50 Ways to Work Wiser

Abstract

50 practical leadership, teamwork, and professional development tips, based on psychological evidence, presented in two minutes bites by five world class coaches to help you #workwiser now.

Why?

This book exists to help you work more wisely. We, at Minerva Work Solutions, recognize the investment we all make in our jobs (most of us spend at least a third of our adult life at work), and we know we can do more to help ourselves and our communities by promoting humane and effective work practices. We also know that most effective work practices are promoted and spread without any scientific evidence as to their benefits, and as scientists this distressed us. We have written this book to make some of the practical wisdom discovered via Industrial-Organizational Psychology, backed by scientific evidence, more accessible to all for the good of working humankind.

How to Use this Book

In the interest of putting something into your hands to use exactly when you need it, we’ve boiled down our experience and research into 50 practical tips. Each tip is presented on one to two pages. We’ve also categorized these tips as primarily relevant for leadership development, teamwork, or general professional development topics (e.g., career visioning). Please do NOT read these tips in the order we have presented them. We suggest that you use the table of contents to find which tip most appeals to you and most addresses your challenges right now. By reading no more than three tips at a time, you give yourself ample opportunity to try the behaviors advocated in each tip before challenging your busy mind to remember more than necessary to achieve your immediate goals. When you require another tip, they’re all right here for you to access as needed.

Section One: Leadership Development

Tip 1. Leadership is about effective leading behaviors

The reality is that it just isn’t enough to have good leadership characteristics. In fact, when you look at the last eighty years and thousands of pages of advice on what makes an ideal leader, you will see a host of conflicting characteristics. Why has so much research failed to articulate a consistent model of effective leadership? Because princely leaders can still exhibit poor leadership behaviors, while even a pauper of a leader can exhibit effective leadership behaviors in a critical and memorable situation.

While we are data rich (and probably because we are so data rich and must sift through and interpret so much information), our modern work world is full of situational complexity and ambiguity. Leaders who manage complex and ambiguous situations well are memorable and sought after. As a result, models of effective leadership that rely on specifying what behaviors enable leaders to manage complex and ambiguous situations well present a better answer today than lists of effective or admirable leadership characteristics.

The good news is that anyone, of any personality, can learn effective leadership behaviors. Sure, it is harder for some of us, who are more introverted for example, to learn some of these behaviors, but we still can learn to do them when we need to be an effective (and inspiring) leader. Here is a small taste of the behaviors that our research shows help leaders manage more effectively in complex situations across industries:

• Proactively sets up the parameters of every meeting and formal conversation (e.g., This is what we’re here to talk about, this is how long we have, and this is what we need by the end.)

• Repeatedly and explicitly invites input from others

• Repeats primary priorities and concerns until acknowledged by others

• Verbally offers recommendations and the rationale for those recommendations

• Asks questions whenever any team member appears unsure or concerned

• Directly invites others to question and add to rationale

• Delegates authority for responsibilities (not tasks) to high performers and high-potential team members

Tip 2. Delegate responsibilities

What is the biggest difference in the capabilities needed to be an executive instead of a middle manager? One of the most telling differences in capabilities is how someone delegates. Managers delegate tasks; Leaders delegate responsibilities.

Of course, it is not as simple as switching from telling folks to get certain tasks done to directing them to take ownership of whole projects or efforts. Delegating responsibilities well requires you to use these emotionally intelligent behaviors:

1) Know to whom you are delegating, their capabilities, and what motivators they value right now. An abundance of research evidence shows that authoritative influence is the least effective and most relationship-damaging way to tell someone what to do. Persuasive power is much more influential, effective, and relationship building. Persuasive influence depends on knowing what services others can and will exchange with you to value your priorities.

2) Explicitly set up learning and performing expectations. Expectations that are defined as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) work best, but it is even more important to set up both a learning and performance expectation so that you can professionally develop others. Psychological research reveals that learners frequently learn what they are told to expect they will learn. Also, performers more frequently exceed expectations when they know exactly what behaviors constitute meeting your expectations, and what behaviors would help them exceed your expectations. One other hint: if you need to articulate what constitutes ineffective performance, then you are delegating responsibility to the wrong person–that person isn’t capable right now.

3) Articulate what resources are available and what constitutes fair play. Delegates cannot start owning a responsibility until they are aware of where to get the necessary information, materials, labor, facilities, and allies. If you do not have the time to show delegates where the resources are, then you must plan for and allow them the time necessary for them to discover these things before they take ownership. One of the most common methods for doing this is to have a delegate shadow you or another subject-matter expert for a designated period. It is also important to articulate what legal, professional, and ethical codes apply to this responsibility. It is impossible for delegates to intentionally play fair if they are unaware of the rules, and most legal and ethical infractions will reflect directly on the delegating leader’s executive credibility (i.e., yours).

4) Declare a state of emergency procedure. What should the delegates do if they encounter a problem they don’t know how to address? How long do you want them to struggle with it on their own before bringing it to your attention? When do you require them to ask for help? How? From whom first? Research shows that defining a basic emergency procedure minimizes errors, saves time and money, and increases delegates’ self-efficacy and satisfaction with your leadership.

5) Require delegates to publicly own the responsibility and the credit. Take a tip from social psychology: nothing guarantees personal commitment to an idea or endeavor as much as announcing to others that you’re supporting that idea or endeavor. Have delegates make that meeting announcement or send out that email with your introduction and support. Likewise, when delegates achieve success it is important not just to publicly praise them, but also to have them publicly accept praise and congratulations for their work. Otherwise, no one will take ownership for the next responsibility you delegate.

Tip 3. Don’t leave them wondering what you want while you act

Learning to lead, even situationally (like when you are the content expert in the room), is challenging for many professionals. Most of us learn what leadership looks like vicariously. We see a whole lot of ineffective command or directive-style leadership behaviors as the norm, and not the efficient leadership behaviors that psychology indicates are more effective. Fortunately,