OpsAngel

If I told you I am a leader, would you follow me anywhere? I have been pondering this question, and the difference between being a leader and leadership. I see my daughters trying to answer this for themselves as they navigate secondary school. They are sharpening their social skills, trying to work out for themselves the difference between control and influence, demanding and motivating. There are group dynamics to consider and group assignments to negotiate successfully. And there are the teachers - those they think use their authority to get the work done, and those they perceive go above and beyond to create a learning environment that is fun and inspiring. Which isn’t too dissimilar to the working world. When I think of leaders I think in names. When I think of leadership I think in moments. Moments where I saw it and moments where I wished I had seen it. ➡ Leaders are made ➡ Leadership is experienced Our natural assumption is leaders are in leadership positions because of their leadership abilities. Which is why I think many of us are shocked when we are suddenly exposed to leaders who appear to have made it into senior positions without an ounce of leadership. We might also expect leadership to follow a hierarchy. In reality, you don’t need a title higher up an org chart to be able to shape contributions from your team members, and inspire a group to action. There are moments in every day where everyone can create empowerment and build trust. Chances for collaboration, shared visions, and creative problem solving are all leadership skills anyone can use at any level of a company structure. 🌟 Your leadership shapes your legacy 🌟 Your job title will always be on your resume, but the way you show up needs a little more thought and attention. It is a choice that needs a good dose of self-awareness and reflection. So, if someone tells me they are a leader and asks me to follow them, I am going to need a little more evidence and persuading that they are someone I want to follow. #leadership #COO ------ I work with founders, leaders and investors to build more resilient, scalable and valuable businesses. Think you might need some help with your leadership approach? DM me

Struggling with giving feedback is common but it doesn’t have to be difficult. I don’t ever recall having had any kind of formal education around how to give feedback. I’ve taken a more trial and error approach in learning to navigate the pitfalls of hurt feelings, tension, and potential conflict. So, imagine my surprise when my young kids started coming home from school and giving me 'tips and tops' - a simple system for sharing what could be improved and what went well. Every time they presented in front of their class, their classmates were asked to provide tips and tops. No embarrassment, no plucking up the courage to give feedback. Just an expectation that everyone in the class is invested in everyone else's success. Brilliant! So, if like me you haven’t had the benefit of learning to give ‘tips and tops’ at school, what is the best way to give constructive feedback? Many models have been proposed over the years all with handy acronyms for remembering in the heat of the moment. There are some common threads I have found useful to think about when giving feedback. 🔎 Setting the context or giving a specific example I am a fan of giving feedback in the moment so the context is fresh. Adding a 5 minute feedback agenda item at the end of your meetings is a great way to do this. Be clear about what was happening, and in what situation, and check that you share the same understanding of the context. 🔎 Focusing on behaviour not personality Keeping feedback on how someone behaved or acted avoids unintentional judgements on someone's character. Here you can share what you directly observed and what was happening in that moment. 🔎 Discussing impact and alternative outcomes Sometimes we need another perspective to understand when our behaviour hasn’t perhaps got the outcomes we wanted. The feedback should hold up a mirror to explain by doing x, y happened, and then explore the different ways we could have got different outcomes. It pays to go into feedback conversations with an open mind, good intentions, and without emotion. The point is to help someone achieve a better outcome in the future, so before you start sharing your feedback, check if it is useful, clear, and actionable. Getting emotional? No problem. Agree to step away and try again another day. #feedbackculture #COO #operationalexcellence ------ I work with founders, leaders and investors to build more resilient, scalable and valuable businesses. Think you might need some help with your feedback loops? DM me

I once had to tell a business owner they were actually the biggest risk to their business. It was one of the most difficult pieces of feedback I have ever had to deliver. It took courage on both sides to have that conversation, but it was the right conversation at the right time. They needed to hear what I had to say to make positive changes. Feedback is part of all successful growth stories. Delivered with the right words, intent and timing it can be a game changer for individuals and businesses. Our ability to observe, interpret, respond, and critique is directly related to our ability to personally grow and perform. And to be an active part of the growth journeys of the businesses, teams and individuals we work with. I have been on my own journey with feedback. ➡ From outright avoidance,  ↪ to clumsily finding the best ways to deliver feedback,  ↪ to fully embracing it as a key way to learn and better myself, ↪ to using it as a way to build trust in teams. What I can share with you is that avoidance is never a good tactic when there is so much to gain from leaning into giving and receiving feedback… 📈 Improved performance; getting better at something starts with feedback on what isn’t going so well, and then doing something with that feedback 🌱 Individual growth and development; team members that are personally growing their skills and knowledge are directly contributing to the success of the company. And they are happier and more self-aware.  💪 Stronger collaboration between individuals and teams; communication becomes more honest and transparent directly contributing to better problem solving, faster feedback loops, and less conflict. 🏆 Excellence; feedback is critical in signally what good looks like, setting the bar high again where something and someone has fallen short, or motivating individuals who are on the right track. When you start to see the real impact of giving actionable, valuable and well thought out feedback, it is difficult to argue that we shouldn’t all be putting a little more daily focus in this area. Feedback is a simple tool with a big impact across performance, culture and people happiness, so it is definitely worth the effort. #operationalexcellence #COO #feedbackmatters ------ I work with founders, leaders and investors to build more resilient, scalable and valuable businesses. Think you might need some help with your feedback loops? DM me

In business sometimes the only way through something is to have a difficult conversation. Early in my career, I would veer away from having any kind of difficult discussion. I didn’t have the language or skills to navigate them. Procrastination, avoidance and delegation were my go to strategies! I would rather quietly sit in frustration and fear than pluck up the courage to start a dialogue about something I knew I needed or wanted. Sharing bad news, giving feedback on performance, asking for a pay rise, handling bad behaviour, or challenging decisions. These are some of the most important conversations we will have but they will also be super sensitive, emotionally charged and challenging. Calm confidence is essential. We have to be open and respectful. And we need to be able to articulate exactly what we want to say, and what we want to happen. Alec Grimsley calls these ‘vital conversations’ in his book of the same name. So, despite our good intentions, why do these vital conversations not always go as planned? Alec suggests it could be down to the stories we tell ourselves. The Ladder of Inference is a model that explains how the stories we tell ourselves about the world we experience, shape our ability to have effective conversations and build productive working relationships. The model is as relevant today as it was when it was proposed nearly 50 years ago. As we go up the ladder we tend to only select the data we want to see from what we observe. This is fuelled by our beliefs and we can very quickly jump to conclusions about someone or something. These become the stories we tell ourselves. We then look for more data to reinforce our version of events. To come back down the ladder we need to check in with ourselves and our assumptions - and test these with others. We need to go back over our observations, the data we selected and the meaning we attached to them. If you have a vital conversation on the horizon, spending some time preparing by going back to the ‘pool of observable data and information’ could be time well spent. Sometimes just answering the question 'the story I am telling myself is...?' can bring you to a whole different conclusion. #leadership #operationalexcellence #communication #COO ---- I work with founders, leaders and investors to build more resilient, scalable and valuable businesses. Think you might need some help with a vital conversation? DM me

“We have a diversity problem, what are you going to do about it?” This question was asked at my first team off site by my direct reports who all happened to be male. Their concern was valid. Like a lot of tech scale ups the operations department was largely male and, until recently, the board table had looked the same. There are so many aspects of leadership where I am still learning, asking questions, and challenging myself to go deeper in my understanding - diversity and inclusion is one of those topics. And because I am not an expert and have more questions than answers, that makes me more cautious. However, what I am an expert in is the experience of being a female leader in a predominantly male led tech start up industry. And what I can share is that gender balanced teams perform better, and female representation is super important, but…. it is not the role of the female leaders in your business to drive your diversity agenda. My answer to my teams question? “Well, I am doing my bit by being female, so what are you doing about it?” I privately rally against the idea that single handedly, just by my presence, I can change the number of women joining a business. That feels like a lot of unfair pressure on top of trying to be great at my day job. I am super proud to represent my gender at the leadership table. The impact of showing up every day - representation - is undeniable. Just by being able to see someone who looks like you in a leadership role can change the way you see the possibilities for yourself. The focus changes from ‘is a leadership role even an option for me?’ to ‘how can I move into a leadership role?’. And if there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it’s that we need more women stepping into leadership roles, especially in the tech startup world. The research couldn’t be clearer - gender balanced teams perform much better. You get a far higher quality of conversation and debate, the collaboration is stronger, and the decision making and results improve. Getting more gender balance across companies is a team sport. Let’s play. #diveristy #femaleleadership #COO ----- I work with founders, leaders and investors to build more resilient, scalable and valuable businesses. Think you might need a fresh pair of eyes on a problem? DM me