Welcome to Ask Me Anything

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Leveraging Operations and Leadership. This is an Ask Me Anything episode. Yes, we are back with your questions. These are questions from leaders that are just like you. These questions are ooh anyway. First, let me tell you, if you want to submit your questions, you can use the text message option or you can email me at info at signalpartnerscom. Info at signalpartnerscom and put AMA ask me anything in the subject line, and your question may be answered on a future episode, who knows?

Handling Leaders Who Don't Deliver

Speaker 1 0:42

But let's go ahead and dig in the two questions that we have today and let me tell you, you guys really keep me on my toes and you make me dig into some of the things that I have been through in my leadership journey, and I love it because these are questions that many leaders are silently struggling with, because they don't know where to go to ask these questions. So I'm really glad that you're asking them so that we could share them with as many people as possible and hopefully get you some relief. The first question is how do you handle a leader who isn't doing their job but impacts you which which is gonna be the case a lot of times where what they do or don't do impacts you, just like what we do or don't do impacts our team. The second question is how to respond when your organization or boss expects you to always be on late nights and evening emails, or weekends. All right, I have been in both of these situations, so I have some feedback for you. This isn't theory, this is real life feedback. All right, let's start with question number one. How do you correct the leader who is not doing their job? Correct leader who is not doing their job? But the results directly affect you. And let me acknowledge first that this is a tricky balance, because you want to respect authority while ensuring that you don't suffer the effects of it, so you have to address it. Let me just say that it has to be addressed. And to the person that asked this question, thank you for asking this question, because many leaders feel stuck here because they don't want to come off as insubordinate.

Speaker 1 2:39

And I encountered this about 25, 30 years ago, kind of early on in leadership, and luckily I was introduced to this concept by a mentor and it's called managing up, and then, after she introduced it to me, I got some training around it. I learned this concept early on and it was extremely helpful when I'm talking about managing up, I'm not talking about you're now your boss's boss. That's not what it is. What it really is at the core, at the root, it's about building a productive relationship with your leader and you are helping them succeed, and then, in essence, you are helping yourself succeed and ensuring that you and your team can deliver. That's really what this is about. It's not about covering for them. It's really about you figuring out, working through how to align with them right, and you got different types of leaders and different type of leadership personalities and I'm going to lump them just for the sake of this episode. I'm going to lump them in the two different buckets because you will approach part of these concepts slightly different.

Speaker 1 4:03

When we're talking about managing up, there's a couple of different things that you want to make sure that you do. The first thing is you need to clarify the impact. They really need to understand how they are impacting you and your team. If it's impacting your team as well, I'm not gonna say that they don't know, because sometimes they do know, but when you tell them now you know, they know right. So we're not assuming that anyone knows anything. We are going to share it with them and we're going to do it in a way that is respectful. But we're also going to do it in a way that's not personal, because we don't want it to come off as a personal attack. We're just going to do it in a way that's not personal because we don't want it to come off as a personal attack. We're just going to say what the impact is.

Speaker 1 4:51

Let's use an example of reports. Say, for instance, you have stand-up meetings with your team every day and you have these daily numbers that come out that should be sent from your boss and they haven't been sending the numbers or they're sending them late. When you have this conversation with the person that you report to, you want to let them know what the impact is. When we don't get daily numbers on time, our stand-up meetings aren't as effective and we don't have direction for the day. That's clear. It's not saying you're always late, you don't do what you're supposed to do. No, it's talking about exactly what the impact is when we don't get the daily numbers on time, or when we don't get the daily numbers by eight o'clock. Whatever it is, our stand-up meetings aren't as effective and we don't have direction for today when we don't get client feedback on time.

Speaker 1 5:55

You know like, whatever it is, you want to address it, but you want to not make it personal. That's the first thing you have to do, you. You have to clarify the impact. The second thing that you want to do is is that during that conversation, you want to be able to offer solutions instead of complaints, and this is going to look a little different. This is where I'm going to lump leaders into two buckets, because I've had two different responses to this part. You always want to frame your solutions in a way that supports progress, but leader A may be the type of leader that is. They understand that they are overwhelmed and they want to do better. You may be able to offer them a compromise.

Speaker 1 6:48

I had a leader A. She was great and when I offered a solution, it included a compromise. It was like would you like for me to draft the report daily? For me to draft the report daily, have it to you by 7.30. You take a final review to make additional updates and approve and have it back to me by eight o'clock. I'm offering a solution and it comes with a compromise. I'm helping you out and again, that worked extremely well for leader A B Because she wanted to learn, she wanted to do better. This is like real life scenario. Eventually she took back that responsibility when she started to understand more about the department and what we did, and all of those things Ended up being a really great relationship. She recommended me for a new role and we ended up becoming peers.

Managing Up: Clarifying Impact

Speaker 1 7:48

Then I had leader B that I tried the exact same approach with and it went off the rails. It ended up where the responsibility became mine because he just said well, you do it, you understand. So I offered the, the compromise. He took it, but he was like well, the numbers, I don't have to review them and approve them. Then the entire responsibility became mine and then I had to go through the process of now being careful how I offer up those compromises, because I recognize that he wasn't trying to do the work, even though it was within his realm of responsibility. So you know your situation, you know the leader that you're dealing with. It doesn't mean that you don't apply this concept. It just means that the way you apply it may look differently.

Speaker 1 8:45

Going forward, what I did was I didn't offer those type of compromises. Instead, it sounded like okay, I'm clarifying the impact. Here's what happens when we don't get, let's say, the numbers on time? And then my solution was would you like me to send you reminders as a deadline approach, or is there another system you prefer? Now I'm not offering to do a first draft at the report. Now I'm offering okay, how do you want me to help you stay on task? And again, this is something that you have to decide because you know the leader that you'll work with At the end of the day, you still got to clarify the impact and you still want to offer solutions.

Speaker 1 9:35

It's just a matter of am I going to offer up a compromise where I take on part of the responsibility temporarily, or am I going to offer up a solution where, hey, I'm going to nudge you and help you do what you need to do? You know what I mean. Or it could be do you want me to let you know when we are at risk of meeting a deadline? Like you know, you come up with things where you're not taking on the responsibility, so the leader is still accountable for it. Think about your leader, think about the bucket that they fall into, and then you can kind of go from there. So you're going to clarify the impact. You're going to offer solutions instead of complaints.

Speaker 1 10:19

And the third thing is make sure that they understand that the goals are aligned. You're not trying to outshine them. They're not trying to outshine you. Their success is your success. They're not trying to outshine you. Their success is your success. As a part of the conversation, you just want to remind them that. Hey, you know, I know this project reflects on you as much as it does on me. So here's what I need in order to keep things moving, so that the project is successful. In essence, what you're saying is here's what I need in order for us all to be successful with this project. Just making sure that they understand that there is an alignment there, and there may be sometimes where this doesn't work.

Speaker 1 11:03

So the fourth step is you need to know when to escalate. Say, you've gone through this and you've done this and there is no change. You may have to respectfully escalate it, making sure that you're escalating with the facts. A lot of times when you bring information to HR or you're actually skipping a level, they want information. They want to know that you have at least tried to make an attempt to make things better. I've had to go this route as well. Make sure that you have concrete information when you're having these conversations with human resources or if you're skipping a level, and that's a tough place to be, but sometimes we end up there.

When to Escalate Leadership Issues

Setting Boundaries with After-Hours Work

Speaker 1 11:50

Managing up is not about correcting your boss, but it is about creating clarity, making sure that we're all on the same page, offering up solutions and holding a space for accountability, so that both of you can succeed All right. So that is my answer to question number one. Question number two what should I do if my organization expects me to work late and respond to emails in the evening, during my family time and on weekends? This is another one that a lot of leaders face today Blurred boundaries in an always-on culture you have, where people are being laid off and they want you to take up more of the slack, and it may require you to do more work, or it's just an organization that has these blurred boundaries? It matters, because when boundaries erode, so does your energy and so does your focus, and so does your long-term engagement. This is something that, again, you know we have to be able to address.

Speaker 1 13:09

Again, we want to start out by, you know, clarifying things. If your boss is sending you emails seven, eight o'clock at night and on the weekend. You want to understand. Is it my pressure that I have to respond quickly, like is it self-imposed or assumed, or is it truly an expectation? You may end up having to have a conversation with your boss. Do you expect responses in the same evening or is first thing in the morning acceptable? Or, if they have, let you know in some way, like, let you know in some way.

Speaker 1 13:54

Like you know, I had a person that I reported to where I didn't respond to an email. They send an email 8 pm at night and I didn't respond until first thing in the morning and she called me out on it and she said I sent you an email last night and I noticed that you didn't respond in the morning, so I had to address it. Now I know it wasn't something that I assumed, it wasn't self-imposed. There was an expectation that I was always going to be on. In that instance, I had to clarify what my boundaries were.

Speaker 1 14:23

The first thing is to clarify expectations. The second thing, again, you want to offer solutions instead of resistance. Just like we did in the managing up. I want to offer solutions. Make sure when you're framing your response, that is, it doesn't sound defiant and that is proactive. However, it has to be clear, and this is where you're going to have to check your values and your principles and understand what's important to you and what your non-negotiables are. Okay, if you are okay, like if the compromise is, you're okay with checking your email and seeing if there's something urgent that you have to respond to, then that could be one of your solutions. I'll do a quick check at 7 pm for urgent items, but otherwise I'll respond during working hours. That could be your compromise, if you're okay with that.

Speaker 1 15:14

If you're not okay with checking emails 8 pm at night, which I was not you can just say to make sure I'm fully present during the day, I reserve evenings for family because I'm not the type of leader to take a bunch of personal calls during the day and all of that stuff like that. When I'm at work, I'm at work, I'm engaged at work, but when I'm at home, I'm at home. Whether that's who at myself my family, friends, it doesn't matter. It's my time. I had to let her know that I reserve my evenings for my personal time. However, if something urgent comes up, you can text me so I don't miss it. But basically, I'm letting her know that I'm not going to be responding to emails eight o'clock at night. I'm just not going to do it.

Speaker 1 16:11

And the other part of that is you have to model healthy behaviors for your team as well, because you don't want them to find themselves in the same situation that you are in. There are some times where I work late. I just get a bug and I'm like I don't want to work late. But one of the things I remember is is that I don't want to add that pressure to my team. So if I'm sending an email, I would schedule it to go out the next morning doing business hours, because I don't want them to even assume that I want them to respond to something. And if it was something that was really urgent which most times it wasn't, but every now and then there were times where it was like, oh my gosh, I need to get this out and I need a piece of information, I need to know where something is or whatever I would text my employees. All of my employees were exempt and I would text them and ask them, and it was so infrequent that they were okay with it. But you have to model the behavior that you're looking for and I let them know.

Speaker 1 17:08

I know that your downtime is valuable. If I miss like, if I forget to send it in the morning, if I send you an email, take it as an FYI. If it's something urgent that I really need, then I'll text you, and that was kind of the tone that I said. I don't expect anyone to respond outside of working hours. I made sure that that's clear. The other thing is you have to respect your non-negotiables. Your family time, your rest, your mental space, all of these things. They aren't luxuries as we used to think they were. They are actually the fuel that you need for effective leadership. You need these cutoff times, you need this downtime so that when you are at work, you're not just there, you're truly present and you're effective.

Closing and Leadership Shift Coaching

Speaker 1 18:00

If the culture continually demands constant availability, you have to ask yourself is this in alignment with my values? If you've made yourself clear about what your values are, but they're not respected, they still expect you to have this always on culture. You have to make a decision, and sometimes the best leadership move is to recognize when an environment is a mismatch and leave. So you have to start creating or preparing your exit plan. That's a personal decision that you have to make and you have to decide what's important to you. But that's why I tell everyone you have to start with your values. You have to know what your principles are and understand and get really clear on those so you know when people are crossing those boundaries, you can clearly see they're being crossed and you know what you have to do next. That is it for those two and you know what you have to do next. That is it for those two, and I know that many people, many leaders, struggle with these two questions. I'm really glad to the listeners that sent those questions. In Quick recap Number one managing up keeps accountability with your leader, but it also clarifies the impact so that you're both on the same page. And when it comes to number two, boundaries protect your capacity and your effectiveness. So you really want to make sure you are clear with that. Again, I want to invite you to submit more Ask Me Anything questions. This was a great and again, you can use the text message feature or you can email me at info at signalpartnerscom.

Speaker 1 19:45

And if you are dealing with some of these issues or challenges and you want a safe space to work through them, then you can join me in my private, one-on-one leadership shift coaching experience. We talk about things just like this, and this is your one-on-one leadership shift coaching experience. We talk about things just like this and this is your one-on-one space. We talk about the things that impact you, the challenges that you may be having, the things that are keeping you stuck, and we come up with strategies to help you move forward in whatever way that looks like specifically for you. So this is all about you. I meet you where you are. If you want to work through some things that are specific to you, we do that. If you want to work through some things that are going to help you build a high performance team, we do that as well. Again, this is your safe space and it's all about you.

Speaker 1 20:40

I meet you where you are. That is the Leadership Shift Coaching Experience. It's a one-on-one private coaching program. You can check it at signalpartnerscom. Slash the shift. I'll also drop it below in the show notes. All right, thank you, and if you found this episode, or any episode, helpful things, it'll be really quick if you could give us a five-star review and then share this with another leader that could find this information helpful. I'd really appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Bye.