Author: Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

50+ Great One-On-One Meeting Questions For Managers

50+ Great One-On-One Meeting Questions For Managers

One-on-one meetings between managers and their team members are essential for fostering employee engagement, building strong relationships, and driving performance management. These meetings provide an opportunity to address important topics, discuss career goals, offer support, provide feedback, and create a space for open and honest communication. However, knowing what questions to ask during these one-on-one meetings can be challenging. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of essential questions managers can use to make the most of these meetings. These questions cover various topics, from achievements and challenges to work-life balance and professional development. By asking the right questions, you can gain valuable insights into their team members’ goals, aspirations, concerns, and suggestions for improvement. This can help managers better understand their team members’ needs, provide support, and foster a positive and productive work environment.
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Getting the questions for one-on-one meetings right 

Do you ever go blank thinking about what you should ask your team during the one-on-one meetings? Or, sometimes, everything seems too absurd or obvious to ask! In such moments, here are some tips to find good questions for one-on-one meetings with your team:
  • Keep the workplace boundaries alive: No one appreciates intruders, more so at the workplace. So, while you can impact and influence in many areas as a manager, be considerate about places that you should not approach. Avoid getting into personal matters or personalities; think of work and the professionals you work with—how can you best help them?
  • Approach from the point of care: Would you be open to sharing your most vulnerable side with someone you barely know? No, right? The same goes for your team members; they might not be very open from the get-go until they know that you are a well-wisher who wants to help them on their journey. Building bridges and relationships takes time, so be prepared to give it.
  • Personality and community differences exist: Some of your questions may not land precisely how you picture them. Think of the personality and communication style of the person you are talking to, and then proceed to set the agenda for the one-on-one meeting with their needs and attitudes in mind. You may need to ask some questions differently or wait multiple iterations before they are comfortable enough to open up.
With these ideas in mind, let’s examine some one-on-one meeting questions that you should ask your team at the next opportunity! 

One-on-One meeting questions for managers to ask

We have grouped the questions along important areas that a manager should talk about with their teams.

Appreciating achievements of your team

As a manager, it is essential to acknowledge and celebrate your team members’ achievements. You show your support and interest in their progress by asking this question. It also allows your team members to reflect on their accomplishments and highlight their strengths. These question can provide valuable insights into your team members’ career goals and personal growth. It creates an opportunity for them to share their successes and for you to recognize their efforts.
  • Can you share any accomplishments or milestones you’ve reached since our last meeting?
  • What progress have you made on your goals, and is there anything you’re particularly proud of?
  • Have you received any positive feedback or recognition from colleagues or clients recently?
  • How do you feel about your performance over the past [time period]? Any standout moments you’d like to highlight?
  • Is there a specific project or task you feel you excelled in recently? I’d love to hear more about it.
  • What challenges have you overcome recently, and how did you navigate them?
  • Are there any accomplishments you feel haven’t been fully recognized or acknowledged yet?
  • Is there anyone on the team who has made a significant contribution that you think deserves recognition?

Supporting your team’s growth

Supporting your team members in reaching their goals is crucial for your employee’s professional growth and engagement. By asking questions about this area, you demonstrate your commitment to their success and open a dialogue about how you can provide the necessary support. It allows your team members to express their needs, share their career aspirations, and discuss potential action items.
  • How can I best provide you with feedback and guidance as you work towards your goals?
  • Are there any training or development opportunities you believe would be beneficial for achieving your goals?
  • Would you like more frequent check-ins or support meetings to discuss your progress and challenges?
  • Do you feel that your current workload aligns with your goals, or do you need assistance in prioritizing tasks?
  • Are there any additional responsibilities or projects you’re interested in taking on to further your development?
  • Are there any connections or networking opportunities that would help you advance towards your goals?
  • Would you benefit from mentorship or coaching to help you navigate your career path?
  • How can I adjust our team’s priorities or structure to better align with your individual goals?

Challenges are important to talk about, too!

Identifying and addressing challenges is crucial for your team’s personal and professional growth. Here are some questions for one-on-one meetings to help you figure them out. It allows them to share their concerns and seek your guidance or support as their manager. Plus, it makes you an absolutely trustworthy and reliable manager!
  • Are there any aspects of your role or projects that you find particularly challenging?
  • Are there any areas where you’re feeling stuck or unsure of how to proceed?
  • Are there any external factors or circumstances impacting your work that you’d like to discuss?
  • Have you noticed any patterns or recurring issues that are causing frustration or difficulty?

Questions on work life balance in one-on-one meetings

A healthy work-life balance is crucial for employee well-being and overall job satisfaction. By asking this question, you demonstrate your concern for your team members’ personal lives and well-being. It allows them to reflect on their work-life balance and share any problems or suggestions for improvement. These one-on-one meeting questions also shows your commitment to their overall happiness. It helps build a positive and inclusive work culture, thus building a relationship outside deadlines.
  • Are there any specific areas where you feel your work-life balance could be improved?
  • How do you prioritize your personal well-being amidst your professional responsibilities?
  • Are there any adjustments to your work schedule or workload that you believe would contribute to a better work-life balance?
  • What activities or hobbies do you engage in outside of work to recharge and relax?

Supporting learning and growth in one-on-one meetings

You encourage your team members to reflect on their skills and identify areas for improvement during one-on-one meetings. It allows them to express their interests and career aspirations. By understanding their skill development goals, you can provide resources, training opportunities, and guidance to help them acquire the desired skills. This question demonstrates your commitment to their professional development and fosters a culture of continuous learning within your team.
  • What specific skills do you feel are important for your role, and would you like to focus on developing or improving?
  • Can you share any specific career goals or aspirations you have that involve skill development?
  • Are there any particular areas of your job where you feel you could benefit from additional training or support?
  • How do you envision your skill set evolving over the next year or two, and what steps do you think are necessary to achieve that?
  • Have you come across any learning opportunities or resources lately?

Make the feedback loop complete

Asking for feedback on your management style shows your openness to growth and improvement as a manager. It allows your team members to share their perspectives on how you can better support them and create a positive work environment. You can adjust your management approach and enhance team dynamics by understanding their feedback. These one-on-one meeting questions promotes open communication, trust, and collaboration.
  • How would you describe our team dynamics, and are there any areas where you think we could improve?
  • Can you share any experiences where you felt particularly supported or challenged by my management style?
  • What specific actions or behaviors do you believe contribute to a positive work environment, and how can I incorporate them into my management approach?
  • Are there any aspects of my management style that you find particularly effective or ineffective?
  • What suggestions do you have for me to better support you and the rest of the team in achieving our goals?

One-on-one meeting questions for professional growth

Discussing your team members’ career aspirations and goals is crucial for their engagement and retention. By asking this question, you encourage them to reflect on their long-term career path and share their aspirations. It allows you to align their goals with the team’s objectives and create growth opportunities. This question fosters a sense of purpose, motivation, and loyalty within your team.
  • What specific career goals do you hope to achieve within the next year?
  • What are your professional development goals for the next quarter?
  • How do you see your current role contributing to your long-term career aspirations?
  • Are there any skills or experiences you feel are essential for advancing your career?
  • What support or resources do you believe would be most helpful in achieving your career goals?
  • Have you identified any potential opportunities for growth or advancement within our team or organization?
  • Are there any areas of professional development you would like to focus on to further your career?
  • What steps do you think are necessary to progress along your desired career path, and how can I assist you in taking those steps?

Make the team a shared space with thoughtful one-on-one meeting questions

You can encourage your team members to share their perspectives on the team and suggest improvements through questions in one-on-one meetings. It allows them to voice their concerns, ideas, and suggestions for better collaboration and team operations. These one-on-one meeting questions promotes transparency, trust, and open dialogue within your team. It also helps them see the team as something of their own instead of just another set of people to handle.
  • Do you have any suggestions for improving communication channels or platforms within our team?
  • Are there any specific communication practices or protocols you believe we should implement to improve collaboration and clarity?
  • Do you think our team meetings are effective in promoting communication and collaboration? If not, what changes would you propose?
  • Are there any tools or technologies you believe could facilitate better communication and information sharing within our team?
  • What are your thoughts on the team’s current dynamics? Do you see any challenges that could be hampering our progress?
  • Is there anything you feel is missing in our current project management tools?
  • Do you feel your work aligns with your personal values and our company’s mission?
  • Are there any projects you’re particularly excited to work on?

Keep the conversation open-ended

Providing an opportunity for open discussion is essential for addressing any additional concerns or topics your team members may have. By asking these one-on-one meeting questions, you create a space for them to share anything on their mind. It allows for a more personalized and meaningful conversation, fostering trust and building solid relationships with your team. This encourages open communication, promotes engagement, and ensures all critical topics are addressed, even when you might have missed them on the agenda! Here’s how you can prompt your team to share their thoughts toward the end of the discussions:
  • Are there any personal or professional matters that you would like to discuss further?
  • Is there anything specific that has been on your mind lately that you’d like to talk about?
  • Do you have any questions, concerns, or ideas that you’d like to share with me?
  • Is there any feedback you have for me regarding our recent interactions or team dynamics?
  • Are there any challenges or opportunities that you think we should address as a team?
  • Do you have any suggestions for improving our work environment or team culture?
  • Is there anything that you feel has been overlooked or needs more attention within our team?
  • Is there anything else on your mind that you’d like to discuss?

Keeping one-on-one meetings effective: how to set up 1-1 chats?

In order to prepare effective one-on-one meeting questions, it is important to follow best practices that promote meaningful conversations and address important topics
  • Set a meeting agenda: Having a clear agenda for one-on-one meetings helps provide structure to the meeting and ensures that all important topics are covered.
  • Ask open-ended questions: Open-ended questions encourage team members to share their thoughts and feelings, leading to more meaningful conversations.
  • Use active listening skills: Actively listen to your team members’ responses and show genuine interest in their perspectives. This helps build trust and strengthens the manager-employee relationship.
  • Tailor your questions: Each team member is unique, with different needs and goals. Tailor your questions to their individual circumstances to ensure that the conversation is relevant and impactful.
  • Follow up on action items: After discussing important topics, follow up on any action items or commitments made during the meeting. Provide the necessary support and resources to help your team members achieve their goals.

Summing Up

In conclusion, effective one-on-one meetings are vital for fostering strong relationships and boosting team morale. By asking thoughtful questions tailored to each team member, you demonstrate your support and commitment to their growth. Remember, listening actively and providing constructive feedback are key elements in making these meetings successful. Implementing these best practices will not only improve individual performance but also contribute to the success of the entire team. Embrace the opportunity to connect, understand, and empower your team members through meaningful one-on-one interactions.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

How strong are your one-on-one meetings?

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How To Build A Learning Culture At Work?

How To Build A Learning Culture At Work?

Go back to the beginning of your career. Fresh out of college and looking at the prospect of your new fancy job – what was on your mind? “Learning a lot” is a popular answer. And over the years, things have not quite changed; it’s still about learning and development, with greater importance on the former as the speed of changes and advancements has increased rapidly.  Josh Bersin and LinkedIn teamed up to understand how much learning matters at work; unsurprisingly, they noted – 
  • the opportunity to learn and grow is the second most inspiring thing about the job 
  • the lack of opportunity to learn and grow is the foremost reason to leave a job 
It is bound to happen as learning is closely tied to professional growth. Moreover, a rapidly evolving world creates redundancies and demands for new skills. To keep up, you need to learn constantly, even by stealing time from your full-time job. It’s about more than just the employees who are seeking more; organizations that are not learning are losing their competitive edge with older methods and ideas. Learning as an organizational initiative has never been more pertinent and misunderstood at once. In between this chaos comes the cultural element – does your organization have a learning culture? One that enables rather than punishes. 
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What is a learning culture?

A learning culture helps you thrive, not just survive, at your job. Think of a learning culture as one where everything is designed to enable growth and learning opportunities for employees instead of treating them like hurdles on the way to productivity. As a result, the average day in a learning culture looks quite like this:  You attend a stand-up call that focuses on the tasks and challenges of the day. Your colleague shares where they are stuck, another update about their progress, and the new skill they are learning. During a coffee break, you tell your team member about a solution you thought of. They listen, help you fine-tune it, and help you apply it when you encounter the following problem. The day is going on, and you are stuck. There’s no way out, but your manager shows up and offers a solution. They also ask if you want to add something to the process. At lunch, there’s a session that mixes good food with interesting ideas. This week’s lunch and learn features an expert, and you can ask them about the latest happenings in your field. As the day closes, you have a list of books suggested by your peers and a course your manager recommends. Your company even pays for it! You are excited to know more. Does that sound good? That’s what a learning culture looks like in action. To sum up, let’s see the key features of a learning culture in an organization.

Creating a learning culture: Key ingredients

  • First, a learning culture embraces a growth mindset that recognizes the value and opportunity of learning at every opportunity. It allows managers and team members to approach limitations as opportunities instead of roadblocks. As we saw in the example above, there are constant and omnipresent reinforcements toward learning, whether innovative ways of doing things or risk appetite.
  • Second come the resources and tangible ideas, such as books and lunch-and-learn sessions. These can take many forms depending on what your team needs—the key is finding something that creates value for them.
  • Third, as noted above, many opportunities are informal and created in situations that are not actively planned. It happens when learning becomes second nature to everyone. The effort is not just for L&D or the senior leadership; it’s a community effort for everyone.

Why is a learning culture important?

Although it sounds good as a concept, why should you invest in building a learning culture in your organization? Primarily, the reasons why a learning culture matters include: 
  • Helps you retain good talent: Opportunities to learn and grow are top priorities in employee surveys. They are also critical determinants of your employees’ long-term growth and success. Moreover, learning and development can positively impact your employees’ self-esteem and safety, enabling them to work more stress-free.
  • Learning culture leads to a more developed workforce: When learning is a way of life, your people are bound to be on top of their game with constant updates and ideas from the world. Learning is reinforced through regular interactions as an aspect of your organizational culture. Consequently, you can keep innovating and getting better than your competitors.
  • Builds resilience and agility: The skills determining success today differ from a decade ago. Organizations that understood trends and moved with them could capture the market and get more done even when things kept changing. Constant learning makes your team resilient to changes and keeps your processes agile.
  • Improves business outcomes: Learning helps you advance and remain ahead of others, thus providing a competitive edge to realize strategic objectives rapidly. For L&D leaders, a culture that consistently reinforces this critical area of success is the most significant enabler.
Other Interesting Reads

What if my organization does not have a learning culture?

Let’s flip the table on the example we saw earlier: what would your day be like without a learning culture?
  • The morning huddles don’t really talk about challenges anymore, let alone overcoming them. The team does not share tips and tricks across the board. You are as stuck and confused as you were before the meeting, with some humiliation to accompany.
  • At coffee chats and lunch breaks, you are talking about the new employee improvement program that you need to sit through. It’s boring, and it’s been the same since the two years you joined.
  • You are thinking of your next job while leaving; there is no list of ideas or resources to consider on your way out. Plus, you might be wondering how much you need to pay for upskilling.
That sounds like a recipe for disaster. As we saw here, an employee improvement program is in place, too. The leadership does have development on its mind but cannot get it quite right without solid planning and culture to provide consistent reinforcements to those plans.

How does culture affect learning?

Culture gets your mind set on what you need to do. Think of it this way: your team has a list of resources available, and they are great. You encourage everyone to take those courses and even ask them for updates and experiences. But there’s hardly any response. Wonder why? Because they did not see their managers or peers do it, this was a little important in the bigger picture. Suppose someone even opened it to audit, another colleague’s passing remark, “Huh? Who does that?” would ensure that the tab closes soon enough. Putting learning on the minds of your employees is not just about setting the resources in front of them. Instead, you need to get them going. Social expectations and norms are critical in determining what people do, as the seminal Hawthrone studies noted. Moreover, learning methods could be inaccessible, and you would not know until there is an active discourse on the matter. Challenges like special learning needs and different learning styles and practices clarify only after active use. Similarly, learners may need better teaching methods, a different set of resources, and more opportunities to apply things – all discovered during feedback and one-on-one meetings focusing on these issues. Culture, thus, becomes a significant reinforcer of your tangible moves. At times, it is the most important determining factor for your success, as noted in this study on leadership development initiatives, which showed that the direct involvement of senior leadership and their focus positively impacts retention and change!

Signs that your team needs a learning culture

A culture is hard to diagnose, so how do you notice what changes are needed? Let’s look at some signs of the absence of a learning culture: 
  • Your team members hardly raise questions about new things; there’s little talk about what they are learning. 
  • Your team sticks to tried and tested ways of doing things; innovation and risk are missing. 
  • You may not have a learning budget, or it is severely restricted, or the employees do not know about it. 
  • Mistakes often become conflicts instead of opportunities to review and learn something new. Managers punish mistakes rather than encouraging a solution-oriented mindset.
  • Employees are not engaged and active at work. Your team sees high turnover and routine processes. Feedback is limited in terms of good or bad performance and not extended to the next steps.

How can you build a learning culture as an L&D manager?

When we talk of culture, we assume it’s about the simpler things—like how someone is speaking or their review of the latest skill-building session and how positive it is. We frequently miss the fact that culture also has complex and tangible aspects.  Bersin and LinkedIn’s research listed over 100 areas that contribute to culture. Some of these, like development plans and strategies, are easily assumed to be outside the area. That’s where the fun is: you are making culture unknowingly so far. A culture considers your methods, reactions, and processes that keep the organization going. While setting up your L&D strategy effectively, you will see the former aspects as a consequence – by being intentional about where we want to take our teams as L&D managers.  Hence, when discussing building a learning culture in your team, we are thinking holistically – what can you change, and what results should you expect? Let’s unravel a few key ideas:

Create informal instances of learning 

First up, break the silos and systems that keep learning obscured. Your team wants the opportunities, but often at their own pace. Allowing employees to participate in defining their responsibilities and keeping the decision processes open to them helps empower them as substantial members of the team. It also ensures that they trust the system and own bits of it, thus being willing contributors and participants.  Moreover, learning shared over informal instances, such as cross-functional teams and lunch breaks, is a great way to collaborate and share ideas. It is even better that once the cycle is on, it reinforces itself further as team members add information, insights, and feedback. The best part is a community that learns from each other without thinking of limitations. 

Focus on continuous learning instead of one-stop shops 

It’s a no-brainer at this point that teams no longer appreciate the full-fledged workshop on the most important skill of their lives, which will throw them behind by two days with little retention or remedy for their issues. Then the question becomes, what do they really want? Most often, professionals seek learning in the flow of work, learning that does not disrupt their lives, be it professional or personal.  Second, they are looking for learning that they can apply at work and have the chance to do so. Many participants are dissatisfied with L&D initiatives because the knowledge is often not applicable or provided at the right time. Your team needs learning that suits their needs, be it the schedule, the type, or the purpose – keep the employee at the center of it all. 

Notice and give feedback 

Let’s go back to school. What did we love most after getting something right? A bit of appreciation, right? The principle stays the same as the years pass. Team members need appreciation and encouragement to keep going in the right direction. When you are designing learning experiences, incorporate two-way feedback mechanisms, too.  Moreover, reinforcements should be provided throughout the program in various ways. This can include recognizing someone for solving a problem independently or offering praise during a one-on-one meeting. In the end, it’s about seeing the effort and acknowledging it.  Feedback is not just a manager’s job, so don’t fill their calendars with review meetings for everyone they see. Instead, think of feedback as an ongoing and shared exercise. Along with reviews, encourage employees to give feedback to peers and show intentional action accordingly.

Encourage risks and errors

What stops us from trying new things? Often, it’s the fear of failure that we can blame. The fear of not getting things right in the first place is a huge hurdle. As learning managers, it becomes imperative to help our team members overcome this. Thus, consider how your workplace and leaders react to bad news and mistakes.  A leader’s openness to lousy news is featured in Bersin’s 40 features of a learning culture, thus making it a must-have for your team, too. When leaders are willing to hear what went wrong without losing it, the team can relax and be honest about their situations. All the heads can come together and solve issues. This reinforces employee empowerment and builds loyalty for the leadership team, too.  Similarly, mistakes and risks need to be encouraged among the team members. Let them have the space to apply what they figured out. Team members thrive in a psychologically safe environment. So think reflection, not punishment, when something goes wrong the next time.

Build an employee-centric community  

What makes you trust someone and relax? Knowing them well, right? The same goes for your team. Visible openness and honesty in processes and outcomes are essential to ensuring that they place trust in you and your abilities.  One way of doing this is building context around your activities by regularly sharing stories from the organization that help employees connect with the “why.” Similarly, when leaders and managers show up for training sessions, it is an added boost because team members see them valuing the initiative. This establishes the importance and value of learning at work and thinking of it as more than just a chore that needs to be done.  Keeping the employee at the pivot and developing ideas around them—like career development plans, project leadership, and taking opinions in strategizing—makes their role very tangible. 

To sum up

As we embark on this journey together, let us remember that building a learning culture is not just about ticking off boxes or implementing initiatives—it’s about igniting a passion for learning, inspiring curiosity, and nurturing a spirit of innovation. It’s about creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, empowered, and supported in their quest for knowledge. So let us dare to dream, explore, and learn, for in the journey of learning lies the promise of a brighter, more resilient future for us all.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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How To Create Purpose At Work For Your Employees?

How To Create Purpose At Work For Your Employees?

Why is purpose at work important in the modern workplace? Picture this: You stroll into the office, a spring in your step, humming your favorite tune, ready to tackle the day’s challenges. You know why you’re here beyond the simple pursuit of a paycheck. You have a sense of direction, a connection to something greater than yourself. It’s as if you’ve found your very own magic wand capable of casting spells of inspiration and fulfillment. But hold on a moment! Before we dive deeper into the why and how of purpose at work, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. We’re all aware that work can sometimes feel trapped in a never-ending “Whack-a-Mole,” where you’re constantly swatting away mundane tasks and dealing with office politics. Trust me, we’ve all been there. But here’s the catch: the purpose is not a one-time revelation that forever banishes the Sunday evening blues. It’s a constant journey of exploration, growth, and adaptation. Just like a skilled wizard constantly hones their craft, you, too, must nurture your purpose, aligning it with the ever-changing work landscape. In this blog, we will explore the importance of purpose at work, the role of leadership in cultivating purpose, practical steps to establish a purpose-driven culture, and strategies for overcoming challenges in maintaining purpose at work.
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What is Purpose in the Workplace?

Purpose can be defined as the reason that propels individuals to find meaning and fulfillment in their work. It goes beyond simply completing tasks and earning a paycheck. The purpose is about having a greater sense of direction and connection to something bigger than oneself. It provides employees with a sense of meaning, passion, and drive, enabling them to fully engage with their work and contribute to the success of the organization. Purpose is not just a nice-to-have; it is a fundamental aspect of employee well-being and performance.

What does a lack of purpose at work look like?

Lack of purpose at work can take many forms. From mismatched work to bored employees, here are some tell-tale signs of lack of purpose at work that every manager should note and act upon: 
  • Low engagement and interest in what’s happening around 
  • Falling performance and productivity 
  • Creativity, innovation, and risk-taking attitude are missing 
  • Isolation and withdrawal, frustration and negative attitude 
  • Not implementing feedback, absenteeism
  • Signs of stress and physical impact of meaninglessness

Why is your team stuck purposeless?

A lack of purpose at work can be due to many reasons, but to list the primary ones, we can consider the following:
  • A misalignment between an individual’s values and goals and that of the organization 
  • Lack of clarity from the seniors and managers about the direction of the organization 
  • Work that turns boring quickly due to monotony, micromanagement, or heavily siloed teams 
  • Lack of opportunities to connect or grow 
  • Rapid changes that are not explained to the team

Why should you care about purpose at work?

In a shocking revelation, McKinsey shares that 2 out of 3 employees in the United States reconsidered their jobs as the pandemic hit. The cause – a purpose, or the lack of it. Before you think that purpose is a very personal matter. Let’s clarify: while purpose is personal, what job we do impacts it heavily.
70% of employees surveyed by McKinsey agreed that they define their purpose around work.
Moreover, as we move toward the frontline workers and away from the managers, another stark contrast is revealed: about 85% of frontline workers are unsure or strongly disagree that they can derive purpose from their work. For you, it means that your team is likely to need a sense of purpose for fulfilment much more than you feel the need in your case. The purpose at work plays a crucial role in employee motivation and engagement, too. The survey revealed that those with little purpose being met at work rated lower in terms of satisfaction and performance, too. When employees have a clear sense of purpose, their work becomes more than just a means to a pay check. Overall, creating a purpose at work helps you:
  • Create personal attachment to work: Work becomes a meaningful endeavor that aligns with their personal values and aspirations. As a result, employees start working with intrinsic motivation, which is the internal drive to perform a task for its own sake rather than for external rewards. 
  •  Build passion and ownership: When employees are intrinsically motivated, they are more likely to be passionate, dedicated, and committed to their work. They go above and beyond, putting in extra effort and taking initiative to achieve shared goals.
  •  Promote the team objectives: Purpose provides employees with a sense of direction and meaning in their work. It helps them understand how their contributions fit into the larger picture and how they are making a positive impact.
  •  Enhance job satisfaction: Purposeful work enhances employee well-being and resilience. When employees have a sense of purpose, they are more likely to experience greater job satisfaction, lower stress levels, and better mental health. The stronger sense of direction and focus allows them to navigate challenges and setbacks more effectively.
Other Interesting Reads

How can leaders create purpose at work?

Leadership plays a critical role in cultivating purpose within an organization. As individuals in leadership positions, it is our responsibility to set the tone, communicate the organizational purpose, and embody the purpose ourselves. But there’s more to it.

Start at the top 

As leaders or managers, the first thing that we can do quite well is define and deliberate on the purpose of our organization or team. If you are confused, here’s a place to start with these five questions: Answering these five questions will help you clarify the purpose of your team. This is where everything roots from, and that’s where every individual feels connected in a shared effort. As a manager, take up initiatives and think about purpose along with your team. While doing so, McKinsey points to a relevant bit: it’s not just about using purpose as a talking point and sending fancy emails about it; you really need to get down and see how it’s working. Think about how the purpose defines you each day, and if you see a gap, start acting. In addition to communication, leaders should embody purpose themselves. They should align their actions and decisions with the purpose, leading by example. When employees see their leaders living the purpose, it inspires them to do the same.

Creating alignment between company goals and individual aspirations

Employees are more likely to find meaning in their work when they see a clear connection between their own goals and the goals of the organization. To do this, the employees first need to know and see the purpose of the work in action.  Here, you can step in as the manager and start talking about culture regularly, give them opportunities to discuss how the team’s purpose is impacting and reflect on those ideas. As per McKinsey, chances like these enable employees to find and fulfill their purpose at work 3x more!  Next up, leaders should work with each team member to align their individual goals and priorities with the company’s overall purpose. This alignment ensures that individuals understand the impact of their work on the organization’s mission. Regularly connecting individual goals to the organizational purpose emphasizes how their contributions are integral to achieving the shared vision.

Establish a Purpose-Driven Culture

Establishing a purpose-driven culture requires practical steps that foster a work environment where employees feel motivated, engaged, and connected to the organization’s purpose. First, organizations should foster a supportive and inclusive work environment. This involves promoting open communication, collaboration, and respect among employees. It also means providing opportunities for employees to contribute their unique skills and perspectives. Second, organizations should encourage autonomy and provide growth opportunities for employees. Empowering employees to make decisions and giving them the freedom to explore innovative ideas enhances their sense of purpose and ownership in their work. Providing opportunities for personal and professional growth helps employees align their individual aspirations with the organization’s purpose. Lastly, organizations should recognize and celebrate purposeful achievements. Acknowledging employees’ contributions reinforces the importance of purpose and motivates others to align their work with the organization’s mission. Celebrating success creates a positive and energizing work environment that fosters purpose and engagement.

How to help employees uncover their personal purpose at work?

There are various tools and exercises that managers can use to help employees uncover their personal purpose. These tools and exercises provide employees with the opportunity to reflect on their values, passions, and aspirations, enabling them to align their personal purpose with their professional roles. Here are some ideas you can use to help your team find purpose at work:
  • Personal vision exercises: Encourage employees to create a personal vision statement that reflects their values, goals, and aspirations.
  • Strengths assessments: Provide employees with assessments that help them identify their unique strengths and talents, like Risely’s people management skill assessments.
  • Mentoring programs: Pair employees with mentors who can guide them in exploring their personal purpose and professional growth.
  • Goal-setting workshops: Facilitate workshops that help employees set meaningful goals aligned with their personal purpose.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, fostering a sense of purpose at work is pivotal for employee motivation and engagement. It significantly influences job satisfaction, performance, and overall well-being. Effective leadership plays a crucial role in cultivating a purpose-driven culture by aligning company goals with individual aspirations. Encouraging autonomy, growth opportunities, and meaningful tasks can further enhance employee engagement. By recognizing and celebrating purposeful achievements, organizations can bolster their workforce’s morale and productivity. Embracing a supportive and inclusive environment where personal purposes are integrated into professional roles can lead to a more fulfilling and successful workplace for all.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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How To Set Boundaries At Work? Guide For Managers?

How To Set Boundaries At Work? Guide For Managers

Have you ever found yourself answering mail late at night or bent over the desk long after work hours are over? If yes, there is a good chance that you have overextended or even crossed boundaries between your personal and professional lives. As the world adjusted to a global pandemic, employees’ need for better boundary management became even more apparent: the work hours often spilled into non-work ones.  Research suggests this creates a role between our work and at home, leading to higher stress and emotional turmoil. One way to break this rut is to set boundaries at work. Boundaries mean clearly defining what is acceptable and what is not regarding work expectations, communication, and personal time.  In this blog, we will discuss the impact of undefined boundaries on productivity and well-being, the need for boundaries at work, and how to recognize signs of poor boundary management. We will also provide examples of common workplace boundary challenges and strategies for preparing to set boundaries at work effectively. Finally, we will guide you through a step-by-step process for establishing boundaries, explore different types of boundaries at work managers should consider, and offer tips for maintaining boundaries without alienating your team members. So, let’s begin our journey to creating a healthier work environment!
Table of Contents

What do boundaries in workplaces look like?

Picture this: There’s a manager, let’s call her Sarah, who loves protecting her and her team’s peace. She has defined a few things before starting work: she loves spending time with her family and not answering calls during it. Conversely, she avoids contacting her team outside specific hours.  Similarly, while taking up tasks from her seniors, she considers the bandwidth of her team and takes up only a realistically achievable amount of work. It doesn’t mean not striving for greatness, but it saves her from micromanaging her team to the edge of burnout. Do you see what key idea is at play here? Boundaries. Boundaries at work refer to the limits or guidelines that you can establish to protect your physical, emotional, and mental well-being while maintaining professionalism and productivity in the workplace. These boundaries help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, manage expectations, and navigate interpersonal situations effectively.  Boundaries at work can be about multiple areas, you might declare your personal chat box unreachable for professional matters, or you can set forth that you will not respond to work emails outside hours. In all the forms, boundaries are a tool to obtain manager effectiveness when they are used well. 

What types of boundaries should managers consider?

As a manager, it is important to consider different types of boundaries to promote a healthy and productive work environment. Here are a few examples of boundaries at work you should consider:
Professional Boundaries
  • Not discussing situations and issues that involve private and confidential matters
  • Not participating in a decision where you have a personal stake
  • Upholding the ethical standards and values set forth by your organization
  • Taking up a realistic task load
Emotional and Mental Health Boundaries
  • Prioritize personal care by setting aside time for hobbies and self-care activities
  • Demonstrate support and empathy for employee’s situations without getting overtly involved or emotionally attached
  • Support employees’ mental health by empowering them to advocate for their own needs and boundaries
Personal and Physical Boundaries
  • Respecting personal space, such as preferring handshakes over hugs
  • Keeping interactions strictly professional by avoiding inappropriate contact
  • Staying balanced in relationships by avoiding personal friendships and relations that can lead to conflict of interest

What if I do not have boundaries at work?

Does this seem excessive and unnecessary? Let’s see what happens when we do not set boundaries with the help of another manager. Let’s call him John.  John is a team manager who wants to get things done and often forgets there are limits. Hence, when you meet John after work, he’s still thinking of work, probably with a task list open on his mobile device, while simultaneously texting his team for updates. The next morning begins with similar abruptness for John because the team is ready with questions about their last night’s work. Tired and frustrated, John becomes quite aggressive in his responses and leaves the employees even more confused and clueless about the way ahead.

Signs you don’t have boundaries in the workplace

In John’s case, we notice several signs of missing boundaries at work: 
  • Resentment toward work or team members that’s always chasing you
  • Regularly being at work even after the hours are over 
  • Overstepping in emotional areas and unhealthy communication patterns 
  • Excessive anxiety about updates
  • Burnout, constant tiredness, and decreased performance 
The result is obvious from these lines.

What happens when you do not create workplace boundaries? 

First, as we see in the case of John, we are never off work. Even outside, it feels like we are near our work, and our identity and self-esteem become deeply tied to those neat checklists of our dreams. As a result, a person without workplace boundaries tends to overwork to the brink of exhaustion. Exhaustion brings together its own set of health and emotional issues for one to deal with. Second, not having boundaries in place as a manager creates several second-order challenges. As we see in John’s story, his team starts emulating his behavior. The unhealthy patterns of overworking, excessively sharing updates, and constant check-ins trickle down to the entire team. John’s aggressive remarks further add to the mess by setting up an example of unhealthy coping mechanisms and badly dealing with vulnerability. Third, there are many social and emotional ramifications to handle that do not directly concern work. For instance, a person without boundaries for their availability at work is not able to connect and engage with their friends and family fully. Their role of an employee consistently overpowers any other, throwing work-life balance out for a toss. 

Is there a bad way to set boundaries at work?

Of course! As with everything else, boundaries can be a tool to take a team downhill when they are not set properly. This is especially a concern for managers because if you are sitting too far away from glass walls, your team might not be able to alarm you about the impending danger at all. Imagine you have set strict boundaries around your availability and communication, stating you are only accessible during specific hours. However, this becomes an excuse to avoid responding to urgent requests or participating in important meetings, even when your presence is necessary for team collaboration or problem-solving. On the other hand, this can be a frustrating experience to bear from the side of a team member, too. For instance, what if a team member establishes clear task boundaries, stating they will only handle specific assignments within their job description? However, they consistently refuse to take on additional tasks or assist colleagues, citing their boundaries as a reason to avoid responsibility and workload. Similarly, many such concerns can arise around the misuse of boundaries at work by employees if they are not constructed and understood properly.
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A step-by-step guide to establishing boundaries at work

Establishing boundaries in the workplace requires a thoughtful and step-by-step approach. Here is how you can effectively set boundaries:

Preparing to set boundaries: What managers need at step 0

Before implementing boundaries in the workplace, managers need to take specific steps to ensure they are prepared. Here are a few key things managers need to consider:
  • Self-assessment: First, managers should reflect on their own boundaries at work and identify areas where they may need to set or reinforce boundaries. Self-awareness is crucial in effectively communicating and implementing boundaries. Reflection questions and feedback from your team and peers can be helpful in identifying the areas that you do not wish to negotiate.
  • Communication strategies: Managers should develop effective communication strategies to clearly communicate boundaries to their team members. This involves setting expectations, providing examples, and engaging in open and transparent discussions about what boundaries are and how they can help. While taking up this step, take charge and set an example for your team to enable their healthy boundaries at work, too. Focus on setting expectations correctly and effectively, sharing how boundaries and accountability should be balanced.

Step 1: Define Your Boundaries Clearly

The first step in establishing boundaries at work is to define them clearly. Take the time to reflect on your personal limits and priorities. Consider what is important to you in terms of work-life balance and well-being. This will help you identify specific areas where you need to set boundaries. For example, you may decide to set boundaries around your work hours by clearly defining the times when you will be fully dedicated to work and the times when you will prioritize your personal time. This may involve setting specific start and end times for your workday or designating certain days as personal time, like this:

“I am available for work-related calls and messages from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Outside of these hours, please refrain from contacting me unless it’s an emergency. I will respond to non-urgent messages during my next working hours.”

Avoid being vague as follows:

“Feel free to contact me whenever you need assistance or have questions. I’m always available to help.”

By defining your boundaries clearly, you set the foundation for effectively communicating and implementing them in the workplace. This step is essential for creating a healthier work-life balance and protecting your well-being.

Step 2: Communicate Your Boundaries Effectively

Once you have defined your boundaries at work, the next step is to communicate them effectively to your team members and colleagues. Clear and direct communication is crucial to ensure that your boundaries are understood and respected. Start by communicating your boundaries to your direct reports or team members. Clearly express your expectations and provide specific examples to illustrate what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of work-related tasks, communication, and personal time. This helps create a shared understanding and sets the stage for a healthier work environment like in the message shared below.

“Team, I want to ensure we maintain a healthy work-life balance while also staying productive. From now on, let’s reserve non-urgent communication for our regular working hours, which are from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. If you have urgent matters outside of these hours, please feel free to reach out, but otherwise, let’s respect each other’s personal time. Does that sound good to everyone?”

Additionally, communicate your boundaries to your colleagues and other stakeholders. Clearly articulate your limits and expectations for communication, availability, and work-related demands. This helps establish a culture of respect and accountability around boundaries. On the other hand, badly communicated boundaries in the workplace sound like impositions, as we see here:

“Effective immediately, all non-urgent communication should be limited to working hours. Urgent matters can be addressed outside of these hours. Thanks.”

The direct and impersonal tone of the message provides little scope for communication and context to the others, thus moving away from the key idea of mutual respect and understanding while setting boundaries. Hence, remember to use assertive communication to express your needs and expectations as seen in the first example. Use “I” statements to clearly communicate your perspective and needs without assigning blame or becoming defensive. This approach fosters open and honest communication, which is essential for establishing effective boundaries.

Step 3: Implement and Enforce Boundaries

Implementing and enforcing boundaries at work is a critical step in establishing a healthier work environment. Once you have defined and communicated your boundaries, it’s important to consistently enforce them. Lead by example and set a personal example for your team members and colleagues. Demonstrate your commitment to your boundaries by consistently adhering to them. This sends a powerful message and encourages others to respect your boundaries, as we can see here:

“I appreciate your dedication, but I’ve noticed you’ve been reaching out after hours for non-urgent matters. As we discussed, let’s try to keep non-urgent communication within our working hours to respect everyone’s personal time. If it’s urgent, feel free to contact me anytime. Let’s work together to maintain a healthy balance.”

Be firm but respectful when addressing boundary violations. If someone encroaches upon your boundaries at work, assertively remind them of your expectations and express the impact their actions have on your well-being or productivity. But while you are at it. Ensure that your tone is not harsh or reprimanding someone. Think of things from their perspective too and help them understand yours instead of reacting like this:

“I’ve told you all repeatedly not to contact me outside of working hours for anything that’s not an emergency. Can’t you follow simple instructions? This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Moreover, you can seek support from your supervisor or HR team if necessary. If you encounter persistent boundary violations or face challenges in enforcing your boundaries in the workplace, reach out to the appropriate channels for guidance and support. They can provide additional resources and assistance in addressing any issues that may arise. Remember that enforcing boundaries is a continuous process. Stay vigilant and consistently reinforce your boundaries to maintain a healthy work environment and protect your well-being.

Step 4: Handling Pushback and Disagreements

When setting boundaries at work, it is common to encounter pushback or disagreements. It’s important to handle these situations calmly and assertively to maintain the integrity of your boundaries and promote a respectful work environment. Anticipate and prepare for pushback or disagreements when setting boundaries. Be ready to explain the rationale behind your boundaries and how they contribute to your well-being and productivity. This can help others understand the importance of respecting your boundaries. For instance, if someone shares frustration at your communication boundaries at work, you can address it as follows:

“I understand your concerns, and I appreciate your feedback. Let’s discuss how we can adjust our communication practices to better support everyone’s needs. Perhaps we can explore setting aside dedicated times for more focused work and communication blocks for collaborative discussions. What do you think?”

Offer alternative solutions or compromises when appropriate. Flexibility and understanding can help address concerns and find a middle ground. However, it’s important to maintain the integrity of your boundaries and not compromise your well-being or values. When faced with pushback or disagreements, stay calm and assertive. Clearly and respectfully restate your boundaries, reminding others of your expectations and the impact their actions have on your well-being or productivity. Avoid becoming defensive or engaging in arguments as seen here:

“I’ve made my decision, and that’s final. It’s not up for discussion. Follow the rules or face the consequences.”

Remember that handling pushback and disagreements is part of the boundary-setting process. By addressing these challenges assertively and respectfully, you establish a culture of respect and accountability around boundaries in the workplace.

Step 5: Regularly Review and Adjust Boundaries

Regularly review your boundaries at work to assess their effectiveness and make any necessary adjustments. Consider factors such as your workload, personal commitments, and overall well-being when evaluating your boundaries. Be open to adjusting your boundaries as circumstances change. Workload fluctuations, personal obligations, and other factors may require you to modify your boundaries to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Flexibility is key in ensuring that your boundaries continue to serve you well. For instance, you can take up this discussion with your team like:

“I’ve noticed some challenges with our current communication boundaries, particularly with project collaboration. Let’s brainstorm together and see if there are any adjustments we can make to better support our workflow and productivity. Does anyone have any suggestions or concerns?”

This shows proactive leadership and values feedback from your team members and colleagues. Their input can provide great insights into the impact of your boundaries and help identify areas for improvement or adjustment. Transparency and communication are key factors in this review and adjustment, without these, the changes can very quickly turn into diktats like this:

“Effective immediately, we are adjusting our communication boundaries. All non-urgent communication will now be restricted to email only, and response times are expected to be within 24 hours. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Remember that boundaries are not set in stone. They should evolve as your needs and circumstances change. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your boundaries ensures that they remain relevant and supportive of your well-being and productivity.

How to set boundaries at work without distancing yourself?

A common concern among managers while setting boundaries would be that their team might end up being alone on the field. And this obviously happens when the boundaries are badly set and reinforced. If you see boundaries as dynamic tools to get things done and keep reviewing them, you can maintain the delicate balance between healthy relationships at work and workplace boundaries. Maintaining boundaries without alienating your team members is essential for creating a positive work environment. Here are a few strategies to achieve this:
  • Use positive reinforcement: Recognize and acknowledge when your team members respect and adhere to your boundaries. Provide positive feedback and reinforcement to encourage their continued respect for boundaries.
  • Lead by example: Maintain your boundaries and demonstrate the benefits of a healthy work-life balance. By setting a positive example, you inspire your team members to prioritize their well-being and establish their own boundaries.
  • Embrace leadership qualities: Be approachable and supportive as a leader. Encourage open communication and create a culture that values boundaries and well-being. By fostering a positive work environment, you can support your team members while maintaining healthy boundaries.

How can you encourage team members to set their own boundaries?

Encouraging members to set their own boundaries is essential for their personal growth and well-being. Here are some ways to support and empower your team in setting their boundaries: First, focus on creating a safe space where team members feel comfortable expressing their needs and boundaries without fear of judgment or retribution. You can start by taking a lead on the process through flexibility in work schedules, remote work options, and time off. This allows team members to align their work with their personal commitments and priorities. Second, clearly communicate the organization’s expectations regarding work-life balance and the importance of setting boundaries. Encourage team members to prioritize self-care and well-being while remaining the custodian of organizational values and goals. In this process, demonstrate the importance of setting boundaries by setting and respecting your own. Share your experiences and challenges with boundary-setting to inspire and motivate your team. Lastly, sometimes your team members might be conflicted while setting boundaries at work. Offer resources, training, and support to help team members develop the skills necessary to set and maintain boundaries effectively. This can include workshops, coaching, or access to mental health resources. Moreover, acknowledge and celebrate team members who successfully establish and maintain their boundaries. This recognition will encourage others to do the same. By encouraging team members to set their own boundaries, you empower them to prioritize their well-being and achieve a healthy work-life balance. Still confused about workplace boundaries? Have a chat with Risely’s AI coach, Merlin to get rid of all the doubts and questions in your mind. Merlin can help you in three ways: 
  1. Situational discussion: Talk about boundaries and throw all your questions in. What are boundaries? Why should you build them? Is your boundary a good one or a bad one? Let Merlin think about everything that’s confusing you.
  2. Skill development: The boundaries are set, but skills are keeping you stuck. Assess and improve yourself in critical areas like assertive communication and a growth mindset with Merlin.
  3. Role-plays: Is some team members’ potential reaction keeping you away from setting boundaries? Are you dealing with constant violations with no idea how to address them? Play it out with Merlin, who will become your partner and coach in getting such difficult conversations right.
Start now: Free trial with Merlin

Conclusion

Setting boundaries at work is crucial for maintaining a healthy work-life balance and fostering a productive environment. By clearly defining and communicating your boundaries, you can prevent burnout, improve well-being, and enhance team dynamics. Remember to regularly review and adjust your boundaries as needed. Use positive reinforcement techniques and lead by example to encourage boundary respect. Navigating difficult conversations around boundaries requires assertive yet respectful communication. Building a supportive ecosystem where everyone’s boundaries are valued is key. Ultimately, prioritizing boundaries benefits both managers and their teams, leading to a more harmonious and efficient workplace.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

Let’s review your leadership skills real quick!

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How To Build A Teamwork Mentality As A Manager?

How To Build A Teamwork Mentality As A Manager?

What’s the difference between a set of people working together and a team? It’s the mindset. Or the mentality. A teamwork mentality is what keeps people focused on shared goals and pushes them to keep the team’s ambitions above everything else. But, this example of success is more challenging to find than talk about. What can you do about this? Let’s figure out in the blog below as we discuss – 
  • What is a teamwork mentality? 
  • Why should a manager bother with it?
  • How can you create a teamwork mentality? 
From setting clear goals to promoting a positive team culture, these strategies will help managers lay the foundation for effective teamwork and enhance team collaboration.
Table of Contents

What is a Teamwork Mentality?

A teamwork mentality is the shared mindset of a group of colleagues working towards a common goal. It involves cooperation, collaboration, and a focus on the team’s collective success. In a teamwork mentality, individual team members prioritize the team’s goals and interests over their own. They demonstrate a positive attitude, commitment, accountability, and responsibility for their actions.

Why should you focus on a team-first mindset?

Effective teamwork is essential for organizations to achieve their objectives. It ensures that team members work together efficiently, share information and resources, and support each other in achieving their goals. A teamwork mentality also promotes open communication, trust, and respect among team members.  Fostering teamwork is crucial for effectiveness as a manager in a leadership position. It is essential when you are a new manager because not moving from the thinking process of an individual contributor to that of a team leader can bug your way.  A strong teamwork mentality in your leadership philosophy means that you understand the importance of collaboration, communication, and emotional intelligence in achieving team goals. Leaders prioritizing teamwork create an environment where team members feel valued, supported, and empowered. As a result, people think they are contributing to something more significant and not just working hard for things that do not matter to them. By embodying the values of teamwork, you can inspire and motivate team members to adopt a similar mindset and work together towards a common goal.

Key Differences Between Individual and Team Mindsets

Individual and team mindsets have distinct characteristics that impact team dynamics and performance. In an individual mindset, team members primarily focus on their own goals, interests, and success. They prioritize personal achievements over the collective success of the team. Individual mindset often leads to limited collaboration, communication, and mutual support among team members. On the other hand, a team mindset emphasizes the importance of working together towards a common goal. Team members with a team mindset prioritize the success of the whole team over individual achievements. They collaborate, communicate openly, and support each other in achieving shared objectives. In a team mindset, team members recognize that their contributions are valuable to the team’s overall success. Building a teamwork mentality involves shifting individual mindsets towards a team-oriented attitude. Let’s check out how you can shift your team toward a teamwork mentality.

Do you have a teamwork mentality? Some signs of absence to note

At first, your team might not be open to changing their thinking as you set up a new way of thinking. And that’s completely okay; significant and sudden changes often face resistance. Moreover, some of your team might need support in getting things done. Let’s see what these common challenges of a teamwork mentality are and how can managers like you beat them with some examples –

There are frequent conflicts in the team 

In a marketing team, there’s no clear communication about roles and responsibilities for a particular project, team members step on each other’s toes, leading to conflicts over who should take the lead or contribute in what way. These conflicts hinder productivity, create a toxic work environment, and ultimately damage the team is not able to collaborate effectively.

Before proceeding to the conflict resolution, take some time to understand why those conflicts are arising. Is it a difference in personalities, working styles, or priorities? If it is any of the latter two, you can step in as a manager and help. In case of personality or communication conflicts, listen to both sides and help you find common ground to work on. Remember, teamwork is about accommodating and achieving shared goals; it’s not about one-upmanship.

Accountability gets lost in the shadow of teamwork

A software development team fails to meet a project milestone. Team members constantly shift blame or make excuses rather than taking ownership of their tasks and commitments It leads to delays, frustration, and a breakdown in trust among team members.

Teamwork does not mean putting everything on a shared task list. Instead, you are still required to define individual roles and responsibilities. The only difference is that each of those individuals works in contingency with the rest. Their work can impact each other’s outcomes, and together, they can make an impact. Be sure to set expectations clearly at both team and individual levels. At times, such conflicts also arise when team and personal goals mismatch.

People feel that workload is not distributed fairly

In a sales team, if one or two members consistently avoid challenging or less desirable tasks, such as cold calling or following up on leads, while others are left to handle the bulk of the workload. It breeds resentment and frustration among team members. This imbalance not only undermines team morale but also hampers overall productivity and performance, which are crucial for good sales.

Managing workload distribution fairly is essential for maintaining teamwork and ensuring the team’s success. Before delegating, assess team members’ skills, strengths, and availability for different tasks. Review and adjust workload distribution as needed regularly while also encouraging open communication and flexibility in task assignments.

Teamwork falters often

In a project team tasked with launching a new product, team members work in silos without sharing information or seeking input from each other. It results in disjointed efforts, missed opportunities, and ultimately, a failed project. Without a collective commitment to working together towards common goals, the team’s performance and success are compromised.

Continuous learning and development are vital for sustaining a teamwork mentality over time. Adapting to changes and evolving alongside your team is crucial as a manager. Embracing valuable insights and feedback while promptly addressing challenges can keep the team motivated and cohesive. Remember, trust builds slowly but is fundamental for long-term success. Your team will thrive and overcome obstacles together when you nurture a positive attitude and create a culture that emphasizes growth for all. If those examples seem relatable, your team needs to rethink their approach to getting things done. A team-first attitude can bring drastic changes, as it puts forth the team’s needs and lets go of personal agendas. As managers, we can do a few things to get this process started, as suggested in the following section.
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How can a manager build a teamwork mentality?

Managers are the pivot of a team. And hence, they are central to the mindset that a team will adopt when they start working. Here’s what you can do as a manager to build a team-first mindset in your employees.

Laying the Foundation for Teamwork

As with any process, building a team-first mindset starts by setting the right framework for you as a manager. Primarily, getting this foundation right would include defining what prioritizing the team looks like in terms of your vision and goals. Further, you head on to set roles and create a system that thrives with a mindset that focuses on teamwork.
  • Setting clear, achievable goals: Setting clear, achievable goals is crucial in fostering a teamwork mentality. When team members understand the goals and have a shared vision, they can align their efforts toward a common objective. The key here is to remind everyone how their small efforts make up the big picture. This promotes a sense of direction, focus, and collaboration among team members.
  • Defining who does what to achieve the goals: Establishing roles and responsibilities within the team is essential for promoting good teamwork. When team members have clearly defined roles, they know what is expected of them and how they contribute to the team’s objectives. 
  • Keeping people set on goals together: Creating accountability and dependency among team members is crucial for building a strong teamwork mentality. When team members feel accountable for their actions and outcomes, they are more likely to take ownership of their responsibilities and work towards the team’s success. 

Keeping a teamwork mentality alive

Now that you have set the stage, the fun is about to begin. Teamwork is an ongoing activity, and as your team handles the ups and downs of business, you will put your plans into action. In this process, what can a manager do? Well, a lot of caretaking and delicate balancing is needed to keep a team-first mindset alive and robust among your employees. Otherwise, it is easy for them to fall into individual mindsets and stay within the boxes set forth by corporate environments. To ensure that a teamwork mentality is sustained in your team, think along these ideas: 

Create A positive team culture

Developing an employee-focused team culture is essential for fostering a teamwork mentality. Such a positive team culture focuses on collective goals and systems and favors long-term actions over individualistic pursuits. It promotes open communication, trust, and collaboration among team members and encourages diversity, inclusivity, and a healthy work-life balance. Overall, it helps you show that you value and trust your team to get the job done. 

Build Trust and Open Communication

Trust and open communication are foundational elements of a positive team culture. When team members trust each other and feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas openly, valuable insights can be shared, and collaboration becomes more effective. 

Encourage Diversity and Inclusivity

Encouraging diversity and inclusivity is essential for building a positive team culture. Diverse teams bring different perspectives, experiences, and skills, fostering creativity, innovation, and better problem-solving. Moreover, diversity of thoughts gives you perspectives that you might often ignore. 

Actionable strategies for a team first workplace

Let’s move on to the actions once you are clear on the ideas. What can you do to consistently create a team-first mindset and demonstrate its importance to your employees?

Team Building Activities

Implementing team-building activities is a great way to enhance team collaboration and foster a teamwork mentality. These activities allow team members to get to know each other, build trust, and improve communication. Some examples of team-building activities that you can try are:
  • Icebreaker games to break the ice and create a positive atmosphere
  • Group problem-solving activities to encourage collaboration and problem-solving skills
  • Outdoor activities or retreats to create bonding experiences and foster team spirit
  • Team building workshops or seminars to develop teamwork skills and improve team dynamics

Technology for Better Collaboration

Adopting technology is an effective way to enhance team collaboration and streamline communication and work processes. It is beneficial for managers of remote and hybrid teams. Here are some ways you can use technology for better collaboration:
  • Adopt collaboration tools and platforms that facilitate communication, file sharing, and project management so that your team always has access to the resources they need
  • Use video conferencing tools for virtual meetings and remote collaboration to keep connections alive even at a distance
  • Implement task management tools to track progress and assign tasks; it’s also great to sync up across teams and collaborate 

Recognizing and Celebrating Team Achievements

Recognizing and celebrating team achievements is crucial for fostering a positive team culture and enhancing collaboration. It shows that you care about the achievements built together and not just personal milestones. Here are some ways you can recognize and celebrate team achievements:
  • Celebrate milestones and achievements with team-wide events or rewards
  • Encourage team members to recognize and appreciate each other’s efforts and contributions
  • Foster a culture of positivity and gratitude by highlighting team successes and expressing appreciation openly

Wrapping Up

A teamwork-first mentality is essential to keep your employees together and focused on a shared vision. Building motivation and inspiring your team to achieve more is also necessary. As a manager, fostering a team-first mindset can help you set your team apart from the rest – as they are ready to go above and beyond for the goals that matter to all. But it takes a lot of work. Building a teamwork mentality takes copious amounts of hard work, from setting the goals right to consistently learning and adapting to the team’s needs. Sometimes, troubles like conflicts and interpersonal issues can hold you back, but fret not! Because Risely, the manager’s buddy, is there to help you out of those tricky situations. Regular nudges, conversations, and activities are designed to build your skills as a people manager slowly, and much more are awaiting a free 14-day trial of Risely for you.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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How to give constructive feedback to employees?

How to give constructive feedback to employees?

Have you ever sought directions while driving? What’s better? 
  • Go straight and take the second left. 
  • It’s ahead somewhere toward the left.
If you are pointing toward the first statement, you already know a thing or two about constructive feedback. Giving feedback as a manager is like showing direction to your team members who want to move ahead. They get stuck on the way because the turns are tricky and the road is bumpy; that’s where you jump in as a manager and help them find the way – through constructive feedback.  In this blog post, we will examine the core ingredients and process of delivering constructive feedback. So, let’s get started.
Table of Contents

What is constructive feedback?

Constructive feedback is delivered to aid improvement. It focuses on recognizing the strengths, underlining the weaknesses, and providing guidance. It refers to a kind of feedback that has been designed to enhance the effectiveness of someone’s work and is a form of communication where specific aims are implied. Constructive feedback facilitates rather than impedes a person’s or group’s development. It is given in a way that encourages people to improve their own work rather than just to receive correct or helpful feedback.

What are the critical ingredients of constructive feedback? 

Constructive feedback is made of five core features. 
  • Clarity: The manager should highlight the problems and suggest clear solutions. Clear communication aligns with the principles of effective communication: clarity, coherence, confidence, concreteness, correctness, conciseness, and courtesy. Following these principles ensures that your team members can easily understand and follow through.
  • Autonomy to solutions: The second critical feature of constructive feedback is autonomy to solutions. Feedback refers to nudges and guidance toward objectives. If you actively push someone and take account at every step, it is called micromanagement. Thus, good constructive feedback allows the person to choose how and when to act on it, if they want to act at all. 
  • Behavior-focused: Good constructive feedback does not focus on the person or their personality traits. Instead, it focuses attention on the work and tasks that they are charged to do. It steers clear of judgments and remarks outside the task-related area. 
  • Positive and respectful: Maintaining positivity and respect are very important in ensuring that your feedback is acted upon. Feedback delivered in a condescending manner hurts emotions and further creates a divide between the team and the manager. Conversely, being positive and respecting the context and limitations allows both parties to work together toward their objectives.
  • Fact-based: Good feedback has facts backing it up. Make sure to add specific examples or instances while sharing feedback, as this adds clarity. Similarly, examples of objectives and behaviors can help identify the proper improvement area. 
These five features make up constructive feedback. Let’s see them in action in the illustration below: 

7 Examples of Constructive Feedback to Employees

Let’s take a look at some examples of constructive feedback in the workplace for better understanding:
Constructive Feedback for Improving Task Performance

“I noticed that in the last team meeting, your presentation lacked specific data points. To improve, try incorporating more statistics and examples to make your points clearer and more persuasive.”

Constructive Feedback on Time Management

“I’ve observed that you sometimes struggle to meet deadlines. To enhance your efficiency, consider breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable chunks and setting interim deadlines for yourself.”

Constructive Feedback on Communication Skills

“Your emails could be more concise and professional. Consider rephrasing sentences to be clearer and proofreading for any grammatical errors before sending them out.”

Constructive Feedback for Team Collaboration

“During group projects, it’s important to actively listen to your colleagues’ ideas and contribute constructively. I’ve noticed that you tend to dominate discussions. Try to encourage participation from others and integrate their perspectives into our work.”

Constructive Feedback for Problem-solving Skills

“In resolving client issues, I’ve noticed you sometimes rush to solutions without fully understanding the problem. Take some time to analyze the situation thoroughly before proposing remedies, and consider consulting with team members for diverse insights.”

Constructive Feedback for Employee’s Professional Development

“To further develop your skills, I suggest attending workshops or online courses related to project management. This would help you gain new perspectives and techniques that could benefit our team’s productivity.”

Constructive Feedback on Leadership Skills

“As a team leader, it’s crucial to foster a positive work environment. I’ve noticed some tension within the team lately. Try to address conflicts promptly and encourage open communication among team members to maintain a cohesive and supportive atmosphere.”

You can find more examples of constructive feedback at work here:
Other Interesting Reads

How to deliver constructive feedback? 5 Effective tips

Here are the five basic ideas you should remember while delivering constructive feedback. Take a look at the examples provided below to understand each of the areas better.

Keep feedback for your team timely 

Effective constructive feedback is delivered on time, like the birthday cake delivered right at midnight, that gives the correct amount of delight and joy. Constructive feedback given in real-time can help your team members correct harmful patterns before they develop into bigger issues. Moreover, you can help align their development and growth plans with those of your team – keeping everything in sync. Let’s look at this with an example: 

“During the team presentation earlier, I noticed that your slides lacked clarity in explaining the project’s timeline. Providing a clear timeline is crucial for our stakeholders to understand the project’s progress. Moving forward, could you revise the slides to include specific dates and milestones? This will ensure our message is conveyed effectively and help us maintain credibility with our stakeholders.”

This feedback explains the issue (lack of clarity) precisely right after it happened (a presentation earlier in the day). As a result, the incident is fresh in both minds, and the team members can quickly note suggestions to apply in the next one. 

“After reviewing the project presentation from last month, I realized that your slides lacked clarity in explaining the project timeline. It’s important to provide clear timelines for stakeholders to understand the progress. In the future, please make sure to include specific dates and milestones in your slides.”

When feedback is delivered a month later, many more presentations are passed! The same error gets repeated until corrected later, which would be harder to track as the issue is now on the back burner. Potentially, the team member would just be annoyed at you digging graves of a matter they no longer remember.

Don’t focus on negatives alone

Mixing up feedback and criticism is easy. But worry not; here’s a simple differentiation: 
  • criticism: points out the bad parts alone 
  • constructive feedback: recognizes the good, highlights the bad, and pushes toward the better
While delivering constructive feedback, ensure that you are balancing both sides. Managers often falter and become too optimistic or pessimistic, resulting in employee losses. On the other hand, if your feedback is overtly hostile, it will discourage the employee instead of motivating them to act toward improvement.  Here’s what balance looks like 

“Well done on completing the project ahead of schedule; your dedication and hard work are evident. However, I noticed a few instances where communication could have been improved within the team, leading to some misunderstandings. Moving forward, let’s continue to prioritize clear communication to ensure smooth collaboration and success on future projects.”

Here, the manager starts by offering praise and quickly deviates into a weakness, which they point out specifically. Ultimately, they reinforce the positive message and provide suggestions for proceeding. This is known as the feedback sandwich method.

“You failed to meet the project deadline, causing significant delays. Your lack of organization and commitment is unacceptable. If this continues, it will reflect poorly on the entire team and could jeopardize our success. You need to step up your game immediately.”

Conversely, in this example, the manager sets a negative tone throughout, making the team members defensive or emotionally charged. Moreover, they are likely to be disappointed as the positive aspects of performance are not highlighted at all, and they have no ideas on how to change things.

Use examples and evidence

Using examples and evidence to support your recommendations and suggestions is the first step toward ensuring your feedback is fact-based. It also helps ensure that feedback is rooted in real reasons instead of being powered by prejudice or biases against a few team members. Moreover, using specific instances helps the employee understand your concern in detail and act accordingly. Here’s how this goes:

“I noticed during yesterday’s client meeting that you effectively addressed all of the client’s concerns and provided detailed explanations for each issue raised. Your thoroughness and knowledge of the project were impressive and contributed significantly to building client confidence in our team’s capabilities.”

After receiving this feedback, your team members will know what they did right and should continue doing. Leaving people puzzled with feedback is pretty easy, too! Here’s how you should not do it:

“I think you did a great job in the client meeting yesterday.”

Everything’s positive, but they will never find out exactly what made it great. We often use feedback to point out the negatives, but feedback is also a tool to reinforce the positives. The good things need examples, too! Additionally, highlighting examples of good behavior during team feedback sessions boosts your employees’ esteem and sets standards for others to follow.

Pay attention to the receiver 

Feedback sessions can also be emotionally charged rooms. At times, your team member’s response to receiving negative feedback can be defensive, or they might try to shift the blame onto someone else altogether. Otherwise, some people go passive during feedback sessions. The key to winning here lies in emotional intelligence and awareness. 
  • Understand the context: If the team is overloaded and your feedback is about meeting deadlines, there’s a title that they can use. Ensure you understand their perspective and the context in which they operate before sharing feedback. It helps you assess their performance better. 
  • Keep the tone right: Your tone and body language matter greatly during a feedback session. The secret to making constructive feedback right lies in nailing this critical element during meetings. Be open-minded and ready to listen actively while being an assertive communicator who can clearly set expectations.
  • Provide privacy and safety in critical moments: Ensure that feedback discussions are private and limited to the concerned team members. Psychological safety during such moments goes a long way in building team cohesion and trust.

Focus on guiding your team

Constructive feedback is not just about passing judgment. It focuses on aiding growth, and a manager can do that best by guiding others in the right direction. When delivering feedback, remember to add tips or suggestions that your team members can follow. Be ready to follow up on feedback meetings with further questions. Moreover, be open to questions during the feedback sessions themselves; it assures your team more clarity and establishes that you care about their growth. After all, their growth is the team’s growth.

“You seemed unsure during the team meeting.”

The feedback that is devoid of guidance is like lost potential. It’s merely an observation that does not suggest the exact issue and why it needs to be resolved, let alone how to resolve it. A manager can make their feedback much more effective by focusing on actionable advice for the team, such as –

“I noticed that in the team meeting, you had some difficulty articulating your ideas clearly. To improve, I suggest practicing summarizing your points beforehand and focusing on speaking slowly and confidently. Additionally, consider using visual aids or examples to illustrate your ideas, which can help make your communication more effective. Let me know if you need any support or resources to work on this.”

This feedback helps the team look at the issue (not articulating ideas clearly.) Then, it gives suggestions that can be applied. Lastly, it offers further support, reinforcing the team member’s choice of acting on the feedback in a manner that suits them.  Still confused about what’s good feedback and what’s not? Read more here: Ineffective feedback: Are You Unable To Give Constructive Feedback?

How can you improve your constructive feedback skills?

Unironically, it starts with getting some constructive feedback. Providing feedback is an essential skill for managers and leaders. But no one hands us the ultimate feedback guide when we climb the ladder. A lot is hit and trial, and it remains so. We can speed up progress with some tips on constructive feedback for managers. 
  • Keep learning from mistakes: We are going to make some mistakes. The critical point is that you should remain open to learning and improving from those incidents. Moreover, you can make some of the mistakes yourself. If you ever had a manager whose feedback meetings you hated, think about why.  Meanwhile, keep practicing with constructive feedback exercises with your team.
  • Seek feedback from your team: You can add a quick question to the meeting to get their thoughts on this issue. Your team members can help define what sort of help they need, and then you can fine-tune your approach to constructive feedback. 
  • Assess your skills regularly: Self-assessments can be super helpful in building skills over time. Risely can help you assess your constructive feedback skills for free here. Moreover, you can seek reviews on your skills from your team, too. 

Wrapping Up

Constructive feedback, which focuses on strengths, weaknesses, and guidance, is essential for the growth and development of your team. Its critical ingredients—clarity, autonomy to solutions, behavior-focused, positive and respectful, and fact-based—ensure effective communication and improvement. Continuous learning and seeking feedback help you refine constructive feedback skills, fostering a culture of growth and development within teams.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

Ace performance reviews with strong feedback skills.

Master the art of constructive feedback by reviewing your skills with a free assessment now.

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5 Secrets Of Solid Goal Setting At Work You Can’t Miss

5 Secrets Of Solid Goal Setting At Work You Can’t Miss

“I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.” Venus Williams
That’s the inspirational, single-minded focus that seven-time Grand Slam-winning American Tennis player Venus Williams brings to the table. And rightly so, she is regarded as one of the greatest of all time in her sport. Her mindset points to a great idea here: focus on what matters, and the rest will take care of itself. Setting goals and achieving them is not just a matter of sports; there’s plenty to win outside the arena in workplaces and many other situations. In this blog post, we will unravel the secrets of goal setting at work for managers and leaders. We will also look at the five essential ingredients of successful goal-setting – taking it in as more than just a vanity exercise and making a real impact. So, let’s get started.
Table of Contents

What is goal setting?

Goal setting refers to the process of defining outcomes that you want to achieve within a set timeframe. For instance, you might aim to read 12 books this year. Goals are often used to motivate and induce action, even for things that we do not like to do often (think of those New Year’s resolutions languishing in the back). Goal setting at work benefits personal growth and development and achieving strategic objectives with teams. It helps people measure progress, overcome procrastination, and visualize the dreams on which teams are founded. When goal-setting becomes a habit, it can help individuals stay motivated, focused, and optimistic in their outlooks.

Why should managers care about goal setting at work?

To many managers, setting goals for many people and yourself seems tedious. But think of everything that you can achieve by mastering this skill. Effective goal setting in the workplace enables you to; 
  • Push your team forward: Alignment of your team’s actions effectively with the broader strategy is easier. This will also keep the individual’s needs in sync with the team’s targets, ensuring that they are accountable and motivated. Your team feels connected to the organization too.
  • Easily track performance: Goals make performance reviews easier. When your team members have clear goals, you can accurately and efficiently measure performance instead of banging your head against a table when reviews need to be filled. 
  • Build good work habits: Setting goals at work is net positive as it enhances team performance. Consider marketing team A, which has been instructed to “reach out to people,” vs. team B, which has a goal of “reaching out to 10 people every day.” Who is likelier to understand what to do and rightly schedule their work?
  • Reach strategic objectives: Goal setting in the workplace puts strategies into action. Big plans and visions are great, but it’s the smaller goals that make them move. Honing solid goal-setting habits enables managers to define short-term outcomes expected from their teams that contribute to more significant objectives.
Other Interesting Reads

Top 5 goal setting strategies for managers

Let’s be honest: each of us has goals for us. There are some on your diary right now. But how often are we able to keep up with them? Pretty frequently, we miss it. And we don’t always a Duolingo bird threatening us to keep going. So, how can we achieve goals without Duolingo holding a knife at us? Here are a few strategies of goal setting at work that can help us out:

Align with the company framework 

As a manager, you are responsible for setting goals for yourself and your team. So before jumping on to goal setting at work, have a good look at the context and scope you are working with. In most instances, your organization would provide you with a broader framework to operate. It could include: 
  • The goal-setting frameworks for the entire organization: Some companies love OKRs, while others swear by MBOs, and yet others figure something out of their own. Having a system across the organization ensures easy understanding and compatibility, even in cross-functional collaborations. Hence, try to play in this frame so that your team does not find multiple systems hard to navigate.
  • The long-term goals: Your company would share the long-term strategies and objectives of which your team is a part. From this insight, take away what your team can do and how they can do it best—that will help you define goals for your team while keeping in touch with the rest.
Aligning team goals with the company framework ensures that your work is impactful and recognized clearly by senior management. Performance is also easier to track and appraise.

Make goals at work challenging

If I were to ask you to run a hundred meters right now, you wouldn’t think much of it. But instead, if we decide to participate in a half-marathon three months later, there’s much more to do and think about. That goal requires you to plan, practice, and get moving before D-day. And this is what you need your workplace goals to look like. A small challenge goes a long way in keeping us moving. Locke’s study of goal setting sums up this: We like our goals to be clear and challenging, which positively impacts task performance at work. Hence, the next time you set goals for your team, be more like “improve efficiency on process X by 25%. I know it’ll be hard, but I am here to help out,” and less like “let’s improve our performance, buddy.” In the same set of studies, we have another interesting feature of goals that work: they are as clear as water. A good goal tells you precisely what needs to be done and when, a bad one leaves you confused. Think back, have you ever received vague feedback like, “Hi, you need to improve your communication skills.” Even if you try, you won’t get their point. Similarly, your team would want goals that clarify where to act. This approach also falls in line with the SMART goals framework. Are you looking for more examples of goal-setting? Hop on: 5+ Examples & Tips Of Goal Setting For Managers At Work

Make goals at work achievable, too

Excitement is a great motivator, but failure hits hard, too. Thus, when setting goals in the workplace, ensure that you do not set your team up for failure. A lot of overzealous managers can do this unintentionally. And while we all love a challenge, pushing ourselves too much has detrimental consequences that are not worth it. Your goals should read: “Increase quarterly sales revenue by 8% compared to the same period last year. We have a couple of new people joining, and our strategies are improved now.” And here’s a red flag: “Increase quarterly sales revenue by 50% compared to the same period last year without implementing any new sales strategies or initiatives.” Unrealistic goals are not only bad organizers of work; they often push employees onto the edge of burnout. If it goes on for too long, your turnover rates will rise. Plus, managers tend to micromanage and become overburdened when these wrong goals are not met. In the best interest of yourself and your team, it’s okay not to be a superhero. Read more here: Unrealistic Goals vs. Stretch Goals: The Fine Line

Regularly update and track goals at work

Think back to the goals you met; they’d have one thing in common: you checked your progress often, whether by ticking the box daily in your diary or taking tests regularly while learning languages. Regular check-ins are essential to completing goals. Goal setting at work is most effective when the manager consistently supports the team and helps when they get stuck. Conversely, regularly tracking goals also enables you to ensure that deadlines are not being missed. Similarly, as your team progresses, the goals must also move ahead. Keep finetuning the objectives as your context continues to develop. Ask your team for suggestions, too. Technological changes or new challenges from the business environment can be critical reasons to consider this. Outdated goals would push you in the wrong direction and make your work double. Thus, keep watching and keep updating. Goal-setting activities can help you out in this, check a few here: 6 Fun goal-setting activities to help you achieve your dreams

Align with individual growth and development plans

Last up, keep your team members in mind while setting goals at work. Goal setting in the workplace can be significantly out of sync for many people; the tasks assigned may not meet their personal development and growth plans. As a result, they could be disappointed and demotivated to perform. Thus, set goals with your team, not for your team. Bringing them on board will show that their opinions matter and their ideas are put into action right before their eyes. It solicits greater engagement and action toward the objectives. Moreover, by ensuring the alignment between team and individual goals, you also demonstrate an interest in your team’s needs and wants, which can cause them to place loyalty and trust in your efforts, making you a great manager. Goal setting questions are a great way to do this. Deriving goals from the long-term vision and matching them to the individual team member’s ideas and needs is an excellent approach to cultivating a “line of sight.” Yale coined this term, which hints toward an approach to goal setting in the workplace that hinges on active contribution from all levels of the organization, a great understanding of the impact of efforts, and ultimately a sense of belongingness—everyone moving ahead together.

How does goal setting lead to success? Goal-setting mistakes to avoid

Goal setting in the workplace is an excellent step toward envisioning success. Nonetheless, it can sometimes falter. As discussed above, alignment of goals in the workplace is essential in this equation. That’s the pivot in keeping everything moving. And that’s where mistakes happen often. For instance, the senior management imposes goals instead of developing goals collaboratively with the team members concerned. Overworked and demotivated teams are the result. In some cases, the goals might not make sense to the individuals working on them. It happens without sufficient communication. Goal setting at work cannot be done in siloes. Instead, it calls for sharing and working together. Show the vision, demonstrate how every effort contributes, and encourage your team to own initiatives. In some cases, especially with new managers, goal setting at work can be troublesome because the teams are not ready to take them up. It could happen when you are in a crisis and set up stretch goals that need your team to push more than usual. The key to such situations lies in solid negotiation skills and setting the right expectations with your team. At times, you would need to go ahead and convince why a goal needs to be on the sheet, so be ready to be your persuasive best. By the way, this is about more than just your team members; you might find yourself doing this with your seniors, who often need more time to be ready to see things your way and stick to conventions regarding plans and goals. Lastly, beware of unrealistic goals creeping up on your goal. Goal setting in the workplace is an exercise that is best done in reality and with a thorough goal-setting process. Thinking of what should ideally happen will take you far away from what can really happen. Unrealistic goals do not account for missing resources or team members’ limits; they push things too hard till they fail. Avoid falling into this trap.

I made the goal-setting mistakes already. What’s next? 

No worries, we can find some ways out. Here are some tips for goal setting at work that every manager should know: 

Key skills to work on 

Goal setting is not just about deciding timelines and putting the resources in. That definition would be sheer injustice to the skill it takes. Goal setting at work includes looking for challenges and removing them as they pop up, keeping track of the smaller tasks, and providing feedback and guidance to keep your team going. To ace this set of goal-setting abilities as a manager, focus on these skills; 
  • Prioritization: Focus on what matters, first and foremost. Keep the urgent and essential things at the top while the rest can find homes later. Prioritization helps you sort the mess out when your to-do list is longer than your mobile screen. 
  • Interpersonal communication: Big task lists are scary. Talk to your team. Keep them informed, motivated, and, above all – reassured about your presence in the middle of a mess. They might hate you for creating it, but be present. Interpersonal skills also come in handy while confronting people amidst your collaboration efforts. 
  • Problem-solving: You have the problem, so the need for this skill is relatively self-explanatory. Hone problem-solving skills to enable a view of the bigger picture. It’ll help you get the context right and choose the best action.

How do we avoid repeating goal-setting mistakes?

  • Learn from the mistakes: Reflect and take time to understand what went wrong and why. Don’t do that again. Self-reflection, brainstorming sessions with the team afterward, and feedback from the concerned people can help understand the rights and wrongs. 
  • Self-assessments and feedback: Assess your skills using Risely’s free goal-setting assessment for managers and leaders here. It will also help you solicit feedback from your team. With detailed insights into the sub-skills and actions, you can plan a development journey for your goal-setting skills as a manager. 
  • Take up training: Leadership development options focusing on goal-setting skills are a great resource. You can check out workshops, seminars, and personalized solutions like coaching for goal setting and mentorship who work closely with your team. Plus, Risely’s AI coach, Merlin, can help you here. Check out Merlin’s advice on your challenges in a free conversation on goal setting skills here.

To sum up

Goal setting defines achievable outcomes within a timeframe, which is crucial for personal growth, team alignment, and organizational success. You can benefit by aligning team goals with company strategies, making goals challenging yet achievable, and regularly tracking progress. Mistakes like imposing goals without collaboration or setting unrealistic expectations can hinder success. You can improve by prioritizing interpersonal communication, problem-solving, and self-reflection. Learning from mistakes, seeking feedback, and investing in training can enhance goal-setting skills, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and fostering team growth and success.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

Assess your goal setting skills for free!

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One-on-one Meetings That Don’t Make Your Team Sigh

One-on-one Meetings That Don’t Make Your Team Sigh

One-on-one meetings! If you are anywhere close to a performance review session, your calendar might be crowded by the team. But there’s more: most effective managers do not wait for performance reviews to knock before leading a one-on-one meeting. Instead, they consistently organize such review meetings with their team members. And the impact is palpable – managers who recognize the importance of solid one-on-one catch-ups are in sync with their team members. Their relationships go beyond the professional workspaces and develop into practical ways to connect. If you are here, undoubtedly, you want to join this league. So, let’s figure a way out to make your one-on-one meetings top notch!
Table of Contents

What is a one-on-one meeting?

Simply put, a one-on-one meeting is a conversation between a manager and an employee to get to know each other. The discussions can range from career progression to addressing concerns and providing support and coaching. All in all, they are an opportunity for the manager to show that they are present and willing to help while creating a safe space for the team member to share their thoughts. Remember, it’s a two-way conversation, not a critical monologue session. The focus should be on topics beyond work rather than on taking status updates.
One-on-one conversations involve connecting emotionally and creating dedicated space and time for meaningful interactions. View these one-on-one conversations as a holistic approach that encompasses feedback but begins with establishing strong connections.Ashish Manchanda, Manager Story

But what’s the point? Why should you take one-on-one meetings seriously?

If you are thinking, why bother? Here are several incredible reasons to invest your time and energy in one-on-one meetings. 
  • First, these meetings allow managers to gain deeper insights into their team members, aspirations and needs through attentive listening. They also help employees discuss things that don’t come up in shared and public spaces. By showcasing authenticity and vulnerability as a leader, you can empower your team to emulate.
  • Second, it establishes you as a confidante and trustworthy supporter of your team members. When a manager creates a safe space and truly listens, it allows the team members to place trust and loyalty in them. Psychological safety is not a buzzword; it matters (high psychological safety takes the risk of turnover as low as 3%, as per BCG), and one-on-one help helps you create it big time. 
  • Third, it makes your working relationship super smooth. How easy is it to go to your manager and say you need some time for professional development? Pretty great, right? That’s what consistently keeping up with one-on-one meetings allows team members to do. It creates a working relationship free of facades and mutually focuses on developing the team and individual.

How to conduct one on one meetings?

Before heading on to crafting perfection, let’s look at what we typically miss: what makes a one-on-one meeting bad? Think of your own experiences. Did you ever have a one-on-one catch-up with that left you seething with anger, or worse – sad? 

Why do one-on-one meetings fail?

Here’s why it happens: 

People are different

It’s no surprise that people vary, and so does everything about them that is needed to build a solid working relationship. This includes their communication styles, personalities, ways of working, and much more. When these two don’t align, one-on-one meetings often become a competition or argument instead of a collaborative discussion. 

The manager tells without showing

Picture a one-on-one meeting going like this: a manager starts on a good note and urges their team member to be open and honest about everything – the good, bad, and the ugly. But on the flip side, the manager does not follow their word and shares little of their perspective. As a result, the team member does not get a concrete example of how vulnerability or authenticity can be expressed. Instead, they are left with something sinister – an unfulfilled promise and a space that makes them uncomfortable as they walk out of the meeting room while sighing and thanking themselves for not blurting out everything. 

The manager takes the lead

Heading into a one-on-one meeting with the attitude of a team meeting where you direct everyone to this or that backfires big time. It’s crucial to understand that one-on-one meetings are not a one-way channel to share your thoughts with a person. A manager’s role in a one-on-one meeting extends to facilitating their team to overcome hesitation and truly express their needs and thoughts. Focusing on listening, not speaking. Not asking questions, going ahead without an agenda, and not taking feedback from the team members are the most common problems in bad one-on-one meetings. 

Defensive behavior and high guards

Sometimes, one-on-one meetings could fail if the team members are not ready to open up and share their thoughts. After all, it takes two to clap. In such instances of defensive behavior from a team member, focus on building rapport with them and creating a sense of safety that helps them put their guard down. Initially, the process could be slow, but it ultimately leads to solid returns. Remember that personalities and communication styles vary, and accommodating them is necessary to create solid one-on-one relationships.

Let’s think boundaries

We started by taking note of one-on-one meetings as something that creates a solid working relationship, one that is marked by authenticity and care on both sides. Yet the moment we head out of strict professional space, we walk along a delicate line – one where we, as managers, might end up encroaching into their personal lives. Criticism that goes to the person instead of the professional hurts the commitment to creating good relationships and safety at work. Hence, boundaries matter. 
Other Interesting Reads

How to structure one on one meetings?

The structure and frequency of one-on-one meetings are critical factors that differentiate them from other water cooler conversations. What else? The agenda, questions, and updates matter, too! Let’s use an example to see this one in action. We are heading into a one-on-one meeting with a manager named Andrew to see how it goes. 

What’s the process of good one-on-one meetings?

First, let’s focus on the structural things. Before heading into a meeting, we need to collect some ingredients: 

How to schedule one on one meetings?

Yep, we need to schedule a meeting before conducting one, unsurprisingly. Ideally, schedule the meeting a few days before it happens and do so at a regular cadence. Irregularity and lack of frequency can be a source of disappointment, as they show that the matter is not severe enough to give due thought and planning. The ideal cadence for one-on-one meetings depends on your context. While a manager new to the team should keep the frequency high, those dealing with senior reports need more time for in-depth discussions. Remote managers doing one-on-one meetings can take it up frequently to compensate for limited interactions. Team size matters too—after all, you can’t spend a week on one-on-ones alone! Moreover, your team will have something to say about it, so do take their opinions on the frequency of meetings. Managers hold one-on-one meetings weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on their team’s structure and needs. A monthly routine can be a great way to start—it gives enough time for developments to progress and enables reviews. Define a suitable time limit that does not take away from your team’s productivity while allowing a good discussion. Anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes is a good place to start. Once the meeting is set, we can move forward. While speaking of the frequency of one-on-one meetings, it’s essential to acknowledge that keeping them far away or canceling them at the last minute is a sure-shot red flag. If a meeting cannot happen, find an alternative to compensate for the lost chance at connecting; it shows that you care.

Defining the one-on-one meeting agenda

An agenda helps you set the tone and purpose of the meeting right from the start. One-on-one meetings can often falter because they seem like an unnecessary vanity exercise imposed by management. Having set agendas and topics to discuss can help you avoid that. Moreover, scheduling the meeting in advance allows your team members time to prepare and share their agendas and topics.  Here’s how Andrew sets the agenda in our example one-on-one meeting with his team members: 
  • Step 1: Add critical points to discuss along with the meeting invite. It helps the team members prepare and ensures them about the contents of the discussion, creating comfort.
  • Step 2: When the meeting starts, clearly reiterate the agenda, like this: “Thanks for meeting with me today, Alex. I wanted to touch base on a few key points. First, let’s discuss your current projects and any challenges you’re facing. Then, I’d like to discuss your goals for the upcoming quarter. Lastly, we can address any support or resources you might need from me or the team. Does that sound good to you?“
  • Step 3: Add Alex’s points to discuss in the meeting.
With this sorted, we can move on to the next step of conducting good one-on-one meetings.

Talking progress in a one-on-one conversation 

One focal point of a one-on-one meeting is discussing progress on the plans you made last time. In addition to work-related areas, you can discuss professional development and personal growth. For instance, your team member might have started a course on time management after you pointed out the need for more timeliness. Ask about it. It shows that you care and remember what’s happening with them.  Here’s how Andrew asked Alex about her previous work:  “How are things progressing with Project X? Are you on track to meet the milestones we set? I noticed you encountered some issues last week. Can you update me on how you’ve tackled those challenges?“ Keeping progress in mind also defines a routine for one-on-one meetings and keeps the conversation consistent. Consider taking notes to know what to ask in the next one. Forgetting is easier than we remember.

Using feedback in a one-on-one meeting 

Constructive feedback is the cornerstone of growth and a crucial element of one-on-one catch-ups. As a manager, take some time to outline the critical areas where you want to share feedback. Keep the basics in mind: the feedback should be constructive, give it right in time, and help with the resources and support needed to implement it. Afterward, transfer it to the progress of your one-on-one conversation and keep moving.  It can go like this: “I’ve been reviewing your recent work, and overall, I’m impressed with the quality and attention to detail. However, I noticed a few areas where there’s room for improvement, particularly in communicating updates to the team. Let’s work together to refine your approach.”  And it should not go like this: “Your performance has been subpar, and frankly, I’m disappointed. You need to step up your game or start looking for other opportunities. I don’t have time to babysit you through every task.“
  • does not tell what to improve or how 
  • the tone and language are threatening 
  • does not provide guidance 
Critically, ensure that feedback is not personal. You can use interesting techniques like the feedback sandwich to deliver it effectively during a one-on-one meeting.  Next up, be open to feedback, too. Remember that one-on-one meetings are a two-way street. Ask your team member what they think about the team and your management; their feedback can help you improve your and the team’s performance. Here’s how you can prompt your team members to share their thoughts during a one-on-one meeting: 
  • Follow it up after a discussion: “Additionally, is there any feedback you have for me or areas where you think I can better support you?“
  • Go specific if you feel the need: “Is there anything about our team’s communication that you find challenging?“
All in all, give them the space you took up earlier. Keep the questions direct as well as open-ended. Feedback from their side can take both positive and negative sides once again. While receiving feedback in a one-on-one conversation, actively listen and ask more questions to understand things better. Creating a safe space is essential for your team members to open up and demonstrate that you are open to feedback and willing to change things if needed. After all, growth is for the collective. Check out more examples of feedback here:

Building rapport in a one-on-one conversation

One-on-one meetings are your tools to bring candidness into the workspace. It fuels the team with positivity and care toward each other. Moreover, it’s your chance to build loyalty and gain support from your team members. Taking the time to check in on how the team member feels, address any concerns, and offer support that demonstrates empathy and strengthens the manager’s bond with the team member like Andrew does by asking this – “Before we wrap up, I’d like to check how you feel about your role and our team dynamics. How are you finding your workload lately? Is there anything outside of work impacting your performance that you’d like to discuss?“ Building rapport with your team members goes beyond discussing work-related matters and includes showing genuine interest in their well-being and professional development. For instance, Andrew asks Alex about her progress in guitar lessons.
“I remember you mentioned your interest in learning guitar. Have you had a chance to practice that lately?“ And to make it even better, there’s something that Andrew adds –
“I used to play the guitar during my college days as a member of our band. Let me know if I can be of any help. It’s been a while since I picked it up.“ It creates a shared interest and relatability for the two to connect. Sometimes, your team members might be going through personal troubles that impact everywhere; you can become a source of empathy and reassurance. Focus on listening empathetically and providing guidance in suitable ways. Rapport building is not about ticking boxes; it’s about showing up and caring as your team needs you to. Sometimes, they might feel uncomfortable, especially when your team is new to one-on-one meetings. In such situations, take the lead and set the tone right. Don’t head in with tiredness; that will make your team members feel the same. Instead, push the energy you want the discussion to have. Keep your tone and demeanor open to conversation, and demonstrate friendliness with your body language. Don’t forget to keep your phone aside for a while and the conversation the attention it truly deserves.

How can you improve one-on-one meetings?

Now, you might think that you are doing everything right. You have a checklist of topics to discuss and exude your best energy, yet the catch-ups don’t seem right. You might not be seeing the other perspective. While managers and employees agree that one-on-one meetings are important, Hypercontext found a key area of disagreement: how well are the one-on-ones going? 72% of managers believed their employees were motivated after a discussion, but the number sinks to 58% when team members are asked. Does your team disagree similarly? You can find out with Risely!  First, take the free one-on-one meeting skill assessment for managers here. It will give you a detailed analysis of the skills you need to conduct one-on-one meetings effectively. Second, ask your team to assess your one-on-one meeting skills. The best part is that this assessment is anonymous. You get a cumulative score representing what your team thinks, and their privacy is protected.  Next, ask Merlin about it; Merlin is Risely’s AI coach, who is present 24*7 to help out managers who want to unleash their true potential, just like you! The first three conversations with Merlin are free here. Along with getting tips, you can practice discussions through role plays, where Merlin acts like your team members, and your conversations are reviewed.

To Conclude

One-on-one meetings foster authentic relationships and trust between managers and team members. These meetings provide open communication, enabling managers to gain deeper insights into their team’s aspirations and concerns. By actively listening and giving support, managers can create a safe space where team members feel valued and empowered. Structuring these meetings with clear agendas and frequent check-ins reinforces their importance and facilitates meaningful discussions. Moreover, building rapport through genuine interest and empathy strengthens bonds and enhances the work environment. Ultimately, investing time and effort in one-on-one meetings cultivates a culture of collaboration, growth, and mutual respect within the team.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

Grab a free one-on-one meeting toolkit here!

Find valuable resources curated by experts including one-on-one meeting questions, frameworks, and much more.

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5 Secrets To Conflict Resolution At Work For Managers

5 Secrets To Conflict Resolution At Work For Managers

Conflict is all too common. We often encounter this ever-present demon in our workplaces, too. The trouble is manifold for managers because escape is no longer safe. While you may avoid conflicts personally, they can still arise in your team and become your mess to solve. Running away is not going to be a great solution. So, what can we do? Read on to learn all about conflict resolution at work and find the secrets to effectively build team cohesion and resilience in the face of challenges. Let’s hop right on!
Table of Contents

What is a Conflict?

Conflict is a disagreement or conflictual situation. It can be personal or professional, arising from varying attitudes, opinions, or ways. When conflict arises in the workplace, it can cause tension and disruption among employees. As a result, set workflows get hampered, and teams often find an uneasy air at work. 

Why do workplace conflicts arise?

There are no one-shot reasons as to why conflicts at work arise. More often than not, the cause lies in differences, differences in styles of working or communication that can pave the way for two people to get at loggerheads with each other. For instance, a creative difference can divide two team members. While one may want to adopt the brand’s traditional color palette, another may suggest a modern reinterpretation—putting the manager in a fix! Similarly, conflicts can arise due to differences in personality, objectives, or work style. Primarily, the major types of workplace conflicts are:
  • Leadership conflicts typically involve disputes about the leader’s authority, decision-making power, or strategy.
  • Work Style conflicts generally arise from cultural differences, personality clashes, and other views about the job
  • Creative conflicts happen when different team members have additional ideas or goals.
  • Personality conflicts occurs when two or more people have different personalities, which leads to differences in communication styles and work preferences.
  • Task-Based conflicts can arise from various sources, such as different expectations or goals, conflicting work schedules, and insufficient communication.
Otherwise, the perception of prevailing inequality or bias can be the root cause, too. Change, which pushes many buttons and shifts things over, often leads to resistance and conflicts. Sometimes, the focus can shift away from the team agenda and become a matter of ego, bringing the big guns of personal goals into the picture. When individual goals triumph and take over team agendas, conflicts and problems arise. 

Is there a good side to conflicts too?

Conflicts generally carry a negative connotation, wherein differences are seen as causes of disputes that limit productivity and push for stagnancy. While this is usually true, conflicts can provide teams with that much-needed impetus to grow. In addition, some conflicts can force managers to rethink their strategies and adopt more innovative methods. Discovering and resolving a row creates a platform for team members and managers to engage openly. As such, some conflicts can be healthy, too!

What is Conflict Resolution in the Workplace?

Conflict resolution is a process that helps resolve disagreements between individuals or groups and leads to mutually agreeable solutions. In workplaces, conflict resolution skills are often needed to overcome contesting views and opinions that can cause strife. For managers, conflict resolution at work is the set of techniques that help end conflicts in teams and bring in team cohesion.

Why is conflict resolution important in the workplace?

Conflict resolution at work is essential because it helps ensure that all employees know and respect boundaries. It is vital because managers should resolve conflicts within teams fairly and peacefully. A manager has to aim for a mutually beneficial solution instead of a biased adjudication that favors either side. Otherwise, your team might lose confidence in you as an effective manager, paving the way for further distrust. With the help of effective conflict resolution, you can bring together your team in the face of challenging situations, even when team members do not see eye to eye. Without effective conflict resolution at work, you might do a lot of firefighting, constantly caught in a tug-of-war between many parties. Conflict resolution in the workplace frees you from these internal matters and allows you to focus on pertinent issues relating to the strategy and growth of the team. It enables the manager to grow with a team with the help of efficient plans and a resilient team. Read more about the importance of conflict resolution in the workplace here.

What are The Top Conflict Resolution Skills at Work?

Conflict resolution abilities of a manager are a function of multiple skills. Just think about it: conflicts can take up varying faces, and thus, the way out is unique for each one. The key conflict resolution skills for managers are:

Conflict Awareness

Before jumping into the arena and solving everything like a boss, step back and see the bigger picture. Try to answer a couple of relevant questions:
  • What is the root cause of the conflict?
  • What is the impact of the conflict?
These two things can be pivotal in defining the success of conflict resolution at work. After all, understanding the field is essential before prepping the guns.

Perceptual Understanding

Next, examine the parties involved in the conflict. How you communicate and resolve the dispute will depend on who you are dealing with and their objectives. Thus, understand how your team members perceive the conflict. What looks like a simple miscommunication to you could appear to be a planned lack of information to someone else. Moreover, understand their conflict resolution habits to ensure that you can accommodate their needs.

Resolution Strategies

It goes without saying, know your stuff before getting into the field. Build a plan on how you want to deal with the conflict and ensure that you have clarity on your ultimate objective. In toto, don’t let problems fester until they become big troubles; take a proactive approach to conflict resolution at work. Also, there are multiple types of conflict resolution styles that managers adopt at work, such as: 
  • Competing, where you fight for what’s yours
  •  Accommodating, where you are open to understanding the needs of the other side
  •  Avoiding, AKA withdrawing from the conflict
  •  Collaborating, which enables you to work together and find a mutually agreeable solution 
  •  Compromising, i.e., letting things be in favor of the other side
As such, no strategy is the best one. It all depends on the context and goals you set out to achieve. 

Reflective Evaluation

Once you are through, always take time to rethink and reflect on your conflict resolution strategies at work. Sometimes, new ideas or learnings emerge when we look back at the situation. Otherwise, you can also assess yourself using Risely’s conflict resolution skill assessment to prepare for next time. Read about conflict resolution skills in detail here: 10 Skills for Conflict Resolution in Teams and How to Build them?
Other Interesting Reads

Top 5 Conflict Resolution Strategies for Workplaces

Conflict can be a difficult and frustrating experience for all parties involved. As a manager, you must be prepared for conflict and handle it healthily and productively. Many conflict resolution strategies are available, so it’s important to find the right one for the situation. However, this conflict resolution framework can provide some common ground to get started:

Build Team Alignment 

One of the significant causes of conflict is misalignment across the team. Suppose your team is unsure of where they are collectively moving, and it’s likely they have a hard time figuring out how to move forward. Hence, one of the critical steps in resolving conflicts at work is building alignment. There are a few things that managers can do to align teams and prevent conflicts: 
  • Share information with your team in the right amount and at the right time: If only some of your team members have the inside “scoop,” it’s bound to create resentment and confusion among the rest. Thus, as a manager, ensure that you serve as a reliable source of information for your team and prevent the propagation of misinformation.
  • Demonstrate where your team’s efforts fit in: Misalignment can happen when a team is unsure of the vision and mission that is guiding them. When people stab at a problem with different objectives in their head, they are likely to go in other ways only. You can prevent this by setting up shared and interdependent goals and creating a leadership vision to guide your team.

Openly Discuss Differences With Your Team Members 

People are different, and that’s a fact we can’t change. But instead of being sad or wary about it, we can embrace and celebrate the differences and make the most of them. Discussing differences among common attributes such as working and communication styles, personalities, or opinions in team meetings and one-on-one chats can help you create a more tolerable and safer space. 
  • Facilitate discussions among your team members: Suppose two of your team members differ in their approach to a problem; what’s the best way out? Give them space to present to their sides and enable them to find common ground. Remember that conflicts are not necessarily a zero-sum game. You can turn them into significant instances of bringing insights and rethinking conventional work approaches.
  • Don’t impose your viewpoints: If you direct your team to work in your way, no questions asked, you’d be failing to keep up with the spirit of openness. Whenever conflict strikes, and you need to overcome differences, allow all sides to share their ideas and explain why something is to be followed or not. This includes ideas from seniors because irrational imposition furthers resentment and makes employees feel purposeless.

Create a Safe Space for Opinions 

Imagine you have a team that never disagrees or shares contrary opinions. What could be the reason? When team members feel that their views are likely to be discarded or ridiculed, they are unlikely to share ideas. As a result, tempers fester. Otherwise, when these opinions emerge in the heat of the moment, it creates an even bigger problem! Your team needs a safe space to express discontentment or disagreement. Here’s how a manager can build a safe space to minimize conflict in their team: 
  • Establish the ground rules for communication in meetings: Sometimes, your team members might be unable to talk openly because they fear ridicule. As a manager, you can set the ground rules that allow everyone to share ideas quickly. It is constructive for new team members and those from marginalized backgrounds, including women. 
  • Encourage ideas and questions: As a manager, you can set the ideal tone of meetings by adopting it yourself. This way, many more team members can understand how to raise queries and share their thoughts without conflict. Simple words of appreciation or encouragement can also go a long way.
  • Confront the problems: If some of your team members feel uncomfortable, confront the challenges and build psychological safety. The issue could be a senior team member’s intimidating presence or interpersonal conflict finding a home at work among two people—whatever it is, acknowledge and work on it. Throwing it under the carpet is akin to setting up a time bomb for your team.

Run a Constant Feedback Loop for Solid Conflict Resolution at Work

Suppose your manager never asked you how it’s going. You’d hate them, won’t you? So why make the same mistake with your team? Regular feedback loops allow team members to address issues as they arise rather than letting them escalate into conflicts. Feedback helps identify areas for improvement and maintain alignment, thus reinforcing our first step in preventing workplace conflicts. Apart from regular feedback meetings, there can be some more innovative ways to make this exercise pretty impactful for your team: 
  • Conduct peer review sessions focusing on constructive criticism: While doing this, emphasize the use and meaning of constructive criticism as a tool for guiding improvement. It helps address queries that seem inane to you but matter a lot to your team, such as “Alex sits free the whole day,” which can be pretty bitter conflicts once activated.
  • Plan your feedback sessions: Give actionable tips and clearly point out areas of improvement for your team members to work toward. By addressing concerns that are valuable to the entire team’s agenda through such mechanisms, you can save yourself a lot of trouble. 

Actively Work on Communication Styles 

Lastly, take the time to improve and align your team’s communication habits. While some broad differences cannot be removed, you can set up shared spaces and processes to streamline communication. It is important because mismanaged communication, like lack of information or sharing things later, can have bigger ramifications than missed deadlines.
  • Be open to training: Communication can be a hard nut to crack. It’s about speaking the right words and extends into nonverbal and written aspects. Thus, be open to training or coaching to upgrade your communication skills consistently. Your team can participate in workshops and seminars together, too. If that seems too much, start with a simple and small step: a free assessment of your communication skills by Risely here. 

In Conclusion

To wrap up, conflict resolution strategies at work can vary and depend heavily on the manager’s and their team’s context. Yet, we can build some central skills to ensure that we do not approach conflicts in a haphazard fashion and instead take up things logically. Conflict resolution at work remains an important area for managers to master as it is vital in ensuring team cohesion and preventing high turnover rates.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

Review your conflict resolution skills for free.

Conflicts are troublesome. But you can get through them all with the right skillset. Are you prepared? Find out here.

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8 Essential Leadership Skills For Every Great Team Manager

8 Essential Leadership Skills Every Great Manager Has 

Although leadership skills are often talked about, written about, and hoped for in business, a succinct definition of what it entails often escapes notice. Leadership, in its many contours and faces, stands differently for people across the world.  The lack of leadership skills appears similar. It leads to team members not feeling comfortable enough to express their opinions or the leader being unable to draw the best ideas out of team members – all of which signals a waste of high potential in a team. This blog focuses on leadership skills that every good team manager must have to ensure their team is never left behind!  P.S. We’ve got free leadership skill assessments to help you out! 
Table of Contents

What are the top leadership skills?

Now, that’s a question for the ages. What are the fundamental leadership skills you cannot ignore? Let’s start with communication and leadership basics because they are vital to any successful team. A leader needs to be able to communicate effectively with their team members and also delegate tasks effectively so that everyone can work towards the same goal and achieve their goals. Another important skill is building rapport with others. It helps to build trust and good relationships between team members, which is critical to success. Finally, being a good role model is vital for team morale and productivity. A leader should demonstrate positive behaviors and attitudes so that others can follow suit. We will explore these skills in detail below.

We asked managers, what leadership skills do you want to develop? Here’s what they said.

At Risely, we believe in creating leadership development solutions for the leaders. And hence, we posed this question to the leaders who were signing up. In their opinion from over five thousand responses, the top leadership and management skills that they would like to work on include the following: 
  • Conducting effective one-on-one meetings
  • Guidance Ability 
  • Analytical Skills 
  • Interpersonal Skills 
  • Emotional Competence
  • Constructive Feedback
  • Decision Making
  • Time Management

Top 8 Leadership Skills to Develop in 2024

Here’s a quick turn around for you: all essential leadership skills and free leadership skill assessments that you need.

One-on-One Meetings

One-on-one meetings form the base of effective relationships and connections among team managers. Often, these meetings provide the opportunity to connect beyond professional causes and allow managers to establish a personal connection with their team members. A solid one-on-one meeting is great for catching up and sharing thoughts across personal and professional aspects. Empathy and active listening also become essential in getting this right. Yet, many do not turn out well because the managers and their team members are unaware of set structures, proper agendas, and questions to discuss. Not having one-on-one meetings is like missing out on a huge potential for team building and cohesiveness.

Emotional Competence

Oh, dear emotions! They take us up and down and all the way here and there. Managing these emotions in ourselves and others is known as emotional competence. For a manager, emotional competence is not just about controlling anger when frustrated; there’s much more to it. Emotional competence for managers includes self-awareness of emotions and feelings that help us deal with them positively by taking steps such as setting boundaries and breaks at the right times. It also includes managing the emotions of others by empowering and supporting them through tough times. Suppose you are in the middle of a difficult conversation about unmet deadlines with a team member who becomes defensive and emotional, that’s where your emotional competence comes to the rescue!

Interpersonal Skills 

A lot of people will say that management is just about talking. Yes, this is annoying. But a broken clock is somewhat right twice a day, too. Interpersonal interactions play a big role in a successful management career. It includes daily conversations with colleagues, managing stakeholders, managing conflicts among team members, and even those tricky confrontations and negotiations that make or break deals. The area of communication is a big one. While discussing interpersonal skills, you need to consider written and verbal communication and its nonverbal aspects, such as body language and the distance you are standing from the other person! A manager who cannot handle conflict or confrontation or boost collaboration would have a hard time moving the team forward.

Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback is the feedback that is helpful and useful. It helps the recipient to improve their skills or knowledge and can be delivered positively or negatively. Constructive feedback should always aim to help the individual become better than they were before. It incorporates empathy, understanding, and thoughtful consideration.  Feedback is a critical leadership skill, and providing effective feedback is essential to creating a positive environment for growth. Feedback allows leaders to identify strengths, role responsibilities, and areas for improvement. It also helps individuals improve their performance and be more effective team members. Constructive feedback should be provided in a timely and effective way to create a positive environment for growth and development in the team. When giving feedback, it is essential to ensure that everyone on the team feels valued and supported.
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Guidance Ability 

When you are stuck, who do you reach out to? If the answer is your manager, then you know why this skill matters. Even when we look back at our professional journeys, the people we remember are those who guided and mentored us through tough times, earning our loyalty and respect forever. A manager’s ability to guide their team effectively is directly tied to their team’s success as well as their own professional growth. A manager who has mastered guidance can steer the development of many others after them. On the other hand, ineffective guidance leaves teams confused and chaotic when trouble strikes. Guidance ability is crucial in many stages, not just for training the new folks under you. For instance, if you have to upskill someone senior, you must know the right way and opportunities to guide them. Or when your team is stuck on a challenge with a deadline approaching quickly? That’s where you need to show them the way out.

Time Management

Effective team managers need to be able to manage their time effectively. Time management skills help team managers stay organized and prioritize their tasks. A good team manager will delegate tasks and communicate effectively with other team members. They must also be able to prioritize work and make effective decisions. Team leaders must delegate work and manage communication effectively, as this will help them prioritize their tasks and meet deadlines. If team leaders can manage these tasks well, they will be successful in their roles while also setting an excellent example for their team members. Maintaining the many aspects of time management effectively helps the team managers save time and ensure that their days are ordered. A workspace free from distractions and routines that run around effectively set goals help managers achieve more with their teams.

Decision-making

As a team manager, making quick and informed decisions is critical. Decision-making requires the ability to listen to others and weigh different options. A good team manager also knows how to motivate and coach their team. These skills are essential for managing any team, large or small. To make effective decisions, managers must be skillful at listening to others and weighing the pros and cons of various options. Their analytical skills need to be robust as well. A good team manager knows how to help their team work effectively as a cohesive unit and define this trajectory through their decisions. They also know how to foster a positive work environment to help employees reach their full potential. It all comes down to effective decision-making skills that can help any leader succeed in any organizational role.

Analytical Skills 

Analytical skills refer to the ability to comprehend disparate sets of information and draw valuable insights from them to make decisions and solve problems. Contrary to popular opinion, analytical skills are not just about crunching big numbers! They encompass many professional qualities, including critical thinking, data analysis, decision-making under pressure, efficient problem-solving, and creativity. Analytical abilities help big time when you need to take charge and step out of the box as a manager. Without this critical mix of melodies, managers might be stuck and stagnating, further frustrating teams. Moreover, strong analytical abilities are critical to your growth when you are early in your professional journey.

How to Develop Leadership Skills?

You can develop leadership skills through a variety of methods, including:
  • Training and education: Leadership training and education can help you develop the skills and knowledge necessary to lead a successful team.
  • Practice and experience: Experience in leadership roles can help you learn how to lead effectively and efficiently.
  • Self-awareness: Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies as a leader can help you improve your skills and strategies for leading teams.
  • Networking: Developing relationships with other leaders in your field can help you gain insights and learn from their experience.
  • Mentoring and coaching: People with experience and expertise can step in as helping hands in your journey. Explore leadership coaching and mentorship to learn more about this.
  • Reflecting on your own leadership experiences: A periodic review of your past leadership experiences can help you reflect on the lessons learned and improve your leadership skills for future use.

Leadership Skills Self-assessment

Are you prepared to take on with your skillset? Test your crucial leadership skills for free now with self-assessments for managers from Risely! Risely offers leadership skills self-assessments designed by experts for managers to test the effectiveness of their abilities. The assessments highlight solid areas that will help you shine and underline weak points where you need to work. With accurate analysis guiding your growth, the leadership skill assessments pave the way for your professional success. What’s more: you can add your team’s review to your tests with a few clicks and get an all round analysis. Risely goes further as your learning buddy in solving all your people management challenges. So if you are constantly doing your team’s work or often finding yourself doing a lot of firefighting, it’s time to sign up for Risely. It brings customized learning journeys to your doorstep, where you can choose what to learn and at what pace! So check out how it works and get started today for a free 14-day trial.

Conclusion

Leadership skills are essential for team building, effective leadership, and achieving organizational goals. You can learn leadership skills from role models and mentors and read leadership-related materials. It’s important to develop leadership skills through self-awareness, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The more you practice leadership skills, the better you’ll get at it. To further enhance your leadership skills, keep revisiting Risely! Grab more insights: Top 5 Qualities That Make A Great Manager

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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Crafting a Winning Leadership Development Strategy

Crafting a Winning Leadership Development Strategy

A successful leadership development strategy is essential for organizations striving for growth, innovation, and success. In today’s business landscape, effective leadership development programs are critical for fostering the skills, competencies, and behaviors necessary for leaders at all levels of an organization. By investing in leadership development, businesses can enhance employee engagement, drive company culture, and gain a competitive advantage in the market. A strategy ties it all together, but how do you develop a good one? Let’s figure out. 
Table of Contents

What’s even Leadership Development?

Leadership development is a dynamic process of continuous improvement that focuses on honing leadership skills, competencies, and styles. It is about personal development and building effective leaders who can navigate complex business challenges and drive success. A modern leadership development perspective emphasizes adaptability, innovation, and the ability to lead in diverse contexts. It equips individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead effectively, inspire teams, and achieve organizational goals.

The criticality of Leadership Development in today’s business landscape

Effective leadership development is critical for organizations to thrive and overcome challenges in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Think about it simply: if your team’s leaders cannot set expectations or actively listen to the issues employees face, are you likely to succeed? Such leadership skills are vital in developing business leaders who can drive innovation, adapt to change, and navigate complex business environments. For L&D leaders, it is imperative to think of this before the symptoms become full-blown issues with organization-wide impact. 

What happens when L&D has no strategy for this?

Without a clear leadership development strategy, learning and development efforts lack direction, focus, and effectiveness. While some of your leaders could be very motivated and take up learning on their own, others would need guidance and are struck by the sheer number of choices available on the internet. And yet, there could be more leaders who need help understanding exactly where they need help. To tie it all up, leaders and their development are a concern for the organization that’s planning its future journeys. Independent and unaligned paths would hardly suit your vision or needs. Hence, without a leadership development strategy, a lot of tension can become our buddy! That sounds terrible, but before jumping onto the solutions, let’s look at some signs that your leadership development strategy needs a revamp.

Signs that your team is missing a leadership development strategy

  • There is no shared understanding of what good leadership entails. There is little that managers can refer to when they are stuck. 
  • Managers and leaders feel that their professional development is not prioritized. As a result, there’s a disconnect and higher turnover.
  • Poor performance and productivity of teams due to lack of guidance and support from the managers.
  • Inability to adapt to changes in the industry or market as the leadership is stuck with older ideas.

The Pillars of an Effective Leadership Development Strategy

Crafting an effective leadership development strategy involves identifying key pillars that form the foundation of the program. These pillars ensure the strategy is accessible, personalized, and aligned with the organization’s vision, succession planning, and talent development needs. By incorporating these pillars, you can create comprehensive leadership development programs that benefit leaders at all levels of the organization.
A few key tenets of a good leadership development strategy should include: 

Accessible and Acceptable to a Diverse Audience

An effective leadership development strategy should be accessible and acceptable to a diverse audience. It should consider the varied contexts, backgrounds, and needs of individuals within the organization. By adopting an inclusive approach, organizations can create leadership development programs that cater to diverse leadership styles, perspectives, and experiences. Inclusive leadership development strategies encourage employee engagement, foster a culture of belonging, and enhance leadership effectiveness. It recognizes and values each individual’s unique strengths and contributions, fostering a sense of inclusion, belonging, and employee engagement through training.

Balances Personalization With the Organizational Vision

A successful leadership development strategy personalizes goals while aligning them with the organization’s vision, values, and business strategy. It ensures that leaders have the skills, competencies, and behaviors necessary to drive success while embodying the company’s culture and values. Organizations should create opportunities that resonate with leaders’ aspirations, preferences, and learning styles by tailoring leadership development plans to individual needs, as they are likely to find them much more relatable and valuable that way. Personalization enhances engagement, motivation, and retention, as leaders feel invested in their growth and development.

Strategically Aligned With Succession and Hiring Plans

A vital aspect of an effective leadership development strategy is aligning it strategically with succession planning and talent development efforts. Considering the organization’s future leadership needs, you can groom and prepare leaders for senior leadership roles, ensuring a smooth leadership transition and continuity in business operations. Similarly, by keeping the leadership development strategy robust, you can ensure that you are hiring people only for the areas you need. At the same time, some other capabilities can be groomed and built within the existing team members.  Read more: How Succession Planning And Leadership Development Go Hand-in-Hand With 5 Examples

Multimodal Approach

An effective leadership development strategy incorporates a multimodal approach, recognizing that individuals have different learning styles and preferences. There are several ways to approach leadership development:
  • leadership training programs
  • coaching
  • mentorship
  • experiential learning
A multimodal approach allows leaders to engage with development opportunities in ways that best suit their learning style, enabling them to acquire and apply new skills and knowledge effectively. Combining diverse learning methods can create a comprehensive leadership development experience that aligns with leaders’ needs, preferences, and goals.

Applicable at All Levels

A successful leadership development strategy should apply to leaders at all levels of the organization, from entry-level to senior leadership positions. It recognizes that leadership development is crucial for team members in management roles, emerging leaders, and even senior leaders who continuously evolve their leadership skills. It becomes super important when we recognize the fact that frontline managers are the ones who interact the most with employees. Yet, they remain out of the scope of most development initiatives.  Leadership development programs should span various leadership levels, incorporating different developmental needs, competencies, and skill sets required at each level. By providing development opportunities for leaders at all levels, organizations can create a pipeline of competent leaders who are well-equipped to navigate future challenges, drive success, and inspire their teams.
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Setting Up Your Leadership Development Strategy

“Strategy” sounds like a heavy word, but fret not! You can effectively develop a winning leadership development strategy for your team by keeping the essential ideas listed above in mind.  Before everything else, you must establish a clear plan and set up some basics. This section will outline key considerations for introducing a successful strategy, including aligning leadership approaches with vision and values, identifying key stakeholders, addressing common challenges, and creating cultural changes alongside development efforts. So, let’s hop right on.

Alignment of the leadership approach with vision and values

Aligning leadership approaches with the organization’s vision and values is essential for effective leadership development. Leadership style is critical in shaping company culture, employee engagement, and overall success. Hence, before you craft a leadership development strategy for your team, consider what leadership and leadership development stand for. Defining your team’s values, leadership vision, and competency framework sets the goals for the leadership development strategy to work toward.

Identifying key stakeholders in the process

Identifying key stakeholders in the leadership development process ensures collaboration, support, and successful implementation of the strategy. Essential stakeholders include leaders, HR, employees, and change management teams. By involving key stakeholders, you can gain valuable insights, ensure buy-in for training, and create a culture of positive change. Moreover, their support is essential to ensure that your efforts bear fruit. 

Build a murder board 

Building a murder board is like playing the devil’s advocate. Before presenting and implementing your plan, set up a meeting where you critically analyze and scrutinize every aspect of your leadership development strategy. Rigorously question and challenge the assumptions, logic, and feasibility of the plan. The goal is to expose any potential shortcomings or risks that could undermine the success of the mission or operation. For instance, you might have assumed that managers would like your idea of an hour-long class after office hours, but what if they hate sticking around for an hour more? That’s just the tip of the iceberg; there are many more issues that you can see once you look at them with a minute lens. You can modify and adjust your strategy around such concerns after this exercise.  Read more: Finding The Missing Pieces: What Makes Leadership Training Successful

Think of the cultural changes to make alongside

Introducing cultural changes alongside leadership development efforts is crucial for success. A supportive company culture enhances employee engagement, fosters a sense of belonging, and promotes effective leadership development. On the other hand, if your organization’s culture is not prepared to handle and implement a new vision of leadership development, your strategy is bound to get stuck at every step possible. Primarily, cultural changes are not always about agreeing to learn. They are more about embracing new insights and adopting them quickly as they come.  

The Framework for Developing Leadership Strategies

A well-defined framework provides structure and guidance for developing effective leadership strategies. In this section, we will explore the vital elements of a leadership development framework, including defining leadership competencies, assessing development needs, identifying available resources, and incorporating leadership maturity and strategy integration.

Define leadership for your organization with competencies

Defining leadership for your organization involves identifying the critical competencies required for effective leadership. These competencies are a foundation for leadership assessment, development, and succession planning. An example of a competency framework is communication, strategic thinking, decision-making, and team management skills.

Assess needs and outline areas you need to work in

Assessing development needs is essential for creating effective leadership strategies. By understanding the organization’s current and future business needs, leaders can identify areas that require development and design appropriate training programs, coaching, and mentoring opportunities. Strategic planning enables leaders to prioritize development efforts based on business objectives and goals. P.S. Risely’s leadership skill assessments can help you out here, check out some for free!

List available, acceptable, and accessible resources

Listing available, acceptable, and accessible resources facilitates the successful implementation of leadership development strategies. These resources include leadership training programs, professional development opportunities, coaching, mentoring programs, and support systems. Providing a range of resources ensures leaders have access to the tools and support necessary for their development. While doing this, keep your resource constraints (financial as well as temporal) in mind! 

Incorporate leadership maturity into your strategy

Integrating leadership maturity into the strategy recognizes that leadership development is a journey, and leaders progress through different growth stages. By understanding and incorporating leadership maturity, you can tailor development strategies to meet leaders’ evolving needs, provide appropriate challenges, and support ongoing growth and development.

Fit the strategy into daily business operations

Integrating the leadership development strategy into daily business operations ensures its effectiveness and sustainability. Leaders can seamlessly incorporate new skills, behaviors, and mindsets into their roles by aligning development efforts with daily workflows. This integration enhances leadership effectiveness, drives organizational success, and supports a culture of continuous development.

Maximizing the Impact of Your Leadership Development Program

To maximize the impact of a leadership development program, organizations must consider critical strategies, including creating learning opportunities around moments of need, effective communication, embracing the cycle of trial and error, and collecting and implementing feedback.

Creating learning opportunities around moments of need

Creating learning opportunities that align with moments of need helps leaders acquire and apply knowledge and skills more effectively. Just-in-time training, on-demand resources, and targeted development opportunities close skills gaps facilitate mastery and enhance leadership capabilities. The best thing about such opportunities is that the need is visible to the candidate. Hence, they are ready to learn while having a chance to apply and test their learning. 

Communicating ‘the why’ to inspire and motivate

Clear communication of the leadership development program’s purpose, goals, and benefits inspires and motivates leaders by articulating “the why” behind the program. Leaders are more likely to be engaged, committed, and encouraged to participate actively in development efforts when they see where the plan leads. Instead of relying solely on your organizational leadership development strategy, collaborating with managers to understand their goals and tying both together will help you make a difference.

Embracing the cycle of trial and error in strategy development

Embracing the cycle of trial and error promotes continuous improvement in leadership development strategies. Organizations can refine and enhance the strategy over time by experimenting, learning from failures, and making necessary adjustments. This iterative approach lets you identify what works best for needs, teams, and organizational goals, driving long-term success.

Think feedback 

Collecting and implementing feedback is crucial for the success of a leadership development program. It enables organizations to evaluate program effectiveness, gather insights, and make necessary improvements. Analyze feedback to identify trends, areas of improvement, and success stories, and make data-driven decisions to enhance the program continuously. Consider the following approaches to collect feedback:
  • Conduct regular performance reviews to gather feedback on leaders’ development progress.
  • Encourage leaders to seek feedback from their teams, peers, and mentors for self-improvement.
  • Utilize employee surveys and engagement surveys to gather feedback on leadership development initiatives.
  • Incorporate feedback mechanisms like focus groups or suggestion boxes to gather input on program improvements.

Join hands with Risely

Collaborating with Risely, an innovator in the leadership development space, offers unique opportunities for organizations to enhance their leadership development programs. Risely focuses on creating development opportunities that suit the manager’s needs and work in their context. By partnering with Risely, you can experience growth through microlearning and support from an A.I. coach, Merlin. Want to check out how it works? Set up a free 14-day trial here

Conclusion

Crafting a winning leadership development strategy requires careful consideration and alignment with your organizational vision. Setting up your leadership development strategy involves aligning your leadership approach with company values, identifying key stakeholders, and preparing for potential challenges. Cultural changes may also be necessary to support the implementation of your strategy. To maximize the impact of your leadership development program, communicate the purpose and benefits of the program to inspire and motivate participants and embrace the cycle of trial and error for continuous improvement. In conclusion, a well-crafted leadership development strategy is essential for nurturing and growing influential leaders within your organization. 

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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Essential Guide to Effective Leadership Coaching

Essential Guide to Effective Leadership Coaching

Effective leadership is crucial for organizational success in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business world. Leaders play a vital role in guiding their teams, making critical decisions, and driving business results.  However, leadership skills are not innate; even the most seasoned executives can benefit from continuous learning and development. This is where leadership coaching comes into play, providing leaders with valuable support, guidance, and feedback to unlock their full potential and drive peak performance in themselves and their teams.  So, whether you are a leader looking to enhance your skills or an organization seeking to develop a strong leadership pipeline, this guide will provide you with the essential knowledge to embark on a compelling leadership coaching journey.
Table of Contents

What is Leadership Coaching?

Leadership coaching is a transformative process that empowers leaders to develop their leadership style, enhance their leadership skills, and achieve their full potential. It involves a partnership between a leadership coach and a leader, with the coach providing guidance, support, and constructive feedback to facilitate growth and development. Leadership coaching goes beyond simply imparting knowledge or skills; it fosters a growth mindset, encourages self-reflection, and enables leaders to tap into their innate capabilities to become the best version of themselves.

How Can Leadership Coaching help?

At its core, leadership coaching is a personalized and effective way to help leaders expand their skills, gain self-understanding, and drive positive change. A leadership coach, often an experienced executive coach, works closely with leaders to identify their development goals, uncover their strengths and growth areas, and support their progress toward becoming more effective leaders.
Leadership coaching is not about fixing leadership deficiencies but embracing different approaches, building on existing strengths, and maximizing leadership potential.
Leadership coaching also helps leaders better understand themselves, their values, and their impact on others. By creating a safe and confidential space for self-reflection, coaching encourages leaders to become more self-aware, recognize their blind spots, and adapt their leadership approach as needed. This heightened self-understanding allows leaders to leverage their strengths and address any development areas, resulting in increased effectiveness and success.

What are some of the most common reasons why teams need leadership coaching?

There are a variety of reasons why teams might need leadership coaching. Some common reasons include the following:
  • ineffective communication
  • lack of team coordination
  • unclear role expectations
  • conflict within the team
  • inability to gain the confidence of a leader
Leaders unable to communicate effectively with their team or manage conflicts may find themselves in positions where they’re unable to achieve their goals. It happens because they need help to identify the challenges stopping their growth. Leadership coaching helps identify blind spots and weaknesses that limit achievement in such cases.

What are the different types of leadership coaching?

Targeted-behavioral coaching

This type of coaching helps individuals change their behaviors to achieve specific goals. For example, if an individual wants to improve their communication skills, targeted-behavioral coaching would help them learn how to better communicate with others effectively.

Team Coaching

This type of coaching for performance improvement focuses on helping individual team members work together more effectively. It can help them improve their communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.

One-on-one coaching

One-on-one coaching is a form of coaching for performance that typically focuses on personal growth and development. This type of coaching can help leaders improve their skills in areas such as communication, problem-solving, delegation, team management, and leadership abilities.

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a type of coaching that focuses on helping leaders to improve their skills in areas such as problem-solving, decision-making, and management. Executive coaches can provide them with specific expertise in these areas. The benefits of leadership coaching vary depending on the individual’s needs and goals. Team coaching for performance may help some people learn how to work together better. In contrast, others may need targeted behavioral or executive coaching to help them develop specific skills required for effective leadership.

What can you do with leadership coaching? Let’s see some examples of leadership coaching goals

Coaching can support leaders in achieving a wide range of goals tailored to their individual needs and organizational context. Here are some examples of leadership coaching goals that understand how it helps:
  • Setting and achieving business goals: Coaching helps leaders set clear and actionable goals that align with organizational objectives. Leaders develop action plans, make informed decisions, and drive results through coaching.
  • Enhancing leadership skills: Coaching supports leaders in developing specific leadership skills, such as effective communication, active listening, team-building, and strategic thinking. Leaders learn new approaches, practice new behaviors, and refine their leadership style.
  • Navigating organizational dynamics: Coaching helps leaders understand and navigate complex organizational dynamics, such as managing change, influencing stakeholders, and building effective relationships. Leaders develop strategies to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
  • Supporting career transitions: Coaching can be particularly beneficial for leaders transitioning to new roles, whether as a new manager, an executive leader, or an individual contributor in a different team. Coaching supports leaders in adapting to new responsibilities, understanding team dynamics, and setting themselves up for professional success.
  • Empowering leaders to meet new challenges: Leadership coaching equips leaders with the skills, mindset, and confidence to overcome obstacles, make difficult decisions, and lead resiliently. Whether navigating a crisis, driving innovation, or managing conflict, coaching empowers leaders to meet new challenges head-on.
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The Impact of Effective Leadership Coaching

Effective leadership coaching has a transformative impact on leaders, their teams, and the entire organization. It goes beyond skill development and drives transformational change, enhancing self-understanding, improved leadership capabilities, and positive business outcomes. 

Leadership Coaching Can Foster Self-understanding

A coaching approach focuses on active listening, powerful questioning, and providing constructive feedback, allowing leaders to gain new perspectives and challenge their assumptions. Leadership coaching allows leaders to pause, reflect, and explore how their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence their leadership effectiveness. Through this introspection, leaders gain a deeper understanding of their strengths, growth areas, and potential. With these insights, leaders can develop targeted action plans, set development goals, and make intentional choices that drive personal and professional growth.

Transformational Change Through Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching also has a ripple effect, influencing organizational change and performance. As leaders develop new skills, mindsets, and behaviors, they inspire and empower their teams to do the same. This cascading effect of leadership development fosters a culture of continuous learning, growth, and innovation within the organization. It also creates a shared language, values, and behavioral expectations that drive alignment and collective success.

Achieving Organizational Outcomes Successfully with Coaching

Through leadership coaching, leaders can set ambitious development goals, align them with organizational objectives, and take intentional action to achieve them. Whether developing new leadership competencies, improving team dynamics, or driving organizational change, coaching provides leaders with the support and guidance needed to make sustainable progress. The transformational change enabled by leadership coaching can improve employee engagement, increase productivity, and enhance business performance.

Leadership Coaching Process from A to Z

Navigating the journey of leadership coaching involves distinct phases. Each phase is crucial for a comprehensive coaching process that guides leaders toward growth and development while incorporating various coaching styles and approaches to meet individual needs and organizational objectives.

Scoping & Assessment Phase

Setting the groundwork involves evaluating the current leadership standing and setting development objectives. Identifying the leader’s strengths and areas for growth is crucial in this initial phase, laying the foundation for the coaching alliance. Assessing the leader’s readiness for coaching engagement is imperative, ensuring a fruitful coaching journey. Evaluating and aligning the current position with the coaching goals is fundamental for a successful coaching partnership. Check out Risely’s leadership skill assessments for free to get a glimpse of how assessments work!

Alignment & Objectives Phase

In the Alignment & Objectives Phase of coaching, success is driven by aligning coaching goals with business objectives. Defining clear coaching objectives and crafting personalized plans based on development needs is essential. This phase establishes the coaching roadmap and ensures that coaching expectations are aligned for effective outcomes.

Coaching & Tracking Phase

During this phase, the emphasis is on developing skills and fostering growth. Progress tracking against set objectives plays a pivotal role in ensuring effectiveness. Continuous feedback mechanisms are put in place to drive improvement. Alignment with coaching goals is monitored closely in the tracking phase. Adapting coaching strategies based on tracked results is integral for success.

Closure & Measurement Phase

As the coaching program nears its end, it’s crucial to acknowledge accomplishments and review the coaching journey. Progress must be evaluated, pinpointing areas for further growth. Effective feedback from participants aids in assessing the program’s impact. Utilizing data metrics ensures the program’s success and guides future improvements. Continuous support and resources are provided to sustain development post-coaching. Read more: 5 Steps of Developing an Effective Training Evaluation Program: With Best Practices

Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance

Organizations benefit from integrating leadership coaching as a strategic initiative, enhancing performance and growth. Assessing the need for coaching within the company context is crucial for impactful results. Scaling coaching programs ensure widespread leadership development throughout the organization. Key elements include:
  • Aligning coaching with business goals.
  • Developing leadership skills at all levels.
  • Selecting coaching programs carefully to match organizational needs and values.

Building Leadership Skills as an Organization

To enhance your organization’s leadership skills:
  1. Pinpoint areas for improvement.
  2. Tailor coaching plans to individual strengths and weaknesses.
  3. Foster a safe space for feedback and growth.
  4. Inspire leaders to set and achieve goals.
  5. Measure progress and outcomes to gauge coaching effectiveness.
Moreover, you can join Risely to make your leadership development goals easy-breezy! Risely’s AI-powered approach to leadership coaching takes the worries out of your hands and provides impactful solutions that scale across your organization. It takes three simple steps: 
  • A manager onboards by setting their context and defining challenges. 
  • Risely identified skills and competencies to work on through assessments.
  • Risely builds a tailored and actionable learning journey filled with bite-sized learning modules and support from the AI coach, Merlin.
You can start today by signing up for a free 14-day trial here!

Conclusion

Effective leadership coaching is crucial in nurturing and developing strong leaders. It empowers individuals to gain self-awareness, enhance their skills, and drive transformational change. By going through a comprehensive coaching process, leaders can unlock their full potential and significantly impact their teams and organizations. If you’re considering implementing leadership coaching in your organization, assessing your needs and objectives is essential. Look for a coaching program that aligns with your goals and values and ensures scalability to accommodate growth. Investing in leadership coaching benefits individual leaders and creates a culture of continuous improvement and development within the organization. Remember, leadership coaching is not just a one-time event but an ongoing journey towards excellence. Embrace this powerful tool and watch your leaders thrive, driving success and growth for your organization.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

How does an AI coach work?

Check out Risely’s AI coach Merlin with a free conversation. You can talk about anything from your skills to annoying colleagues.

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How to Build a High-Performing Team?

How to Build a High-Performing Team?

Creating a high-performing team is a goal that every organization aspires to achieve. A high-performing team achieves superior results and can quickly adapt to changes and challenges. It is a group of individuals working together towards common goals, leveraging their expertise to drive the team’s success. In this blog, we will explore the key characteristics of high-performing teams, the importance of building such teams, and techniques for fostering and sustaining high performance. Whether you are a team leader, a member of a team, or an aspiring team builder, this blog will provide valuable insights and strategies to create a winning, high-performing team.
Table of Contents

What are High-Performing Teams?

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of what a high-performing team entails, let’s understand something simpler: what’s a team? When we raise this question, we typically think of people who work together. That’s not wrong, but that’s not all for a team. Google’s definition of a team highlights another critical aspect, i.e. interdependence.
Success in today’s competitive business environment requires the formation of high-performing teams. But what exactly characterizes a high-performing team? They add a thirst for new and confidence to the mix!

A high-performing team is a group of individuals who work together with a common purpose, challenging the status quo to achieve outstanding results.

High-performing teams exhibit high team dynamics, collaborating, communicating, and cooperating effectively to achieve the team’s goals. These teams consistently deliver superior results, surpassing expectations and achieving excellence in their work.

What makes a team “high-performing”?

Let’s give this a minute. What would you use to define a team’s performance if you were a manager? A similar question was posted in this study, showing some interesting factors. For managers, high performance depends heavily on achieving results or objectives. On the other hand, the teams focused on the climate and culture where they worked. A third set of people, team leaders, adopted the middle ground – putting value on both results and culture to define high performance for a team. In totality, the key defining features of high-performing features include: 
  • A high level of trust and reliance across the board: High-performing teams are not made up of individuals who are effective contributors. Instead, high-performing teams show up when individuals come together to create effectiveness. Psychological safety is critical in this, as it enables comfort through challenges.
  • Shared goals and vision: High-performing teams are united by shared goals and objectives. The team leader sets a clear vision, and each member understands their role in achieving the team’s goals. This shared purpose helps everyone align and find their place in the broader organizational context. It builds meaning in the work and emphasizes that they are generating value. 
  •  Constructive Feedback: Feedback is integral to boosting team performance. High-performing teams provide constructive feedback to each other, helping team members improve their skills and achieve better results. This feedback culture encourages a continuous improvement mindset within the team. They constantly seek ways to enhance their performance, learn new skills, and adapt to changes in their environment. 

Why do you need high-performing teams?

High-performing teams are not just nice to have but necessary for organizations that aim to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. The best part is that these teams consistently deliver superior results. Their combined efforts, expertise, and collaboration enable them to outperform other teams and achieve outstanding outcomes. Moreover, effective teams that can communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully are better equipped to handle challenges, resolve conflicts, and stay aligned toward common goals. They are agile and open to new ideas to respond effectively to market dynamics, technological advancements, and evolving customer needs. Lastly, high-performing teams are engaged and motivated to succeed. They feel a sense of ownership, pride, and purpose in their work, reflected in their commitment to achieving the team’s goals.
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How can you build high-performing teams?

Now that we understand what out dream high-performing team looks like, let’s figure out how to get there. But before heading on, it’s relevant to recognize that high-performing teams are built by many, not one. Yet, the manager or the leader can lay a solid framework for high framework by focusing on aspects like team culture, framework, and structure. A manager can also contribute heavily by modeling effective behaviors for their teams.

Setting Clear and Achievable Goals

Clear and achievable goals are essential for a high-performing team. Here are some key points to consider:
  • SMART Goals: Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART goals). This clarity gives the team direction and purpose, ensuring everyone works towards a common goal.
  • Performance Goals: Include performance goals that outline the expected outcomes, quality standards, or performance measures to be achieved. These goals help team members understand the level of performance expected from them individually and collectively.
  • Alignment with Team Goals: Ensure that individual goals align with the team’s goals and objectives. Goal alignment creates a sense of shared purpose and collective effort, driving high performance and results.
  • Regular Evaluation and Adjustments: Regularly evaluate progress towards goals, provide feedback, and make necessary adjustments. This continuous evaluation and improvement process keeps the team focused, motivated, and on track to achieve their goals.

Prioritizing Open and Honest Communication

Open and honest communication is crucial for building a high-performing team. Here are some key points to consider:
  • Transparent Communication: Foster a culture of transparent communication where team members feel comfortable sharing information, ideas, concerns, and feedback openly. Transparent communication builds Trust, enhances collaboration, and improves decision-making.
  • Active Listening: Encourage active listening within the team. When team members actively listen to each other, seeking to understand before responding, communication becomes more effective and minimizes misunderstandings.
  • Courageous Conversations: Create a safe environment for courageous conversations where team members can address conflicts, share differing opinions, and challenge the status quo. These conversations build Trust, drive innovation, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Implementing Regular Feedback Mechanisms

Regular feedback mechanisms are essential for building a high-performing team. Here are some key points to consider:
  • Constructive Feedback: Provide constructive feedback that focuses on behavior, performance, and areas for improvement. Positive feedback should also be given to recognize and reinforce good performance.
  • Timely Feedback: Provide feedback promptly, as close to the observed behavior or performance as possible. Timely feedback allows team members to make adjustments and improvements promptly.
  • 360-Degree Feedback: Encourage feedback from multiple sources, including peers, subordinates, and managers. 360-degree feedback provides a well-rounded perspective on performance and encourages team members to seek feedback and learn from others.
  • Personal Development Plans: Help team members create personal development plans to guide their growth and development. These plans should include goals, development activities, and timelines, providing a roadmap for professional growth.
  • Performance Assessments: Conduct regular performance assessments to evaluate individual and team performance against goals and objectives. Performance assessments provide opportunities to discuss strengths, areas for improvement, and development needs.
P.S. Risely can help you assess leadership and managerial skills effectively. Check out skill assessments for free here to get a glimpse!

Empowering Decision-Making at All Levels

Empowering decision-making at all levels promotes engagement, ownership, and high performance within the team. Here are some key points to consider:
  • Delegate Responsibility: Delegate decision-making responsibilities to team members, allowing them to make decisions within their areas of expertise. This delegation of responsibility promotes a sense of ownership, accountability, and engagement.
  • Clear Decision-Making Framework: Establish a clear decision-making framework that outlines the decision-making authority, processes, and criteria. This clarity ensures that team members understand how decisions are made and their authority level in the decision-making process.
  • Autonomy and Trust: Trust team members to make decisions independently, providing guidance and support as needed. This autonomy fosters a sense of empowerment, encourages creativity, and enables teams to adapt quickly to changes.
  • Collaboration and Consensus: Great managers encourage collaboration and consensus-building in decision-making. Team members should be able to contribute their perspectives, ideas, and expertise, leading to better decisions and increased collective ownership.
  • Leadership Support: Provide leadership support to team members during the decision-making process. Leaders should be available to provide guidance, offer advice, and help resolve any conflicts or challenges.

Investing in Employee Development and Training

Investing in employee development and training is crucial for building a high-performing team. Here are some key points to consider:
  • Continuous Learning: Promote a culture of continuous learning within the team. Encourage team members to seek out new skills, knowledge, and best practices to enhance their performance and contribute to the team’s success.
  • Skills Development: Identify the skills gaps within the team and provide targeted training and development opportunities to address those gaps. This skills development ensures the team has the necessary expertise to achieve high performance.
  • Team Development Programs: Implement programs that build team cohesion, Trust, and cooperation. These programs can include team-building activities, workshops, and retreats designed to strengthen relationships, improve communication, and enhance team dynamics.

Conclusion

Creating a high-performing team takes effort and dedication, but the rewards are worth it. You can build a team that consistently delivers outstanding results by fostering an environment of Trust, effective communication, shared goals, and strong leadership. Managers must build psychological safety, establish the right culture, and nurture Trust among team members. Setting clear goals, prioritizing open communication, and investing in employee development can enhance team performance. High performance requires continuous learning, recognizing and celebrating successes, and implementing effective performance management practices. Despite high-performing teams’ challenges, such as burnout and external constraints, keeping motivation high is crucial. By implementing these strategies and overcoming challenges, you can create a winning, high-performing team that achieves excellence and drives success for your organization.

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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How To Make Leadership Development Programs Succeed In Your Organization?

How To Make Leadership Development Programs Succeed In Your Organization?

Leaders and managers are the most crucial cogs in your organizational machinery. And thus, it’s essential to ensure that their needs are addressed. Professional and personal growth are among the top ones of these. But sadly enough, a lot of leaders are dissatisfied with development programs and opportunities provided by their organization. This lack of opportunities ranks highly among the reasons for turnover, too. Quality leadership development programs are the solution to saving your teams from such crises. This blog will discover how an L&D team can create and run a successful leadership development program. We will also look into the most common mistakes and ways to overcome them together. So, let’s get started. 
Table of Contents

What is a leadership development program? 

A leadership development program is a structured initiative designed to cultivate and enhance individuals’ skills, competencies, and attributes to prepare them for organizational leadership roles. These programs typically aim to identify and nurture high-potential employees, providing them opportunities for growth, learning, and mentorship. Leadership development programs often incorporate various components, such as workshops, seminars, coaching sessions, experiential learning activities, and mentorship opportunities. The content of these programs may cover topics such as strategic thinking, communication skills, decision-making, team building, emotional intelligence, and change management.  A leadership development program provides the tools to ensure effectiveness in roles and paves the way for career success. It focuses on incorporating the mindset and solutions that align well with your organizational setup. For the organizations, leadership development programs offer many benefits: 
  • Leadership development programs demonstrate your commitment to employee’s professional growth and success
  • They help you build high-performing managers and teams equipped to handle challenges 
  • Leadership development programs are a great way to learn and innovate as a team continuously 

Different types of leadership development programs

Leadership development programs can come in different shapes and sizes. They are often customized to suit the organization’s or individual attendees’ needs. The most common formats that we can see include: 
  1. Formal Leadership Training Programs: These are structured programs often designed for emerging leaders or high-potential employees. They typically involve a series of workshops, seminars, and activities aimed at developing leadership skills over a defined period.
  2. Executive Leadership Programs: Tailored for senior executives and leaders, these programs focus on strategic leadership, decision-making, and managing complex organizational challenges. They may include executive coaching, peer learning, and immersive experiences.
  3. Mentorship Programs: Pairing junior or mid-level employees with experienced leaders or mentors to provide guidance, support, and career development opportunities. Mentorship programs can be formal or informal and focus on individualized growth and skill development.
  4. Coaching Programs: Similar to mentorship programs but with a more structured approach, coaching programs involve one-on-one coaching sessions between a trained coach and a leader. These sessions aim to enhance self-awareness, goal-setting, and leadership effectiveness.
  5. On-the-Job Training: Providing leadership development opportunities within the context of daily work responsibilities. It can include stretch assignments, job rotations, and project-based learning, allowing leaders to learn and apply skills in real-world situations.
Regarding skills and focus areas, leadership programs vary a lot. They can be generic (e.g., focusing on team management skills) or specific (e.g., focusing on time management skills for new managers.) Leadership programs focus on – 
  • Hard managerial skills such as time management, decision-making, and strategic thinking. 
  • Soft managerial skills like conflict resolution and assertive communication. 
  • Fostering the right mindset and processes for team success, such as a growth mindset. 

Why should you invest in a leadership development program as an L&D leader? 

As an L&D leader, you can significantly impact organizational success through the learning and growth initiatives you lead for the team. The effectiveness of the leadership and managerial function also demonstrates the power of your L&D skills. Here are the top reasons why an L&D leader should build a leadership development program for their organization:  Investing in a leadership development program is crucial for an L&D (Learning and Development) leader for several reasons:
  • Organizational Success: Effective leadership is essential to drive success and achieve strategic objectives. A well-developed leadership team can inspire and motivate employees, foster innovation, and navigate complex challenges, ultimately contributing to business growth and sustainability.
  • Talent Retention and Engagement: Leadership development programs demonstrate a commitment to employee growth and career advancement, which can enhance employee satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. When employees see opportunities for leadership development within the organization, they are more likely to remain engaged and invested in their roles.
  • Succession Planning: Developing a pipeline of future leaders is critical for ensuring organizational continuity and stability, especially during transition or leadership turnover. By investing in leadership development, L&D leaders can identify and nurture high-potential talent, preparing them to assume leadership roles when needed.
  • Enhanced Performance: Effective leadership development programs equip leaders with the skills, knowledge, and capabilities needed to excel. By providing continuous learning and skill development opportunities, L&D leaders can empower leaders to perform at their best, drive results, and overcome challenges effectively.
  • Competitive Advantage: Investing in leadership development can give organizations a competitive edge by developing leaders who can innovate, adapt, and drive growth in a rapidly changing marketplace. Effective leadership development programs differentiate organizations as employers of choice and attract top talent seeking opportunities for growth and development.
In summary, investing in a leadership development program is not just an investment in individual leaders but an investment in the organization’s long-term success, growth, and resilience. But who are the right people to do this with? Let’s figure out in the next section. 
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Choosing the right candidates for a leadership development program

Ideally, leadership and management development programs are critical for the growth of anyone who has occupied these roles or is likely to occupy them shortly. But the fact remains that budget and capacity constraints often prevent us from applying such programs broadly. In such scenarios, here’s what you can do: Pick the most important people to attend, whose effectiveness has the most comprehensive scope to impact, and who need these interventions to succeed. Essentially, the candidates for a leadership development program that you are conducting should include: 
  • Skills gaps coverage: Include current managers and supervisors who would benefit from further developing their leadership capabilities. Before starting any development or learning programs, an assessment of the present standard of skills is necessary. You can pick people who need support from these assessments and identify the specific skills to support them. A good evaluation can also help you determine their best support methods. 
  • Succession planning: Are there some people on your team who you want to promote into managerial roles over the next few months? Then, it’s high time they embrace the manager mindset, starting with a leadership development program. Leadership development and succession planning give best results when they go hand in hand. 
  • Grooming potential leaders: These individuals may not currently hold formal leadership positions but show promise and motivation to take on leadership roles in the future. Consult team managers and leaders to identify these people along with assessments and give them the support needed to become 10x contributors. Even otherwise, ICs can gain proficiency in many critical skills for their jobs and become more effective contributors to the team overall.
  • The often overlooked: Most manager and leadership development programs focus on the top brass. So, without repeating the same mistakes, bring in the mid-level managers and supervisors who interact heavily with teams daily. Their presence and commitment can be an excellent motivator for change as their connections are way closer than those of top leaders with the team. 

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Essential features for success for a leadership development program

With so many leadership development programs, what can make yours stand out? We have listed a few features that your audience will love – 
For the individual attendees: 
  • Personalization: No one likes a one-size-fits-all panacea that claims to resolve every problem but merely works on a couple. People love understanding their issues and solutions that work in their context. Hence, tailor your leadership development program to ensure your audience finds it meaningful. You can also include sections like a question and answer or a doubt resolution session to ensure your audience finds solutions that matter to them closely. It can include things about their challenges, how they enhance their strengths, and career development paths as leaders and managers. 
  • Engagement and value: No one wants to sit through boring lectures, so let’s not make them do that. Instead, design leadership programs as engaging and active sessions that facilitate discussions. Elements like team activities, discussion forums, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities through games can give a platform for effective relationships and connections among the participants that last beyond the initial event. Build these ideas into the itinerary to get more people talking and contributing to the program.
  • Reinforcement for retention: One familiar concern managers and leaders share after attending such programs is finding the right opportunities to apply what they have learned. For instance, the conflict resolution role play you did may not play out exactly as you intended in real life, and that happens more often than not. To beat this issue, try to provide solutions that have broad applicability. To build reinforcement, you can also share handouts, notes, and follow-up sessions.
For the organization 
  • Alignment with strategic objectives: A leadership development program appears valuable to a team only when they can see how it’s doing well with their strategic goals. As an L&D manager or program facilitator, your job is to figure out how to make this match. It can include things like:
    • Preparing the next generation of leaders for an organization and aligning with their succession planning. 
    • Covering the skill and abilities gap by focusing on specific areas such as problem-solving. 
    • Setting clear goals that combine with the organization’s long-term plans and the learning culture. 
  • Tangible impact: Every organization focuses on the impact while considering a leadership development program. Define clear performance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact and effectiveness of the leadership development program. It allows for ongoing evaluation and refinement of the program based on results. It also helps them determine the ROI and see changes resulting from the program directly.

Leadership Development Reimagined with Risely 

Leadership development programs are among the oldest tools out there that companies have used time and again. Yet, it often does not work satisfactorily due to some reason. Either the solutions are too cookie-cutter, the program itself is not conducted, or it fails to address the critical needs of the team. In such cases, it is important to ensure that you are catching these red flags early on and doing something to prevent your leadership program from hitting the same roadblocks. 
  • Establish the relevance of training: Managers and leaders are likely to see the most value and engage with the training heavily only when they can relate to the content and see how it comes in handy in their daily troubles. As a facilitator for a leadership development program, it becomes imperative that you showcase this relevance through examples, case studies, and real-life scenarios embedded throughout the event. For the L&D and senior leadership, it would be necessary to show how the program aligns with their strategic objectives. 
  • Keep delivery unique: Your content has little value if not delivered well. The contents of a leadership development program should be creative and split into modules of digestible size. If the audience does not find something new, they get bored. But if you throw a lot of new information at them, they get overwhelmed, too. Balancing the amount with the right delivery method for different types of learners is the key. 
  • Don’t overfocus on skills: The whole atmosphere of a leadership development program is hyper-focused on skills. But beyond that there are factors that can make or break your efforts, and often they are ignored. We are talking about context and behavioral factors. Inducing mindset and behavioral change by elaborating on the need and impact of building the said skills is super important to getting functional changes done. 
On these notes, Risely also helps make your leadership development programs top-notch by incorporating personalization at every step of the way. Risely begins by picking up your challenges and assessing your skills to create a leadership development roadmap that suits your need. With the AI leadership coach Merlin and many other exciting features, Risely is the leadership development buddy that every manager needs. 

Wrapping Up 

In today’s fast-paced and dynamic organizational landscape, effective leadership development programs are more critical than ever. Leaders and managers serve as the driving force behind organizational success, making it imperative to address their professional and personal growth needs. Yet, many leaders express dissatisfaction with available development opportunities, leading to turnover and missed growth opportunities. Quality leadership development programs offer a solution to this challenge, providing a platform for nurturing talent and cultivating essential leadership skills. 

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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Personal Leadership Development Plans: All You Need To Know In 2024

Personal Leadership Development Plans: All You Need To Know In 2024

Effective leadership skills are in high demand in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world. Whether you are an aspiring or experienced professional, personal leadership development plans can be crucial in your journey toward becoming an effective leader. This blog will explore personal leadership development plans and why they matter in 2024. We will also delve into the critical components of a personal leadership development plan, providing examples and insights along the way. So, let’s dive in and discover how you can chart your path to leadership success.
Table of Contents

What are Personal Leadership Development Plans?

A personal leadership development plan is a structured framework designed to enhance your leadership skills and capabilities. It is a roadmap that helps you identify your current strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth and provides actionable steps to achieve your leadership goals. A personal leadership development plan focuses on self-awareness, personal growth, and professional development, aiming to transform you into an effective leader who can confidently and competently navigate today’s complex business environment.

Why Leadership Development Matters to You in 2024

Leadership development has never been more critical than today, especially in the dynamic business landscape of 2024. Navigating today’s complex business environment requires leaders with diverse skills, from effective communication to strategic decision-making. Investing in leadership development is crucial for your professional growth and success. Here’s why leadership development matters to you:
  • Embracing leadership qualities as an essential strategy for professional growth: Today’s employers value leadership skills and seek individuals who can inspire, motivate, and lead teams to achieve goals. Investing in your leadership development will enhance your employability and position you as a top talent.
  • Leveraging leadership development opportunities to stay ahead in leadership roles: The business landscape constantly evolves, and leaders must continually adapt to new technologies, market trends, and industry best practices. For instance, as the AI revolution takes over workplaces, managers must be ready to take up AI-led transformation before enabling it for their teams. Leadership development programs provide you with the skills and knowledge needed to stay ahead of the curve and excel in leadership roles.
  • Recognizing the powerful tool of effective leadership development in new job exploration: Employers often look for candidates who demonstrate leadership capabilities when seeking new job opportunities. Investing in your leadership development increases your chances of securing new, exciting roles and advancing your career.
  • Harnessing leadership development programs as educational opportunities: Leadership development programs enhance your leadership skills and provide valuable educational opportunities. These programs offer insights into the latest leadership theories, best practices, and case studies, enabling you to expand your knowledge and stay up-to-date with industry trends.

How does a personal leadership development plan tie up with organizational L&D efforts?

A personal leadership development plan aligns with an organization’s Learning and Development (L&D) efforts. It aligns personal leadership development with organizational goals and business strategies. Here’s how a personal leadership development plan ties up with organizational L&D efforts:
  • Aligning personal leadership development with organizational leadership development strategy: An effective personal development plan considers the leadership skills and qualities valued by the organization. By aligning your personal goals and development plan with the organization’s leadership development strategy, you ensure that your efforts align with the organization’s overall goals.
  • Fostering effective communication and clear goals in personal leadership development plans: Effective communication is essential for successful leadership, and personal leadership development plans emphasize the importance of clear communication goals. 
  • Integrating tactical skills development into personal leadership action items: Tactical skills, such as project management, problem-solving, and decision-making, are critical for effective leadership. A personal leadership development plan should include specific action items that enhance these skills.
  • Embracing personal growth opportunities as part of organizational development goals: Organizational development often includes initiatives to foster personal growth and professional development. A personal leadership development plan can be integrated into these initiatives, allowing you to capitalize on the resources and opportunities provided by the organization.
  • Creating a structured framework for personal leadership development in sync with L&D: An effective personal leadership development plan provides a structured framework for growth and development. By aligning this framework with the organization’s L&D initiatives, you ensure that your personal development goals are supported and enhanced by the organization’s resources.
By aligning your personal leadership development plan with the organization’s goals, strategy, and initiatives, you create a powerful synergy that benefits you and the organization.
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The Foundation of a Personal Leadership Development Plan

The foundation of a personal leadership development plan lies in understanding and aligning with your core values, creating a personal vision statement, and establishing a leadership plan. Let’s explore each of these foundational elements:
  1. Identifying core values: Identify and reflect upon your core values, the guiding principles that shape your leadership style, decision-making, and behavior. Understanding your core values helps you establish a personal constitution, an inner compass that guides your leadership journey.
  2. Crafting a personal vision statement: Create a personal vision statement that reflects your leadership development goals and aspirations. A vision statement captures your desired future as a leader, inspiring and guiding your growth and influencing your actions and decisions.
  3. Developing a leadership plan: Develop a leadership plan outlining the steps you will take to enhance your leadership skills, close experience gaps, and achieve your leadership development goals. This plan should be based on self-assessment, feedback, and understanding of the skills and qualities needed for effective leadership.
By laying a solid foundation of core values, personal vision, and a leadership plan, you set yourself up for future growth and success as a leader.

Identifying Essential Skills to Master

Identifying and mastering essential leadership skills is crucial in personal leadership development. These skills are pillars of effective leadership, enabling you to inspire and guide others toward success. Here are some essential skills to consider:
  • Self-awareness: Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and values is crucial in personal leadership development. It allows you to capitalize on your strengths, address areas for growth, and align your values with your leadership style.
  • Emotional intelligence: Developing emotional competence helps you better understand and connect with others, fostering strong relationships and effective communication. Emotional intelligence also enables you to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and resolve conflicts.
  • Communication skills: Effective communication is critical to successful leadership in any setting. Mastering verbal and non-verbal communication skills and adapting your communication style to different audiences helps you convey your vision, inspire your team, and build trust.
  • Time management: Learning to prioritize tasks, manage deadlines, and avoid time-wasting activities is essential for effective leadership. Time management skills allow you to stay focused, accomplish goals, and lead by example, ensuring productivity and efficiency within your team.
  • Continuous learning: Leaders who continually seek to learn and grow are more adaptable and resilient in the face of change. Embrace opportunities for constant learning, such as workshops, courses, conferences, and reading, to stay updated with industry advancements and broaden your knowledge base.

Recognizing Experience Gaps to Close

Recognizing and closing experience gaps is an essential step in personal leadership development. Experience gaps are areas where you need more practical knowledge or skills for effective leadership. Here’s how to recognize and close experience gaps:
  • Conduct a self-assessment: Reflect on your experiences, skills, and capabilities to identify areas where you lack expertise or proficiency. A self-assessment can help you pinpoint specific areas for growth and development.
  • Seek feedback: Reach out to colleagues, mentors, and supervisors for constructive feedback. Their insights can shed light on blind spots and provide valuable input on areas that require improvement.
  • Set clear goals: Based on the feedback and self-assessment, create clear and measurable goals that align with your overall career objectives. These goals should be specific, challenging, and relevant to your leadership development.

Building New Relationships for Growth

Building new relationships is a key aspect of personal leadership development. Relationships provide support, guidance, and opportunities for growth. Here’s how you can create new relationships for your personal growth:
  • Cultivate relationships with team members: Building strong relationships with your team members fosters trust, collaboration, and effective communication. Take time to get to know each team member, understand their strengths, goals, and aspirations, and provide support for their professional development.
  • Seek mentors and role models: Identify mentors within your organization or industry who can guide and inspire you in your leadership journey. Seek mentorship opportunities, ask for feedback, and learn from their experiences to accelerate your growth.
  • Expand your professional network: Networking is a powerful tool for personal growth. Attend industry events, join professional organizations, and engage in online communities to connect with like-minded professionals, share insights, and learn from others’ experiences.
  • Participate in professional development programs: Take advantage of professional development programs offered by your organization or external sources. These programs provide opportunities to build new relationships, learn new skills, and gain valuable insights from industry experts.
  • Embrace diverse perspectives: Building relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences can broaden your horizons, challenge your assumptions, and foster innovative thinking. Seek opportunities to engage with diverse groups within and outside your organization.

Defining success in your objectives

Defining success is crucial when setting objectives for personal leadership development. By defining success, you can establish clear goals and create a roadmap. Here’s how to determine success in your leadership development objectives:
  • Set clear goals: Start by setting clear, specific, and measurable goals for your leadership development. Define what you want to achieve regarding personal growth and leadership capabilities. Your organization’s leadership competency framework can help you picture these goals better.
  • Develop a strategy: Design a leadership development strategy that outlines the steps and actions required to achieve your goals. You should align this strategy with your core values, personal vision statement, and development plan.
  • Measure progress: Regularly assess your progress towards your leadership development goals. Set milestones and benchmarks to track your growth and ensure that you are on track to achieve your objectives. While doing this, keep your constraints in mind. We want a realistic plan that works, not an exciting one that does not suit our needs. 

Charting Your Personal Leadership Development Journey

Now that you clearly understand personal leadership development plans and their importance, it’s time to chart your personal leadership development journey. No two leadership development journeys are the same, as they depend on individual goals, aspirations, and development needs. However, to better understand a personal leadership development journey, let’s explore an example of a personal leadership development plan.

Setting SMART Goals for Leadership Development

When developing a personal leadership development plan, setting SMART goals is essential. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, providing a clear roadmap for your leadership development journey.  Let’s examine this with an example:  “By the end of the quarter, increase employee engagement scores by 10% through implementing regular one-on-one meetings with team members to provide coaching, feedback, and support.” This goal is 
  • Specific (focused on increasing employee engagement through one-on-one meetings)
  • Measurable (increase in engagement scores by 10%)
  • Achievable (feasible within a quarter)
  • Relevant (directly impacts employee engagement, a key leadership responsibility)
  • Time-bound (to be achieved by the end of the quarter)
Similarly, ensure that your leadership goals are expressed in metrics that you can directly measure and those that are valuable to you. Otherwise, you might end up getting confused on the way. Moreover, unspecified goals also make tracking progress harder.

The Role of Self-Assessment in Personal Leadership

Self-assessment plays a pivotal role in personal leadership development, enabling you to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for growth. Here’s the importance of self-assessment in personal leadership development:
  • Conduct regular self-assessments: Reflect on your leadership skills, qualities, and experiences. Evaluate your performance, identify areas where you excel, and recognize areas where improvement is needed.
  • Utilize self-assessment tools: Take advantage of self-assessment tools, personality tests, and leadership assessments to gain deeper insights into your leadership capabilities. For instance, you can check Risely’s leadership skill assessments to get individual and team scores on key leadership areas. It sets a solid base for formulating a leadership development journey by encapsulating your strengths and areas of improvement in a single report.
  • Seek feedback from peers and team members: Actively seek feedback from those you work closely with, such as team members, peers, and supervisors. Their perspectives can provide valuable insight into your leadership style, communication skills, and areas for growth.
  • Reflect on personal growth: Self-assessment involves honest self-reflection. Reflect on your personal growth, achievements, and challenges, and learn from these experiences. Personal growth is a continuous journey, and self-assessment helps you identify opportunities for development and improvement.

Uncovering And Expressing Your Core Values

Uncovering your core values is an essential step in personal leadership development. Core values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide your decision-making, behavior, and leadership style. Here’s why uncovering your core values is crucial:
  • Align with your personal constitution: Your core values form the foundation of your constitution, the set of principles that govern your thoughts, actions, and leadership. Uncovering your core values allows you to live and lead authentically, in alignment with your beliefs.
  • Define the type of leader you want to be: Core values shape your leadership style, influencing how you interact with others, make decisions, and demonstrate integrity. By understanding and embracing your core values, you can define the type of leader you want to be and move towards that vision.
  • Guide your leadership development strategy: Core values serve as a compass guiding your leadership development strategy. They ensure that your leadership goals, actions, and decisions align with your core beliefs, promoting unity and consistency in your leadership journey.
  • Influence your communication and relationships: Core values influence how you communicate, build relationships, and collaborate. By aligning your values with your interactions, you create an environment of trust, respect, and authenticity—qualities essential for effective leadership.

Crafting a Personal Vision Statement

Crafting a personal vision statement is an essential aspect of personal leadership development. A personal vision statement captures your desired future as a leader, providing direction and purpose for your development journey. Here’s the importance of a personal vision statement:
  • Influence your actions and decisions: A personal vision statement helps you align your actions, decisions, and priorities with your long-term leadership goals. It serves as a reference point, helping you make choices that align with your vision of leadership success.
  • Foster future leaders: Your personal vision statement has the potential to inspire and influence others, fostering a new generation of leaders. By articulating your vision, sharing your journey, and mentoring others, you can encourage future leaders to strive for greatness.
  • Define what it means to be a great leader: Your personal vision statement defines what you believe constitutes a great leader. It encapsulates the qualities, values, and skills you think are essential for effective leadership, offering guidance and inspiration to those around you.

Evaluating Your Leadership Abilities

As you progress in your leadership development journey, it is essential to evaluate your leadership abilities continually. Evaluating your leadership abilities allows you to assess your strengths, identify areas for improvement, and take action to enhance your leadership skills. Doing so improves your leadership effectiveness and ensures your development plan remains on track.

Analyzing External Perceptions of Your Leadership

Analyzing external perceptions of your leadership is crucial for personal growth and development. External perceptions provide valuable insights into how others perceive your leadership qualities, communication skills, and overall effectiveness as a leader. Here’s why analyzing external perceptions is essential:
  • Seek constructive feedback: Seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, and supervisors regarding your leadership capabilities. Constructive feedback provides valuable information about areas of strength, areas for improvement, and blind spots that may prevent you from reaching your full potential.
  • Understand your impact: Analyzing external perceptions helps you understand how others perceive your leadership style and actions. This awareness allows you to make necessary adjustments to ensure your leadership aligns with your intentions and goals.
  • Identify areas for growth: External perceptions can uncover areas where you may need to focus your development efforts. You can create targeted development plans to enhance specific leadership skills or qualities by identifying these areas.
  • Leverage your strengths: External feedback also highlights your leadership strengths. Recognizing and leveraging these strengths can maximize your leadership effectiveness and add value to your team and organization.

Spotting Current and Lacking Leadership Skills

Spotting current and lacking leadership skills is essential in personal leadership development. By recognizing your current leadership skills and identifying areas for improvement, you can create targeted development plans to enhance your capabilities. Here’s how to spot current and lacking leadership skills:
  • Reflect on current leaders: Observe influential leaders within your organization or industry and identify the skills, qualities, and behaviors contributing to their success. Reflect on how your skills compare and areas where you can further develop.
  • Seek feedback and self-assess: Seek feedback from colleagues, team members, and mentors to gain insights into your current leadership skills. Conduct self-assessments to evaluate your performance, strengths, and opportunities for growth.
  • Identify lacking skills: Compare the skills required in your current or desired leadership roles with your capabilities. Identify areas where you may be lacking, such as communication, decision-making, or strategic thinking, and prioritize these skills for development.

Designing an Action Plan for Leadership Development

Designing an action plan is a crucial step in personal leadership development. An action plan outlines the specific steps, initiatives, and goals you will undertake to enhance your leadership skills and capabilities. It provides a structured framework for your personal growth and development. Let’s explore the key components of an effective action plan for leadership development.

Key Components of an Effective Action Plan

An effective action plan for personal leadership development consists of several key components. These components provide a structured framework that guides your growth and development. Here are the key elements of an effective action plan:
  • Set clear goals and objectives: Define specific, measurable, and time-bound goals that align with your personal vision statement, core values, and leadership development strategy.
  • Break down goals into action items: Identify specific action items and steps that you will take to achieve each goal. These action items should be actionable, specific, and aligned with your goals.
  • Create a timeline: Establish a timeline with deadlines for each action item, providing structure and accountability to your personal leadership development journey.
  • Seek resources and support: Identify the resources, tools, and support systems for your development. It can include attending workshops, enrolling in courses, seeking mentorship, or engaging in online communities.
  • Regularly review and adjust your plan: Review your action plan, assess your progress, and adjust as necessary. As you grow and new opportunities arise, flexibility in your plan allows for adaptation and growth.

Implementing the Personal Leadership Development Plan

Implementing your personal leadership development plan is crucial for turning goals into action and achieving your desired outcomes. Here’s how to effectively execute your leadership development plan:
  • Take regular action: Consistently take action on your action items and steps outlined in your plan. By taking regular action, you make progress towards your goals and ensure that your development stays on track.
  • Reflect and adjust: Regularly reflect on your progress, assess your development, and adjust your plan as needed. It allows you to stay adaptable, address challenges, and take advantage of new opportunities that arise along the way.
  • Seek feedback and support: Continuously seek feedback from mentors, colleagues, and team members. Their insights can provide valuable guidance, encouragement, and constructive feedback to inform your development journey.
  • Stay accountable: Hold yourself accountable for implementing your plan. Set milestones, track your progress, and celebrate achievements to maintain motivation and momentum.
  • Embrace the next step: As you achieve goals and milestones, identify the next steps in your leadership development journey. Embrace new opportunities, challenges, and growth experiences aligning with your vision statement and goals.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Leadership Development

Leadership development is not a one-size-fits-all game. Thus, it often needs a careful and delicate balance of various skills and expertise to be carried out successfully. While multiple options are available, such as workshops and seminars, self-help methods led by books and videos, and even one-on-one coaching and mentorships, they often miss out on some elements. And let’s not forget that time is the most critical resource. We don’t have enough, no matter what! Yet, we cannot let leadership development suffer. Hence, before starting a personal leadership journey, look at the most common mistakes managers make so that you don’t report the same. 
  • Overambitious planning: Yes, we want to be great. But it’s a process that goes one step at a time. Planning many things amidst a busy schedule is difficult because it’s unbalanced and unrealistic. Setting overly ambitious or vague goals without considering practical constraints or timelines can lead to frustration and lack of progress. Thus, don’t try to do everything everywhere, all at once.
  • Not going in-depth at the start: The key to the success of any leadership development plan lies in effectively identifying what you need to work on. Often, managers do not analyze this deeply enough. There is little assessment of existing capabilities and gaps, so the journey remains confusing. It can happen very quickly if you are not doing self-assessments and ignore the feedback others share.
  • Not choosing the proper methods: Not all solutions work for every manager, and that’s okay. Yet many times, managers force outdated or irrelevant manager development solutions into their solutions. But trying something time and again will not change the results. Instead, look for out-of-the-box and even unconventional ideas. A great deal of success lies in crossing the mental boundaries we set on our working methods. If a mentor is not being helpful, say goodbye to them. If a workshop didn’t help, don’t try taking it in again in hopes of change.
  • Becoming a one-person army: We Know you are a manager, and there’s a lot that you have achieved. But relax a bit about crucial things like your future and get help when you need it. Not seeking mentors or support will keep you limited and stuck. We understand it’s a pretty awkward conversation, but manager development is crucial and must be discussed. If you cannot find coaches nearby, check out Risely’s AI coach, Merlin. There are two good things about Merlin that no other coach can promise you. First, Merlin is available 24*7, quite literally. So your 3 AM thoughts about that annoying team member always have an ear. Second, Merlin does not judge you for having problems that look too simple. 

How Can Managers Continuously Improve Their Leadership Skills with Risely?

We all want to become the best leaders that we can be. But here’s the thing: we miss out on the nitty gritty and don’t always have the support to overcome similar challenges. That’s where Risely steps in as a solution. Risely is an AI buddy for managers, offering every manager’s guidance to unleash their true potential. With tailored steps and insights, Risely empowers you to solve challenges in simple steps: 
  • Identify your challenges: The journey begins when a manager starts by defining their challenges. From 50+ challenges, managers and team leaders can identify the issues hurting their team.
  • Test your skills: In the second step, skills and qualities, such as expectation setting and prioritization skills, are tested with the help of leadership skill assessments to see how well you have achieved these critical functions. These assessments help us create detailed reports for skills and abilities.
  • Start growing: Now comes the good part: where your progress becomes Risely’s agenda. Managers can start making progress with the help of daily nudges, toolkits, and the interactive AI coach – Merlin, who is there for you through thick or thin, whether day or night. 
Sounds exciting? You can start a free conversation with Merlin now!

Conclusion

In conclusion, personal leadership development plans are essential for professionals seeking growth and success in 2024. A solid foundation for your leadership development plan includes identifying critical skills, closing experience gaps, building relationships, and delegating tasks effectively. Designing an action plan with key components and implementing it diligently will help you achieve your leadership goals. Avoid common mistakes and use resources like Risely to improve your leadership skills continuously. Take inspiration from the examples and create your personalized leadership development plan. Good luck on your journey to becoming a successful leader in 2024!

Deeksha Sharma

Deeksha, with a solid educational background in human resources, bridges the gap between your goals and you with valuable insights and strategies within leadership development. Her unique perspectives, powered by voracious reading, lead to thoughtful pieces that tie conventional know-how and innovative approaches together to enable success for management professionals.

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