What's going on and welcome to the darn good leadership podcast. This show is all about being a strong and effective leader. One that can make positive impacts on your teams and communities. In the next 20 minutes, you're going to get ideas, inspiration, and practical advice. You can take action on today to be a darn good leader. I am your host, Emily. Holting. Hello. How you doing today? Today we are discussing a topic that very much deserves our attention. How to be better humans, better leaders. And in turn, create a better work environment and world. Now I'm not talking about solving all the world's problems, although yes, that would be nice, but I am talking about practicing traits to incrementally improve ourselves. And in turn those around us as leaders, we have to be so very mindful that the behavior we display. Is what we are showcasing to our teams and our employees as to what is appropriate. What is tolerated and what is expected. Your teams and those around you will start to pick up and begin modeling both the good and the bad that they are seeing from you. Now, none of us are perfect leaders or humans, but it is our duty to be hyper aware of the impact, our practices and habits carry. Poor leadership can sink any ship. However, strong leadership builds strong teams. And strong teams build strong companies, strong companies are more poised and equipped to navigate the storms and various circumstances. So today I'm sharing three things you can practice to help make your workplace. And the world a better place The first a story, picture this. You start a new job and you realize the culture. Is different. Everything you do, and everything you don't do will be harshly scrutinized. In fact, everything you've done and haven't done at your previous jobs are also examined and Mistakes. You better not make those. Accidents ha. You should know butter. Unintentionally offend someone. Wow. You just showed your true colors. Failures. Okay. Now, do you just want to get fired? You quickly see that this work environment is truly breeding something nasty. One where there is no comradery, no teaming, no trust, no empowerment. And instead. You find silos, fear-mongering finger pointing and individuals who are afraid to take any sort of action unless they are explicitly asked to do so by leadership. So, how does that sound? Who's interested in working. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a big, a strong hell. And that moves us into the importance of our first practice. The first thing we can practice to make the work environment and the world a better place is to give people grace. Giving people, grace in the workplace means providing them with what they need to be set up for success. So this could be words of guidance or encouragement. Meaningful or authentic feedback, giving people space to mess up and learn from their mistakes and offering second chances. Grace in and of itself is giving out positive energy and assuming good intent and all of us as we are all works in progress. The idea that anyone is perfect or can be perfect is a false one. We are all humans. We all make mistakes. And typically those mistakes help us grow, learn and develop into improved versions of ourselves, but not perfect ones. Giving grace is a gift that helps empower and encourage individuals and teams. If you give grace, then when you mess up, which you will do. People will be more inclined to extend grace back to you. To further help foster grace in your work environment. Here are some actual items you can take into your own place The first two are mantras. The first mantra is progress over perfection. And this is a mantra. You will hear me say over and over and over again at my place of work, but you will also now hear various leaders throughout the organization. Say the same thing, as well as my own team. This is something that we really want to stress and emphasize in our place of work because we want people to understand that we would rather have them get to action. And take a risk, take a step in that right path forward than to wait. We want them to be empowered and because we're hiring really smart people. So take the chance, take a chance and sometimes good as good enough, but then you're going to learn from it faster and you'll keep on progressing. And that's the environment we want to cultivate. So progress over perfection. Mantra number two assume. Good intent. This one is so critical in today's age of being global and social media. It's very easy to grab a blurb or see something in a slack chat or an email or over here, a sentence that someone has said that someone's requesting and it can be like, Ooh, that sounds off pudding. Take a moment to get curious and say, you know, when I'm going to assume good intent, I'm going to follow up and become curious about this thing with this person. And dig into what they actually meant before. We even go any further down this bunny hole. Assuming good intent is critical and fostering? There are two other things that you can do besides mantras. The first is something you'll have to do for yourself. As a leader, the moment that you realize that you've made a mistake, an accident, you have Own up to it and share that out with your own people. This is so powerful because the moment that you start to do that, yes, you'll have to be a little vulnerable, but the moment that you start to do that, you are showing your people and demonstrating to them that it is okay. It is safe. And you're creating a psychologically safe environment for them to fail, but learn. that's the big part learn. We're all going to mess up. It's just, are you learning from it or are you just repeating it over and over again? We don't want the repeating. But if we're learning from it, then all is good and well in the world. And that's what helps make us stronger, so own up, be vulnerable, share it out. And then you'll start to see your own people and teams demonstrating the same thing. And it just continues to foster this environment of grace. And the very obvious last thing that you can also do as a leader is to actually give out grace to your teams and your employees. So when there is an individual who is late to a meeting who forgot something spelled something wrong or miss something, or did something with good intent, but it just wasn't received right. Or they failed. Give them grace, bottom line giving grace in the workplace is a gift that helps empower and encourage individual and teams to be their best selves and to do their best work. Okay, so Storytime again. Picture this. You start a new job and the culture here is different. It seems people can do whatever they want and no one is held accountable. In fact, there seems to be zero ownership on anything. Have a team member who was in pulling their weight. No problem. Let's just turn a blind Are there repeating unprofessional work conduct No biggie. I'm sure we'll self-correct eventually. Consistently missing results as a company. Well, what are you going to do? Better luck next time. You quickly see that this work environment is truly breeding, something quite gnarly. One where there is no responsibility, no ownership and very little positive outcomes. And instead lives carelessness and difference and leaders who face zero consequences for their lack of results. Now, how does that sound? Who's interested in working here. Yeah, I don't think this place sounds good either. Right? So this brings us to the second thing we can all practice to make the workplace and the world a better place which is to hold people accountable Accountability and grace as a practice, bring balanced to the workplace. Accountability means being held responsible for your decisions, actions, and results. Now practicing accountability can be hard. In fact, a 2022 survey said that holding people accountable and letting go of underperforming individuals are some of the biggest weaknesses that CEOs struggle with. But as leaders there's far too much to be gained from an accountability culture for us to not seek it out. A culture of accountability, improves productivity, MRL. And it gives individuals and teams a sense of ownership and pride of work. Holding people accountable enables them to develop, grow and thrive in workplace. There are a couple of things as a leader you can do to help foster accountability in your work environment. So let's talk about those. The first is to think about diamonds. It's all about putting the right amount of pressure on your people and teams. And if you go too far one way or not enough, another way, you're not going to produce that great result that you're looking for. So. I always try to have this visual of a diamond in place. You want to put the right amount of pressure to create that diamond, that beautiful teamwork that you so desperately want to seek out. The second is to use, okay, ours, so objectives and key results. And this is a great way. When you're thinking about the diamonds, then you can use your objectives and key results to help set those expectations and make it really clear to the teams about what they need to do and what results and outcomes that you are specifically looking for. The third is to lean into critical conversations. And sometimes our conversations that we quite frankly don't want to have. They're, they're uncomfortable. They're hard. and yet it is required. Expecially, if there are any performance issues at play. So it's one thing. If somebody did a mistake or messed up or just had a failure of some sore, but you know, they're learning from it and it's not typical behavior, but when we're talking about real performance issues, Those need to be addressed ASAP. Very early in my career. I was responsible for an individual who. Kept falling asleep in meetings. And I heard it the first time. You know, that warrants a conversation but at the time in my career, I, I didn't know how to address that conversation. And so I kind of was like, well, let's just hope it doesn't happen again. Right. Kind of T I kind of turn that blind eye to be honest. And low and behold it happened again. And it happened again. And it was finally like, oh God, like I'm going to have to have this conversation. but it was the last thing I wanted to do, but that was what was required of me. And so, I look back on that now and. I should have done something about that. The moment I heard about it and. It's just something that, you learn with time as a leader and as an individual as you're growing, but. You really do have to lean into those hard conversations and navigate them the best you can with radical candor, which means you want assume good intent. You want to have that individual's best interests at heart, but you still have to embrace that difficult conversation. Right. So I should have embraced that immediately and said, Hey, I don't know what's going on. There could be pressures at home. It could be something medically related. but let's navigate this together. This, this isn't common behavior. This can't be tolerated. What's going on. Right? How can I help you? How can I make sure that you're doing good, that you're in good health and that we're still doing the job at hand. Another example I'll give of the importance of having critical conversations is there was an individual who I wasn't responsible for. But I do oversee a lot of different groups and teams that I coach and help with. And it became a common practice that this person would have really poor behavior. the teams that they worked with, the get really annoyed and frustrated, and then that manager would just push that employee off to the next team and not really deal with it. Just make it the next team's problem at hand. When leadership turns a blind eye and makes that other people's problems, there is no faster way to just, deplete morale, cause it's like, why am I going to try? Why am I doing all I can do in busting my butt? When this person here is behaving. And acting this way and it's being tolerated. And it's just, it's defeating to them. So it just has to be nipped out as hard and as difficult. You gotta lean into it. So have the difficult conversations and finally. The last one is extreme ownership. We talked about this before on the first practice around grace, but holding others accountable only works. If you're holding yourself accountable. It starts at the leaders doing that practice, and then that will make it a common practice and hopefully foster throughout your entire organization. People depend on strong leadership, your leadership to ensure they're set up for success and help them reach their expected outcomes. However, without accountability in place, there will be no motivation or reason for anyone to put in the effort. So practice accountability and help foster a culture that energizes everyone to do their best work and deliver value that is expected. One last story picture this You start a new job and the culture here is quite different. People openly appreciate each other. In fact, giving genuine praise and acknowledgement for one's work and good demeanor seems baked into their culture. Did you do a job? Well done. Y. Thank you. Amazing work. Did you demonstrate a core value for the company? Wow. Keep it up. Delivered results. Holy cow, congrats. You are invaluable to the company and we are so lucky to have you. You quickly see that this work environment is truly breeding, something quite remarkable. One where you feel valued, appreciated, and you want to bring your very best to the table. And this breeds a work environment of high performers and engaged talent. So, how does that Who's interested in working there. Sign me up. So the third thing we can all practice to make the world a better place is to show people gratitude. Attitude. Now gratitude is an expression, an act or a way of showing your thanks and appreciation towards someone or their actions. Leaders should prioritize authentic and consistent gratitude to their teens. And the best thing about it is this gratitude and leading with gratitude is completely free. Yes, it's free and yet it has all these amazing effects when you do sincere and consistent appreciation. It's helping boost performance, employee engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity. Because when people feel valued and recognized for their efforts and outcomes, it makes them more motivated to continue to do their best work. So here are some things you can do to help foster gratitude at your place of work. First is KYP. We talk about this a lot. No, your people. Find out, how they like to be recognized. What things make them feel valued? Is it words, is it monetary? Do they prefer private expressions of gratitude or maybe they like ones that are more public. Get to know your people. So when they do something great, you can thank them in a way that really makes them feel appreciated and is genuine to them. The second empower your teams and individuals to recognize each other. So you're only going to see so many things, but when team members see each other, do something great, you want to empower them enabling a method or a space for this to happen can help build rapport as well as trust. So sometimes in my one-on-ones I'll have one of my employees tell me how awesome another person is doing or what a fantastic job someone has done. And the first thing I will say to them is great. Have you acknowledged it? Can you email their boss? Can you use our formal recognition program? Can you give them feedback directly? Whatever it might be, but these things go a long way in a real motivators. The third is to show gratitude for your high performers. I will say that I've found that oftentimes high performers are overlooked and that their efforts become just expected. Just ordinary behavior and it gets taken for granted. And that can be a real bummer when they decide to leave high performers only stay at organizations if they feel valued. So if you've got one of those, you just need to make sure that you're consistently recognizing and appreciating what they are bringing to the table. And number four, don't overlook the small stuff. Sometimes the mundane work that isn't sexy gets overshadowed by all the flashy stuff. So make sure those small, but very critical items are celebrated and acknowledged. Let's recap, the three things, all of us can practice to make the workplace and the world a better place is one. Give people grace. To hold people accountable. And three show people gratitude. As a reminder, as leaders, we must be mindful that the behavior we display is what we are showcasing to our teams and As what is appropriate, what is tolerated and what is expected? So leaders keep everyone's best interest in mind. Do the hard work of having tough conversations often and early, and always make an effort to encourage the people around you. That's what I've got for you today. I so appreciate you tuning in and I hope you'll be back next week. If you like, what you heard, please leave a rating and review. Be bold, be bright, be a darn good leader who says thank you often. And sincerely, cheers.