Articles – Page 8 – The Mindful Manager

Taking Time to Meet with Employees: Investment Opportunity 101

July 19, 2016 The Mindful Manager

Once one of my peers and I were commiserating about how our calendars were overflowing with meetings. I mentioned I was cutting down on meetings that didn’t have agendas and specific objectives because I wanted to make sure I had time to meet with my staff one on one. He looked at me oddly and very condescendingly replied, “I don’t have time to meet with my staff one on one. They should know what they are doing.”

His reply shocked me to say the least. Why? Because I don’t meet with my staff to tell them what to do or how to do their jobs. I meet with them to listen to them. To find out how things are going for them and what challenges they are having right now in their jobs.

Listening to people.

Smiling beautiful businesswoman in glasses talking to young businessman in meeting room

In our meetings, I make it clear that I am only there to listen. If they want me to do something or help them or give them feedback, they need to ask for that. I view these one on one meetings as an opportunity to provide support and mentoring to my employees. To meet them where they are.

When I meet with one of my managers, I hear about the morale of their team, the challenges their team is facing, the wins they’ve experienced. They talk through employee problems using me as a sounding board. When appropriate, I give suggestions or refer them to someone I think can give them better feedback or support than I can.

For me, these one on one meetings are the best investment I can make in their future – and my own. When you tell folks what to do instead of supporting them in figuring it out themselves, you are not supporting the value they bring to the table. And you are actually making your own job harder. The conversations we have in our one on ones build bench strength and grow my staff members into their next role. And the best part? When my employees are successful, they make me shine.

Self-Awareness

July 13, 2016 The Mindful Manager

Self-Awareness written on running track Someone once asked me what was the most important skill or quality for a manager to have. My answer: self-awareness. Many people would say self-awareness is not a skill or a quality – I think it is.

Self-awareness: Conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.*

Knowing myself, how I react to situations, what motivates me, what I want – all of these impact how I act as a manager. I learned this the hard way.

One of my managers sent me to a class on personality styles. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why he thought this important, but I’m so glad he did. We took a personality assessment before the class and the first thing the instructor did was divide the room into 4 squares or quadrants. Then he had us take a chair and sit in our quadrants. I clearly remember mine, which was driver. I was the only person in that quadrant.

We were given a situation and then asked how we would respond. When I answered, there was silence. None of them liked my answer. They thought it disregarded how they felt. Being a driver personality type, it really never occurred to me they would see my answer differently than what I intended. But they did. I started thinking, “Hey wait!; I’m the obnoxious person in the room.” I always thought someone else was the obnoxious person in the room but, nope, it was me.

That’s when I found out that driver personality types tend to run over people and usually don’t even have a clue that they’ve done so. Drivers think they are doing the right things for the team, even when it may not be the right thing for the team. Wow! Everyone isn’t like me! They have different personality styles which means they respond differently to situations than I do. Which means they might think I’m an obnoxious person. That was sobering.

Knowing my personality style helps me lead more effectively.

This made me aware that I need to know myself. I need to understand my character and my qualities, as it impacts those around me. This class helped me to understand that I have blind spots, my strengths can be my weaknesses, and that I need to understand other personality styles if I am to be good manager.

I’m still learning. I miss cues. I’m still a driver personality type. I can still be an obnoxious person. But at least I know it and work hard to put myself in someone else’s shoes, into someone else’s personality style. The bottom line is being self-aware helps me be a better leader.

* New Oxford American Dictionary