Speaker 1: Welcome to Hacking Your Leadership. I'm Chris and I'm Lorenzo.
Speaker 1: And Lorenzo on this episode, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: a new study that was done by Deloitte recently on
Speaker 1: the types of skills that people are looking for in
Speaker 1: the workplace. And I think this is it was really
Speaker 1: eye opening and kind of a new way of looking
Speaker 1: at things, because we've talked a lot on the on
Speaker 1: the podcast over the years about how, you know, leaders
Speaker 1: shouldn't just be investing in their people in terms of
Speaker 1: making them better for the job. They should be making
Speaker 1: them better people, better applicants for otherir jobs, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of life skills, that kind of thing. And and
Speaker 1: if you look at the the kind of skills that
Speaker 1: companies typically incorporate into a curriculum for people, the ones
Speaker 1: that are leadership based, and and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: the the softer skills empathy and human connection. Those types
Speaker 1: of skills are usually a large part of the of
Speaker 1: the training that leaders get with organizations, but not as
Speaker 1: much for people in non leadership roles. And this study
Speaker 1: from Deloitte said that individual employees in non leadership roles
Speaker 1: are starving for these skills too. This study says that
Speaker 1: the top three skills that employees report wanting in these
Speaker 1: are non leadership employees. The top three are teamwork, communication,
Speaker 1: and leadership, and that the you know, the kind of
Speaker 1: technical skills and the skills of the job itself fall
Speaker 1: far lower on the list of things that they want
Speaker 1: to learn. And you know, it's one of those like
Speaker 1: kind of obvious does but something that you know, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of organizations don't think about in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, who who do they invest this time and
Speaker 1: effort into and what is the fallout for not giving
Speaker 1: it to the people who are currently in non leadership roles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you on this one. It's kind of
Speaker 2: like it makes a ton of sense when you think
Speaker 2: about what people are looking to maybe get training on,
Speaker 2: and when you say like teamwork and communication, like that
Speaker 2: is ninety percent, I'm sure of their day to day
Speaker 2: which is you know what I mean, like, yeah, how
Speaker 2: do we work better together, how do we communicate more effectively?
Speaker 2: How do you know, how do we do things that
Speaker 2: allow us to to get the work done and feel
Speaker 2: good about how we're doing it. And then of course
Speaker 2: then then it gets into the leadership aspects or into
Speaker 2: the like the technical job aspects of it. But I
Speaker 2: think it's it's such an important thing to take away
Speaker 2: and to understand, especially when we talk a lot about
Speaker 2: leadership and then creating spaces, like how are you creating
Speaker 2: these spaces for people to work well together? How are
Speaker 2: you helping them to manage their relationships they have with
Speaker 2: their peers? How do you reward and recognize great teamwork
Speaker 2: when it comes to you know, teams working well together
Speaker 2: to accomplish the goal at hand. Like these are all
Speaker 2: things that I think as we get more of these
Speaker 2: types of surveys and insights, you know, we're I think
Speaker 2: we're seeing a more truer understanding of what people want
Speaker 2: and what they're looking for at work. I think if
Speaker 2: you maybe rewound the tape on this twenty thirty years ago,
Speaker 2: people would be selecting the obvious answers or what they
Speaker 2: think that they should answer, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 2: that's that's what I believe. I think we're getting more
Speaker 2: kind of authenticity and transparency to what matters most to
Speaker 2: a lot of people, and that is the day to
Speaker 2: day and that is the ability to function well with
Speaker 2: peers on a team and enjoy that time with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think. I think another art part of this
Speaker 1: too is that the skills needed not from the not
Speaker 1: the human side of things, but the job skills needed
Speaker 1: to do whatever whatever the processes or the technical aspects
Speaker 1: are of the job. The training to go through the
Speaker 1: day to day process of the job, not in relation
Speaker 1: to other people, but just in relation to the to
Speaker 1: the job itself. Those skills change far more quickly now
Speaker 1: than they did a while back. And so you know,
Speaker 1: if you if you were, you know, learning a job
Speaker 1: thirty years ago, obviously you want to put more time
Speaker 1: into doing that thing better and better and better, because
Speaker 1: the more efficient and the better you got at it,
Speaker 1: you could hold onto those things for you know, a
Speaker 1: decade or two decades before a new system was in place,
Speaker 1: or a more efficient system was in place or something.
Speaker 1: You know, these things are happening so much more quickly
Speaker 1: in many organizations now that you encounter the law of
Speaker 1: diminishing returns when it comes to trying to get better
Speaker 1: at doing something. You know, Proficient at doing something is
Speaker 1: often good enough, you know, as opposed to a mastery
Speaker 1: of something when when it's clear that it was it
Speaker 1: was new six months ago and it was. It replaced
Speaker 1: the other thing a year before that. You know, there's
Speaker 1: only so much you really can you put into that.
Speaker 1: But these skills, these these human centric qualities like teamwork
Speaker 1: and communication and empathy and you know, leader ship, those
Speaker 1: are the things that will endure regardless of what the
Speaker 1: processes of the job are. We're one of the quotes
Speaker 1: in this article by Anthony Stephanie's the chief Learning officer
Speaker 1: at Deloitte. He says organizations that emphasize technical training at
Speaker 1: the expense of enduring human capabilities like divergent thinking, emotional agility,
Speaker 1: resilience could end up impeding innovation and leaving employees ill
Speaker 1: equipped to lead teams, adapt to market opportunities and fully
Speaker 1: harness the potential of technology. And that says it right there.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is it's are you are you teaching
Speaker 1: people how to do a job or are you teaching
Speaker 1: people how to do jobs? And that's the biggest difference.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, I remember why when my kids
Speaker 1: transitioned from you know, kindergarten to first grade, they they
Speaker 1: said that the teacher said that the biggest change is
Speaker 1: that they're going from learning to read to reading to
Speaker 1: learn and that was a huge jump because you know it,
Speaker 1: there's less time being spent on learning to read. It's
Speaker 1: an assumption that they know how to read so that
Speaker 1: they could learn other things. They could utilize the tool
Speaker 1: of reading to learn other things. I look at this
Speaker 1: as the exact same way. If we're teaching people how
Speaker 1: to lead, if we're teaching people how to communicate, if
Speaker 1: we're teaching people how to have teamwork, then regardless of
Speaker 1: the company they're with, or the team that they're on,
Speaker 1: or what the technology is doing, they'll be able to
Speaker 1: be they will be more equipped to do it with
Speaker 1: those skills. But if we're just teaching them how to
Speaker 1: do whatever that job is now, then those skills become
Speaker 1: irrelevant the time the next time the job changes, or
Speaker 1: the next time the technology becomes out of date, or
Speaker 1: the next time that you know, a more efficient process
Speaker 1: replaces it. So, you know, the companies that really invest
Speaker 1: in this not just for their leaders, but for people
Speaker 1: who they hope to become leaders someday, those are the
Speaker 1: companies that I think are setting themselves up for success.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we talk a lot about you know,
Speaker 2: kind of just all the time, building pipeline, building talent
Speaker 2: pipeline and what are you doing organizationally to actually do that?
Speaker 2: And I think sometimes we can, you know, we can
Speaker 2: get stuck in some of the norms, or when you
Speaker 2: start to have elements of success where you've got some
Speaker 2: examples of kind of where the pipeline has maybe worked,
Speaker 2: you start to get really comfortable and complacent, and I
Speaker 2: think that that's where that's where it can get dangerous,
Speaker 2: because then it's like, well, you're you're are you building
Speaker 2: leaders for the future or are you building leaders for
Speaker 2: the right now you know, when you need them in
Speaker 2: the future. And then are you looking at maybe historical
Speaker 2: examples of what it was to be a leader or
Speaker 2: what it was to find success in an organization from
Speaker 2: five or ten years ago, fifteen twenty years ago versus
Speaker 2: where you are today and where you're going. And I
Speaker 2: think these are the things that when you're really when
Speaker 2: a company is really invested in understanding that there's a
Speaker 2: lot of time, attention, and quite honestly money that's put
Speaker 2: into figuring out how do you build for the leaders
Speaker 2: of the future, and how are you staying close enough
Speaker 2: to what's successful today and then modeling much of your
Speaker 2: training and development programs to to what that looks like.
Speaker 2: I think sometimes that's that's what I've witnessed anyway in
Speaker 2: my career many times talking to other leaders across industries,
Speaker 2: across organizations, is that like, you know, the same training
Speaker 2: that they were doing for leaders, you know, five years ago,
Speaker 2: is the same one today. You know, there's very little
Speaker 2: change in what those programs look like. And when there
Speaker 2: is change, it's usually either slow or it's all at
Speaker 2: once and it's long overdue and it's you know, every
Speaker 2: ten years or something like that, and then it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: now you have this change. Now, great, now this feels
Speaker 2: relevant for the moments. But if you're going to wait
Speaker 2: another five or ten years to do it again, you're
Speaker 2: going to be in exactly the same space. So I
Speaker 2: think that just the you know, looking at this type
Speaker 2: of you know, data and considering organizationally what you're doing,
Speaker 2: and also like thinking about as a leader in the business,
Speaker 2: how do you take this data in understanding and even
Speaker 2: if you know your team were not a part of
Speaker 2: any of this, these are questions that you can go ask.
Speaker 2: These are things that you can go do to discover
Speaker 2: how and where you should spend your time when it
Speaker 2: comes to maybe the training and development of your current
Speaker 2: team and in the team of the future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's another element of this that I
Speaker 1: want to touch on too, because I think about how
Speaker 1: how I've learned or when I have learned how to
Speaker 1: be a better teammate, a better leader, a better communicator.
Speaker 1: When have I learned those things? And very little of
Speaker 1: it was in formalized training from organizations that said this
Speaker 1: is how you do these things. A lot of it
Speaker 1: was learned by doing and failing and learning from those
Speaker 1: failures and doing again. And a lot of it was
Speaker 1: learned by watching the leaders who I reported to do
Speaker 1: things both well and and not well. And then you're
Speaker 1: reflecting on why I why I interpret that, is it
Speaker 1: being done well or being done not well? And and
Speaker 1: what I wanted to want to take from those things.
Speaker 1: And so I think a lot of this training that
Speaker 1: employees are looking for, they it can't necessarily be done
Speaker 1: in in the classroom or in the you know, the
Speaker 1: formal environment. Some of it can, and and there's some
Speaker 1: there are some important things you can learn through courses
Speaker 1: you can take online or you know, you know, programs
Speaker 1: that that companies can apply for and and make available,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of virtual or digital courses for their
Speaker 1: for their employees. Those are all great, but but just
Speaker 1: putting your people in situations where they have to utilize
Speaker 1: communication and teamwork and leadership skills even though it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a core port part of what their job is,
Speaker 1: and then making sure that you don't just do that
Speaker 1: from a standpoint of hope they learn from the mistakes,
Speaker 1: but to debrief with them and follow up with them
Speaker 1: and find out what was difficult, what was easy, What
Speaker 1: do they love about that, what do they not like
Speaker 1: about it, what was uncomfortable, what was very comfortable. These
Speaker 1: are the situations that will help employers and individual team
Speaker 1: leaders figure out what people on their team need, what
Speaker 1: skills and need develop in what areas, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: what people really gravitate towards certain things. You know, if
Speaker 1: the places that you're putting your people in in order
Speaker 1: to kind of test these skills or their or their
Speaker 1: interest in them, if a person comes back and says,
Speaker 1: that was the worst experience of my entire life, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that person isn't, you know, one of your future leaders,
Speaker 1: but maybe they're fantastic at the job that they do.
Speaker 1: And if a person comes back and says, wow, that
Speaker 1: was very challenging, I want more, Give me more. Those
Speaker 1: are the people you want to put more effort into,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of refining those skills, because the human
Speaker 1: skills are the ones that you will need in order
Speaker 1: to move people up. And I'll tell you it's very
Speaker 1: rare that the best salesperson is the best leader of salespeople,
Speaker 1: or that the best engineer is the best leader of engineers.
Speaker 1: The skills of sales and engineering and leadership are three
Speaker 1: very very different skills that require very different skill sets,
Speaker 1: and they have different people who gravitate towards them and
Speaker 1: who are better at them. So, you know, the traditional
Speaker 1: pipelines of looking at the best this in order to
Speaker 1: lead the team of this that you're not going to
Speaker 1: get the best leader of teams that way. The best
Speaker 1: leaders are going to be the ones that you develop
Speaker 1: through these processes of putting in the situations where they
Speaker 1: can have the chance to showcase these skills.
Speaker 2: YEP, completely agree with that, and with that it brings
Speaker 2: us to this episodes one minute Hack. But first a
Speaker 2: few words from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: All right, for this episode one minute Hackers or want
Speaker 1: you to do. In this article, the Anthony Stephan, the
Speaker 1: chief leading officer for Deloitte, recommends a couple of things.
Speaker 1: He says that the most important things that leaders, hr
Speaker 1: leaders and team leaders can do is to listen to
Speaker 1: employees dictate to them what that those employees need to
Speaker 1: be successful, and so asking employees, what are you lacking?
Speaker 1: What do you think you need in order to be
Speaker 1: successful not just at your current job, but at this
Speaker 1: company as a whole, or in life in general, whether
Speaker 1: it's at this company or another one. What are individual
Speaker 1: employees looking for? That's the first thing, and then the
Speaker 1: second thing is making sure that the tools are set
Speaker 1: up to allow the employees to get those kind of trainings.
Speaker 1: And you can have formal mentorship programs that's one way,
Speaker 1: but a lot of the ways that these skills are
Speaker 1: honed and refined is just in interacting with other people.
Speaker 1: And if their jobs are structured in a way where
Speaker 1: there's less of that, it's your responsibility as a leader
Speaker 1: to get them together in certain places, whether it's a
Speaker 1: kind of a relaxed social event or you know, some
Speaker 1: kind of of a team get together where there's collaboration,
Speaker 1: whether there's you know, people talking to each other, talking
Speaker 1: over each other. You know, these are the environments where
Speaker 1: these skills are refined, because they're refined through making mistakes.
Speaker 1: And if as long as you have the psychological safety
Speaker 1: that says that mistakes are okay, there are great opportunities
Speaker 1: to let employees kind of figure this out and then
Speaker 1: let you know or debrief with you on what went
Speaker 1: well or what didn't go well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a great you know advice in
Speaker 2: this hack. And we talked a little a little bit
Speaker 2: about this earlier, but just the creating of the space
Speaker 2: and the understanding that like what the team is going
Speaker 2: to learn and how you're going to create a great
Speaker 2: culture around not just doing the work today, but but
Speaker 2: getting people to really have passion behind filling up a
Speaker 2: talent pipeline, wanting to be in that talent pipeline, and
Speaker 2: then understanding like how they would work together and how
Speaker 2: as a you will listen to what they're looking for
Speaker 2: and what they need and then making adjustments for that
Speaker 2: is how you will continue to not only build great
Speaker 2: talent and have great talent pipeline, but you'll have the
Speaker 2: trust and you'll have the the ability to pivot in
Speaker 2: the here and now, but also build skill that is
Speaker 2: necessary longer term when it comes to the ongoing evolution
Speaker 2: and changes that you will see when it comes to
Speaker 2: the expectations of leaders of today and into the future.
Speaker 2: So I think again, it's just like having an intention
Speaker 2: to be able to have these spaces created and knowing
Speaker 2: that most of where people are going to take in
Speaker 2: the ability to have to build you know, teamwork and
Speaker 2: to build trust is going to be in the informal
Speaker 2: places of them really getting to know each other authentically
Speaker 2: and being able to build connections that will allow them
Speaker 2: to move better together forward right right.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I want to put on this
Speaker 1: and this is just I think it's very important here,
Speaker 1: is that you know, of this survey that Deloitte did,
Speaker 1: ninety four percent of the survey respondents said that younger
Speaker 1: workers in particular need better human skills. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that we're sing this is
Speaker 1: this is not a generational thing. This is not a
Speaker 1: oh you know, this generation is terrible at this, and
Speaker 1: this generation is not younger workers have less years doing
Speaker 1: these things. These are skills that people get better at
Speaker 1: because they do them, and and there's no way to
Speaker 1: do them besides doing them. And if so, if if
Speaker 1: you are a younger employee or you have a team
Speaker 1: of people that are on the younger side of things,
Speaker 1: they're probably not as good at these skills. Not because
Speaker 1: they're This isn't a you know, their generations worse than
Speaker 1: our generation. This is that they've just not been doing
Speaker 1: it long enough. And it's your responsibility as a leader
Speaker 1: to give them opportunities that are both organic and structured
Speaker 1: to allow them to make themselves better at these skills
Speaker 1: or to help them get better at these skills because
Speaker 1: they're starving for them too. It's not just their coworkers
Speaker 1: who are saying these younger people need to get better
Speaker 1: at these skills. It's the people themselves who feel very
Speaker 1: awkward and very ill equipped to interact in certain situations,
Speaker 1: and it causes them to kind of withdraw further and
Speaker 1: try to make less of a connection if they don't
Speaker 1: know how to do it, or they don't have a
Speaker 1: kind of a sponsor in this space. And so as
Speaker 1: a leader, it's your responsibility to help them get there
Speaker 1: and they'll reward your organization and your team in terms
Speaker 1: of what they do for you with the engagement and
Speaker 1: the productivity they can provide if they feel like they
Speaker 1: have these skills and they can talk to people and
Speaker 1: make connections with people.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and with that it brings us to the end
Speaker 2: of this episode. This is how your leadership. I'm Lorenzo
Speaker 2: and I'm Chris, and we'll talk to you all next time.