performance – Dutra Associates

Strategic Planning in a Rapidly Changing World

August 1, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Is your company getting the desired results from your strategic planning process? If not, it’s likely that your organization may be skipping or poorly executing on one or more of the three key elements to a sound strategic plan.

The costs associated with an incomplete planning process are significant. They include:

Losing your lead in the market
Inability to reach financial and operational goals
Sense of defeat amongst the team and a sense that strategic planning is a waste of time
Loss of credibility of the leadership team

A strategic planning process that is most likely to deliver the results you expect consists of three key elements.

Answer the most critical strategic planning questions.

- Who are our customers and how can we serve them better?
- Who are our competitors and how do we differentiate ourselves?
- What do we do best and how do we leverage those strengths?
- How can we prepare the organization to seize opportunities and shore itself against threats?
- What types of situations do we need to consider for the future and what must we do to prepare for them?

Too often, organizations spend a fortune on consulting firms to provide complex strategic plans that are either overly philosophical in nature or have outstanding ideas that don’t quite boil down to clear, executable initiatives.

Once you have the answers to the most critical strategic planning questions, you want to craft a few, clear, compelling strategic initiatives to strengthen the organization.

Set a few clear priorities. The most important outcome from step one of the strategic planning process is to identify the most important priorities of the organization. Working with a longer list of potential priorities, the organization can now discuss the relative value of each and arrive at no more than three to five key priorities.

A downfall at this step of the process is when an organization sticks with a long list of priorities. While this may serve a purpose of keeping the peace by including everyone’s thoughts, it makes it highly unlikely that the organization will get anything done completely.

Implement the strategy. We so often hear that strategy never seems to get executed. There are several reasons why this is the case.

- Not committing the necessary resources to accomplish the strategy such as appropriate capital, technology, training, and people.
- Neglecting to reprioritize the workload of busy employees and simply asking them to do more.
- Failing to stop old initiatives that are no longer relevant and even compete with the new.
- Lack of establishing clear role, responsibilities, accountability and reward systems.
- Giving up too soon.

A sound strategy focuses as much time and energy on implementation planning as it does on responding to the key planning questions and establishing priorities.

What part of the process does your organization need to shore up? While some organizations are exceptional at the ‘big picture” questions, they often fail to follow up. Some set too many priorities and are unable to accomplish them with limited resources. Others may excel at execution but struggle with establishing a compelling vision.

If this sounds like your organization, we can help with a proven 3-part strategic planning process that is simple for you to implement while achieving efficient results.

To learn more, please contact Dutra Associates at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

In Search of Whitespace

July 1, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to be in attendance for a talk by Juliet Funt, who is the founder and owner of WhiteSpace® at Work. She was inspiring! Recently, as I was speaking with a client about the current challenges he is facing in the workplace, Juliet’s talk came back to mind. In a completely engaging and amusing way, she made the case for whitespace in our days. What exactly is whitespace? As described by Juliet, it is a purposeful, freedom experience for the mind; an opportunity for the mind to dance, play and end up at unexpected junctures that serve us. It is setting aside time and thought for which you have no specific plans.

Our typical workdays are comprised of “reactive busyness”. This brings to mind notions of fire-fighting and problem fixing that, while giving us the illusion of getting things done, are really lots of activity without necessarily true productivity. Juliet indicated that “we have no relationship with thoughtfulness as a key to success in the workplace”. What is missing, she indicated, is whitespace. Pointing to benefits such as, developing more game changing ideas; increasing productivity, creativity and engagement; being more calm and present; connecting interpersonally; she suggests that we must “redistribute effort and excellence” to allow whitespace in our days.

To redistribute effort, consider letting go of some things. We often hold on too hard for a variety of reasons. Ask yourself: What can I let go of in my life – both personal and professional?

What baby steps can you take to stop responding as if each email and text is urgent?
Do you really need to attend every meeting you’re invited to?
Can you truly get your work done if you are in back-to-back meetings all day?

To redistribute excellence, it’s time to curb your perfectionistic tendencies. Perfectionism is a real talent and we must make choices on where we will spend that talent. Ask yourself: Where could good enough, be good enough?

So, where to begin? Start small – manage your calendar to create whitespace; appreciate the forced whitespace that comes when stuck in a traffic jam. According to Juliet, if you’re aspiring to whitespace and give it value, you are ahead of 90% of others in the workplace. Be creative and design a little whitespace that works for you and watch your success grow!

10 Keys to Success in Your New Role

May 4, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Congratulations! You decided to make a move in your career. You networked, navigated the lengthy interview process, and were offered the job. The time for celebration is at hand! You might be thinking, “the hard work is over, right”? Well, the first stage of the hard work is over. Now you are faced with the first ninety days in your new role which are critical to your long-term success.

How do you hit the ground running? Not in the way you might imagine. Often, we have the urge to dive in and quickly make a big impact. Yet, slowing your pace a bit and getting the lay of the land before jumping into action yields the best results. A misstep at this point, can earn you a reputation that can take quite some time to turn around.

Keys to Success

Here are 10 key tips to set yourself up for success in a new role.

Be clear on expectations. There are both spoken and unspoken requirements of a role. Gain a clear understanding from your manager of not only the measurable performance expectations but also the intangible ones. What informal rules exist on how to accomplish your job?
Support your manager. What are your manager’s aspirations? How can you support them in a way that helps them achieve their goals? Get a sense of how they prefer to receive communication, i.e., face-to-face, via email, via text, etc. Understand how frequently they want updates from you. What are the things you need to avoid doing when interacting with this person? How can you make life easier for your manager?
Take time to observe and learn. New managers and executives sometimes make the mistake of equating success with making rapid changes. Determine how long you have to observe, learn, and then make well-informed decisions about planned changes. The length of time you have available for this will vary with the situation. The point is that you’ll likely have at least a couple of months to map out a plan forward. Resist the urge to jump in too quickly. Hasty decisions often do not end well.
Create your vision and strategy. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know if you’ve arrived. Identify the key people who should have a voice in establishing a vision for your area of responsibility. Develop a shared vision, determine the strategy to realize it, get buy-in, and communicate the vision and path to get there. Then, ensure you have clear measures of success and hold key players accountable for their contribution to the execution of the vision and strategy.
Evaluate your team. Take the time to get to know the people on your team. What are each person’s strengths, areas for development, aspirations, motivations, and results? Begin to set expectations with each person. Understand what support each individual needs from you and how you can add value to the team. Determine if you have the right mix of people. What adjustments might need to be made to ensure you have the right team to implement the vision and strategy?
Align with the culture. What is the culture like in this new organization? Which behaviors are expected, and which behaviors are not tolerated? What are the values of the organization and how are these lived, or not, in day-to-day operations? How does your style fit with the culture and values of the organization? Where do you already fit in well? Where might you need to modify your style (without compromising your own values)?
Build strategic relationships. There are formal and informal leaders in every organization. Who are the key players in yours? These leaders may be found amongst executives, high potentials, project leaders on key initiatives, and top performers. Which are the most impactful relationships for you to begin building? Building relationships in a strategic way will help to lay the foundation for success.
Understand the political landscape. Stepping into a new role may bring with it potential land mines. Asking questions that will reveal where to tread lightly will go a long way toward your success.
Create a personal development plan. Development never ends. With each new step comes a need to deepen one’s knowledge of the industry, the business, or to expand one’s leadership skills. Learning should be a life-long pursuit. Be sure to create a development plan for yourself within the first 90 days in your new role.
Small wins build momentum. Where are the places where you can begin to make progress without large scale changes? Find some small, impactful, early wins that get the ball rolling while you set the stage to excel in your new role.

Which of these key tips have you successfully used? What others would you like to share?

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

The Connection Between Sleep and Leadership: It’s Time to Take a Snooze

February 4, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Calling all leaders!

How did you sleep last night?
What amount of sleep did you get?
How refreshed did you feel when you woke up?

How Does Sleep Play Out in Your Life?

Personally, sleep has always been something that I’ve, mostly, prioritized. Of course, there have been times when certain projects have led me to work late into the evening. So, at times, sleep has gone on the back burner. No matter how old I was at the time, I always felt the ramifications of skimping on sleep. Lack of concentration, lower energy levels, and less ability to focus are a few of the symptoms I’ve experienced. What about you?

For most of my adult life, though, I have done my best to get at least 7 ½ hours of sleep each night. Honestly, I haven’t shared that with many people before. In a society that seems to thrive on 24/7 availability and activity, it might seem weak or unproductive to not work all hours of the day and night. Yet, it’s time to stand up for the importance of getting a solid night’s sleep. The evidence is in from numerous scientific sources that sleep is critical to our health and our ability to function. Without enough of it, we open ourselves up to an array of potential health risks and we diminish our brain’s ability to function properly. And, if our brains aren’t functioning properly, how does that impact our ability to lead?

What the Research Has to Say

In the book, Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker, PhD, shares research that shows how the pre-frontal cortex is adversely impacted by lack of sleep – anything less than 7 hours per night. What’s so important about the pre-frontal cortex? It is the area of the brain where executive functioning takes place. This includes an array of activities such as, decision-making, coordinating and adjusting complex behavior, ability to control emotional reactions, focusing attention, and predicting the consequences of actions. Needless to say, all of these activities play a role in leadership effectiveness.

Over the years, many of my clients in leadership roles have shared how little sleep they often get. They struggle with an expectation that they must immediately respond to emails and texts that come at all hours of the day and night. They have an enormous number of projects on their plates and have difficulty slowing down their active minds when they try to sleep. Stress, anxiety, and worry can make for a restless night’s sleep as well.

In Walker’s book he shares that during sleep, our brains go through an amazing process of washing out harmful proteins through the glymphatic system and glial cells. In this way, our brain heals during a restful and complete night’s sleep. This nightly cleanse has a profound impact on our overall health and our capacity to function effectively as leaders.

Some of you might be thinking, “that doesn’t apply to me. I can get by fine on 5 or 6 hours a night.” The research would beg to differ. In one study, conducted by David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the groups studied obtained 6 hours of sleep per night – the amount that many of the people I’ve worked with tend to get. At the 10-day mark, they were as “impaired in performance as going without sleep for twenty-four hours straight” – that is, a 400 percent increase in microsleep, the inability to pay attention, where your brain loses its ability to perceive the outside world for a brief moment.

Call to Action

So, if you want to improve your health and set the stage to be the best leader you can be, target 7 – 9 hours of sleep per night. It’s not a nice to have but a MUST have. Productivity never comes from non-stop activity. Sufficient rest is key, for yourself, and for those on your team.

What can you do to help achieve that goal? Here are a few tips:

Shut down all devices at least one hour before you go to bed.
Set limits on how many hours you expect others (and yourself) to work each day.
Only send emails and texts during normal working hours.
When you and those on your team take vacations, commit to making them work-free.
Meditate before going to sleep to relax your body and calm your mind.
Exercise regularly, but not within 3 hours of going to sleep.
Minimize caffeine consumption later in the day, as it can stay in your system for up to 6 hours.
Spend a few minutes at the end of the workday, preparing for the next day’s top priorities. This helps to free up your mind and promotes relaxation.

What strategies have worked for you?

Losing Employees? – Try This Simple Leadership Approach to Engage and Retain Your Team

January 3, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“The Great Resignation” is something that we are hearing and reading about on a regular basis. Now, more than ever, employees are leaving their roles at an amazing rate – in May of 2021 alone, 3.6 million Americans quit their jobs. According to Gallup, “48% of America’s working population is actively job searching or watching for opportunities”.

While the term ‘employee engagement’ can sound like just another buzzword, it’s anything but. For U.S. employers, the lack of employee engagement is estimated to result in $450 – 500 billion in lost productivity on an annual basis. For over 20 years, Gallup has been researching employee engagement and the percentage of engaged employees has barely budged in the United States during this timeframe. Based on 2021 research, Gallup has reported that 36% of U.S. workers are engaged, 49% are not engaged, and 15% are actively disengaged.

What is Employee Engagement?

What exactly is employee engagement? According to Gallup, an engaged employee is one who is “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. Someone who is experiencing this type of engagement is most likely to be aligned with their team and organization’s goals and making key contributions to producing desired results. Organizations that do the best job of creating employee engagement achieve earnings-per-share growth greater than 4 times that of their competitors. Additionally, other business boosting results are enjoyed by those companies who exemplify employee engagement. These include higher customer engagement, increased productivity, lower attrition, and higher profitability.

A Simple Approach

There are a multitude of methods available for increasing employee engagement with varying ranges of complexity, time commitment and cost. Yet, the solution may be simpler than you think. When we talk about employee engagement, we often speak in generalities. It can sound as if there is a group called “employees” that we must direct something towards collectively. A one size fits all approach has less of an opportunity to positively drive your engagement levels than one simple opportunity that many leaders have, at every level, including the C-suite. This opportunity, the key to engaging employees, is to get specific about each person.

One Employee at a Time

Engaging employees happens one person at a time. The place to start is to get to know each person on your team uniquely. How much do you already know about each employee and what makes that person tick?

How many of these questions can you answer right now about each employee on your team?

What are their career aspirations?
What personal aspirations do they have?
What motivates them?
What are their most important values?
What key strengths do they bring to the team?
What type of behavioral style do they favor?
What professional development needs do they have?

Call to Action

As you begin the new year, if you can’t answer all of these questions for each employee, I invite you to make it a priority to schedule 1:1 meetings to discover those answers. Then, look for the opportunities to:

let them use their strengths each day,
take on assignments that build the skills for their future career path,
communicate with them in a way that matches their style.

Your employees want to work in jobs that allow them to do what they do best, to grow and develop professionally, and feel a sense of purpose in what they focus on each day. What drives engagement and motivation is unique to each individual. So, get started by getting to know your team. Look for ways to align what is important to each person with the work they are doing, and watch your results begin to shift.

If you would like support in increasing employee engagement in your organization, please contact me to have a conversation. We offer a simple yet powerful and practical methodology to support you in improving employee engagement.

Shifting Your Relationship with Stress

October 11, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Change is inevitable – after all, nothing really stays the same. But in today’s challenging times, it seems like we’re on “uncertainty” overload, never knowing what will happen from one moment to the next.

With uncertainty comes stress and confusion, and while most of us would be quick to say that we want less stress and more certainty in our lives, what we really want is less of a stress reaction to what life throws our way.

We can’t choose what happens to us – but we can choose our responses to the situations we encounter. Let’s take a look at five different responses that people have to stressful situations. As you read, you may want to think of a recent stressful event or news that you may have received, and see what your reaction to that event can teach you about how you habitually respond. You may have one type of response at work, and another at home, or you may react differently depending on who else is involved.

The first and all too common response to stressful events is to suffer and be a victim to it. People who respond this way don’t take action. Things happen TO them – and though they may complain and be generally miserable about it, they don’t take any steps to do anything. They allow life to control them, instead of the other way around. This way of responding is certainly not recommended, and eventually, it will take its toll on one’s physical and mental health.

The second type of response is to accept the situation. Someone with this response may say “so what,” or perhaps get some perspective on the situation by asking if it will matter in a year – or a week – or even in a day.

The third way to respond is to actually take steps to change the situation – taking action to bring it to resolution (or at least move toward resolution). This is a very powerful response, and one that many effective leaders employ.

The fourth way to respond is to avoid the situation. People responding this way make a decision not to get involved in a situation that they don’t see as concerning them, or upon which they can’t make an impact.

The fifth and final way that people generally respond to stress is to alter the experience of the situation. When we look at a situation differently, the experience itself changes. Changing perceptions is probably the most challenging of the responses, because we tend to be stuck in our own interpretations and assumptions about what’s happening, but it is also perhaps the most powerful of all.

It’s your world, and you can create it as you wish. Remember, what one person sees as stressful, another person barely notices, or sees as exciting and full of opportunity. How are you going to choose today?

Why the Best Leaders Develop Mindfulness

June 29, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

What have Google, Samsung, Aetna, SAP, and P&G all got in common? All of these world-class organizations recognize that one of the fastest growing segments of our working population is burnt out leaders. They responded to this by implementing mindfulness leadership programs to help their leaders not only excel in work, but in their personal lives as well.

Decades of solid research show a direct connection between mindfulness and emotional intelligence in leaders and the bottom-line results they achieve. Being good at ‘what you do’ is no longer enough…you must also be resilient enough to effectively manage your emotions, reactions, and decisions in challenging business situations – and to help the people you manage, or work with, to do the same.

Great leaders are always searching for ways to take their leadership practices to the next level. Mindfulness has been the source of much focus over the last number of years and organizations worldwide are now realizing that sometimes there is more to a successful leader than meets the eye.

Developing emotional intelligence and mindfulness can truly transform the impact and ability of a leader. Following the Genos Leadership Model:

When you develop self-awareness, you become an Aware Leader. Aware leaders understand the impact that their behaviors have on others. They are consistent in what they say and do, and they demonstrate awareness of their mood and emotions.
Developing awareness of others allows you to become a more Empathetic Leader. Empathetic leaders make team members feel appreciated and adjust their style so that it fits well with others. They acknowledge the views of others and balance achieving results with others’ needs.
Working on authenticity creates more Genuine Leaders. Genuine leaders honor commitments and promises, they are open and honest about mistakes, and they facilitate robust and open debate.
Leaders high in emotional reasoning make Expansive decisions as a leader. Expansive leaders consult others in decision making, they make ethical decisions taking the bigger picture into account.
Leaders that work to develop self-management are Resilient Leaders. Resilient Leaders manage their emotions well in difficult situations. They strive to improve their own performance, and they learn from their mistakes.
Effective leaders that inspire performance become Empowering Leaders. Empowering leaders provide constructive feedback, maintain a positive work environment, and facilitate team member development and career advancement.

Do you or the leaders in your organization need to develop the above behaviors? They can do so by participating in the Genos Mindful Leader Program facilitated
by Dutra Associates, LLC, a Genos Certified Practitioner.

If you’re interested in hosting a Mindful Leader Program in your organization, please contact Sherry Dutra at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com or call 603.595.1588.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

Emotional Intelligence in Hiring – What You Need to Know

January 8, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

The case for emotional intelligence is clear. Successful organizations all over the world are now incorporating EI into the development of their people and their leaders. There’s also a wide variety of research and articles on the importance of hiring FOR emotional intelligence. But in all those blogs and pieces of content, authors don’t talk about HOW to hire for EI.

When we understand our own emotions and the emotions of others – it’s a win-win situation. Our relationships grow, we become more resilient, and able to handle stress more effectively. Far too many employees lack basic self- awareness and social skills and too often, people aren’t aware of how their moods and emotions are impacting others in the workplace.

According to Harvard Business Review, “One of the reasons we see far too little emotional intelligence in the workplace is that we don’t hire for it. We hire for pedigree. We look for where someone went to school, high grades and test scores, technical skills, and certifications, not whether they build great teams or get along with others. And how smart we think someone is matters a lot, so we hire for intellect.”

The World Economic Forum lists emotional intelligence as the 6th most important job skill required for success at work by 2020. WorkSafe Victoria have also observed that more mental injuries get caused in workplaces now than physical injuries; and levels of EI positively correlate with levels of resilience and negatively correlate with levels of occupational stress. In other words, people with high EI feel less stressed and are more resilient at work. Organizations that are focused on emotional intelligence in their talent management strategies are taking the right steps to ensuring healthy and happy workplaces and teams.

Measuring emotional intelligence should be added to talent management and hiring processes, not to replace other strategies but to strengthen an existing process.

Yes, you still need a comprehensive hiring plan, but what’s now clear to business leaders everywhere is that EI skills and behaviors are as important as your intellect, experience and background in determining success at work and in life.

The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report

Emotional Intelligence: a set of skills that help us better perceive, understand and manage emotions in ourselves and in others.

Collectively, being more emotionally intelligent allows us to make more intelligent responses to, and use of, our emotions. These skills are just as important as intellect (IQ) in determining success at work and in life. Emotions influence, both productively and unproductively, our decisions, behavior and performance.

Published psychometric studies have shown that scores on the Genos Selection Assessment meaningfully correlate with a number of important workplace variables. The higher people score on the Genos assessment, the higher they tend to also score on measures of:

Workplace performance
Leadership effectiveness
Sales and customer service
Resilience
Team work effectiveness
Employee Engagement

Here’s how it works:

The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report is the best measure of how often a candidate demonstrates emotional intelligence in the workplace. The report allows hiring managers to utilize EI measures as an additional means to avoiding bad hires.

The Genos Selection model comprises a set of seven emotionally intelligent competencies. These competencies represent skills and behaviors, based on underlying abilities and experiences, that are measurable and observable. The Genos model captures the workplace skills and behaviors that manifest from emotional intelligence abilities.

Users first experience a high-level overview of the candidate’s total EI score along with a deeper dive into each behavior and its results.
Interview questions and an interview evaluation guide then allows the hiring manager to dig deeper into the EI of the individual.
Wrap up the process by using the summary section to help combine assessment and interview results allowing you to present recommendations to a client or HR decision maker.

The information presented in this report should be combined and weighted with other sources of information to determine the candidate’s suitability or lack thereof for employment. Emotional intelligence is one of many factors related to success in the workplace. If you’d like to learn more about this innovative new emotional intelligence selection tool, please call Sherry Dutra at 603.595.1588 or email her at Sherry@DutraAssociates.

Game changing for hiring, life changing for your new hires.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

Developing These Six Behaviors Will Help You Become a Better Leader

December 2, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

There is an abundance of research on the impact emotions have on an individuals’ performance in the workplace. It shows that people often perform their worst when they experience unproductive feelings, such as feeling frustrated, concerned, stressed, inadequate, and fearful.

Research also shows that people perform their best when they feel involved in purposeful work that develops who they are… and when they feel valued, cared for, consulted, respected, informed and understood.

So, how can developing your leadership help ensure your people feel and perform their best?

Leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance, supporting others to do their best, and to do their work effectively and efficiently. One of the most robust, consistent findings in the area of social sciences is that there is a direct link between the way people feel and the way people perform. As such, leaders need to be skilled at identifying, understanding and influencing emotion within themselves and others in order to inspire performance.

Emotionally intelligent leadership is about leaders intelligently using emotions to facilitate high performance in themselves and others.

How, then, do leaders develop the skills to do this effectively? In the virtual Emotionally Intelligent Leader program, participants first engage in a personal Genos EI Leadership Assessment, in order to understand “how they are showing up at work.”

Participants will improve their understanding of emotions and emotional intelligence. They will also explore and practice tools and techniques for applying emotional intelligence in leadership and creating conditions for others to achieve high performance.

In the program, participants will:

explore the neuroscience of emotions and emotional intelligence,
examine tools and techniques for effectively asking for, and responding to, feedback,
explore techniques for developing self and other awareness,
examine how we can use reactive and proactive techniques to build our resilience and effectively manage strong emotions,
explore an approach for facilitating engagement discussions with staff members, and
explore techniques for applying EI in leadership and creating high performance in others.

The material for the program is based on the Genos Emotional Intelligence Leadership Model.

The Genos model of emotionally intelligent leadership has been developed from over a decade of research work examining how effective leaders use emotional intelligence abilities in their leadership of others.

The model comprises six emotionally intelligent workplace competencies. These competencies represent skills and behaviors based on underlying abilities and experiences that are measurable, observable, and critical to successful job performance.

The six Genos EI Competencies are:

Self-Awareness
Awareness of Others
Authenticity
Emotional Reasoning
Self-Management
Inspiring Performance

Self-awareness is about being aware of the behaviors you demonstrate, your strengths and limitations, and the impact you have on others. Leaders high in this skill are often said to be present rather than disconnected with who they are. Self-awareness is important in leadership because:

a leader’s behavior can positively or negatively impact the performance and engagement of colleagues
leaders need to know their strengths and limitations in order to continuously improve and maintain success
leaders’ interpretation of events at work is both made by, and limited by, their intelligence, personality, values and beliefs.
In order to objectively evaluate events, leaders must know how they interpret the world and how this helps and limits them.

Awareness of others is about noticing and acknowledging others, ensuring others feel valued, and adjusting your leadership style to best fit with others. Leaders high in this skill are often described as empathetic rather than insensitive to others and their feelings. Awareness of others is important in leadership because:

leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance, and the way others feel is directly linked to the way they perform
awareness of others is necessary in order to take effective steps to influence and facilitate others’ performance
to bring out the best in people, leaders need to adjust their leadership style to best fit with the people and situation they are leading.

Authenticity is about openly and effectively expressing yourself, honoring commitments and encouraging this behavior in others. It involves appropriately expressing specific feelings at work, such as happiness and frustration, providing feedback to colleagues about the way you feel, and expressing emotions at the right time, to the right degree and to the right people. Leaders high in this skill are often described as genuine, whereas leaders low in this skill are often described as untrustworthy. Authenticity is important in leadership because:

it helps leaders create understanding, openness and feelings of trust in others
leaders who are guarded, avoid conflict, or are inappropriately blunt about the way they feel can create mistrust, artificial harmony and misunderstandings with those around them
leaders need their people to be open with them. If, as a leader, you do not role-model this behavior, your direct reports will be guarded with you.

Emotional reasoning is the skill of using emotional information (from yourself and others) and combining it with other facts and information when decision-making. Leaders high in this skill make expansive decisions, whereas leaders who are low in this skill often make more limited decisions based on facts and technical data only. Emotional reasoning is important in leadership because:

feelings and emotions contain important information, for example, if a colleague is demonstrating frustration or stress, these feelings provide insight that they are going to be less open and supportive of new ideas and information
the workplace is becoming more complex and fast-paced; this requires quick, solid decision-making where all the facts and technical data are not available (gut feel and intuition are important in these environments)
people are influenced by emotion; if you fail to consider how people are likely to feel and react to decisions made, you may not achieve the appropriate buy-in or support for your decisions.

Self-management is about managing your own mood and emotions, time and behavior, and continuously improving yourself. This emotionally intelligent leadership competency is particularly important. Leaders high in this skill are often described as resilient rather than temperamental in the workplace. The modern workplace is one of high work demands and stress, which can cause negative emotions and outcomes. Self-management is important in leadership because:

a leader’s mood can be very infectious and can, therefore, be a powerful force in the workplace; one that can be both productive and unproductive
this skill helps leaders be resilient and manage high work demands and stress
to achieve, maintain and enhance success, leaders need to pay conscious attention to the way they manage time, how they behave and to continuously improve how they lead others.

Inspiring performance is about facilitating high performance in others through problem solving, promoting, recognizing and supporting others’ work. An individual’s performance can be managed with key performance indicators. This is important, however, research has shown that this “compliance” style often fails to drive discretionary effort and high performance. Leaders who combine this with a more inspiring style often empower others to perform above and beyond what is expected of them. Inspiring performance is important in leadership because:

leadership is fundamentally about facilitating the performance of others,
managing performance with rules and key performance indicators usually produces an “expected” result rather than an “unexpected” high-performance result
people often learn and develop more with this type of leadership style, resulting in continuous enhancements to performance year on year.

Strong leadership has never been more important as we navigate the impact of COVID-19. If you’d like to learn how you can bring this virtual program to your organization to support your leaders in becoming more emotionally intelligent, contact me at 603.595.1588 or via email at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com.

Adapted with permission by Genos International EU

An Often-Forgotten Key to Team Success: Managing Transitions On and Off the Team

October 7, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

An abundance of research, models, and resources exists to support teams in maximizing their effectiveness in delivering high performance and value to the team’s key stakeholders. Yet, one area that doesn’t tend to get enough attention is the criticality of managing the process of team members transitioning on and off the team.

We often tend to think this is a fairly simple process. Yet, how does the new team member fill the role of the person who has just moved on? If the team is expanding and someone is coming into a new role, how do they fit in? How do we capture the knowledge that is leaving with the team member who is transitioning out? The dynamics of the team are impacted every time there’s a change. So, beyond welcoming the new team member and saying a fond farewell to the one who is moving on, what can leaders do to pave the way for creating a smooth transition?

Here are a few key considerations when bringing on a new team member:

What excites them about coming on board?
What resources or support do they need from you or other members of the team to help them get up to speed?
What plans are in place to train them?
What level of oversight do you need to provide to ensure they have a smooth transition (without micromanaging)?
How will you welcome them to the team and ensure they meet everyone?
What will you put in place to help the other team members accept and welcome the new member?
How can you create an environment where the differing perspectives and experiences of the new team member are listened to and considered?

Here are a few key considerations when a team member is transitioning off the team:

How will this person’s work be transitioned to their replacement in a seamless way?
What is your process for capturing the team member’s knowledge before they move to a new group or leave the company?
How much time have you built into the process for them to train others?
How do you thank them for their contribution before they move on?
How do you ensure that confidential or proprietary information doesn’t walk out the door with the departing team member?

Transitions on and off a team are an important factor in team performance and results and, too often, proper preparation for such transitions doesn’t occur. Whether you are leading a long-standing team or shorter-term project teams, take the time to consider exploring these questions with your team the next time a transition on or off occurs. The time you invest now will pay off through shorter ramp-up time, more effective collaboration, and higher productivity.

What has worked for you in managing transitions successfully? Please feel free to share your ideas.