People Leadership

  • Celebrate with authenticity

    I tend to naturally gravitate towards, and sometimes obsess over, what’s not working well. As a result, I can forget to celebrate wins and recognize people for successful projects or work. Over time, I’ve become more deliberate and intentional about recognizing great efforts from teams or individuals and making sure to celebrate and re-enforce those behaviors. That’s not shocking or novel: I think most people believe it’s important to highlight positive behaviors and celebrate your wins, sometimes even the small ones.

    But one thing I’ve reflected on lately is whether that sentiment can go too far, and the not so nice to say but belief I have is yes, it can. When EVERYTHING is celebrated, even the most basic expectations, it dilutes the celebration of the real wins. For example, if everything is a wonderful, amazing, exceptional accomplishment… well then nothing is.

    People tend to have different stylistic preferences for recognition, but everyone values knowing whether they are doing a good job or not. Even the best performers want their achievements to be celebrated; however, nothing is worse than watering down their accomplishments by celebrating insignificant events. And the team members who require a celebration for performing the basic routine elements of their job may not be the team members you want on your team long term.

    Let’s say you’re the quality manager for a manufacturing plant that produces steel parts for a major auto OEM. You have a team of three associates and are onboarding a new fourth team member. Part of the job requires you to review finished parts coming off the line and identify pieces with deficiencies. In the first week, the new member spots a deficiency, so the manager makes a point of celebrating it during the end of week wrap up… that’s awesome! It may be routine, but it’s a new task and this person is onboarding, so it feels good to be recognized for learning. But if six months later, the quality manager is making a point of celebrating an identified deficiency at the end of the week, it may not feel as good, when that is a routine element of the job all members are expected to perform. When disconnected from the effort required, overcelebration can become inauthentic, forced, or even demotivating.

    It’s important to be deliberate about celebrating the wins, but make sure you only do it when it’s genuine.

  • What’s more important? Being liked or being respected?

    Over time, leaders tend to make different decisions based on what they care more about: being liked or being respected. It took years and many lived experiences, not all positive, for me to operate more intentionally with respect as the objective. The reality of managing to be respected over being liked is much harder than the concept. At some level, I believe every person – and professional – has a desire to be liked. For some people that desire is naturally very strong and for others it’s more modest. But I believe it’s present in all.

    Here are several examples of situations I’ve lived through or have seen firsthand where the desire to be liked can conflict with being respected.

    1. You have a direct report that is excellent at their job. You get along with them great. They haven’t yet mastered the role, but they believe they have. They want to be promoted and have made that clear. You really want to support them, even though deep down you know they aren’t ready for a promotion. You promote them anyway. Initially, they are thrilled. Unfortunately, they are set up to fail and you ultimately end up having to fire them, or they become uncomfortable enough and dissatisfied from struggling in the position that they quit. This whole scenario erodes the cultural trust in the organization’s promotions because it’s apparent to others they weren’t ready.
    2. Your direct report is fantastic at most things but horrible at public speaking. You’ve built a strong relationship, and they’ve reported to you for years. They are a very sensitive individual. You always give them praise when they do a great job… but you never tell them how bad they are at public speaking. You’re worried it will hurt their feelings. In the short-run, that’s great – no hurt – but over time, their career is limited because they don’t have an opportunity to improve.
    3. You have a new, junior employee on your team. They’ve taken the initiative to put together a plan for one of the team’s key initiatives: reducing your product’s shipping times. They are incredibly enthusiastic, and you’re thrilled they are going above and beyond expectations. When they present the plan… it’s awful. It makes no sense and completely misses the mark. You don’t want to dampen their enthusiasm, so you tell them it’s not bad, just needs a few tweaks. Unfortunately, they have the wrong impression and continue working on it despite you knowing it will never be used.

    Often, making respect the goal leads to harder conversations and choices in the short-term, but benefits the individual, team, and company in the long run.

  • A key leadership outcome

    A few years ago, one of our functional leaders departed and I was debating my options with a friend and advisor. I could either seek an external hire or consider a stretch promotion for an internal candidate currently leading one of the smaller teams within the function. The internal candidate was doing an excellent job leading her team and we believed she had a lot of potential. We had planned to provide her with more scope of responsibility over time but not on such an accelerated timeline. I was a bit nervous about putting her in the seat. It would be a big increase in demands and challenges.

    In the discussion, my friend focused on one question: “Can she increase the sense of urgency and accountability on the team?” I’ve come back to that question many times since. While there are many important leadership qualities, that’s a good and simple summation of a key desired outcome from putting a strong leader in place.

    I try to remind myself of that question whenever it comes to promotions, new hires, and role changes. I also like to reflect on whether I’m fostering those outcomes across the organization.