Hot Topic Friday: April 10

Happy Friday! Here are my April 10 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: How Are You Showing Up During This?

Source: Harvard Business Review, Nancy Koehn.

What It’s About: The author has studied courageous leaders during periods of crises for two decades, and through this work, she emphasizes that REAL leaders are forged in moments like this. “Leaders become ‘real’ when they practice a few key behaviors that gird and inspire people through difficult times.”

Why It’s Important: You and I all have the same situation to navigate through, and according to Koehn's research, we have a greater chance to leave a memorable bookmark based on our ability to apply the following principles.

“Acknowledge people’s fears, then encourage resolve.” People want us to be empathetic AND to help them take the right action to get through this. Remember the “AND.” Do both things. Paralysis and/or thrashing around are dangerous. Accept the difficulties and show people a path forward.
“Give people a role and purpose.” Clarity regarding role and purpose are always important. In times of crisis, great leaders rally ALL members of the team at a very personal, emotional level. People genuinely feel that they will let the team down if they don’t contribute. No one should be on the sidelines. When we inspire people to help even in the smallest ways, fear subsides and hope emerges.
“Tend to energy and emotion — your’s and theirs.” The Navy Seals have a saying: “Don’t run to your death.” This includes the notion of intentionally slowing things down to help us think and act in the right cadence. It means knowing both ourselves and our team relative to energy management. When do we need to push hard or replenish? Burning out will result in poor decisions and disappointing outcomes. Urgency does not include panic.

Each of us, regardless of our positions, will be remembered for how we led ourselves and others through this. How will you advance yourself, your team, your family and community? What will be “written” about you (even if it’s in small print, just for you to read) when we reflect on these days?

One Millennial Response: I wonder if there might even be a name for it. Like maybe poor leaders during this time will be referred to as Lea-duds, with a reputation for not being able to perform under extra pressure.

Hot Topic 2: Practical Tools For Virtual Meetings

Source: Stanford Business School, Matt Abrahams

What It’s About: It’s hard enough to sharpen our contribution at regular face-to-face meetings. Being on a Zoom or other virtual meeting platform is even tougher, because it’s more difficult to “manage the room.” So what is some practical advice? Lucky for us, Abrahams is a master communicator.

Why It’s Important: Consider sticking these practical tools in your contribution tool kit.

Genuine paraphrasing is a polite and smart way to get to your point during a presentation or a meeting. Don’t make it phony. Kindly and thoughtfully jump on someone’s perspective and build on it.
Another tool is to ask a good listening question in a polite way, where you genuinely want to better understand a point. Good examples include, “what did you mean by that?” “Could you elaborate?” “What’s the idea behind that viewpoint?”
I also like Abrahams’ tool of starting with an emotion, “That concerns me” or “I’m excited by.” That emotion gives you permission to then follow up.

Ok! Now that you have the virtual floor, what do you say and how? This is where I can screw up and start rambling. People will turn their cameras and mics off very quickly when we babble... Abrahams smartly suggests the following approach: “What, So What, Now What.” When I’m focused and coherent, I do it naturally. However, I’m going to be more intentional. This is an effective framing structure, and upon practicing, it can really help us get our message across. I’m going to really work on actively applying this framework. I wish I would have learned this long ago.

One Millennial Response: I don’t think it ever hurts to keep practicing your elevator pitch. I think we’ve all discovered how easy it can be to zone out during a Zoom, but when we follow structures like “What, So What, Now What,” then it’s a lot easier to remain engaged.

My Weekly Wine Recommendation.

[Ed. Note: It doesn’t look like Vivino will be shipping for a while. Instead, let’s go and support our local wine shops and small businesses/restaurants for the time being.]

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

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“Disengagement at work isn’t a motivational problem; it’s a biological one.” - Dan Cable

Bye for now!

— Lorne Rubis

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Season 3 of Culture Cast.

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Happy Friday! Here are my April 10 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: How Are You Showing Up During This?

Hot Topic 2: Practical Tools For Virtual Meetings

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