Speaker 1: Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership. I'm Chris and I'm Lorenzo.
Speaker 1: And Lorenzo on.
Speaker 2: This episode, I want to talk about a letter that
Speaker 2: I found on the internet that was released Somebody in
Speaker 2: an organization released this letter that was sent to every
Speaker 2: employee from the CEO. And it's a fairly large organization,
Speaker 2: and you know, we'll we'll keep it nameless because we're,
Speaker 2: you know, trying to make this less about the organization
Speaker 2: and more about this process and and what what good
Speaker 2: leadership looks like versus when things should you know, should
Speaker 2: change a little bit. This email was sent out because
Speaker 2: the the CEO was trying to address some uncertainty or
Speaker 2: lack of confidence being felt by the team because of
Speaker 2: issues the company has dealt with over the past year.
Speaker 2: And you know, sometimes when that happens, when when employees
Speaker 2: are facing uncertainty or they're feeling it or you know,
Speaker 2: you you look at engagement survey results and you know
Speaker 2: there are common themes or threads that people are saying
Speaker 2: around you know, lack of confidence in the future, or
Speaker 2: you know, questioning specific moves that the organization has made
Speaker 2: overall that you a lot of times you do need
Speaker 2: to address those things, and it's a good thing when
Speaker 2: an organization decides to do that. But I'm calling this
Speaker 2: one out because it seems like the organization decided that
Speaker 2: the right thing to do was address these issues, but
Speaker 2: they didn't go far enough in actually addressing them. They
Speaker 2: just decided to, you know, kind of they tried to.
Speaker 2: I think they tried to placate people by saying something
Speaker 2: to them without actually addressing what was going on in
Speaker 2: their minds, and sometimes that can cause more problems than
Speaker 2: just not saying anything at all. So I want to
Speaker 2: go through some of these things that I'm seeing in
Speaker 2: this email and maybe how they could have been better.
Speaker 2: Because if you're a leader and you're thinking about what
Speaker 2: you're going to say to your teams on something, even
Speaker 2: an individual person one on one or your entire team,
Speaker 2: whether it's through email or in person or on a
Speaker 2: video call or a Slack channel, whatever, it is, the
Speaker 2: intentionality of the things that you say matters, and the
Speaker 2: words matter, and how you decide to address the issues
Speaker 2: that are that you are trying to solve it matters,
Speaker 2: and you don't want to cause more damage, You want
Speaker 2: to kind of move things in the right direction.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're spot on with that, and I
Speaker 3: was thinking the same thing as like, if you scale
Speaker 3: this down and you're trying to address something that's going
Speaker 3: on or that everybody is aware of, or a decision
Speaker 3: that was made that maybe is having, you know, a
Speaker 3: potential negative impact to the feelings of the team, or
Speaker 3: the business itself or customer traffic and demand. I think
Speaker 3: the first thing that you have to do if you're
Speaker 3: going to communicate the team, which you absolutely should, is
Speaker 3: actually say the thing and like discuss what's going on
Speaker 3: and put that out there, because I think that that
Speaker 3: sharing what's happening and you know, making sure that people
Speaker 3: understand that you understand exactly what we're talking about or
Speaker 3: exactly how the team is feeling or what you're hearing,
Speaker 3: or exactly that this decision potentially that was made has
Speaker 3: been a really tough decision and it's something that you know,
Speaker 3: maybe we're learning from and now we're feeling the impacts
Speaker 3: of and it doesn't mean that the decision will change,
Speaker 3: but we need to talk about the impact the decision
Speaker 3: is having. And I think that that's such a critical
Speaker 3: part of communicating, especially in those times in the times
Speaker 3: when there is uncertainty in the times when there is
Speaker 3: maybe massive change going on in the times where there
Speaker 3: is you know, potentially restructuring or a pivot on the business,
Speaker 3: or sometimes you know, companies sell parts of the business
Speaker 3: or they sell the business to another larger company. Like,
Speaker 3: all these types of things that can happen can cause
Speaker 3: a lot of uncertain because things are now different. And
Speaker 3: I think that when you're going to communicate that again,
Speaker 3: whether it's large scale or smaller scale, individually or with
Speaker 3: a smaller team, I'm talking about the actual issues, the
Speaker 3: actual things, and the actual decisions, I think is absolutely
Speaker 3: critical to have any type of you know, maybe trust
Speaker 3: or equity with the team to say like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: talking about exactly what we're living through, or I'm talking
Speaker 3: about exactly what you're sharing and I'm not kind of
Speaker 3: being general about it, or I'm not trying to like
Speaker 3: say things like yep, you know, change is hard and
Speaker 3: there will be a brighter and better day and like
Speaker 3: there's a time for that. But I think if you
Speaker 3: get a sense that your team is struggling to understand
Speaker 3: or they're having a large reaction to it, that time
Speaker 3: is not that time. That time is a different time
Speaker 3: right now, it's about talking about the actual issue, being
Speaker 3: clear about where you stand and maybe why the decision
Speaker 3: was made, and allowing space to discuss, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: the process that people are feeling through the change curve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's spot on.
Speaker 2: I think there's a There are a couple of sentiments
Speaker 2: that people can pull from this that that are probably
Speaker 2: not what the leadership team that sent this out, probably
Speaker 2: not what they wanted. Okay, So the first is that
Speaker 2: the there is no ownership of the issues from a
Speaker 2: leadership team. No one, No one directly says in the
Speaker 2: email that you know, we we did this, which caused this,
Speaker 2: we own this. That they the email makes it seem
Speaker 2: like the company or the leadership team is almost a
Speaker 2: victim in this also, or that they're you know, a
Speaker 2: passenger in the car as opposed to driving the car.
Speaker 1: And and while that.
Speaker 2: Might in the moment, it might make somebody say, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of the knee jerk reaction might be, oh, so
Speaker 2: they didn't cause this. This is something happening to them
Speaker 2: that might very briefly cause employees to not blame the organization.
Speaker 2: But every time that happens, the not blaming the organization
Speaker 2: because these things are just happening to them. The collateral
Speaker 2: damage that comes with that is not having confidence in
Speaker 2: your own leadership team that they are driving the car.
Speaker 2: And if you're working for an organization and you're a
Speaker 2: passenger in the car, and then you look over and
Speaker 2: you realize, oh, wait a minute, the person who is
Speaker 2: at at the podium every day saying we've got this,
Speaker 2: we're going forward. You look over and you realize that
Speaker 2: that they're steering wheel and their pedals are fake, and
Speaker 2: they're just sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: That lack of confidence is not worth.
Speaker 2: Whatever lift you might get in trying to convince people
Speaker 2: that it wasn't your fault as a leader that something happened.
Speaker 2: You've you've basically you've given away all of your authority
Speaker 2: because you're trying to, you know, not have the responsibility.
Speaker 2: And so that's the first thing. The second thing is
Speaker 2: that you know they they correctly address the problem right
Speaker 2: at the beginning, that silence from the leadership team is
Speaker 2: creating uncertainty, So great, address it. That's that's good. But
Speaker 2: in the next paragraph they create more uncertainty by not
Speaker 2: kind of articulating what a solution to the problem is
Speaker 2: instead they go right on to you know, vague reassurances
Speaker 2: and you know, quoting the company values, and it's it's
Speaker 2: this kind of nothing burger email that says, you know,
Speaker 2: that tries to lean heavily on things that that are
Speaker 2: vague and values driven, but it's in the face of
Speaker 2: decisions that actually fly in the face of what those
Speaker 2: values are. And and by calling out those those values,
Speaker 2: you know, it kind of allows employees to see them
Speaker 2: in the context of those decisions, and it gives less
Speaker 2: credibility to those values to begin with.
Speaker 1: It's it's the it's.
Speaker 2: The elephant in the room scenario, right, So if you
Speaker 2: if you look at what's what's underlying the elephant in
Speaker 2: the room scenario. Where that saying comes from is if
Speaker 2: if I come in to my team and I say, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, we have we've had some issues. You know,
Speaker 2: the furniture is destroyed and we need to replace it
Speaker 2: or fix it. There is you know, animal feces all
Speaker 2: over the floor and we need to get get that
Speaker 2: cleaned up, and and you know, like there's there's some
Speaker 2: real issues here. But I think if we all work together,
Speaker 2: we can get this furniture rebuilt and we can get this,
Speaker 2: you know, the.
Speaker 1: Carpet cleaned again.
Speaker 2: But I never even mentioned that there is a big
Speaker 2: elephant sitting behind me in the room to begin with.
Speaker 1: People are looking at me, but they're looking right past
Speaker 1: me at.
Speaker 2: The elephant, going why is he talking about the elephant
Speaker 2: like or why aren't we getting rid of the elephant
Speaker 2: before we start doing this stuff?
Speaker 1: Because it just happen.
Speaker 2: Again unless we get rid of the elephant, So that
Speaker 2: that's what all saying comes from. Is not addressing the
Speaker 2: elephant in the room. That's exactly what is happening in
Speaker 2: emails like this, where you want to reassure a person
Speaker 2: that the effects of the elephant are not too much
Speaker 2: to get past without actually acknowledging that the elephant was
Speaker 2: there to begin with, because you don't want to be
Speaker 2: blamed for the elephant, and you can't get both. You
Speaker 2: either need to say nothing or you need to address
Speaker 2: it with with candor and with transparency and with taking
Speaker 2: responsibility and knowing let the chips fall where they may,
Speaker 2: and some people may blame you short term for the
Speaker 2: for the decisions that you made, but the longer term
Speaker 2: fallout will be far less if people believe that the
Speaker 2: that those at the company leadership team, they're the actual
Speaker 2: ones driving the vehicle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of like walking into the team and saying,
Speaker 3: you know, I know I've been quiet about this, but
Speaker 3: I'm talking now, yes, versus I know that I've been
Speaker 3: quiet about this. Let me tell you why. Right.
Speaker 1: That's a huge one.
Speaker 3: Yes, Yeah, like like that that that's the big difference.
Speaker 3: There is kind of like if you're going to then
Speaker 3: use your platform to speak up and talk about it
Speaker 3: and share it, you also then owe a team the
Speaker 3: reason it's taken this long or why you haven't said anything,
Speaker 3: And that's going to be sometimes really hard to do
Speaker 3: because to your point, like having to admit, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe that a decision was made that has not had
Speaker 3: the impact that we thought it would have. Maybe trying
Speaker 3: to admit that a mistake was made, maybe having to
Speaker 3: own the fact of saying, like you were struggling with
Speaker 3: what do you say and what do you want to
Speaker 3: share with the team like that, you know that part
Speaker 3: of explaining requires also why in this scenario, why it
Speaker 3: took so long to say something? And it's okay to
Speaker 3: say I made this decision. This is a decision that
Speaker 3: is not changing. There are a lot of factors into
Speaker 3: why this decision had to be made, and here are
Speaker 3: a couple of them. Right, And and while at the
Speaker 3: core of a decision like this it might not even
Speaker 3: align with what I think or what I believe is
Speaker 3: the right thing to do or the thing that we
Speaker 3: should have done, it is something that we have to do,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Like, like, it's as a leaders,
Speaker 3: it's okay to also do that. I think that's a
Speaker 3: major part of it. I was having a conversation a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago around that, around change and uncertainty,
Speaker 3: and you know, somebody asked me a question. They're like, well,
Speaker 3: what happens if the leader is uncertain? What happens if
Speaker 3: leaders like, well, I don't know what's going to happen
Speaker 3: to me in this scenario. And I was like, then
Speaker 3: you say that out loud, right. I think it's important
Speaker 3: for a team to see their leader also say I
Speaker 3: also understand how you feel because I feel the same way.
Speaker 3: I have a responsibility as your leader to make sure
Speaker 3: that we could do our best to work through this
Speaker 3: and figure this out. I have responsibility as your leader
Speaker 3: to have to lead in times when it is tough
Speaker 3: and when I'm uncertain, but I also understand, and I
Speaker 3: you know, I'm going to share with you as much
Speaker 3: as I can, and there may be times when I'm
Speaker 3: going to tell you I can't share anything right now
Speaker 3: because a part of me being a leader means I
Speaker 3: also have a larger responsibility to the organization to make
Speaker 3: sure that we are doing the things that we need
Speaker 3: to do. But I will tell you that to your face,
Speaker 3: and I won't say something like I don't know or
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, when in fact I do know or
Speaker 3: I am sure. And I think that those are the
Speaker 3: things that if you're going to send out any type
Speaker 3: of communication or have any conversation in those times, you've
Speaker 3: got to really be clear about where you stand, what's
Speaker 3: going on and why maybe in this scenario, why was
Speaker 3: there enough time to feel like your team is saying, well,
Speaker 3: nobody is saying anything. You have to address that as well, right.
Speaker 2: For sure, because you know, if you think about, you know,
Speaker 2: the the issues that this organization is experiencing, a lot
Speaker 2: of them might be not within their control now, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean they never were. And I think a
Speaker 2: lot of times organizations will look at, you know, just
Speaker 2: the most recent moments to kind of relieve themselves of responsibility. Right.
Speaker 1: It's like if you procrastinate on.
Speaker 2: Getting your homework done until you know, an hour before
Speaker 2: you go to school the next morning, and then you
Speaker 2: finally sit down to do it and the power goes
Speaker 2: out and you have no internet. You don't get to
Speaker 2: say to the teacher, I tried to get my homework done,
Speaker 2: but the internet was out, And that's what people do.
Speaker 2: That's essentially the same thing. It's saying that, yes, I
Speaker 2: made many decisions in leading up to this that would
Speaker 2: put this blame on me, but now in these final moments,
Speaker 2: something that was truly out of my control is happening,
Speaker 2: which might be true.
Speaker 1: But to expect someone.
Speaker 2: To believe that that alleviates you of responsibility, it is
Speaker 2: almost patronizing to the person you're talking to. And I
Speaker 2: think that's one of the reasons why this email you
Speaker 2: know lands incorrectly is because the lack of you know,
Speaker 2: kind of saying that these things are happening to us,
Speaker 2: that these are the issues we're dealing with to people
Speaker 2: without saying these are the decisions that we've made that
Speaker 2: may have exacerbated the issue or contributed to the problem
Speaker 2: or started this out down the wrong path, but why
Speaker 2: we thought they were the right decisions at the moment,
Speaker 2: you know, like this is why why we did it,
Speaker 2: and and it turned out to be the wrong the
Speaker 2: wrong move or whatever that is. But addressing that openly
Speaker 2: is what leads people to, you know, not feel patronized,
Speaker 2: because if you don't address it outright and you just
Speaker 2: say this kind of like we're trying to, you know,
Speaker 2: let you know that there's there's a lot going on
Speaker 2: here that we have no control over and that we
Speaker 2: just have to kind of get through this together. The
Speaker 2: people reading that who know the organization and who know
Speaker 2: that these things are happening and going on, they are
Speaker 2: telling their own story in their mind. They're creating their
Speaker 2: own narrative about why these decisions were made to begin with,
Speaker 2: and and that hums off as as feeling patronized, Like
Speaker 2: if a company, if a leader said that to me,
Speaker 2: I would think, a they don't trust me enough to
Speaker 2: tell me what's really going on, or they think that
Speaker 2: I am that I'm that I won't react in a
Speaker 2: way that is appropriate for if I have all the information,
Speaker 2: almost like I'm not mature enough to be able to
Speaker 2: handle all the information. So they're going to dial it
Speaker 2: back and give me the the the kid version of
Speaker 2: it as opposed to the adult version of it. And
Speaker 2: if you if you think about it, you know, most
Speaker 2: of the employees at this organization are adults, or most
Speaker 2: of the employees that most organizations are adults, and you
Speaker 2: need to speak to them that way because it will
Speaker 2: hurt your relationship with them more if you try to,
Speaker 2: you know, dumb it down in the you know, if
Speaker 2: the goal is to try to you know, make them
Speaker 2: go to bed happy that night by telling them a
Speaker 2: bedtime story. You know, sometimes if they can see right
Speaker 2: through the bedtime story, you're going to cause more damage
Speaker 2: than you would buy. By the by the by the
Speaker 2: sending the email to begin.
Speaker 3: With, absolutely and with that it brings us to this
Speaker 3: episode is one minute hack.
Speaker 1: But first a few words more sponsors.
Speaker 2: All right for this episode one minute hackers or want
Speaker 2: you to do if you are a leader and you
Speaker 2: are charged with, you know, giving a speech or an
Speaker 2: email to a team of people to address any issues
Speaker 2: that are happening overall and not with an individual person
Speaker 2: about their issues, but with overall you know, company or
Speaker 2: team issues that are that are going on.
Speaker 1: Understand a few things.
Speaker 2: One, saying something is not always better than saying nothing.
Speaker 2: If you are not very clear on the reasons and
Speaker 2: the purpose for what you're saying, why you're saying and
Speaker 2: so you know, don't don't just jump at saying something
Speaker 2: because you think something has to be said.
Speaker 1: Be very purposeful in what you.
Speaker 2: Are saying, even if it means that it takes longer
Speaker 2: to deliver that message because you're trying to make sure
Speaker 2: that it gets done right. Secondly, when you can't deliver
Speaker 2: a message right away as soon as it is absolutely
Speaker 2: possible to, there are reasons why, and and some of
Speaker 2: those reasons might just be that you didn't know how
Speaker 2: to you didn't know how to address this in the
Speaker 2: correct way, or you were lacking information, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Be transparent about the reasons why you had to delay
Speaker 2: the communication or why you weren't able to speak to
Speaker 2: that person or that team right away, and be honest
Speaker 2: about it. You can't say, you know, there were things
Speaker 2: going on that we had to deal with, the wa
Speaker 2: had to get through. That's vague, that's that's ambiguous. Be
Speaker 2: very specific and clear and transparent about the reasons why
Speaker 2: there was a delay in that communication. Don't don't try
Speaker 2: to alleviate blame on yourself by by framing the verbiage
Speaker 2: in a way that says that things were happening to
Speaker 2: you that you had no control over. Frame it in
Speaker 2: a way that takes ownership of the process. Frame it
Speaker 2: a way that says, I made the decision to delay
Speaker 2: this communication because I didn't have this information yet, or
Speaker 2: because this had to happen first, or because I had
Speaker 2: to write it and I was trying to write it
Speaker 2: and I couldn't figure out a way to write it
Speaker 2: in a way that did a service to the hard
Speaker 2: work that you as a team are doing while also
Speaker 2: being transparent and truthful with you. And I didn't want
Speaker 2: to say anything to you that that was not true
Speaker 2: or not transparent, like there are ways to do this
Speaker 2: that will allow people to know that they're not being
Speaker 2: kind of spoon fed something in order to placate them,
Speaker 2: but rather than being treated like adults, and they're being
Speaker 2: given the correct information and then you're asking them to
Speaker 2: kind of work through this with you. Do this in
Speaker 2: this way, even if it means again taking longer, and
Speaker 2: you will find more effective communication when you talk to
Speaker 2: your team. Have other people read it, right, write something,
Speaker 2: have a peer read it, Have you know a coworker
Speaker 2: read it. Has somebody go over it and look at
Speaker 2: it with you through the lens of if this were
Speaker 2: being given to you, how would this make you feel?
Speaker 2: It's not just about the information. Feeling is important here
Speaker 2: and emotional reaction is important here. So asking a person
Speaker 2: how receiving this email would make them feel, even if
Speaker 2: they can't, you know, kind of articulate it in a
Speaker 2: way that that gives specific examples.
Speaker 1: But if they just say, yeah, I read this and.
Speaker 2: I feel like, eh, I yeah, whatever I feel.
Speaker 1: Would you feel more confident? Not really?
Speaker 2: Not really okay, then there's a problem. Go back to
Speaker 2: the drawing board and rewrite it. That feeling is important,
Speaker 2: because that's what you're trying to alleviate with the communication
Speaker 2: to begin with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're spot on if you're gonna I think,
Speaker 3: if you're gonna send something that is meant to be
Speaker 3: heartfelt in a way, or to express gratitude, or to
Speaker 3: recognize maybe some you know, some some things that are
Speaker 3: uncertain or that type of thing, it has to read
Speaker 3: as if it's authentic, And I think that you know,
Speaker 3: many times, like I think that the same person, let's
Speaker 3: just say, in this scenario, the same person who was
Speaker 3: behind this communication. And at you know, higher levels of
Speaker 3: larger organizations, you're always going to have people that are
Speaker 3: going to either help to to help to write something
Speaker 3: like that, or approve something like that, or make sure
Speaker 3: like that's gonna happen. Right, But I believe that the
Speaker 3: same person that was behind an email like this, if
Speaker 3: given the chance to go in front of a team
Speaker 3: in like a town hall or talk about it, I
Speaker 3: think the message could be very very different. Yeah, because
Speaker 3: I think it would be less protected is in regards
Speaker 3: to like what is shared and how you want to
Speaker 3: share things in writing, and I think it would be
Speaker 3: more authentic to how that person feels about the moment
Speaker 3: in what's going on. And I think that to your point,
Speaker 3: and it has a big part of it when it
Speaker 3: comes across as authentic and connected and relevant and real
Speaker 3: to what's actually going on. So again, I think that
Speaker 3: there's always times like this where you're gonna have to
Speaker 3: address a team about something that's happening. But your confidence
Speaker 3: and being clear about why you're sharing and what we're
Speaker 3: all talking about into you know earlier, like addressing the
Speaker 3: actual elephant in the room, I think is absolutely critical
Speaker 3: if you want something like this from a message and
Speaker 3: standpoint to land and be taken seriously.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, what's what you just said there, I
Speaker 2: think is a really important part of this. I think
Speaker 2: it really kind of it made me think about this
Speaker 2: a little bit differently just now, because you know, when
Speaker 2: you send an email like this to many thousands of
Speaker 2: people and it's in email format, there is nobody who
Speaker 2: would ever suggest that the email won't be seen by
Speaker 2: more people than it was that it was sent to. Clearly,
Speaker 2: all it takes is copying and pasting and sending like
Speaker 2: it's going to be seen by the world, right, And
Speaker 2: so if you're writing this email knowing that, then you're
Speaker 2: writing it from a standpoint of believing that the world
Speaker 2: is your audience, not just the people who work for
Speaker 2: your organization. And that changes the way that you're going
Speaker 2: to say something because people who are not within the
Speaker 2: organization may take things differently, like they there's there's a
Speaker 2: larger impact to consider, and so at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, knowing that information, it might mean that email
Speaker 2: is the wrong way to communicate these things to begin with,
Speaker 2: it might need to be a a town hall type
Speaker 2: thing where you you take time to visit different different
Speaker 2: places in different locations, or you call the leadership teams
Speaker 2: in all together that represent all the different areas and
Speaker 2: you tell them this in person and and and hopefully
Speaker 2: instill in them the confidence to be able to disseminate
Speaker 2: that information to their teams. Because at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, my confidence in my organization comes from my
Speaker 2: relationship with my direct leader, not my relationship with my CEO,
Speaker 2: who I don't even have a relationship with. So the
Speaker 2: there's a there's a big difference in that, and so
Speaker 2: trying trying to have a relationship with people who you
Speaker 2: don't actually have a relationship with it can be problematic
Speaker 2: to begin with. Instead, put trust in your people to
Speaker 2: disseminate that information and give the message in a way
Speaker 2: that allows you to be more transparent and more truthful
Speaker 2: and more open because you're not addressing the world at large,
Speaker 2: you're addressing actually the people.
Speaker 3: This is impacting absolutely and with that it brings us
Speaker 3: to the end of this episode, this is hacking your leadership.
Speaker 3: I'm Lorenzo and I'm Chris, and we'll talk to you
Speaker 3: all next time.