Growth Path Podcast: Recent Episodes

View Details

This was our last piece, which we never published, until now. It is being posted here as a placeholder.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com

View Details

Hello and welcome (back) to Growth Path, where we discuss skills to help you grow in your career & life.

Today we are going to talk about how to build trust. As the foundation for all relationships, trust is essential for high-performing teams (and organizations). People in trusting relationships communicate more easily, collaborate more effectively, and work more efficiently. They have fewer conflicts, experience a greater sense of meaning in their work, and get more done with less. There is no such thing as too much trust.

For this episode, we are trying something a little different. Because there is so much to cover, rather than cramming it all into one long piece, we broke it into four parts. Each is about 10-15 minutes long, and together they create a series.

The first episode (this one) covers definitions of trust, why it’s so important, and some principles for building it. In the following episodes, we talk about How to Build Trust with Oneself (Part II), Building Trust with Others (Part III), and The Trusting Team (Part IV). They will be released in the next couple of days.

Whether you are a new manager, a seasoned executive, or simply looking to collaborate more seamlessly with your colleagues, building trust-based relationships can make your work (& life) operate much more smoothly. We hope that you find this series helpful.

Alright, let’s dive in.

~ Michelle

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

Hi everybody,

Welcome (back) to Growth Path, where we discuss professional development & tools to help you grow in your career & life.

In this episode, we are going to talk about How to Prioritize. This is an important topic for personal and professional growth because if you don’t prioritize the right things, you will waste time, energy & resources pursuing activities that don’t matter or give you the results you want. Worse, if you are a manager and aren’t strong in prioritization, your team will work on too many different projects - ultimately leading to duplication and poor decisions. Teams that aren’t clear on their priorities often inch along without seeing results. They additionally have a hard time collaborating with others, and often suffer from a lack of momentum, which leads to poor morale and burnout.

The most successful people & teams all have one thing in common - they are highly skilled at prioritization. They allocate their time and energy effectively toward the things that matter most. They get more done, and they do more with less.

For this session, I decided to try something a little different. While usually, on Growth Path, we have guest speakers join to share their wisdom, there are too many incredible insights on this topic from too many people to limit it to just one guest speaker. For that reason, I am structuring this episode more like a research report. The primary sources are top books on business, management, leadership, and personal effectiveness (e.g., The Effective Engineer, High Output Management, and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). I also reference writings by some of the greatest operators & thought leaders in business (e.g., Ben Horowitz, Michael Porter, and Andy Grove). The goal was to find overlap in their recommended principles, framework, and tactics for effective prioritization. My intention in this episode is to share with you the highlights and key takeaways of what I have learned.

This episode has three parts. The first focuses on principles - some of the highest-level foundations or beliefs on prioritization (e.g., “Begin with the end in mind,” “First things first,” and the compounding nature of prioritization. The second section digs into popular frameworks and structures (e.g., the Eisenhower Matrix, Pareto Principle, and Priority Codes.) The third section centers on tips, tricks & tactics for prioritization - along with a few examples of how they can be used. We wrap with some inspirational quotes.

Attached to this audio episode is something new called the “Learn More Document”. There, you will find timestamps, notes & key takeaways, reflection & discussion questions, and links to books, videos & articles for further study. Whether you are learning on your own, with a friend, or with your team - these should help you dig deeper into the topic and reflect on how you can improve your skillsets around prioritization.

I so hope that you find this useful. If you have any feedback or ideas, please don’t hesitate to email, or leave a comment below.

Have a great rest of your week!

~ Michelle

→ Link to Learn More Document ←

Get full access to Growth Path at www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

Hi everybody -

Our guest for this coaching session is Nir Eyal.

Nir is a highly acclaimed writer, speaker, lecturer, consultant, and teacher focused on the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He has co-founded and sold two tech companies and has written two bestselling books - Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products & Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

In this session, we discuss the subject of his most recent book - how to become indistractable. Nir starts by explaining why he cares so deeply about this topic and felt it was worth spending five years writing a book on it. He talks about why abstinence from technology does not work and walks us through what he calls the "Indistractable Model" - a framework for understanding how internal triggers (and negative emotions) lead us away from the things we want to accomplish in our lives. We talk about the importance of self-compassion, how motivation and the desire to escape discomfort impact focus, and tips and tricks for managing uncomfortable emotions like boredom and negativity. We wrap with a discussion on time management and how to create an indistractable workplace, team, and company culture.

If you are looking for ways to improve your focus - or that of your team, this is the session for you!

Let’s dive in.

~ Michelle

📓 Notes, Key Takeaways & Discussion Questions 📓

⏱️ Timestamps

• Why focus on distraction? (03:55)

• What is the indistractable model? (09:55)

• On motivation & the desire to escape discomfort (17:28)

• On self-compassion (26:25)

• Tips & tricks to manage uncomfortable emotions (27:23)

• Time Management (33:01)

• Indistractable workplaces, teams & cultures (43:43)

📚Referenced & Further Study:

• Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal 📗

• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal 📗

• Schedule Maker/Google Sheet Template

• Indistractable Bonus Content

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, Ph.D. 📗

• Follow Nir on Twitter, LinkedIn, or his blog.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

Hello everybody!

Welcome (back) to Growth Path. Our guest for this coaching session is Catherine Stewart. Over the past decade, Catherine has held senior leadership roles in companies like McKinsey, Facebook, Random House, and Automatic, the company behind WordPress. Most recently, she was COO of Shippo, a shipping logistics company.

In this session, we talk about how to negotiate. Catherine kicks us off by explaining why this skill set is indispensable in navigating challenges both in the workplace and at home. She covers the subtle differences between bartering, bargaining, and value-creation negotiation and provides tips and tricks for negotiating job offers. She then gives an overview of her core principles of negotiation (and persuasion more broadly). We wrap up with a discussion on BATNA and the importance of valuing feelings and a sense of fairness when negotiating important outcomes.

If you’re looking to uplevel your negotiation skills for your next job/promotion discussion or want to find better ways to navigate a sticking point with your partner at home, this is the session for you.

~ Michelle

Resources:

📓 Link to Notes & Key Takeaways Doc*

🎧 Listen (& follow) on Spotify or on the Web

⏱️ Timestamps:

• What is negotiation? Why develop this skill set? (02:05)

• Negotiating a job offer (05:58)

• Core principles (09:17)

• BATNA (22:32)

• Fairness (31:52)

🙋‍♂️ Want to learn more? Check out our new Table of Contents/Syllabus.

📧 Want to join Growth Path? Subscribe here.

✏️ Have feedback or questions? Email us.

—

*Notes & Key Takeaways docs are available to paid subscribers.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

Hi everybody, hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Our guest for this coaching session is a friend and former professor of mine, Frank Cespedes. Frank is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches a variety of MBA and executive courses on Management, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Sales. Before joining the faculty, he worked at the strategy consulting firm Bain & Company and was Managing Partner at the Center for Executive Development. An active investor, advisor, and board member, Frank is also a prolific writer. He’s written six books - mostly on sales (see links below) and dozens of articles for publications like Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune. He has also written more than 40 case studies for Harvard.

In this conversation, Frank and I dive into one of his favorite topics, sales management, as we discuss his latest book, Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing. He shares with us the professional, intellectual, and practical reasons for focusing a career on sales, the challenges associated with learning & training, and how he believes selling is changing (or not changing) in an increasingly remote world. We discuss the challenging shift many salespeople make from individual contributor to management, the importance of creating a culture of excellence, and how integrating sales into the overall company strategy is mission-critical in driving performance. We wrap with a discussion of how buyer behavior is changing in an increasingly data-rich, omnichannel world and how that impacts the role salespeople must play.

If any of these topics appeal to you more than another, feel free to check the show notes below. You will find links to the Key Takeaways doc, as well as timestamps so that you can skip ahead to the relevant part.

I found this conversation absolutely fascinating, and I hope you will too.

Let's dive in!

~ Michelle

📝 Link to Key Takeaways Doc📝

⏱️ Timestamps:

• Why focus a career on sales? (5:28)

• On training, learning & development (09:59)

• Sales in a remote world (17:48)

• Sales management (22:20)

• Culture of excellence, performance management & strategy (27:31)

• Sales & the macroeconomic situation (36:46)

• What’s changing in sales (42:22)

• Parting words (47:56)

📚 Referenced & Further Study:

• Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing [Frank’s latest book]

• Preparing Sales for a Changing Economy: Part 1 (trainingindustry.com)

• Preparing Sales for a Changing Economy, Part 2: Getting More from Your Training Spending (trainingindustry.com)

• Frank’s author page on Amazon

• Frank’s bio

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

How to Onboard (Remote Employees)

By Catherine Stewart

📝Notes:

Why is this an important competency?

• Onboarding is one of the more critical moments when you are introducing an employee to the company and the company to that employee to make sure they are set up for success.

• It is harder in a remote environment to onboard, and we are moving into a world where remote is not just common but often the default, and it's here to stay.

• A remote environment complicates onboarding and requires much tighter processes for successful onboarding.

What's the problem?

• Managers struggle to ensure their teams build the right social connections early enough, meet the right people, and learn how things get done in the company.

• Onboarding typically is where you connect with colleagues, bond with the team, and get a feel for the company & culture → it is now often threatened.

The goal of onboarding:

• Goal: Human and tight of a process as possible → make sure employees don't feel lonely and disconnected and drift in the wrong direction.

• New employees have a lot to learn: who the key players are and how things get done; they may also be new to the industry & tools used.

• Managers must ensure they are set up to quickly learn as much as possible.

How remote is different:

• Typically natural interactions don't happen (e.g., shadow, observe, pop over to someone's desk)

• Remote onboarding requires more communication and intentionality.

• Employees can struggle in a few ways, e.g., (1) in knowing who to meet, (2) may not know what is expected of them or how to prioritize their time; they don't know how they are doing b/c there is less non-verbal feedback; (3) more likely to veer off course b/c will take a longer time for their manager to notice

• Many employees feel disconnected and lonely → identify if other employees live near them that you can introduce them; consider who might be social/good at slack who can become a buddy at work (e.g., "cultural warriors")

Tactics to support onboarding:

• Overcommunication - everything in a single one-stop shop manual (prepare far in advance, ideally once they accept the offer, expect to spend at least a few hours on it) – projects, information, background reading (more detail below)

• Structural support with the team (e.g., first project paired with someone who has been at the company for a while) → creates incentives for them to help one another. It also generates natural information sharing.

• Higher-than-typical velocity of check-ins and 1:1s (e.g., 2-3x/week for the first few weeks)

• Shadow calls & meetings (to give guidance and feedback) → sets the stage for the future flow of feedback.

• Ensure you understand their needs (e.g., training in Slack or Google docs) → can get support lined up if possible (e.g., training with HR)

• Team connection → helpful to have a mix of team calls and 1:1s across the team. Ideally, have work-related reasons that tie the team together. Virtual coffee/beer is not the same as in-person. Good to have some sort of team meetup, even if just a few members.

Onboarding Document - what to include:

*Note: As you build your team, you can re-use portions of this document with future hires. It's helpful to invest time upfront.

• Prioritized list of who the new hire should meet with and why (next level here includes scheduling these meetings in advance of Day 1);

• (If possible) list of people who live nearby who they could meet

• List of slack groups to join and how to engage with each (e.g., which ones to pay most attention to vs. which ones are more for social/passive monitoring)

• Links to the doc for 1:1s (so they can drop in questions as they come up during onboarding)

• Key reading & context for why it matters (e.g., company OKRs, strategy, board docs, past projects)

• Link to doc describing the first project (including scope, who they will be working with, and what success looks like)

• FAQs: names of people on exec team (or board if applicable for their role); common challenges specific to the company culture and how to handle them (sometimes better for a conversation); date of first performance review, what process will look like and if they'll qualify for a pay increase; the cadence of feedback/PDs (professional development conversations)

Team integration:

• Best to have a new team norms conversation each time a new member joins

• Team norms doc: can include things like preferred methods of communication, working hours, personality type (e.g., Myers Briggs or Enneagram)

• Can share as a manager what is essential to you (e.g., ideal advanced notice for a planned vacation, expectations around working hours/facetime)

Final words of wisdom:

• As a manager, it's important to think about how you can give your employees what they need to succeed (e.g., quick wins, visibility, coverage)

💬 Discussion Questions:

• Think back to a time when you started a job

• How did you feel in the days leading up to your first day? Did you have contact with your manager or the company? How did the contact (or lack thereof) make you feel?

• In the first few days after starting, what did your manager do that helped you feel more comfortable? Inspired?

• What do you wish you had received that you didn’t?

• When did you feel fully “onboarded” or “ramped”? Looking back, is there anything your manager could have done to help you ramp & integrate faster?

• When onboarding a new hire, what should be the goal(s)? How do you know if you have succeeded?

• What can you do to make onboarding a more scalable and easy-to-replicate process? How can you leverage resources that already exist? Is there anything you can share from your onboarding process with other managers?

• Will you have any new hires starting in the next six months? If so, what is your plan to onboard them?

✏️ Did we miss something? Any other tips or tricks you’d like to share? Leave a comment below.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

Hello! Welcome to Growth Path.

So what is Growth Path?

We're a new startup that produces audio courses for professional development. Our first course is Management Level 1.

Why management? Well, for one thing, we all have to do it. Whether you're managing your own life and schedule, a tough job, a busy household, or a small team, we are all constantly managing.

Management only gets more complex over time. As you grow in your career, you will almost certainly be offered the opportunity to manage others. And the more people you manage, the more complex your world will be. We believe that there aren't enough great resources for new managers. We also think there aren't enough great mentors to go around. Our vision is to give you access to the best bosses, mentors & operators on your schedule. We do this by recording interviews with them on the sticky & difficult topics that will empower you to be a better manager.

The first series within Management Level 1 is called Difficult Conversations & Navigating Conflict. We start with basic skills like how to listen, how to talk about your feelings, how to build trust, and how to say no. We then get into working with others - how to disagree politely, own your mistakes, give critical feedback, deliver bad news, and handle an emotional colleague. The last section is on performance & career management. There we'll cover how to say no to a raise, confront a direct report, fire someone with humanity, negotiate a job offer, and ask for a promotion.

We have a fantastic guest teacher for this series. Her name is Catherine Stewart, and she's been an executive in Silicon Valley for over a decade. Our lessons are heavily researched and scripted to ensure they are both comprehensive & efficient. We supplement each lesson with written notes and links to further resources so that you can dig in or refer back at a later time.

For now, all episodes are free. But, starting soon, we'll be moving episodes behind the "members-only" paywall. Memberships are $20/month or $200/year. If you have an education stipend with your company, we highly recommend you use it!

All right, that's it for now. We are excited to dig in and meet you! Feel free to drop us a line anytime.

Onwards & up!

~ Michelle & The Growth Path Team

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

This episode is a 28-minute listen. The notes are a 4-min read. Subscribe here.

Featuring Jesse Hunt

📝 Notes:

Introduction:

• It can be unnerving to put yourself out there to ask for business, money, time.

• Many posts & blogs say, "do this, don't do that," but cold outreach can be exciting, creative, and effective.

• It's important to learn the basics: what is a cold email, how do they work, and what are some different frameworks.

Content, Copy & Packaging:

• Think of a beautiful letter (e.g., hand-written, pretty color) → earns the right to take up 30 seconds of your day.

• Similarly, with email, the packaging is the subject line – and many people discount it.

• The subject line is like a welcome mat --> helps the recipient feel more comfortable and engaged with what you are positioning.

• A poorly crafted subject line (e.g., "Re: ____") is more likely to go to spam. It also annoys people. Don't trick your recipients into opening an email → nobody likes to feel tricked; taking shortcuts with underhanded tactics won't work in the long term.

• Buyers buy with emotion and justify with rationale.

When to personalize vs. not:

• It's common to "tier your accounts" --> to determine which accounts could have a high yield (opportunities created).

• For some accounts, you will target specific individuals with a high level of customization. Other accounts and individuals go into a "batch & blast" process (less customized but still familiar).

Subject lines

• Ideal to do a personalized email subject line whenever possible (e.g., "Wouldn't it be great if you could clone [former top employee name]?")

• Review the person's footprint (e.g., blog, bio) and include a reference in the subject line or email.

• Typical open rates: depends on the campaign and situation —> hard to generalize.

What to do if someone isn't responding:

• Show empathy (e.g., "I'm guessing you're slammed right now.”)

• Keep it short (so you don't annoy them).

• Ask a question they can respond to quickly if interested (e.g., "any thoughts here?").

• Change the subject line of the email thread mid-communication (e.g., "Given up?") followed with a concise email (e.g., "Have you given up on this project?") → nobody likes to give up.

Body of the email

• Keep the body of the email short → If you write a long email, you ask for a time commitment before you've earned the right to ask for their time.

• Test the emails on yourself first (e.g., to see how many scrolls it requires on the phone).

• 3x3 research: in three minutes, you should be able to find three pieces of relevant information about a contact or account (e.g., recent funding, hire, product release) → try to get that research into the email.

• Know to whom you are selling (e.g., only use sales jargon with people in sales).

• The tone should be respectful, personal, and authentic (senior leaders get dozens of emails daily - they can sniff out BS).

Emails vs. Calls:

• Know your strengths and weaknesses - "sales is a brutal sport - need to know what you are good at" – if you are great at talking to people, you may do better on calls. If you are a strong writer, you may do better on emails.

• Split testing/AB Testing: may do 50 cold calls and 50 emails and compare the yield.

• Introverts do very well in sales - don't assume you need to be extroverted.

How to avoid burnout:

• Cold outreach can be exhausting, lonely & filled with rejection.

• Even the best reps face more rejection than acceptance.

• Stay close to your manager. Let them know when you feel overburdened or need a break → that is what the team is for.

• Try to make it fun - even if people say no, find the relevant information.

Common mistakes

• Pitch slapping - connecting with someone & immediately afterward pitching a product or service → scorched-earth tactic and sloppy; bad for sales community in general.

• Taking too long to get to the point → don't talk too much about yourself. Just explain how you are going to help the buyer solve a problem.

• Don't use an overly formal tone; okay to use conjunctions.

Interest-focused CTAs & Empathy

• Your call-to-action (aka CTA) matters.

• An interest-focused CTA (e.g., "are you interested in meeting?") tends to perform better than a time-focused CTA (e.g., "can I have 15 minutes of your time?"). Time is finite & interest is infinite.

• Better to come from a "consultative" approach vs. "I want to talk to you." Try to present something valuable to the buyer (e.g., "are you interested in solving those problems"?). It's a subtle difference and makes it about the other person.

• Empathy is a core skill set in sales. Avoid using personal pronouns like "I" and "me." It makes it about you, not the buyer.

📇 Glossary:

• Tiering your accounts: determining which accounts could have a high yield.

• Yield: opportunities created, meetings set out of the outreach set

• Split testing (aka A/B Testing): a controlled experiment aimed at improving a specific metric

• 3x3 research: three minutes for three relevant pieces of research

• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): the type of company or customer who would most benefit from your product or service

• CISO: Chief Information Security Officer

• Pitch slapping: a near-instant sales pitch for a product before the need or a connection is established

• Scorched-earth tactic: a last-ditch attempt

📇 Further Study:

• A Guide to Cold Emailing [HBR Blog]

• 7 Cold Email Stats To Write Killer Cold Emails [Gong Blog]

• How to Write Cold Emails That Always Get Responses [Hubspot YouTube 📺]

• The Ins & Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results [Hubspot blog]

• From building AWS to crafting the best cold emails by Manny Medina [Podcast]

• Cold Email Wizard (Course & Twitter Account)

• Other Tips & Tricks [Twitter post from Michelle]

• Cold Email [Wikipedia]

Did we miss something? Have a great tip or trick about cold emails? Please leave a comment below! 👇

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

In this session, taught by Catherine Stewart, we cover how to fire someone with dignity & humanity. Here are the topics we cover:

• Why firing an important skill for managers to develop

• Different reasons people are fired

• Pre-work for firing in case of underperformance

• How to prepare & what to expect for the firing

• What to do if someone becomes emotional

• Firing for cause

• Layoffs

📝 Notes:

Why is firing an important skill for managers to develop?

• Most managers struggle with first firing (and often, all firing).

• Letting someone go kindly, humanely, and with respect is in the best interest of the employee, the company, and the manager.

• The world is small - the people you fire will carry their impression of you and the firing into the future (where they may be potential partners, references for new hires, etc.)

Different reasons people are fired:

• With cause: violated the terms of their employment (e.g., HR violation, breach of confidentiality)

• Without cause: usually related to underperformance

• Layoffs (e.g., different strategic direction or budget cuts)

Pre-work for firing in case of underperformance:

• Touch base with the HR and/or legal department to understand the legal environment. It can vary by state, city, county, and country (e.g., "Gardening Leave" in the UK).

• Communicate clearly with the employee over weeks/months the expectations & document the communications & issues (e.g., in a performance improvement plan aka PIP) → this mitigates the risk of a lawsuit.

• Ensure you know what you are offering the employee (e.g., assistance finding a new role).

• Align with the HR and/or legal department on the checklist of logistical items (e.g., when is the last paycheck, health insurance coverage (COBRA), internal messaging, separation agreement, and general release of claims.)

How to prepare & what to expect for the firing:

• It will be challenging, but don't let that get in the way of being direct and doing it swiftly.

• More direct = kinder.

• Schedule it in person if possible—next best video, then phone. Ideally, schedule it soon to avoid dragging it on, which can be anxiety-inducing.

• If performance-related, it will be the culmination of an ongoing conversation that has been happening for weeks or months → there should be no new information; they will understand how you got there.

• Be sensitive to emotions - there will be many. The person being fired may feel that their identity is threatened, and they may feel shame or financial anxiety for themselves and their family.

• You may also feel many emotions such as disappointment, guilt, self-recrimination, and even betrayal (especially if you hired them).

• Do not debate. Use a kind tone of voice, and don't be aggressive. Use a tone of respect and empathy paired with direct language. The conversation should be clear & easy with no opportunity for misinterpretation. They should feel cared for.

• If at all possible, call out the positive and what you will miss and what you appreciate about the employee and their achievements.

• Communicate the path forward - the transition plan, severance (if applicable), and what the next few weeks will look like (e.g., 1:1 frequency, paperwork, separation agreement and release of claims, COBRA, what will happen with their options, parting gesture such as goodbye drinks.

• Follow up afterward with a written summary in consultation with HR and/or the legal department (it can be hard to digest everything in the conversation, and helpful to have a paper trail to mitigate risk).

What to do if someone becomes emotional:

• Very common for intense feelings of negativity (e.g., anger, shame, sadness, crying) --> Listen and understand that this is human and natural; try to create an environment where they feel comfortable sharing feelings with you, and ensure they feel heard and understood.

• If for underperformance, acknowledge how you could have done better and listen to their feedback → you can learn a lot from upward feedback regarding how things could have gone better.

Firing for cause:

• An employee let go for cause (e.g., sexual harassment, breach of confidentiality) will typically require more involvement with HR or Legal (and they may lead the process themselves.)

• Sometimes there may be a need for a discovery process (e.g., interviewing people about the incident, reviewing documentation such as Slack messages and emails).

• For the termination itself, HR may attend.

• The employee may need to be "walked out the door" to ensure they don't download confidential materials or do anything potentially vindictive.

• The process will depend on circumstances and company policy.

Layoffs:

• Usually, there's a standard severance package (may be a formula for the number of years or months or seniority). Work with HR and find out what is standard for the company.

• Best to communicate to everybody on the same day to ensure that people hear the information as quickly as possible from you rather than from other team members.

• Ensure those who remain know the cuts are over & they have a place at the company. This makes it more likely you will retain top performers.

• If you have the capability, help the laid-off employees find their next job (e.g., put them in touch with recruiters, reach out to hiring managers, serve as a reference)

📇 Glossary:

• HR Violation/HRV: violation of the terms of employment

• Performance Improvement Plan (aka PIP): a tool that provides employees with performance deficiencies the opportunity to succeed

• Cause: terminated due to HR violation and/or broken policies or laws

• General release of claims form: waives the right to sue the company down the road [note that it won't be binding unless the company has paid consideration to the employee, such as severance]

• Garden(ing) leave: the employee does not work while remaining on the payroll

• Discovery process: period to obtain evidence

• "Walked out the door": a more formal termination process that typically involves revoking access to digital files (aka "a box and an escort")

📇 Further Study:

• Firing with Compassion (HBR)

• Fair, Square & Legal: Safe Hiring, Managing & Firing Practices to Keep You & Your Company Out of Court

• For Your Improvement, Korn Ferry

💬 Discussion Questions:

• Have you worked alongside someone who you felt should be let go?

• If so, describe the situation. What was the person's role on the team? Why did you think that termination was merited?

• How did this employee’s behavior or performance affect the rest of the team?

• How did the situation ultimately resolve?

• If you had been this person's manager, what would you have done differently?

• If you knew you had to terminate a direct report tomorrow, how would you feel?

• What fears or concerns might you have as you prepare for the conversation?

• How would your feelings change if you considered this direct report to be a friend?

• How do you think the news may affect your direct report, both emotionally and practically?

• What might you do to help your report adjust to the news? How can you help them cleanly transition out of the company, and find their next job?

Note: The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This website contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; we do not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe

View Details

📝 Notes

Why is it so important to be skilled at giving critical feedback?

• It's essential if you're going to work well together over the longer term.

• Need to ensure everyone understands standards; getting continuous feedback enables the team to hit goals and keep improving as individuals.

How can new managers develop their skills in this area?

• Remember that you don't always have all the information; ensure you don't have a misinterpretation of the context for any observed behaviors.

• Provide feedback immediately (or at least very soon) after noticing the behavior (also ensures if you have misinformation, it is cleared up quickly)

• Give critical feedback in private (avoids embarrassment or awkwardness)

• Ask the recipient how they think things went - it gives them a chance to provide full context.

• Describe what you saw & the impact (e.g., how it influenced the meeting and the person's credibility, etc.).

• Talk about how you would avoid the situation in the future and how you would do it differently (both manager & direct report); how can you as a manager help the person stay accountable to commitments and allow them to practice skill sets.

• Pair negative feedback with positive feedback & recognition; see the situation holistically - pull out what did work and what the person did well (but don't fabricate it)

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.growthpathlabs.com/subscribe