Before hiring a friend, set some boundaries

Hiring a friend into your company is risky: Can the personal relationship coexist alongside a professional one? But if you approach the situation carefully, it’s possible to work with each other while preserving the friendship. First, make sure you’re comfortable saying no to the person. If you do become your friend’s boss, you’ll need to have confidence that their emotional maturity can make the dynamic work. Next, set their expectations about whether they’re likely to get the job. Say something like, “I want to explore the possibility of our working together — but I want to be clear that it might not be a good idea.” Last, think together about how you’d deal with difficult situations that may arise on the job.

(Adapted from “What to Consider Before Hiring a Friend,” by Joseph Grenny.)

Can you explain your start-up’s great idea?

Start-up and technical business leaders often don’t tell their innovation stories well. They rely too much on industry jargon and complex detail to get their points across. This is a huge missed opportunity. When you’re doing good work, you want people to know about it. So whether you’re drafting website copy, or a marketing brochure, follow a few rules. First, use simple language to communicate your message. Clear, straightforward writing will draw in a broader audience. Second, keep it simple, and build your narrative one idea at a time. Third, consider hiring professional storytellers. Seek out writers who have crafted op-eds or articles for a variety of publications.

(Adapted from “Technical Experts Need to Get Better at Telling Stories,” by Karen Mazurkewich.)

To use your time better, track it

It’s hard to know whether you’re using your time efficiently. Even if you’re always working hard — and stressed out — are you sure you’re spending your time on the right things? To find out, try a time-tracking exercise. For 30 days, use a spreadsheet to log how you spend your time, measuring it in half-hour increments. It might sound arduous, but this exercise can yield some surprising insights. For example, maybe one of your goals is to read more, in order to explore new ideas, but you’re struggling to find the time. The exercise might reveal that you could combine exercising, cooking or commuting to work with listening to audio books or podcasts. Time tracking might also show you that you’re especially likely to waste certain hours of the day and that certain tasks carry disproportionate psychological weight.

(Adapted from “Track Your Time for 30 Days. What You Learn Might Surprise You,” by Dorie Clark.)

Recover from a cultural faux pas

A social mistake in another culture isn’t easy to recover from. Maybe it was a joke that misfired, an unintentional violation of personal space, or a misreading of the context that resulted in someone losing face. Before working in another culture, make an effort to understand the etiquette for apologising. Find out what verbal and body language people use when faux pas occur. For example, do they say, “Excuse me” or “I’m sorry,” or even smile, laugh, bow or look away? Do they show contrition or humility, address it publicly or discreetly, simply ignore it? Keep in mind that most cultures don’t have one-size-fits-all rules for reacting to mistakes, and context is key.

(Adapted from “How to Recover from a Cultural Faux Pas,” by Melissa Hahn and Andy Molinsky.)

Does your team want you to be humble?

Should leaders be humble? We often say yes, leaders should display humility — but there is no shortage of people who have risen to the top of an organisation without it. Why the disparity? Research finds that it has to do with what team members expect. If employees prize egalitarianism, a leader who shows humility can promote creativity and open communication. On hierarchical teams, however, employees are likely to expect their leader to take charge and make important decisions. In these circumstances, humility can look like weakness or indecisiveness. In fact, a humble leader can cause these employees to feel psychologically unsafe, making them hesitate to take risks and speak up. This doesn’t mean a leader shouldn’t display humility at all; rather, it’s important to balance authority and humility.

(Adapted from “Research: When Being a Humble Leader Backfires,” by Jia Hu et al.)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 30th, 2018