Hey fellow managers and leaders,
Before jumping into this week’s articles, I wanted to let you know about two events we’re hosting to help you level-up your leadership skills:
🖤 #ManagerChats: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace
Join us for a virtual conversation about the role managers play in fostering a sense of belonging at work. We asked some of the world’s most experienced DEI leaders (including Google’s Head of Product Inclusion and the CTO of the Obama Foundation) to lend their advice and best practices on this topic. We’d love to see you at this Twitter chat on June 30th!
🌎 Work from Anywhere: Shopify and Gitlab on a #DigitalByDefault Future
Have questions about remote work? This is your chance to ask the experts. On July 8th, I’ll have the honour of interviewing Mark Bergen (Head of Revenue at Shopify Plus) and Darren Murph (Head of Remote at Gitlab) on the key steps that every remote manager should take to successfully navigate the #remote world. Register now and submit your questions so they’re answered live during the event!
Now, back to the usual programming. Here are this week’s top four picks:
🤝 4 Key Steps to Promote Diversity Conscious Leadership
TLDR: Becoming a diversity conscious leader begins with the basic recognition that diversity of culture, ages, sexuality, social and ethnic backgrounds, and religions will greatly benefit your organization. Diversity conscious leaders are curious, self-aware, cognizant of bias, and culturally sensitive.
“Great leaders acknowledge that their organizations, despite best intentions, have unconscious bias, and they put in place policies, processes, and structures in order to mitigate the unconscious bias that exists.”
⏰ 8 Ways to Improve Time Management
TLDR: Time management is an essential skill for anyone leading a team or organization. Managing your time effectively will help you avoid stress and produce high-quality results. Here are three best practices to level-up your time management skills:
- Set weekly priorities and share them with your manager to ensure you’re working on the right things.
- Plan every moment of your day and dedicate specific “blocks” for certain tasks.
- Prepare an agenda for every meeting you attend.
“Be conscious of which times during the day you are the most productive and use those times to tackle the most demanding tasks. Time blocking protects your time from any interruptions so that you can stay focused.”
🌱 What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means
TLDR: According to Carol Dweck (author of Mindset), managers and organizations can gain a lot by embracing a growth mindset: the idea that talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and help from others.
“Organizations that embody a growth mindset encourage appropriate risk-taking, knowing that some risks won’t work out. They reward employees for important and useful lessons learned, even if a project does not meet its original goals. They support collaboration across organizational boundaries rather than competition among employees or units. They are committed to the growth of every member, not just in words but in deeds, such as broadly available development and advancement opportunities.”
🥪 The Little Things That Make Employees Feel Appreciated
TLDR: Research by HBR shows that employees are more productive when they believe that their manager respects and appreciates their work. Here are three actionable ways to make your teammates feel appreciated:
- Take time to say hello and check-in with them on a regular basis.
- Look for growth opportunities and stretch assignments.
- Give balanced feedback (both positive and constructive), but avoid giving both types of feedback at once. In other words, avoid the feedback sandwich!
“At the end of the day, building a culture of appreciation comes down mostly to a lot of small commonsense practices: Not taking your people for granted. Remembering to say thank-you in a personal and sincere way. Making it clear that you’re interested in your employees’ growth and in them as individuals.”
