21 Mar Is that an AK in your hand?
This week we are half-way through our programme Leadershift at a large corporate client. I was blown away by where the conversation went yesterday and thought our community might find it interesting. In the module ‘Conversations that Matter’ we were discussing which
conversations matter, why they matter and why they are often difficult.
Our conversation turned to performance feedback (as it always does in this module). One delegate asked: “Why, once someone is promoted do they become different, for example suddenly not approachable?”
Another delegate answered with the metaphor: “Have you ever seen anyone holding an AK47 in their hand while smiling?” Oh wow.
Is this the way we see our managers? That the ‘tool’ in their hands when approaching performance feedback is an AK? What if we can help managers approach this conversation with an attitude of ‘I am going to give feedback to help this employee be their best self, to help them improve and to help them win, even if it is not easy’ – does our AK then turn into kindness? Maybe a rose instead of a gun?
This programme and these raw conversations make me realise again and again that if we don’t enable our new managers/ leaders with the tools they need, the tools might become guns. If they are seeing their managers as angry faces with big guns, do they then copy that example? How can we get better at this? How can we help our leaders to understand how incredibly important their example is? I personally think that managing people is the most difficult thing in the world – and I am in the ‘people space’ – how can we expect technical experts to suddenly become good people managers once promoted if we don’t help them make the transition?
Our programme Leadershift blows my mind every time I facilitate it – the Enneagram gives our delegates a foot-up to help with personal mastery and the carefully crafted modules and conversation based learning brings it all together. It truly is transformational (and we have references)!
We have a public Leadershift programme coming up from 18 April and we have a customised in-house version available for groups of 6 or more. Send us a mail for the brochure or registration form.
OD Talk – Wednesday 29 March 2023
How do we equip our leaders to better lead the EX?
Join us to explore solutions to the “Quiet Quitting’ trend by getting this important topic on the EXCO agenda. Sign up for free and join us for an hour and a half of straight talk about OD. Join the discussion from 09h00 – 10h30.
REGISTER HERE
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