Creating High Performing Teams: Recent Episodes

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1 on 1s are the single most important tool managers have to be great leaders. You can use these meetings to help you bring out the best in your team, fix problems, get buy in, and so much more.

That’s why, as we wrap up Season 1, we’re bringing you all the best advice on 1 on 1s from our many amazing guests. Listen in to learn what the most important things are for you to remember for your 1 on 1s, and get a preview of some episodes you may want to go back and listen to.

Lessons and links from today’s episode: A big THANK YOU to our many amazing guests. In today’s episode we heard from:

• Mark C Crowley, from Episode 2,“Why You Should Lead from the Heart(and how to start)”
• Wes Kao, from Episode 4,“Managing Up: Advice for Mangers & ICs to master their most important relationship at work”
• Mike Pretlove, from Episode 7,“Building an Unconventional Career as a Leader”
• Fabian Carmago, from Episode 8,“8 Essential Things You Must Consider When Becoming a Manager”
• Jeremy Brown, from Episode 15,“How to Rapidly Grow from Team Lead to Executive.”
• Krzysztof Rakowski, from Episode 16,“How to Become a Better Manager in Just 15 Minutes a Week”
• Valentina Thörner, from Episode 17,“The Harsh Truths of Leading Remotely(and what to do about it)”

Click the titles of any of the episodes to listen into them and see the show notes for that episode.

Show Notes And a few links for you to learn more based on their advice:

• Mark C Crowley’s book “Lead from the Heart” can be found here as well as his interview on our blog here.
  • Learn why open door policies fail here.
  • Talking about the personal life of your team can be scary. It’s beneficial, but you’re not their therapist. Learn how to handle when the meetings get too personal here.
• Wes Kao has a fantastic tweetstorm on managing up you can check out here.
  • Learn more about managing up well here, and ask these questions of your boss to master managing up.
  • Getting buy in is important to as Wes discusses, which you can learn how to get buy in here.
• Mike Pretlove reminds us that building rapport and empathy for your team is hugely important. Learn over 80 ways you can connect with anyone.
  • Giving feedback is great to do in your 1 on 1s. Learn a battle tested, proven way to give feedback to your team members and the podcast episode on it here.
  • You can also read about how Mike had the lowest turnover and highest engagement in his company by using Lighthouse software.
• Fabian Carmago mentions our post on the evolution of your 1 on 1s over time, which you can read here.
  • Being a good coach is a key part of being a great manager.
• Krzysztof Rakowski told us about how managers must always be learning and growing. A growth mindset is key for every manager.
• Valentina Thörner told us 1 on 1s are a, “one hill I will die on” because they’re so important in remote environments.
  • Ask these questions to help support your remote team members.
  • Here’s Dr. Katerina Bohle Carbonell’s talk on analyzing communication patterns here.
• Jeremy Brown reminded us about the importance of using your 1 on 1s to coach and praise your team.
  • Praise your team regularly. Learn 21 ways to bring more praise and positivity to your team here.

A giant THANK YOU to Jeremy, Valentina, Mark, Fabian, Wes, Mike, Krzysztof and our many other guests for sharing their advice, insights, and hard earned perspectives.

As you can see, even though we covered dozens of different topics in this first season, 1 on 1s keep coming up. They really are the centerpiece of great management.

Which is also why we built Lighthouse to help you make these meetings awesome. From helpful prep and structure to suggested questions for dozens of different topics, we help you be a better leader and expand the value of your 1 on 1s every day.

Sign up for a free trial here.

And thank you for listening to this season! We’ve appreciated every bit of feedback and praise we’ve heard from you all on the season.

As a closing ask, two things of you:

1. If there’s a burning management problem you have that you hope we’ll do a future episode on how to handle, please email us at blog@getlighthouse.com or reply to one of our podcast emails to let us know.
2. Please share the podcast with a fellow manager you think would benefit. The more people we help, the more we’re encouraged to continue the show for many future seasons.

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When is the problem not really THE problem? What do you do when your star player on your team underperforms or disappoints you?

The easy answer would be to pounce and criticize. To focus on immediately correcting the issue. Yet, if you do that, you’ll be making a big mistake. Instead, learn from a key lesson I stumbled on early in my career and dig a bit deeper.

In this week’s episode, I share a personal story about how I learned much more than I originally planned when I had to give some tough feedback and coaching to a star employee. You’ll learn what the problem was, what I planned to do, where the conversation went instead, and why that made all the difference in the world. It helped me see how leaders can play the long game to win big with their people.

Lessons and links from today’s episode: 1. The hiring method I like to use(give them an assignment) 2. Prepare for any 1 on 1 meeting to give feedback by following the Prepare Listen Act model: 1. Learn the step by step process in our blog post here. 2. And listen to Episode 2 for a hands on discussion about it. 3. When you have an issue with your team, make sure you check in how their world is going. You may find super important context out. Reserve judgment until you hear the full picture. 4. If you make it safe to talk about issues, you may be surprised how candid, apologetic and open your team may be with you. This is priceless.(Learn about creating psychological safety here) 5. Always look for the root problem. Don’t simply treat symptoms.

• Ask why something disappointing may have happened and give them the benefit of the doubt.

• If your best people tell you they’re overwhelmed. Believe them. It’s hard to find replacement stars, so you’re much better off taking care of them.

• Lighten the load

• Make priorities clearer
• Give them a break if needed

• All of these beat having to hire a replacement.

• Yet, always maintain your standards. We still did ultimately talk about the recruiting issue, because it was a problem. But first we fixed the root issue.

Next time you have a team member that surprises you by coming in below your expectations with them, remember the lessons I learned here and dig deeper before correcting the surface level issues.

And if you need help organizing your thoughts to prepare to give feedback, and make the most of when your team opens up about challenges like this, then sign up for a free trial of Lighthouse.

Trusted by hundreds of managers every day, we help give them the right questions to ask for any situation, always be prepared, and improve the quality of all of their 1 on 1s and their leadership overall. Start your 21-day trial risk free here.

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How do you become great at recruiting? What are common mistakes managers make in this process, and how can you avoid them? Today, we’re excited to have long time friend and Lighthouse customer Erin Wilson on the show to talk about his experience as one of the best recruiters in Silicon Valley.

In this episode we cover what you can do whether you’re on your own recruiting or have a world class team in your HR department to help you. We also share helpful, actionable tactics so you can immediately improve.

Show Notes: * Bringing data into your recruiting process. Ask questions like: + How long does it take you to go from first round interview to offer? + What is your offer acceptance rate? + How many hours are you spending per hire? The average is 300-400 hours, but can be 30-40 if done well. + What is your churn rate in your pipeline (people accept other jobs - or choose to not continue)? * Start small! + Start with a user story, not a full job description. + An example user story starts with just a few questions: + User story: 4-6 questions to make you think a little bit. - What’s the business need behind this hire? - On a scale 1-10, how hands on is this position? - How big is the existing team? - What is the current composition of the team (Skills, seniority)? - In the first 6 months will the person will produce in the role? (Outputs not tasks) - What base skills are necessary for this role? - What compensation do you have budgeted for this role? - Have you hired for this role before? * The best companies in the world hire 1 person for every 7 they see. You do not need to interview 30 people to “get a feel for things.” * “Execution still beats gimmicks every day.”

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: * Where can managers get started to learn more: + Look at Twitter and Reddit for great content advice + Examples of who to follow: - Arlan is building a startup in the inclusion space - Joel Lalgee is a fun and informative recruiter to follow - Great data and insights from Aline Lerner - Jennifer Kim is an experienced recruiter and was an early employee at Lever + Try getting feedback externally - Ask 3-5 people per day for a week on the edge or outside of your network for feedback on your job description * Ask them: + What do you think of this role? + What questions do you have? + Anything concern you? + You’re the archetype of what I’d be looking for, would you?

Where to find and follow Erin: * You can follow Erin and connect with him on Linkedin here. * http://Team.ai is talent delivery in demand. For more info visit https://team.ai/talent-delivery-services, and mention the podcast, for a free hire when you sign with Team AI.

Trusted by hundreds of managers every day, we help give them the right questions to ask for any situation, always be prepared, and improve the quality of all of their 1 on 1s and their leadership overall. Start your 21-day trial risk free here.

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We look at recent hot topics in the world of leadership, management, and pop culture in this week’s episode. We take a look at burnout in a post-COVID world, what leaders can learn from the Buffer State of Remote Report, and some key lessons about HR managers can learn from the show Super Pumped about Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick’s rise and fall.

We give you all the context you need to follow along, and share the key insights and actions you should take based on each of these topics.

1. Avoiding burnout of your team in a post-covid world
   1. See the Business Insider tweet thread here.
   2. Learn about Learned Helplessness and how it applies at work here.
   3. If you or a team member is feeling burnt out already, this post can help you with recovery.
   4. And some COVID / remote specific advice on avoiding burnout can be read about here.

2. Reactions to the Buffer State of Remote 2022 Report

3. Remote work tends to hurt your career prospects -> a plurality of 45% felt that was the case.

4. See the full report here.

5. Key stats mentioned:HUGE jump in companies going fully remote (increase from 46-72%). Looks like this is here to stay.Loneliness and inability to unplug remain the top challenges of remote work.52% feel less connected to their coworkers since going remote54% do not support pay being tied to your location

6. With remote being here to stay, be sure to check out these key resources to help you master being a remote leader:Learn advice from veteran leader Valentina Thörner on Ep. 17 of our podcast here.Learn the 13 things you may not have planned for when hiring remotelyAnd read our classic 11 essential tips for successful remote management here.

7. Leadership Lessons from Showtime’s show, Super Pumped

   1. Context: This is a show about the rise and fall of Travis Kalanick, founder and CEO of Uber. A number of major HR violations happened during this time, and it’s worth reflecting on as a manager what it means if you encounter these.
   2. Remember the #1 goal of HR is to follow the law and make sure the company does not get sued.
      1. Need to let an employee go? Have clear documentation of both their issues, and your attempts and communication to fix it.
      2. Have an HR incident? Document it, research the laws in your state and country, then come to HR with the report and discuss execution plus any questions you have.
      3. Know your principles. Sometimes, like in Super Pumped, HR may sweep something under the rug or do nothing. You need to decide what's worth go along with (many at Uber are very rich now), and what you're exposed by if you are complicit. Also think about your own values and if you want to stay at a company that conflicts with your values. You have to live with that decision, and your team will remember.

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Description: How do you transition from being a leader in an office to successfully leading remotely? What do you do when only part of your team returns to the office? Many of us have had a crash course in exactly those situations, which is why we brought Valentina onto the show to talk with us.

Valentina is an expert in remote communication and leadership, as she both trains companies with these challenges, and has been a remote leader for many years. Our focus today is on how you can to use asynchronous communication at the right times, bring out the best of both worlds when you’re in a hybrid team situation, and how to avoid the pitfalls of one-size-fits-all leadership when it comes to communication in person and remotely.

• Learn about how Amazon and others have improved their meetings here.
• Learn more about the basics of asynchronous communication here.
• Psychological Safety is an important concept to embrace regardless of where your team members are located. Learn about the fundamentals of it here.
• You can check out Dr. Katerina Bohle Carbonell’s talk on analyzing communication patterns here.
• When you’re managing remote employees, 1 on 1s are very important. Learn how to have great 1 on 1s here, and specific questions to ask remote team members here.
• Books that Valentina recommends:
  • The Culture Map by Erin Meyer and Valentina wrote and made a presentation about one of her favorite concepts from the book here.
  • On Writing Well by William Zinsser
  • Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: 1. Make sure you have 1 on 1s, and always prepare an agenda: Don’t skip them for any reason except sickness or vacation. They’re a key place to maintain the relationship and give + receive feedback. 2. Do a meeting audit: Which meetings can be shortened, shouldn’t be there, or can be replaced with a document/written discussion? It’s not all, or nothing; you can have a shorter meeting because it’s better prepared with an agenda, just as much as canceling it altogether. 3. Start declining meetings, and say why: This makes it safe for your team members to do the same. Your example then matters as you should show that even when you don’t attend you may ask for an update after, or the topic and give brief input asynchronously.

Where to find and follow Valentina: * You can learn more about Valentina’s work at ValentinaThoerner.com and she has an in depth, cohort based course on remote leadership here.

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• Many companies promote the most talented person on a team to manager, but that doesn’t always work out

  • It can be hard for that person to let go of their individual work, which shortchanges things for their team. There’s also just too much to do. It doesn’t scale.
    • Taking care of your team means a lot, especially if you’re fighting on their behalf against others not looking out for them.
  • Krzysztof brought food and drink for their team and advocated for overtime when they had to work over a weekend in the summer. It helped with morale and retention on his team.
    • A Growth Mindset helps as a leader: Don’t see people doing well as a threat, but instead someone you can learn from.
  • Learn more about Growth Mindsets from the creator, Carol Dweck, in this video.
    • It didn’t work to ask his team “what would you like to learn?” so it was important for Krzysztof to find good ideas (like when he tried Lighthouse Lessons)
    • Task Relevant Maturity is one of Krzysztof’s favorite concepts to understand what skills your people need to work on. Learn about it here.
    • Before they found Lighthouse Lessons they were semi-regularly meeting to talk as a team. With Lighthouse Lessons, they created a stronger, more consistent habit and a unifying subject to discuss as a group.
  • Meeting as a group with your fellow managers builds bonds and deeper learning you cannot get any other way, because you’re at the same company with the same culture.
  • You can also learn how Jornaya similarly used the Group Edition to build community among their managers.
    • Give your team more independence by embracing the Water Line Principle:

• Krzysztof believes in the value of habits, which he recognizes that our program getting people to schedule the habit really helps. He also loves the book Atomic Habits on the subject (which is what he shows in the video version of the interview).

What are the most important elements of Lighthouse Lessons that keeps bringing him and his team back? 1. The price for value is a really good in his view 2. They don’t have a lot of time, so the bite-size lessons each week is ideal 3. Some people on the team enjoyed the group discussions so much, they called in on their vacation

Who makes the best fit for the program? * Someone who can commit to a weekly set of lessons. You only learn what you take the time to read and act. * A leader willing to encourage their team to meet. This is where the magic happens, but it may take a couple weeks for everyone to be as excited about the Group Lesson meetings as Krzysztof’s team is now.

Ready to start leveling up your skills as a manager? Interested in a group of managers at your company? * For individuals, we do open cohorts of various courses throughout the year. + Join an active program or sign up to be notified about the next program here: Lessons.getlighthouse.com * If you want to grow a group of managers like Krzysztof, you can buy our programs a la carte and start at the time you choose. + Sign up to get more information and discuss what program is the perfect fit for your team at: grouplessons.getlighthouse.com

Where to find and follow Krzysztof: * You can find him on Linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krzrak/ and if you speak Polish, he has a podcast on leadership and management at https://nerd.management

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Jeremy Brown has an unconventional career path to CTO. While he started as an engineer, he took detours in sales, motorcycling and starting a business in Cameroon, before becoming a CTO.

In this episode, we look at how Jeremy’s career unfolded, and what he learned along the way that prepared him for success as a CTO. We also get his advice for how you can level up and thrive at each step in your career from IC to Manager to Manager of Managers to Executive.

Show Notes: * Learn about Conway’s Law here: https://medium.com/@williammeller/the-conways-law-7e09514741f8 * Conway's Law and the "reverse" or "inverse" Conway - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law + The Inverse Conway - https://ctocraft.com/blog/how-can-the-inverse-conway-manoeuvre-help-drive-organisational-change/ + Jeremy also highly recommends the book, Team Topologies if you’re looking at doing a reorg of your teams. * On Open Space Technology: (Official Website and User’s Guide) + For this meeting to work the following conditions need to be present. - A good intro via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology - Keys: * A matter that is of very high importance to the group and a real possibility of conflict * Diversity in terms of people and positions involved - And some Youtube Walkthroughs: an Introduction, and How to facilitate one * Learn why you should let that high performing jerk go and the rest of your team will perform better with the book: The No A* Rule by Robert Sutton * Learn about the concept of Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners here. It helps you understand how to lead at different scales for startups.

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: 1. Repeat yourself more than you think you need to, in a variety of ways. 1. Repeating yourself as a leader is key to instilling key ideas and concepts into your team. Learn more about the Power of Repetition here 2. Use your 1 on 1s to support your team 1. Get Status Updates out of them, and instead give feedback, ask good questions and more. Learn how Jeremy used Lighthouse to help him here. 3. Be sure to praise your team when they do the right things 1. Learn to thank your team and give praise in a variety of ways to motivate your team you can learn about here.

Where to find and follow Jeremy Brown: * Read his occasional posts on his blog - https://world.hey.com/jeremybrown * Find him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenfourty/ * Follow him on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JeremyBrownTech

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Were you thrust into a leadership position without a lot of training and preparation? Have you risen rapidly as a leader and find yourself a bit uncertain? Or maybe you’re a founder making things up as you go, and finding yourself managing other incredible people.

Being a leader who has to learn on the job can be intimidating and scary. Imposter syndrome and its sibling, the inner critic, can leave you struggling to be your best. And all of this is only compounded when you have brilliant people on your team who are smarter or better than you at their job.

That’s why we have VC turned leadership coach Steve Schlafman on to talk about how you can navigate all of this and thrive as a leader, even when you’re on your own to figure out this leadership thing.

• Some helpful links related to the topics we covered:
  • Conscious Leadership Group by Diana Chapman and Jim Dethmer
    • Unarguables: https://conscious.is/excercises-guides/speaking-unarguably
  • 68% of managers are afraid to communicate with their teams. Learn what you can do to be like the 32% that aren’t.
  • How to embrace curiosity as a leader.
  • Shirzad Chamine - Inner critic: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/about/
• Books we discussed:
  • Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
    • OFNR: Observe - Feeling - Need - Request structure outlined here: https://drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/NONVIOLENT_COMMUNICATION.htm

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: 1. Be open and curious rather than closed and defensive: Embrace what you don’t know and look for opportunities to learn from others, even your own team. 2. Question the stories about yourself: Ask yourself what stories run in your mind and if they’re helpful for you and your goals. 3. Have self-acceptance and compassion: No one is harder on you than you. Recognize that, and look for opportunities to be less hard on your self, and compassionate when you have work to do. 4. Make a list of your accomplishments: Build more self confidence and quiet the inner critic when they’re too loud, by listing out what you’ve accomplished to show yourself what you are capable of doing.

Where to find and follow Steve: * You can follow Steve on Twitter @schlaf and learn more about his coaching practice atwww.schlaf.co

https://rebrand.ly/cfa3ed

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Are you growing your skills as a leader? Are you building the right habits as a manager? Do you bring out the best in your team?

We all want to be great leaders, but who has time for learning in our busy, always-on, push-notifications-every-5-minutes world? Boring, all-day trainings and LMS systems don’t seem to be the answer.

What you need is a way to grow that understand what it’s like to be a manager, and helps you get results right away. Today’s episode tells you how to do this.

You can learn more about these programs as an individual here, or if you're interested in group training here.

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We all know that there are a collection of 4 letter words you shouldn’t use in polite conversation, which except in the most gruff environments, you especially wouldn’t use at work.

Today, I want to talk about another 4 letter word. It’s one you hear all the time, and may have even used yourself. Yet, despite pop culture often glorifying it, it’s not good, which is why today I’m talking about it.

The word: BOSS.

In this episode, we explain the important differences between being a boss and a leader. We also teach you how to overcome the challenges of stopping being a boss and becoming a leader your time wants to follow.

Show Notes and Key Actions for You to Take: * To stop being a boss, and become a great, servant leader:

1. Admit it. Tell your team you want to pay more attention to their needs and be more empowering. Admit you’ve been bossy.
2. Listen. Let your team vent. They’re likely frustrated with you in a variety of ways.
3. Shields down. Some of it will hurt. Try not to be too defensive. Ask for examples so you can develop more empathy from them.
4. Take action. Whatever they tell you, look for ways to make them feel heard. Something small and incremental right away is better than a big gesture that takes a long time.
5. Stay committed. It will not happen over night. You have to keep working at it and over time your team will believe in you more.
6. Focus on buy in. Bosses make a lot of decisions on their own. To change, start soliciting your team’s feedback, and incorporate what you can.
7. Keep listening. It’s a never ending journey to empower and involve your team. And chance takes time for you to fully embrace and for your team to believe.

Links for Further Reading and Learning: * You can listen to Dan Pink’s excellent post on bringing out the best in your employees in his TED talk here called“The Puzzle of Motivation”. * Need to turn around a team with low morale, because you’ve been too bossy? Start here: + How managers can cause low employee morale + How to keep your team engaged when you have low morale at work + How to stop being a bad leader and turn around a disengaged team + The 7 Deadly sins of bad management * And if you want help asking the right questions and keeping your promises as a leader, then you should sign up for Lighthouse. It’s purpose built to keep you organized and teach you the right things to ask and do to be a great leader, not a boss. Start your 21 day free trial here.

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What does it take to become great at hiring? Why do so many companies have bad hiring processes? Rich Paret, a tech executive who has been a VP of Engineering at Twitter, a Senior Director at Google, and built teams a number of startups, has a passion for hiring.

He shares his advice on why so many people struggling with hiring and how you can bring the Evidence-Based Hiring process to your company to become great at hiring.

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How do you step back from the day work of being an individual contributor to being a manager? What are the things you should start, stop, or continue doing? In our interview today with former CTO and now leadership coach Mathias Meyer, we talk about the unique challenges in the transition to manager.

If you’re a new engineering manager in particular, this is an essential episode for you. We dive into the challenges and tension of feeling up to date on technology and the work of your team, while not getting drawn into the productive feeling of writing code, which you shouldn’t do anymore.

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What does it take to be a great manager? Two big parts are being organized and accountable. The consequences of not doing so are checked out team members and frustrated employees.

In this episode, the importance of being organized and consistently accountable are explored, as well as how you can improve in both of those areas. You’ll also learn more about common issues our company’s software will help you solve.

• Being organized and accountable is key as a leader:
  • When you’re not organized, you fail to keep your promises with your team
  • When you’re not sure what to do as a leader, you lose the confidence of your team
  • When you fail to keep your promises, your team starts to check out and not share important things with you.
  • And when you aren’t accountable, you’re team will not be, either.
• To fix all that, and have helpful structure, reminders, key tips, access everyone you’re working all day (like email, Slack, MS Teams, and on your phone) and more, we built Lighthouse software to help leaders like you.

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: * Start a free trial of Lighthouse and start having consistent, accountable, awesome 1 on 1s with your team, all risk free for 21 days at https://getlighthouse.com (No credit card required!)

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• Books we talked about today:
  • Drive by Daniel Pink (And the related TED talk is here)
  • The Making of A Manager by Julie Zhuo
  • The Art of the Impossible by Steven Kotler
  • Grit by Angela Duckworth
  • Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
  • How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Key actions for you to take today: 1. What are the 3 best things someone can do if they’re thinking about becoming a manager to learn if it’s something they should pursue? 2. For those already a manager, what are the things they should focus on to be successful as a new, first time manager? 3. The Kindle Test: Start reading management books and blogs and see if that entices you to want to learn more. Does it feel like work? 4. Learn what management at your company is like 1. Get coffee (real or virtual) with managers and ask them what it’s like. Ask: What are the values the company has for managers? What is the day to day like? 2. Ask HR and your manager if they have career path documents you can check out to see what responsibilities and expectations there are for managers 5. Test out some of the key responsibilities of managers 1. Mentor an intern 2. Lead the onboarding of a new hire 3. Get involved in interviewing 6. Look at your 1 on 1s try to evaluate how they are and try to improve them 1. Learn more about 1 on 1s with our comprehensive guide here 2. These meetings will evolve with each team member, here’s how they change 7. Coach a little bit more 1. Try to ask a few more questions, a little less advice and directions 2. Ask What and How questions to get them to open up

How to follow and find Fabian * You can follow Fabian on Twitter here, and his consulting practice and blog can be found at managingdev.com

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What do you need to know as a first time manager? What are the biggest pitfalls to avoid? How can you pick the right job and opportunity to break into management? To answer these questions, and more, we sat down with Mike Pretlove, who has been a leader now for over 15 years. He’s led teams in a variety of roles, first managing designers, then a major operations role, and now as founder of a new software startup.

We cover a variety of key concepts to help you better lead and motivate your teams, like showing more empathy, giving the right amount and frequency of feedback, and improving your decision making skills. Listen in to find out what works and doesn’t as a new manager.

• The SBI model for feedback: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/hr/ua/media/2034/pdr-giving-feedback.pdf
• Other approaches to giving feedback:
  • Check out Episode 3 of our podcast: FILL IN
  • 5 more ways to give better feedback:
  • How to turn around an underperforming team member
• Getting buy in from your team is really important. Learn how to do get their support for changes here.
• And if you’re interviewing for a new job, use these questions to make sure you work for a good manager.

Key actions for you to take today from the interview: 1. Remember to start small with any changes so you do not overwhelm or get too much resistance from your team. 2. Then, remember these 3 steps you can take today: 1. Get organized and be an organized leader 1. Remember promises and key dates for your team. 2. Be sure to keep your promises so your team will, too. 2. Exercise empathy 1. Get to know what they like and how things work best for them for feedback, praise, and communication. 3. Delivering feedback on a regular basis 1. Smaller and more often is better. Never surprise them at review time. 2. Genuine, feedback or praise, once a week is fantastic.

Where to find and follow Mike: * You can find Mike Pretlove on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpretlove/ + He welcomes your messages or requests to connect after listening to the show.

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Managers should be multipliers for their teams. How can you unlock their productivity and unblock them on time wasters? That’s what leverage is all about.

Eric Jorgenson, author of the Almanack of Naval Ravikant, has thought about leverage so much he’s got a whole course and blog dedicated to it. We have him on the Creating High Performing Teams podcast today to talk about how managers like you can apply leverage to your work day and unleash your team to focus on the highest value things they can do.

Show Notes:

• Being a manager is about being a multiplier. Leverage is how you find was to multiple you and your team’s efforts.
• Book recommendation: Shape Up by Ryan Singer
  • Covers:
• Start with finding just one thing you can outsource. Be okay with it being 70-80% as good as you would do it…then reflect on how valuable it was to get that time back
• Other tactics and examples of leverage:
  • Write out your key decisions in a Decision Journal and reflect on the results after the fact
    • Include the details of the decision so it’s easier to understand all the date you had then
  • ConvertKit records a podcast for every new employee so people can get to know them at a time they choose at scale
  • Founder Shane Mac gives every employee on his team a budget to have an Executive Assistant to save time and offload any tedious/repetitive tasks.
  • Remember in Episode 5 with Wes Kao, they have a #repetitive channel that people can post when they’re doing the same thing again and again.
• What you can do as a manager:
  • Do the math on the value / cost of you and each employee’s time. Teach them to outsource or, where possible, do not do low value tasks.
    • Buying tools are high leverage; compare the monthly cost of the tool to your employee hours cost to do themselves.
  • “If you repeat yourself, record yourself” to create leverage, whether a template, instructions, or something else.
    • And on the flip side ask, “What can I uniquely only do?” and focus on this things.
  • Ask your team members in their 1 on 1s questions like:
    • What are you spending time on every day or week?
    • What do you spend a lot of your time doing? What’s repetitive?

Key actions for you to take today from the interview:

1. Study the idea yourself to really understand it
   1. Revisit Andy Grove’s legendary leadership book, “High Output Management”
   2. Remember: There are no points for difficulty, so look for opportunities to get leverage with low effort on your part.
   3. It starts with one, so just find one place, and then build momentum from there.
2. What can they do right now with their team to make a difference?
   1. Teach them to prioritize high-impact projects
   2. Reward good outcomes, not inputs or effort with your team
   3. Avoid theater.
      1. Give more headcount or support profit center teams better

3. First Actions today:

4. What are you spending time on every day or week?

5. Ask your team in 1 on 1s about how they could have more leverage: What do you spend a lot of your time doing? What’s repetitive?

6. Do the calculation of your costs for your time and that of your team. Use that as a measure of how much ROI various tools and other investments have to have to justify the spend.

Where to find and follow Eric Jorgenson:

• Check out Eric’s course on building leverage in your life and career at https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage
• Subscribe to Eric’s free newsletter at https://www.ejorgenson.com/newsletter
• And you can read his blog posts on leverage here: https://www.ejorgenson.com/blog?category=Leverage

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What are the key skills for managers like you to master as you start leading a new team? What does it take for you to become an amazing manager? How do you stand out so you are recognized as a potential senior leader?

In this episode of the Creating High Performing Teams podcast, we give you a run down of the most important skills to master as a new manager, and why they matter. Then, we tell you how you can start to build those skills with your team.

Show Notes:

• You can read all about these skills and how to learn them here: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/professional-development-goals-for-managers/
• The Flaming Hot Cheetos story: https://www.inc.com/cynthia-than/the-mexican-janitor-who-invented-flamin-hot-cheetos.html (Note: this may be partially “Urban Legend”)
• The Toyota Total Production system and how they leverage the knowledge of all their workers: https://hbr.org/2008/06/the-contradictions-that-drive-toyotas-success
• The Books we mentioned:
  • Andy Grove’s High Output Management https://amzn.to/32UeuvF
  • Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People https://amzn.to/32Jk3Nt
• And some other links specific to parts of today’s episode:
  • What to talk about when managing a new team: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/managing-a-new-team/
  • Have amazing 1 on 1 meetings with your team by following this template: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/one-on-one-meetings-template-great-leaders/
  • How to give feedback: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/give-constructive-feedback-motivate-improve/
  • What is Task Relevant Maturity, and and how to apply it to your team: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/

Key actions for you to take today from the interview:

• Pick out one skill from the list we gave you and start working on it this week.

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What does it take to have a good relationship with your manager? How can you manage up in a way that creates win-win scenarios for you and the person most in charge of your career and work future?

In this week’s episode of Creating High Performing Teams, we have special guest Wes Kao who wrote an awesome, viral tweetstorm on the subject. We had her on to discuss the advice she shared, and to dig into the nuance of managing up that didn’t fit in the 280 character limit of Twitter.

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Get your access to Lighthouse Lessons here: https://bit.ly/3qgoNmE

How do you give feedback that makes a difference? How do you improve your team so that they make real changes, instead of getting defensive when you bring feedback? In today’s episode, we talk about one of our favorite approaches to giving feedback when you need to improve something your team member has been repeatedly coming up short on.

Be sure to check out our further reading for a text guide to what we discuss as well as even more ways to give feedback in addition to this tried and true approach.

• Learn how to apply this model in more detail on the Lighthouse blog here.
• And if you want more ideas of what questions to ask your team in the Listen phase of the Prepare-Listen-Act, then try out some of the 100+ questions listed here for you.
• Learn more ways to apply feedback here:
  • How to turn around an underperformer
  • 5 ways to give feedback better than the sh*t sandwich
  • How you can also get more feedback from your team

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What does it mean to lead from the heart? How can it help you get the best results and performance from your team? In this episode, we welcome long time friend of the Lighthouse blog and leadership expert Mark C Crowley to the show. He talks about why he chose to be a caring leader and how he got amazing results, even in the cutthroat, harsh finance industry.

We also learn a bit more about his life, and how anti-role models helped shape the great, caring leader Mark became. And as we always strive to be actionable, you’ll learn how you can start leading from the heart with your team, whether you’re an executive or founder looking to change their ways, or a mid level manager looking to simply lead your team more effectively.

• You can follow Mark on Twitter here. He’s a great follow as he is regularly sharing leadership advice and the latest research on management and engagement.
• Mark’s podcast can be found here: www.markccrowley.com/podcasts

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How did Lighthouse start in 2014? What are the key insights founder Jason Evanish learned as he interviewed a variety of managers?

In this episode, you'll learn how Lighthouse began, and what to expect in the upcoming season of the Creating High Performing Teams podcast.