Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

My conversations this month have focused on coaching as part of developing a bespoke coaching programme for senior leaders, and the challenge of highly experienced sales leaders coaching their sales teams.  I am reminded again of what the data tells us and has been telling us for years and it’s stark: you’re not as good a coach as you think.

Research going back more than 20 years has reinforced engagement surveys of several global brands with whom I have partnered for more than a decade.   All of them – yes all of them – reinforce what Daniel Goleman talked about when he asked executives to self-assess their coaching capability and compare it to the perception of their skills from the people whom they coached.  There was a mismatch – a significant one – and this difference I have come across repeatedly.   
So, irrespective how long we’ve coached, how do leaders everywhere really need to sharpen their coaching skills?

Here are my top tips:

*Get your ‘why coach’ story clear to improve buy-in, because otherwise your team don’t get it, won’t see the value of it and it won’t work.

* Don’t save coaching for 1:1s.  Brilliant coaches effortlessly coach within everyday conversations.  Coaching isn’t a ‘special event’ where you ‘do some coaching’.

* Having said that, make sure you understand what 1:1s really are.  They are very different types of conversations from all the other discussions and so the chance to have a rich, expansive, extensive coaching discussion during 1:1s.

* Each person in your team should have a development plan (irrespective of whether or not they want climb the career ladder in the future).  Why?  Because we all get tired and stale in our role if we don’t – and worse – we don’t even realise it.

* Understand the difference between coaching, mentoring, advising, directing, empowering, motivating, enthusing, influencing and how it can transform the engagement and performance of your people no matter how long they’ve been in post, how skilled they are, how engaged they are. 

* Stop passing the buck.  If your team aren’t continually improving their capabilities …then that’s on you.  It’s the job of a leader to improve the capabilities of their team and keep them engaged.

* You’ve always got time for it.  If you talk to your teams every day, then you’ve got time to coach…because that’s where you can coach brilliantly.

* Prepare better for the discussion with far better questions.

* Stop telling all the time.  Coaching helps people think, act, and own their own success.

* Show up fully and stay present… your emails, pings, messages etc. can all wait.  If they can’t, you’re not delegating sufficiently and developing your team to be able to step away from madness and have quality time with your team.

* No-one is perfect.  No matter how superb your team are, everyone can hone their skills.  Always.  Ask any high performance athlete.  Who do they credit when they conquer the world in their chosen sport?  Their coach.

Until next time….

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

So, how’s it going so far, being back in the office?  Is it all sparkles and sunshine?  Or is it a bit of a grind and with rumbling dissatisfaction amongst some quarters?  My conversations with clients across a number of industries and geographic regions this month have focused almost exclusively of the value of bringing people together in the office, and the challenge which hybrid leaders everywhere face when it comes to getting it right.  Here are 3 of the biggest mistakes (let’s call them regrets or learnings shall we, to be a bit more positive), that the experiences so far have revealed:

1.          A ‘Tell Rather Than Involve’ Mentality

The default human reaction to change is consistent; we worry as human beings about what we might lose.  So, as our teams consider doing battle with the commute, and let me be clear, some of our employees can’t wait to get back to the office, the mistake to avoid is issuing edicts.  ‘You must’/ ‘You are required’/ ‘You have to be’ etc.  Why do I say that?  Because whilst I fully appreciate that organisations have large, expensive buildings which have sat largely empty for several years, and the commercial need to bring people together for lots of good reason is utterly valid, the opportunity here is to involve our people in working out how to make coming into the office really work for them.  That way, our people will want to come in often and are invested in getting the maximum benefit from it.  Stephen Covey is often quoted as saying: “no involvement means no commitment”.  Asking our teams to contribute ideas and suggestions to the new operational rhythms and routines which will make working from home and working from the office actually – well, work – means trusting and empowering them to work out what the frequency and format should be.

2.          A Lack Of Rigour Around Technology Used In Hybrid Meetings

Who can even remember how to turn on the conference room technology in the office, let alone use it?  Given the extensive enhancements in enterprise-wide conferencing platform technology – the need to upgrade our kit at the office is essential.  The most common mistakes include inadequate audio capability, so the remote audience can’t hear those who are gathered together.  Remote teams are pretty well sorted with microphones/headsets at home, but the office hasn’t caught up sufficiently quickly.  If we can’t be heard, then who cares?  The remote audience will just get going with some emails.  Camera angles and being visible when sat in a meeting room is also really important – especially if we want – and we should do – to see our colleagues who are dialling in online. 

3.          A Failure To Realise That Better – And Different – Communication Skills Are Needed

We meet to have high quality conversations, make decisions, seek commitments and agree actions.  We don’t meet to confuse others with lengthy complicated slides which no-one understands, do emails and ignore each other for hours at a time.  There’s too much of the latter, and not enough of the former going on in business today.  A hybrid meeting (where people are present in person as well as dialling in online), requires a fundamental shift in our communication skills.  There is far more complexity to navigate, two different audiences to manage, plus the glorious unpredictability of technology and so our chairperson skills and technology management skills increase to meet these challenges.  Brilliant, hybrid communication skills drive equitable, high value, timely and relevant conversations in the hybrid environment, and enable real-time tools such as chat, polling, annotation etc. to work for us, not against us.

Until next time….

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

As September comes around, the sense of ‘back to school’ and ‘back to the routine’ looms large and as a new school year begins, I’ve been thinking about how clients might mark their own homework in relation to hybrid working and hybrid leadership in their business.  What ‘grade’ would we give ourselves?

Okay, enough of the academic references.  My conversations this month have prompted me to think about these questions and as a result, what are 3 things all great hybrid leaders need to focus on now?  Here’s my view:

·      Involvement: Involve your teams to be part of the solution, rather than set them as being on the other side of the ‘problem’.  Leaders want their teams back in the office to some extent. Great!  So, what makes it appealing and enjoyable for teams to navigate the commute and be there?  Other than being on Teams and Zoom all day?  Leadership is an inspiration business… now is the chance to inspire others to want to come back, rather than simply dictate that they are.  The latter requires little communication skill; the former requires a lot more.  No involvement means no commitment, as the very famous saying goes…

·      Development: Turbocharge professional growth… in a post-Covid world with an ‘intensity bias’ in every business I’ve come across in the past 3 years, each team member needs a relevant, engaging development plan.  Engaging your people means helping them be even better in their role so that they can enjoy more success, satisfaction, balance, joy, ease… whatever they want from their role… and this is especially key for your top performers. 

·      Connection: Strengthen it.  As human beings, we crave it and feel the loss of it at a level which is increasingly profound in a post-Covid world.  We want to belong to something that matters to us more than ever, something for which we are deeply appreciated, and we want to be part of something in which we flourish doing things that bring us meaning and purpose.

Easy to write; much harder to do… and without exquisite communication skills, we won’t.  So, not only is it back to school for our kids… but also for us.  What do we need to dial up today?

Until next time….

Sarah Brummitt
FFIPI AICI CIP

During Covid-19 when we were all working from home and the office doors were locked; a surprising fact is just how productive we all became.  We got extremely busy and accomplished a lot.  Whilst managing our health, looking after our families, worrying about those we love, staying safe, and wondering when all of this would end; we worked, and worked and worked.

Tasks won out.

However, amongst many things, in a professional context, what suffered as a result of the global pandemic was our relationships at work.  No time to natter; no walking down the corridors catching up on the latest events, no gossiping in the kitchen as we make a coffee, no sitting in the canteen and eating our lunches, no sharing plans for the day/week/weekend, no moments of connection, fun or friendship.

It is in all of these moments that we build ‘social capital’, and it is that which binds us together, makes us feel like we belong, like this is a great place to be.  It is in these moments that trust is built, and we feel psychologically safe.

Humans are wired for connection because we’re pack animals.  We want to feel part of something.  Fundamentally, we want to feel that we matter.  Now that we’re navigating a forever changed work environment where we’re both remote and, in the office, the strain, the challenge and the opportunity, is to strengthen our relationships with colleagues.

Why?  Because we’re all in a relationship business.  We need others to get things done, help us out, make our lives easier, deliver results, demonstrate value to our customers… the list is endless.

Harvard Business Review published research pre-pandemic which reveals that we’re two and a half times more likely to mistrust colleagues we don’t see very often versus those we see regularly face-to-face.  We feel less psychologically safe around them and are more likely to perceive incompetence, mistrust and poor decision making. 

And here’s the challenge… just how do we meaningfully build relationships now?  Especially given the new, hybrid world of work.  I’m struck by how many clients operate from the belief that “well, it just happens”.  Sometimes that may be the case, but most often the reality is that it does not.  Why?  Because we need to fight through all of the demands of time and task to get the attention of others, demonstrate value, create connection and build trust.  We don’t have much time, or even the same type of opportunities in which to do this, and so we need different skills and strategies to do this well.

So where to begin?  Over the next couple of months, I’ll share a variety of practical approaches which work in the hybrid world.  Here’s just three to kick us off:

– Set SMART goals for the relationship.  Wait, what?  Because we need to set intentions and gauge whether or not our efforts are working.  Think in very practical terms.  For example, by the end of the quarter I want to have met that person face to face.  That’s a SMART goal.  What’s next?  That’s where most people get stuck.  Don’t just assume that you’re now mates for life; you’re not.  It is a subtle, gradual process around which there is much more to say… and I’ll do so over the coming months.

– Be fully present.  Hideously bad habits have become the norm (e.g., talking to you whilst on my device; demonstrably doing emails and not listening on a remote call, off camera most of the time etc.).  All of these things and many more besides say ‘you’re not worth all my attention’.  Well good luck with that.  Show up and be fully present, otherwise don’t show up at all.

– Be curious about others.  I have an expression called ‘the press play person’.  This individual (and they might be in our family or social circle, never mind at work) just talks, and talks, and talks.  It’s like pressing play on a podcast, movie or song.  It just goes on and on and on.  They never asks you a question about you, your life, your family, what’s important for you, what’s going on for you… they simply talk and talk and talk.  Don’t be the ‘press play’ person.

Meaningfully building relationships in the hybrid environment isn’t easy.  There’s much more to say….and I’ll be saying it next time.

Until next time….