Setting and maintaining role expectations requires defining and documenting a clear, reasonable, and accurate scope for each role. This is typically done in the format of a job description.

Some managers find themselves using job descriptions for the hiring process and then forgetting them entirely until there’s a backfill. Others have little to no role documentation at all for their team members.

When it comes to documenting a role, the goal is simple, not Shakespeare. Too many job descriptions have confusing language in an attempt to be formal instead of being straightforward. A job description is essentially a role’s overall to-do list, so it needs to be written with that in mind.

What you are asking the person to do in the role also needs to be reasonable for one person to accomplish in terms of time and talent:

Time: When writing the job description, keep in mind the time it takes to complete everything you are asking the role to do. You don’t want to establish expectations that overextend a team member. 

Talent: Too often managers will try to cram what should be multiple roles into one due to varying reasons like lack of budget. Different roles call for different skill sets. When you combine them together, it essentially becomes impossible to find someone who can successfully wear that many hats. 

Scope can easily start to creep over time. Things get added or projects and tasks grow in size. What was once a reasonably scoped role now requires the work of more than one person. Managers often make the mistake of depending on their team to speak up when this happens, or don’t consider this topic at all. Evaluating the work actually being done against the defined scope regularly will help to keep this in check.

A clear and reasonable scope does your team member no good if it isn’t accurate. While this might seem obvious, all too often team members are hired based on a specific job description only to onboard into a totally different role. The defined scope is the baseline you will use to performance manage against. It’s also a very strong piece of documentation in legal situations like wrongful termination claims - hard to justify whether or not someone performed if you didn’t document what they were supposed to do in the first place.

Some managers see job descriptions as an administrative burden. However, it’s the most strategic document you can have. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. The more solid your role expectations, the stronger your people management and team success.

Role Clarity

You are far ahead of many managers by having clear, reasonable, and accurate expectations defined for each role. You have them documented in the format of a job description. Unlike other managers who find themselves using job descriptions for the hiring process and then put them on the shelf to collect dust until there’s a backfill, you keep yours updated.

Your documentation of the expectations for roles is straightforward. Continue to avoid confusing language since the job description does not need to be overly formal. You know the goal is simple, not Shakespeare.

Role Scope

The scopes you set are reasonable for one person to accomplish in terms of time and talent:

Time: When writing the job description, you keep in mind the time it takes to complete everything you are asking the role to do. You ensure the expectations don’t overextend the team member. 

Talent: You avoid cramming what should be multiple roles into one. You know different roles call for different skill sets. When you combine them together, it essentially becomes impossible to find someone who can successfully wear that many hats. 

While the scope might be well-defined today, you know that it can easily start to creep over time. Things get added and projects or tasks grow in size. What was once a reasonable scope now requires the work of more than one person. You don’t wait for your team to speak up when this happens. You regularly evaluate the work being done against the defined scope. If the scope has grown beyond reason, you make necessary adjustments.

Role Accuracy

You know a clear and reasonable scope does your team member no good if it’s not accurate. Too often you’ve seen people hired based on a specific job description only to onboard into a completely different role. Yours are accurate and up-to-date. The team can rely on them for accurate guidance.

As the manager, you use the job description as the baseline for performance management. You’ve also created a very strong piece of documentation should a lawsuit situation arise like a wrongful termination claim. You know it’s hard to justify whether or not someone performed if you don’t have documented what they were asked to do in the first place.

While some managers see job descriptions as an administrative burden, you know it’s the most strategic document you have. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. The more solid your role expectations, the stronger your people management and team success.

1x1s should be held weekly or bi-weekly depending on business and team member needs. They should be scheduled for at least 30 minutes. Your team members will rarely remain feeling fully secure in their role independently. Staying consistent in holding 1x1s provides your team members the stability needed to do their work with confidence. The 1x1 is guaranteed time with you they can rely on regularly.

These meetings need to be meaningful to your team. You might currently struggle with team members who won’t show up to meetings or have very little or nothing on their list to talk about. Many team members dread attending 1x1s and often celebrate when they are canceled because they don’t see them as a valuable use of their time. This is often due to an ineffective meeting structure. Effective 1x1s should have:

Collaborative agenda: A collaborative agenda allows both attendees to contribute to the meeting. It also provides visibility ahead of the meeting allowing for adequate time to prepare.

Meaningful agenda topics: This meeting is a time for discussing the critical factors for your team’s success: alignment, resources, providing feedback and coaching, ensuring their wellbeing, and building your working relationship. The topics need to be relevant for the audience and make a positive impact on their success.

Shared format for notes: A shared format furthers the collaborative approach. According to the Forgetting Curve Theory, created by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, the brain rejects almost 90% of what it hears within one week unless reinforced. Documenting what was discussed including action steps increases retention and removes ambiguity. It also provides a documented history that is easy to refer back to for performance management and compliance. 

While part of the agenda may change each meeting, alignment needs to stay the top priority every time. You need to systematically check to ensure your team members have the clarity they need and are headed down the right path. The majority of the time a team member goes off track, they don’t realize it and might believe they are on the right one. This means, you can’t rely on your team members to surface when they aren’t aligned or need clarity. They may not even know they need it.

The 1x1 is of the utmost importance which means it needs to be prioritized on your calendar. If you reschedule one-on-ones frequently, you can inadvertently send the message to the team that they are not important. It’s even worse if you cancel and don’t quickly pursue a new time. Instead, you want to show your team how important they are and how much you care by showing up regularly and staying focused during the meeting. This means avoiding distractions like emails, texts, or your own to-do list. If co-workers or upper management are scheduling meetings over your 1x1s, or you are tempted to “get some time back” by canceling the 1x1 since your calendar is so packed, it’s time for some healthy calendar management including setting time boundaries.

You are doing a great job by holding one-on-ones (1x1s). You have individualized the cadence and length for each team member knowing not everyone needs the same thing. You know that team members rarely feel fully secure in their role at all times. You stay consistent in holding 1x1s in order to provide your team members the stability needed to do their work with confidence. They know they have guaranteed time with you they can rely on regularly.

Your preparation ensures these meetings are meaningful to your team. While other managers may have team members who dread attending 1x1s, your team members find their 1x1s to be incredibly valuable and a good use of their time. You don’t struggle with meeting attendance or engagement issues because your 1x1s utilize:

‍Collaborative agenda: The agenda you use allows both attendees to contribute to the meeting. Each of you has visibility into what the other wants to discuss allowing for adequate time to prepare.

‍Meaningful agenda topics: In 1x1s you discuss the critical factors for your team’s success: alignment, resources, feedback and coaching, wellbeing check-in, and building your working relationship. You ensure the topics are relevant and make a positive impact on each team member’s success.

Shared format for notes: A shared format furthers the collaborative approach. You know that according to the Forgetting Curve Theory, created by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, the brain rejects almost 90% of what it hears within one week unless reinforced. What was discussed is documented including action steps. This increases retention and removes ambiguity. It also provides a documented history that is easy to refer back to for performance management and compliance. 

While part of the agenda may change each 1x1, you keep alignment as the top priority. Continue to systematically check to ensure your team members have the clarity they need and are headed down the right path. You know that you can’t always rely on your team members to raise a hand when they aren’t aligned - they may not even be aware they are off track.

Your calendar reflects your belief that the 1x1s with your team are of the utmost importance. You know that by rescheduling 1x1s frequently, you can inadvertently send the message to the team that they are not a priority. If you have to reschedule for rare situations, you quickly find a new time to meet. Because you are consistent with 1x1s and stay focused during them (avoiding distractions like emails, texts, or your own to-do list), you show your team they are worth your time.

You might be in a company that has no formal process for setting performance goals or no real accountability around it. This can lead to managers who:

1. Don’t define goals at all
2. Define goals too loosely
3. Define goals but then do nothing with them for accountability

Falling into one of these three categories can lead to a panicked, incomplete, and rushed process during performance-review time. How can you tell a team member they Missed, Achieved or Exceeded their targets if you don’t know what you were measuring to begin with?

A performance goal provides clarity beyond the role expectations. For example: If someone has the title of Construction Contractor that requires them to “build houses”, there is not enough information to guide what they are expected to achieve in the year. A performance goal might be “build six houses by the end of the year”. In knowing the goal of six houses, the team member understands the target to hit in order to be considered successful.

The goal creation process is rooted in the team member’s scope (job description) to ensure performance goals align with the core of the team member’s role. You want their targets (e.g. what you are asking them to accomplish) to make sense for the role they were hired to do. The goals must also be achievable in the allotted time.

Since the achievement of a performance goal is ultimately up to each individual, they should be included in the goal-setting process. When you ask your team members for their feedback, you are further setting everyone up for success. Taking a partnership approach increases their buy-in because the goals aren’t solely dictated to them. It provides you the opportunity to understand any roadblocks or other data and resources you might be missing that need to be accounted for. At times, you may not be asking for feedback not on the goal itself, but in order to align on the path to get there ensuring feasibility.

Creating alignment for your team around goals includes connecting their goals to the broader company and team goals. They need to understand where they fit in the bigger picture and how their work will have an impact. Your team needs to be able to trace their goals all the way to the company goals. The ability to do so is highly motivational as it increases clarity and feelings of connectedness. As a manager, you want your team members to be able to validate they are in fact part of a “team” and not isolated on an island.

Setting attainable goals creates a direct line to a motivated team. Your own finish line for setting and maintaining performance goals for your team: a highly productive team who is clear on what they need to accomplish, is motivated, and is able to achieve success.

Even if you are in a company that has no formal process for performance goal setting or no real accountability around it, you have clearly defined performance goals for each team member.  

Your team operates with a specific target in mind. You know there’s a difference between a job description that says the role requires “building houses” and a performance goal of “building six houses per year.” Without the goal of six houses, the team member doesn’t know what to achieve to be considered successful. 

Having clear performance goals that you follow throughout the year allows you to avoid a panicked, incomplete, and rushed process during performance review time. You are able to tell your team members where they succeeded or missed since you were clear on what they needed to accomplish.

You ground the goal creation in the team member’s scope (job description) to ensure performance goals align with the core of the team member’s role. What you are asking them to accomplish makes sense for what they were hired to do. The goals that you set are reasonably achievable in the time allotted.

Since you know the achievement of performance goals is ultimately up to each individual, you include the team in the goal-setting process when appropriate. Your team has increased buy-in because you take a partnership approach instead of dictating goals to them. You’ve seen that by getting their input, you have the opportunity to understand any roadblocks or other data you might be missing that needs to be accounted for when determining achievability. You focus on getting input around the things the individual can or cannot control, not on how big or small they would like the goal.

You increase alignment for your team around goals by connecting their goals to the broader company and team goals. They understand where they fit in the bigger picture and how their work will have an impact. Your team can trace their goals all the way to the company goals because you know it is highly motivational as it increases clarity and feelings of connectedness. Your team members are able to validate they are in fact part of a “team” and not isolated on an island.

You’ve done a great job ensuring the team is clear on what they need to accomplish. In turn they are motivated and are able to achieve success.

Team alignment meetings should be held weekly or bi-weekly depending on business needs. In seasons of change, they might be held more than once a week - sometimes daily. The ideal length for these meetings is typically an hour. If an hour isn’t enough time, take a look at your current agenda, the number of your direct reports, and how you are facilitating the meeting.

As a manager, your goal is to maintain alignment between the desired outcomes and your team’s efforts by reviewing team progress. You can do this by evaluating progress on team performance goals and the performance metrics designed to measure success. This allows the team to assess what’s on track, how they fit into the bigger team picture, and discuss potential or current team blockers to success.

You also can create alignment by providing the opportunity for team members to speak about their current work. If you have a low variation of roles, this allows others to learn how to do their job more effectively or see that someone else is struggling with the same thing they are. If you have a high variation of roles, this allows others to understand what their peers are doing and how their work impacts everyone else.

Team meetings are a great time to ensure everyone is on the same page, build working relationships, and do group activities.

A healthy team alignment meeting is one with:

• High levels of participation of team members
• Balanced engagement in discussion
• The willingness to share and discuss learnings 
• Team curiosity
• Thoughtful debate among team members
• A unified team

There might be one or a few team members who tend to be the same people to speak in every meeting. If this is true for your team, your more vocal team members could be unintentionally silencing others. Designing the agenda so everyone has the time to discuss what they are working on is a great step in leveling things out. Keep in mind that you have different personalities and sets of strengths on your team, so you need to provide a space for each person to participate.

Strong facilitation of these meetings leaves your team feeling in lockstep with you and each other and motivated to do their part.

Keep up the good work of holding consistent team alignment meetings. Your meetings are usually around an hour long and held weekly or bi-weekly.

You utilize the most impactful tool for creating team alignment: proactively reviewing team progress. You do this by evaluating progress on performance goals and the performance metrics designed to measure success. Your team is able to assess what’s on track, how they fit into the bigger team picture, and discuss potential or current blockers to success.

You also create alignment by providing the opportunity for team members to speak about their current work. If you have a low variation of roles, team members are able to learn how to do their job more effectively or see that someone else is struggling with the same thing they are. If you have a high variation of roles, team members are able to understand what their peers are doing and how their work impacts everyone else.

You utilize team alignment meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page, build working relationships, and do group activities.

To achieve healthy meetings with high engagement from the team, your team meetings:

• Welcome and encourage a high level of participation
• Meetings are more group discussion based and light on manager narrative
• Encourage team sharing of lessons learned 
• Reward and encourage team curiosity
• Welcome thoughtful debate among team members

Continue to:

• Ensure that the conversation is not dominated by one or only a few people at each meeting. Your team counts on you to provide a space for each unique individual. 
• Provide an agenda in advance so team members have time to properly prepare. 
• Have an agenda that allows time for all team members to speak when needed.

Good facilitation at these meetings leaves your team feeling in lockstep with you and each other, and motivated to do their part.

Holding quarterly alignment sessions allows you to ensure alignment between the day-to-day with the long-term view with the team. These strategic meetings can range from a half day to multiple days in length. This is dependent on the breadth of impact of the team, the team needs, time availability, and budget. 

If you are worried about coverage while your team is away or impacting day-to-day work:

• Find a peer team that can cover for you
• Provide frequent work breaks throughout the day while maintaining lids down the rest of the day
• Split your team if coverage isn’t available (try to avoid)
• Evaluate why the bandwidth is so tight that 4 hours away would be detrimental to the team’s output

 If you are on a tight budget, these sessions can still be very effective in a remote environment.

In these meetings, you’ll want to review the previous quarter and what’s coming up for the next one:

• Look at the next quarter’s plan through the lens of past performance
• Evaluating the current state of performance and resources
• What were the new learnings from the last quarter? How can you apply them here?
• What does the team need to: stop, start, continue, and double down on?

It can be easy with the nature of businesses to:

• Get off track
• Develop harmful habits
• Need new or refined sophistication in processes
• Feel disconnected from the bigger picture 

If your view is only from inside the maze, the way out is much more difficult. If you stop and evaluate it from above, often the answers are clear. As the manager, you are the drone pilot guiding your team - evaluating the most detailed of topics in one-on-ones all the way to the broader strategy in quarterly planning sessions.

Investing in this time allows for opportunities to make critical changes or deeper investments into what’s going well. It also provides the ability for the team to connect and develop in a more time-intensive manner than the regular team meetings. Providing your team the venue to evaluate their work at the strategic level is not only a driver of their alignment and therefore productivity, but it's also valuable for their long-term development.

You’re aligning the day-to-day with the long-term view is the goal by holding quarterly strategic planning sessions. Your strategic meetings range from a half day to multiple days in length. You determine the length based on the breadth of impact, the team needs, time availability, and budget. 

If you need to get coverage for the day-to-day work of the team, you:

• Find a peer team that can cover for yours
• Split your team if coverage isn’t available

 If you are on a tight budget, you hold these sessions in a remote environment.

In these meetings, you review the previous quarter and what’s coming up for the next one:

• Looking at the next quarter’s plan through the lens of past performance
• Evaluating the current state of performance
• What were the new learnings from the last quarter?
• What does the team need to: stop, start, continue, or double down or accelerate on?

You know it can be easy with the nature of business to:

• Get off track
• Develop harmful habits
• Need new or refined sophistication in processes
• Feel disconnected from the bigger picture 

You want your team's view to rise above the “maze.” You want them to be able to also see it all from above. Doing so makes it much easier to identify and solve problems when you can see the full picture and not just what’s right in front of you.

As the manager, it's your role to effectively guide your team through evaluations of the most detailed of topics in one-on-ones - all the way to the broader strategy in quarterly planning sessions.

Your focus on this time provides an opportunity to make critical changes - or deeper investments into what’s going well. It also provides the ability for the team to connect and develop in a more time-intensive manner than the regular team meetings. By providing your team the venue to evaluate their work at the strategic level, you drive alignment and provide valuable long-term development opportunities.

As their manager, it’s important to regularly evaluate the balance between what’s required and what’s actually available to do the job. Imagine opening an Ikea box and only to find out you are missing 30% of the pieces. Not only is the finished product not going to be what’s expected, it’s going to cause a lot of frustration and confusion in the building process.

Resources aren’t always about materials or money but can be things like people, systems, data, or knowledge. Knowing the resource gaps ahead of time will allow you to adjust expectations or advocate for the missing resources to meet the expectations. By doing so, you will have a team that is well-equipped to meet or exceed their goals.

You regularly evaluate the balance between what’s required and what’s actually available to do the job for each role on your team. You know that if your team is not properly equipped to do their role, there could be a lot of frustration, confusion, and lack of productivity.

You know resources aren’t always about materials or money but can be things like people, systems, data, or knowledge. By knowing the resource gaps ahead of time, you are able to adjust expectations and advocate for the missing resources to meet the expectations. In turn, you have a team that is well-equipped to meet or exceed their goals.

Discussing roadblocks is a great routine agenda item during 1x1s with team members. You’ll want to gather the level of severity for each roadblock and help determine next steps. At times, your team simply needs guidance on how to remove the roadblocks themselves. Other times, you’ll need to be an active participant in the solution.

By having roadblocks as a regular discussion item, you are allowing for problems to surface that may not have done so organically. Not all team members have the level of development required to proactively bring up roadblocks. Three common reasons why team members don’t surface blockers:

1. They may not want to be viewed as unable to do their job
2. They don’t want to further burden their manager since it’s surfacing problems that lead to more work
3. They have experienced a manager (might be you) who dismissed or ignored the information when roadblocks were surfaced

To help with removing roadblocks, tracking common themes or categories of roadblocks they are facing will be helpful when needing to influence your manager or others cross-functionally as it will provide supporting evidence. For example, if 8/10 roadblocks facing your team are all Product related, you’ll need to take one approach. If 8/10 are based on time, you’ll need to take another. The data will also remove any ambiguity around “is this a dragon or a lizard?” - is it a big problem or little problem?

You’re doing a great job by discussing roadblocks during every 1x1 with team members. You gather the level of severity for each roadblock and help determine next steps. You know that at times, your team simply needs guidance on how to remove the roadblocks themselves. Other times, you need to be an active participant in the solution.

By having roadblocks as a regular discussion item, you are allowing for problems to surface that may not have done so organically. You know not all team members have the level of development required to proactively bring up roadblocks. However, you work to ensure your team avoids the three common reasons why team members don’t surface blockers:

1. They may not want to be viewed as unable to do their job
2. They don’t want to further burden their manager since it’s surfacing problems that lead to more work
3. They have experienced a manager who dismissed or ignored the information when roadblocks were surfaced

To help with removing roadblocks, you track common themes or categories of roadblocks the team is facing. You use this data when needing to influence your manager or others cross-functionally as it provides supporting evidence. For example, if 8/10 roadblocks facing your team are all Product related, you take one approach. If 8/10 are based on time, you take another. Having this data also allows you to remove any ambiguity around “is this a dragon or a lizard?” - is it a big problem or little problem?

Utilizing the definition of success, you can establish the right performance measurement mechanisms. Doing so requires you to know what you are trying to measure and how. A roadblock often here is the ability to get the information you need.

What you use to determine success will drive team member behavior. At times, the wrong measurement might be used resulting in unwanted action. If that occurs, evaluate the measurement mechanism and adjust.

Once you’ve established the what and how you are measuring success, it’s time to review performance. Individual performance is reviewed during 1x1s and discussed utilizing the data from how they are being measured. This can be done through metrics and project tracking.

As you go, you want to ensure you are documenting performance. The ongoing documentation of performance:

• Ensures team members have clarity on their performance. You don’t want the team guessing where things stand.
• Provides supporting evidence for performance evaluation time, promotion/raise discussions, and potential disciplinary action including termination. If you are waiting until formal performance review time or when something is wrong to document performance, you’re too late.
• Creates normalcy around documenting performance week-to-week. This normalcy makes it a lot easier if the need arises to document poor performance. If you haven’t been documenting and a problem arises, the documentation can feel scarier than it needs to be for the team.

By utilizing the definition of success, you have established the right performance measurement mechanisms for the team. You know what you are trying to measure and how.

You know that what you use to determine success will drive team member behavior. If a measurement you’ve defined results in unwanted action, you evaluate and adjust.

Using the established performance measurement mechanism, you review performance. Continue to discuss individual performance during each 1x1 utilizing the data from how they are being measured. You are comfortable using metrics and project tracking to discuss performance.

You have strong performance documentation which:

• Ensures team members have clarity on their performance. Your team isn’t guessing where things stand. 
• Provides supporting evidence for performance evaluation time, promotion/raise discussions, and potential disciplinary action including termination. You know that if you are waiting until formal performance review time or when something is wrong to document performance, you’re too late.
• Creates normalcy around documenting performance week-to-week. You know this normalcy makes it a lot easier if the need arises to document poor performance.

Coaching the team is an incredibly meaningful and effective management tool. Great performance coaching is:

• Specific - details supporting the overall performance analysis
• Actionable - the team can do something with the feedback
• Timely - provided in close proximity to when the behavior occurred

Having the right level of specificity in these conversations gives credibility to what you are saying. When managers are surface level it can often be perceived that they weren’t actually paying attention or don’t see the value in spending time on the topic. 

By having the actionability element, the feedback goes from a simple assessment to a learning for the future. Coaching inherently means you are guiding actions with your feedback. 

Many managers struggle with the timely piece. Regular 1x1s are a great time to coach team members. However, there are situations where waiting until the next 1x1 is too late. Your goal is to provide feedback as close to the action as possible. Doing so more strongly reinforces desired behaviors and helps the team member quickly know what to avoid, so they don’t repeat it.

A manager who is comfortable and even loves coaching their team and knows how to do it well is a manager who will not only change lives, but have a highly engaged and productive team. The more frequently you do it, the more confident you will become.

Coaching the team is an incredibly meaningful and effective management tool. Your performance coaching is:

• Specific - details supporting the overall performance analysis
• Actionable - the team can do something with the feedback
• Timely - provided in close proximity to when the behavior occurred

You know that having the right level of specificity in these conversations gives credibility to what you are saying. Your avoid surface-level feedback as it can often be perceived that you weren’t actually paying attention or don’t see the value in spending time on the topic. 

Your feedback goes from a simple assessment to a learning for the future. You know that coaching inherently means you are guiding actions, so you ensure your feedback is actionable.  

While other managers may struggle with being timely, you utilize frequent 1x1s to coach team members. If there is a situation that requires more immediate feedback, you don’t wait until the 1x1. You provide feedback as close to the action as possible. You know that doing so more strongly reinforces desired behaviors and helps the team member quickly know what to avoid, so they don’t repeat it.

You are comfortable with and even love to coach the team. By doing it well, you have a team that knows you genuinely care about their performance and future success.

Managers often shy away from corrective feedback conversations due to a lack of confidence in how to have the conversation, or because they view corrective feedback as potentially damaging to the relationship. Providing feedback consistently in the right way is an incredible relationship builder - not a detractor. This conversation is all about getting better for the future. Avoiding corrective feedback conversations does everyone a disservice because the team member doesn’t have the opportunity to correct where they went off track.

When having these conversations, the most effective starting point is asking the team member their perspective on the situation. This is beneficial for a few reasons:

• You might be missing information that is relevant and might change your perspective.
• It shows the team member’s level of self-awareness which can further guide you how to best coach them.
• They might already be aware of what went wrong - allowing you to pivot immediately into development steps which can take a lot of the “sting” out of delivering corrective feedback.

While there are some situations that require corrective feedback in public, you know the majority of the time it needs to be delivered in private. One of the most damaging things a manager can do is to correct a team member in front of others. Done well, what once felt like a risk of putting you at odds with your team now becomes a way to build trust and respect.

You do not shy away from corrective feedback conversations. You are confident in providing it to the team and know it is an incredible relationship builder instead of being detrimental. You know this conversation is all about what team members can do better for the future. You don’t avoid providing corrective feedback because you know that does everyone a disservice. You believe the team deserves the opportunity to correct it when they go off track.

When having these conversations, you always begin by asking the team member their perspective on the situation. You do this because: 

• You might be missing information that is relevant and could change your perspective
• It shows the team member’s level of self-awareness which can further guide you how best to coach them
• They might already be aware of what went wrong, and you can pivot immediately into development steps which can take a lot of the “sting” out of delivering corrective feedback.

While there are some situations that require corrective feedback in public, you know the majority of the time it needs to be delivered in private. You avoid one of the most damaging things a manager can do: correcting a team member in front of others. By providing corrective feedback the right way, you are building trust and respect with the team.

Providing affirmative feedback as a part of performance management often falls to the bottom of the list for managers. That often reflects a lack of understanding around what to do, and when.

Affirmative feedback isn’t just reserved for grand accomplishments. While that is important, it’s often more meaningful to the team when you recognize the smaller things: how they went about solving a problem, helping someone else, or how they prioritized their time. If you struggle with the mindset of “I don’t want to reward them for doing their job,” keep in mind that affirmative feedback is about encouraging the continuation of behaviors.

Affirmative feedback should be provided weekly at a minimum. Team members need frequent reassurance that they are on track in order to remain secure in the role. Without that stability, performance and engagement can begin to suffer. This is also one of the main causes of team members being fearful of when they get a “Can you chat?” message from their manager.

Providing recognition in a way that is individualized for each person will make the feedback more meaningful. To do so, talk to your team and learn what works for them. Providing the wrong type of recognition can actually be damaging. For example, some team members might be mortified by public recognition.

Affirmative feedback is an easy, quick way to:

• Keep your team motivated
• Provide stability 
• Reinforce the right behaviors
• Show them that you are engaged in what they are doing

Providing affirmative feedback to the team signals that the behavior should continue in the future. It’s also highly motivational to the team. This includes recognizing the day-to-day to rewarding large accomplishments.

You ensure you provide affirmative feedback at least weekly to each team member. You know that team members need reassurance of where they are on track frequently in order to remain secure in the role. Without that stability, performance and engagement can begin to suffer. Your team isn’t fearful of “Can you chat?” messages from you because they are confident in where they stand.

You provide recognition in a way that is individualized for each person, so the feedback is more meaningful. You’ve talked to each team member and learned what works for them since you know that providing the wrong type of recognition can actually be damaging.

Affirmative feedback stays at the top of your list weekly because you’ve seen that it is an easy, quick way to:

• Keep your team motivated
• Provide stability 
• Reinforce the right behaviors
• Show them that you are engaged in what they are doing

Long-term, career development becomes a priority for team members who are fully onboarded into their role and in good standing. If someone moves to a Performance Improvement Plan, table long-term development until they have successfully completed the PIP. When someone is not in good standing, the focus needs to be on performance coaching for their current role.

Career Development Meetings should be held:

• On a monthly or semi-monthly basis
• For at least 30 minutes
• Outside normal 1x1 discussions 

These meetings don’t need to be as frequent since the focus is on long-term development. Team members need sufficient time in between Career Development Meetings to work on their development focus areas. 

Since most of the development work is done outside of the meeting, the time allocation is typically around 30-60 minutes. The meeting is for discussing strategy and progress. 

Long-term, career development conversations need to be kept separate from 1x1s. This is a different type of conversation and topic from your 1x1 agenda. 1x1s are focused on the day-to-day while Career Development Meetings are looking to the future often years out.

By setting dedicated time, you ensure long-term development has its proper time in the spotlight.

You prioritize long-term, career development for team members who are fully onboarded into their role and in good standing. When someone is not in good standing, you focus on performance coaching for their current role.

Your Career Development Meetings are held:

• On a monthly or semi-monthly basis
• For at least 30 minutes
• Outside normal 1x1 discussions 

You know these meetings don’t need to be as frequent since the focus is on long-term development. Continue to schedule these meetings so team members have sufficient time in-between to work on their development focus areas. Since most of the development work is done outside of the meeting, you allocate 30-60 minutes.

Continue to keep long-term, career development conversations separate from 1x1s. You know this is a different type of conversation and topic from your 1x1 agenda. 1x1s are focused on the day-to-day while Career Development Meetings are looking to the future - often years out.

By setting dedicated time, you ensure long-term development has its proper time in the spotlight.

Successful long-term, career development conversations include knowing what the end goal is. Finding out what each team member wants to achieve will guide the rest of the conversation. Their career goals are the finish line.

Not all team members will have the same long-term outlook and knowing who wants what will help you in individualizing the development plan. You’ll likely need to guide your team in what future aligns best with their talents, and there will be times where development conversations are solely focused on figuring out what the future looks like.

Many team members in the workforce have not spent time thinking about it and/or haven’t had a manager who has intentionally discussed the topic. Once you know everyone’s career goals, find a way to memorize them and keep them front of mind. Not doing so can lead to a poorly designed development strategy leading them down the wrong path and to missed development opportunities.

You know that successful long-term, career development conversations include knowing the starting and ending point. You are aware of the current, desired, career trajectory of each team member that has been fully onboarded. This allows you to ensure development plans are effective for achieving desired outcomes.

Since not all team members will have the same long-term outlook, so you help individualize development plans based on what each individual is pursuing. At times, you effectively guide team members in determining a future career path that aligns best with their talents.

Your team members are fortunate to work for a manager who has prioritized understanding what they want to achieve in their career. Many team members in the workforce have not spent time thinking about it and/or haven’t had a manager who has intentionally discussed the topic. The ability to quickly recall each team member’s career goals, you are able to more quickly identify development opportunities.

Once you know the goals for the long-term, career development for each team member, the next step is building development plans taking a partnership approach. The next step is to identify skill gaps - what does the team member need to develop over time? From there, two development focus areas should be determined to work on first. Once you know what needs to be developed and the prioritization of the development areas, clear milestones can be established. Goal dates can be more general: by month, quarter, year.

Once the development plan is created, it’s important to update it during Career Development meetings to track progress and reflect any changes. It’s common for team members to start down one path and realize they want something different.

Be sure to avoid the common manager mistake of kicking off this process, creating the development plans, and then never do anything else with them. Letting this fizzle out can be detrimental to your team because it sends a message that their future isn’t worth focusing on. While it might not be the manager’s intention, it can look like they only created the plans in the first place for show and not for any meaningful impact.

You build development plans in partnership with each team member based on their long-term, career development goals. Each plan has:

• A list of development areas
• Two current focus areas of development
• Clear milestones leading to achieving the career goal(s)

Continue to update plans during Career Development Meetings to track progress and reflect any changes. You know that it’s common for team members to start down one path and realize they want something different.

You avoid the common manager mistake of kicking off this process, creating the development plans, and then never do anything else with them. You know that letting this fizzle out can be detrimental to your team because it sends a message that their future isn’t worth focusing on. You instead are truly invested in their future careers and keep a focus on the plan.

Many team members need guidance on how to close their development gaps. They see what they need to develop but aren’t always clear on how to go about gaining new skills. While you might not have answers for every skill readily available, you can help find training content.

A good portion of development tools are affordable and often free. Often people think of conferences or big training investments first, but those are typically the least productive in terms of long-term development. The most impactful development usually comes from incremental changes that can be implemented quickly and reinforced over time.

Team members will do well learning in bite-size pieces, testing it out, receiving feedback, and adjusting if needed. Having 2 focus areas allows for going in-depth over time on a skill to ensure long-term success.

As a manager, it’s important to plan ahead for development. This allows you to advocate for what the team will need. With a forward looking strategy, you’ll have the opportunity to increase budget and access to impactful development resources.

You guide team members on how to close their development gaps. You know they see what they need to develop but aren’t always clear on how to go about gaining new skills. While you might not have answers for every skill readily available, you help find training content.

You’ve seen that a good portion of development tools are affordable and often free. Often people think of conferences or big training investments first, but you know those are typically the least productive in terms of long-term development. The most impactful development usually comes from incremental changes that can be implemented quickly and reinforced over time.

Continue to guide team members to learn in bite-size pieces, test it out, provide them feedback, and adjust if needed. Having two focus areas allows for going in-depth over time on a skill to ensure long-term success.

As a manager, you plan ahead for development. This allows you to advocate for what the team will need. With a forward looking strategy, you have the opportunity to increase budget and access to impactful development resources.

Know and care for each person: People want to be seen and understood. They also want to know you are invested in them and their success. 

Understand their individual approach/needs and adjust accordingly: Everyone has a unique brain, background, and set of talents. This means your team members need different things from you as their manager in order to be successful. 

Foster a psychologically safe environment: Your team members need to feel supported in such a way that they are not terrified of making mistakes, comfortable respectfully challenging ideas, willing to protectively own/be open about where they went wrong, and be their true selves.

Set appropriate boundaries: While managers spend a considerable amount of time with their team members, it’s important to remember the underpinning dynamic of the relationship: the manager and their direct report are not on equal footing when it comes to authority. This doesn’t mean anything negative, it simply means that you, the manager, have significantly more influence (control) over your team’s employment longevity, disciplinary action, performance ratings, future raises, and promotions. Therefore, it’s not an equal dynamic and the boundaries need to reflect that.

‍Define winning correctly: When you stepped into a people manager role, winning became about your team instead of just you. You absolutely have things you need to independently accomplish, but that is no longer your primary focus. Be sure to shine the light on the team and avoid competing with them.

Support the team having a balanced life: When you care about your team members, you care about their wellbeing. This includes ensuring they are able to and taking the steps to have a balanced life. You can do this by monitoring scope creep, ensuring the team is equipped to do their roles, investing in their development, guiding them to the right places to get any help they might need with HR or EAP resources, and encouraging, unburdened PTO. 

‍Celebrate the Important Things: Get to know the celebrations that are important to the team: birthdays, work anniversaries, etc. Understand how they prefer them to be celebrated (privately vs publicly for example) and ensure you do not miss them. Avoid the temptation to delegate this task to another team member.

Know and care for each person: Your team members feel seen and understood. They know you are invested in their success and see it in action.

‍Understand their individual approach/needs and adjust accordingly: You know that everyone has a unique brain, background, and set of talents. You’ve invested in understanding what different things they need from you as their manager in order to be successful.

‍Foster a psychologically safe environment: Your team members feel supported in such a way that they are not terrified of making mistakes, comfortable respectfully challenging ideas, willing to protectively own/be open about where they went wrong, and be their true selves.

Set appropriate boundaries: You understand that your relationship with your team is not an equal one like a romantic partnership or personal friendship. You maintain healthy boundaries and don’t put your team in uncomfortable positions.

‍Define winning correctly: You know that winning is your team’s success. You don’t compete with your team and ensure the light shines on the team.

Support the team having a balanced life: You ensure the team has a balanced life by: monitoring scope creep, ensuring they have resources to do their job, investing in their development, guiding them to the right places to get any help they might need with HR or EAP resources, and encouraging, unburdened PTO.

‍Celebrate the Important Things: You know the important celebrations of each team member like birthday and work anniversary and how they prefer them to be celebrated. You don’t delegate this task to another team member and you never miss a celebration.

Having a strong working relationship with your manager means you have an effective dynamic that allows you to get the things you need: alignment, resources including removing roadblocks, coaching, recognition, development, and stability. When you have your needs met by your manager, you are better equipped to support your team.

Your manager needs to be the primary person you look to for feedback and to measure your success. Avoid turning to your team to fill that need if it’s not being met by your manager. Having regular 1x1s with your manager will give you time to ensure you are aligned, have what you need, and are doing the right things.

Having a strong working relationship with your manager doesn’t mean that everything will be friction free. There will be times when you may disagree with your manager. Rather than accepting “that’s how it is”, respectfully challenge their ideas or actions.

Advocating for your team and yourself is an important part of your role. If you are lacking clarity, get it. If there aren’t enough resources to meet expectations, advocate for: 1) more resources 2) a reduction in expectations.

Having a strong working relationship with your manager means you have an effective dynamic that allows you to get the things you need: alignment, resources - including removing roadblocks, coaching, recognition, development, and stability. Because your needs are being met by your manager, you are better equipped to support your team.

Your manager is the primary person you look to for feedback and to measure your success. You avoid turning to your team to fill that need if at times it’s not being met by your manager. You have regular 1x1s with your manager which you use to ensure you are aligned, have what you need, and are doing the right things.

You’ve found that having a strong working relationship with your manager doesn’t mean that everything will be friction free. There are times when you disagree with your manager. Rather than accepting “that’s how it is”, you respectfully challenge their ideas or actions. 

You advocate for your team and yourself. If you are lacking clarity, you ask for it. If there aren’t enough resources to meet expectations, you seek: 1) more resources 2) a reduction in expectations.

Once you step into a management role, the relationships outside your team become more important. This will get more prevalent as your move up in leadership roles. Identifying those that have an impact on your team and ensuring you maintain healthy, working relationships with them is essential..

As a manager of people, you need an internal support system to do your job well. Part of that is Human Resources or the equivalent:

You may have certain feelings about HR in general and may have even had some unfortunate experiences in the past. At its core, HR supports the large investment of headcount and not every time does this well. Despite the “why”, if you are currently of the opinion that HR is to be avoided, managing people is going to be very difficult, and you could be opening yourself up to making some significant mistakes. 

Not every HR team is the same, so you could:

• Not have one
• Have an understaffed HR team
• Have a difficult HR team to work with due to attitude or ineffectiveness

If any of these apply to you, advocating for change needs to happen. In the interim, relying on legal specifically employment law counsel is important..

The goal is to have an HR team that can act as a strategic partner with you to guide on things like compliance and management admin functions as well as on broader topics like talent strategy and learning and development. If you are waiting until things are in bad shape with a situation or team member to involve HR, it’s too late. They should be alongside you the whole time. Regardless of your status with HR, it’s still a requirement that you operate as a people manager within company policy and law.

Once you stepped into a management role, you realized how impactful the relationships outside your team can be. You identify those that have an impact on your team and ensure you maintain healthy, working relationships with them.

As a manager of people, you need an internal support system to do your job well. Part of that is the Human Resources function or the equivalent:

HR is a strategic partner - guiding you on things like compliance and management admin functions as well as on broader topics like talent strategy and learning and development. You don’t wait until things are in bad shape with a situation or team member to involve HR. You partner with HR along the way.

Has the appropriate organizational design to support the team expectations

When it comes to the org design for your team, there are:

1. Roles based on the needs of the business
2. Organization of the roles in a specific way 
3. People who do those roles that are chosen based on the alignment of their talents 

All three are important for the overall strategy. When one is wrong, it can throw the whole system off. You might be in a situation where the org design is set for you. However, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s the right one.

Org design is function first, not people first

The best organizational design involves starting with the function first. What is the team tasked with doing? From there you can better determine how to leverage roles to support the function. It’s natural to begin assessing your current org design based on the people, but that can cause blindspots. At times, an optimized org design means that not everyone today makes sense for moving forward.

Regularly reviews and willing to make the tough calls when needed

It’s a good practice to regularly evaluate your org design to ensure it’s still the best support structure. Ideally, this is done quarterly. There will be times when you need to make adjustments which means making hard decisions. Part of being a great manager is managing resources well which includes the people on the team.

Leverages personnel changes as opportunities for optimization

A great time to make org design adjustments is during a personnel change. If someone exits the company or moves to a different team, you have an opportunity to optimize the org chart with minimized impact on people. You might repurpose those dollars somewhere else, adjust the role, or move where the role sits.

You’ve done a great job ensuring you have the right organizational design by evaluating it based on the function first. You know that to determine the best structure, you need to ensure all roles support the function in the right way. While it’s natural to begin assessing your current org design based on the people, you avoid it because you’ve seen doing so can cause blindspots. While a tougher part of being a manager, you know that an optimized org design means that not everyone today makes sense for moving forward.

‍‍Continue to regularly evaluate your org design on a quarterly basis to ensure it’s still the best support structure. You’ve either had to make some tough calls already or are prepared to do so if an org adjustment needs to be made. You know that pPart of being a great manager is managing resources well which includes the people on the team.

‍‍You know how to leverage personnel changes as opportunities for org optimization. It’s a way to make adjustments with less friction and impact on the team. You might repurpose the dollars somewhere else, adjust the role, or move where the role sits.

Always aim to add new team members that are better than half the existing

‍Statistically, it’s unlikely you have all top performers on the team today. If somehow you do, all new team members need to match that high bar or the new person will start to drag the team down. For everyone else, you want to leverage open roles to keep moving the bar for what great looks like. Picture this: If you could take your two lowest performers and replace them with the talent of your two highest performers, how would that change the dynamic and productivity of the team?

‍Has a strong partnership with with the Recruiting function

‍To bring on top talent, having a strong partnership with the Recruiting or Talent Acquisition function of the company is often very helpful. A good Recruiting team can guide you on how to attract the best talent, help assess if talent is the right fit, and run an effective process for both yourself and the candidates. If you have a Recruiting function but you don’t have this relationship yet (which can be due to a number of factors), strategize how to get there. That might mean investing in building your working relationship with Recruiting. It also might mean advocating for needed changes in that department. If your company doesn’t have an internal Recruiting function, look to advocate for one if needed or to 3rd-party recruiters or recruiting agencies.

Writes accurate job descriptions

‍In order to attract the right candidates, the job description needs to be accurate. If you start to see candidates that seem way off from what you are wanting, it could be due to an incorrect job posting. The job posting is a way for you to have a conversation with talent in the market: Here’s what we are needing in order of importance. Do you fit that bill? If so, apply here.

‍Able to design and maintain an effective interview loop

‍Making the interview process successful involves a strategic interview loop. What types of interviews are being used, where/how are they being held, when are they being held, who is involved, and how is the feedback assessed? The loop can vary from role to role. A strong Recruiting team can support you in designing the right loop for the role.

‍Is properly trained in effective interviewing

‍Knowing what type of talent you need only does you good if you can effectively assess candidates well. In short, are you well-equipped to be a great interviewer? Interviewing is a skill that needs to be trained. You need to be able to leave interviews with a clear idea of why a candidate is a good fit or not and be able to justify it on paper. That comes from knowing what type of questions to ask, how to ask them, and how to dive deeper to ensure there is credibility. Effective interviewing goes far beyond the ability to “read people well."

Runs a fair, legal, and effective process

‍Training extends to the full interview process in addition to an interview. The full process needs to be fair, legal, and effective. Candidates need to experience the same process, so each has a fair shot. The process should be void of discriminatory behavior: decisions, questions, statements. At the end of the day, the full process is a success when the candidate chosen is the right one.

Always aim to add new team members that are better than half the existing

‍Each time you add someone new to the team, you strive to ensure they are stronger than the bottom half of the team. You want to continually raise the bar and add strong performers that will match or exceed the top half of your team. You know that by bringing on stronger talent you are improving the overall team dynamic for your top performers and the overall performance of the team.

‍Has a strong partnership with with the Recruiting function

‍You have a strong partnership with the Recruiting function of your organization. You’ve seen how impactful working in tandem with Recruiting can improve the overall process and experience for both yourself and the candidates.

Writes accurate job descriptions

‍You begin the talent adding process by ensuring you have an accurate job description. You do this because you know what gets posted on job boards will determine the type of candidates who will apply. You know that if you get a flood of candidates that don’t match what you were looking for, that something likely needs to be adjusted on the description.

‍Able to design and maintain an effective interview loop

You are able to design and maintain an effective interview loop. You know what types of interviews are being used, where/how they are being held, when they are being held, who is involved, and how the feedback is assessed. You vary the loop from role to role because you know each role requires different things to properly assess talent.

‍Is properly trained in effective interviewing

‍You’ve been well trained in how to be an effective interview. Not only have you invested in training, your success rate for assessing candidates is high. You are well-equipped to properly and effectively navigate interviewing people. You leave interviews with a clear idea of why a candidate is a good fit or not and are able to justify it on paper. You know what type of questions to ask, how to ask them, and how to dive deeper to ensure there is credibility. You don’t rely solely on the ability to “read people well."

Runs a fair, legal, and effective process

Your interview training has equipped you to run a fair, legal, and effective interview process. You ensure candidates experience the same process, so each has a fair shot. Continue to avoid discriminatory behavior: decisions, questions, statements.

One way of doing this is to create leveling within the team - creating different levels for the same foundational role. Great leveling provides for micro-promotion and development for the team which can significantly increase engagement and in turn performance. When high performers see a path to being properly rewarded, it increases their commitment to consistent top performance. When they aren’t properly rewarded, they can become disengaged - often quickly. Great leveling has clearly defined roles and requirements for eligibility - the roles need to be different enough to warrant a title change and with that often a compensation increase and a potential FLSA classification change. If the only way to grow is for your team to wait for your own role to open up, it can become very discouraging.

Another way to demonstrate opportunity is to support the transition of team members to other areas of the company when that better aligns with their career goals. Not all career growth is a straight shot upwards. Oftentimes, in order to be well-equipped for a senior role, gathering knowledge and experience from various functions can mean multiple lateral changes before actually moving up.

One way you can accomplish this is with role leveling within the team. The ability to have varying role levels within your team is somewhat rare due to lack of appreciation of the need, and lack of general company support for it. To provide this sense of growth trajectory for your team is powerful, as the majority of opportunities are much bigger jumps - which generally means less frequent. Maintaining clarity for your team on what the leveling looks like within the team, the differences in roles and how to achieve or earn them, as well as being consistent and fair with the promotion process, will be important for the credibility of the program. An unfair leveling process is worse than not having one at all. Be sure there is strong performance documentation and development planning to support the justification of the decisions and ability for promotion.

Another way to demonstrate opportunity is in supporting team members transitioning to other areas of the company when that better aligns with their career goals. You know not all career growth is a straight shot upwards. Oftentimes, in order to be well-equipped for a senior role, gathering knowledge and experience from various functions can mean multiple lateral changes before actually moving up.

‍‍As the manager for this role, you must be an active participant in the ramp process which requires:

• Thoughtful preparation and execution of an effective ramp plan 
• Proper preparation and execution of the first day, “Day One”
• The evaluation of the ramp effectiveness, and any necessary adjustments for future transitions.

Avoid the temptation to delegate the overall management and planning of the onboarding or transitioning to one of their peers.

Ramp period, defines success, effective ramp plan with milestones

‍The ramp plan needs to include the right time period, have success for the ramp period defined, milestones laid out, check-in points, and resources needed. Some roles may need the support of the new hire to build out the full ramp plan especially with higher level talent. However, all roles will need guidance on resources like key personnel, meetings, systems, etc.

‍Properly prepares for Day One

‍Day One is the most critical day for a team member. How the first day goes is highly indicative of success and tenure at the company. The team member needs access to the core resources to do their role and have significant time with you, their manager, to kick things off.

Evaluates effectiveness of ramp strategy and makes necessary adjustments

‍Once someone is fully established in their role, it’s time to evaluate the effectiveness of the ramp strategy that was used and make necessary adjustments. Often this process is rushed and managers will skip many of these steps or delegate them to the new person’s peer. The beginning of a new role is the most critical period and it’s imperative you are getting this right. Doing so will increase the retention and engagement of the newly transitioned team member which leads to higher productivity and reduced cost to the company. Not to mention the reduction of frustration for everyone on the team including yourself. It’s a big time commitment, but one that has an enormous ROI.

Actively participates in the ramp of the team member

As the manager for this role, you are an active participant in the ramp process: 

• Thoughtful preparation and execution of an effective ramp plan which includes the right time period, definition of success, milestones laid out, check-in points, and resources needed.
• Proper preparation and execution of the first day, “Day One”
• The evaluation of the ramp effectiveness and any necessary adjustments for future transitions

Ramp period, defines success, effective ramp plan with milestones

‍The ramp plans you design include all the right items: the right time period, success for the ramp period defined, milestones laid out, check-in points, and resources needed. At times you partner with team members for parts of the ramp plan especially with higher level talent. But you know that all team members need to know what resources are available to support their role: key personnel, meetings, systems, etc.

‍Properly prepares for Day One

‍You know Day One is the most critical day for a team member. How the first day goes is highly indicative of success and tenure at the company. You make sure the team member has access to the core resources to do their role and has significant time with you, their manager, to kick things off.

Evaluates effectiveness of ramp strategy and makes necessary adjustments

Once someone is fully established in their role, you evaluate the effectiveness of the ramp strategy that was used and make necessary adjustments.

You avoid the mistakes many managers make: rushing through the onboarding process, skipping steps, or delegating them to someone other than you, the direct manager. The beginning of a new role is the most critical period and you seem to be getting this right. Maintaining this level of engagement and execution leads to an increase in the retention and engagement of the newly transitioned team member which leads to higher productivity and reduced cost to the company. Not to mention the reduction of frustration for everyone on the team including yourself. It’s a big time commitment, but one you know that has an enormous ROI.

If you’ve just skimmed through company policy or signed it and forgot it, it’s time to dust them off and dive in. Starting with the company’s leave policy is a great way to ease in. Understanding how your company handles planned versus unplanned leave will help you navigate time off balances and any potential team members who might be misunderstanding - misusing - the “unlimited” PTO policy. Tip: “unlimited PTO” typically means “unlimited planned” time off not “unlimited unplanned” time off. Understanding your company’s code of conduct requirements will also be helpful in navigating disciplinary actions if something were to arise on your team.

When it comes to applicable law and regulations, things can get confusing navigating state law vs federal law vs local law. It becomes even more difficult if you are managing people in a multi-state or multi-country environment. This is where your relationship with Human Resources comes in to guide you. From federal discrimination laws to local break regulations to statutory severance requirements (typically found internationally), you have a responsibility to not only manage risk for the company but more importantly to give your team a manager who does the right things.

If you’ve just skimmed through company policy or signed it and forgot it, it’s time to dust them off and dive in. Starting with the company’s leave policy is a great way to ease in. Understanding how your company handles “planned” versus “unplanned” leave will help you navigate time-off balances and any potential team members who might be misunderstanding - or misusing - the “unlimited” PTO policy. Tip: unlimited PTO typically means unlimited planned time off, not unlimited unplanned time away. Understanding your company’s code of conduct requirements will also be helpful in navigating disciplinary actions if something were to arise on your team.

When it comes to applicable law and regulations, things can get confusing when navigating state law vs federal law vs local law. It becomes even more difficult if you are managing people in a multi-state or multi-country environment. This is where your relationship with Human Resources comes in to guide you. From federal discrimination laws - to local break regulations - to statutory severance requirements (typically found internationally), you have a responsibility to not only manage risk for the company, but more importantly to give your team a manager who does the right things.

As a manager, it's vital to familiarize yourself with and efficiently execute key administrative duties. You likely are already doing some of these things, but you want to ensure you are doing all that are applicable to your company.

• Time Tracking: Consistently monitor timecards for hourly team members and ensure changes are made with the proper documentation.
• ‍Leave Management: Manage leave requests in a timely manner, ensure unplanned time off is properly accounted for, and partner with HR on extended leaves. Performance Management: Manage the formal performance review process, Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), disciplinary action documentation, and terminations.
• ‍Talent Acquisition: The administrative portion of the process bringing on a new team member: submit a job requisition for filling a role, review candidate resumes, move candidates through the recruiting pipeline including interview and debrief notes as well as the offer stage, and onboarding steps.
• ‍Payroll Management: Oversee payroll details, including bonuses, commissions, and changes, ensuring your team members are compensated correctly and on time.
• Personal Action Forms (PAFs): You ensure the timely completion of changes like title, pay, or classification so the right information is documented for each team member.
• Expense Reports: This particular administrative function may not affect you now from a managerial perspective, but it likely will in the future. This involves reviewing and approving expense reports for team members. At times, this can include reimbursements for expenses incurred using personal funds.

Each company will have its own way of handling each function, so be sure to refer back to their guidelines and any applicable governing laws or regulations.

Your approach to administrative tasks is both efficient and diligent:

• Time Tracking: Consistently monitor timecards for hourly team members and ensure changes are made with the proper documentation.
• ‍Leave Management: Manage leave requests in a timely manner, ensure unplanned time off is properly accounted for, and partner with HR on extended leaves. Performance Management: Manage the formal performance review process, Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), disciplinary action documentation, and terminations.
• ‍Talent Acquisition: The administrative portion of the process bringing on a new team member: submit a job requisition for filling a role, review candidate resumes, move candidates through the recruiting pipeline including interview and debrief notes as well as the offer stage, and onboarding steps.
• ‍Payroll Management: Oversee payroll details, including bonuses, commissions, and changes, ensuring your team members are compensated correctly and on time.
• ‍Personal Action Forms (PAFs): You ensure the timely completion of changes like title, pay, or classification so the right information is documented for each team member.‍
• Expense Reports: This particular administrative function may not affect you now from a managerial perspective, but it likely will in the future. This involves reviewing and approving expense reports for team members. At times, this can include reimbursements for expenses incurred using personal funds.

Whether using sophisticated systems or more manual processes, you’re on top of what’s needed and when. You ensure every step aligns with company guidelines and relevant laws or regulations all without needing reminders from HR, Payroll, or your team.

The administrative management of planned time off (PTO) is just one step. As a manager, it’s not enough to simply stay on top of approving PTO requests. The best managers keep taking time off the front of mind by regularly looking at their team’s PTO usage to encourage taking extended breaks. They also look ahead at the calendar in order to plan for seasons where there might be high demand for PTO requests like holidays or school breaks.

Further, they not only ensure the time off is fully disconnected but the team member doesn’t return to a mountain of work when they return. There is always some natural stress with returning to work after being gone, but it can be minimized by a manager who steps in to help themselves, adjust expectations, or find coverage. PTO is not time off if the team member has  to actively participate in work while gone or has the mindset of “it’s easier to just not take off because the stress isn’t worth it when I come back from being gone."

As a manager, you want to prevent anyone from contacting the team member while away and you also want to set the expectation that they are not to work while they are away too. Many team members don’t actually want to respond to that email but feel like they have to. Do everything to have the right resources and processes, so your team can disconnect and enjoy their time away. They will be so incredibly grateful and come back refreshed which is tremendously beneficial for the team’s success.

You know that the administrative management of planned time off (PTO) is just one step and that there are other things required of you beyond just staying on top of approving PTO requests. You are among the best managers who keep taking time off front of mind by regularly looking at their team’s PTO usage to encourage taking extended breaks. Continue to look ahead at the calendar in order to plan for seasons where there might be high demand for PTO requests like holidays or school breaks.

It’s wonderful that you not only ensure the time off is fully disconnected but the team member doesn’t return to a mountain of work when they return. You know there is always some natural stress with returning to work after being gone, but you minimize as much as you can by stepping in to help, adjusting expectations, or finding other coverage. You don’t want your team members to experience the common thought of “it’s easier to just not take off work because the stress isn’t worth it when I come back from being gone."

Continue to communicate and act in a way that shows the team they can truly disengage while gone because you know many don’t want to but feel obligated to. Your team will always be incredibly grateful for your intentional actions and come back refreshed which is tremendously beneficial for the team’s success.

You’ve probably sat through many ineffective meetings at this point in your career. It’s your goal to not perpetuate this problem. For every meeting you schedule, think about the cost: estimate the hourly rate for each person and know how much you are spending having everyone together. Ask yourself, is this a proper use of company resources? If so, how can you most effectively use that spend? Meetings are treated as free samples at Costco when they are floor seat tickets at a Taylor Swift concert. While you can’t control the facilitation of all meetings, you can ensure the ones you run are a value add to attendees each time.

Your meetings should include the "7 Steps to a Manager Material Meeting," ensuring each gathering is purposeful and productive:

1. Agenda Provided Ahead of Time: Set clear expectations by providing an agenda in advance. This preparation allows attendees to engage meaningfully, fostering productive discussions.
2. Correct Scope, Setting, and Format: Carefully consider the meeting’s purpose helping you determine the appropriate participants, setting, and structure. This ensures that each meeting is conducive to its intended goals whether it's an intimate discussion or a broad informational session.
3. Meeting Hygiene Expectations: Set the tone at the start, reminding attendees to minimize distractions. This focus on meeting hygiene has become a routine part of your meetings greatly enhancing their effectiveness.
4. Stay Engaged: Lead by example staying fully present and attentive during meetings. This commitment to engagement sets a standard for the rest of the team and demonstrates respect for everyone’s time.
5. Keep Discussions on Topic: Steer conversations back to the agenda ensuring that meetings remain focused and productive. When necessary, table off-topic discussions for later.
6. Clear Conclusion and Next Steps: Consistently wrap up meetings with a clear summary and outline of next steps. This clarity provides a sense of achievement and direction for your team.
7. ‍End on Time: Respect the scheduled end time of meetings. If more time is needed, schedule additional sessions rather than overextending the current meeting.

Improving your meeting management skills will not only save valuable company resources but also enhance your team’s productivity and morale. Remember, effective meetings are a key component of successful team management.

Your meetings include the "7 Steps to a Manager Material Meeting," ensuring each gathering is purposeful and productive:

1. Agenda Provided Ahead of Time: You set clear expectations by providing an agenda in advance. This preparation allows attendees to engage meaningfully, fostering productive discussions.
2. Correct Scope, Setting, and Format: Your careful consideration of the meeting’s purpose helps you determine the appropriate participants, setting, and structure. This ensures that each meeting is conducive to its intended goals, whether it's an intimate discussion or a broad informational session.
3. Meeting Hygiene Expectations: You skillfully set the tone at the start, reminding attendees to minimize distractions. This focus on meeting hygiene has become a routine part of your meetings, greatly enhancing their effectiveness.
4. Stay Engaged: You lead by example, staying fully present and attentive during meetings. This commitment to engagement sets a standard for the rest of the team and demonstrates respect for everyone’s time.
5. Keep Discussions on Topic: Your ability to gently steer conversations back to the agenda ensures that meetings remain focused and productive. When necessary, you’re adept at tabling off-topic discussions for later.
6. Clear Conclusion and Next Steps: You consistently wrap up meetings with a clear summary and outline of next steps. This clarity provides a sense of achievement and direction for your team.
7. ‍End on Time: Respecting the scheduled end time of meetings is a priority for you. If more time is needed, you opt to schedule additional sessions rather than overextending the current meeting.

Your commitment to holding effective meetings demonstrates your understanding of their importance in successful team management. As you continue to refine these skills, your team will benefit from even more focused, engaging, and productive meetings.

In order to establish effective communication flows, you need to:

• Determine where the interpersonal overlaps are
• What communication channels you want to use: email, chat, meeting, text, etc
• How the communication channels are going to be used: for what topics, when and who

This is an ongoing process and needs regular evaluation which can be done as needed but is also a great agenda item for your quarterly strategic sessions.

By establishing effective communication flows, you’ve:

• Determined where the interpersonal overlaps are
• What communication channels you want to use: email, chat, meeting, text, etc
• How the communication channels are going to be used: for what topics, when and who

You know this is an ongoing process, so you regularly evaluate what is working and what isn’t. If it isn’t today, this is a great agenda item for your quarterly strategic sessions.

Regardless of the communication route you have chosen, it’s important that the audience can clearly grasp what you are “saying”. If you write an email with no punctuation, it’s going to be difficult for the audience to easily understand what you are trying to convey. If you choose the incorrect word, it can convey a completely different message than intended. When speaking verbally, you may be in a situation where others struggle with understanding the words being said due to issues with enunciation or speed. 

While you might communicate in a way where people understand the words, those words need to make sense altogether. Whatever message you are trying to convey needs to take into account who is on the receiving end. What context do they need? In what order does the flow of information need to go? What format is best for the communication channel?

When it comes to confidence in communicating, it isn’t about being the loudest or firmest voice in the room. The communication must be credible which comes from being factual. You do not have to be an extrovert to be successful in achieving confident communication. The majority of communication at work happens in more intimate settings and often not face-to-face. Yes, there will be times when the situation isn’t your ideal environment, but you can strategize ways to communicate your point of view with confidence. Natural confidence will come from being solid in your knowledge (data) of the topic. Your team, your manager, and your peers will be much more inclined to respect your leadership when you demonstrate founded confidence.

There will be times when your team needs to be rallied or inspired to action. Maybe they’re up against something difficult or the company is experiencing a scary change. You need the ability to effectively move them past the blocker they are facing. This comes from good communication that shifts their current perspective to one that is more conducive to productivity.

Regardless of the communication route you have chosen, your audiences can clearly grasp what you are “saying”. If speaking verbally, people do not have trouble understanding you due to issues with enunciation or speed.

The message you are trying to convey is also easily understood. You take into account who is on the receiving end, what context they need, the correct flow of the information, and the best format for the communication channel.

Your credibility is readily translated through your conviction when communicating due to your founded confidence in both your communication abilities and topic knowledge.

You know there are times when your team needs to be rallied or inspired to action. You are able to effectively move them past the blocker they are facing. You do this with good communication that shifts their current perspective to one that is more conducive to productivity.

If you are reading this right now, thank you for your honesty. It is so incredibly important as you develop your people management and general “good human” skills. What is and is not respectful can vary from person to person due to a number of reasons. Because of this, Manager Material defines respectful communication from a standpoint of what to avoid: gaslighting, bullying, discriminatory or degrading communication, and attacking a person’s character instead of challenging their idea. While all the behaviors listed are very problematic, some are prohibited federally in the United States.

If you find yourself in a situation where you intended one thing but it was perceived as disrespectful, it is important to first and foremost come from a place of understanding the other person’s point of view. Your good intentions do not outweigh or negate the impact on others. In choosing to work at your company, you’ve committed to working well with a diverse group of people. Being inclusive is understanding differences and being aware of the fact that you may need to learn new ways of communicating. You might have thought in the past “So and so person or group is way more sensitive, they need to get a thicker skin”. While there are times when someone at work has a lower threshold for perceived disrespect or is more conflict-averse than is reasonable in a work environment, we’re focusing on disrespectful behaviors commonly seen across many companies. Coming from a position of trying to understand instead of being understood goes a long way in showing respect when communicating.

Also, knowing the areas where disrespectful behavior tends to arise is important: 

• When someone is getting in the way of your success
• Things aren’t going the way you expected
• A situation is escalating emotionally/verbally
• You are operating from a place of fear - this is often seen when someone is in a role they are not equipped to handle
• You are trying to prove yourself - this is often seen when someone is put in a time-bound situation to earn/keep a position
• General intolerance for diversity of perspectives or people

The goal here is to become more aware of your impact and how to manage risk areas to avoid future disrespectful communication. If you do find yourself receiving feedback you haven’t been respectful, be open, listen, and learn. 

What is and is not respectful can vary from person to person due to a number of reasons. Because of this, Manager Material defines respectful communication from a standpoint of what to avoid: gaslighting, bullying, discriminatory or degrading communication, and attacking a person’s character instead of challenging their idea. While all the behaviors listed are very problematic, some are prohibited federally in the United States. You do a great job of avoiding engaging in these types of behaviors.

If you find yourself in a situation where you intended one thing but it was perceived as disrespectful, you first and foremost come from a place of understanding the other person’s point of view. You know that your good intentions do not outweigh or negate the impact on others. You strive to be inclusive and are aware of the fact that you may need to learn new ways of communicating. Continue to try to understand instead of being understood since it goes a long way in showing respect when communicating.

If you experience any of the following situations, you are extra intentional to ensure you do not engage in disrespectful communication:

• When someone is getting in the way of your success
• Things aren’t going the way you expected
• A situation is escalating emotionally/verbally
• You are operating from a place of fear - this is often seen when someone is in a role they are not equipped to handle
• You are trying to prove yourself - this is often seen when someone is put in a time-bound situation to earn/keep a position
• General intolerance for diversity of perspectives or people. 

You are always aware of your impact and how to manage risk areas to avoid future disrespectful communication. If you do find yourself receiving feedback that you haven’t been respectful, you are open, you listen, and learn. 

Choosing the right presentation method for the situation is step one. From there, you need to tailor your message to the method you chose. Your end product should be concise, easy to understand, and engaging for the audience. For a supplemental PowerPoint, you want slides that support your verbal presentation - slides full of text that take the audience’s attention away from what you have to say. For presenting data in something like Excel or Smartsheet, you want the audience to be able to quickly see and understand what you are trying to convey. You’ve probably experienced situations where someone else has fumbled this and the negative impact it can have on credibility. All the main presentation methods have many free videos online showing you how to use them well. It’s worth investing the time in developing this skill, so you are maximizing every presentation.

When it comes to effective communication at work, this often includes a visual presentation of the topic. From a business proposal to a full-blown PowerPoint type presentation, you are skilled and confident in translating your thoughts onto “paper”. You are strategic when choosing the presentation method and then tailor your message to that method. You always ensure your end product is concise, easy to understand, and engaging for the audience. You know that by utilizing presentation methods well, you build credibility leading to greater success. Continue to build this skill and maximize every presentation opportunity.

The simplest way to get better and more comfortable at speaking publicly is to practice, get feedback, and try again. Luckily, the work environment provides you with regular opportunities to work on this skill since meetings seem to be happening at what can feel like every minute of the day.

For meetings you lead remotely, recording the call gives you the ability to review how you did. Yes, it can feel awkward to watch yourself, but it’s a great tool to use. If you are comfortable in a smaller meeting environment but not on stage or with a large audience, organizations like Toastmasters provide chances to practice in those settings.

Like any other skill, you can develop a process to use to make the overwhelming more palatable. In whatever setting you are speaking in, you are there for a reason, and speaking effectively in public settings can be a powerful tool for influencing and informing others.

Whether the stage loves you or you can present publicly but you are so glad when it’s over, your audience clearly understands what you have to say. From leading team meetings to speaking on stage at an event, you have a solid process to rely on that leads you to be an effective public speaker. Despite any nerves or hesitations, you’ve learned how to harness the powerful impact of influencing and informing others through public presentations.

Conflict can come from personality clashes but more often it comes from someone impacting your success. That impact is typically not intentional and is usually rooted in one of two things:

• A lack of clarity on what needs to be done or by when
• Resource blockers. It’s human nature to find fault in the other person, and yes, they might be wrong in some circumstances

However, the definition of winning when resolving conflict at work is not about being right. There are egregious circumstances where someone has violated company policy and/or law. In those situations, you need to work with HR to ensure your concerns are being addressed properly. For the more general conflict that can be resolved directly, here are some steps you can take to give you more confidence going into these conversations:

‍Remind yourself of the goal: Getting back on the same page to achieve success. This means setting your pride aside.

‍Start with questions: Ask them for their perspective on things. It’s really common that both parties have logical reasons for their approach, they are just currently in conflict. Asking questions: will show that you care to understand where they are coming from, eases the tension, and gives you more information to guide you in finding a path forward.

‍Clearly advocate your needs: Do you need updates? Do you need a specific deadline met you didn’t tell this person? Do you need to get context from this person on why things are happening a certain way? People are not mind readers - leave zero room for ambiguity.

There will be times when you need to escalate the problem up the chain. Maybe the person you are having conflict with needs to be held accountable for doing their job, and what you’ve tried hasn’t been successful. At the end of the day, resolving conflict is a human-to-human skill the majority of us were never taught how to navigate. However, it’s a non-negotiable skill to get really good at. The more you do it, the less overwhelming it will feel.

The majority of people at work have good intentions which is a strong foundation for building better communication and alignment processes. If you are someone who finds themselves venting, you are damaging your credibility and respect with others, especially your team. Your team needs to see that if you have an issue, you’ll go solve it. If they don’t, they can very easily assume that if you have a problem with them, you will just gossip about them with others instead of addressing it directly with them. One of the most damaging things to your working relationships is someone hearing you have an issue with them from someone who  is not you. Be a problem solver instead of a problem pointer. When you come from a place of “this isn’t about me” and seek to understand, you’ve joined the ranks of great communicators.

When you put humans together for any purpose, there is going to be conflict. Instead of ignoring the conflict that exists, you address it head-on. You know it may not always be the most enjoyable thing, but you’ve seen that the majority of the time, conflict is born from miscommunication or misalignments. It’s often a simple fix. By doing this you are modeling healthy communication behaviors to your team. Moreover, you are telling them through your actions that they can trust that if you have a problem with them - you’ll always bring it straight to them. You avoid the mistake of venting to others about issues instead of solving the problem.

You know that resolving conflict does not have to mean you are absolving someone of their mistakes. It means getting back on the same page, so you can effectively work well together to achieve a common goal.

Continue to set your pride aside, focus on the problem, seek to understand where the other person is coming from, and clearly advocate your needs to remove ambiguity. You’ve achieved what the majority of people have not by effectively and proactively resolving conflict at work.

‍‍Getting deadlines right is super important. It’s not just about picking a date; it’s about really understanding what you need to do and how long it’ll take. And hey, if something unexpected comes up, just be upfront about it. Keeping everyone updated is key to staying dependable.

Finding a way to keep track of your tasks that works for you is crucial. It doesn’t have to be fancy – it just needs to do the job. And about your calendar – it’s time to make sure you’re running it, not the other way around. Keep it realistic; being busy non-stop isn’t the same as being effective.

‍‍Facing tough times at work is part of the role, but how you handle these challenges can make or break your dependability. It’s about finding that balance – dealing with problems without burning yourself out. Also, knowing what success looks like in your job and tackling anything that’s in your way is key.

‍‍You’re really nailing it with how you handle deadlines. When you say you're going to do something, you’re on it – and if something comes up, you’re quick to let everyone know. It's not just about being organized; it’s about making sure everyone’s in the loop. Plus, the way you keep track of all your tasks – whether it’s a simple app or just a reliable old notebook – shows you’re serious about keeping your promises.

‍‍You’ve got your priorities sorted out well. You know that putting your team first is key, and it’s really paying off. And your calendar? You’ve got that under control, too. No more feeling like you're running around like a headless chicken. You're making time for what really matters, and that’s what good management is all about.

‍‍Times will arise when you're faced with the possibility of additional tasks. Maintaining an ongoing awareness of your and your team’s capacity is essential. This vigilance allows you to evaluate whether taking on more is feasible without compromising the team's well-being.

When declining additional tasks, the manner of your response is crucial. Consider these strategies:

• Offering a compromise: "If we adjust the timeline for [other project], we can consider this new task."
• Setting clear conditions: "Taking on this project is possible with additional resources or support."
• Being upfront about workload: "We’re currently at our limit, but we can look into this around [future date]."

You've encountered situations where additional work was added, either through external requests or self-initiated projects. Your keen awareness of your and your team’s capacity, coupled with a commitment to healthy time boundaries, has enabled you to make more informed decisions. You recognize that saying "yes" to everything can lead to unnecessary stress and burnout.

When it's necessary to decline extra work, you do so with tact and clarity. Your approach includes:

• Proposing adjustments: "We can take on this new project if we re-prioritize [current project] and delay it to [future date]."
• Suggesting workarounds: "We’re open to this, but we'd need additional support, like extra hands or resources."
• Being transparent about capacity: "Right now, we’re fully committed to our current projects. Let’s revisit this in [future date]."

Knowing your emotions is the first step. The problem? We’re intrinsically wired to understand seven emotions:

Seeking, Lust, Care, Play, Rage, Fear, and Grief (see theory of affective neuroscience proposed by Jaak Panksepp).

Scientists know this because these seven emotions can be stimulated manually through physical interactions with the brain. One press in a specific area will make you feel rage without anything rage-inducing going on in your environment. These are our survival emotions. But these core seven branch out into many more. 

How many more? The incredible Dr. Brene Brown, a leading people researcher, did the major legwork for us and found the answer is 87 emotions. So, we naturally understand 7 out of 87. Cool. But wait, it is actually even more dire.

‍‍Dr. Brown found that most people can name only three emotions (Glad, Sad, and Mad) while experiencing them, indicating a significant disconnect in emotional awareness. 

That’s three out of 87 emotions - 3.44% accuracy. Pretty dismal. This is showing us there is a big disconnect between what you’re feeling and what you can articulate. Knowing this info, it’s no wonder pretty much all of us struggle with managing emotions. 

So why does it matter that you are able to name them when they are present?

Learning to identify and name a broader range of emotions is crucial in managing them effectively. “What we can name, we can tame,” as noted by Dr. Sue Johnson.

In challenging situations, like feeling defensive in a meeting, recognizing your emotion allows for a more measured response. Developing strategies for immediate emotional regulation, such as taking a moment to step back or using physical grounding techniques, can be highly effective. Additionally, setting boundaries is important for those who tend to absorb others' emotions.

Emotional Understanding and Regulation

You have a solid understanding of your emotions and how to regulate them. This prevents them from leading you toward undesirable behaviors. Recognizing and managing emotions is a strong suit of yours.

Let’s talk about the context for what you’re doing right. The details below will also help you in developing your team on this topic, as lack of emotional regulation is a common problem managers face with their team members. 

Knowing your emotions is the first step. The problem? We’re intrinsically wired to understand seven emotions:

Seeking, Lust, Care, Play, Rage, Fear, and Grief (see theory of affective neuroscience proposed by Jaak Panksepp).

Scientists know this because these seven emotions can be stimulated manually through physical interactions with the brain. One press in a specific area will make you feel rage without anything rage-inducing going on in your environment. These are our survival emotions. But these core seven branch out into many more. 

How many more? The incredible Dr. Brene Brown, a leading people researcher, did the major legwork for us and found the answer is 87 emotions. So, we naturally understand 7 out of 87. Cool. But wait, it is actually even more dire. Dr. Brown found that on average, we can only name 3 emotions while feeling them: Glad, Sad and Mad. 

That’s three out of 87 emotions - 3.44% accuracy. Pretty dismal. This is showing us there is a big disconnect between what you’re feeling and what you can articulate. Knowing this info, it’s no wonder pretty much all of us struggle with managing emotions. 

So why does it matter that you are able to name them when they are present?

“What we can name we can tame” -Dr. Sue Johnson

Managing Influence on Emotions

In order to manage the emotion, we need to know what it is first. Emotions like frustration, vulnerability, stress, overwhelm, hurt, insecurity, pride, contempt. You can find the full list of 87 at brenebrown.com or in Dr. Brown’s book, Atlas of the Heart. The root of emotional intelligence is knowing the emotions.

In challenging situations, like feeling defensive in a meeting, recognizing your emotion allows for a more measured response. Developing strategies for immediate emotional regulation, such as taking a moment to step back or using physical grounding techniques, can be highly effective. Additionally, setting boundaries is important for those who tend to absorb others' emotions.

Stress levels, sleep, nutrition, hydration, and movement are some of the key fundamentals to your physical health. This is unique for every single person and must be tailored to what you need and can  accomplish.

A calm, fueled, rested body is a solid foundation for successfully navigating difficult situations. If you come into a situation at a 7 on a scale of 1-10 (one being cool as a cucumber and ten being Anger from Inside Out), the smallest problem can jump you to 10 easily. If you come into a situation at a 2 and a problem arises, you might jump to a 5. This makes the difference in avoiding those situations where your reaction doesn’t match the situation.

The majority of the time people don’t realize their physical health is slipping until something major occurs. Little by little you’ll be so busy at work that you’ll skip a meal and that becomes never eating lunch. Or your cortisol levels are so high for so long from stress or unaddressed trauma that your body starts operating in a chronic state of survival. Reminder: survival state means your frontal lobe is no longer working properly - this part of your brain that controls rational thinking.

The best athletes in the world spend tremendous time focusing on their physical health. That makes sense to all of us because they use their body for their job. Well, you do too! You bring your full physical self to work. Your brain is your primary resource for success at work, so you have to take care of it. Imagine a quarterback not taking care of their throwing arm or a singer not resting their voice in between tour shows.

Many managers will say they don’t have time. Here’s the problem. There’s always a cost. In the moment it might seem like the cheapest cost to suffer is to not prioritize your physical health. But that cost is sneaky and is the most expensive over the long-term.

You are doing great work regularly checking in with yourself to ensure your physical health is where it needs to be. You know the cost of your physical health being in poor shape is a less functional you. Your brain and your body aren’t firing on all cylinders when not taken care of. When they are, you can approach situations more successfully. Taking care of your physical self also prevents long-term damage - to your body, to your productivity, to your working and personal relationships, and to your overall quality of life.

You know that your brain is your greatest resource at work, so it needs to be taken care of. The overall health of your body dictates your ability to even show up for work. 

Continue to protect your physical health by focusing on good nutrition, quality sleep, stress management, proper hydration, movement that makes sense for you, and other wellness habits.

One of the greatest gifts you can give to your team is modeling the prioritization of your health over work. Seeing their manager not willing to sacrifice their physical wellbeing for a job is absolutely priceless.

When the term mental health comes up, some people immediately think of clinical disorders. By doing so, they wind up ignoring such a key component to their quality of life and success. 

How are you feeling? How are your reactions? Are you spending time doing the things you love? Engaging in regular check-ins to keep a pulse on your mental health is important. There are so many factors at work that can affect your mental health. When those factors start to chip away at your wellbeing, it might not be apparent at first. The periodic evaluation will allow you to create awareness where it could be lacking. From there, you are better able to address it.

If your past experiences have involved unhealthy or traumatic situations including previous workplaces, those can have an effect on your mental health and how you show up at work. You might have seen this if you’ve experienced being triggered. Our bodies want to protect us from what happened in the past and at times can do so at times when not warranted. For example, if your body is protecting you from a previous tiger attack, it might signal to you tiger-level danger is present when a domestic kitten is in the room.

There can be some disastrous consequences that can result from not protecting mental health. It can impact not only yourself and your physical health but your loved ones as well. It’s impossible to fully turn off the bad from work, so it will bleed over in some capacity. The opposite is true as well. When your workplace is a value add to your life, that goodness permeates the other areas of your life.

You know that mental health is a key component to your quality of life and success.

You engage in regular check-ins to keep a pulse on your mental health: How are you feeling? How are your reactions? Are you spending time doing the things you love? You know there are so many factors at work that can affect your mental health. When those factors start to chip away at your wellbeing, you are able to quickly catch it with your periodic evaluations. From there, you are able to address it.

You know there can be some disastrous consequences that can result from not protecting mental health. You proactively do what you can to limit or prevent a negative impact on yourself and your loved ones. You know it’s impossible to fully turn off the bad from work, so it will bleed over. But you also know the opposite is true as well. When your workplace is a value add to your life, that goodness permeates the other areas of your life.

You should absolutely be proud of the work you do. It’s a great accomplishment. It just shouldn’t be the only or primary thing that defines you. Your personal identity should be about many things that make you unique.

Too many managers get caught up in their work life. Whether it’s because they feel they have to, they want to, or they are using it as a distraction. Regardless of reason, it’s never healthy to be all in on one thing.

When your self-worth is tied to something that has a high likelihood of unexpected change, you are setting yourself up for an “identity quake”. A term coined by the authors of Difficult Conversations. An identity quake is a disruption of your sense of self, your foundation. 

You want to put yourself in a position where work can never cause this level of emotional turmoil in your life. You can lose your job at the drop of a hat and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything you did or did not do. If work was your main cushion and it’s now gone, what are you going to land on? If work is one of 12 cushions, you still have a comfy place to dive into.

Time is your best friend here. Protect your time, so you:

1. have time to do what you love
2. you get breaks from work regularly

When you take time off for pleasure like vacation, leave work at work. Too many managers have reasons why they can’t do that. Challenge yourself though. What would it take for you to go on a trip for 7 days and not engage with work for a single second? Great managers guide their teams to operate without them while on PTO. If well planned, this goes for anyone in the company including the CEO. Remote workers, this goes for you too. Yes, you can work from anywhere, but you still need disconnected time.

You are so much more than your work (or hiding in your work). Work can be wonderful and fulfilling, but let it be one of many things that make up an incredible life.

You have maintained a well-balanced life full of variety. Work is there and might be very important to you, but it doesn’t define you. You know that it’s important to have time for the things and people you love. You know that if you lose your job, it might have some complications but it isn’t a world-ending emotional event.

You have done a wonderful job protecting your time and giving yourself breaks from work. You leave work at a healthy time and stay present in your personal life. What’s important to you is not sacrificing everything in your life for a job that might not be there tomorrow.

You are filled with memories that have been created since you utilize your PTO instead of grinding yourself down with no breaks from work. When you take that PTO, you are disconnected from work and allow for true time off. You know it’s not a badge of honor but unhealthy behavior to take that Zoom call from Bali. Instead, your team sees you fully immerse yourself in a break and come back refreshed.

Evaluating your impact after each interaction as a habit is incredibly helpful in learning for the future and knowing if there are any issues you need to correct. The more you interact with people, the more the likelihood your intention and impact won’t match at some point. Great managers demonstrate humility to address issues head on and take ownership of their unintended, negative impact.

Self-evaluation is helpful, but will never be thorough on its own. Utilizing credible assessment tools can provide insight into your unique strengths, weaknesses, and talent gaps. Manager Material recommends the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment due to its statistical validity and foundation in modern brain science - specifically the Full 34 report option.

Self-awareness is only part of the puzzle; this also requires actively seeking feedback from colleagues, including your team, your manager, and peers. Relying solely on performance reviews for feedback isn't sufficient.

For feedback from your team, a direct approach may be awkward and get less honest responses due to their reluctance to upset you. Instead, focus on fostering strong working relationships and showing openness to feedback, particularly on specific areas like team meetings or support needs.

For your manager, don't wait for it to be offered; ask proactively during regular meetings. Request specific feedback on particular tasks or presentations to demonstrate your commitment to self-improvement.

Finally, for feedback from peers, other leaders, or external partners, regularly ask what you can do to improve your working relationships or for their perspective on shared projects. This proactive approach shows your genuine interest in their opinions.

Self-awareness is a really difficult area to be motivated to develop. You’re doing a great job regularly evaluating your impact in all situations. Oftentimes our intention and impact don’t align, and we need to know how to avoid that happening in the future. You seem to genuinely care about how you come across and want to prioritize showing up well for others.

You’ve also invested in tools to increase your knowledge about yourself and how you might be perceived by others. While assessments might not have everything spot on, you know the information can be helpful in finding ways to build sophistication.

You proactively seek out feedback since independently evaluating yourself only gets you so far. You are doing the right thing by regularly asking your team, your manager, and others you work with their perspective. Continue to tailor the way you ask for feedback, so it allows others to know they are safe to be honest - you truly want to make things better.

Your mindset is a big driver in your behavior when receiving feedback. When you are genuinely interested in what someone else has to say, you will be open, calm, and curious. Asking questions allows you to ensure you fully understand the feedback and are then able to make changes. When you enter into those conversations believing the feedback giver is not credible, you will likely demonstrate more dismissive type behaviors which can damage your working relationships.

When you do make a mistake, it’s natural to want to distance yourself from it. Some can take it to the extreme and blame others or be unwilling to acknowledge the issue at all. The healthiest approach is to be proactive in taking ownership of mistakes and in doing so not provide excuses. Yes, there might have been reasons that led you there, but it’s important to focus solely on what you could control in that situation. Once you’ve owned up to what happened, it’s important to learn and make amends if necessary and make changes to avoid the mistake again in the future.

It’s human nature to feel and show defensiveness when someone challenges your ideas, actions, or decisions. However, showing defensiveness is not a good move. Others challenging your character is a different story and is not appropriate - do what you can to end those conversations quickly and not engage. In situations where someone is challenging what is appropriate, the goal is to accept your likely instinctive feelings of defensiveness and then move into asking questions instead of justifying. When we are met with being challenged, often our pride kicks in. Pride is not a helpful emotion in most settings but especially a business conversation.

Your team is constantly watching how you handle things. When you model taking ownership of mistakes by being open about them and demonstrating how you use feedback to make changes, you create a safe environment for your team to do the same. You want your team to not live in fear when they mess up. Instead, they should be able to proactively admit what happened. If you aren’t seeing this behavior from your team consistently, it’s likely they don’t feel comfortable admitting mistakes. They need to see you be more open about it yourself first. Telling them they can be is not enough. There are situations where mistakes are going to warrant disciplinary action up to termination, but for this conversation, we’re focusing on the normal mistakes made in the course of business.

You have a great mindset when receiving feedback. You are genuinely interested in what someone else has to say which leads to you being open, calm, and curious. Continue to ask questions so you ensure you fully understand the feedback and can make changes. By demonstrating you believe the feedback giver is credible and therefore do not engage in dismissive behaviors during and after receiving feedback, you are strengthening your working relationships.

When you make a mistake, instead of giving into natural instinct to avoid it, you address it head on. You proactively take ownership, don’t make excuses, learn, make amends if needed and make changes to avoid the same thing from happening again in the future. Some can take it to the extreme and blame others or be unwilling to acknowledge the issue at all, but you know that is damaging to your working relationships. Yes, there might have been reasons that led you there, but you know it’s important to focus solely on what you could control in that situation. 

It’s human nature to feel and show defensiveness when someone challenges your ideas, actions, or decisions. However, you know showing defensiveness is not a good move. Instead, you accept your likely instinctive feelings of defensiveness and then move into asking questions instead of justifying. While your pride might try to join the conversation, you stay focused on trying to understand the other person’s perspective since pride isn’t a helpful partner in business conversations. When someone challenges your person instead of your ideas, actions, decisions, you do not engage and quickly end the conversation respectfully since you know that is not appropriate.

You are aware your team is constantly watching how you handle things. Because of this, you model taking ownership of mistakes. By being open about them and demonstrating how you use feedback to make changes, you’ve created a safe environment for your team to do the same. Your team doesn’t live in fear when they mess up. Instead, they proactively admit what happened and have you to guide them through turning the mistake into a learning opportunity.

When you create a plan, you are adding intention to the process. Your development is no exception to this. Having a thorough development plan with goals, milestones, and specific focus areas laid out will increase your success in continuously developing yourself. You know where to go and how to get there. If you don’t have a plan today, this report is a great start for figuring out the areas you need to focus on for manager development. You’ll also need to ensure your plan includes functional development for your role as well.

A Harvard Business Study found that only 3% of the population writes down their goals. By doing so, they are 13 times more likely to achieve their goals than those that don’t have goals and 3 times more likely than those that have goals but don’t write them down.

Your development means your investment into that development. While your company should and might be providing development resources, you still need to be a partner in this process. At the end of the day, it’s your career meaning the burden isn’t 100% on the company. Development investment doesn’t always have to mean spending money. It’s often investing time. When you do spend money, the most effective development resources aren’t thousands of dollars unless you are pursuing a certification or degree.

James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits, discovered that by improving 1% every day for a year, you’ll end up 37 times better at the end - “The Power of Tiny Gains.”

When you have a development plan, you are adding intention to the process. You have a thorough one with career goals, milestones, specific focus areas, and development resources laid out. You know where to go and how to get there including both manager development areas as well as functional ones.

A Harvard Business Study found that only 3% of the population writes down their goals. By doing so, they are 13 times more likely to achieve their goals than those that don’t have goals and 3 times more likely than those that have goals but don’t write them down.

Your development means your investment into that development and you are doing just that. While your company should and might be providing development resources, you know you still need to be a partner in this process. At the end of the day, it’s your career and you are an active participant in its growth. You’ve seen that development investment doesn’t always have to mean spending money. It’s often investing time on a consistent basis. When you do spend money, you know it doesn’t take thousands of dollars for good development resources unless you are pursuing a certificate or degree. James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits, discovered that by improving 1% every day for a year, you’ll end up 37 times better at the end - “The Power of Tiny Gains.”

While your friends and family play a huge role in your social well-being and overall success in life, it’s important to ensure you have a rich professional community as well.

So who might be included? 

• Current role functional mentorship: someone who was in your role in the last 5 years or so and can guide you on the functional part of your role today. The risk with someone who has held the role further back in their career is potentially outdated guidance or they’ve forgotten a lot of things.
• Future role functional mentorship: to guide you in developing for the role you want in the future. This can potentially also be your current role functional mentor. 
• Management mentorship: to guide you in the management side of your role. While your functional mentor will be able to help with some of this, it’s important to have management specific development. 
• Functional peers: to take the journey on together, to know you aren’t alone. You can commiserate, validate, and chat through things you are both facing at the same time. 
• Management peers: similar to functional peers but speaking specifically about management happenings in your role.
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or Employee Work Groups (EWGs): groups at work designed for specific purposes: role, gender, ethnicity, and more. They are a great way to connect with other professionals across the entire company who have things in common with you. 
• Professional Communities or Groups: similar to ERGs/EWGs, but these are outside of work. A wonderful way to connect to other professionals like you across companies and potentially industries and locations.

Finding people outside the walls of your company needs to be a priority. These are people you can be 100% open with without any fears. Some of your community might be paid professionals and some may not. Some might be groups or one-on-one conversations. Go for a mix of situations, so you have a big, stable support system.

While your friends and family play a huge role in your social well-being and overall success in life, you know it’s important to ensure you have a rich professional community as well.

Your professional community includes a good mix or all of the following:

• Current role functional mentorship: someone who was in your role in the last 5 years or so and can guide you on the functional part of your role today. The risk with someone who has held the role further back in their career is potentially outdated guidance or they’ve forgotten a lot of things.
• Future role functional mentorship: to guide you in developing for the role you want in the future. This can potentially also be your current role functional mentor.
• Management mentorship: to guide you in the management side of your role. While your functional mentor will be able to help with some of this, it’s important to have management-specific development.
• Functional peers: to take the journey on together, to know you aren’t alone. You can commiserate, validate, and chat through things you are both facing at the same time.
• Management peers: similar to functional peers but speaking specifically about management happenings in your role.
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or Employee Work Groups (EWGs): groups at work designed for specific purposes: role, gender, ethnicity, and more. They are a great way to connect with other professionals across the entire company who have things in common with you.
• Professional Communities or Groups: similar to ERGs/EWGs, but these are outside of work. A wonderful way to connect to other professionals like you across companies and potentially industries and locations.

You’ve prioritized finding people outside the walls of your company, so you can have 100% open conversations without any fears. Your professional community is a mix of professionals, but you have a big, stable support system in place.

Context is key when being given information. When someone comes to you with surface-level information, your next step is to ask more questions to verify what they are saying. When acting on surface-level information alone, you can be led astray. Imagine your manager acting on negative info about you without giving you the benefit of the doubt and a chance to fill in the gaps. You owe that to everyone else, but especially your team. Verification might require more conversations or digging into the data like the systems your team uses. 

Society has used the phrase “my truth” with greater frequency recently. You know that this statement is referring to “personal truth” and that at times it can be in conflict with factual truth - think “truthful but not factual.” Personal truth is grounded in an individual’s perception, and one person might remember things differently or have a different emotional reaction than others. This doesn’t mean that there is not a problem to be solved by the way. It just means that the approach and resources may be different from first glance.

The Innocence Project found that out of 375 people exonerated who had been convicted and sentenced to death since 1989, 69% had convictions based on eyewitness identification. These people were sentenced to death based on people telling their personal truth. But in the end,  their truth wasn’t factually correct. While that’s an extreme illustration, it perfectly shows why it’s important to also be factually correct, and hold others accountable to that standard. 

While emotions don’t have a classification for being “factual,” you always ensure you understand what happened - not just how someone felt - before you act. Someone might be triggered at work resulting in strong negative emotions. Their strong reaction doesn’t mean the default conclusion should be that something wrong or inappropriate for work truly took place. Rather it may mean something took place that affects them that way. It’s an important distinction.

As a manager, you need to get to the bottom of things. By doing so consistently, your team and others will respect you and find you credible.

You know context is key when being given information. Based on your answers, you get it.  When someone comes to you with surface-level information, your next step is always to ask more questions to verify what they are saying. This is right and it’s important to keep doing it. You’ve seen that when acting on surface-level information, you can be led astray. 

Society has used the phrase “my truth” with greater frequency recently. You know that this particular “truth” is referring to “personal truth” and that at times it can be in conflict with factual truth - think “truthful but not factual.” Personal truth is grounded in an individual’s perception, and one person might remember things differently or have a different emotional reaction than others.

The Innocence Project found that out of 375 people exonerated who had been convicted and sentenced to death since 1989, 69% had convictions based on eyewitness identification. These people were sentenced to death based on people telling their personal truth. But in the end,  their truth wasn’t factually correct. While that’s an extreme illustration, it perfectly shows why it’s important to also be factually correct, and hold others accountable to that standard. 

While emotions don’t have a classification for being “factual”, you always ensure you understand what happened - not just how someone felt before you act. Someone might be triggered at work resulting in strong negative emotions. You know that the reaction doesn’t mean the default conclusion should be that the trigger was wrong or inappropriate for work. 

As a manager, you are respected and credible because you always get to the bottom of things.

Confidence in the data for the functional and management parts of a role begins with an understanding of the key drivers of your team’s success. This depends on what your goal is for the situation and what activities or inputs your team controls. As with measuring performance, it’s important to understand what the expectations are.

Once you know what data you need, you need to get access to it. This is often a lot easier said than done, as access to data can require assistance from under-resourced teams in many companies. It might be a tedious process, but do the work to gather what you need.

Once you have it, you need to interpret it. Sometimes this will be simple. Where it isn’t that straightforward, consider whether this is an area that you need to invest in some personal development, or whether you just didn’t get what you needed. You want to be able to answer the question “What does it mean?” correctly.

Understanding what the data means leads you to action. Interpreting the data incorrectly can take you down the wrong path which can be costly. If you wind up with data you can’t take any action from, the data is likely the wrong thing to be looking at.

You have confidence in the data for the functional and management parts of a role. You know what data you need and there aren’t blockers to go get it. You are able to interpret the data well and make informed, accurate decisions. 

You avoid costly mistakes because you take the time to understand the story that the data tells before jumping in. You’re also great at presenting data and explaining what it means.

The two extremes of getting your team’s input are: 1) Never involving them in decision making 2) Always involving them in decision-making. Neither are healthy in business.

You want to get the team’s input on things that affect them, but the input is not always a promise of the final result, rather it’s input on contributing factors. For example, a sales team may want a lower quota because it’s easier to achieve when a higher quota is still viable. The input should not necessarily start with “lower quote” - rather it starts with a discussion around factors that may be hindering the ability to achieve the higher quota

Getting the team’s input also doesn’t mean that the goal of the decision is universal happiness. Pleasing everyone is impossible. If you do get to some type of consensus, it could wind up being the wrong one. For example, consider asking a team what remote versus in-office schedule is best. Yes, it is good to see what will keep the team engaged and not risk a mass resignation, but the team could spend hours debating only to end up with a schedule that is logistically or financially implausible. Here again, the input should be focused on the factors that contribute to the decision, not on the decision itself.

When managers approach their teams for every decision, it’s often due to a lack of self-confidence or a need to be liked by the team. They don’t want to be blamed for making the wrong decision, and believe that it’s the only way to keep the team happy.  Or, in some cases the manager isn’t close enough to the business and team to make good decisions without them. This is equally problematic.

This is a balancing act and requires knowing “why” you loop your team in, and how to do it effectively without setting the wrong expectations. It's important to provide clarity to the team about how their input is going to be used. You want to be clear about why you are asking and what you plan to do with what they say.

You have done a great job avoiding the two extremes of getting your team’s input: 1) Never involving them in decision making 2) Delaying decisions until everyone is onboard. 

You get the team’s input on things that affect them, but everyone knows that while the input is considered, it doesn’t always determine the exact final result. You are clear with the team on what you are asking for and how you plan to use their input. 

You are decisive when it’s time to act and know that at times, not everyone will be happy. Attempting to make everyone happy is not only practically impossible, but trying to do so can lead to the wrong conclusion.

You avoid the mistake of turning input sessions into groupthink through healthy self-confidence. You are comfortable putting your name behind decisions without needing to spread the blame. You know that the goal is not to get your team to like you for every decision, rather your goal is overall success for the company, which is good for everyone.

You are good with the required balancing act here, and have good discernment on when to loop the team in and how.