You'll Manage

Ever been called a micromanager? Or been told you're too hands off?

Startup founders Vic and Maggie learned the hard way to strike the balance — and they revealed to us their secret to empowering a team and unlocking their superhuman strength to tackle new, daunting challenges. What frameworks helped them foster a culture of empowerment that enabled them to build the world’s most successful pet camera company, Furbo? Press play to find out.

Why it matters

You've probably experienced how motivation- and morale-sapping it is to work on menial, routine tasks that are completely unchallenging – or complex projects that are far too challenging without support. You certainly don't want your team members feeling either. Being deliberate about empowering your direct reports is central to not just their motivation and morale, but also their ability to grow and contribute more.

Putting it into action

1. Set a clear vision

The first step to empowerment is to make sure you have set a clear vision and agreed on clear objectives with your direct report. If you want to empower them and let them run, they need to know where they are heading.

How? Use a clear goal-setting framework. In this episode, Vic and Maggie mention the OKRs (Objective & Key Results) framework, popularized by Silicon Valley companies like Google.

Try this: If you haven't done so already, sit down with your direct reports to set their individual objectives using a clear framework. Make it clear it's their responsibility to achieve these targets, and be sure to touch base with them regularly to see how they're progressing.

Learn more: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/set-goals-with-okrs/steps/introduction/

2. Design stretch challenges

People often deliver their best work – and are most energized – when they feel challenged. They should feel a little nervous, but also be sufficiently set up for success through support and coaching.

With the right challenge, they’ll feel like they achieved the impossible and be more ready than ever for the next big project!

How? Craft challenges that push your direct reports out of their comfort zones. Then, coach them along the way when they need it. In Vic's words "fight the war together," and you can help them find that superhuman strength in them to achieve the impossible.

Try this: Identify one direct report who you consider an “emerging star” – someone with a lot of potential. Think about what skills and experiences they need to take things to the next level, and then try to find a project or task that will challenge them on those fronts. Create checkpoints and communicate with them along the way so that you can guide them when needed while still giving them the space to learn and figure things out on their own. (More on this to come in episode 4!)

3. Foster the right culture

Empowering an individual can only go so far if the overall organization's culture and practices aren't aligned.

Vic and Maggie not only defined open-mindedness and exploration as core values for their company, they actively embedded habits and frameworks that reflected those values. Their "1-2-3 strategy," for example, encourages teams to explore their options before coming to a decision as a group.

How? Consider what culture you want to foster. What are the specific traits? Then think about what specific day-to-day frameworks you can implement to bring it about.

Try this: Start with something granular, rather than trying to...

"You'll Manage Challenge" episodes put theory into action, providing you a clear, achievable next step to up your management game within a week.

Following Episode 1's focus on career conversations, this week's Challenge is all about better understanding what makes your direct reports tick. After all, before you can help your direct report to develop their careers, you need to understand them as a person.

The career conversations You'll Manage Challenge

Your challenge is to build a better understanding of one of your direct reports by answering three simple questions. 

1. What is one thing that your direct report enjoys doing?
2. What is one thing that your direct report dreads
3. What is a passion/hobby your direct report has?

Try to complete the Challenge within a week starting now! If you're not sure how to start, try one of the approaches we discuss in the episode.

Share your Challenge experience

Drop us an email at [email protected] to let us know how your experience completing the Challenge was. What approach did you try? Did you learn anything surprising? How will it change how you manage this person in the future?

Even better, record a voice memo and attach it to your email, and we might feature you in a future episode of You'll Manage!

We (Jenny and Harold) have been geeking out about people management for a long time. Learn why we care so much, why we started You'll Manage, and how we hope it will help you in your journey to become the manager everyone wants to work for!

Do you know what your direct reports want out of their careers?

Leadership & development expert Steph Wong makes the case that it is your job as a manager to know.

Steph shares with us the approaches and tools she uses to guide people in developing their careers, and how meaningful career conversations can help your team do their best work – at their current jobs, and beyond.

Why it matters

As managers, we have a tremendous amount of potential influence on our direct reports' careers – not just within your current organization, but also wherever they may go in the future (and yes, someday they will leave!). We have a reponsibility to wield this influence with care and buy-in, and if we do it well it will bring out the best in them in their current jobs as well.

Putting it into action

1. Care about your direct reports as humans, not just employees

In order to have meaningful, honest, and open conversations about career development, your direct reports have to feel that you genuinely care about them and are interested in their lives – this can't be faked!

You have to build a rapport and trust with them and this takes self-awareness on your part. The ways you communicate with them – how you hold conversations, how you ask questions, your gestures, etc. – all feed into how rapport and trust is built.

2. Help your direct reports build self awareness to ultimately figure out what they want in their careers.

“What do you want to do with your career?” can be daunting for many.

Try these exercises and frameworks to help you and your direct report to together identify themes in what motivates and energizes them at work as a starting point to more thoughtfully plan their careers.

(Most of these exercises are from the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. For more information, visit: https://designingyour.life).

• Adjectives exercise
• One's awareness of oneself is just one side of the coin. Help your team members understand how they show up at work in the eyes of others. Ask them to each write 5 adjectives to describe each other – the collated adjectives for each person should help them identify key themes on how they are perceived and what others notice about them.
• Good time journal
• Invite your direct report to document everything they do for a period of time, in and out of work, scoring each event or activity based on how engaged they were and whether they gained or lost energy from it. At the end of it, they should be able to step back and recognize patterns in what keeps them engaged and energized in life and at work. (You can use the good time journal worksheet.)
• AEIOU
• Have your direct report identify some significant positive and negative experiences at work. For each, ask them to reflect on: What activity they were doing, what was the environment like, what were the interactions with the people there, were there any objects being made or used, who the users there were and how they affected the experience. This exercise provides a deeper understanding of the factors that enhance or detract from their satisfaction at work.
• Odyssey
• Career planning can be an exercise in imagination....