WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:04.440 Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership. I'm Chris Lorenzo, and welcome to this week's 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.080 Thoughtful Thursday. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube at Hacking Your Leadership and 3 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:11.439 leave us a review on iTunes. On this Thoughtful Thursday, we're going to 4 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:16.480 be going over the last of the final of our four part series on overcoming 5 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.559 the dysfunctions of a low performing team. On the last episode on Monday, 6 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:27.239 we talked about avoidance of accountability as one of the reasons why a team might 7 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:31.640 be might not be high performing, and the listener feedback that we got was 8 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:37.079 pretty overwhelming along the exact same lines, which was, I am holding my 9 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:42.640 people accountable, but no one sees it because I can't just publicly call out 10 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:47.359 Lorenzo. You did a terrible job. Get better, you know, amongst 11 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:50.920 Lorenzo's peers, that has to be a kind of a private conversation. And 12 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:56.240 so there's this opinion that there isn't accountability, and and but I know that 13 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:59.039 there is. And you know, the first thing I think when I hear 14 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:03.520 that is maybe, but a lot of times that isn't necessarily case. Like 15 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:07.599 I I have been in situations where I'd like to think there's accountability, um, 16 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:11.719 but there really isn't um. But I've also been in situations where you 17 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:15.599 know, the wheels of justice move slowly, So there's this, uh, 18 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.040 this kind of nuance here where if you want to maintain the trust on the 19 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:23.040 team and you want people to believe that there is accountability, but they don't 20 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:26.959 necessarily you know, see it, you know, in front of everybody. 21 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:29.920 It's a tough one. You know, it's definitely a tough one. Again, 22 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:32.799 I think it's it's one of those things that when you have, you 23 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:34.519 know, a high performing team or you're trying to get through the dysfunction of 24 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:38.439 a low performing team, can be really really important. People have to know 25 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:42.439 that, like if I'm going to put forth my best effort or I'm really 26 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:45.719 going to commit to this, and if I'm really going to to believe that 27 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:49.680 we can do this collectively, I have to know that every person next to 28 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.120 me m is doing a good job or a great job, or they're just 29 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.840 as committed. And that's kind of like the feeling that needs to happen in 30 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:02.159 a in an average maybe forming team or that type. Like I think that's 31 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:07.280 space sometimes is created for those that are not performing to kind of stick around 32 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.879 and to to not you know, be so involved in what everybody else is 33 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:17.240 doing. But in this context, it's so important from a leadership standpoint that 34 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:22.439 you are establishing this that that this is something that not only people you know, 35 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:27.280 that they don't necessarily hear, but that they feel that they feel there's 36 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.000 an element of accountability that happens, and there's a lot of ways that can 37 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:34.560 be measured and when it comes to like things like turnover and stuff like that 38 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:38.560 kind of on the one side of the spectrum, but also like in the 39 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:44.800 essence of just communication and the consistency of communication or a message to not just 40 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:47.680 that individual, but to the team collectively. Like, is the same thing 41 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:52.319 that I'm telling Chris behind closed doors when he and I are talking, the 42 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:55.520 same thing that I'm saying out loud in public, and that kind of shows 43 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:00.280 this consistency of like, oh, well, he told me that behind those 44 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:02.719 doors, which means that he's saying this out loud, that this is something 45 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:07.759 that we're all working on. He's probably saying those same things to other individuals 46 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:09.759 behind closed doors. And again, so like, these are things that I 47 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:15.159 think are just needed to help make sure that people feel that there is a 48 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:17.919 sense of accountability going on amongst the team, right. I want to make 49 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:23.280 it clear though, I do think that there is a there's an I think 50 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.479 if you're on a high performing team, or you have a personal commitment to 51 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:31.159 the work, you don't get to drop that personal commitment the moment you get 52 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:35.199 the impression that someone else on the team is not just as committed as you. 53 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:40.759 There's this there has to be this kind of assumption that accountability is happening 54 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.080 unless there's literally no change over a very long period of time. And when 55 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.120 I say a long period of time, I mean like months and months and 56 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:54.080 months, not days or weeks, because again, this moves slowly. People 57 00:03:54.759 --> 00:04:00.840 have the you want to give people the grace to get better when they are 58 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:05.240 not high performing, and and when when I've been on teams where people just 59 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:10.280 have this general impression that they're the only ones doing good work and no one 60 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:15.120 else is that they're their coworkers aren't aren't doing good work. It really is. 61 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:17.879 They don't really care whether or not their co workers are doing great work. 62 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:21.839 They care whether their coworkers are doing great work and not being held accountable 63 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:26.639 for it. And so if someone next to me is not doing work as 64 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:30.360 good as I am, but they're being held accountable for it. I'm very 65 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:32.800 It's very easy to let that one go because you assume that over time they'll 66 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.360 either get better or they will go away. But there's this this kind of 67 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:42.279 assumption, or this this feeling that that leads to like a feeling of a 68 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:46.639 lack of fairness when you feel like you are putting in more work and more 69 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:50.560 effort to a team and someone else is kind of just coming along for the 70 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:55.199 ride. It goes back to the you know, high school groups, where 71 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:58.519 you have a group project, there's five people on it. There's always one 72 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:00.879 person who has no problem doing a out of the work on their own. 73 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:02.720 That's just who they are, and there's always one person who just wants to 74 00:05:02.759 --> 00:05:08.439 do as little as possible and they are both happy in their roles. Most 75 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.399 people fall into the middle group, which is I want to do good work, 76 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:16.199 but I have a really difficult time motivating myself to do good work if 77 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.319 I'm around people who aren't also there with me. I think there's a lot 78 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:21.519 of people who fall into that, And so what I want to ask you, 79 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:26.680 Lorenzo, is how have you done this. How have you managed to 80 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:33.199 get people to maintain a level of commitment to good work in the face of 81 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:40.040 peers and co workers who are not when you know that it's what they're doing. 82 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:43.920 Is not as simple as oh, you're you're fired. They it will 83 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:46.639 take time months maybe to get them up to speed or to get them out, 84 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.959 but you need to maintain that level of commitment high performance in the meantime. 85 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:53.600 So I want to ask you that first, I want to get to 86 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:57.480 word from more sponsors. All right, Lorenzo, So there's always going to 87 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:01.199 be people who will they have that internal commitment to doing great work regardless of 88 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:04.000 what their peers are doing, and there will always be people who are just 89 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:10.079 trying to do as little as possible. The bulk of the people need to 90 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.120 believe there's accountability. They need to feel that accountability. They need to feel 91 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.279 their team members are doing good work. How do you maintain that when you 92 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:20.120 can't necessarily stand somebody up in front of you and say you need to do 93 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:24.160 better. Yeah, it's a great question. I think for me, there's 94 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:27.920 two big elements to this. I think sometimes you have to publicize the pain 95 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:30.279 points. And here's what I mean by that, if I know that there 96 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:34.480 are people that may be lacking and like, let's make it easy. Let's 97 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.800 say something like maybe it's attendance or something like they're just not coming to work 98 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:43.720 and that's causing maybe some additional work that has to be done by other people. 99 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.959 Right, I think getting in front, in front of the team and 100 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:49.199 saying like, hey, I'm aware that we have some you know, concerns 101 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:54.439 around attendance and people being here. That's something that I know causes all of 102 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:58.519 you additional work and can be you know, kind of a negative drag on 103 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:00.839 what we're working to do. So first and foremost, I want to thank 104 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:04.560 everybody who's been able to you know, consistently be here on time and get 105 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:09.120 the work done. And you know that we want to have conversations to understand. 106 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:12.120 First we want to we want to make sure that if there's anything that 107 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.120 our people need, that our team needs, that we can provide them with 108 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:17.199 whatever that might be to help them, because sometimes we all know there are 109 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:20.680 times when you can't come to work because there's outside forces that are that you 110 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:23.399 have to deal with, and we want to make sure that they're there. 111 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:27.160 But we also want to understand that because we know how being here such an 112 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:30.160 important part of what we do and that we all need each other to be 113 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.040 here when we're expected to be here. So I just wanted to make you 114 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:35.600 all aware that's something that we're aware of that I'm working on as your leader. 115 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:40.439 So publicize it. Let people know. Hey, I know that we've 116 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.839 had some some you know, some some deltas in our collective performance, you 117 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:46.600 know, as a team, like collectively, we're not where we want to 118 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.360 be. I know that there are some people on our team that are maybe 119 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.879 exceeding where we want to be, but I know we have some opportunities. 120 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.680 So like, we just want to call that out. You know, what 121 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.439 we want to do in leadership, it's close that gap. That may require 122 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:01.519 some training, that may require some perspective, that may require some follow up. 123 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:03.199 And what I'm going to ask of you is to help one another because 124 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.920 you may be finding some success in something and I may have a conversation with 125 00:08:07.959 --> 00:08:11.160 one of your peers that may be struggling, and I might send them to 126 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:13.040 come talk to you to get help to get better. So that's gonna be 127 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:16.519 my ask of you. We're gonna have these conversations, but I'm gonna ask 128 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.879 you of this. So again I'm publicizing the things that we're going to have 129 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:26.319 around accountability to both give people to heads up, to let people know that 130 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:28.399 this is kind of something we're gonna talk about, but also to ask for 131 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.120 their help and support in understanding that there may be some issues here that are 132 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:35.799 not just as simple as somebody doesn't want to do a good job and we 133 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:39.919 need to have the conversation. And then I think after you maybe publicize some 134 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:43.240 of these pain points to make it clear that this is what you're gonna do. 135 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:48.240 Um, there's you know, you have a calendar, you have meetings, 136 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:50.879 you have you have people that you're gonna spend time with. You're gonna 137 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:54.519 whether they're not in their cubicle, but they're in your office. People know 138 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:56.000 that they're not in their cubicle, that they're in your office. Whether you're 139 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:00.559 walking somebody through and say hey, like let's go have of our touch base 140 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.600 and let's you know, walk through, um, you know, wherever we're 141 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:07.679 working and go sit down over here somewhere where we have privacy. But also 142 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:09.360 it's in public. Yeah, you know, like it's not it's not to 143 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.679 the point of sitting down with somebody in an office to give them some formal 144 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.600 documentation around their employment. I just want to talk to you a little bit 145 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:20.559 about what's going on in your life and how can we help you. And 146 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:24.759 I've noticed that you maybe your your attendance has been this, is this accurate? 147 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.559 Is everything? Okay? Is the anything that you need? Even though 148 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.200 we are we're having a private conversation, we could do that in a place 149 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.919 where people could potentially see us having a conversation. And I think these are 150 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.559 also ways that you can help the team understand that we're going to have these 151 00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:43.200 conversations and that it's it's it's you know, it's not in such a way 152 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.440 that it's it's all hidden and it's all private. The conversation might be in 153 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.320 private, um, but the fact that we're having the conversation doesn't necessarily have 154 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:54.159 to be in private. And we're not announcing to the team like, Hey, 155 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:56.120 everybody, I'm gonna go spend time with Chris right now talking about his 156 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:00.919 horrible attendance. I'm not doing that, right, I'm just saying, hey, 157 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.440 Chris, let's go grab some time together. And we just happen to 158 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:05.639 be walking by people. We just happen to be having that in an open 159 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:09.639 space area or a cafeteria or somewhere where we could be seen and people can 160 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:11.600 connect whatever dots they want to connect. They can be like, well, 161 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:18.000 dang, Lorenzo was just talking about attendance, and I know that Chris sometimes 162 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.120 is not here when he's supposed to be here, And now Lorenzo and Chris 163 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:24.840 are having a conversation in the cafeteria. It might be about attendance. I 164 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.240 don't know, right, but like, these are ways that are are helpful 165 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:35.320 in establishing and creating a culture of accountability. When you're not going to go 166 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:37.279 out there to your point earlier and just call somebody out in public. That's 167 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:41.159 not the right thing to do. But there are definitely ways that you can 168 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:43.639 show people that these conversations are definitely happening right right. And you know, 169 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:48.159 there's an old adage I heard once that people have this kind of tendency to 170 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:52.320 believe that things are about them, whatever's happening, that they're the center of 171 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.080 their own world and things are about them. If you're calling out something to 172 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:01.240 a team about whatever the pain points are, generalize terms and not making about 173 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:07.039 one person. The people who are having that issue, they believe they're the 174 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:09.200 ones being spoken to in that moment. Even if you're not necessarily saying their 175 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:13.639 names, they believe they are, especially if you are if you are saying 176 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:16.919 it to them personally in one on ones, both before or after that kind 177 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:22.399 of general conversation to make sure they know it. But yeah, there's just 178 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.879 kind of like bringing it out there as a as a whole, talking about 179 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:31.279 it amongst the group and letting them know what the expectations are. It's it's 180 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.559 it's really really easy for the people who are having those issues to understand that, 181 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:39.480 Okay, this person serious about it, that the leader is serious about 182 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:41.879 whatever this thing is. And you know, attendance is an easy one. 183 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:46.000 But there's a lot of things that can be done that way. There are 184 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.600 a lot of things you can you can talk about with your group as opposed 185 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:52.559 to, you know, just having these one on one things that and honestly, 186 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.480 you should anyway, because the expectations that you set privately should be the 187 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:01.279 same expectations you set publicly. There should be no different between how you set 188 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:03.759 up things as a leader to your group, to your all your people together 189 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.559 versus the individual expectations. If it's something They're going to be held accountable for 190 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:11.799 absolutely and with that it brings us to the end of this episode. This 191 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:16.639 is hack your leadership, Lorenzo and I'm Chris and have a great day.