Focus on being better than you were yesterday, not better than someone else is today.
That can mean pain and success.
Tag: leadership
Notes on empathetic leadership
I attended a masterclass on ’empathetic leadership’ last month. I wanted to save a few notes for myself.
It’s OK to know what you want
People will make you think otherwise.
Mission and money should mix so impact can thrive
There’s this strange and perhaps dated idea that mission and money don’t mix.
I suppose it comes from a time of less transparency, of very black and white lines between nonprofits and for profits. But I find it altogether puzzling today.
Continue reading Mission and money should mix so impact can thrive
What I’ve learned about letting go teammates
When an employee leaves your company, it almost always fits into one of a few clear buckets: they left on good terms, or bad terms, or you let them go yourself.
- She found a better role, and you aren’t matching the offer. Either because you don’t want to or that you can’t, you don’t meet or exceed compensation or responsibility or title or something else that the new role offers, though she would be willing to stay.
- She’s quitting, and so you can’t do anything about it. Whether or not for another role, she wants to leave your company (maybe it’s time or maybe there’s a problem).
- You’re letting her go. Because of budgetary or strategy reasons, her role is being eliminated or fundamentally changed. You could think of this as anything from convenient (downsizing on someone you don’t think was a good fit anyway) to painful (someone you really appreciated but didn’t have the role or place for).
- You’re firing her. Because of performance or actions, she is being removed from the organization. There is an array of euphemisms and agreements that mask these, often for optics.
Happily most have left Technical.ly on good terms. But I have experience with them all. Here are some things I’ve learned about the process
- More than 80 percent of employee turnover is attributed to bad hiring decisions, according to Harvard Business Review.
- HR executives try to put a financial cost on replacing staff, something like 20 percent of a mid-level manager’s salary, according to SHRM estimates. So, say, replacing a $50k manager has a cost of $10k on the low end of estimates.
- When you’re letting someone go, have a script, make it quick, stay on message and get out.
- You have to play favorites. I didn’t act decisively enough when a particular teammate whom I wanted to retain announced she had gotten another offer. It was before I better understood the crude, if effective, old ‘rank and yank’ concept: fight for your top performers, train your middle performers and cut your lowest performers. The concept is that you’re aiming to continue to strengthen your team.
- And the insight can help you predict whether you yourself are being demoted or laid off.
- Follow specific steps to get the deed done.
- Be transparent with the team. Clarify whether it’s a lay off or someone is fired for cause.
- Lay offs are tough as hell.
A few leadership lessons I was reminded of during an afternoon with Outward Bound
Leadership development and team building programs are full of small-scale physical challenges that require collaboration. Though they’re mostly just simple puzzles that follow similar models, having just participated in another a few weeks ago, I can say there are many lessons worth being reminded of.
Outdoor education nonprofit Outward Bound is one of those groups best known for these corporate training affairs, and LEADERSHIP Philadelphia, one of the older local civic training nonprofits in the country, had me again take part in an afternoon of such activities as part of a program of theirs I’m in. I want to share some of what I left the event thinking about back on Sept. 18.
Continue reading A few leadership lessons I was reminded of during an afternoon with Outward Bound
Great leaders sit in the audience
There’s a feeling that persists that at some point in your career, you’re successful enough that you get to the stage.
You’re handed a microphone and you begin to share what you have learned, all that you have accomplished. You move from the crowd to the curated. And once you get there, the goal is to never go back.
I talked about leading Technical.ly on a leadership podcast
I was asked to join a leadership podcast run by Joel Capparella, a marketing executive I know in the Philadelphia area. It’s about a half-hour.
Continue reading I talked about leading Technical.ly on a leadership podcast
Leadership Philadelphia called me one of 55 young ‘keepers’
The half-century old Leadership Philadelphia civic service nonprofit named me recently one of 55 young leaders in the region worth “keeping.” I’m among more than a dozen local tech leaders included.
Those of us named are said to be future leaders of Philadelphia that should be connected with more established leaders to ensure we remain invested here. It’s the same group that organizes the 10-month long leadership fellowship I proudly completed in 2013.
True to form of Leadership Philadelphia, led by a mentor of mine Liz Dow, this is not just a vanity list. Over the course of six monthly networking events, we’ll be paired with more established leaders to foster mentorship relationships outside of our existing communities. The series started last week with an event at the historic Union League.
It’s both a true honor and an incredible opportunity to meet people I will work with for years to come.
Ideas are easy, execution is hard
Stop taking credit for ideas you didn’t execute on. We’ve all had those moments. When you find out about a new project or initiative and can recall with great clarity having had that very idea before.
It’s natural to want to allow ourselves that moment of validation. It’s as if a thought of yours has sprung fully formed, so it’s rewarding to take some ownership over it. But’ it’s hardly fair and certainly not accurate.