Leadership Development Archives - CHCI

Shaping the Future: Seven Essential Skills for Tomorrow’s Leaders

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:21:24 +0000

Leadership skills must adapt in today’s fast-paced and constantly changing business environment. Leaders who possess skills such as adaptability, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, diversity and inclusion, communication, collaboration, and continuous learning will be positioned for success. Let’s dive into each skill:

1. Adaptability: Adaptability refers to an individual’s ability to adapt their thoughts, behaviors, and actions to changing environments and situations. It means quickly identifying problems and finding creative solutions to overcome them.

Here are some ways to become more adaptable:

Embrace change and stay curious
Be flexible and practice problem-solving
Continuously learn and stay positive

2. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It helps leaders create strong relationships, communicate effectively, make sound decisions, and manage conflict in a positive manner.

Below are tips for practicing emotional intelligence:

Practice self-awareness and self-reflection
Listen actively and empathize with others
Manage your emotions and respond rather than react

3. Strategic Thinking: Strategic thinking allows future leaders to analyze situations, evaluate information, and make informed decisions that align with their organization’s goals, driving long-term success. By thinking critically and creatively, considering multiple perspectives, and making data-driven decisions, leaders can ensure their organizations remain competitive and adaptive.

Some techniques to improve your strategic thinking include:

Keep a big-picture perspective and look beyond immediate problems
Continuously gather and analyze information to inform decision-making
Encourage and foster a culture of innovation and creativity within your team

4. Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity and inclusion refers to creating an environment where everyone is valued and respected, regardless of their differences. A leader who prioritizes diversity and inclusion creates a positive work culture, promotes innovation, and improves problem-solving by leveraging the diverse perspectives and experiences of the team.

Some guidelines for promoting diversity and inclusion are:

Educate yourself on diversity and inclusion
Foster an inclusive culture by setting the tone and leading by example
Encourage open communication and actively seek out diverse perspectives within your team

5. Communication Skills: The ability to communicate clearly and effectively is essential for leaders who want to drive results and lead their organizations to succeed. Whether it’s through in-person conversations, virtual meetings, or written communication, leaders who excel in communication are better equipped to navigate the complexities of the workplace and drive success for themselves and their teams.

Keys to improving communication include:

Ensure that all team members have a chance to speak and contribute
Be clear and concise in your communication
Adjust your communication style to different individuals and situations

6. Collaboration: Collaboration involves working closely with others to achieve a common goal. Leaders who prioritize collaboration foster an atmosphere of trust and encourage the exchange of ideas.

Leaders can improve their collaboration skills in the following ways:

Encourage teamwork and create an environment where collaboration is valued and rewarded
Be open to new ideas
Foster trust and respect within your team by demonstrating authenticity and transparency

7. Continuous Learning: Continuous learning involves acquiring new knowledge and skills to enhance personal and professional growth. Leaders who prioritize continuous learning stay ahead of new trends, technologies, and best practices, allowing them to make informed decisions, solve problems, and drive success.

A few ways to constantly learn includes:

Set aside dedicated time for professional development and learning new skills
Seek out diverse experiences and challenges that push you out of your comfort zone
Surround yourself with mentors, coaches, and other leaders who can offer guidance and support.

Future leaders must have a dynamic skill set to lead effectively in a rapidly changing world. To meet the demands of their role, they must continually improve and stay ahead of the curve. Embracing these qualities and striving for growth will enable leaders to drive success for themselves and their organizations in today’s fast-paced landscape.

What are some skills that you think are essential for future leaders? How can the principles discussed in this blog be applied to your own leadership style and development? I would love to hear about it. Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Longevity’s Impact on Workforce Education

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:51:57 +0000

Is an organization responsible for educating its workforce? CHCI recently conducted a roundtable conversation to answer this question, discussing the “Three Stages of Work” model and current job requirements.

First, let’s review the “Three Stages of Work” model:

Education
Work
Retirement

This model states that in general, humans get an education until their 20’s, work for approximately 40 years, and then retire at age 65. This made sense when Bismarck introduced the concept of the old age pension, because half of the European population died by the age of 45. Yet, due to advances in healthcare, our lifespan is much longer than 45 years now; if you want to extrapolate numbers, state pension ages in high-income countries should now be 103.

With increasing costs and pensions becoming unsustainable, many people need to continue working to support their lifestyle. A third of seniors will work well past the retirement age of 65 or won’t retire at all. Therefore, people will likely work into their 70’s. If that’s the case, then will an education received at 20 years old serve for 50 years? Likely not, especially with the rapid pace of technology advances.

“If we are going to work until later in our lives, there’s a very real need for employers and employees to urgently discover new ways of distributing time that breaks away from the linear. What’s to stop us from dipping into retirement time earlier and repurpose that time for, say, education and training? Because living to 100 and working to 75 in the era of digital disruption and technological innovation, will mean prioritizing learning. There is no doubt that as the impact of machines on work gathers pace, there will be a constant need to reskill, upskill and acquire new knowledge.”

- Lynda Gratton, Author, The 100 Year Life

Therefore, we will move from the three-stage model to a five-stage model of work:

Education
Work
Education
Work
Retire

To support this five-stage model of life, federal and state governments are incentivizing education for seniors. States such as Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, South Caroline, and Wyoming are offering free college tuition for those over 60 years old. If US states are preparing for this shift in workforce education, what is the responsibility of organizations?

In addition to the five-stage work model, there is another issue that organizations have to consider. Less than two-thirds of U.S. college students graduate within six years. Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, job postings for entry-level positions that require a bachelor’s degree have fallen by 45% — pointing to employers who want candidates with more skills and experience. So current job descriptions need to be reconsidered. Does every job candidate need a two or four year college degree? Or is it time to redesign job descriptions in a way that reflects the five-stage work model?

How organizations are changing the mold

Many technical roles required by organizations demand specialized technical and soft skills, not four-year degrees. They fall into the category of “new collar” jobs.

To keep up with these changes, organizations are looking at new ways to attract top talent by offering technology apprenticeships as a way for entry level talent to jumpstart their careers post high school. For example, HCL Technologies is offering a unique program that mirrors best practices in technology apprenticeships, including the benefit of debt-free education. It provides full pay and benefits, with careers in software development and testing, digital and cloud services, infrastructure delivery, and engineering.

An increasing number of young people simply don’t have the financial means to go to college, with the divide growing even more during COVID. If they do have a college degree, they often don’t have the means to re-educate themselves in the middle of their career. An apprenticeship program offers equitable access and deepens corporate relationships within a community. Apprenticeships are opening doors to people who have been previously underrepresented in hiring; they represent an area of untapped growth for businesses that bring them onboard.

What role is your organization playing to support the five-stage model of work? What apprenticeship challenges and opportunities exist in your organization?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Future of Work for Product Managers

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 05:29:30 +0000

I feel lucky that my career has allowed me to meet so many interesting, curious, and knowledgeable people. You will find some of them in this roundup of podcasts and interviews that I joined.

1. Future of leadership for product managers

I was honored to be invited by Chad McAllister from Product Mastery as a guest for his webinar on trends influencing the future leadership.

This conversation discussed why product managers must know about the future of leadership, the big trends that are driving leadership change, what exactly current leadership looks like, and how leaders can encourage employees to get engaged and move into the future. Listen to the podcast here.

2. Workplace culture

Michael Ogunsanya, CEO and Co-Founder of MindStand Pod, invited me to discuss workplace diversity and inclusion as part of his series exploring workplace culture.

In this podcast, we talked about creating more connected and inclusive teams, including methods of creating practical strategies for creating an inclusive environment. Listen to this podcast to learn what your company can do to create a more inclusive workplace. Listen to the podcast here.

Would you like to join the conversation? Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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How to Harness Organizational Creativity

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 07:28:57 +0000

Leadership lessons can come from the most unexpected places.

Burning Man is a great example of this. Fast Company recently wrote an article about this eight day “festival” of sorts. Except the way that Burning Man is framed, it’s not a festival – it’s more of a town. As the author explains, “Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.”

If you’ve never been to Burning Man, you might wonder how the organizers entice nearly 50,000 people to pay $300 to drive or fly out to the desert with only a vague notion of what to expect. Furthermore, how does this event encourage participants to contribute their own exhibits and experiences free of charge for other attendees, and leave them satisfied and yearning to return year after year?

The Burning Man attendees are endlessly creative, respectful to each other and their environment – and they receive little direction to do so from the organizers. It’s clear from this example that micromanagement has no place in fostering that spirit.

An organizer explains, “The organization simply sets a few guidelines, mainly for safety purposes, and then gives attendees permission to let their imaginations run wild. This is a secret that organizations that successfully harness the imaginations of their creative people have long known: You can’t order creativity.”

In fact, one commenter states, “…many of the greatest minds in Science and the Arts are regular attendees of Burning Man, including the founders of Google, Paypal and Tesla Motors, as well as Sting for example.”

So how does a leader foster creativity while watching the bottom line in today’s economy? Here are a few ideas:

Find your version of the Google 20% time. According to Google’s materials, Google offers its engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkutare among the many products of this perk. How can your organization create your version of the Google 20% time?
Create a creative friendly environmentwith music, artwork on walls, design magazines. Allow teams to decorate their department and offer other creative competitions.
Find the right mix.An organization needs the right mix of dreamers and do-ers to find creative success. Too many dreamers without action will create a myriad of ideas that are not executed, creating frustration. Too many do-ers without the vision will just duplicate previous ideas. So find the right balance of both types of people on your team.

Why is creativity so important? It births innovative products, new business models and collaborative teams. Start little by little, with simple ideas. And remember…you can’t force creativity; you can only create the space and climate for it to grow within individuals.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Leadership in the Zone – How to Fully Engage Mentally

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 07:27:23 +0000

Being a fully engaged leader takes focus on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our lives. As you saw in my last posts, I do well with the physical aspects. However, I’d give myself a B on the mental aspect; I can be easily distracted at times, especially when procrastinating on a project. When this happens, I have to consciously slow myself down to focus on the task at hand.

Mental energy is the energy of laser focus. It’s hallmark quality in humans is the capacity to be fully present. Not just physically present, but cognitively present as well. The Corporate Athlete® course by the Human Performance Institute teaches that full engagement requires complete presence, investing our full and best energy, right here, right now. The good news is that this ability can be acquired.

I’ve invited expert Tom Ward, founder and principal of NextLevel, to help me explain the importance of mental energy and how to improve it.

Does Multitasking Work?

Have you ever tried carrying on a meaningful conversation with your significant other, child, or best friend while watching TV? Were either of you distracted by the TV? Did either of you become annoyed by the other’s distraction by the TV? In this situation, what are you saying to the other person when you become distracted by the TV? That the TV program is more important than the conversation and/or the person you are conversing with?

One cardinal rule regarding multitasking is: don’t multitask when people, safety, or important matters are at hand. Relationships and outcomes both improve when we focus our attention on one thing at a time. Yet, as we all know, multitasking isn’t always detrimental. For example, folding laundry while watching TV seems just fine. The key is to train ourselves to know when it’s not okay.

How to Become More Focused

What are some effective techniques for cultivating greater presence and focus?

High on the list are meditation, journaling, visualization, and yoga. If you’ve never tried meditating, you might be surprised by it’s coincident ease and difficulty.

Using Meditation to Become More Focused

Let’s start with meditation. Here is what Tom Ward has to say about using meditation to become more focused:

Try the following. In a quiet room, sit comfortably in a straight-backed chair. Close by, set a kitchen or smartphone timer for three minutes. With your feet on the floor and hands in your lap, start the timer and gently close your eyes. Bring your attention to your breath. Observe your breath as you inhale and exhale. Don’t attempt to manage your breathing; simply observe it. When your attention wanders from concentrating on your breathing (and it will), simply acknowledge that it has wandered and gently return your attention to it once again. When the timer goes off, open your eyes and answer these questions:

What did it feel like to meditate?
Was it easy or difficult?
How many times did your attention wander from your breath?
Was it easy to return your attention to your breath?

I’ve been meditating off and on for many years, and sometimes I find that my concentration just wanders more than normal. And, it’s not always easy for me to return my attention to the ebb and flow of my normal breathing. Darned monkey mind!

As challenging as meditation can be at times, I find it particularly helpful in calming my mind and body. I’m more focused, sleep better and feel more alert when I wake. Another bonus I’ve discovered is that my workouts tend to be better when I’ve meditated earlier in the day.

Using Journaling to Become More Focused

Journaling can also help you stay focused because it helps you release the chatter from your brain. While journaling can mean writing for 20 minutes at a time on a regular basis, that may be too much for busy leaders who are learning this skill. Here are some ideas to clear your mind if journaling is new for you:

When you feel your mind getting full, grab paper and pen or pencil and just write down everything on your mind (research indicates writing with a pen/pencil tends to make the thoughts written more “real” by engaging multiple areas of the brain simultaneously). This brain dump then helps clear your mind so you can focus on the task at hand. Once the task is complete, then go back and sort the brain dump into your priority lists for the next week.
If words are not your preferred choice of expression, doodle or draw pictures on paper or a tablet instead. This is known as a visual brain dump. If you find yourself enjoying this, then get some markers, sharpies and other colorful tools to help you clear your brain regularly.
If you’re a hands-on person, Tubers and Zotsand Legos are fun ways to clear your head while physically engaging your hands. It is also a great way to engage others in the office kitchen or community room. People love to pick these things up and mindlessly play with them as a way to give their brain a break!
Are you a musical person? Then use musical apps or tools to clear your mind.

Go ahead and try any and all of these tools at your own pace. The goal is not to become overwhelmed with focus exercises; that will only lead to more distraction, and an even longer to-do list. Instead, find the best tool for clearing your mind, and practice it regularly to build your skills at staying present and focused.

Remember, the key to being fully engaged mentally is learning to manage your mental energy. Doing one thing at a time is a great start. Cultivating a skill to calm the mind on a regular basis will help you engage your full leadership.

Next week, we will discuss managing spiritual energy, which is fed by our physical, emotional and mental energy sources. Your spiritual energy will give you the force you need to live and lead the life you want.

In the meantime, have you had success with meditation, journaling or yoga? Is there an activity you can point to that has made a drastic improvement in your ability to remain focused?

Image from Tony Bustos, The Arizona Republic

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Leadership and the Lost Art of Listening

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 10:57:19 +0000

I heard Richard Branson on the Diane Rehm show, and he spoke about something extremely important for successful leadership: listening. I find Branson’s comments on listening to be spot-on:

“I think not enough business leaders know the art of listening. They love to hear their own voices. And I was fortunate to learn from a young age that other people — by listening to other people, you learn an awful lot more than by listening to yourself.” — Richard Branson

From my experience, listening is a lost art. This holds true particularly for leaders and entrepreneurs.

Why don’t leaders listen? Though Branson jokes that they love to hear their own voices, there are two main reasons. For one, we are never taught how to carefully listen. And secondly, society sets leaders and entrepreneurs up to be expected to have all the answers.

In this clip from my interview with Cornell University, I talk about the three levels of listening, and how leaders can develop relationships and trust if they are able to use all three. I also talk about how important it is for leaders to ask questions. Asking and listening go hand in hand.

Do you find that you are good at fully listening to others? Is listening to a challenge for you? I’d love to hear your ideas about why listening may be difficult for leaders. Also, if you have experience working on your listening skills, let us know what steps you have taken.

Read the full transcript of Richard Branson’s interview on the the Diane Rehm here.

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Leadership in the Zone – How to Fully Engage Physically

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:26:15 +0000

I can’t stop moving. Ask anyone who knows me. I prefer a standing desk to a seated one; I schedule walking meetings instead of table meetings and my clients now expect me to stand up and walk around during our time together.

I didn’t understand the science of this until I learned about the Human Performance Institute’s Corporate Athlete^® program. It was then that I saw that I need more than just physical movement to be a fully engaged leader; I also need to strategically think about the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of my leadership.

Tom Ward, founder, and principal of NextLevel, helped me understand all of this in more detail; I am excited to share that information with you. To begin this series on fully engaged leadership, we will discuss why physical energy is important and how to expand it.

How much physical energy do you have in your tank when Friday comes? Is it enough to meet the demands you face? If not, it could be that you’re not managing your energy properly. It also just might be that you don’t have the energy capacity you need. If this is your challenge, there’s a straightforward solution called energy expansion.

Human physical energy is derived from glucose and oxygen in the bloodstream. If we don’t have enough of either one, our capacity to perform is diminished. What does it feel like when you don’t have enough physical energy? Are you tired? Irritable? Do you get off track and stray from the things that matter most? Without enough physical energy, every dimension of our human energy suffers. And, when this happens, it’s simply not possible to fully engage as a leader.

The Role Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep Play in Full Engagement

To build physical capacity, stress beyond your normal comfort zone is the answer. Before we discuss how to properly stress oneself in order to grow physical capacity, let’s review three foundational requirements: proper nutrition, movement, and sleep.

Tips for Managing Energy Through Food, Movement, and Sleep

1. To ensure you have the amount of glucose you need in your system, you need to eat light, and eat often. The Corporate Athlete® course, offers a highly effective strategy for doing so, by eating small meals every three hours, plus or minus an hour. If you need to go more than four hours without eating a meal, then eat a low glycemic snack of 100 to 150 calories for a bridge until mealtime; it’s not a meal substitute.* Breakfast is a must. Every meal needs to include protein, grain, and fruits and/or vegetables.

2. After ensuring we have enough glucose in our systems, we need to ensure it circulates along with ample oxygen. Movement ensures good blood circulation and metabolism. It produces energy by transporting glucose and oxygen to your brain, muscles, and vital organs. How do you feel after a long plane flight? If you’re like me, you’re likely to be stiff, a bit out of it and maybe even sleepy. To combat this challenge, movement is the answer. Having a strategy is key. The Human Performance Institute recommends stretching and/or small movements every 30 to 45 minutes, and large movements every 90 to 120 minutes. Five to 15 minutes is enough. Take a walk. Walk the stairs. Limber up. You’ll notice the difference.

3. Getting enough sleep is critical. Routinely getting seven to eight hours of sleep each night is important, because when you sleep, the body and brain recover, repair, and grow. Some sleep tips include:

Going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day
Creating a bedtime ritual
Avoiding caffeine after 2 p.m.
Taking a hot bath
Not exercising within two hours of bedtime

Tips for Increasing Energy Through Exercise

Once a proper foundation has been laid with proper fueling, movement, and sleep, you can start to expand your energy capacity. To expand your physical energy, strategic exercise, incorporating aerobic, resistance, and flexibility training, is recommended. As you do so, exercising in the “discomfort” zone is crucial, which means avoiding both the comfort zone (not hard enough) and pain zone (too hard).*

If you’re the type of person who has never worked out or simply doesn’t enjoy exercise, remember that anything is better than nothing. Physical training doesn’t require a gym membership. Johnson & Johnson (The Human Performance Institute’s parent company) has developed “The 7 Minute Workout” for those who don’t like to go to the gym and/or don’t have or want to devote a lot of time to exercise.

Be Strategic With Planned Recovery

By using planned periods of stress, or discomfort, to grow your physical energy capacity, you can create an opportunity for growth. But growth will not take hold unless you accompany this stress with strategic recovery.

Virtually every biological system experiences oscillation, or the cyclic expenditure and recovery of energy. Think about your heartbeat, breathing, and brainwaves. This oscillation promotes proper energy management and expansion by honoring what our bodies do naturally. In fact, if we don’t honor what our bodies naturally do, we can experience what’s called involuntary recovery. Imagine running until you literally drop from exhaustion. That’s involuntary recovery. Human beings are designed to be sprinters not marathoners; we need periodic, planned, voluntary recovery in order to fully engage and thrive.

Since human physical energy naturally cycles from high to low every 90 to 120 minutes, The Human Performance Institute recommends taking recovery breaks throughout the day every 90 to 120 minutes. Some tips include:

Plan meetings that are no longer than 90 minutes
Stretch every 45 minutes
Divide work into 90 minute chunks
Meditate for a couple minutes between meetings

Last week we talked about how in order to live and lead the life you want, managing energy, not just time, is the key. The base level of your energy is physical; as discussed here, growing this energy requires a process of stress to discomfort, followed by voluntary recovery. But how do we build our emotional energy, an energy that is less tangible than the physical? Stay tuned for next week, where you will learn about the importance of emotional energy for fully engaged leadership.

Until then, please share any tactics you employ to increase your physical energy. What works for you?

*Before starting any new diet or exercise program please check with your doctors and clear any exercise or diet changes with them before beginning. My guest blogger and I are not doctors or registered dietitians. We do not claim to cure any condition or disease. This blog contains the opinions of its authors.

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How Small Wins Improve Employee Motivation

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:31:00 +0000

Often teams focus solely on the end result, or task they are to achieve. Why? Because senior-management generally focuses on long-term strategy, scaling and budgeting, so they delegate these type of tasks to their teams.

But what about the actual teams who are executing, and finding the process to achieve the task? They are the creators, the innovators, the brains making it go. An article featured in Harvard Business Review, by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, analyzed over 12,000 employee diary entries to understand employee engagement and how it affects innovation and success within organizations.

They found that supporting progress in meaningful work was perhaps the most important aspect in influencing what they termed the “inner work life.” In other words, helping employees see small wins as milestones in work they deem meaningful, not busy work. The idea of supporting progress is more important than establishing clear goals, providing tangible incentives, or providing positive recognition. The study found that the idea of progress can most visibly affect the emotions and moods an employee may feel throughout the work-day or throughout a project.

Kramer and Amabile call this the Progress Principle. “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. And the more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run.”

There are two important things to consider in these findings: Meaningful work and Milestones. Many employees can be busy all day long, yet not achieve meaningful work that aligns to the organizational values and goals. So help your team focus on the meaningful, not the busy, work.

In addition, most leaders focus on the long-term solutions and often forget to keep track of the milestones. In fact, most leaders keep moving the goalposts so that employees don’t even recognize the milestones anymore. Yet, based on these findings, progress spurs employees to continue onward, so moving goalposts or not recognizing small achievements actually hinders workplace motivation. Although keeping your eye on the ultimate goal is necessary, the process of how to achieve it changes daily. As a manager your job is to provide ways for them to see the milestone progress and small wins they are making.

How do you do that? I’ll tackle that in next week’s blog.

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Creating a Culture of Trust in the Workplace

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 10:21:21 +0000

When organizations face tough, unpredictable times, it’s easy to blame a specific leader’s professional traits. When this happens, you might hear complaints about the leader, such as “She’s too rigid.” or “He’s in his ivory tower and doesn’t see what we deal with every single day.” Remember, most people complain the symptoms, not the root cause, of a problem. In many cases, the real issue to investigate is if the team trusts the leader, not the leader’s specific traits.

Trust is at the crux of how an organization’s culture forms. As this article points out, employees who are an unable to trust their leaders, team or organization can cause expensive problems.

Hurley makes an excellent point in his article, The Decision to Trust: “When asked how a high-trust work environment feels, the participants most frequently say ‘fun,’ ‘supportive,’ ‘motivating,’ ‘productive,’ and ‘comfortable.’” When asked, “to describe how a working environment feels when it is characterized by low levels of trust. The most frequent responses include ‘stressful,’ ‘threatening,’ ‘divisive,’ ‘unproductive,’ and ‘tense.’”

Hurley elaborates on an excellent model of trust that a “trustee” and “truster” can engage in to identify where steps can be taken to develop a foundation for trust and to understand why distrust may exist in their organization. He identifies 10 factors at play, which are paired with practical tips below.

Take the time to evaluate the level of trust within your organization. Are there steps you can take to minimize distrust?

Model developed by Robert F. Hurley

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Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen: What Mother’s Day Brunch Can Teach Us About Teamwork

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 09:02:15 +0000

Today, I’d like you to join me at brunch, my favorite meal. Before you start salivating over the idea of a Croque Monsieur, I should tell you that you’ll be joining me in the kitchen. Not just any kitchen—the kitchen of a busy restaurant.

If you’ve been reading my series on leadership lessons I learned in the kitchen, you already know that I left the Ivy League to go to culinary school. If not, I was a chef for nine years and can now look back on my experiences and identify important leadership lessons I learned in the process. Last week, I talked about making fresh fruit pastries—and common communication pitfalls. This week, let’s go to brunch, and learn about GRPI– the importance of each team member knowing their goals, roles, and processes, while maintaining positive interactions.

Now, back to brunch. Today is Mother’s Day (not actually, but bear with me.) With Mother’s Day often comes the tradition of Mother’s Day brunch. What that means to the kitchen staff is that hundreds of people, and their mothers, all want to eat brunch. Both the preparation and the execution required for this holiday bring the kitchen to a fever pitch.

As the masses of mothers take their seats, only to leave them so another mother can take hers, the kitchen goes into hyper drive. Our goal: To serve delicious and gorgeous meals to upwards of 250 people, all within a 120-minute time period. Everybody always wants to eat at the same time.

Today is my first day being expeditor—quite a role to take on during one of the busiest days of the year. As expeditor, I get to be the conductor (i.e. on top of everything). It’s a lot of responsibility and we are slammed.

One minute I am reading a ticket to a server, the next I am yelling out orders to the chef. Before I can breathe, I am scanning the kitchen to make sure everyone has enough mise en place. No more basil leaves at the garnishing station? I find someone to prep it, and prep it in the speed of light. Garde manager doesn’t have enough salads prepared? Pop over and help him or find someone who can. If I see waiters standing around, it’s my job to find their orders. The orders for each party need to be out at the same time, which means one minute I am slowing some tables down and the next speeding others up. The plates need to be wiped clean before they go out the door. Is that a stray spec of misplaced cream? That is very poor form; I need to wipe it off. And I can’t forget that at any moment, someone could get burned, or the refrigerator could go out. Is there an emergency? I scan the room.

Never mind who might be getting burned, I feel like I am on fire! My eyes are watching hundreds of details and my mind is keeping track of them, all in a 90-120 minute time period. I don’t even know if I am breathing, but I do know that there is an eggs benedict plated that needs a side of fruit, which needs to be cut.

In what feels like minutes, the last ticket is closed. When I realize the very last Mother’s Day brunch order is gone, that no one is hurt, and that we didn’t ruin the day of any celebrating families, I literally let out a whoop of joy. What a rush! This is now my favorite role.

What’s GRPI Got To Do With It?

How did we pull this off? Stepping into the kitchen, the untrained eye may see total and complete chaos. There is yelling, scrambling, sometimes evening very fast walking. While it is definitely chaotic, a well-oiled kitchen team manages to execute meals effectively. How they do it is the same as how a successful team in any organization works—by adhering to the principals of GRPI. They don’t know that is what they are doing, but they are an excellent example of how GRPI works.

How GRPI Works

The GRPI model is an approach to team development created by the Systemic Excellence Group. I will use the execution of Mother’s Day brunch to show you what I mean.

GRPI is an acronym that describes team characteristics, in order of priorities towards performance.

GOALS

In the scenario above, the goal stated was to serve delicious and gorgeous meals to upwards of 250 people, all within a 120-minute period. If we weren’t all on board with this goal, someone would definitely slow down, or foil, the process. All members of a team need to know the goal they are working towards. Identifying and communicating this goal is the responsibility of the leader.

ROLES

Everyone in the kitchen has to know their role. The Garde manager preps salads, the saucier creates sauces, the poissonniere makes the fish, the food runner runs the food to tables, and so on. In the story above, I was the expeditor. If I didn’t know what role I was playing, I could have very easily spent the brunch focusing my energy in the wrong place. What if I thought that as expeditor, I just needed to make sure the plates looked nice? A lot of things would have fallen through the cracks, including my accountability.

The same goes for any team. Leaders are wise to communicate clearly with each team member what their specific role is. If a leader can see how the team will succeed, she must create the environment for that success by letting everyone know what role they play in achieving it.

PROCESSES

The goal of having a process is to prevent inefficiencies. With a good process in place, and understood by all, the quality of output is repeatable, yet there is enough wiggle room to not take away the individuality of the people doing the work. In this case, without a clear process in place, the kitchen would truly become a disaster. Everyone on the team needs to know how to get from A (spotless, stocked and organized kitchen) to B (messy kitchen that is efficiently serving 250 meals in a short amount of time) to C (spotless and organized kitchen that needs to be restocked.)

An effective process takes time and flexibility to create. It is the framework within which teams can reach their goals. A great leader respects the creation of an effective process, and understands the need for flexibility to create more opportunity for success.

INTERACTIONS

Successful teams need to have positive interpersonal relationships. Can you imagine how tense an already tense kitchen would be if two people don’t get along? Everyone on the team is better off when others honestly seek to understand and respect their teammates and their individual roles. In addition, a high functioning team needs to be able to trust each other. For example, things in the restaurant can crumble quickly if a server doesn’t trust a chef to take special dietary requests into consideration.

Leaders need to be mindful about creating an organizational culture that promotes positive interpersonal relationships. They can start with themselves by performing small acts of kindness, keeping promises, making expectations clear, showing integrity and being willing to acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes.

Unexpected Example of GRPI in Action

This video is a beautiful example of the importance of GRPI. *Itay Talgam, a former conductor who reinvented himself as a conductor of people in business, introduces the importance of harmony in team dynamics with an exploration of six great 20^th-century conductors.

As you can imagine, my culinary career included more than one brunch, and not all went perfectly. In retrospect, I can see clearly what controllable factors contributed to the success of the kitchen team. I may have guessed that GRPI was an Icelandic fish dish at the time, but now I know how valuable this acronym is in the creation and maintenance of positive, productive and efficient teams.

Unfortunately, some teams aren’t set up for success. Have you had this experience? What do you think was the aspect of the team that was at the core of preventing its success? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

*If you’d like to learn more from Itay, read his new book called, The Ignorant Maestro: How Great Leaders Inspire Unpredictable Brilliance.

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