Rachel explores common leadership blind spots that appear across various industries. She highlights issues like ineffective meetings, lack of commitment to professional development, inconsistent communication, and failing to foster meaningful connections in hybrid workplaces.
While every leadership team thinks its challenges are unique – to their company or industry – you’d be surprised how often they’re wrong. Let’s talk about some of the most common blind spots and how to resolve them.
Modern Mentor is hosted by Rachel Cooke. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
Have a question for Modern Mentor? Email us at modernmentor@quickanddirtytips.com.
Find Modern Mentor on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or subscribe to the newsletter to get more tips to fuel your professional success.
Modern Mentor is a part of Quick and Dirty Tips.
Links:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/modern-mentor-newsletter
https://www.facebook.com/QDTModernMentor
https://twitter.com/QDTModernMentor
https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-mentor-podcast/
Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise—a firm helping leaders end the tug of war between driving results and employee engagement. We do leader Activation bootcamps, keynotes, and Pulse checks to help build custom blueprints. Let us know what you need!
So about those bootcamps… one of my favorite parts is getting that peek behind the curtain about what groups of leaders are seeing and experiencing. Maybe most interesting to me is the fact that there are themes. Like common things that pop up whether I’m working with a leadership team in healthcare or retail or finance.
Turns out people are people. Weird, huh?
But the other great thing about these bootcamps is that because I have several touch points with the same group over several weeks, I get to see real-life results happen. Because over the course of the program we move from learning to asking our teams the right question to defining and implementing real action.
I get to watch leaders realize – not take it from me but learn for themselves – that they do have the power to make changes. Just small ones to start. But changes that have positive impacts on their teams and results.
Now for today, I thought it might be helpful to share with you some of those pesky things that seem to pop across industries – and to share some strategies I’ve seen real-life leaders implement. Because maybe there’s a nugget for your team in here.
1. Meetings with no movement.
You know. Meetings that are a fail. For one of the following reasons:
Or insert your own description of a painful meeting.
Point is they’re sucking our souls out. We all know it. We all complain about it. But also, too many leaders throw up their hands and say “hey – it’s just our culture. Nothing I can do about it.”
But spoiler. There is something you can do about it. Because the goal during these boot camps isn’t to flip a switch from on to off. It’s to create tiny increments of change. And let them accumulate.
So when a participant decided to make this simple change, I was intrigued. They committed to changing meeting titles from topic to purpose.
So simple, but it was clever. Instead of naming a meeting by the topic as we traditionally do (you know – Marketing Update or Finance Review or Weekly Team Check In), this leader decided they were gonna call a meeting by its purpose.
May seem small and symbolic, but only a few weeks in this strategy is already doing some important things.
One, it’s helping meeting organizers recognize when they… actually don’t have a purpose or objective. And it’s time to write that email.
And two, it’s helping people (a) decide if they need to be at that meeting and if so, (b) how to prepare for it. The more pre-work people do, the more impactful the meetings.
2. Lip service only to professional development
Hearing this one always and everywhere. You know – companies talking all day about their commitment to continuous learning and professional development. When you’ve got the time.
Also, you’ve never got the time. Because something urgent always comes up.
One solution I watched someone implement? Weekly learning circles. This leader decided – with their team – on a 90-minute window (they opted for 9 -10:30am local time on Fridays) in which they would come together (physically or virtually) for what looked like a team meeting.
But during that time leaders were learning. Either separately (listening to a pod, watching a TED talk), or together (discussing an article, doing some peer coaching).
The 90-minute window was treated as sacred time. Like with any other meeting, there could always be an exception. But those exceptions quickly became rare.
It’s still early days but this leader is telling me that already it’s encouraging learning (expected) but also is driving a stronger team connection. Which feels like a cheat code they’ll happily accept.
3. Inconsistent Communication
Happens all the time. I’m not judging. You’re a pretty good communicator. So are your peers leading other teams.
Problem is, you all do it differently. Different tones, different cadences, different interpretations of details and expectations and priorities.
So your teams get different - sometimes conflicting messages.
It leaves your team to draw conclusions. It’s kind of exhausting. And often leads to inaccuracies.
So what can you do to close the gap?
Well, one boot camp participant initiated a weekly communication check in with her peers – the leaders sitting at the same level leading teams or functions of their own.
Each member of this group summarizes what they’ve shared with their team that week and what they plan to say in the following. In some cases they all work together to draft a single communication to all of their teams.
This leader is reporting an early sense of victory. Anecdotal feedback from the team has been positive, and collaboration across teams is starting to happen more organically.
4. Time together that’s failing to connect
So…hybrid. We gotta talk about it right? So many teams across industries are working in some kind of blended remote/in-person reality. And we’ve yet to fully master it.
One thing coming up a lot is this sense that people are commuting to an office by force rather than choice…and in their time at an office they are mostly sitting on Zoom meetings. And resenting every minute of it. Does this sound familiar at all?
So one thing a Boot CampBootcamp participant took on is a little bit of professional matchmaking. Hear me out because I think it’s kind of cool.
He sent out a super quick survey to a bunch of people both on and not on his team. He asked a few questions about their areas of passion and expertise, what they want to learn, what their career ambitions are – they sort of thing.
And based on a quick review of those results, he’s started putting people into pairs or small groups in which he thinks there’s mutual benefit – like everyone has something to learn.
And he’s shared that back, encouraging “matches” to coordinate days in with each other.
And so far the feedback has been solid. It’s a zero-dollar investment driving connection, purpose, and learning. Hard to argue.
So, tell me. Do any of these challenges plague your team? If not, then keep on keeping on!
But my guess is at least one is jumping out
So go ahead. Borrow the strategy I shared or create your own. Or better yet, shoot me a note and talk about how an Activation bootcamp can give the leaders in your organization the clarity and tools they need to win big.
Join me next week for another great episode. Until then, visit my website at leadabovenoise.com if your workplace could use an Activation boost—whether it’s a bootcamp, a keynote, or a Pulse check, you choose. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Thanks so much for listening and have a successful week.
Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It’s audio-engineered by Dan Feirabend. Our Director of Podcasts is Brannan Goetschius. Our Podcast and Advertising Operations Specialist is Morgan Christianson. Our Digital Operations Specialist is Holly Hutchings. Our Marketing and Publicity Associate is Davina Tomlin. Our Marketing Contractor is Nathaniel Hoopes.