In a virtual meeting, make sure everyone understands

When facilitating a virtual meeting, it’s your job to make sure everyone fully understands what’s going on. Compensate for any language differences by acting as a moderator. After each comment or question, briefly paraphrase what was said. For example, you might say: “That’s an important question. I agree that the production facility’s capacity is a major risk in this plan. Here’s what we know ...” Or you can summarise a comment: “So, in your experience, this research technique requires a lot of resources, maybe more than we have. What does everyone else think about that?” These summaries may slow down your meeting, but making sure everyone understands the discussion will save you time in the long run.

(Adapted from Running Virtual Meetings from the 20-Minute Manager Series)

To be a strategic leader, be agile and consistent

The best leaders are able to execute the core of their business while remaining open to trends in the market. Being strategic in this way requires that you balance two traits. The first is consistency: Work hard and show up on time. Set goals for yourself and your employees, and then achieve them. You also need the second trait, agility: Be intellectually curious, ready to learn from others and collaborative. But just as consistency can turn into rigidity, agility can become a lack of focus when it isn’t tempered. So aim for a balance. Have high-quality standards, but also be open to understand when old ways of working no longer serve you or your company.

(Adapted from The Best Strategic Leaders Balance Agility and Consistency, by John Coleman)

Push back when your team is given unrealistic targets

You might feel helpless when your superiors hand you an astronomically high target for your team. But don’t just surrender and agree to take it on. Instead, share your concerns with your manager. Calmly and rationally, explain why the target feels unattainable, and use numbers to back up your argument. For example, you could say: “I saw the $2m target for our team. That’s a 23pc increase over last year. Each team member would have to improve their year-over-year performance by 38pc, but the best improvement we’ve ever achieved is 11pc. I’m concerned that attempting to achieve those targets will encourage short-term thinking that will hurt customer satisfaction and ultimately constrain our growth. Are there opportunities to revisit this target?” Your team will be grateful that you’re advocating on their behalf.

(Adapted from Managing a Team That’s Been Asked to Do Too Much, by Liane Davey)

Earn your employees’ trust

Most people do their best work when they know their manager trusts them. If they worry that you think they’re lazy or lack integrity, they’re unlikely to take feedback from you. So go out of your way to gain your employees’ trust by demonstrating positive assumptions about them. Give challenging assignments with the belief that your expectations will be met. And don’t hide information, or assume people will mishandle it. Instead, promote transparency. Try adding a ‘through the grapevine’ agenda item to meetings as an informal way for people to share company information they’ve heard, so you can either confirm or debunk the rumour. When managers demonstrate positive assumptions, employees respond in kind.

(Adapted from If Employees Don’t Trust You, It’s Up to You to Fix It, by Sue Bingham)

To guide your company’s future, look to its past

To guide an organisation’s growth, you need to understand its nature. Start by looking at its past. Dig around in the company archives. Talk to early employees to find out what the organisation used to be like. Read the corporate history, if you’ve got one. Look at the original vision and values of the founders. How did they see the world? What problem were they out to solve? How did they believe the business was creating value? Map what you learn to the company’s current business. Where is there alignment? Where isn’t there? The goal of this exercise isn’t just to increase your understanding of the company; it’s to think about how the company can create value in new ways while staying true to its origins.

(Adapted from How to Discover Your Company’s DNA, by Mark Bonchek)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, April 17th, 2017