CMI Blog

You help guide the employee teaching them to fly, and then you show them to the runway and watch as they take flight of their own accord.

A Common Misconception

Frequently a common theme I speak on is self-leadership, however that is not the focus of today. But a common sub-theme of self-leadership is delegation, or knowing when to pass things from your plate to a fellow team member’s plate. There is a frequent misconception that delegating tasks from your to-do list to someone else’s is the same thing as employee empowerment.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Employee empowerment is the theme I’m focusing on here today and I want to start out by clarifying the difference between delegation and true empowerment.

Employee empowerment is promoting the self-actualization of another team member. It is setting them up for success and then stepping back to observe their work from the stands as a supportive fan. Perhaps my favorite analogy for employee empowerment is the runway. You help guide the employee teaching them to fly, and then you show them to the runway and watch as they take flight of their own accord.

Clearly, empowerment is not the same as the shared responsibilities of delegation, and there are a lot more ways to empower your employees than assigning them more tasks.

Clear Expectations

The first means of empowering your employees starts where all things begin, with communication. What’s at stake when it comes to communication? Well among the general confusion and setbacks poor communication causes, there is also money on the line. An article published by SHRM entitled “The Cost of Poor Communication” states, “David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Poor Communications” that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.”

This reminds me of a quote I’ve heard one of my team members refer to, “specificity drives accountability, which drives results”. The core of this statement rings true, the more clear we can be in communicating our expectations, the less room for error there will be, and the greater the chances of a favorable outcome.

The power of clear communication is seen when entire organizations are united in their mission, vision, values and goals. That looks like a well-oiled machine moving forwards at great speeds gaining success at every step of the way. If the entire team knows the foundation of all expectations is the mission, vision and values, there is a greater sense of loyalty all around.

This can prove difficult, especially when organizations are going through restructuring or mergers, or even just identity crises. A close supporter of mine, Rich Gassen, offers a powerful example of how important this clear purpose is for organizations. He realized this importance and set out on a mission to establish a clear foundation at his organization, even if that meant tearing down an old system and rebuilding from the ground up.

Risk Taking

Rich’s example demonstrates the risk involved when empowering your employees. Had his mission gone south, it could have caused a multitude of issues for the organization. True empowerment is risky. But that’s half the point. If your employees aren’t challenged to think outside the box and try new and risky solutions, then their personal growth will be stunted as well as the overall success of the organization.

The plane could crash once it leaves the runway, but if it never takes off in the first place there is a zero percent chance of success. The hazard with allowing your employees to work with generous margins of error, is knowing how to react when the risks do turn south, when the errors do occur.

Caring Leaders must be accepting of errors. Leaders can be firm and constructive, while also supportive and a catalyst for that employees’ personal development. Fear of retribution is a huge deterrence from opportunities for success.

Jo Bauler in her book, Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers wrote, “As the fear center of the brain becomes activated, activity in the problem-solving centers of the brain is diminished”. Fear counteracts productivity and restricts the borders of the mind inhibiting critical thinking.

Be a Resource

My last tip for how to successfully empower your team is a third key to setting them up for success. You cannot ask someone to complete a puzzle without giving them the pieces. Just so, leaders must take care to provide all the necessary resources for their team to successfully launch their planes into flight.

A team without resources feels devalued and replaceable. I correlate this experience to being stuck with your hands tied, left helpless facing a goal, with no means to achieve it. You can read more about the hopelessness that a lack of resources can cause here.

The Gift of Empowerment

Empowerment is a gift, not complex in the way in which it is given, and a gift that is realized through the actions of the receiver. That is why it is so important that leaders go about empowering their employees in the right way. One slip up, an unclear direction, a harsh retort, or a missing resource, can set up your employee for failure and affect the overall success of your organization.

Be the gift of empowerment to your people, show them you care.

Buy Heather's book today, "The Art of Caring Leadership: How Leading with Heart Uplifts Teams and Organizations"  >>

The freelance economy has grown since the pandemic of the last year. Tim Sanders, VP of Customer Insights at Upwork and New York Times bestselling author, shares  how the hybrid freelance workforce is going to accelerate even more in the future, and why.

Tim speaks to the enterprise trends at Upwork, one of the largest worldwide staffing companies, that organizations of all sizes are feeling much more comfortable at working with freelance talent. He says that according to their December Future Workforce Report, research shows that there is a significant correlation between a manager’s comfort with remote work and their comfort with leveraging freelancers.

As a result, many organizations have started to leverage places like Upwork, more than ever, to help grow their business and scale up during a time of uncertainty.

Freelance benefits for projects include:

• Get the work done fast
• Contain costs
• Most importantly, bring specialization to a project and improve project outcomes:
  • Rather then re-skilling a current employee, bringing in a freelance worker can infuse a project environment with their specific expertise, saving money and time.

Tim says that he and his group anticipate that leaders and businesses will use freelance talent even more moving forward — he predicts that things will not go back to the way they were before. Much like the acceleration of the hybrid workplace, he believes we will see a trend where the hybrid workforce accelerates in its adoption of the human cloud. More importantly, leaders will put their independent talent at the heart of their businesses, as opposed to them just being on the edges in the gig-work model.

What are the major challenges from marketplaces, such as Upwork, to cater to the huge demand?

Tim says that at Upwork their #1 requirement from freelancers is that they are full-time, expert professionals, often operating their own stable businesses. Leaders and companies are looking for talent clouds, usually around centers of excellence like marketing, technology and customer success and need specialized professionals who will be available for freelance services for the long-term.

Upwork has to ensure that their workers offer the following:

• Commitment to their business, professionalism
• A portfolio or a demonstrated body of work
• Increasingly moving forward
• Have certifications
• Use assessments as needed

Companies consistently ask how they can be sure that freelance workers are onboarded very quickly so they are generating positive outcomes in a relatively short amount of time.

Tim shares that they are developing some key ways to ensure businesses have faster onboarding, with the following:

Having a Project Manager Upworker:

• Develops company templates for other freelancers
• Offers company-specific knowledge and values
• Assists other freelancers to onboard more quickly with companies

• They specialize in one part of a project process
  • One example is a mobile software development team
• The team offers a “soup-to-nuts” solution for a client
• They are a virtual team and can be much more affordable because they have much less overhead

Tim shares that, as the world continues to grow its freelancing community, the time is now for organizations to start building their own virtual talent cloud of leader, specialists and contributors. Specialized freelance workers will be hired quickly over these next few years and leaders will want to be sure they secure the top tier freelancers to augment their projects going forward.

"You Can Learn How to be More Confident and Comfortable in the Midst of Change"

One of the most useful and practical strategies I teach leaders and salespeople to win with people is The Rule of Two. 

I was speaking for Anthem Insurance in California and at one of the breaks a salesman named Joe asked if he could share an insight with me. Earlier that day, I’d taught about focusing on being interested, not interesting, and he said it reminded him of a rule he made for himself years ago called The Rule of Two.

Joe told me how he was called out early in his career for one-upping other people. It was affecting how he connected (or didn’t connect) with others and it was undermining the influence he was trying to build. Joe decided to fix it and so he developed The Rule of Two. When someone says something about themselves, ask at least two questions before you say anything about yourself.

As an example: your good friend says they like boating – they just bought an expensive boat and they go every weekend to the lake. You may be thinking, “What a bragger, oh really, well I...” But then you stop yourself and remember The Rule of Two. you respond: “I bet your family really enjoys that. How did you decide on the right boat for the family? And what was your favorite family moment at the lake this year?”

Wow, how that changed everything! You felt great about being truly interested in your friend — your friend stopped his normal chatter and thought a minute about what was truly important about the boat and shared with you a personal moment with his family and experience. You made a connection that will not be forgotten, that could have been missed without using The Rule of Two.

Now think about doing that as a leader. Would you build stronger, long-lasting relationships by actually listening and responding from a place of interest? The next time you are heading down the road of one-upping, give Joe’s idea a try. Use the principle of The Rule of Two! 

The daily choices and actions you make will inevitably shape your life greater than any external event.

Here are just 5 lenses that help me, have helped others AND could quite possibly help you too.

1. STOP looking for PRAISE and instead SEEK trusted feedback.

Sure, a compliment can add a warm, fuzzy feeling to a moment, but the relentless quest for acknowledgement is more likely to fuel anxieties and promote depression than genuinely build you up. Worse than this, is the people that you and I grant the power to influence your real life. Advice and opinions are certainly not the same things and choosing the specific individuals that can add perspective, experience and wisdom to help you shape your future is a discipline that can garner huge positive effects.

2. STOP counting your FOLLOWERS and SERVE the people that entrust you with their attention.

For full disclosure, this is still very much work in progress in my own world. Yet writing it down is just another process to help solidify a new habit. Ego is ever present and managing its power in a modern world is more challenging than ever. Businesses chase new clients, individuals are focused on meeting new people and success in a digital world is often validated by a quantity metric that is only ever satisfied when the never-ending objective of “more” is achieved.

Picture the difference you and I could manifest if that effort and attention was instead pointed at what already existed. Businesses obsessed about serving their existing relationships, you and I obsessed about the people we love that already exist in our lives. On social media, we all just got busy serving the people that have already clicked a button to commit that they are interested in what you have to say.

Just imagine how much more you could achieve with what is already within your reach.

3. STOP WORRYING about others and focus on your own HABITS instead.

The comparison trap is real. And adding to our deep-rooted desire to see how we fare alongside others is the other sabotaging human trait of judgement. When the focus is external, you can only ever follow your inquisition with feelings of disappointment or worthlessness.

A great mentor once shared with me the wisdom that if you are to ever compare yourself to anyone, you must compare the whole of you, with the whole of them. An almost impossible task, yet the very attempt has you quickly realising that your own progress lies in your own habits and any shortcomings you have versus others are almost always countered by a significant benefit you have by alternative.

4. STOP referencing the PAST as evidence that controls your FUTURE.

There are very few things in life I am certain of and one of those few things is uncertainty. I feel confident that nothing stays the same and what was once true is not necessarily true today. Life to me is like water. It’s fluid and ever-changing, and our choices become the vessels that contain said water.

It’s easy to avoid new choices and create conflict by stating things like “you said…” and “last time” as articles of evidence to support today’s decision making. The tough part is accepting that a thought or feeling in the past, is nothing more than a momentary opinion. Opinions can change through experience and allowing yourself to evolve your own opinions based on new experiences is key to your own organic growth.

To change your reality, you must first change how you think.

5. STOP CELEBRATING the finish line and start working on the STEPS.

Jeez this drives me crazy. I see it all the time and fail to understand why so many people make this choice. Achieving big things is typically hard work, yet too many people celebrate the outcome of the thing they are working on before they have done the work and as such, remove the possibility of the true celebration later. Further challenge from this set of actions is that the euphoric feelings of an early celebration are soon replaced with an anxious reality of what now needs to be done, without the pull of the future victory celebration to help you go the distance.

I remember a conversation with two dear friends in a bar in Boston, where one of them shared the old saying “It’s the second mouse that gets the cheese”. Think on that for a second. The vivid reality of a baited trap and the knowledge that the first mouse is likely to lose its life, and the more patient one gets a risk-free snack is a metaphor that may instil a little extra patience in how quickly you proclaim your next victory.

From achieving life goals with my family, career and personally – it seems to have served me better to put my head down and work on what needs to get done and save the real celebrations for when the real milestones are achieved. This as opposed to reaching straight for social media the moment a new idea is considered - a new venture is launched - or some good news hits my inbox.

Sometimes the applause can help you go the distance. Other times it can be a giant distraction that prevents you reaching your desired outcome.

"What Is It You Could Begin to Do Consistently That Would Take You to the Next Level and Beyond?"

Wind and water moving consistently over the earth have done far more to shape this planet than all the blasting and earth-moving equipment we’ve ever invented.

Investing even a small amount of money every month consistently has built far more wealth and created far more millionaires than all the Vegas and lottery winnings ever.

The fact is, consistency is the most powerful human force on this planet.
And this is not a new concept. Aristotle famously stated, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

A habit. A repeated action. Consistency.

Unfortunately, this also works in reverse.

Smoking consistently for years will ruin your lungs. Laziness, repeated daily for years will truncate your prospects in life.

If you’re reading this, you are successful. What is it that you have done consistently over the years to create your success?

And what is it you could begin to do consistently that would take you to the next level and beyond?

No discussion of mastery is complete without addressing fundamentals. All masters in any medium are first and foremost masters of fundamentals.

How do they master fundamentals? They work on fundamentals consistently.

So, if you are a leader of teams, and even for yourself, start here:

1. Make a list of the fundamentals that are absolutely essential to mastery of your craft or medium. What are the 3-4 fundamentals of, say sales? Marketing? Executive assistance? Customer care?
2. Create a schedule of consistent practice, monitoring, and improvement of those skills.
3. Make the plan to repeat this for at least a year if not longer.

Your results will be… miraculous.

Repetition is the mother of skill. Repetition of skills over years fosters mastery.

And it’s all in your hands!

Determine how big your event will be to assess how great the risk of spreading Covid-19 will be 

There’s nothing worse than to plan your event so carefully in advance only to encounter unexpected situations at the last moment. Since the pandemic, there are many more items to assess and prepare for when creating a large event to help keep people safe from the spread of Covid-19. By working with local and state officials in the initial planning stages and developing strategies for your event from beginning to end, you will ensure the health and safety of onsite staff and volunteers, your speakers and your audience.

Follow our top 4 list of some of the guideline requirements that you will need to identify and prepare for in your next event. For the full, comprehensive list please download the CDC Readiness and Planning Tool.

TOP 4 COVID ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR LARGE EVENTS: 

1. General Readiness Assessment
2. Prepare For if Someone Gets Sick
3. Daily/Weekly Readiness Assessment
4. End of Day Actions and Other Resources

Determining how big your event is going to be will help you assess how great the risk of spreading Covid-19 will be. Coordinate with local officials to determine the laws and regulations of the area.

Make initial preparations to plan for healthy behaviors, environments and operations, such as: 

• Review all relevant local/state regulatory agency policies and orders, such as those related to events, gatherings, and travel
• Consult local health officials about recommended Covid-19 testing policies for events
• Consult with Venue for staff policies around Covid
• Develop plans or partner with venue staff for social distancing measures for before, during and after the event
• Ensure there is a flexible refund policy
• Designate a staff person who handles all Covid-19 related situations and concerns
• Plan for sanitation stations and key entry/exit points and provide no-touch items such as trash cans, soap and hand sanitizer dispensers
• Provide masks, tissues and proper ventilation
• Use touchless payment options
• Plan seating to ensure people stay 6 ft apart
• Bring multiple mics and designate someone who wipes things down throughout the event
• Create proper signage and multiple visual cues for people to properly distance themselves and follow safe protocols
• Consider multiple entrances and exits to avoid overcrowding
• Ensure food and beverage vendors use safety protocols

PREPARE FOR IF SOMEONE GETS SICK:

Develop procedures on what to do when someone gets sick, such as: 

• Designate a person who handles all Covid-19 situations or concerns
• Create an isolated space for people who are sick with Covid-19 and identify nearby hospitals and contact numbers
• Create a plan to educate staff and attendees not to attend the event if they get sick with Covid-19
• If someone gets sick at the event, they should notify the designated Covid-19 contact and go to an area or room that is isolated until they can be safely transported to a healthcare facility
• Sanitize room where sick person stayed and areas they would have touched
• Advise sick individuals to stay home and follow CDC’s criteria to discontinue home isolation
• In accordance with state and local laws and regulations, notify the sick person’s family, local health officials and staff of the situation
• Advise those who had close contact to self-monitor for symptoms and considering staying home

Monitor and maintain healthy behaviors, environments and operations to reduce the spread of Covid-19: 

• Maintain regular contact with local health authorities or follow local guidelines
• Ensure an on-duty staff person is assigned to be responsible for responding to Covid-19 concerns
• Ensure that all staff and attendees are receiving consistent communications about Covid-19 related policies
• Ensure attendees have received communication about refund policies if they get sick and cannot attend the event
• Ensure protocols are being followed for social distancing
• Ensure sanitation supplies are routinely stocked and all items are consistently being wiped down at event, especially high-touch areas
• Ensure masks and gloves are available
• Ensure communications have been made to staff and attendees not to attend work or event if they become sick with Covid-19 symptoms
• Confirm that there is proper ventilation during event
• Confirm and maintain that venue staff are educated on relevant Covid-19 safety protocols
• Ensure there are signs placed in highly visible locations that promote everyday protective measures at:
  • Entrances
  • Dining areas
  • Restrooms
  • Other highly visible locations

END-OF-DAY ACTIONS AND OTHER RESOURCES

Address any additional considerations specific to your event: 

• Identify and document lessons learned at the end of your event
• Determine ways to improve planning and implementation processes if the event will happen again
• Update your plans regularly according to the state and local situation and orders

It is essential to help keep people safe from the spread of Covid-19 as we return to in-person events.

The pandemic brought so many more processes and policies to consider but, with careful planning and following these health guidelines, you will ensure that everyone at your event is safe. And, as always, remain calm and kind in all situations and your event should be a success.

"The pandemic has accelerated the forces of digital transformation, making it more critical than ever to embrace new ways of working and a data-driven approach to decision making."

Should we stay, or should we go? The post-pandemic return to work is fast becoming a controversial and complex issue for leaders to navigate. Everyone has an opinion on the issue. Some are desperate to escape months of Zoom fatigue, while others see little point in commuting for an hour to simply sit in front of another screen. If that seems like a tough choice, it is because it is a false one. The real issue is not remote vs. office work - it is how do we reinvent the workplace for a new era of AI-powered competition?

The real lesson of the pandemic was not that we could run meetings remotely, but rather that the key to our survival was embracing the hard science of digital transformation. When everything turned upside down in early 2020, demand spiked, supply chains splintered, and business processes shattered. The organizations that made it through the crisis did so because they rapidly deployed AI, algorithms, and automation to handle the harsh new operating environment. That worked then, but now, something more is required.

We face a new set of challenges. Implementing automation alone will not be enough to deliver the kind of creative solutions required to reshape industries. Nor will letting people continue working from home be enough to reboot conservative and traditional corporate cultures.

We are about to discover that remote work was just the beginning of a much bigger revolution that is set to reshape the future of all organizations. Rapid shifts in technology, customer needs, and competitor dynamics are a prescription for a more agile, adaptive, and resilient type of firm capable of integrating not only cutting-edge technologies but also embracing a new generation of talent as well.

The pandemic has accelerated the forces of digital transformation, making it more critical than ever to embrace new ways of working and a data-driven approach to decision making. Every workplace in the future will be powered by data. Whether it be how we engage and evaluate our talent, how we automate our processes, or even how we make decisions as leaders - the ability to effectively leverage AI, automation, and algorithms will be at the heart of any 21st-century business.

While many fear imminent change, a bigger opportunity awaits. The question is not whether AI will eliminate jobs, but rather: how will it change them? The leaders of the future need to embrace an entirely new set of skills, capabilities, and mindsets in order to be successful. 

Making the Impossible, Possible.

World-Class speaker and magician, Vinh Giang shares how he teaches others to communicate better by using his 5 core communication foundations and that they are actually quite simple.

A key principle, Vinh shares, is your voice mastery and learning to amplify
yourself, among other techniques. He also teaches strategies on storytelling,
body language and much more.

So how do magic and communication relate for Vinh?

Magic is about illusion, the illusion makes the trick feel impossibly complex.

However, when how the illusion works is revealed, the process is actually quite simple. Communication is the same – it can be easily learned by following simple principles and applying them with confidence.

Vinh teaches his core foundations of communication to audiences around the world in his keynote: Mastering the Leader's Instrument.

Communication is as simple as magic. Learn more.

Maybe we should be considering how right now after so many unexpected turns of events, it might be the perfect time for change.

The Hitch With Change

Human beings are often complacent creatures. How many of you want to make little, or big life changes and lack the motivation? So often we think tomorrow I will eat healthier, be more productive, wake up earlier, make the right choices, and so often we continue to live in our comfortable patterns. 

On a grand scale our world just went through a dramatic and unexpected change. Covid-19 threw everyone into a turmoil. Many times, when people go through a sudden life change, they come out with a new perspective on life. Take the current labor shortage for instance, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in April alone, 4 million people quit their jobs. Four million people! That’s insane. It is the highest quitting rate since the Bureau was created in 2000. This flux of people leaving their jobs is a direct response to the effects of the global pandemic.

Is this the Perfect Time for Change?

Maybe we should be considering how right now after so many unexpected turns of events, it might be the perfect time for change. As so many employees are leaving their workplaces, it really is a crucial time to listen to and meet the needs of the employees you still have.  Many of the employees who are returning to work, and are not quitting, still have changes in mind that they would like to see. 

When was your company’s last cultural audit? I recommend that you immediately begin to run cultural audits to assess the wants and needs of your newly returned workforce. If there’s one thing we learned from this pandemic, it’s that there should be no more waiting until tomorrow. I encourage you to encourage your entire organization to present any and all ideas for changes, no matter how big or small, that they have on their minds. 

STEP ONE: Listening

The first step in running a cultural audit should be listening. Gather as much feedback as possible. Host listening sessions. Make sure to discuss any insecurities about the future of the workplace whether it’s returning to in-person, hybrid or staying remote. 

Some employees are less likely to speak up at a round-table or in a company orchestrated listening session, so accompany this action with a survey series. Promote anonymous feedback. The more details you can extract about changes people want the easier it will be to enact those changes. 

A large oversight when organizations tune in and begin listening throughout their ranks, is the things that remain unsaid. What isn’t being talked about? I think of the expression, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” well in this case, it can. The more you can learn about your employees, the better you can serve them, and the better they will serve the company overall. 

Part of the listening process is recognizing that your employees don’t always respond to surveys and audits. The reality is, many will feel uncomfortable and unsafe, and some just won’t care enough to respond. When the majority of employees are more comfortable leaving concerns unspoken, it is a clear indicator that the work environment is more toxic than safe. 

So work to create a culture of listening where less things remain unspoken, your employees feel safe, and you are able to tailor your response and plan for change better. Show your employees you really care about uncovering the truth of the matter. 

STEP TWO: Action

Once you unearth as many of the unsaid things as you can, it’s time for the action planning. Because what you don’t act on, can and definitely will hurt you. I discuss this extensively in one chapter of my book, The Art of Caring Leadership.  

The last part of The Culture of Listening is connecting the dots. Where your organizations’ leaders must take all the feedback and intentionally mull it over, make an action plan, and then communicate back to their employees each step of the way. 

By beginning the cultural audit process with in-depth listening you won’t leave any stone unturned. The cultural revival occurring in our societies will not only take place outside the walls of your organizations. It probably has already entered them by way of your employees and needs to be cared for and supported as new or improved cultures take root. 

The Next Step

If you are interested in improving your company culture by way of listening more, then feel free to take advantage of this free lesson in listening that I’m offering from the Caring Leadership Academy.