15,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
What if you could become a great manager, leader, and communicator faster?
The Leader Lab is a high-speed leadership intensive, equipping managers with the Swiss Army Knife of skills that help you handle the toughest situations that come your way.
Through painstaking research and training over 200,000 managers, authors Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger, PhD (co-CEOs of LifeLab Learning) identified the most important skills that distinguish great managers from average. Most importantly,they’ve discovered how to help people rapidly develop these core skills. The result? You quickly achieve extraordinary team performance and a culture of engagement, fulfillment, and belonging.
Too often, folks are promoted without any training for the countless crucial responsibilities of the modern manager: being part coach, part player, part therapist, part role model.The Leader Labserves as your definitive guide to what it means to be a great manager today – and how to become a great leader faster. This book is based on LifeLabs Learning’s wildly successful workshop series. It combines research, tools, and the playful, fluff-free style that’s made LifeLabs the go-to professional development resource for over 1,000 innovative companies around the world.
You’ll learn how to:
- Quickly improve performance and engagement
- Handle tough conversations with confidence
- Identify and resolve the underlying issues holding your team back
- Create a culture of inclusion
- Spark innovation
- Reduce stress and burnout
- Finetune your coaching, productivity, feedback, one-on-one, strategic thinking, meeting facilitation, people development, and leading change skills
- Learn the same high-leverage skills that new managers at the world’s most innovative organizations are using to create impactful change in business and in life
This interactive, accessible, and brain-friendly resource will help you and your team ramp up and reach the tipping point of managerial greatness fast.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 382
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Ähnliche
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
The Backstory
Why Managers Matter
What a Manager Is (Today)
The Surprising Skills That Matter Most
Your Leader Lab
How to Use This Book
As You Read
Mia the Manager
Practice Stations
Your Lab Reports
Bonus Inclusion Stations
I: The Core BUs
1 Q-step
Q-stepping Helps Managers Become More Effective Faster in at Least Three Ways
2 Playback
Playbacks Help Managers Make a Positive Impact Faster in Three Ways
3 Deblur
Three of the Biggest Reasons Managers Benefit from Deblurring
4 Validate
Three Reasons the Validation BU Helps You Become a Better Manager Faster
5 Linkup
Why the Linkup Is Such an Important Manager BU
6 Pause
Let's Pause and Talk About Why Pausing Is So Important for Managers
7 Extract
II: The Core Skills
8 Coaching Skills
What Coaching Is (and Isn't)
The 4Cs: Noticing Coaching Moments Faster
The Coaching SOON Funnel
Q-step into Coaching
9 Feedback Skills
What Feedback Is (and Why It Matters)
How to Give Feedback Well
How to Receive Feedback Well
How to Build a Feedback Culture Faster
10 Productivity Skills
Time Awareness
Prioritization
Organization
Focus
11 Effective One-on-Ones
Brain Craving #1: Certainty
Brain Craving #2: Autonomy
Brain Craving #3: Meaning
Brain Craving #4: Progress
Brain Craving #5: Social Inclusion
Sample One-on-One Agenda Template
12 Strategic Thinking
1. Gap Analysis
2. Linkup
3. The 3 Lenses Model
4. UC Check
5. Inclusive Planning
13 Meetings Mastery
Starting Meetings: 4P Opener
“Inform” Meeting Tools
“Explore” Meeting Tools
“Narrow” Meeting Tools
Course Corrections
14 Leading Change
The Phases of Changes
Unfreeze Phase
Change Phase
Refreeze Phase
Stay Slushy
15 People Development
Identify Business Needs: Capability Mapping
Identify Individual Needs: The Zoom Out Conversation
High Leverage Development: Get in the Venn Zone
Individual Development Plans and 3Es
Make Development a Theme
Leader Lab Wrap-up
Core BUs, Skills, and Tools at a Glance
Mia the Manager
Your Leader Lab
References
The Backstory
How to Use This Book
Part I: The Core BUs
Chapter 1: Q-step
Chapter 2: Playback
Chapter 4: Validate
Chapter 5: Linkup
Chapter 6: Pause
Chapter 7: Extract
Part II: The Core Skills
Chapter 8: Coaching Skills
Chapter 9: Feedback Skills
Chapter 10: Productivity Skills
Chapter 11: Effective One-on-Ones
Chapter 12: Strategic Thinking
Chapter 13: Meetings Mastery
Chapter 14: Leading Change
Chapter 15: People Development
Acknowledgments
Author Bios
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyrigt
Dedication
The Backstory
How to Use This Book
Begin Reading
Leader Lab Wrap-up
References
Acknowledgments
Author Bios
Index
End User License Agreement
Pages
iii
iv
v
ix
x
xi
xii
xiii
xiv
xv
xvi
xvii
xviii
xix
xx
1
2
3
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
Core Skills to Become a Great Manager, Faster
THE LEADER LAB
Tania Luna
LeeAnn Renninger, PhD
Copyright © 2021 by Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Luna, Tania, author. | Renninger, LeeAnn, author.
Title: The leader lab : core skills to become a great manager faster / Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger, PhD.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, [2021] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021031035 (print) | LCCN 2021031036 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119793311 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781119793328 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781119793335 (ePub)
Subjects: LCSH: Management. | Executives. | Leadership
Classification: LCC HD31.2 .L86 2021 (print) | LCC HD31.2 (ebook) | DDC 658—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031035
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031036
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Valeriya_Dor/Shutterstock
This book is dedicated to our Labmates: the brilliant, playful, strange, and passionate catalysts at LifeLabs Learning who help people master life's most useful skills every day.
The Backstory
Let's face it: great managers are rare, and becoming a great manager can take many (difficult) years. But what if there were a way to simplify the complexity of leadership, and become a great manager faster? There is a way to do just that, and we've written this book to show you how. The skills we'll share with you aren't hard, but they do require deliberate practice. As you master each skill, you'll notice your life getting easier, and you'll see yourself making a bigger difference in the world, every day. But first let's talk about why managers matter.
Why Managers Matter
Here's the bad news: 88% of people say they are relieved when their manager is out sick (Leone 2020). Worldwide, only 20% of employees strongly agree they are managed in a motivating way. Poor management costs roughly $7 trillion globally every year in terms of errors, inefficiencies, and turnover – not to mention people's mental and physical health (Wigert and Harter 2017). If you've ever had a bad manager, you've experienced firsthand how it can turn joyful work into daily dread.
There. Now that that's out of the way, let's spend the rest of this book together dwelling on the good news. Great managers make work and life better. They help teams achieve amazing results. They help individuals do their life's best work. We (Tania and LeeAnn) have seen this time and time again thanks to the work we do through our company, LifeLabs Learning, where we train hundreds of thousands of employees at innovative companies around the world, including Google, Warby Parker, the New York Times, Yale, TED, Sony Music, and over 1,000 others.
Our workshop participants told us countless stories of managers who changed their lives. There was Marta, whose team members said she helped them bring their real selves to work for the first time in their careers. There was John, who celebrated every milestone his team reached with such consistency that people said it taught them to be better parents. There was Bernardo, who helped lead a company from near extinction to success. There was Niko, who helped her team members keep updating their résumés so they could see how much they'd grown. And there were so many others. We saw that great managers had infinite ripple effects at work and in life, so we made it our mission to help more people become great managers faster.
Sure, folks can learn on the job, but experience is a slow and confusing teacher. We can't afford to sit around and wait for leadership skills to kick in. There are too many costs and too many people at stake.
Can someone really learn to be a better manager? You bet. Just as in any profession, from medicine to music, some people find some skills easier than others. We don't recommend that everyone be a manager, just as we don't recommend that everyone be a ballet dancer. But everyone can become a better manager faster by applying the lessons in this book.
How do we know? When we follow up with managers we've trained at LifeLabs Learning three months and one year later, over 90% say they are still applying the skills they've learned and are better managers as a result. Our clients report an increase in manager effectiveness, employee engagement, and company productivity. Our favorite part? Our workshop participants tell us that becoming better managers has also helped them become better versions of themselves.
What a Manager Is (Today)
Before we get into the skills of great managers, let's align on what a manager is in today's workplace. The etymology of the word “manager” is actually pretty cringeworthy. It comes from the term “to handle,” especially tools or horses. The dehumanizing implication is that people are resources to be managed. This way of thinking created efficiencies when craftspeople became factory workers, and managers had to ensure uniformity and predictability. Thinking was the manager's role, while doing was the responsibility of the workers.
As you know, things are different now. Given the growing rate of change and competition, companies today rely on everyone collaborating, communicating, learning, and innovating. Unlike the original managers who had to limit people's thinking, today's managers have to help people think faster and better. The best managers no longer manage people. They manage resources, processes, time, priorities, and even themselves. They catalyze results rather than control behavior. They help their team members achieve what neither the manager nor the team members could achieve alone.
The long-debated distinction between leaders and managers is also growing obsolete. It used to be said that leaders handled the unknown, while managers handled predictable work. It was once believed that leaders guide others through influence, while managers control through authority. While leaders don't have to be managers, nowadays managers must be leaders. For this reason, we'll use the terms “manager” and “leader” interchangeably throughout this book and equip you with skills to manage and lead well. So, if you want to become a great manager faster, where should you start?
The Surprising Skills That Matter Most
Great Managers, Assemble!
Consider this: in a 10-minute exchange with one person, a manager uses hundreds of words, microexpressions, and gestures. Which of these behaviors result in a team member who's productive and engaged and which result in the opposite? When we began our mission to help people become great managers faster, we couldn't separate the signal from the noise. So we thought back to the Martas, Johns, Bernardos, and Nikos. We wondered: can we learn directly from these leadership legends? Thanks to this insight, we assembled our first group of research participants.
At LifeLabs Learning, we had the unique opportunity of training people at many different companies around the world. So, every time we went into a company to lead workshops, we asked, “Who here is a great manager?” The people who were named again and again had the most engaged teams and a track record of achieving results. We also compared these “greats” with average managers. Our initial plan was to conduct interviews with the greats and the average, and look for differences in their answers. To make a long story short, this approach was mostly … a flop. When we asked managers which behaviors led to their success, the answers of the great and average folks were not predictive of performance. For example, guess which type of manager (average or great) most often said, “I think it's important to be a good listener.”
The answer? Nearly every manager talked about the importance of listening. So what actually made the greats different? We interviewed the managers’ teams to see if we could gather more helpful data. This approach yielded some interesting insights. For example, we learned there was no correlation between managers believing they were good listeners and their team members rating them as good listeners. But we were still no closer to understanding the behaviors that distinguished great managers.
What's in the Black Box?
You see, one of the challenges with studying management is that it is a uniquely private practice. Nearly all exchanges happen behind closed doors, whether physical or virtual. So, as our next plan of action, we wanted to see if managers would open their doors to us. We asked if we could watch them share feedback, lead meetings, and give pep talks. We wanted to recreate the “black box” of the aviation world – the recording device that has enabled countless improvements in flight crew dynamics. Surprisingly, many said yes. (And to them, we are eternally grateful.) As a result, we got to sit in on one-on-ones and team meetings, as well as solo working sessions where we asked managers to “think out loud” as they made complex decisions. With the black box open, we were able to observe their behaviors in action.
When we began our research on what makes great managers different, we started with the implicit premise that it is the big behaviors that count. Without realizing it, we were waiting for something cinematic to happen. We wanted to get goosebumps and imagine an orchestral crescendo while hearing an inspiring speech. What we found instead were behaviors so small we barely noticed them. But there they were, distinctly standing out again and again in the “black boxes” of the great managers. Even though these leaders came from different industries, professions, and cultures, they had a small set of small behaviors in common.
Discovering Behavioral Units
We've come to call each small behavior we observed a Behavioral Unit (or BU for short). No, they are not dramatic, but they are so elegant in their simplicity that they do give us goosebumps. We began to spot them in casual conversations, in times of conflict, and in every meeting. Even in the midst of our own debates about what makes great managers different, we'd stop one another and say, “Hey, nice BU!” Now that these BUs were visible to us, they were impossible to unsee. Once you learn them, you too will start to spot them everywhere.
The Manager Core: Your Leadership Swiss Army Knife
Once we learned how important BUs are, we thought we had our research breakthrough. Then, we realized something even more exciting: not all BUs are created equal. While great managers exhibit dozens of BUs, there is a foundational set of seven that come up in more contexts than any other. We call these the Core BUs. They are the small but mighty behaviors we will focus on in Part I of this book. What are these tiny champions of the leadership world? We are proud to present each one, chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1
:
Q-step
Chapter 2
:
Playback
Chapter 3
:
Deblur
Chapter 4
:
Validate
Chapter 5
:
Linkup
Chapter 6
:
Pause
Chapter 7
:
Extract
Once you are familiar with the Core BUs, you will be ready to graduate to Part II of this book, which is based on our most popular workshops at LifeLabs Learning. In each chapter, we will show you how to string various BUs together to form the eight Core Skills of great managers.
While BUs are micro-behaviors, skills are packages of different BUs and tools mixed together to help you handle an even broader range of obstacles and opportunities. As an analogy, think of knowing the alphabet as a BU and of writing as a skill. Based on our manager research, we found that, just as not all BUs are created equal, not all skills are equally versatile. So, in Part II, we'll bring you only the skills we refer to as the “tipping point skills.” These are the skills that “tip” over into the widest number of domains, making the biggest impact in the shortest time. What are these famed Core Skills? Drum roll please … the skills you will be learning throughout Part II of this book are:
Chapter 8
:
Coaching Skills
Chapter 9
:
Feedback Skills
Chapter 10
:
Productivity Skills
Chapter 11
:
Effective One-on-Ones
Chapter 12
:
Strategic Thinking
Chapter 13
:
Meetings Mastery
Chapter 14
:
Leading Change
Chapter 15
:
People Development
Think of the Core BUs as your leadership Swiss Army knife. A single Swiss Army knife has a small set of tools, and yet this finite set alone will let you open canned foods, start a fire, make repairs, defend yourself, trim your nails, remove splinters, and infinite other things. In the same way, the Core BUs will get you through just about any leadership challenge and fit neatly into the pocket of your memory. Each time you learn how to use different Swiss Army knife tools to achieve a result, you learn a new skill. That's what the Core Skills throughout this book will help you do: rapidly combine different BUs and tools to become a great manager faster.
Your Leader Lab
So, let's get into it. We'll now move away from our telescopic view of managers and saunter over to the microscope. We'll zoom in on the specific behaviors of great managers, sharing behavioral science research along the way. But this deep dive into research is not the only reason this book is called The Leader Lab. Yes, we will bring you lessons from our laboratory and from leadership labs across the world, but the most important lab we will focus on is yours.
The very best managers we studied were all wildly different, but one thing they had in common was a practice of constantly experimenting. Rarely did they mention that their leadership skills came naturally to them. On the contrary, most confessed that they made countless mistakes on a regular basis. They just weren't content to leave their mistakes in the past. Instead, much like world-class chess masters, they “replayed” their days, noticing what they did well, where they went wrong, and what new leadership experiments they can try out in the future. In this way, they became the directors of their own leader labs. They turned every interaction into a learning opportunity and became great managers faster. And so, we now invite you to put on your lab coat and enter your personal leader lab. Don't just read this book. Use it as your guide to experiment, reflect, and accelerate your manager mastery.
Not only will the Manager Core help you become a better catalyst of progress for your team, but it will also make your life easier. We began this chapter by pointing out how hard it is to have a bad manager, but actually being a manager is even harder. Feeling responsible for that combination of company results and people's needs, hopes, fears, and dreams can be a heavy weight to carry – especially when there is never enough time and no one to help you figure things out. As a manager, you will face some of the toughest challenges of your life. While the BUs and skills we share with you will make your ride to manager mastery no less wild, we promise to make it more fun, rewarding, and a lot faster.
How to Use This Book
As You Read
The first time you read this book, we recommend you move through it from beginning to end, since lessons in each chapter carry through to all chapters that follow. Don't read passively like you're sitting in on a lecture. After all, this is a lab. Actively reflect on your own behaviors along the way. Ask yourself:
“Do I do this?”
“What might I try doing differently?”
“When can I try it?”
When an insight strikes, pause to jot it down in the margins. For even faster learning, summarize the key points you learned, and share them with your manager, your team, your cat, or anyone willing to listen. Research shows that we learn faster by teaching, a handy phenomenon known as the “protégé effect” (Chase et al. 2009).
Mia the Manager
Throughout the book, you'll get to see leadership in action, much like we got to do through our research. In each chapter, you'll listen in on conversations with a manager named Mia (a composite of our research participants) as she navigates the ups and downs of her role. Mia is a first-time manager with a common story: she's inexperienced, overwhelmed, and determined to do a good job. There's just one thing about Mia that is decidedly uncommon. She has a magic Do-Over Button. That's right. While the great managers we studied “replayed” their management moments in their minds, Mia has the unique advantage of going back in time to try again.
“Wait, time travel?” you might be saying. “Why introduce one of the most notoriously complex plot devices into a book on leadership skills?” Well, for starters, because this might be the only chance we get to publish sci-fi. But more importantly, because people's brains learn best through observation. By following Mia's story and hearing the contents of her team's “black box,” you'll get to spot common leadership mistakes in real time, see each BU and skill in action, and strengthen your own management muscles. Along the way, we encourage you to travel back to instances in your own past where you succeeded or stumbled as a manager, and bring experiment ideas back to the future for your personal leader lab.
Practice Stations
Distributed throughout each chapter, you'll also see “Practice Stations,” as you would in a physical laboratory. Spend some time at these stations to rapidly transform your insights into habits. These stations are an opportunity to test out what you've learned and collect brain-friendly tips to help the learning stick in your memory.
Bonus: For live practice and real-time feedback, visit leaderlab.lifelabslearning.com.
Your Lab Reports
At the end of each chapter, you'll have a personal Lab Report to complete that will prompt you to do the following:
Extract your takeaways from the chapter so you can easily return to them later.
Assess your current competence level to increase your self-awareness.
Select a small experiment from a bank of ideas to try in your own leader lab.
Extract your learnings once you have tried out the experiment to accelerate your learning.
Bonus Inclusion Stations
Because great leadership is synonymous with inclusive leadership, you'll also have access to bonus “Inclusion Stations” at leaderlab.lifelabslearning.com. Visit these Inclusion Stations for extra support in applying the lessons in this book to every member of your team, mitigating the impact of bias, and giving each person access to great leadership. You'll discover research and pro tips for cross-cultural collaboration, leading remote and distributed teams, as well as overall inclusion guidance. Why apply an inclusive lens to how you lead? Because teams are increasingly diverse, which means managers have to take deliberate action to leverage this diversity and overcome individual and systemic bias. Companies that harness the strength of their differences are more resilient, engaged, and see an average of 45% more revenue growth than their peers (Hewlett, Marshall, and Sherbin 2013).
Finally, give yourself an occasional fist bump or high five for your effort along the way. The world needs more great managers. Thank you for putting in the work to become an even better manager.
IThe Core BUs
Ready to enter Part I of the Leader Lab? In this first section, we'll equip you with the Core BUs, the small but powerful Behavioral Units that will immediately make your conversations, relationships, and decisions better:
1. Q‐step
2. Playback
3. Deblur
4. Validate
5. Linkup
6. Pause
7. Extract
Once we introduce a BU, we will bold it every time we refer to it throughout the book and include its corresponding icon so it's easier to notice and faster for your brain to learn. Even when you're not reading, mentally bold these BUs when you spot them “in the wild.” Each BU is a simple but versatile behavior you can notice and use every day, including the moment you put down this book.
Welcome to the Leader Lab.
1Q-step
Let's begin by examining the first Behavioral Unit (BU) that stood out in our research on what makes great managers different. Imagine you joined us in the lab. You take a seat in a small, dark room behind a two-way mirror and observe a manager in a one-on-one meeting. You switch on your handy stopwatch and let it run for 15 minutes. During this time, you count every question the manager asks. Once time's up, you tally the results. What's your prediction? In the span of 15 minutes, how many questions does an average manager ask? How many questions does a great manager ask?
If you guessed 2 questions for average and 10 for great, you are exactly right. Great managers ask 5 times more questions. Not only does question quantity set great managers apart, it's also a marker of great negotiators, influencers, creative thinkers, and even the secret to getting a second date (Huang et al. 2017). In one study of over 519,000 calls, researchers found that the best salespeople also asked more questions (Orlob 2017). Of course, it's possible to ask terrible questions. (“What were you thinking?” and “How can you be so bad at this?” are definitely questions, and definitely not questions we recommend.) Question quality is essential (more on that in Chapter 8), but the necessary starting point is question quantity. Great managers simply ask more questions than average. In fact, before they go into “Telling Mode,” they default to “Questions Mode.” Their first step is to ask at least one question. We call this BU the “Q-step.”
How does the Q-step BU help you become a great manager faster? Let's see its impact in action. We're going to join Mia in her first week as a manager. For context, she is excited about the role but also somewhat intimidated by the challenge of being Luca's manager. She and Luca both applied for the role, and he has more subject matter expertise than Mia. This is their first conversation since they got the news:
Version 1
Luca:
Weird, right? Having different roles all of a sudden.
Mia:
Yeah, but I'm excited. I hope you're okay with it.
Luca:
Yep. It's all good. I don't even know if I wanted the job.
Mia:
I don't want it to be any different between us. You know?
Luca:
Yep.
Mia:
I want to make process improvements that benefit all of us, like the stuff we've all been frustrated about.
Luca:
Yep. Good. Well, I have to get back to work.
Mia:
Oh, sure. Good talk.
Mia leaves the conversation feeling shaken. She tried to show care, but Luca seemed to grow more distant. Mia decides it's time to use her magic Do-Over Button. Let's see her try it again, leaning on the power of the Q-step:
Version 2: Do-Over
Luca:
Weird, right? Having different roles all of a sudden.
Mia:
Yeah.
How are you feeling about it?
Luca:
I feel fine … I guess.
Mia:
Would you be willing to share more of what's on your mind?
Luca:
Well … I'm happy for you, but, you know, I've been here longer. I'm not even sure if I wanted the job, but it sucks not to get it.
Mia:
Yeah. I hear you. I'm curious:
what did you like about the job description and what didn't you
? Maybe that can help us figure out how to make your current role better.
Luca:
Well, I didn't want to be responsible for everyone on the team hitting their goals. You can have that part! But I did like the idea of making process improvements.
Mia:
Oh, well … the truth is, you're better at many parts of this work than I am. I want to hear your ideas.
How can we add making process improvements into your role?
Luca:
I'd like that. Maybe I could focus on one process to improve per quarter?
Mia:
Yes! I can set up a meeting for us to chat about it.
How does that sound?
Luca:
That sounds good. Thanks. And Mia? Congratulations.
Phew. Good use of the Do-Over Button. Not only did Mia manage to ask 400% more questions, she also Q-stepped, making it more likely that Luca will keep making valuable contributions.
But Mia's day is just beginning. Next up, she sees her team member Olivia. Mia and Olivia have also been peers for several years, but Olivia has shown no interest in management. In fact, she seems to show less and less interest at work in general. So it catches Mia off guard when Olivia comes to her with a new idea:
Version 1
Olivia:
Hey, Mia. Now that you're our manager, maybe you could finally help us get the resources we need. I'd like to get an intern this summer. Can I do that?
Mia:
Oh, wow. The thing is, I know interns sound cheap, but they'll take up all your time.
Olivia:
We can use the internship program I was in back in the day. It's structured really well.
Mia:
Liv, it's never worth it. Trust me.
Olivia:
Okay … I guess I'll drop it.
For a moment, Mia feels great about this conversation. She helped Olivia avoid a big mistake. Then it hits her: she just wasted an opportunity to get Olivia reengaged at work. So, she presses the Do-Over Button:
Version 2: Do-Over
Olivia:
Hey, Mia. Now that you're our manager, maybe you could finally help us get the resources we need. I'd like to get an intern this summer. Can I do that?
Mia:
Thanks for coming to me with this! I definitely want to use this role to get us the resources we need.
What made you start thinking of getting an intern?
Olivia:
I just never have enough time to finish everything on my plate.
Mia:
So that we could find the right solution, I'm curious:
what are you thinking you'd delegate to the intern, and what would that give you more time to do?
Olivia:
Well, I guess I'm not even sure I know yet. It's unclear what my priorities should be.
What impact did you notice once Mia got a Q-step do-over? How about in general: what is the impact of asking questions before offering solutions?
Q-stepping Helps Managers Become More Effective Faster in at Least Three Ways
1. Q-stepping Helps You Diagnose the Underlying Problem Faster
In the conversation with Luca, we missed out on learning the source of his disappointment (not getting to make process improvements). And the conversation with Olivia got stuck in the binary (should we get an intern or not?) rather than uncovering her prioritization challenge. Just as a good physician would never prescribe medicine without first diagnosing the illness, a good manager cannot offer advice without first understanding the problem. Even though it might seem quicker to jump to a solution, a great solution to the wrong problem is still the wrong solution. The Q-step helps you diagnose faster, so it also helps you solve the right problem faster.
2. Q-stepping Helps You Develop People's Skills Faster
In her do-over conversations, Mia wasn't solving her team members’ problems for them. Instead, her questions helped them clarify their thinking. The result? She also helped speed up problem-solving skill building they can apply to countless other situations. She was a catalyst. Without these developmental moments, managers become problem-solving bottlenecks, making it hard for the team to scale (and nearly impossible for the manager to take a vacation).
3. Q-stepping Lets You Catalyze Commitment
The “resolutions” in Mia's original conversations came with a heavy tax. She never learned about Luca's hopes, and Olivia left less likely to propose ideas in the future. As we'll share in more detail in Chapter 11, autonomy is at the heart of engagement. Research shows that when people play a leading role in solving their own problems, they shift from mere compliance – doing what they're told, into commitment – having the drive to achieve results (Deci and Ryan 2008).
So we know great managers ask more questions than average. But there is more to this finding. When we asked our research participants if asking questions came naturally to them, we were surprised to hear common answers like this:
“No! Solving problems comes naturally to me! Especially when I was a new manager, it actually felt painful to ask a question instead of jumping in with a good answer. I'd get so frustrated as I waited for my direct reports to figure things out on their own – especially when we were short on time.”
While a few managers said that questions were easy to ask, the majority reported at least some difficulty – with some answers bordering on suffering. This internal struggle makes sense. Most people become managers after they've had a stint as successful “makers.” But the skillsets of these two roles are vastly different, much like the difference between soloists and conductors. Individual contributors succeed when they solve problems. Managers succeed when they help others solve problems.
When you transition from maker to manager, you have to learn to ignore the very instincts that made you successful in the past, and you have to deal with the delay of gratification that comes with waiting for others to achieve results. Most managers we interviewed understood that asking questions was essential, but they had to exercise restraint to change their problem-solving habits.
This push-pull of craving the instant gratification of giving an answer and wanting to invest in asking questions is oddly similar to the taxi driver study LeeAnn conducted at the University of Vienna. In cities across the world, taxi drivers honk horns. They honk to signal information, they honk to avoid danger, and they honk just because it feels good. It turns out that many taxi drivers honk even when they risk consequences like fines, angry drivers, and being stuck in traffic with a lot of other horn honkers. The solution to needless honking? Having the drivers label their “honk urge.” As soon as they felt the need to honk, they called it out – a strategy referred to in psychology as “name it to tame it” (Lieberman et al. 2007). This simple intervention bought them just enough time to question whether honking was worth it.
Similarly, when we asked great managers to talk us through their thought process when someone came to them with a problem, we noticed that many trained themselves out of Telling Mode and into Questions Mode as their default. They still felt that honk urge, but they had established a new habit: ask at least one question before telling, or doing the Q-step.
Practice Station
Now that you've gotten to ride along through time with Mia, get some Q-stepping practice for yourself. Take a look at the following scenarios and decide how you would respond if you went into Telling Mode, then pivot to a Q-step by asking at least one question.
TELLING MODE
Q-STEP
Someone suggests an idea that has not worked in the past.
Sample tell: That'll never work
.
Sample Q-step: What options have you considered? How did you decide on this one?
Your manager tells you to cut your budget in half.
Sample tell: I don't even have enough of a budget as it is!
Sample Q-step: Can you share what led to the budget cut? What is it meant to achieve?
Your coworker tells you your team members are difficult to work with.
Sample tell: Yep, I think so too
.
Sample Q-step: What makes you say that? Would you share an example?
There are countless great questions you can Q-step with (we'll share some of our favorites throughout this book), but we are not suggesting that you travel so far back in time that you transform into Socrates. Remember how that turned out for him? The great managers we studied had plenty to say and said it often. The distinct BU that made them different is that they Q-steppedbefore telling, even if that meant asking just one question.
***
In summary: Notice when you have the urge to go into Telling Mode and switch into Questions Mode by Q-stepping (asking at least one question). Why? Questions help you diagnose the underlying problem, develop people's skills, and catalyze commitment. Now it's time to fill in your Lab Report so you can develop your Q-step habit faster. What do you think about that? (See what we did there?)
MY LAB REPORT
Today's Date:
My takeaways:
I regularly Q-step before telling:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (strongly disagree)(strongly agree)
Experiment idea bank:
If someone asks me a question, then I'll Q-step by asking,
“What are your thoughts?”
If I want to give advice, then I'll Q-step first.
If someone makes a suggestion I disagree with, then I'll Q-step.
One small experiment I'll try to increase my score by 1 point:
Post-experiment Learning Extractions:
Bonus: Want to take your manager skills to the next level? Check out the bonus Inclusion Stations at leaderlab.lifelabslearning.com.
My Learning Tracker
1 out of 7 Core BUs collected. 0 of 8 Core Skills collected.
Q-step
2Playback
The next BU we stumbled upon in our research on what makes great managers different is a behavior that is so subtle we nearly missed it. We even doubted its significance until we realized it had also been identified as one of the most important BUs for a wide range of professionals, including physicians, psychologists, salespeople, consultants, lawyers, pilots, and hostage negotiators. This powerhouse BU goes by many names. At LifeLabs Learning, we call it the “Playback.”
A Playback is a paraphrase of what you heard someone say. Why does it help you become a great manager faster? Take a look at the following conversation. We're now a few weeks into Mia's role as a manager, and Olivia is starting to open up about her challenges at work. Notice where Playbacks could have made it a better conversation:
Version 1
Olivia:
Ugh. I'm avoiding my to-do list, and I'm not looking forward to our team project.
Mia:
What do you think is going on?
Olivia:
I don't know. I'm just kind of exhausted by everything lately.
Mia:
Is it that you don't take breaks?
Olivia:
I do, but I'm still tired.
Mia:
When was the last time you took some time off to recharge?
Olivia:
Well, I could use my vacation days, but then I'll be even more behind.
Mia:
When would be better timing?
Olivia:
I guess I could already set aside time in December when it's slower.
At first Mia is proud that she got to practice her question skills, but something felt off. She decides to hit her handy Do-Over Button to go back and Playback:
Version 2: Do-Over
Olivia:
Ugh. I'm avoiding my to-do list, and I'm not looking forward to our team project.
Mia:
Hmm.
Sounds like two things are on your mind: your to-do list and the project
. Right? Of those two, which is the bigger issue?
Olivia:
That's right …. I guess the project is the bigger problem. It's really weighing on me because everyone is waiting for me to get it started.
Mia:
It's feeling like a lot of responsibility.
Olivia:
Right. I like having responsibility, but I don't want to let the team down.
Mia:
Okay, so it sounds like you want to be more confident about how to start
.
Olivia:
Yeah. If the project starts well, the rest will probably go smoothly.
