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 Matt Westgate
Matt Westgate is the CEO and co-founder of Lullabot â a strategy, design, and Drupal development agency, with clients ranging from Martha Stewart to Georgia.gov to MSNBC to IBM â for the past almost 15 years. Mattâs been named as one of the 50 Best CEOs among small and mid-sized businesses, as published in USA Today, which doesnât surprise me. Iâve known Matt over the past few years, and have always admired his thoughtfulness and principled views. In our conversation, we talk about the power of authenticity, admitting what you donât know, and what remote teams tend to do better than co-located teams.
Watch or listen to the full conversation belowâŚ
Listen to the podcast and read the transcript of the interview here.
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What Iâve been writing lately
28 performance review phrases to consider using
âFiguring out how to phrase something can be tricky. Lean on these 28
performance review phrases to guide your more nuanced one-on-one
conversations.â
What Iâve been reading lately
The Leader as Coach
âIn one study, 3,761 executives assessed their own coaching skills, and then their assessments were compared with those of people who worked with them. The results didnât align well. Twenty-four percent of the executives significantly overestimated their abilities, rating themselves as above average while their colleagues ranked them in the bottom third of the group. Thatâs a telling mismatch. âIf you think youâre a good coach but you actually arenât,â the authors of the study wrote, âthis data suggests you may be a good deal worse than you imagined.â Written by Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular, Harvard Business Review
Leaders Donât Hide Behind Data
âLeadership is the art of doing things youâre not sure of, and doing
them with enrollment instead of authority. Leadership is often conflated
with management, but theyâre completely different ways to expend time
and energy.â Written by Seth Godin, strategy+business
Bosses, Get Out of Your Employeesâ Way
âWorkers are often most productive when their bosses leave them alone.
Hereâs what both bosses and employees can do to make that happen.â Written by Robert I. Sutton, Wall Street Journal
Past performance is no guarantee of future results
âIn the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years (which was
criticized for rewriting history), Henry Kissinger wrote, âHistory is
not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by
analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in
comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself
what situations are in fact comparable.â The same goes for CEOs.â Written by Theodore Kinni, strategy+business
A handy leadership tip
From our online leadership community of 1,000+ managers in The Watercooler in Know Your TeamâŚ
How do you praise people for doing something well?
- Donât force it. Praise is positive and helpful for encouraging your team â it but should come organically and not be forced.
- Donât just recognize your team â recognize individuals. You donât want Lone Wolf behavior, but at the same time you do not want people to feel invisible.
- Praise people during 1:1 meetings. In these settings, you can go into detail why you value their work, and how they have contributed to the overall goals of the company.
- Use group meetings to your advantage. When youâre in a group, you can highlight and publicly praise people that have made progress since last meeting. This helps establish what âgood workâ looks like to the entire team.
- Place a âkudosâ system in a digital communication channel (e.g. Slack) where good work is recognized. (Note, this can come across as disingenuous in some companies, so itâs something to ask your team if theyâd enjoy it, or test it out before committing.)
- Make sure praise comes from peers â not just managers. Encourage your team to praise one another.
- Keep in mind that tangible gifts (e.g. money or vouchers) can backfire and offend some people who find it transactional â but also really motivate others. In this situation, itâs best to ask people what they prefer on a individual basis.
Ideas for things to say when youâre not sure how to praise people:
- âI like the way youâve been showing up lately. I donât care about the mistakes; you already know what they are. I love how youâve been taking accountability for them.â
- âThanks for helping me with X. I had no idea how to execute all of it, and I would have been up a creek without you.â
- âYou taught me something I didnât know today. Well done.â
- âYouâre making this job so much easier for me lately. I feel like I can fully trust you with X now.â
I wrote about how to praise employees sincerely here.
An interesting read
Divided by history: why Japan-South Korea ties have soured
My brother sent this to me (our family is South Korean), and I found this to be a fascinating read.