tl;dr:“Giving the right amount of context helps teams move faster. Too much context? Your manager can’t tell what’s important. They’ll need to wade through details, trying to sort information into a pile of what’s important vs what to ignore. Too little context? Your manager has to follow up and pull information out of you that you should have mentioned proactively. There is such a thing as being too concise.”
tl;dr:“As a leader, the one thing you are expected to do is make hard decisions. Unfortunately, most of us are wired to avoid conflict. So when it comes time to communicating these decisions, many leaders subconsciously look for shortcuts that allow us to get this over with as soon as possible. One of these shortcuts is defaulting to apologizing to smooth things over, while telling yourself the story that you’re being an empathetic, vulnerable leader.” Wes shares how this is a bigger deal this decays relationships with your team.
tl;dr:“When you notice a small mistake or miscommunication, your urge might be to correct your colleague—because you are technically right. But this can derail the main point and cause a distraction. I have to remind myself: Keep the bigger picture in mind. I want to share an example of how this can creep into your work, with email drafts I almost sent vs what I actually sent.”
tl;dr:(1) Give feedback on one thing that will make the biggest difference. (2) Don’t jump straight into line edits. (3) You don’t need to write out all your feedback. (4) Balance what’s easy for you (feedback giver) and easy for them (feedback receiver).
tl;dr:Managers typically say “looks good” for one of two reasons: (1) You care about quality, but it’s faster to fix the work yourself. (2) You don’t prioritize quality, so you think the work is fine as is. This approach normalizes mediocrity in the name of efficiency. Wes prompts us to ask the following: Do I really think this looks good? What would make this excellent? What did they do well, and what could they improve? What’s one piece of feedback that will make the biggest impact in improving this? What’s something I’m noticing, that I can point out so my direct report learns to see what I’m seeing?
tl;dr:Wes discusses why you should consider raising your standards and why this has the potential to dramatically improve your team’s chances of getting what you want: (1) Why every leader should set higher standards. (2) Challenges when raising the bar. (3) How to normalize a culture of excellence.
tl;dr:“Creating a new position for yourself—one that doesn't yet exist — sounds too good to be true. But many of us have done it, and I’ve personally done it multiple times. I want to share a few ideas that will help you do it too.”
tl;dr:Wes share some ways you can share feedback with senior leaders, or anyone more powerful than you—while being respectful, helpful, and protecting yourself from their wrath.
tl;dr:Wes share some ways you can share feedback with senior leaders, or anyone more powerful than you—while being respectful, helpful, and protecting yourself from their wrath.
tl;dr:In this week’s post, we’ll cover examples of finesse in the workplace. (1) Identify when to ask for forgiveness vs permission. (2) Acknowledge that perception matters. (3) Know what you can get away with. (4) Don’t be too literal. (5) Know when to be discreet. (6) Never bet against incentives.