Every few weeks, I ask one question to a founder, CEO, manager, or business owner I respectâŚ
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The Heartbeat Podcast: A chat with Mollie West Duffy
Mollie West Duffy, is the co-author of No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work and the Senior Organizational Designer at IDEO. From her immense research on the space, we chat about over and under emoters, vulnerability as a leader, and how exactly to talk about your feelings at work. Watch or listen to our conversation below.
Listen to the podcast and read the transcript of the interview here.
What Iâve been writing lately
Do I truly want to become a manager?
âManagement is not some sacred club reserved for the hallowed few. Rather, deciding to become a manager should be viewed as one might decide to become a garbage disposal collector or a parking meter attendant: If youâre doing it, youâre doing it for a reason. Itâs not for everyone.â
Iâm writing a Guide on Managing Remote Teams â and Iâd love your input
What are your biggest challenges or questions around managing remote teams? What topics would you like the guide to cover? You can take the survey here â and for the first 1,000 people who fill out survey, Iâll send you a free copy of the guide once itâs done!
What Iâve been reading lately
The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader
âAbsentee leadership rarely comes up in todayâs leadership or business literature, but research shows that it is the most common form of incompetent leadership. Absentee leaders are people in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. They were promoted into management, and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams.â Written by Scott Gregory, Harvard Business Review
How long should a long-term strategy be?
âI find that giving strategy an a priori time frame is the wrong way around. Instead, the time frame should depend on the strategy. To be clear, âWhat time frame should we have for our strategy?â is the wrong question. The better question is, âWhat changes does our strategy need, and how much time do we need to implement them?ââ Written by Ken Favaro, strategy + business
Straight talk about employee evaluation and performance management
âOur research shows that a vast majority of CEOs actually donât find the performance-management process all that helpful in identifying who the best performers are. Over half of the individuals surveyed think that their managers didnât get the performance review right.â Podcast + Transcript with McKinsey partners Bryan Hancock and Bill Schaninger, McKinsey Quarterly
Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology: The Collected Works of âMihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Bear with me â this is an extremely long volume of positive psychologist âMihaly Csikszentmihalyiâs research on flow. However, itâs also fascinating, as a result. If youâre interested in a deeper understanding of his research behind flow, intrinsic motivation, and team dynamics, I highly recommend giving it a look. Written by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
A handy leadership tip
From our online leadership community of 1,000+ managers in The Watercooler in Know Your TeamâŚ
Whatâs the best way to let someone go?
- Opening sentence should be delivered in 5 seconds or less.
- Second sentence should articulate terms (severance, impact to equity, etc)
- Final sentence should indicate this is non-negotiable
- Once the decisionâs been made, let them go as fast as humanly possible.
- Ultimately, thereâs no such thing as an âoptimalâ time to fire someone. Time of day or day of week shouldnât become an excuse for delaying.
- Cut to the chase right away. Literally nothing you can say will soften the blow and nobody will appreciate your platitudes right now.
- Listen to their reaction. Not because youâre giving them an opportunity to argue their way back into their job, but so you can better adjust your message if needed.
- Remember this sucks, but itâs WAY suckier for them. So, donât make it about you or talk about how hard this is for you.
- Be a good human. Respect the terminated employeeâs privacy, even if it was completely their fault they were fired. Your other employees will care and notice how youâre treating their former coworker.
Just for fun
Mak and bium: imperfection and emptiness in Korean aesthetics
Published in The Architectural Review. Lovely piece that shares whatâs
at the heart of understanding Korean food, art, and culture.