The Kando Code

Pop the solution bubbles to People Management, Recruitment, Career Growth and Self-improvement with some pill-sized tips.

People Management

Are SMART Objectives still SMART now we are WFH?

People Management

SMART Objectives are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Many companies have been using this approach as a tool to provide clarity and focus, and to motivate employees to achieve their goals and fundamentally get a good job done. Until recently, SMART Objectives have been discussed, tracked and adjusted mainly in a face-to-face, office environment. 

What happened when we all suddenly moved to Working From Home?

Online meetings to discuss goals now have to be planned in advance, set up in our calendars, potentially moved to a later date due to other higher priorities. The meetings may not even have video visual, but just a phone call. Dr Albert Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 rule of personal communication states that 7% of meaning is communicated through spoken words, 38% through tone of voice, and 55% through body language. It is undoubtedly harder, therefore, for a Manager to observe how an employee reacts to their input, when they are not in the same room together.

Mehrabian’s theory leaves some doubts in our minds as to whether we, as managers, have lost our “sensitivity touch” to how our people are feeling. To top it off, most managers were used to seeing their teams together with them in the office and no matter how well we know them, we are easily tempted to think they are working less, now they are sitting comfortably on their sofas. Since lock-down many of us seem to have lost our Manager Superpowers. 

Let’s kill a myth

“People who work from home work less”. Not entirely true. Actually most tend to work more, because they have cut out their daily travel and face-to-face socializing time with colleagues. In the office, many people have to stop what they are doing at a certain time to catch the bus, train etc. If they work from home, they don’t have that hard stop. The risk of working too much is therefore greater when working from home. And important to note: people work a lot, and effectively based on their level of motivation, which is unlikely to depend on where they are working, but rather what they are working on.

So what are your team members working on? And by when do they aim to complete it? If you do not have precise answers to these two questions, this may be the reason why you, as a Manager are feeling like you don’t have control in the remote-working context. Here’s where the need for SMART Objectives comes in, even more than before! 

SMART Objectives just got Smarter

The answer to the original question, “are SMART objectives still smart, now we are working from home?” is yes. Actually they just got smarter, because we need to be more surgical in our approach to setting them, working on them and tracking them, to ensure the desired outcome is delivered. And the need to have goals in place has become paramount to the success of businesses that have opted to keep their workforce working from home.

Give your team members clear, strategic, measurable goals to work on, in order to keep them engaged and highly motivated. Remember the last time you worked on a project that you enjoyed? Did you struggle to close your laptop? I certainly did. 

How can SMART Objectives play out well in a remote-working environment?

We need to put a good deal of focus and practice, to ensure we manage SMART Objectives correctly. We must also keep momentum high until the goals have been achieved (and even thereafter). Do not fall into the trap of setting your team’s SMART goals and then believing they are set up for success from there onward, especially when communication with your team is purely remote. 

Here is some advice on the “technical management” of SMART Objectives:

  1. Identify goals that can be measured with data 
  2. Break your goals down into smaller, sizeable milestones
  3. Consider what great looks like
  4. Schedule a realistic deadline for completion
  5. Regularly review and adjust them accordingly
  6. Tackle potential roadblocks together
  7. Focus on the process needed to get there, not just on the results 

Furthermore, keeping a strong relationship based on transparency and trust is probably the most important aspect a Manager should aim to achieve with each of his/her team members during remote working scenarios:

MANAGER TRUST + SMART Objectives = HIGHLY MOTIVATED REMOTE WORKING INDIVIDUAL

The below advice on the “motivational” side of dealing with SMART Objectives is equally as important as the above technical points:

  1. Set the scene by showing the Big Picture: What the Company goals are and where their efforts fit in
  2. Align: Ask for input from your team member on their goals: how will you go about this goal?
  3. Be a “Manager-on-a-tap”: Make yourself available 😉
  4. Listen and be open to criticism
  5. Debrief and expose, applaud and celebrate great results
  6. Apply any lessons learned for the next time

SMART Objectives during remote working requires more check-in moments and potentially readjusting, so they work best when Managers are as agile and flexible as flexible-working is itself.

How to become SUPERMAN(ager)

Career Growth, People Management, Self Improvement

In the absence of supernatural alien powers, us common mortal managers are constantly rattling our brains about how to become a super-manager. 

Let’s start with why we long to become great managers. Apart from that satisfying sense of achievement you get from having developed strong talents over time in your team, you may have also had a great manager yourself. So it’s about giving back. Or, on the contrary, like some parents, you want to give your springs everything you were not given yourself.

Whether you are new to people management or have a good few years experience, if you are reading this you are likely to have the basics; those regular one-on-ones with your team members. But let’s face it: No-one is just a people manager anymore. We all have our roles and responsibilities, where “manage a team” is simply an “on top” part of our job description. And you are a good people manager. But it’s like kryptonite is stopping you in your ways.. 

So what will accelerate your growth as a people manager? What will strengthen your management skills? What’s missing? Use the below 6 tips as a checklist that I hope will inspire you to reveal your hidden “S” and fly above and beyond your city’s limits!

1. Build the relationship. Earn the trust

Make sure you develop a healthy relationship with your team members. This fundamentally includes earning their trust. Reveal the real you and be yourself. Be honest and focus on building a strong, long-term connection. This means having (also) informal conversations,  asking for their opinion, following through with their ideas and supporting them.

2. Listen + coach 

A close cousin of the above, but deserves a point all to itself. Listen and coach, in that order. Listening sounds easy, but as you are more experienced than the person reporting to you, it is very tempting to jump in with your advice as soon as you think you have understood the issue. Often, however, the first thing they say is not their real challenge. Show you care, by diving deeper and deeper into what your report is saying, and make sure they do most of the talking.

Start to coach them on the topic only when you are sure you have the full picture. You may even find that they get there on their own, purely thanks to you asking the right questions. That’s a good coach. One effective way to start a conversation where you are an active listener, is to begin with an observation on how you see them today.

3. Empower + Exploit

Empowerment is about giving your team members the space and the tools to take ownership of a project or a task. Your role here is to set them up for success, give them the advice they need and do not micromanage them. They may need to check in with you along the way (if they ask, you know you’ve got points 1 and 2 right). A very effective way of empowering a talent in your team is to ramp them up through succession planning towards your role. Once your team member has achieved something great, make sure you go public with it! Positively exploit the achievement and celebrate their results; drop an email to top management (or everyone) on what they did and how they did it. 

4. Collect the facts and make a dead-set decision

When it comes to decision making, your team members are often fundamental to helping you reach the right conclusion. This 4th point requires you to have conquered all 3 of the above ones: (1) Your strong relationship will ensure that your team members want to help you; (2) Be at the top of your game with your listening skills, so that you dive as deep as possible into the data and the facts your team will share with you; (3) Once your decision has been made, ensure you recognize your team for their support. Then the most important part, once you have all you need, do not waver on your decision. 

5. Face your demons and elephants

It’s hard being a people manager. Then it gets harder when you realize you need to solve a tricky problem with someone in your team. The issue may be about general low performance or one big mistake some has made, or it may be about a bad attitude. In any case, do not delay these cases for longer than a week. Problems need to be faced together with you, front-on and while they are still fresh. Pluck-up your super-courage and have those difficult conversations.

6. Hope you get a tough cookie 

Last but definitely not least, this one will help you become a super-manager the hardest, but potentially the most effective way. By “tough cookie” I mean someone who, for one reason or another, is particularly difficult to manage. They may not believe you are good enough to be their manager, they may have a conflictual personality or they may just not like you. If you have a tough cookie, you know it 🙂 They may seem like they want to make your life difficult, you may even see each other as the enemy. This team member is constantly challenging you, making you look bad in front of the others, making you feel you are not doing a good job as their manager, right? Why can’t they just be nice, kind and helpful like the others? 

Do not see them as the enemy, because like it or not, these individuals are your key to developing stronger, more mature management skills. Like in sport, if it’s making you sweat, it’s working. These people will stretch you as a manager, as you stretch them in their developmental path. By constantly challenging you, they will force you to look around corners, obsess about high standards, reason, experiment, search alternative solutions. They will push you to become greater than what you expected. You just have to recognize and embrace the situation. In their defense, they are probably just ambitious and don’t want to be set back.

Don’t fall into the trap of being negatively provoked, but take a moment to assess what is the best way to react, maturely as the super-manager you are.  

Finally Superman-ager, Leadership is about leading, and leading by example. And above all, it’s more about giving than receiving, because if your focus is on giving (listening, building on their growth, developing their skills, caring, etc.) then it is likely you will receive a great deal more, as a consequence.

Succession Planning 101

Career Growth, People Management

Hi People Manager. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t need a succession plan because you’re not going anywhere soon, right? What if you considered such a plan a highly effective technique to building your team’s career paths? You need that, right? Read on and find out the many other reasons why Succession Planning is important to any company, manager and employee. Of course when we ask Why, we are also likely to want to know What, Who, How and When, too!

What is it?

Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing new leaders who can replace the original leaders when they leave, get promoted or move to a new role within the same company. 

As a concept, succession planning is a solid way to build a career path for talented employees, as it ultimately aims to have your, the Managers build their teams’ competences, to the point where it is no longer necessary to hire senior external talent, as their Organic Growth is strong enough to cater for those needs. 

To carry out the plan effectively, companies must have clarity on their long-term goals and the developmental needs of their employees. Ensuring that employees understand their career paths and the roles they are being developed to fill, is paramount to the plan’s success. I would also advise companies to be aware of potential competitors’ attractiveness and the roles they will have a difficult time filling externally.

Why?

Apart from the obvious, which is to guarantee long-term continuity in key company roles, there are several more advantages for both employers and employees to having a formalized succession plan in place:

  • Employees know that there is a chance for advancement and ownership, which can lead to higher satisfaction. 
  • It reduces attrition and increases engagement (some of the most regretted leavers potentially could have been “saved” had there been a succession plan for them in place).
  • Management’s commitment to succession planning means that they will transfer knowledge and expertise to the successor.
  • Management keeps a better track of the value of employees so that positions can be filled internally when opportunities arise.
  • Leadership and employees are better able to share company values and vision.
  • Founders and leadership may retire or choose to leave their operational seat, in which case a new generation of leaders can be developed strategically over time, without additional external hiring and related extra costs.
  • It improves the employer brand identity both internally and externally.
  • It increases overall employee seniority, ensuring the company runs smoothly, even if key figures leave (or are absent)

Who?

Succession Planning is complex and usually cannot be applied to the whole organization at once. Companies can begin by assessing the Leadership Team’s roles first, or they might want to prioritize middle-management. Alternatively, their primary focus might be based on the most “vulnerable roles”; those at high risk of being vacant in the short-to-mid term, are key roles within the company and are without a ready internal solution. To help the company and yourself clarify your current situation as a manager, you can place yourself into one of the following categories:

  1. I have no Internal Successor 
  2. I can have a Successor ready in 12-36 months 
  3. I have a Successor ready now 
  4. I don’t need a Successor

Cases 1 and 2 of the above are the ones that are standing in the priority lane for a succession plan. Here are the key considerations for you if you need to build your plan:

  • What are the key competences needed to be successful in my role?
  • Do I have someone in mind who could replace me? 
  • If yes, how long would it take for them to be ready? 
  • Could I consider splitting my role in 2-3 pieces for multiple managers to adopt parts of my job?
  • What are the actions I need to take to develop my successor? 
  • What would happen if I freed my role tomorrow? 

The last question is just to make it feel a bit more real 🙂

How?

In order for a succession plan to work, carry out a self-evaluation and understand why you have been successful in your role. Self-awareness as a manager is key; list the relevant knowledge and skills you’ve needed to achieve your goals. The plan should ensure that it stretches its successor, adding on responsibilities and SMART objectives. You must also make sure that your successor is aware of the intent, set expectations and check if this is what (s)he wants.

Once you are underway with the plan, make sure you incorporate strategies for learning, training, development, and the transfer of corporate knowledge, as well as following through with This Process:

  1. Nominate your successor + give an estimate on their 0-3 year readiness
  2. Send your nomination to Leadership and CHRO for their input on eligibility
  3. Related to point 2, an external assessment of the candidate(s) can be very effective as the next step
  4. Implement your Succession Plan
  5. Make a bi-annual review on progress vs plan: has readiness decreased or accelerated? What are the gaps? What is required to fill the gap? (if necessary, warn your successor they can be removed from the plan if performance expectations are not met)
  6. Assess and communicate timing for the move to the new role based on the review on progress vs plan. 
  7. Move your successor to “The Ready Pool”

When?

Here’s the most tricky part of the plan: often it is unclear when your successor will effectively take on your role, so if timing is lengthy, it is important to keep them engaged and motivated. Solid tactics to retain their engagement are through effective one-on-ones, monetary incentives, a job title change and passing over a part of your role as soon as they are ready to take it on..

Rolling out a succession plan may take months or years to complete, based on the readiness of the candidate. In any case, be sure to invest your time in their growth, with the intent to flawlessly pass over your role, by the end of the journey.

8 Quick Tips to effectively Ramp-up your Successor

Career Growth, People Management

If you are a Manager who needs to build a succession plan, you have already identified who your  successor is and perhaps how long it will take to ramp the person up, but you are wondering how to do it, find below some quick, actionable tips to include in your plan: 

1. Coaching

Coaching generally occurs during your 1:1s. It is a regular exercise where you as the manager teach your successor the key items of your role, the challenges you face and challenge them on what they would do. Walk them through the typical, most challenging scenarios you face in your role and test their knowledge as a result. Coaching your successor must be practical and on-the-job.

2. Training

These can be internal or external based on internal existing competences, but are always related to specific topics that add to the successor’s knowledge / skill set. Personally I find the best training sessions are a mix of theory and practice, such as role-playing. 

3. Shadowing

Take your Successor with you to all critical internal and external meetings. Brief your talent before the meetings and debrief the meeting together, afterwards. Shadowing can be split into 3 phases, whereby initially the successor is a silent observer, then they actively participate in the meetings, then they own them.

4. Acting

This is where your successor really starts to get a taste of what it takes to do your job, as you are putting them actively in the hot seat: The best occasion to have your successor “enact” your role is when you take annual leave. “Test” your successor by having them take on some, or every aspect of your role (based on how ready they are).

5. Mentoring

Identify your Successor’s mentor (which could be you or another senior leader). The mentor has regular 1:1’s with the Successor to support them with their challenges. Mentoring should not be confused with coaching. The mentor discussions are not necessarily related to performance in their roles but more long-term related and based on personal development. My Manager found me a great mentor about 5 years ago and we talked mostly about behaviours concerning my growth and how to improve my internal networking skills.

6. Lateral Moves

Especially if there are noticeable gaps in their experience before becoming you, move your successor to a new role to fill those gaps and have greater visibility of your team’s full set of responsibilities + operational know-how.

7. Assignments

Give your successor a challenging stretch-project in a diverse environment, perhaps in a different country, to enhance and build their competences. Lateral moves and assignments may go hand-in-hand.

8. Leadership Roles

Adding extra people and/or project management responsibilities to your successor’s role may be an essential part of building their leadership strength to the point where you feel confident they are ready and will succeed in your role. 

What should a REAL One-on-One look like?

Career Growth, People Management

Some employees do not have regular one-on-one meetings with their Managers and some do, but many complain that they are unstructured, not useful or leave them feeling lost. That leaves a lucky, smaller group of employees having useful, structured 1:1’s with their managers that give them direction and allow them to move forward with the decisions that were discussed. 1:1 meetings should be energy-boosters for both parties and should be something we look forward to!

One-on-one’s are a formal and regular opportunity in which a Manager and their team member can invest their time to communicate in a structured manner. 

They:

  • create context for managers and their team members to perform better
  • set expectations
  • provide guidance to employees in their roles 
  • help both employee and manager solve tough challenges
  • are the optimal setting for two-way communication streams
  • are an excellent relationship builder 
  • may catch problems early
  • give managers the opportunity to recognize their talents and develop their skills, knowledge and ultimately their careers

Content

When I’ve asked employees or managers in the past what they cover during their 1:1’s, I’ve been surprised and disappointed to hear them say “we have a general chat about how things are going” or “mainly just updates” or “we don’t need an agenda, we know each other very well and we talk all the time” hence “we don’t need 1:1’s”. Unfortunately, if managers and employees are to progress, develop and grow as professionals, they need to take a planned, structured and objective approach to these meetings. Otherwise they are wasting each other’s time. 

First, before the meeting goes ahead, make sure both manager and employee share their  input on the agenda items (what to cover). The input should be balanced and both parties ought to feel responsible for owning a part of the meeting’s content.

Here below a high-level overview of what one-on-ones should cover and how often:

  • Employee’s current challenges (weekly)
  • Manager’s specific updates (weekly)
  • Tracking + measuring progress on goals (weekly)
  • 2-way performance feedback (monthly)
  • Coaching (monthly)
  • Growth within current role (every 1-2 months)
  • Career development / future role (every 2-3 months) 
  • Extra projects and opportunities (regularity subject to context)
  • Employee motivation and happiness (regularity subject to need)

Based on the identified agenda items, you are likely to find that your 1:1 sessions will not cover all of the above areas, every time. So you may want to dedicate a whole, separate session to some of the more long-term items (those that, if you are running out of time “can wait”, but shouldn’t). 

5 basic but essential rules around 1:1’s

  1. Avoid talking about your “day-by-day” or giving a “status update”, but if you have to cover it, don’t stay on the topic for very long, as updates can be given via email or other means. Status updates should be discussed however, if some form of Manager/Employee alignment needs to come from it. 
  2. Make sure you have identified an actionable follow-up with time-lines for each item you discuss, otherwise they were not worth discussing (@Manager, you may want to take some of those actions for yourself, too 😉 )
  3. Ensure you set up regular 1:1 sessions in your calendars that are 100% respected by both manager and team member. Do not cancel your session: if you cannot make the time or day postpone the meeting and try to keep it within a week.
  4. It may seem obvious but ensure you have a closed, pre-booked meeting room as this sets you up for a potentially difficult conversation you may find yourself having. 
  5. Apply a no-interruptions rule as this will demonstrate mutual respect.

A message to the Employee

It is quite typical (and very tempting) for managers to drive your 1:1 meetings, but it is better for both if you proactively own a part of it too. The more constructive you are during these meetings the more your manager will value you as a team member. 

Consider bringing to the table:

  • your own ideas on how to solve or improve something, a way of working or a process
  • your own objectives that make sense within the context of your role (especially in environments where objectives setting are sluggish)
  • a forward-thinking approach – show that you are looking around corners
  • facing your demons: talk openly if you are worried about something
  • energy and desire to learn (ask a lot of questions)
  • clarity on your commitments

A message to the Manager

Think about your high-level approach to your 1:1’s with your team member. (S)he is likely to rely on your verbal and non-verbal input, be influenced by your behavior and react according to the results of the conversation (both its content and general “mood”). Give yourself clarity on the below points:

  • What is the likely overall tone of the conversation?
  • How is the employee performing against their goals?
  • What can you do to improve their performance?
  • What is your vision?
  • What is the main message you want to convey?

Lastly but perhaps most essentially; whether you are the manager or their direct report, make sure you use your Active Listening skills as much as possible to make the most out of your 1:1 meetings.

To gain a deeper insight into some interesting data around how managers approach 1:1 meetings see Soapbox’s results on their 2019 survey.