Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership. I'm Chris'm Lorenzo, and welcome to this week's
Thoughtful Thursday. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube at Hacking your Leadership and
leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. On this Thoughtful
Thursday, I want to talk about a listener question we haven't we haven't read
one of these on the on the you know, in an episode recently.
We get listener questions all the time, We get feedback on Instagram and LinkedIn
all the time. But this listener question kind of popped out at me because
it resonated. I read this and I thought, oh, this is this
is a good topic. We need, we need to mention this. A
listener reached out and said that they noticed that changes were happening in terms of
the conversations that they had with their leader, that leaders were that her leader
was setting her down, and that the conversation felt different than it had in
previous years around how the connection has had with her team. And so it
wasn't just a kind of turning the heat up on results or outcomes, included
kind of turning the heat up on how those connections were discussed. Or you
know, how the kind of the relationship was with the team members and that
felt very different to her. The most important part of this question was she
said that she had peers or co workers that were reaching out to her and
saying that they were honestly terrified that they were going to lose their job.
They didn't have the skills needed to in order to make these changes. And
then this person wanted to know if we've seen this happening across other industries or
if we've heard this from other people before. I love this question, and
the short answer is, yes, it's happening everywhere. Yeah, No,
I think it's it's good dialogue. I mean, the there's been a lot's
been going on, I think just you know, with globally across industries,
across businesses right now, and there has been a lot of questions and comments
and things that we've received specifically about that that like, hey, it feels
like, you know, the expectations are getting higher. And what I think,
into a degree is like, I don't know that necessarily the expectations are
getting higher, but they are changing and and and in a lot of businesses
and organizations and industries, and you know, this listener. It comes from
an office space, uh, in a specific industry where I don't know that
they're saying we need to have more of you know of of an outcome specifically,
we need the same outcome to continue and we need you to do it
in a way that is bringing our people along and making sure that they have
a really uh elevated experience, right And I think that that is where we're
seeing this kind of play out. We've talked a lot about this, that
the leaders that have the ability to connect, to have empathy, to be
able to to to to understand people's perspectives, to include their teams in the
dialogue, that create kind of a very open and synergetic workplace, while also
having the skill set to say we do all of this so that we can
perform and not just maybe at the expectation, but above it. That is
a very key skill that requires a good amount of experience and background and understanding
because it's not an easy it's not an easy way to do both at the
same time. It is both at the same time. Be clear about it.
It is both like you have a responsibility and something that you need to
make sure you deliver on and as a leader of people, you have a
responsibility to bring them along on that and to empower them and create great spaces
for them. And what I have learned in my career is that typically when
you have that approach to leadership and you're doing both of those things at the
same time, that's when you get to high performing teams the fastest. And
that's where you really have a cascading of talent and development and work systems that
are easy to replicate and or scale because you're spending the time with intention in
both places at the same time, and you're teaching people that their outcomes really
are the truest measurement of their effectiveness and efficiency in leadership and in the job
that they have. And some people right now in all industries are struggling with
that. Oh you're a spot on. The verbiage that the listener used was
that the bar has been raised, And I like your response because no,
the bar hasn't been raised. The bar is just changing. Meaning if this
isn't something that you struggle with, the bar hasn't been raised, it's just
something that you do. If my leaders sat me down and said I need
you to fly to work starting tomorrow, well, the bar has been really
raised, because I can't fly right. But if these are natural skills that
you have, if you know how to do this, they know the bar
hasn't been raised. You should feel like doors are opening for you in terms
of how you get promoted and how you can move up with an organization and
the career opportunities that you have now, because if this is where your skills
naturally lie. This is a broad generalization, but I think a lot of
leaders gravitate towards one or the other, not both. A lot of leaders
are either really great at collaborating and making sure that their teams feel like they're
being brought along for the journey, and maybe they struggle more with delivering the
outcomes that are needed or holy people accountable to an outcome, or they're really
great at driving an outcome really hard in a way that is not collaborative and
that does not bring their team along. I know even leaders who are good
at doing both, they're good at doing both because they work at whatever the
other one is. One of those two things is a very natural thing for
them, and the other one is something that they have to put work and
effort in in their own personal development. In order to make sure that other
part is there and that they are that it's a both thing. They're not
kind of shirking one to focus on the other. And so what I want
to ask you, Lorenzo, is what advice would you have for a leader
who might be struggling with this, who is naturally better at one or the
other of these two things. They know they need to do both. They
know the train is leaving the station, and they struggle with this. So
I don't ask you that, but first I want to get up toward from
one of our sponsors. All Right, Lorenzo, if the leader is listening
to this and they're struggling with this, what advice do you have for them?
I think it boils down to two things. The first one is having
the intellectual honesty to look in the mirror and say out loud exactly what you
just said, which is I am struggling here, and not just saying it
to yourself, but going to your peers and going to your direct boss and
saying I am struggling here and I need some help, but I need some
developments, right, because I think what happens a lot of times is instead
of doing that, people their ego gets involved, they get scared, they
get anxious, and they run instead of actually having the conversation and asking for
the help that's needed. Because I think in most environments, if you are
delivering on one of those two things and the bar is changing, and you
go to your boss and say, hey, I want to continue to perform
for you in my role, but I need help here, Like I am
struggling and I could definitely use your help or somebody's help or some type of
direction here to be able to get me down the road so that I can
have success in these two spaces. Now that's step number one. Step number
two is you also have to commit to yourself that you're willing to take the
actions to get better at it. You can't just put this onto a boss
or appear or say that's up to somebody else to teach me how to get
better at these two things. People need to be aware that you're struggling so
they can give you some grace, they can give you some help, and
they can provide you with some resources that may help you get there. And
they're aware of it. You're not ignoring it, you're not running from it.
You're not pretending like everything is fine, but you are actually being honest
enough with yourself to do that. But with the second thing, when you
commit to yourself, you need to be learning every week, if not every
day, you have to spend time in the space, especially if you are
a leader of people. To get better at becoming a leader of people,
you have to either read, listen to audiobooks, listen to podcast talk about
It doesn't matter to me what you do. But if you're not continually thinking
about, reading about and talking about how this is evolving and changing from an
expectation of leadership, If you are not aware of these concepts and spending time
learning about them and figuring out how do they apply to your every day,
then you are short changing yourself and you're not going to get better. And
whatever you ask for at work for help is never going to be enough to
actually get you across the line that you need to be at to continue to
have success in these roles. So like that for me is I think the
two pieces that I think are the largest that leaders really have to think about
and consider if you are willing to do the work to get better. If
you are not willing to do the work to get better, then that is
what that is. And I think that will be very apparent because you won't
ask for the help, you won't show up and work hard, you won't
take the commitment to try to better yourself. We'll see that in your behaviors
and your actions. But if you really want to do that, you really
have to do those two things right. Right. If if you're two years
from retirement, maybe you can string this along and and then and then exit,
you know, gracefully when it's time to you know, kind of hang
up your your hat and uh, you know, you know, and retire.
But if you have more than say, two years left before you can
retire, these are changes you have to are going to have to make or
they will be made for you. Unfortunately, like this, this is just
the way it's going. You know that. One of the things I love
that you said there is around asking for help from your boss or your peers
reaching out and I picture leaders listening to and thinking, you know, I
don't want them to know that I'm struggling with this. And my answer to
that is they already know you're struggling with Actually, they already had that conversation,
right, they see it. You just haven't they just don't know that.
You know, that's the only thing. So yeah, I love that.
Don't don't think that you're somehow like, you know, letting the cat
out of the bag by by having these conversations. It's already out, so
you will only do positive things by having these conversations. But again, it
it puts you on the hook for it. It's it's the It's the same
thing as you know posting on Facebook on January first, I'm gonna lose fifty
pounds this year. You know, doing that means that your friend list will
know whether it happened by your picture posts in December. This is the same
thing. If you put your yourself out there, you ask your leaders and
your peers for help and support, they will give it to you, but
they will be watching to see whether or not you actually meant it by the
actions you take as you go forward. Absolutely, and with that it brings
us at the end of this episode, this is hacking your leadership. I'm
Lorenzo and I'm Chris, and have a great day.