Here are a few questions to consider for your next Manager/Employee check-in. If you’re a manager, try a few out on your employees. If you’re an employee, try to answer them ahead of your check-in and see if they inspire a different kind of touchpoint.
Read MoreGreat public speaking begins weeks before the actual event, when you figure out what you’re going to say. Then, in the moment, it’s about knowing how to say it just right.
Download this resource for some easy and digestible tips and tricks to help you determine what to say and how to say it so that your communication counts.
Read MoreVoices have rhythm, beats, texture, and timbre… all qualities of music. By thinking about our vocal chords as if they’re instruments to practice playing, we can open up an entire world of vocal delivery techniques that are both learnable and measurable in their impact.
Read MoreInstead of providing direct instructions and advice to employees, a manager who acts as a coach will ask open-ended questions to help their employees reflect and move forward with intention.
Download this resource to learn how managers who are empowered to be coaches support a culture of continuous improvement throughout the performance review process.
Read MoreTOOL
This Google Sheets template will help you diagnose the quality of your manager/employee check-ins. Discover whether your time is well-spent, or if you have opportunity to have more meaningful, effective, and inspiring conversations.
Read MoreProcess Conversations focus on alignment around HOW work gets accomplished. This is different from the typical conversations at work about WHAT needs doing. Often, HOW work will get done is rarely discussed. And if it is considered with any kind of intention, it’s usually considered by a leader in isolation, who believes that how the work is done should be a decision they make unilaterally.
Process Conversations are great opportunities for leaders to inspire others, generate buy-in, and drive engagement. AND they’re an access point through which to engage and inspire UP the chain of command as well.
Read MoreManager check-ins, one-on-ones, touchpoints… Whatever you may call them, they are the foundation of a strong manager-employee relationship and the lynchpin for supporting your employees in many ways. This 30-minute-or-so recurring meeting between manager and employee seems so simple that it’s often taken for granted and therefore underutilized. They are used as opportunities to get project updates or chat about anything, when they could be so much more supportive of the employee’s professional growth and development. More often than not, we hear about employees or managers who simply put them off, postpone them indefinitely, or end up using the time as status report opportunities rather than truly leveraging their power.
It’s time to go back to the basics. Here are 4 things that go wrong with your manager check-ins and how to avoid them.
Read MoreFall is conference season. For many professionals, at some point in the fall, they’ll pack their bags, head to a hotel and mix with industry peers. There’s a lot to gain at conferences—knowledge, skills, relationships—but it can be hard to capitalize on all that conferences have to offer in the moment. Here’s a step by step approach to maximize the conference value when you’re back at your desk the following Monday and have a chance to take a breath.
Process Conversations are great opportunities for leaders to inspire others, generate buy-in, and drive engagement. AND they’re an access point through which to engage and inspire UP the chain of command as well.
Read MoreMaking people feel seen, heard, and understood is one of the most fundamental and important skills of a coach. In our work over the past decade, we’ve come to believe that it’s also one of the most important, yet underdeveloped, skills of a leader.
Read MoreAs a manager, you can create a predictable and safe environment for those conversations at your regular manager/employee check-ins. Many of us have had these meetings on our calendar but there’s a big difference between a well organized, predictable, thoughtful check-in and the rushed, distracted, “default” check-in. Scheduling the check-in and inviting your employee to meet with you is not enough.
Read MoreTOOL
Download a pdf with prompts and questions designed to help you inspire you to have an intentional and productive manager/employee check-in.
Read MoreWhen organizing a working group meeting, you may decide that part of the reason for gathering is to collect input and expertise from your members. Remember that giving your participants something to DO is a powerful way to engage them and give them purpose, so don’t hold back. Then, focus on giving your conversation structure so that you can manage the loud voices and democratize the input.
Read MoreTOOL
This Google Docs reflection document includes prompts and questions designed to help you prepare for a conversation when you want to influence someone.
Read MoreTOOL
This Google Sheets template will help you map your power on a specific issue. You’ll identify the relevant people and then evaluate their power, support and the quality of your relationship with them to understand your champions and detractors.
Read MoreWorking groups are a particularly challenging group to organize and facilitate. Members typically participate in a working group as volunteers, or as an “add on” to their day-to-day jobs. They’re usually made up of members who are more experienced and senior than the person charged with spearheading the group, and the lack of power structure makes accountability to the group a bit thin.
Read MoreLike many event-based learning, there’s always a risk that the skills, knowledge, energy and momentum developed in our workshops may get lost in the mess of daily worklife. We have pre- and post-event activities built into the Influential Storytelling program to help people integrate storytelling directly into their workflow, but there’s always more you can do to make storytelling part of your organizational culture.
Read MoreWe’ve all heard the expressions “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” or “look good, feel good” but Stephanie didn’t really believe them. She was conflicted about wanting to look good and feeling guilty about wasting time focusing on “vain” things like clothes and makeup. But, it turns out that research indicates that what we wear affects our brain. It impacts our behavior, mood, personality, confidence, and how we interact with others. Getting dressed is less about what it signals to other people, and more about how it affects yourself.
Read MoreOne of our recent Story Hours focused on the topic of Navigating Conflict: Working through an interpersonal challenge. The imminence of the event inspired Kara to brainstorm story ideas that could fit that subject. Navigating conflict is a guaranteed component of leadership. It comes up all the time in our coaching conversations as our clients navigate conflict with their managers, colleagues and/or direct reports. There’s almost no limit to where it can show up at work and, when it does, it creates a spiraling ball of distraction that saps mental energy, inhibits communication and causes negative feelings all around.
Read More“Employee engagement” has been a hot-button issue for more than a decade, and remains central to organizational strategy. But engagement is even more important now as companies experiment with hybrid work, or a permanent virtual workforce, and the Great Resignation exists as an ever-present backdrop. And yet, “engagement” remains a big-picture, intangible, and somewhat esoteric idea that has lots of impact on the people within an organization without anyone really understanding what to do about it.
The truth of the matter is that truly engaging your team happens long before the actual moment of reckoning. It’s thinking through details, and finding ways to activate interest and ownership with your employees in every interaction. Here are three common myths about employee engagement and what you can do instead.
Read MoreA request is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as ‘the act or an instance of asking for something’. From a coaching perspective, this definition falls short. A request, in our opinion, is made when we see untapped potential or an opportunity not being fully leveraged within a person. At its core, a request is a gift of possibility available to the person who chooses to receive, unwrap and appreciate the request you have made.
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