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Three conversations to create pockets of certainty amidst Covid-19

by amiel · Apr 22, 2020

Hi Friends,

I call this a burst of timely wisdom. But you tell me. Is it timely? See any wisdom? Hit Reply and let me know.

Why does uncertainty feel so painful?

The uncertainty we all feel due to Covid-19 is gigantic in scale and enormous in emotional impact. As my seven-year-old might say, it’s “ginormous.” Even the most resilient among us are getting knocked on our behinds. Why is this?

Brain science provides an answer. Here’s David Rock, founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute: “Uncertainty registers (in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex) as an error, gap, or tension: something that must be corrected before one can feel comfortable again. That is why people crave certainty. Not knowing what will happen next can be profoundly debilitating because it requires extra neural energy.”

It isn’t you. It isn’t me. It’s our brains!

Why “hunkering down” won’t make anything or anyone better

One way many leaders respond to uncertainty is by “hunkering down'” or “keeping their heads down.” The rationale goes something like this “I don’t know what’s going to happen next, and it’s not in my hands, so what can I do?”

The implied answer: do nothing. Why don’t we ask the same question, not with resignation, but with curiosity. What can I do?

Three conversations that can calm people’s brains by creating pockets of certainty

If uncertainty accelerates the brain’s threat response system, what slows it down? In leadership, conversations are the center of the universe, so let’s start there. Here are three conversations you can initiate to calm others’ nervous systems:

1. “How we will decide”

Say you’re the President of a university. Everyone wants to know what will happen in the fall. Will the school be open? If so, how will that work? If not, what does this mean for students, faculty and staff? It will be a few months before you can answer these questions, so you may be tempted to stay quiet until then. Here’s an alternative: have a conversation with people about how you will decide what to do in the fall. Walk them through the criteria you will use, the impacts you will consider, and the facts that will come into play. This will create a pocket of certainty in people’s brains.

If you haven’t thought any of this through yet, start today. If you need to involve others—like a faculty council or planning task force—to create the criteria, initiate those conversations now.

2. “What happens next”

This conversation is about time. What are the key dates in the coming weeks and months that you want everyone in the university to know about? What will happen on each date? What won’t happen on each date? The clarity that people experience in learning this will register in their brains as a form of certainty.

Make sure everyone is clear. Create visuals. Invite questions. Take the time to explain things. Remember: understanding and the certainty it brings lives in the eyes of the beholder.

3. “What we can offer”

This conversation is most valuable if you’re a level or more below the top of the organization. Let’s say you’re a VP in a large company, and you’re waiting for more senior leaders to tell you what’s next. What can you and your team do until then?

Reframe the moment. What you’ve called “waiting” is actually a hint from the universe to take the initiative. Gather your team together and come up with a project that builds on its strengths and adds real value. Build this into an offer that you can make to senior leaders. If they accept, you’ve just positioned your team well. If not, you’ve exercised the thinking, collaborating and doing muscles that otherwise would atrophy.

Cheerfully real,
Amiel Handelsman

P.S. Did someone forward this issue to you? I’d love to have you join us by signing up here.

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Filed Under: Bosses, Complexity, Emotions, Engagement

Three ways in complex times to ensure you’re in the same conversation with others (April 2, 2020 issue)

by amiel · Apr 2, 2020

Hi Friends,

I hope you find this week’s actionable insights relevant to your life in these complex times.

Hit Reply and let me know what you think.

Covid-19 and the end of the Billionaire/Navy Seal exemplar

In books about leadership and high performance, billionaires and Navy Seals are everywhere. This billionaire shows you how to optimize your energy. That team of Navy Seals demonstrates group flow states. Sexy sells, and publishers and authors assume that you and I consider these the sexiest role models.

At least up until now.

I hope that Covid-19 changes this. Isn’t it time to give billionaires and Navy Seals a rest? Can we let tomorrow’s examples of leadership and performance come from the health professions, medical supply logistics, the quality movement, grocery store supervisors, and home delivery?

Do this, and we’ll learn new ways of coordinating action, building trust, and embodying our deepest virtues.

In stressful times, ensure you’re in the same conversation as everyone else

Classic Seinfeld moment: Jerry and Elaine are in the diner. Jerry’s describing a bizarre incident from his day. Elaine is talking about something else. Neither is listening to the other. They go back and forth like this for 30 seconds. It’s so ridiculous that we laugh.

This happens constantly in organizations. You’re in a meeting with five other people. You think you’re in the same conversation, but you’re actually in five different conversations. One person is brainstorming. Another is assessing a past event. Yet another is negotiating what to do next. And so on.

Isn’t it hard enough to understand each other when we’re in the same conversation?

Name the Conversation, a leadership micro-habit

Example: People hear you say three words, interpret it as a request, and then rearrange their priorities to make you happy. Three weeks later, you discover this and say, “…but I was just thinking out loud!” 

If this has happened to you, you’re not alone. As you rise in the organization, this misinterpretation occurs more quickly and by more people. You think you’re exploring possibilities. Everyone else thinks you want something done.

There’s a conversational micro-habit perfect for this situation. I call it Name the Conversation. Here are the steps:

  1. Name the Possibility Conversation. Before you think out loud, say “This is a possibility, not a request” or “Let’s have a possibility conversation about this.” People will put down their To Do Lists and join you in imagining “what if.”
  2. Name the Request. Before you ask someone to do something, say “I have a request.” This will signal to people that it’s time to listen for the what, when and why of what you are asking—and ask for clarification if they don’t understand.
  3. Self-correct. If you forget steps 1 and 2 and leap into the conversation (which at first you will do 98% of the time out of habit), no worries. Simply pause the conversation and clarify your intent. “Just to be clear, I’m making a request.” Or “Let me clarify: right now, I’m not asking you to do anything. Let’s just explore options.”

Cheerfully real,
Amiel Handelsman

P.S. Did someone forward this issue to you? I’d love to have you join us by signing up here.
 

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Filed Under: Accountability, Bosses, Engagement, Power and politics, Words that work

Collaborative Leadership Through Jazz With Greg Thomas & Jewel Kinch-Thomas (Episode 110)

Collaborative Leadership Through Jazz With Greg Thomas & Jewel Kinch-Thomas (Episode 110)

by amiel · Oct 22, 2019

collaborative leadership

Greg Thomas (who previously spoke with me here and here) and Jewel Kinch-Thomas of the Jazz Leadership Project join me to explore the extraordinary ways that jazz builds collaborative leadership.

This is one of the most enjoyable conversations I’ve had on the podcast.

I learned new ways of thinking about group flow states, elite performance, and deliberately practicing in teams.

If you like this conversation, please share with friends!

Highlights

  • 3:30 Two big misunderstandings people have about jazz
  • 8:00 Why is jazz a more useful metaphor for leadership than orchestra or opera?
  • 22:00 The rhythm section exemplifies shared leadership
  • 26:00 From “that’s not my role” to using signals to help each other out
  • 32:00 Constant feedback helps you perform at a high level
  • 36:30 Ensemble mindset, “big ears”, and three ways to listen
  • 43:00 Group flow states and grooving to the music
  • 55:00 Developing excellence by practicing “in the shed”
  • 1:00:30 Trading silos for shared purpose so you hum as a team

Listen to the Podcast

Listen

Explore Additional Resources

  • Jazz Leadership Project
  • Tune Into Leadership, Greg and Jewel’s new blog

 

Filed Under: Adult development, Conflict, Creativity, Engagement, Podcast, Relationships

Four ways to ask for a promotion with vastly different results

Four ways to ask for a promotion with vastly different results

by amiel · Jul 18, 2019

Ask for a promotion if you aren’t offered one

You don’t ask for a promotion because you want your boss to offer it to you. Getting offered a promotion feels great. She does the hard thinking. You don’t have to go to her, because she comes to you. And you are now in the driver’s seat. No wonder so many people wait for this to happen.

But waiting requires patience, and who in our world has time for patience? (You know I’m joking, right?). Plus your boss may never make the offer. She may not know you want a promotion. Or she thinks the perfect time for it is next year, after you’ve completed that massive project everyone is talking about. Or she has 99 other things on her mind, including things you’ve asked her for. Plus, she is the kind of person who asks for what she wants. You haven’t asked for a promotion, so you must not really want it.

That brings us to the second method for getting a promotion: asking for it. I call this a request.

Not all requests are created equal. Some are likely to get you what you want. Others will give you things you don’t want and never expected. Occasionally this will turn out in a good way. More often, as my late grandmother would say, not so much!

The illustration above shows four very different results of asking for a promotion. I’ll walk you through them in a moment. But first, we need to introduce an equation that will make your life better.

Remember this equation when you ask for a promotion

Your goal isn’t to ask for a promotion, but to get one. You want a promise. And a request can be many things, but one thing it is not is a promise. That requires something more. Which leads us to our equation:

Request + Acceptance = Promise

This isn’t calculus, but the math matters. To get a promise of a promotion, asking isn’t enough. You need your boss to accept the request. She needs to say Yes.

I can hear you saying, “This is so simple.” It is.

I can imagine you thinking, “Amiel, you are insulting my intelligence.” I am.

And I know what you want to remind me. That a lot more than Yes can happen between the request for promotion and the promise. There can be negotiation, clarifying questions, long pauses to think, counteroffers, checking in with other stakeholders, and various power moves like the single raised eyebrow, which is hard to do but brutally effective.

But here’s the thing. Every single day, smart and savvy people forget this equation—or act as though it doesn’t exist. Either they fail to make the request or they forget to create a request that their boss can accept.

So, the first thing is to make the request—to ask for a promotion. You have to speak. Second, you need to make an effective request. You could be introverted or extraverted. You could be soft-spoken or carry an oomph in your voice. In every case, it helps to speak clearly. This means being two things:

  1. Clear about what kind of promotion you want
  2. Specific about when you want it

I call these the What and the When.

We all know there is much more to asking for a promotion than the What and the When. There is thinking carefully about what work you actually want to do and what title you want to carry, assessing your capacity, framing the request (the Why), timing it (when your boss is in good spirits), identifying your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), considering who else will be impacted if you’re successful, and preparing for the conversation. It’s far more complex than what and when.

However, I’ve been consulting since 1993, and consultants are required to use four-quadrant diagrams. So, for, now we’ll stick with two variables: the What and the When.

Three ineffective ways to ask for a promotion

The illustration above shows the four possible scenarios that can result when you ask for a promotion. Three of these you generally want to avoid:

  • If you’re unclear about what you want, yet specific about when you want it (e.g. “I’d like to take on a larger scope”), then you get more responsibility and headache but with the same title and no more pay. Yuck.
  • If you’re clear about what you want, yet vague about when you want it, then you stay in the same position until the day you either retire or die. Important side note: some people want this to be the same day, but I recommend against that. Die or retire, but for heaven’s sake, don’t do them at the same time.
  • If you’re unclear about what you want and vague about when you want it, your boss gets frustrated with your entire personality and sends you to assertiveness training. Which is fine, except if the instructor doesn’t teach you the importance of What and When. If this happens, the next time you ask for a promotion, you’ll utter the same confusing nonsense but with a clear, rich, powerful voice.

Want a bigger, better job? Ask for a promotion like this

By now you’ve mastered the math of the promotion—or at least peeked at the above illustration—so the fourth scenario is easy.

You are clear about what you want and specific about when you want it.

Plus you’re boss has the desire, status, and budget to do her part.

The result? You get promoted to a bigger, better job.

This is what you want. This is what you longed for. So, yes, if you want to send me a Thank You note, I will read it and smile.

There is one caveat to all this: I can’t guarantee that getting the promotion will make you any happier. You might hate the new job. You might distrust the new boss. You might feel overwhelmed by all the new money you’re making (OK, probably not this, unless it’s a lot of money). But my diagram doesn’t include the word “happy,” so for now, we’ll assume that this concept doesn’t exist.

How you ask for a promotion is relevant to everything you want in life

Things happen in the world when people make commitments to each other. When they make promises.

So if you want people to promise you things that you want, remember these points:

  • A promise starts with either a request or an offer. If there’s no request or offer, there’s no promise—and you don’t get what you want.
  • If nobody is offering you what you want, consider what request you could make (and to whom—which is a topic for another day)
  • Your request doesn’t automatically lead to a promise. The other person needs to say Yes.
  • The other person is more likely to say Yes if your request is effective.
  • An effective request includes, among other elements, a clear What and specific When

What request—for a promotion or anything else—will you be making today?

Filed Under: Accountability, Bosses, Careers, Engagement, Promises, Trust

Interview about my first book, Practice Greatness

Interview about my first book, Practice Greatness

by amiel · Jun 26, 2019

 

Five years ago, I published my first book, Practice Greatness: Escape Small Thinking, Listen Like A Master, And Lead With Your Best. Marissa Brassfield of Ridiculously Efficient (RE) interviewed me about it in writing. Our exchange provides a good summary of the book’s key ideas, which shape my work with clients. Many of you weren’t following me then, so I’m sharing the interview below. Enjoy!

Practicing Greatness = Realize Full Potential

RE: What steps can leaders take to realize their full potential?

The first and most important thing to realize is that you are not a generic leader, but instead a person with unique gifts and limitations in a situation with distinctive challenges and opportunities.  So don’t listen to generic leadership advice. This may sound obvious, but it’s a common trap many leaders fall into. And for good reason: in my estimation, 98 percent of the leadership advice out there is generic. For example, “act with boldness” is sound advice for some leaders but terrible advice for others. Ditto for “be generous with your time,” “collaborate more,” or “think before you act.” I’ve coached leaders who’ve been drawn to such advice only to find that it amplified a weakness or distracted them from more pivotal areas of improvement.

Second, expose yourself to a variety of challenging experiences and extract as much learning from these experiences as you can. It’s not about moving up the ladder or getting greater visibility as much as challenging yourself in new ways. For example, if you’ve done a turnaround, try a startup—or manage a team that has a track record of success. Each of these experiences teaches different lessons. If you’ve spent years managing people who report to you, try a role where you have to influence without authority. And then learn as much as you can as fast as you can. Ironically, we learn faster when we slow down to reflect and get feedback.

Third, get support from colleagues, mentors, or a coach. The greater the challenge you take on, the greater the support you need.

Fourth, realize that you have an Achilles Heel, find out what it is, and then heal it. I think of the Achilles Heel as the one big flaw or blind spot that, if ignored, can screw up your career or at least keep you from realizing your potential. It’s a set of habits wired into your brain and body that limits your repertoire of leadership behaviors. Fortunately, the latest neuroscience tells us that you can rewire these habits well into adulthood. My favorite approach to helping leaders understand their Achilles Heel (as well as much more, like the quality of their greatness) is called the Enneagram. It provides nine answers to the question, “What makes me tick?”

Fifth, identify one or two skills that are pivotal to realizing your potential. These could be strengths that you want to use in new ways or skills that you haven’t fully developed. In my book, I offer fifteen inner and outer practices of great leadership. I call them “practices” because the idea is to practice them over and over again just like you would practice swinging a bat or playing piano. Repetition matters.

Finally, find a reason for leading that ignites you. In my experience, one factor differentiates leaders who carry on the hard work of practicing leadership to completion from others who barely get out of the starting blocks: a sense of purpose beyond their own narrow self-interest. Getting a raise or promotion and making more money are great, but neither provides enough fuel to sustain the practice of great leadership. Now, discovering this purpose isn’t easy, and it often takes years if not decades. Here are some questions to ask: What do you want to be known for? What do you feel passionate about taking a stand on? What would you risk embarrassment or fear to bring into being? These are big questions, and for good reason. We’re not talking about getting slightly better. We’re talking about realizing your full potential!

The Four Steps In Deliberate Practice

RE: You mentioned that deliberate practice at work requires four steps — preparing, acting, reflecting, and getting feedback. What do each of these steps entail and how can leaders benefit from this type of practice?

Before I answer that question, let me state the obvious: practicing on the job is not a familiar concept for most of us. Unless we are professional athletes or musicians, practice is what we do when we’re not working. We practice playing tennis. We practice guitar. But practice our jobs? Hardly. When we’re working, we’re working, right? It’s just like that Tom Hanks line from the movie A League of Their Own: “There’s no crying in baseball!” That’s the basic assumption in organizations: there’s no practice in business!

Except that’s not quite true. In my field, leadership development, research tells us two things: first, excellent leaders learn best not through training or reading, but from on-the-job experience; and, second, the way that they learn is by having a chance to reflect on their experience and by getting continuous feedback from people who see them in action. In other words, they’re not just moving from one meeting or action to the next. Instead, they’re stopping, even for a moment, to look back. What’s another word for these things? Practice.

Let’s start with reflecting. This means quietly and non-judgmentally reviewing what just happened. “What went well? What could I do differently? What did I learn from this experience about myself, others, the market, and so on?” Reflecting is the deliberate act of capturing the lessons that your experience provides. All it requires is intention, somewhere to write or type, and a relatively quiet space. I encourage the leaders I coach to designate ten minutes every day to quietly reflect. It can be the most valuable ten minutes of their day.

Getting feedback also involves learning from what happened, but instead of asking yourself, you ask others. “Hey, Sally, I want to get some feedback from you about that meeting this morning with our sales team. How clearly did I communicate the rationale behind our strategy? What could I do next time to be clearer?” Boom—suddenly, you learn something you wouldn’t have if you hadn’t asked. This accelerates your learning and, over time, elevates your performance.

Now, notice that the feedback you requested was very specific. It wasn’t, “How did I do?” It focused on a specific behavior—clearly communicating the “why”—that you are trying to improve. Notice, also, that you didn’t wait a week to get feedback. You asked the same day, when the event was fresh in memory. Finally, consider the impact on Sally of asking for her feedback. She has gone from bystander to active participant in your leadership development. And odds are good that she appreciates being asked and now feels a greater stake in your success. So, in addition to helping you improve, getting feedback strengthens your relationships.

Acting is whatever you are doing—writing an email, attending a meeting, giving a talk, negotiating with a customer, mentoring a direct report. It’s what we typically think of as “work.” Acting is obviously essential to practicing on the job. However, unlike the other three steps, acting is what we do when we’re not practicing. In fact, most managers spend 99 percent of their time acting—and that’s it. They’re not practicing with the intent to improve. Their just doing. But what we’re talking about here is different: it’s acting that occurs in the midst of deliberate practice.

Finally, there is preparing. Chronologically, preparing is the first step in the on-the-job practice cycle. I mention it last because it seems to be the most rare in the organizations where I work and the least discussed in the leadership literature. It’s a bit of a dark horse—not well known, but very generous in its rewards. Now let’s talk about what preparing is. Whereas reflecting and getting feedback involve looking back, preparing involves looking forward. The day before an important conversation with your boss and peers, you ask yourself a few questions. “What do I want to get out of this meeting? What value can I contribute? How might I do that? What could get in the way? Who else will be there, and how can I communicate effectively with them?”

Such preparation provides multiple benefits. First, it gets you focused on what you want to accomplish. Rather than just going with the flow, you show up with outcomes in mind. Second, it allows you to strategize about how to accomplish these outcomes. You develop a game plan. Third, it invites you to consider what obstacles may get in the way—and how you will handle them. Finally, it wakes you up. Rather than just drifting through the day, you become an active participant in what happens. The more times you stop for a moment to prepare, the more awake you become.

Great Leadership = Arguing Well

RE: You also mention that great leadership requires the ability to argue. What would a successful argument look like from a leader’s point of view?

A successful argument involves four things. First, instead of debating who’s correct, you realize that everyone has a different assessment or take on the situation. This is because most things we argue about are not facts but different interpretations of what the facts mean. It’s just like temperature. Saying that it’s 75 degrees outside is a factual assertion. It’s either true or false. But saying that it’s warm is an assessment. There is no way to prove it. A lot of the arguments we have in organizations is about whether it’s warm outside. Except we think that this is a matter of facts, when really it’s a matter of different assessments.

Second, when you give your take on a situation, you describe it as “my take” or “my assessment.” This signals to others that you are not placing a claim on the truth, but merely giving your perspective. This leaves space for them to have their own take.

Third, you ground your assessment. “Here are the reasons why I assess this acquisition to be in our best interest.” Or “Let me tell you why I don’t think he would be a good hire for this position.” Grounding assessments is a powerful way of communicating. It also allows others to learn what’s behind your thinking. It’s a way of letting them into how you see the world. Conversely, ungrounded assessments are often worse than saying nothing at all. Other than the letters, “ASAP,” they are the most pernicious source of mediocrity and suffering.

Finally, a successful argument involves gently inviting others to ground their assessments so that you can see what’s behind their thinking. Sometimes, it has the added benefit of causing them to do more thinking! The key word here is “gentle.” This is not about interrogating others. It’s about saying, “Hey, I hear that your take is X. I imagine you’ve thought a lot about this. Can you help me understand what’s behind that assessment?”

Put these four pieces together and you have a successful argument.

Great Leadership = Practice And Self-Reflection

RE: How do other employees benefit when leaders spend more time practicing and less time on self-reflection?

I’m for more of both. Practicing and self-reflection are both enormously for beneficial to leaders and the employees they serve. Reflecting is one of the four steps of the on-the-job practice cycle. So if you’re practicing on the job, you are automatically reflecting.

More Tips On Practicing Greatness

RE: What other tips can you provide to leaders to foster a productive and engaging work environment?

First, make sure you are showing up to work every day with physical energy and the ability to focus. Get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Take breaks at least once every ninety minutes. Move your body. Eat in a way that you have sustained energy throughout the day instead of energy spikes and crashes. Hint: proteins, healthy fats, and vegetables will sustain your energy far better than soft drinks, sugary foods, and fast carbs (muffins, breads, and other foods that create blood sugar spikes and crashes).

Second, learn what triggers you emotionally and take on practices that allow you to respond calmly. A couple years ago, at a conference the CTO of Cisco was asked what benefits she got from meditating. She said that it helped her stay calm in very tense situations. Mindfulness isn’t the only practice for managing triggers, but it’s a darn effective one.

Third, look at Gallup’s research about employee engagement—it’s amazingly useful.

Finally, if you’re not great at developing people, hire or partner with someone who is. Ultimately, we are as good as the people we surrounded ourselves with.

 

Filed Under: Deliberate practice, Emotions, Engagement, Leadership development, Learning from experience, Nutrition, Physical energy, Relationships, Sleep

Climate Change & No-Matter-What Commitment With Terry Patten (Episode 105)

Climate Change & No-Matter-What Commitment With Terry Patten (Episode 105)

by amiel · May 15, 2019

What if we reframed climate change as an invitation to live a full and meaningful life? For business leaders, what if it provided the catalyzing purpose that so many of us seek? For my colleagues in the field of leadership development, why not us, and why not now?

The first question is the theme of Terry Patten’s extraordinary book, A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries.

This week, Terry joins me to discuss the book and its relevance for leaders, coaches, and all of us. It is the third episode in my new series on climate change, sustainable business, and clean technology.

Find a quiet environment. Pull up a seat. Grab a cup of tea. Have a listen.

And if you like it, please share with people who would enjoy it, too.

Highlights

  • 7:00 When we point at a problem, three of our fingers are pointing back at ourselves
  • 22:00 We have more to metabolize than we ever have before
  • 28:30 How insane it is to become unhappy
  • 35:30 Noticing that I’ve always been doing the best I can
  • 40:00 The “consensus trance”
  • 46:00 Terry takes the True But Partial Challenge
  • 56:00 This is all improv
  • 1:02:00 No-matter-what commitment

Listen to the Podcast

http://traffic.libsyn.com/amielhandelsman/TAS_105_Terry_Patten.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Explore Additional Resources

  • Terry’s web site
  • Terry’s book, A New Republic of the Heart

Filed Under: Citizen action, Climate change, Complexity, Emotions, Engagement, Happiness, Podcast, Strengths

No More Feedback With Carol Sanford (Episode 103)

No More Feedback With Carol Sanford (Episode 103)

by amiel · Apr 22, 2019

 

This week, contrarian business thought leader Carol Sanford joins me to discuss her new book, No More Feedback.

If the title strikes you as both surprising and unnerving, welcome to the club. Within organizations giving and receiving feedback are widely considered noble acts. Although we may not be competent at feedback, we know it’s a good thing—key to personal growth and leadership development.

Carol says, “no, not really.”

In her view, any effort to ask another person where I am strong or how I could improve is intrinsically harmful, even toxic. For this reason she offers a harsh critique of annual performance reviews, competency models, and 360 degree interviews. The damage they cause is so profound (e.g. rewarding conformity, shifting attention from big promises, encouraging confirmation bias, and reducing self-reflection) and the foundation upon which they are based is so flawed that it’s foolish to tweak them.

Instead, Carol argues, get rid of feedback entirely.

Three things I learned in talking with Carol:

  1. I share her assessment of most of the activities that she calls “feedback.”
  2. When I use the term “feedback”—for example, as one of four steps in the on-the-job-practice cycle—I’m talking about something that Carol does not consider feedback because the person requesting it is authoring their own learning.
  3. I can stay grounded while listening to someone critique a practice near and dear to my heart, as Carol does with the Enneagram. In fact, it’s kind of fun.

Have a listen, and tell me what you think.

Highlights

  • 10:00 Humans as machines, the first seedbed of feedback
  • 17:00 Three foundational capacities of people to cultivate
  • 24:30 Jerry, a contrarian at Weyerhaeuser pushed out for not conforming
  • 32:00 Feedback raises anxiety
  • 41:00 Opportunities to self-reflect can break attachment to 360 feedback
  • 49:00 Why modifying feedback systems doesn’t work: the premise is flawed
  • 54:00 Carol only has people assess themselves in relation to a big promise they are making in the world
  • 1:02:00 Carol’s work with Seventh Generation when it was in the red
  • 1:12:00 Perils of low fat diet, benefits of intermittent fasting

Listen to the Podcast

http://traffic.libsyn.com/amielhandelsman/TAS_103_Carol_Sanford.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Explore Additional Resources

  • Carol’s web site

 

Filed Under: Adult development, Emotions, Engagement, Nutrition, Podcast, Promises

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