employee well being

In this episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior sit down to talk about leading through uncertainty. The content from this episode comes from Dr. Clark’s most recent Harvard Business Review publication, an article entitled What Employees Need from Leaders in Uncertain Times. In the episode, they explore the impact of uncertainty on individuals and organizations and share four practical strategies for effectively leading teams through uncertain times.

Takeaways

• Uncertainty is a constant in life and can have both negative and positive impacts.
• Creating thick trust is essential for effective leadership during uncertain times.
• Inoculating with vision helps motivate and guide individuals and teams through uncertainty.
• Increasing honesty and transparency builds trust and fosters a positive work environment.
• Seeing uncertainty as an opportunity allows leaders to explore new possibilities and stay competitive.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

03:10 The Impact of Uncertainty

11:06 Perception of Uncertainty

19:57 Creating Thick Trust

27:11 Inoculating with Vision

35:17 Increasing Honesty and Transparency

39:46 Seeing Uncertainty as Opportunity

50:25 Conclusion

Important Links
HBR Article

We can all agree that identifying potential leaders is a crucial part of organizational success. But too often, leaders are promoted purely for their technical ability. What would happen if organizations put equal weight on cultural competence in their promotion criteria? In this episode, we're talking about just that. Listen in as our hosts, Tim and Junior, discuss the question, what are the subtle signs that someone will make it in leadership?

Key Takeaways:

• Identifying potential leaders is crucial for the success of organizations.
• Five subtle signs that someone will make it in leadership include: washing the dishes, acknowledging silent contributors, spending their own money to learn, taking initiative, and admitting when they don't know something.
• These signs reflect qualities such as humility, initiative, and a commitment to personal and professional development.
• Leaders should prioritize learning, take ownership of their own development, and be willing to take action and make decisions.

Chapters

00:39 Identifying Potential Leaders

12:19 Subtle Sign #1: They Wash the Dishes, Take Out the Trash, and Refill the Paper Towels

21:17 Subtle Sign #2: They Acknowledge the Efforts of Silent Contributors

28:36 Subtle Sign #3: They Spend Their Own Money to Learn

33:37 Subtle Sign #4: They Kill the Snake When They See the Snake

39:27 Subtle Sign #5: They Say 'I Don't Know' When They Don't Know

47:11 Conclusion

This week, our hosts Tim and Junior are talking about the limitations of a traditional, four-competency emotional intelligence model. Why? Because LeaderFactor’s private emotional intelligence assessment, EQindex™, is now publicly available! This assessment, and its Leadership 360 version, is based on a 6 domain, 30 skill model that measures what we believe, what we know, and what we do as we interact with others. If you’re wanting to know what the future of emotional intelligence looks like in 2024, this would be the episode to listen to. As always, you can find important links from the episode, as well as transcripts and show notes, on our website at leaderfactor.com/podcast.

Key Takeaways:

• Emotional intelligence is the ability to interact effectively with others and is crucial in personal and professional settings.
• The traditional four competency model of EQ is limited and does not consider motivation and intent.
• The EQ Index model introduces the regard competencies to address this limitation.
• Beliefs influence awareness and perception, which in turn influence behavior.
• The dominant linear causal pathway in EQ is beliefs, awareness, and behavior.

Chapters:

01:35 Introduction to EQindex™

02:47 The Importance of the EQ Index Model

03:42 Defining Emotional Intelligence

04:13 Emotional Intelligence as a Delivery System

05:24 The Relationship Between EQ and Performance

07:06 The Limitations of the Traditional EQ Model

09:20 The Four Competency Model of EQ

12:11 The Need for the Regard Competencies

13:42 The Order of the EQ Domains

15:44 The Relationship Between Beliefs and Awareness

16:48 The Influence of Beliefs on Perception

18:12 The Dominant Linear Causal Pathway

34:13 Summary and Takeaways

Important Links:
EQindex™

In this week's episode of Culture by Design, Junior and Dr. Tim Clark discuss a daunting but important question: What do you do with a toxic leader? Too often, organizations will either do nothing or wait too long to react to evidence of harmful leadership. But toxic cultures can't and won't heal themselves. And the remedy largely depends on the kind of leader you're dealing with. Listen in as Tim and Junior explore the characteristics of toxic leaders, the consequences of toxic behavior, and the role of culture in creating, maintaining or preventing toxicity. You'll learn how to distinguish between an actively toxic and passively complicit leader, and discover how to hold your leaders culturally accountable for their behavior.

‍Takeaways

• Toxic leaders exist and can have a significant impact on organizations.
• Toxic leadership is often a result of insecurity and unmet human needs.
• Actively toxic leaders should be removed from the organization, while passively complicit leaders can be coached and held accountable.
• Tolerance for toxic behavior leads to the normalization of toxicity and can have long-term consequences for the organization.
• It is important to prioritize long-term thinking and hold leaders accountable for their behavior.
  ‍

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

04:11 Pathological Behavior and Consequences of Toxicity

10:26 Culture and Toxicity

17:02 Toxic Leadership and Unmet Human Needs

22:18 Identifying Actively Toxic and Passively Complicit Leaders

26:21 Passively Complicit Leaders

35:15 Actively Toxic Leaders

43:11 Long-Term Thinking and Tolerance for Toxicity

In the final installment of our Leadership Journey series, we delve into the intricacies of Leading the Business with Dr. Tim Clark and Junior. This episode uncovers the transition leaders must undergo from tactical to strategic thinking, focusing on optimizing the whole while preparing for the future. 

Key Points & Timestamps:

1. Transitioning to Strategic Thinking (03:03)
   • Moving from a tactical mindset to a strategic mindset requires leaders to see the big picture and think systemically, ensuring the organization's long-term viability and competitive edge.
2. Understanding Enterprise-Level Responsibility (07:05)
   • Leaders must embrace a broader scope of responsibility, constantly assessing and innovating how the organization creates and delivers value today and in the future.
3. The Role of Decisions in Strategic Leadership (10:53)
   • Highlighting the importance of decision-making, leaders must cultivate the judgment to navigate complexity and uncertainty, driving the organization's strategic direction.
4. Balancing Preservation and Innovation (23:55)
   • Strategic leaders must run parallel paths: preserving the value of today's business while disturbing the status quo to innovate for the future.
5. Principles for Effective Strategic Leadership (26:11)
   • Emphasizing the need for clear goals, prioritization, adaptive capacity, and setting the right tone at the top, this section offers actionable strategies for leaders at the helm of business strategy.

Important Links Mentioned in the Episode:

• Leadership Journey Series: leaderfactor.com/podcast
• Live Webinar on Emotional Intelligence: Registration Link

Tim and Junior continue their Leadership Journey series by diving into part two on leading teams. They discuss the challenges leaders face when transitioning from individual contributor to managing others.

0:02:15 - Transitioning from independent contributor to leading a team requires a fundamental shift in mindset and skills. It's often under supported by organizations.

0:08:50 - The team is the basic unit of performance for solving complex problems, not the individual. Adopting a team mindset is critical.

0:13:06 - Promoted leaders can struggle with the loss of their technical identity and skills which defined them previously.

0:19:52 - Building trust enables teams to accomplish more together. The components of trust are integrity, mutual respect, competence, communication and initiative.

0:36:35 - Effective coaching is not telling. It's collaborative, leverages strengths and transfers ownership and critical thinking.

Links

Part 1 of the Leadership Journey Series
EQindex™ Live Event

Today, Tim and Junior kickoff a three-part series on the leadership journey: Leading yourself, leading the team, and leading the business. Today's episode is focused on leading yourself. Tim and Junior emphasize taking personal accountability and ownership of your own development. You'll hear insights on cultivating wellness, self-awareness, and a growth mindset. Tim and Junior also share their personal learning habits from consuming quality information across multiple mediums to embracing curiosity.

Why LeaderFactor? (03:11) Tim shares the meaning behind LeaderFactor's name and founding. Leadership is the ultimate applied discipline, it's the factor that affects every aspect of your business.

Leadership and personal accountability (06:45) Without personal accountability, nothing happens. As an inside-out discipline, the demands you make of yourself will reflect the demands you make on your business.

The nature of contribution (14:21) Tim and Junior share Paul Thompson and Gene Dalton's four levels of contribution. They explain how to move through these levels as you work to better lead yourself. To do so, you must own your own development.

How's your coachability? (29:14) Tim and Junior share the two things that everyone needs to improve to become better at leading themselves. The first is willingness, and the second is self-awareness.

Personal learning patterns (43:34) Listen to our hosts share their learning patterns, some of the things they do personally to learn and develop their skills.

Episode Links
The Future of EQ Webinar

In today's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior discuss a question brought up in a recent Harvard Business Review article, which is, can you have too much psychological safety? The article suggested that excessive amounts of psychological safety could undermine accountability and performance. Tim and Junior share their perspective, pushing back on some of the misconceptions about what psychological safety really is and what it really means.

Defining psychological safety (01:35) Most of the debate around the question of whether you can have too much psychological safety stems around your definition of the term. Tim and Junior share theirs: Psychological safety is an environment of rewarded vulnerability that considers four stages and categories of behavior, we have inclusion, learning, contribution, and challenging.

The leader's role in creating psychological safety (14:03) Most environments create accountability by necessity. For industries in highly regulated environments, it's the leader's job to define culturally and operationally the upper control limit, the lower control limit, and the center line. Everybody needs to understand the tolerances, constraints, regulations, and limitations and work within that.

Psychological safety does not imply rogue behavior (34:10) Even though psychological safety gives employees permission to innovate and challenge the status quo, this doesn't mean that people are free to ignore policy and procedure to do what they want when they want. Oftentimes, we're talking about incremental and derivative innovation, looking for a 1% improvement, and making marginal gains.

Important Links
HBR: Can Workplaces Have Too Much Psychological Safety?
The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety

In this two-part series, Tim and Junior discuss practical steps for effectively challenging the status quo. Innovation requires some dissent and deviation from the norm, but challenging the status quo can be difficult since it often feels personal. Today they cover the final 5 tips including bringing credibility, knowing your boss, framing dissent as exploration, and using data to support your case.

Key Points:

• Be transparent about potential unintended consequences (6:32) - When proposing a new course of action, be candid about the risks and unintended consequences. This builds credibility and shows you are managing risk prudently.

• Bring credibility (17:57) - Develop competence and a track record of good decision making to increase your believability when challenging the status quo. Understanding your expertise and track record informs how you position arguments.

• Know your boss (28:16) - Understand your boss's personality, biases, preferences and goals. You can be right in your comments but wrong in your approach. Consider timing and use tact.

• Frame dissent as exploration (33:30) - Use curiosity rather than contradiction. This lowers social friction while maintaining intellectual friction for effective challenging.

• Use data (39:42) - Look for quantitative then qualitative data to support your case. But also be transparent and call the data what it is, even if you only have a hunch. Make asks proportionate to the evidence.

Links:
Challenging the Status Quo Pt.1 
How to Challenge Your Organization’s Status Quo — Productively

In this week's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior tackle a common organizational-wide dilemma, how do you effectively challenge the status quo? Questioning the prevailing mindset is tricky business. While innovation requires deviation from the norm, pushing for change often feels like a personal confrontation rather than an objective debate. So in this episode, Tim and Junior will provide concrete actual advice for skillfully and safely challenging the status quo, whether you lack formal authority or you find yourself at odds with the entrenched stakeholders.

Key Points

1. Anticipate the opportunity (20:45) Very few organizations have open-mic, challenge-the-status quo forums, so expect to do so in the context of your natural workflow. It may be an informal opportunity that allows you to introduce your idea.
2. Ask for permission (25:26) You may use a question like: Do you mind if I offer a different perspective? Or, may I suggest an alternative way to look at this? This allows you to position your interaction as a contribution rather than a confrontation.
3. Begin with inquiry, not advocacy (30:05) Challenging the status quo often evokes defensiveness. Rather than advocating a position that might divide, exclude, or marginalize, disarm with questions that recruit others into dialogue.
4. Model emotional intelligence (35:54) Paradoxically, the challenger must often create psychological safety for the challenged, giving them space to acknowledge and come to terms with needed change. Let your emotional intelligence be your guide.
5. Demonstrate a grasp of the past (40:41) Demonstrate contextual understanding by acquiring a thorough knowledge of previous decisions and how the status quo came to be. Become a master of the current state.

Read Dr. Clark's HBR Article
How to Challenge the Status Quo Productively

Original Air Date: November 21, 2022

The culture dilemma (00:45). Many organizations tell us that they want to improve their culture, but often don’t know where to start. What does an unhealthy culture look like? What symptoms need to be identified and treated?

The definition of culture (02:30). Culture is the way we interact. It exists anywhere where there are humans. Parts of it are visible, while other parts of culture, not so much.  

How does culture work? (16:00) You don’t fix a culture at the top of an organization, but you can influence it at the team level. Teams need to improve their interactions by modeling and rewarding the vulnerabilities of their colleagues. 

What’s the solution? (31:00) If you want good culture, you need high levels of psychological safety. Psychological safety solves for culture at the level of interaction. 

Building great culture is a process (50:00). Just like fostering trust takes a certain level of consistency over time, psychological safety is delicate and dynamic. It requires consistent effort and deliberate action in order to build and maintain.

The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety

The Ladder of Vulnerability

The 4 Stages Behavior Guide

In this episode, Tim and Junior discuss how high-performing teams are formed and maintained. The quality of an organization is a reflection of the quality of its teams, and high-performing teams have patterns. Although there are many patterns, Tim and Junior will focus on a core four in this episode, including how high-performing teams (1) connect, how they (2) improve their skills, how they (3) view transparency and autonomy and how they (4) continuously seek innovation.

The benefits of improving your teams' performance (01:43) Remember, individuals rarely accomplish extraordinary feats alone. The quality of an organization is a reflection of the quality of its teams. As you improve your teams, you’ll get two things: Leverage and scale. You'll be able to multiply the force, scope, and magnitude of your organizational efforts.

How do high-performing teams connect? (13:55) High performing teams know each other. If your team doesn’t know each other, it’s not a high performing team, or at least it won’t be for very long, or when things get hard. Tim and Junior share the story of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and why a 3-day offsite was one of the most important things he has done as a CEO.

How do high-performing teams improve their skills? (26:33) High performing teams are constantly growing. When teams acknowledge that the knowledge they have today is not enough, they open themselves up to development. 

How do high-performing teams view transparency and autonomy? (38:10) High performing teams are focused on achievement based on transparent, meaningful metrics. Tim and Junior talk about Google's Project Aristotle and how they discovered that psychological safety is the #1 indicator of high-performance. 

How do high-performing teams chase innovation? (50:44) High performing teams believe in continuous improvement. They're proud but never satisfied. At the end of the day, challenger safety not just as challenging the organization, but challenging ourselves to do better and be better. 

Important Links
Show Notes

Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide

This special year in review episode of Culture by Design features hosts Tim and Junior interviewing members of the LeaderFactor team. They get unique perspectives on psychological safety trends and insights from 2023 based on interactions with clients. Guests include Jillian (Marketing), Ryan (Technology), Kelsea (Sales), and Alex (Client Success).

5 Key Moments

• Interest in psychological safety continues to grow exponentially based on search volume (0:04:21)
• Audiences want both a business case and practical guidance on implementing psychological safety (0:04:21)
• Individual contributors feel most vulnerable about expressing disagreement compared to managers (0:24:55)
• Successful organizations measure psychological safety as a baseline and track progress over time (0:37:58)
• Consistent effort over an appropriate time horizon is key for cultural transformation (0:58:56)

Important Links

• LeaderFactor Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide: https://leaderfactor.com/guide
• LeaderFactor Complete Guide to Psychological Safety: https://leaderfactor.com/resources/complete-guide-to-psychological-safety
• LeaderFactor Ladder of Vulnerability: https://leaderfactor.com/ladder

In this episode, Tim and Junior introduce five simple but powerful questions to align teams and get everyone on the same page. They explain why alignment is critical yet often neglected, review the high cost of misalignment, and provide a practical framework to drive shared understanding and commitment among team members.

5 Key Points

1. Alignment ensures strategies, goals, processes, and people are working together effectively (0:04:28). It is a matter of degree, not binary.
2. Misalignment compounds over time if unaddressed, risking failure (0:05:41). Assuming alignment without verifying is dangerous.
3. The 5 Alignment Questions framework verifies understanding, surfaces concerns, clarifies roles, anticipates needs, and checks commitment (0:25:37).
4. The questions invite participation through inquiry-based dialogue (0:27:29). Metrics alone don't ensure alignment.
5. Alignment requires continuous intervention as misalignment is the natural process (0:50:13). It must be maintained through regular cycles.

Links:

HBR Article: 5 Questions to Get Your Project Team on the Same Page
Show Notes: leaderfactor.com/podcast

In this episode of the podcast, Tim and Junior dive into the critical leadership skills of accountability and critical thinking. They discuss why these competencies are important for leaders and team members to develop, define what accountability and critical thinking mean, explain the vital interrelationship between accountability and critical thinking, and share thoughts on how we can effectively build these skills in ourselves while also transferring them to others. Tim and Junior emphasize that these are practical skill-building concepts that align with the four stages of psychological safety.

5 Key Points:

1. Accountability is being answerable for your behavior and actions (0:03:08). It's about taking ownership, being proactive and transparent, and being willing to learn from mistakes.
2. Critical thinking involves gathering and synthesizing information to inform your beliefs and behaviors (0:03:39). It's about evaluating information objectively to make sound judgments and decisions.
3. Accountability and critical thinking are interrelated - you need critical thinking to properly evaluate your performance and take full accountability (0:09:47).
4. As leaders, we must model accountability and critical thinking ourselves first before expecting it from others (0:34:13). We have to hold ourselves to high standards of performance and evaluation.
5. To transfer critical thinking, use open-ended questions, invite participation in solving problems, teach the inquiry process, and model critical thinking in your own work (0:25:51).

Links:

Show notes: https://www.leaderfactor.com/podcast

3 Levels of Accountability Episode: https://www.leaderfactor.com/podcast/the-coaching-and-accountability-matrix

In this episode, Tim and Junior conclude their series on emotional intelligence (EQ) by discussing practical ways to improve it. They explain that EQ is a learnable skill that requires deliberate practice focused on improving behaviors. The key is consistently gathering feedback, monitoring your progress, and making incremental improvements over time.

5 Key Takeaways with Timestamps

1. EQ is a learnable skill, not a fixed trait (0:02:46) - Unlike IQ which is relatively stable, EQ can be improved significantly through effort and practice over time.
2. Willingness and self-awareness are key to improvement (0:17:35) - You have to be willing to see your deficiencies clearly and put in the hard work to change your behavior.
3. Motivation comes from within (0:30:18) - No one can give you motivation, you have to find it in yourself by considering the costs of not improving.
4. You have to change your behavior (0:38:00) - You can't just think your way to better EQ, you have to deliberately practice new behaviors.
5. It's an ongoing cycle (0:49:13) - Continuously self-monitor, gather feedback, improve your behaviors, and repeat. EQ improves incrementally with consistency.

Important Links

• Show Notes: leaderfactor.com/podcast
• EQ Index Self-Assessment: https://www.leaderfactor.com/eqindex
• Feedback and Episode Requests: info@leaderfactor.com

In this episode, Tim and Junior delve into what they term the 'core logic'—a vital exploration of how EQ is not just an individual trait but the cornerstone of collective team intelligence. As they unpack the causal chain, they reveal how EQ is the linchpin in cultivating a safe space for vulnerability, ultimately steering both personal growth and organizational success. 

Key Points

1. The Importance of Assessing Emotional Intelligence [00:03:12]
   Junior underscores the importance of measuring emotional intelligence. He invites listeners to anticipate the launch of EQindex™ as a pivotal development opportunity and invites listeners to join the waitlist at www.leaderfactor.com/eqindex.
   
   
2. The Essence of EQ [00:07:45]
   EQ is defined as the ability to interact effectively with others. The discussion revolves around the nuances of 'effectiveness' and its significance in personal and professional realms.
   
   
3. Psychological Safety as Rewarded Vulnerability [00:12:30]
   The concept of psychological safety is explored as a cultural norm where vulnerability isn't just accepted; it's celebrated and seen as a strength.
   
   
4. Causal Relationship Between EQ and Success [00:18:55]
   A clear line is drawn connecting individual EQ to team psychological safety, and further to the tangible impacts on career progression and organizational achievement.
   
   
5. The Interplay of EQ and Organizational Culture [00:24:10]
   A hypothesis is presented that individual habits of emotional intelligence are the seeds from which team cultural norms grow, particularly through leadership influence.

Important Links

• Episode Series on Emotional Intelligence: https://www.leaderfactor.com/podcast/what-is-emotional-intelligence
• Leader Factor EQ Index: www.leaderfactor.com/eqindex
• Show Notes: leaderfactor.com/podcast
• Feedback and Topic Requests: info@leaderfactor.com

In today's episode, Tim and Junior will continue our series on emotional intelligence. If you joined us last week for our kickoff of this series, you'll know that we answered the question, what is emotional intelligence? We shared our unique definition of emotional intelligence, which is the ability to interact effectively with other people. Today, we'll continue the discussion by answering the question, why is emotional intelligence central to competitive advantage? Be sure to check the show notes for links to all relevant resources related to this episode, including a link to learn about EQ Index, our proprietary EQ assessment that we will be making publicly available for individuals and teams early next year.

EQindex Assessment

This week we're kicking off a new series on emotional intelligence. Our approach to EQ is different. There’s the mainstream idea of EQ, and then there’s ours and this episode will give you an inside look into how you can make EQ practical and actionable for the individuals and teams you work with. 

• Emotional Navigation [0:06:00]: Tim delves into the core concepts of emotional intelligence, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and self-management in personal development and leadership.

• Emotional Intelligence and Relationships(0:18:00): The conversation shifts to social awareness and relationship management, highlighting how emotional intelligence enables us to understand and influence the emotions of others effectively.

• The Six Competency Model (0:24:30): Tim and Junior discuss the six competency model of EQindex™, which includes a comprehensive range of skills that underpin strong emotional intelligence and its application in leadership.

• EQindex™ Snapshot (0:31:35): They touch on the EQindex™ assessment tool, describing its efficiency in providing a concise and accurate picture of an individual's emotional intelligence in just 15 minutes.

• EQindex™ Evolution (0:37:22): The episode wraps up with exciting news about the upcoming release of the EQindex™

Join the waitlist for EQindex™ public launch: https://www.leaderfactor.com/eqindex

Here at LeaderFactor, we're all about helping our clients take the theories behind psychological safety and culture and turn them into actual practice inside their organizations. Our goal is to make our content and frameworks as actual as possible, and that's what this episode is all about. We've taken some recent favorite practical moments from Tim and Junior and compiled them together. We'll have three segments from a few different episodes, each ranging from 10-15 minutes.