These are tough times for businesses, leaders, and humans. The skyrocketing unemployment and economic downturn translate to reduced workforces and budgets, which has the potential to extend talent to the breaking point. Historically, leaders tend to cut learning and development (L&D) budgets and redirect funds to sales and operations. Decisions like these leave organizations exposed. When you choose not to invest in the people who drive your business day in and out—your greatest asset——they not only suffer the consequences, but errors increase, customer service and positive experiences fly out the window, profits diminish, and your teams recognize and remember who you were and how you behaved during the darkest times. Leaders who choose this path will witness their brand’s demise and the mass exodus of talent once the economy rebounds.
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It’s not an either-or situation. You can realign your budgets to sales and operations and L&D without breaking the bank. When you reframe your view of L&D as a cost center to a profit center that is necessary to support sales, operations, and other vital departments, you reap the rewards of the investment exponentially. Your team members can access the information, knowledge, and skills development they need to work and compete effectively in the new normal. They feel validated and supported in a learning culture that is responsive to and sustains them. They engage at their best, and you retain them and their legacy knowledge long after the crisis has abated. In short, L&D is your secret weapon, and we’re here to help you fortify and deliver on that commitment to your valued people.

Solutions Arts to the Rescue

Many organizations are up to their eyeballs putting out fires, figuring out their next steps, juggling priorities, and inventing new ways to do business. You might see yourself and your organization in one of these descriptors. And much of what we’ve been saying in our recent blog series may have spoken directly to you. We hope you found it beneficial for yourself, your teams, and your organization. If you’ve applied some of the techniques we’ve discussed and you feel that you and/or your team members may benefit from more targeted, specific training, please connect with us. We’d be happy to listen and offer solutions for your unique needs and circumstances.
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When we first set out to create our recent blog series focused on supporting and developing managers, we wanted to provide steps they could take immediately to tackle the daily onslaught of the unexpected. We knew managers would be strapped with competing priorities and might be struggling to best serve the needs of their organization, teams, and themselves. We asked people where they were struggling the most and then responded with nine articles covering the following recurring themes of how to:

• Communicate clear updates to policies, procedures, and moving forward
• Address new challenges and overcome them concerning shifting to work from home or a hybrid model to including how to instill culture, manage remote teams, and celebrate and evaluate results rather than hours clocked
• Recognize mental health issues inherent in the current crisis and strengthen and consistently demonstrate emotional intelligence
• Transform and deliver effective feedback that teams welcome and value
• Present information in the Zoom era while retaining and engaging the target audience 
• Embrace the power of vulnerability 

From now to the end of the year, we’re shifting our focus to the next set of challenges confronting leadership. Leaders and teams still face an uncertain future that stretches their ability to remain agile. Our roadmap moving forward encompasses and concentrates on strategy as well as skills development and intertwining the two:

• Executing strategies and embracing contingencies without going overboard
• Sustaining agility and change management
• Fortifying resilience through brain-based learning
• Encouraging innovation, and
• Dismantling outdated diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and replacing them with real action and subsequent results

We invite you to visit our website each month to read about these topics, gain insight, acquire some new skills and deepen existing ones, and listen in on some great interviews with experts in these areas. And, if you have a topic in mind that you’d like us to cover, drop us an email and let us know. 

Mahatma Gandhi said, “In the midst of darkness, light persists.” We hear our own Cindy Chambers often say, “Check out this silver lining!” There are endless reasons these days to feel enveloped by darkness, but excessive optimism isn’t the remedy. Instead, we don our headlamps, combine our lights, and pave the way forward.
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We hear it weekly from our clients. All are rising to the challenges presented by the new normal and shining brightly. We see them express care and vulnerability with their teams and leadership, and as a result, great things happen. Trust and safety are built and earned. Increased communication and bonding lead to pivoting and soaring productivity. 

A simple act—such as honestly answering the question, “How are you?”—opens a space for authenticity, vulnerability, and caring. One such leader experienced this firsthand after a series of rough weeks. The cumulative effect of those weeks wore him down, yet every day he slipped on his mask and soldiered forward until the day his leader asked, “No really … how are you?” The floodgates opened, he had a chance to empty out what had been festering, and his leadership team jumped at the chance to show him the same support and care he had always shown them. He got to be a human first, a c-level suite leader second, and his leadership team’s trust in him as a result of his vulnerability multiplied.

Brené Brown shares her journey when talking about the power of vulnerability. Among the many things she uncovers on this journey is this: “To let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen … to love with our whole hearts, … to believe that we’re enough. Because when we work from a place, I believe, that says, ’I’m enough’ … then we stop screaming and start listening, we’re kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we’re kinder and gentler to ourselves.”
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We’ll wrap up this current blog series with an activity that we encourage you to try, should you choose, to dare to be vulnerable. 

Exercise: Who’s Got Your Back?

Either on your own or in a truly safe environment where all participants may answer without fear of reprisal, ask, “Who’s got my back?”
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Followed by, “Who’s back do I have?”

See if it opens the door to deeper conversations, possibilities to grow yourself and your connections, and shine a light on and heal wounds.
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Remember to return next week to read our blog on the course we’re charting from now to the end of the year. For example, you may find your emotional intelligence skills improving while your resilience is waning. Or, you might feel stuck on how to transform diversity, equity, and inclusion from transparent conversations to real, authentic action. We’ll be discussing this and more. We’ve got some exciting stuff in development, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you. 

I hated presenting. “Hate” isn’t quite right. I loathed it. I loathed it with every fiber of my being. I loathed it more than making dinner every night for the past four months because we can’t go out to eat. I didn’t even like answering questions in school (constant feedback: “Does not participate in class”). I’m not a huge participant in meetings, either. Given the choice, I wouldn’t speak in front of a crowd. Ever.

And yet, I teach.

Ironically, I teach a course in public speaking.  

For the first year, I began each and every teaching day the same: after a sleepless night, I spent my mornings wondering why I was doing this as I checked over my notes and my decks. During my drive, I continued to stress out and review my presentations. When I got to campus, my heart rate went into hyper-drive as I walked to my room. Sometimes I hoped the class was cancelled (yes, sometimes instructors want the classes cancelled, too). By the time I had my hand on the door handle, I was deeply resisting running away and hiding in my car. I was out of breath and sweating.

And then I walked in.

I just … did it.

Over and over again.

And it got easier. It’s true!

Along with all of the tips we’ve talked about in the last two articles, I kept asking myself why I was teaching, why I was doing this thing that scared me, top of mind. You see, I teach because I believe I can help my students prepare for their careers. That’s why I’m there: for them. They are worth the stress. I think this attitude—that, at the very least, the audience isn’t the enemy, really helps keep the anxiety from being overwhelming.

Even with the right attitude, the key to my presentation style is to establish a positive environment and for my talk to feel more like a conversation (one in which I might be hogging the discussion). I do this by connecting with my students and encouraging them to connect with each other. I make sure my examples and vocabulary relate to them; I give them lots of group activities to help them learn and get to know and trust each other. The result (ideally) is interested and engaged audience members who participate and learn. (Sometimes the result is that I epically mess up and we all laugh and move on. When you establish the right environment, mistakes are forgiven.)

Let me underscore that stress is not the enemy. I teach online sections of my classes (both before the pandemic and because of the pandemic). And guess what? No stress. Know what else? I’m less effective. That’s not just my self-assessment; I see it both in the quality of work from my students as well as in the evaluation scores they give me. I think that the lack of stress results in less enthusiasm and less of a connection with my students. So, while I like the angst-free mornings when I teach online, I think that the lack of nervousness works against me and I have to work harder to create the same energy. (And while we’re here, teaching effectively online means changing your lesson plan, decks, and pacing. You have to get creative and work with the software to even come close to the connections you get in a traditional classroom. It isn’t as simple as slapping the same content into Zoom and running with it. Ask any teacher or professor and they’ll tell you the same.)

I still get nervous, but it’s not paralyzing. I still stress-sweat, but it’s not a big deal. The first day of classes is harder than the last. Some days in between are great. Some fall flat. But each time I get up there, I learn a little more  and I get a little better.
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It does get easier. I tell my students all the time: the more you get up there and do it, the better you’ll be. It’s a combination of honing your skills, learning what works for you, and being able to look back and say, “I’ve already done this so I know I can do it again.” As with most things, it takes practice and focus. And maybe a little bit of angst.
 
Gretchen Kriesen is an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Polytechnic Institute and a business and design consultant for Solutions Arts. She also took a Buzzfeed quiz that told her she was funny, so she’s added that to her resume. 

Non-verbal Communication
​Approximately 93% of the message you deliver is nonverbal.¹ That means the content is just 7% of what you’re communicating. The rest includes your oral tactics/tonality, pacing, facial expressions, body language, eye contact, and so on. You know what that means then: if your non-verbal communication is lacking, the best content will only get you so far. Unfortunately, the delivery just so happens to be the part that tends to stress folks out the most. Creating the presentation or writing the speech is usually not the big issue. Delivering it is. Much of presentation fear is about the unknown. Will I mess up? Will I not know an answer? Will they not like me? Will they laugh at me? Will I simply not be good? All these questions can set your nerves into overdrive and derail your presentation, but only if you let them. So, what can you do?

Channel the Nervous Energy
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First, don’t expect nerves to completely go away. While you will (and you will) get more comfortable as you present more often, most people continue to have some nerves before a presentation. The good news is that you can channel those nerves to improve your delivery. That’s right: the goal isn’t necessarily to squash your nerves, but to use them to your benefit. Nervous energy can translate into positive energy. And you need positive energy to deliver effectively. If you’re flat, you probably sound bored by your own content. Guess who else will probably be bored? Yep. The audience. If you portray interest and excitement, that, instead, is likely to transfer to them.
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Also, getting in some cardio before you deliver can help drain some excess anxiety. Something as simple as running up the stairs before your presentation can help decrease angst while increasing positive energy. 

Practice: Get to Know Your Content
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Simply rehearsing the presentation in your head isn’t enough; that won’t help you check and adjust your speed (when we’re nervous, we tend to go too fast) nor alert you to where you lose track or stumble over words (looking at you, Benedict Cumberbatch, trying to say “penguin”). Instead, begin by rehearsing aloud alone to get used to how ideas sound and flow. Move on to a small audience. Sure, this might feel strange, but it’ll put you in touch with feeling stress and give you the opportunity to practice channeling it.

Consider recording yourself. This is especially effective if you’re going to deliver the presentation over video. You can ensure things are technically the way you want them: camera angle, lighting, appropriate background, quality mic (invest in a mic; don’t rely on your built-in microphone). (And of course, you need to be on camera if you’re delivering virtually.)

Practice: Evaluate Yourself

​Part of rehearsing is analyzing your content and delivery and making updates where necessary.

1. Oral tactics. Are you speaking clearly and slowly? Are you building in appropriate pauses to draw attention to certain points? Is your tone conducive to the content? Do you sound engaged, interested in, even excited about your topic? Conversely, are you over the top and need to tone it down? Does it sound like you’re reading (ARE YOU READING?) or are you more conversational?
2. Verbal tics. We all use filler words in normal conversational language. Words such as “you know,” “um,” and “like” are among the most common. Fillers can  be highly distracting to an audience, especially when the presenter is nervous and frequently using them. First, you need to be aware of your tics (recording can help you hear them). Second, you need to know when they’re about to slip out and hold them back. A short pause to gather a thought or find the next word is fine and much better than “ummmmmmm….”  
3. Body language. Are your gestures relaxed or are they overly animated? Is your movement level distracting (pacing or not moving at all) or engaging (natural movements and gestures)? Are you scanning the audience and making eye contact with people? If you are on a zoom session, are you checking in on the other video feeds for their reactions? Are you making sure to look up and at the camera instead of down at your notes or over at your slides? 
4. Keep it simple. Don’t roll out obscure vocabulary, use jargon without defining it, or show off your command of sentence structure. Instead, speak in relatable language appropriate to your audience. Short phrases and brief, relevant stories fit your audience’s attention spans.

​Look, you may never enjoy presenting; however, following these ideas and tips can give you a tested roadmap to follow and build your confidence and decrease your stress. Additionally, solid presentation skills are so sought after, you easily set yourself apart from your peers as you begin to master them. 

Click here for our related article: Spotlight: Applied Presentation Skills

References
¹ Pease, A. & Pease, B. (2006, September 24). The definitive book of body language. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/books/chapters/0924-1st-peas.html

This is the first in a two-part blog about presentation design and delivery. 
Part 1: Preparing Your Content

Pat is a high-performing manager. She gets results from her team, is respected by her employees and her bosses, and consistently demonstrates expertise in her field. She has high emotional intelligence. In fact, one of the only areas Pat struggles with is her presentation skills. Presenting isn’t something she’s called upon to do often, but nonetheless it is an important aspect of her job. Trouble is, Pat hates presenting—and truth is, she isn’t very good at it. She tends to procrastinate developing her content, doesn’t rehearse it since doing so makes her even more nervous to present. When she does present, she reads directly from her text-heavy screen slides and often races through the content to get it done as quickly as possible. As expected, her audiences tend to not enjoy her presentations all that much either.

Pat’s lack of aptitude in this area is holding her back. It might be holding you back as well. The good news is that in addition to many of the other skills Solutions Arts has been discussing with you lately, you (and Pat) can develop the art of presenting effectively.

An effective presentation involves two things: preparing your content and practicing your delivery. Working diligently to improve both of these areas will most certainly strengthen your presentation abilities and increase the overall effectiveness of your message, in turn increasing audience engagement. In this first of two articles on presenting, we’ll focus on preparing your content.

Pre-work: Research Your Audience
Before you start over-populating slides and creating what Nancy Duarte refers to in her book slide:ology as “sliduments,” do some prework and planning.  Doing this upfront will increase the chances that you’ll have a targeted presentation with the right content.

Start by understanding who you’re talking to and why they should care. You may be able to wax lyrical about your content for hours on end, but with a presentation you’ve got a specific amount of time and a specific audience. No matter the purpose of the presentation (to inform, instruct, persuade, or entertain), never forget that you’re presenting to meet your audience’s needs and must clearly convey what’s in it for them. What do they gain (or lose) by paying attention? What do they gain (or lose) by adjusting their point of view or acting on your recommendations? Acknowledge where they might resist you and give them compelling reasons for taking the uncomfortable step of working through that resistance. If you don’t convey that, the rest is moot. You’re basically talking to yourself.

Prepare To Be Present; Know Your Content—Don’t Memorize It
Connecting with your audience brings us to the art of being present, or “in the moment;” you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the room (virtual or in-person) and you’re able to successfully respond to it. That makes your presentation truly interactive. It also builds the connection with the audience; the more connected they feel, the more likely they are to absorb the content or your message.
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To be truly present means you aren’t tied to a script. You have to be able to adapt the content as needed. You should absolutely create a detailed outline for your talk. If it helps you to write out a script, that’s fine as well; however, as you start to revise, you’re better off putting notes/bullet points in the comments area of your presentation (and use in Presentation Mode so you can see them) versus trying to memorize a full script (we’ll also discuss how this helps with nerves). For most of us, memorization is going to take us out of the moment.

Stop Abusing the Slide Deck
The walls of text. The pixelated clip art. The “fun” backgrounds. The playful animation. You’ve seen it. You might have done it. We’re not here to judge what you’ve done. But your slides should be enhancing what you’re saying, not simply repeating it and certainly not distracting from it. In his TEDx talk, “How to avoid death by PowerPoint,” David Phillips says, “If you have … sentences on your PowerPoint, and you persist with the annoying idea of speaking at the same time, what will be remembered by the audience is zero. Or very close to zero.”

Click here to read more from our presentation design guru, Brian Prosser. 

Below is an example of how you can update a text-heavy slide to support what you’re saying rather than simply listing the content and reading it. On the right, the content has been moved to the comments area and we use an image to provide more information and visual interest. 

​We bet we can guess two of your least favorite aspects of your job. We don’t even need you to take a BuzzFeed quiz to find out. Ready? Here we go, in no particular order:

1. Giving difficult feedback
2. Delivering presentations

​Are we close? We hear this from our clients all the time. With so many people now having to do these activities remotely, we figured it was a good time to talk about how to do them effectively, even when you can’t be in the room. This week’s article focuses on giving feedback. Next week, we’ll talk about presenting online (which may seem easier but almost never is). 

Here’s the thing: every manager has to provide feedback. Learning how to do it well can decrease your angst, increase your effectiveness, and help build better relationships with your team. We want to encourage you to think about how you give feedback. Is it always positive? Is it always corrective? Constructive feedback is both — together. Delivering genuine assessments of what is working well and what needs improvement is a fundamental skill of strong leaders. ​

We see the following as essential to delivering effective feedback:

• Build confidence
• Meet frequently
• Structure the meeting
• Collaborate
• Be straight-forward
• Follow up

Build Confidence.
Make sure you are communicating what is working. This isn’t basic cheerleading, “Great job!” Nor is it the occasional recognition at a company meeting. When you routinely discuss specific skills and behaviors an employee is doing well, you build their confidence—and, in turn, their competence. Yes, some employees are already confident in their abilities. Some are even over-confident. But there is a significant portion of us, 70% in fact, who suffer from “imposter syndrome.” Ever felt like you’re in over your head and one of these days everyone is going to figure that out? That’s imposter syndrome. There’s also just lingering insecurity or uncertainty whether you’re doing a good enough job. Where there is insecurity, there’s more likely to be sensitivity to feedback. This is a breeding ground for defensiveness, denial, and catastrophizing. However, when an employee knows their boss values their contributions, respects their skills, and supports their growth, feedback can be seen as an opportunity to grow. In a healthy environment, feedback is actively pursued with the purpose to develop skills, receive mentoring, and be elevated as a professional.
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So, even if you can deliver difficult feedback well, it won’t be as effective if your team members aren’t confident that you believe in them and their work. 

​Meet Frequently.
​Employees should never, ever hear about a performance issue for the first time during an annual performance review. Employees should be getting regular feedback so that beneficial behaviors are recognized and fostered while counter-productive behaviors are quickly addressed. When you don’t give ongoing feedback to your employees, performance reviews can become a source of stress because your employees have no idea what to expect. We recommend 1:1 meetings no less than once a month; every two weeks is even better to help keep the momentum going and the engagement consistent. 

​Structure the Meeting.
Amy Gallo, author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, recommends, “focus[ing] the discussion on three levels: the star’s current performance, her next performance frontier, and her future goals and aspirations.”¹​ So, have an agenda. Better yet, have a form you and your employee fill out and review during each meeting. Use it to document new issues, track progress against goals as well as performance improvement plans, and capture any notes to follow up on. This is an extra step that requires a bit more effort from you and your team, but it should yield more structured and productive meetings and make assembling data and information for major performance reviews much easier.

Collaborate.
Whether it’s a performance issue or resolving a work-related obstacle or challenge, the best solutions arise from conversations focused on pinpointing the underlying issues. Jean-Francois Manzoni, President of the International Institute for Management Development says, “Managers tend to frame difficult situations and decisions in a way that is narrow (alternatives aren’t included or even considered) and binary (there are only two possible outcomes—win or lose). Then, during the feedback discussion, their framing remains frozen—unchanged, regardless of the direction the conversation takes." ²​
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Keep an open mind. Consider various possible next steps, and together choose the best route to achieve the desired outcome. A proven technique to do this is to use The Five Whys. Walk through an example with your employee by asking them to state a problem while you drill down by asking “why” until the root cause is revealed. Only after you both understand the reason for the issue can you work together on how to productively solve it. Applying this technique circumvents dictating—your employee takes ownership resulting in buy-in. It can also decrease combativeness because you are working together, rather than against each other, to create a solution.

Be Straight-Forward. 
Many of us are of the Oreo/Sandwich/Build-Break-Build school of feedback—say something positive, then give a negative, and then end the conversation on a positive so the employee feels good. The trouble is that this doesn’t work. David Hassell, CEO of 15Five notes that, “Helping someone improve should always be the goal of feedback, but sandwiching corrective feedback between two pieces of positive feedback won’t soften the blow. This method creates confusion for the receiver, undermines your feedback, and can decrease levels of trust.”³​ Instead, take a straightforward approach without judging or being accusatory, and be specific about observable behaviors. All of this can be documented on the form you are using to structure the meeting. The end result should be a clear message and offers targeted, actionable feedback your employee can understand.

Follow Up.
Everyone is busy, and it’s easy to lose focus on those action items that aren’t followed up on. Ever set a goal during a performance review and not think about it until the next performance review a year later? Of course you have. You’ve got a lot going on. To help your teams make progress against improvement issues, follow up (again, the form is a perfect way to keep track of everything). At a certain point, you may agree the issue is closed and the goal achieved, but until then, keep following up and committed to resolving it together. 

Following these essential elements of constructive feedback transforms the process from a negative, teeth-pulling ordeal to an asset that increases engagement, skills development, and trust, all of which are the hallmarks of strong leadership.
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Look for next week’s article on how to make presenting a little less stressful and a little more effective, whether you are delivering in the same room as your audience or via conference call (and get ready: we’re going to again tell you how important is to be on camera). 

References
¹ Gallo, A. (2009, December 3). Giving a high performer productive feedback. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2009/12/giving-a-high-performer-produc
² Manzoni, J. (2002, September). A better way to deliver bad news. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2002/09/a-better-way-to-deliver-bad-news?registration=success
³ Hassell, D. (n.d.). 9 ways to give effective employee feedback. 15Five Blog. Retrieved from https://www.15five.com/blog/9-ways-to-give-effective-employee-feedback/

​What happens next? Well, that depends an awful lot on your emotional intelligence (EQ) — a concept you’ve definitely heard of, probably recognize, might not be able to articulate, but absolutely know it when you experience the lack of it. Let’s analyze two possible outcomes to our situation. First, The Reaction. 

​The Reaction isn’t ideal (but you probably already know what). It’ll no doubt irritate everyone involved and not yield optimal results, but it was easy and probably felt good to you for a nano-second. You’ll spend a lot more time cleaning up the mess you made with your team. Knowing all of that, how many of you can see yourself in The Reaction — not because you would consciously choose that solution but because it just … happens? Be honest. We’ve all done this.
What’s a better solution? The Response. 

The Response is harder. It’s clearly the compassionate, professional, mature option. It’s more likely to resolve the situation without adding more emotional garbage on top of it. It’s an emotionally intelligent response.
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Emotional intelligence is both the ability to recognize your emotions and to make decisions about how much of a role in your response they should have. Emotionally intelligent people aren’t any less emotional; they’re just able to control and apply emotions more effectively to a given situation. They are, in essence, more self-aware and thus successful. Bradberry and Greaves write, “… 83 percent of people high in self-awareness are top performers, and just 2 percent of bottom performers are high in self-awareness.”¹

In the above example, the first reaction is irritation. Totally natural to most people. The key to this solution is the first step you take after that reaction: the pause. Taking a moment to calm down, asking yourself why you are so irritated, and recognizing that nothing that happened before you came into the office has to do with your team. It’s really not their problem.

The next emotionally intelligent action is recognizing the team’s emotions and helping them set their knee-jerk reactions aside so they can focus on a solution. This is social awareness. “To be socially aware, you have to spot and understand people’s emotions while you’re right in the middle of it.”² You don’t want to fuel the frustration fire in the team as they stand in their office. You want to help them get back to work while feeling heard, in turn trusting that you’ll take care of things.

Finally, you show empathy to Sam’s situation, to understand how he must be feeling, and collaborate to come up with a solution that enables him to perform well while giving him flexibility to address his parental and childcare needs.

Why does this matter? Well, emotionally intelligent people have the ability to get more out of both themselves and their teams. Because of this, more and more positions, especially those in leadership, require emotional intelligence to perform effectively. In fact, Daniel Goleman says, “Companies today are increasingly looking through the lens of emotional intelligence when hiring, promoting and developing their employees. Years of studies show that the more emotional intelligence someone has, the better their performance.”³​

Much like empathy (which is a huge part of emotional intelligence), EQ is a skill you can develop if you work at it. Here are a few ways to do just that:

1. Take a moment. If you don’t take a second to analyze the situation and your instinctive emotion, you’re more likely to react instead of respond. When you react, your emotions and instincts are often in the driver’s seat. When you respond, your brain is in control (even if it means deciding to let your emotions lead). A deep breath can not only change your brain chemistry a bit, but it gives you a second to decide what to do next, instead of words or actions just bursting out of you.
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2. Reflect on your emotions and reactions. Noticing that you tend to react in unproductive ways is the first step to controlling your emotions. For example, do you get defensive when you receive criticism? OK. You might not be able to change receiving the criticism, but you can change how you deal with the emotion that’s involved with it. Just recognizing that you get defensive and asking yourself why can help you channel that counter-productive response.
   
   
3. Listen. We have talked about the power of listening before. The more you listen, the more you can understand others and possibly what their emotional reactions are — and how to either avoid a certain reaction or how to cultivate a different one. This means taking the time to know your team. Really talk with them. All of this increases your social awareness and your team’s group dynamic — how they behave both as individuals and as a group.
   
   
4. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and follow through. In the above example, part of the ideal solution is that the team trusts you’re going to address the issue. Sure, you said it, but if they don’t think you’re the type to follow through, they won’t trust your response and their negative feelings will persist, none of which yield a positive, empathetic, productive work environment where your team can thrive and trust you to lead.
   
   
5. Be generous. Share the spotlight; call out success. There’s a scene in Mad Men where Peggy complains to Don that he never thanks her for her work. “That’s what the money is for!” That is not what the money is for. We all want to be recognized for good work. We’re not all delivering diamonds every time, but getting recognized for good work or hard work, for extra efforts is powerfully motivating and it can make your team even more loyal to you. Very few teams rally around a leader who claims all the victories or doesn’t bother to acknowledge the efforts of others. Additionally, those team members aren’t likely to stay, especially talented and/or high potentials and performers. As a leader, it’s not about you; it’s about them.
   
   
6. Make feedback constructive.* In Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Bradberry and Greaves note, “Some of the most challenging and most stressful situations people face are at work. Conflicts at work tend to fester when people passively avoid problems, because people lack the skills needed to initiate a direct, yet constructive conversation.”[1] Most people don’t enjoy being told their work or behavior isn’t great. Feedback is meant to help an employee improve and get better, but it may come off as overly critical and demoralizing in some situations. Make sure that your feedback is clear and helpful. For example, “I don’t like this example” doesn’t help. By contrast, “This example is a little misleading. Could you find one that shows more of X, Y, and Z?” explains what the issue is and offers guidance on how to fix it. It helps to also include feedback on the things that work (but only if they DO work) to balance out what might be perceived as negative. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you only give positive feedback, you’re likely not helping your team improve and they may not trust that you’re being genuine (most of us know our work isn’t consistently perfect). See #4.
   
   
7. Admit when you’re wrong or when you don’t know the answer. This goes a long, long way to being viewed as genuine. Most people can appreciate a person who tells them they don’t know the answer but will get back to them (and actually does). Being able to admit you got something wrong shows humility and builds a tremendous amount of trust. Your team only works if you trust one other.

​Click below to download a version of this list. 

​Emotional intelligence involves the process of evolving. Some people innately have many of these skills, but for those who don’t, the skills are highly teachable and can be honed if practiced. In short, everyone can increase their emotional intelligence and thus their overall effectiveness and success. 

*Look for next week's article about providing feedback.

References
​¹ Bradberry, T. & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart. Page 26.
² Bradberry, T. & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart. Page 39.
³ Goleman, S. (2020, June 9). Harvard researcher says the most emotionally intelligent people have these 12 traits. Which do you have?. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/09/harvard-psychology-researcher-biggest-traits-of-emotional-intelligence-do-you-have-them.html
⁴ Bradberry, T. & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart. Page 21.

Here is just a smattering of the issues that may be stressing out your teams right now.  ​

For some, it can be all of this at once. For others, it’s this on top of other mental health issues.
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Therapist Yessenia Guglielmi writes, “The need for mental health care is extraordinary right now ... Everyone seems to be avoiding their negative emotions and subscribing to the toxic positivity narrative in society right now. This can make people feel like failures if they are not being productive, but I want to remind people that it’s an important time to address our emotions.”¹ We are talking about mental health more now than ever, but the stigma associated with asking for help still remains, especially in the workplace where people may fear being viewed as less productive, professional, resilient, capable, adaptable, or valuable. People fear they’ll be seen differently than their counterparts and their performance and opportunities will be measured against this, which can lead to poor performance. As leaders, it’s imperative to work with your company to make the right resources available and to create a culture in which accessing those resources and/or asking for help doesn’t present a barrier or result in unconscious bias.

Empathize.
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These days, the word “empathy” is thrown around all the time. Showing empathy is an increasingly more critical leadership characteristic. Prudy Gourguechon sums up the value of empathy pretty well, “Without empathy, you can’t build a team or nurture a new generation of leaders. You will not inspire followers or elicit loyalty.”³ To empathize isn’t feeling sorry for someone; it’s having the ability to see someone else’s perspective, to feel along side them, to really see their situation, to share their feelings. Brené Brown’s video below does an amazing job of explaining it.

Communicate Options and Resources.
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Many companies have mental health resources and coverage of which employees aren’t even aware. Make sure you’re familiar with all the options so you can communicate them to your team. Contact your company’s Human Resources Department for an accessible list of approved and vetted resources if it isn’t already found on the company’s intranet or internet site. 

Offer Flexibility.
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In our last blog, Team Anywhere, we discussed offering some work from home options to some employees. This isn’t simply about letting them choose a long-term commitment to where they work; it’s also about managing stress and different situations that might make it difficult to get to the office. Of course, you are running a business, so it helps to have a communication plan for last-minute, unscheduled remote working days and/or shifted work hours. (You probably already have one for sick days, so leverage that.) As much as possible, you want to foster a work environment and processes that can adapt to your team members’ rapidly changing needs.

Overall, recognize that you and your team may be struggling in ways they never were before. The more open and supportive you can be, the more you can offer flexibility and creative working solutions, the more likely your team will come to you for assistance with their situation instead of suffering in silence. The first step might just be admitting some of the ways that you’re struggling so they know they’re not alone. In the end, that may be what we all need most: to know we are not alone and that we are valued enough to be supported as we work through things. 

​If you see yourself and your teams reflected in these struggles, now is the time to invest in skills development. Reach out to us. We’ll listen and offer you our expertise.

Be sure to check back next week as we continue our series on supporting and developing managers during this transition.

​There is some inevitability to what “the office” will look like going forward. For months, many teams have been demonstrating that they can be productive from remote locations, and numerous employees see great value in the flexibility working from home offers. As we discussed in our last blog, Tomorrow Is Not Yesterday, there is no returning to where we were in early March, and a big part of that is embracing remote workers (well, metaphorically; let’s keep that six-foot distancing). Trying to hammer your staff back into the way they worked before may be doomed to failure. As you redefine what your work environment looks like, you need to rethink how you’ll foster teamwork, instill company culture, and assess performance. 

Some of us have become very comfortable with a morning commute down the hall and pants-optional business attire. There haven’t been any passive-aggressive notes about dirty mugs in the office sink in months. And, heck, Zoom has facilitated many meetings remarkably well. It may be tempting to let everyone stay where they are (it’s certainly cost-effective). However, just because your team can do it, doesn’t mean everyone should or even wants to.

First, not everyone is set up for long-term remote working, even if they are making it work now. The configuration of a home “office” (see also: the kitchen table, the couch, a small desk in the corner of the family room) can vary widely, and some might not be conducive to sustained, focused productivity. Interruptions and distractions can be rampant if workers are also trying to home school and care for their children, not to mention having spouses or significant others working at home as well. Furthermore, there’s often a benefit to being able to leave work at the office – and go home. ​

Beyond these workspace considerations, think about the value of traditional, in-person interactions. Steve Jobs said, “There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.” According to a study by Great Business Schools, 84% of people still say they prefer in-person meetings.”¹ Online meetings may not yield the same collaborative results as traditional meetings. Moreover, the day-to-day interactions inherent to working in the same location (e.g., running into each other in the break room or parking lot, small talk before a meeting starts) yields interactions that help develop the relationships that are critical to effective teams.
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So, do you tell everyone to stay home? No. Will some workers need to stay home for medical reasons? Certainly. Do you make everyone else come back in to the office? Probably not. For many workers, the best solution is not an either-or scenario; it’s both. Therefore, a model which allows workers to spend part of the time in the office and part of the time remotely could best meet your team’s needs. Further proof that a hybrid solution may be most effective is found in a 2016 Gallup poll. Citing that study, Simovic summarized that, people who work remote 60–80% of the time have the highest engagement....”²

The best bet may be encouraging those who prefer to work from home to do so several days a week but to also come into the office on a regularly scheduled basis, making it easier for others to set up in-person meetings. Being flexible with when and where people work can greatly contribute to mental health (see our next blog for more on this topic). You want to avoid locking anyone into one option unnecessarily.

To connect workers, many companies are embracing instant messaging platforms (here’s looking at you, Slack) to compensate for the organic conversations that used to happen in the office. Continuing to use these platforms can help solve the issue of the people at home missing out on in-office conversations. Companies need to retain that sense of inclusion for both productivity and team-building purposes. Still, with all of this technology, remember there are times when picking up the phone and talking live can save a lot of frustration. While it may be really, really easy to fire off an email and leave it in someone else’s inbox, it can be better to just walk down the hall or pick up the phone and have that live conversation. Again, the best solutions might be blended: embracing impromptu chats in the halls and chats on instant messaging platforms, phone calls and emails, and traditional meetings and video calls.

Every company and every office have a culture. Understanding and fitting into that culture can be a huge part of employee success. That’s hard to do remotely. Consider having new hires (who are able to) start out in the office for a few months so they can more easily grasp how teams interact, how work gets done, and to appreciate the subtleties that are hard to convey over email or solely through online meetings. Give new folks a chance to absorb these things; they’ll feel more a part of the team moving forward if you do.
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For those who cannot come into the office, go the extra mile to convey the company culture as much as possible and be sure to set up video calls with as many colleagues as possible to help foster those relationships. As they move through the onboarding process, keep checking in to ensure they have the tools and resources they need and are building the connections that will help them be successful. You may need to work a little harder to help them feel fully engaged, but it will pay off in loyalty and productivity. 

It may feel easier and more comfortable to manage people you can see, but most managers are having a crash course in how to manage from afar. As Jeanne Meister states, “Face time will no longer be the measure of worker productivity. Instead, we will finally focus on results!”³ It sounds awesome and what many employees have clamored for in the past, but it isn’t easy. People managers need to learn new ways to interact with employees, demonstrate trust, and assess performance. That means finding new ways to bridge the gap and create consistency among those in the office and those out of the office.

​ First, ensure that all of your team members are experiencing similar check-ins with you, whether they are working in the office or not. So, if you have weekly 1:1s with the employees who are back in the office, make sure to use video conferencing (yes, we are back to this again) for weekly 1:1s with your remote people. Video helps both of you communicate more effectively since being able to read body language and facial expressions is key to fully understanding what is being conveyed. It also keeps both parties more fully engaged. (How many of us check our phones during conference calls without video? Be honest.) We’ve come a long way in getting even the most reluctant to turn on their cameras, and continuing that practice will increase engagement and aid in communication as we move forward. 
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Resist the urge to micro-manage the folks you cannot see. You may have already become quite good at this over the past few months, but as we move into blended work solutions, you may be tempted to start checking in too much with team members whom you can’t physically see working. While you want them to feel connected, you  also want them to feel trusted. If you would normally stop by their desks every morning, check in with them on Slack or email. If you then leave them to their work all day, show the same trust when you can’t see them.

​Look at the quantity and quality of work. You more than likely have individual goals for each employee and an idea of what they should be completing on a day-to-day basis. Focus your assessments on those metrics. If a job requires a person to be available during certain hours, that person should be held to that standard when remote. If the job doesn’t specifically require that, you may want to establish core office hours (wherever that office is) and communicate those so coworkers know when they can count on that person being available. When shifts are necessary, work to communicate those needs to the team. We’ll say it over and over again: you want to be flexible without compromising productivity and effectiveness. Solid communication streams can go a long way to making various ways of working effective for the individual, the team, and the company.

The workplace has changed and will keep changing. Quickly. Leaders need to be able to nimbly respond to their teams’ diverse needs to keep morale and productivity high. Balancing what we’ve learned about remote working over the past few months with what we already know about traditional in-office dynamics can result in policies, processes, and training that bring out the best in every team member.

If you see yourself and your teams reflected in these struggles, now is the time to invest in skills development. Reach out to us. We’ll listen and offer you our expertise.
 
Be sure to check back next week as we continue our series on supporting managers during this transition.