There’s something I’ve started doing before hiring a new agency.
What is it? I look at their recent LinkedIn posts as well as the founder’s LinkedIn posts.
I want to see their thought leadership.
I want to see how their thinking is the same or different from others.
I want to see if their clients are commenting on their posts.
Why?
It more tangibly shows the kind of value they may bring to us.
Hiring people you’ve worked with before as employees or consultants is so nice! Who has been some of your favorite people to work with multiple times?
Why is it valuable? Here are a few reasons:
1. There’s already a level of trust built
2. You understand the other person’s communication styles
3. You are confident in their abilities to deliver results
Skip-level meetings are so valuable.
I suggest all managers of managers do them! And if your org isn’t too big, do it with every single person in your org at least once per quarter!
Why?
– It shows that you care about everyone on your team
– You learn new insights about your individuals’ strengths and personalities
– You will learn more about opportunities or issues at your company
Figure out the cadence that works for you. For me and Larry Furr, quarterly is a good rhythm.
Anyone else find these worthwhile?
Advice to all managers: Initiate the discussion about the elephant in the room.
Doing so builds trust, shows authenticity, and fosters real dialogue.
Your team desires those things even if they don’t request them verbally.
Here’s my Marketing status report template that I like to use with each team member.
It helps me stay aligned on an individual’s priorities and helps me clear roadblocks for them so that they can be more successful.
Also, reviewing this before our 1:1 makes it so that the 1:1s can be more strategic and about topics they want to dive deeper about.
I provided an example under each section so that you can see what I mean.
May 11-17
Questions for Grant:
– What is the latest regarding the target account list?
Waiting on others to complete something and date it’s been pending since:
– SEO agency to share list of new backlinks – 5/2
Published (externally or internally) since our last meeting:
– New YouTube video about X published
Accomplished this week:
– Published a new customer story video with Tesla
Plan for next week:
– Hold enablement session with Sales to train them on new positioning & messaging
Quarterly Roadmap/OKRs/KPIs Progress Completion (depending on what you use / call these):
– Publish 5 customer stories: 2/5 complete
People kudos and/or concerns:
– Kudos to Maura for helping me develop the new eChart positioning & messaging guide
Feedback for Grant:
– When you said ___ to Elon, that was very insensitive.
Feedback for <your name>:
What’s your template? What would you add/subtract/change?
HIPPOs – Highest Paid Person’s Opinion 🦛
They too often run the show with no chance for feedback or dialogue from others. We’ve likely all been there.
Here’s an example regarding content. I’ve had past managers that would provide content edits, & I sometimes disagreed with them.
It felt like I had no choice but to accept them and move on b/c they were the boss – the kind of boss that wasn’t open to changing their mind or hearing other viewpoints 🙅♂️
Now that I’m the manager of content creators, I’m intentional about doing the opposite 💡
– If I leave feedback or suggestions, I often invite their thoughts to have a discussion about it. “Thoughts?” “What do you think about this?” “Just an idea to consider.”
– If I feel strongly about something, I’ll explain the reasoning for my opinion and then ask for their thoughts.
– I’ll let the writer decide what the final outcome should be if I don’t feel strongly about something. “Just an idea. You can decide what to do here.”
How do you elicit good collaboration and feedback?
What do you think of my approach?
Are you & your direct reports on the same page with their performance? Do you know how satisfied they are with their job? When is the last time you got a bunch of feedback from them?
Here’s a structured way to get feedback and intentionally check in with your team that Keiko and Christina created that works well.
I’ve used similar structures in the past, but I like the simplicity of this one. Hope you do too!
>>>Part 1 of the doc: Employee assessment<<<
1. How would you evaluate your performance in Q3?
[ ] Exceeding expectations
[ ] Consistently meeting expectations
[ ] Inconsistently meeting expectations
[ ] Not meeting expectations
[ ] Not sure what is expected of me, so it’s hard to answer
2. Overall, are you satisfied with your job?
[ ] Extremely satisfied
[ ] Frequently satisfied
[ ] Not always satisfied
[ ] Not at all satisfied
3. Which 1-2 value(s) did you most exhibit in Q3?
4. Please provide a short explanation (up to 300 words) or bullet points for your answers above. We will discuss more during our check-in.
5. What will you strive to achieve this quarter and how can I help you? (up to 150 words)
6. What feedback or suggestions do you have for me to be a better manager for you? (up to 150 words)
>>>Part 2 of the doc: Manager assessment<<<
1. How would you evaluate your employee’s performance in Q3?
[ ] Exceeding expectations
[ ] Consistently meeting expectations
[ ] Inconsistently meeting expectations
[ ] Not meeting expectations
2. Which 1-2 value(s) did your employee most exhibit in Q3?
3. Please provide a short explanation (up to 300 words) or bullet points for your answers above. We will discuss more during our check-in.
4. What feedback or advice do you have for your employee to continue growing? (up to 150 words)
————-
Useful? Do you have a structure you like more for quarterly check-ins?
Navigating cultural differences is a critical skill of a leader.
Here’s an example:
Some cultures never say “yes” the first time they’re offered help. If you don’t know this, you may take their first answer as their true intention. Whereas actually, they expect to be asked again once or twice before they’re “allowed” to say yes.
There can be a give and take:
The person asking can ask more than once
The person getting asked can say their true intentions the first time they’re asked
Two books I recommend for learning more about navigating cultural differences:
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier
What resources do you like on this topic?
How have you seen issues come up because of cultural misunderstandings?
Building trust is critical, especially when you start a new job. Here’s a tactical way to foster that:
In your next team meeting, have everyone answer these 5 questions:
1. What was your first job? 💼
2. How many siblings do you have? 👨👩👦👦
3. What were the places you grew up in? 🌎
4. Share a challenge you faced growing up. 🚧
5. Share something no one knows about you. 💡
This helps people open up about their personal life a bit & creates a better connection.
Someone has talked about battling cancer while others have talked about their guitar collection. To each their own level of comfort.
I do this every time I join a new team.
Also, whenever a new person joins my team, they answer the questions in their first team meeting, and then I have others on the team share something no one knows about them (so it’s not just the new person sharing).
Shoutout to Chris Duncan for first suggesting these questions to me!
If you manage people who manage people, it’s valuable to have skip level meetings. This is where you meet 1:1 with the people who don’t report to you directly but are part of your team.
If you don’t do this with your boss’ boss, then send them this & ask if they’d be open to meeting with you monthly or quarterly.
Below is why & a template for topics to cover:
Why do it?
Here’s a template of topics to cover:
Depending on how many people are on your team, I’d suggest doing this monthly or quarterly.
What are other topics you like to cover?
Have you had any meaningful experiences during a skip level meeting?