on in the right way.
Who should read it?
Business leaders and business owners.
Watch the below to help you get a flavour in under 6 minutes.
How do we fix our toxic company culture is the most common question I am asked by any manager or exec of a company when it comes to company culture work and workshops.
There is nothing worse than working in a toxic work environment or having toxic colleagues.
As a manager or HR manager, it can impossible to manage, but as a colleague, it will take a toll on your performance and mental health.
There are many versions of toxic company culture, every company has a variation or a different level of negative to toxic company culture.
A negative environment can start from tiny behaviours, it can surface when colleagues do not get on or when the business can start to struggle and a blame culture starts, it is essential you understand the start of the issues and how they manifested within your business.
If you list the traits of a toxic culture almost everyone will supply you a number of words and a few actions that are toxic. Keeping a record and centralising is a great first step in diagnosing the issue.
This will also highlight the issue of company culture and behaviours within businesses. It means different things to different people.
It is important to know from the start of the process: It is rare that every employee within your business will consider the culture to be toxic, this is not to say it is not, it highlights how important the subcultures and the culture is to some and not others and why some people are heads down and happily “just do my job”.
This week’s five for Friday to focus on breaks down 5 things you are told are bad ideas or silly but are essential parts of the business world.
Ask The “Stupid” Question
Why? Very often in a meeting with more than three people, there is a fear to appear stupid or ask the most obvious question no one else is asking. Ask it, stupid questions clarify situations.
State The Obvious (when no one else is)
Why? In busy environments, it is essential you have a centre point, an agreed place where you are operating or the problem you are tackling. Very often the obvious needs stating to align and drive projects and campaigns forward.
Think Bigger & Longer Term
Why? In the majority of businesses they are often only thinking of the next few weeks (aka the tactical level), businesses commonly operate with a few weeks cycle, you should know to drive a business forward you need a couple of smart future seers to think and plan while others action.
Why? It is rare unless you have a direct or personal relationship that you ask the boss or your boss if they are ok. This will likely come as a shock to most leaders (they are just not used to being asked) however it helps to understand how your boss is feeling and if they need to talk or run things past you. Company culture and organisational health have to work for everyone from the least experienced to the most experienced and most senior.
Say “I Don’t Know, I’ll Come Back You”
Why? Not knowing an answer is completely ok, not wanting to make something up or take a guess is completely acceptable and responsible. Often coming back with the right data, the correct information and being a few steps forward will ensure progress. Many businesses are powered by the quick answer, not the right answer or smart approach.
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Have you held a recent Zoom or Teams call where there was an atmosphere?
Did it feel like tension was controlling the call?
Did a seemingly trivial question create a ripple throughout your business?
If the answer to those questions is yes: you’re not alone. In today’s chaotic workplace, the feeling of a business – the company’s interactions and behaviours – have never been as important.
If the answer is no: believe me, think again. I’m willing to bet you have experienced these situations.
Maybe you’re just not seeing it or know what is happening within your business. You could be too disconnected from the business – running through obstacles versus tackling them.
These are the feeling of a business.
And these feelings, or senses, are just a layer of what Company Culture is. Often high performing businesses have a healthy and guiding company culture where everyone can add value.
Company Culture is co-created, not dictated by the leadership.
But Company Culture is more than the feeling.
It includes the vibe, the connections between colleagues, the frictions, the unexplainable that makes the teams click.
It includes unwritten expectations, cross-functional collaboration, the reduction of egos, and work pride.
Company Culture has several important components.
It encompasses…
The environment you set
The workplace (including remote working spaces)
The connections between the teams
The chemistry your colleagues have
The acceptable and unacceptable behaviours
The workplace is now more than ‘the place we all use to perform our work tasks’.
There is an updated version that must include working from home and remotely.
We need to know work can happen anywhere, that we are still the same company with the same objectives, and we can grow personally and professionally.
The way we work is shifting.
The world is shifting, and so too is the workplace.
In this move towards a successful hybrid workplace, the right Company Culture becomes an unfair advantage for those who have embraced Emotional Intelligence (EQ) as much as IQ.
So take it! It will help you hire the best employees, retain your best performers and develop an award-winning business.
Here is a list of actions you can take to make your workplace and Company Culture work for the next three to five years:
Co-create guiding principles that everyone signs up to; these will act as pillars and guide your decision making
Create a company compass to help guide every decision, especially when you’re unavailable
Enable personal development plans and have direct and actionable steps to take to let your team know how to be successful
Build psychological safety by connecting colleagues
Develop your employees’ EQ as much as IQ – the more compassion you build, the better
Have an updated knowledge centre to keep everyone up to date on the what and the why
Build a hybrid workplace where you book in and book out of the office – knowing where and when people will be working helps reduce stress and improve trust
If there are issues, create ‘power half hours’ to clear the air and remove stumbling blocks. Healthy debate leads to more open and honest conversation, reduces problems and reconnects people
Leverage asynchronous communications – be more deliberate in written communications vs having too many face-to-face or online meetings
Build separate spaces for collaboration, for heads down (concentration), and to eat together
This article was supplied to The Business Clubhouse magazine supporting Hitting The Wall Podcast I appeared on.
As it is the first week of February I wanted to write to you with something that has come up in many conversations with a variety of managers and leaders.
The first year of working remotely and how you might address this milestone in form of a retrospective.
Retro’s don’t have to be super long sessions or broken down into complicated workshop sessions, retros do, however, require a deliberate plan and an outline ahead of the hour session and help to provide context points of the remote world of work we entered into March 2020.
Important Points To Keep In Mind
It is important to note it was forced worked from home and everyone’s office is now different. Each country or state has seen a different approach, so has impacted everyone differently.
The remote office dynamics are very different from in the HQ dynamics and many people have struggled to adapt to working from home (image below to help demonstrate this)
Many colleagues have not had the chance to be their best work self and to many, this has frustrated them – this is individual and as a leader, it is important to help where possible.
There is a constant demand to perform in remote presentations, so there are more pressures and less opportunity to add your opinion and insights when who shouts loudest is often heard most.
There has also been a demand in knowing how to act and deliver on a live video, why? There are constant micro-reviews of you, your background, the noise, the echos from no headphones and the interruptions we all dislike, and to the formal zoom shirt, you always wear in important meetings.
There are a lot more of people who have thrived, it has given them time to get their heads down, concentrate on their deliverables and helped to remove some of the office politics they were exposed to within an office environment.
The Mad Glad Sad Retro
Some Product teams have a mad, glad, sad sessions where they run through a product release and review what made them mad, glad and sad. This is something that could easily work with teams and departments, this also gives chance for colleagues to share their experiences and help each other with tips and action items. Quick snappy insights and shared experiences are important, the flow of these retro’s should be quick, collaborative and actionable.
Three Quick Retro Tips: 1. Use an open document/slides or miro or mural to enable real-time collaboration and a centralised view, this really helps the format work. 2. Try to be fair but start with positives (Like Bob Iger’s recommendation in leaders letter 2), do not focus in on all of the mad or sad, this will not set the right tone moving forward. 3. If you are looking to delegate, your hidden leader or secret weapon will be great options to lead these types of retro’s. It is essential you attend if you are the most senior, your attendance and participation will be priceless.
Make It Actionable & Follow Up
It is important to keep note, address important issues and follow up with deadlines of how you can make these better and improve for the future. Refer back to open document or Miro and show how you are moving these tickets forward and hopefully moving mad and sad into glad.
It is important you see this milestone as an important opportunity to bring the department closer to together, shape the company culture and collaborate on the future hybrid office.
For the week ahead, Focus on: Planning this session, see it as an opportunity to bring teams together and get around the campfire to share experiences and feel safer in knowing you are proactively trying to make a difference.
This is the 29th leader’s letter of the year. Thank you for reading every week.
You have likely had your remote or virtual (zoom based) Christmas (or seasonal, festive or end of year) party, you have likely written and read your speech to your department or to your company and you have hopefully signed off the budget and the action plan for 2021.
The end of the year is something we all look forward to, there is something about finishing up for the year and being able to rest, recharge and come back fresh, with renewed fight and optimism.
The time between Christmas and New Year is often a quieter time and ‘admin time’ for those who continue to work. For others, it is ‘returns session’ after what was likely the busiest online Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas period for your company. However, for most, it is the time you truly know how your end of year numbers came out and I hope you can celebrate with momentum into the new year.
Looking Back Leader: For certain leaders, they like to look back, recap and celebrate the achievements, with a thank you for your work, dedication and flexibility for 2020. Next year is the next fight but needs a refresher mind and clarity of thought on the 4th of January to rally the troops.
Looking Forward Leader: For others, they like to only look forward, driving forward with more energy, more intensity. The rallying cry is for more, for better, for bigger.
Neither is wrong, but being able to say thank you and know your plan for 2021 is set and going to provide many different possibilities and avenues is something to look forward to and gather around. Sharing that one-page strategy plan between Christmas and New Years might just be the difference between a flat first few weeks back and a joined-up company ready to stand together and win 2021.
2020 is the year that will stand out for all of us, the year we didn’t know the answers, we were unsure of what the next week looked like and the year we learnt so much about our friends, colleagues, managers and bosses.
2020 was the year of some good, some bad and a lot of ugly.
2021 Rally Cry
2021 has the opportunity to be brighter, an opportunity to challenge the status quo, to build something new, something different or even build something yourself. 2021 has to be the year you own, you lead, you empower and a little challenge, where you can; seize the day as many times as possible. You shake up your management teams and implement management pods.