Posts

Falling Upward

/in , , /by

Falling Upward

Falling Upward

Tonight’s guest blog is from Sonya Law, sharing the experience of Falling Upward.

How to create a culture of Ethical Leadership and Courageous Conversations

Falling upward is how it can feel like for leaders when faced with an ethical dilemma and there is no rule book…

Firstly, every organization I have worked for has an ethics policy which sets out ethical behavior for all employees and consequences of an unethical act.

What it does not set out is clear guidance in complex environments where we need to make ethical decisions.  We have all sat through hours of mind-numbing ethics training with textbook like scenarios that fail to apply to real life situations.

Secondly, a true ethical dilemma, is a moment in time in your career, that occurs only a handful of times that tests you’re grit, resolve and ability to think under pressure.  Characterized by 3 main things: you are often alone there is limited time to think, you are acting on gut instincts, fear will kick in followed by a momentary dread of you whole career flashing before you. You know that in this moment it’s not the right thing for you personally, you may need to challenge the status quo, you may take a hiding in the process from those more senior than you, there are no accolades for doing the right thing, it is a quiet and largely unwitnessed act of good faith.

Your resilience, fortitude and courage will be tested and it will feel like falling upward no matter what your position is in the company, Emerging Leader or Senior Leadership Team.

Lastly, ethical leadership at the basic foundation is about following a rule book, however the interpretation and application of ethics is often not clear cut, against a complex external environment.  Imagine sky diving for the first time you understand the safety rules and laws of gravity, what goes up must come down and you alone are left with the ultimate decision to jump.  Before we can free fall, we must go upward in the plane, reach dizzying heights, adrenalin pumping, fear kicks in and your whole life flashes before you as you get ready to jump.

Ethical leadership – takes courage when we make a stand for what is right, we are faced with a difficult dilemma, no clear path of what to do just a guttural feeling of discomfort and a racing heartbeat.

In the military, there are a clear set of rules that must be followed and order of command that must be obeyed, yet the military still face the same ethical dilemmas that we do in Business.  Because fundamentally we are all human beings who make decisions just like the moment right before we jump out of the plane.  Early in my career as a recruiter I was frustrated when a candidate wouldn’t accept the job offer; what I learnt very quickly is that people have a fundamental floor they often do what is right for them.

How do we create a ‘lived culture’?

  1. Human Resources set Culture
  2. Senior Leadership Team role model behaviors
  3. Employees observe these behaviors.

How do we create a culture of Ethical Leadership and Courageous Conversations?

  1. Accountability and Responsibility
  2. Trust – Create a Circle of Safety
  3. Educate the Senior Leadership Team how to have Courageous Conversations.

Accountability and Responsibility:

Encourage your employees to come to you with ethical dilemmas with what they see are the ethical challenges and what needs fixing in the organization.  Resist the temptation as a manager to fix it for them, by giving them the responsibility it activates thinking and accountability.  Ask them what do you think? How would you solve it? Empower them.

Trust – Create a Circle of Safety:

Managers tell people what to do but true leaders help people to feel safe, promote thinking and drive a culture of empowerment. Where employees are empowered to do the right things as opposed to the right thing for them which typically stems from a fear-based culture the opposite of a circle of safety.  Simon Sinek describes what he calls the Circle of Safety and establishing trust in his book titled ‘Leaders Eat last’.

Educate Senior Leadership Team (SLT) in why they need to have courageous conversations:

As a Human Resources Manager, I held a session exclusively with the SLT on the importance of courageous conversation and in 2019 took them to see Brene Brown live in Melbourne, Australia with the message that by having courageous conversations ourselves is the first step and encourages employees to do the same.

So, what’s it worth to you?

Your reputation and financial sustainability.

 

 

Out on a Ledge

/in , , , /by

Out on a Ledge

Out on a Ledge

In this week’s guest blog, Sonya Law takes us Out on a Ledge with a look at the end of the year performance review.

How to jumpstart the EOY Performance Review to drive high performance in 2021? Out on a ledge … is how it can feel like sometimes for employees walking into their end of year review… It’s a mixed bag of dread and discomfort which only serves to weigh you down.  These negative feelings brought about by fear from past experiences where managers have got it wrong by using it as an opportunity to dredge up past mistakes for the first time.  Or worse they gloss it over and this indifference only serves to strengthen a performance culture of mediocrity and completely devalues the review.

As a Human Resources Manager, I feel like this is a missed opportunity to re-connect and re-engage the effort and performance of your employees leading into 2021.  After all, aren’t we all striving to create High Performance Cultures?

As managers we are really good at ‘what went well’ but often fail in asking employees what are our biggest challenges and what needs fixing.   Instead, we wait to ask the employee who has resigned in the exit interview, when it’s too late.    Organizations that facilitate honest, open dialogue will solve problems faster and improve overall innovation and performance against rivals.  Our ability to reflect on the year, our performance and grow together as human being’s and as an organization is a comparative advantage in Business.

So how do we conduct a good EOY review and what is it worth to the organization?

The three key success factors of a good EOY review are approachability, attention, appreciation.

Approachability: your manager is open and communicative in the review, in his or her language both verbal and non-verbal, this congruency builds integrity in the relationship and review.

Attention: the greatest gift, they give their employee their 100% attention.  That is, they don’t answer phone calls or send emails, they have committed to this time, they don’t re-schedule or put it off.  This is a big no-no rescheduling an EOY performance review! Where practical always commit to this meeting, it sends a bad message to the employee if you shift it, they feel deprioritised.

‘People want to feel heard, listened to’

Simon Sinek – virtual event – 24th November, 2020 – The Infinite Game.

When you do this well morale goes up, trust goes up they feel you have their back and it reduces fear and if you show care and exercise your empathetic listening skills your people will even be willing to suffer stress for you.

Encourage your employees to come to the meeting with what they see are the challenges and what needs fixing.  Resist the temptation as a manager to fix it for them, by giving them the responsibility it activates thinking.  Ask them what do you think? How would you solve it? Managers tell people what to do; but true leaders help people feel safe, promote thinking and drive a culture of Empowerment, where employees are empowered to make decisions impacting their work. You can take this a step further and if you here the language of blame, for example they ordered the wrong part, simply replace they with we ordered the wrong part. It’s a subtle way to encourage teamwork and accountability. To read more about this see Book titled: “Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet, former nuclear submarine commander.

Appreciation – As the manager it is your role to show appreciation to your employee for their valuable contribution over the year.  You would be surprised how many managers fail to do this, and only tick the box – did they achieve goal – yes or no.  My top tip to get into the role of an appreciative manager, is to imagine that your star performer is walking out of their EOY review into a call with a ‘headhunter’ following your meeting!  What do you want your star performer to say when the headhunter dangles the carrot and tries to poach your star performer? You want them to walk out of the EOY review feeling inflated like a balloon filled with all the warm and fuzzy feelings that make us feel giddy when we are in love! Think about it like your most important relationship, reconnect, reengage them in the cause, vision, purpose, mission and the important role they have in that, we all want to feel connected and sense of belonging.

How do you prepare for this EOY review with your employee?

  1. Create an Appreciation folder in your Outlook for your employee.
  2. Collect things – throughout the year – note all the good things they do.
  3. Drop any emails into that folder – things you write yourself to remind you of the good things or emails you get from customers, suppliers or colleagues about how fantastic your star performer is, achievements etc.

Top 3 things to remember:

  1. All your employees are star performers
  2. You hired them or someone else in your organization did so and its up to you to make sure they fulfill their potential
  3. If they are a poor performer why did they make it to the EOY performance review – that’s a bigger organizational culture question, which would require some deep work.

So, what’s it worth to you?

If you don’t get this right – Instead of putting a STAR on top of the Christmas Tree this year you will be putting a job vacancy up online to look for a new STAR performer.

An EOY review is a great opportunity to unite your people in the cause so they are bursting with new energy heading into 2021, ready to face new challenges, refreshed and reinvigorated.

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

How to Create Engagement and Empowerment in a Pandemic

/in , , /by

How to create engagement and empowerment in a Pandemic.

how to create engagement and empowerment during a pandemic

Sonya Law, of SL Human Resources Consulting, received her Human Resources Degree from Deakin University and completed her Teaching Degree with Monash University and recently Masters Business (MBA) in 2018, providing opportunities to work and study abroad in Europe and Asia.  Sonya has recruited 1,000’s of people and has a talent for getting the right people on the bus in the right seats and creating a positive inclusive workplace culture for many organization’s in the following industries, Telecommunications, Government, Pharmaceutical, Water Utilities, FMCG and more recently Mining and Construction for Sullair (Hitachi Group Company) where she achieved innovation award in 2020 for solving societies problems for social connectedness during the pandemic.  In 2020 Sonya has returned to consulting to spread her wings and pursue her passion for consulting, to assist companies to develop their human resources and achieve cultural and strategic alignment and high performing organizations. She writes from experience about how to create engagement and empowerment in a pandemic.

Sonya can be contacted on 0421 716 949 or direct message on LinkedIn Profile.

During the Spanish Flu back in the early 1900’s composers created the most beautiful music and artists the most exquisite masterpieces. During the pandemic people fell into two groups: negative doomsayers and those who took the opportunity to be creative, innovative with a journey of self-discovery.

As a Human Resources Manager, I fell into the second group: how do I create engagement and empowerment in a Pandemic?

Firstly, I started with a Pulse Survey, to ask the employees what they felt they needed to be connected and effective in their work. Overwhelmingly over 90% of employees wanted a refresh of the employee benefits and recognition program and the biggest challenge cited was the virtual office. With those working from home, ‘social connectedness’ was the missing link. We discovered as human beings, we are social animals and need to connect with other humans. We weren’t getting our hit of oxytocin the ‘love’ drug and the ‘safety’’ of social bonds. During the pandemic, there was also the financial impact on families with some going to a single income or reduction in earning capacity.

So, given these two problems of social connectedness and financial impact, we engaged ‘Reward Gateway’ a company that works with companies too create a digital platform that connects people socially and provides shopping discounts to everyday purchases of groceries and petrol. Bolting on an e-card that recognized employees working from home, birthday’s and work anniversaries, shared social news, photos and wellness tool.  The employees were involved in look and feel of the wireframe, e-card design and naming of the platform – RAZZLE, connect, celebrate and reward.

The program was inclusive, all year round and benefited not only all employees but their families. Making it a positive story around the dinner table during an overload of bad news stories during the pandemic, employees spoke proudly of their workplace to friends and family and above all felt valued.

Managing Directors and CEO’s became panicked about productivity and performance and so presented the challenge to Human Resources Leaders, how do we ensure productivity doesn’t drop during the pandemic with employees now working from home?  The answer, is employee engagement, provide an environment where people feel safe, cared for emotionally and physically, as a leadership team, our role shifted to leading with empathy, kindness and compassion.  Emerged the empathetic listener, we educated our managers on “How to have a mental health conversation,” to be able to provide support, listen without judgement, encourage action and check in on employees during isolation and lockdown periods during the pandemic.

The Australian Institute of Management (AIM) polled participants in a workshop during the pandemic and interestingly 13% found it easier working from home, but majority found it harder 27% and 60% same but different, requiring them to adapt to new ways of working which was stressful for most. The arising issues were an ‘over attendance’ employee, who were working longer days, struggling to balance home and work life which blurred into literally ‘ground hog day’ for most.  It became evident to leaders the need to ask employees about their ‘self-care routine’ how are they going balancing their family and work commitments, are the getting quality sleep, are they better to have a ‘doona day’ (Aussie Speak for down day) a day off where they don’t have to show up on ZOOM, to rest and recover in what was a very busy and stressful period for employees.

Employers and leaders who recognized this and genuinely cared for their employees and found new ways of connecting virtually, won their people over in a wholistic sense. They weren’t just the worker bee, they were a human being, not just a number.  And they saw their manager in a new light, often appearing more casual in ZOOM meetings in their home environment which included guests’ appearances by family and their pets, helped employees to see their leaders as human just like them.

The senior leadership team, emerged with a new skill as the empathetic learner, people managers who listened to what their people needed to perform and supported them by removing roadblocks and trusting them in this process.  We’re being informed by the thinking and opinions of the people who matter most employees who need to be trusted to get the work done whilst balancing the business needs of the organization and navigating tricky conversations on the profitability to shareholders. Businesses who found new ways to connect virtually and developed their empathetic leadership style successfully navigated the pandemic whilst maintaining productivity at least to same level as last year, and for those who were opportunistic and quick to adapt, growth in some areas of business.

Some employees describe a sense of belonging, a renewed sense of commitment and purpose to the cause and empowered to make decisions impacting their work.  The pandemic hit the stop button for a lot of businesses but in doing so this reset and recalibration has given us new ways to collaborate and connect virtually and flexibility to working families whilst still achieving the strategic vision.

For more information on our learning programs, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.