Take a small step toward being a more agile minded leader.

One of the most important contributions that leaders can make in any transformation is to model the types of behaviors that we want teams and team members to adopt!  Modeling our target behaviors sends a very clear message that we are invested in not only changing the way we approach work, but also the culture that enables and reinforces those target behaviors.  Making small but thoughtful changes in the way you present yourself to your teams and partners can go a long way in creating the kind of organization we need.  As you’re working with your teams and partners, consider incorporating just one small thing from the following ideas.

Pro tip – Don’t have time to read this whole document right now?  Check out the “tl;dr” (Typed Long; Didn’t Read) section at the bottom of this post for an executive summary.

Emphasize outcomes and put a premium on achieving business results rather than focusing on output. 

Agile minded leaders view results in terms of achieving business outcomes rather than simply completing projects. By putting an emphasis on the results your teams are trying to achieve, over emphasizing “finish the project on time and budget,” creates the space for a team to be creative and flexible as they work through problem solving. As efforts progress, if a team is focused on the result rather than the due date, they take advantage of opportunities to improve or accelerate achieving the outcomes. Often, these opportunities were not considered or understood earlier in the lifecycle. By rewarding the team for achieving business results and encouraging them to use data gathered through their work to improve their solution, you create an environment where teams can innovate, improve and even exceed expectations.

When assigning or discussing initiatives with teams, try assigning a problem to solve, rather than a specific solution to implement.  Include acceptance criteria that help to create boundaries around what an acceptable solution would be, but then encourage the team to find ways to incrementally solve the problem you’re trying to solve.  For example,

Instead of…  “Install this software and deploy it to the call centers over the next three quarters so they can answer calls more quickly”

Try this…  “Our customers are spending too much time on hold waiting for an associate to answer their questions.  Find ways that the call centers can reduce their “time to answer” metrics by 20% (customer problem) over the next 3 quarters, while maintaining (or even reducing) the number of agents logged into the system at peak times and maintaining or improving the average cost to service each caller (business objectives).  The quicker you can make even small improvements, the better it’ll be for our customers.”

Instead of…  “Tell our project managers they have to submit weekly budget updates so we can keep better track of our expenses burn rate.”

Try this…  “When we review our expenses quarterly, we are often surprised by how far off our projections are from actuals.  Can you work with the team to find a way to alert us when our expense burn falls out of a 10% tolerance as close to real time as possible?  Please be sure to minimize the disruption to the teams who are working on the projects so they can focus on their objectives as well.”

Instead of…  “What’s the status of our strategic initiative?  Will we be done on time?”

Try this…  “Tell me about the progress our team is making toward our expense and revenue targets.  Are we on track to meeting our goals?  What obstacles are the teams facing that is keeping them from meeting our revenue and expense targets?  How can I help?”

Shift from an “assigner and approver of work” to a “strategic people developer.”  

Our people are our biggest asset, and agile minded leaders know that they can make the largest contribution to the company by growing and developing their people to be as good (or better) at serving their customers as their leader is!  There is a subtle but very important difference between holding your people accountable for results and creating an environment where your people feel accountable for results.  The most successful agile-minded leaders put their effort and energy into growing and enabling their people and creating an environment where they feel empowered to solve problems and achieve results.  YOU can begin today by making some small, but important shifts in the way you interact with your team.

Instead of…  “I’ll call so and so’s manager and get this problem solved…”

Try this…  “Let’s brainstorm some ideas on how you might go about getting this issue resolved.”

Instead of…  “Tell me what you want to do so I can approve it…”

Try this…  “Let’s explore some of the options you’re considering going forward, and we’ll pressure test them together.”

Instead of…  “Go do this, this and this…”

Try this…  “We want to achieve X,Y,Z outcomes – what are some ways we can go about getting that result?”

Instead of…  “If you do it this way, you’ll get it done faster…”

Try this… “What are some other ways we could approach building and deploying this so we can get some functionality out so we can get feedback sooner?

Instead of…  “We tried this before and it didn’t work out.”

Try this…  “What data is leading us to this conclusion?  What indicators can we use to know early if what we’re building is working?”

Instead of…  “What went wrong?  This can’t happen again!”

Try this…  “That didn’t seem to go as planned.  What did the team identify as the root cause? What did the team learn?  How will this help us to be more effective and efficient going forward?”

Instead of…  “My experience tells me to do this….”

Try this… “What customer and business data did we use to decide to go in this direction?  How do we expect that data to change after you implement the solution?”

These types of subtle shifts in the way you interact with your teams and partners can go a long way in creating the type of environment that will help us to unlock the potential in our people.  It all starts with how you show up.  Creating empowered teams that can deliver results is the biggest value you can bring to Principal Financial Group.  What’s stopping you?

P.S.  Want to see how small changes make a difference?  Invest 7 minutes in yourself and watch this video by Capt. David Marquet, USN Retired.  In it he talks about creating an empowered environment where the energy, experience, knowledge and passion of 135 crew members aboard a nuclear submarine were unleashed, allowing them to become the highest rated sub in the United States Navy!

We all win together.

tl:dr*

• Leaders’ behaviors and actions are important cues for how team members are expected to behave.
• The highest value a leader can bring to an organization is to grow and empower their team members to be the best they can be.
• Small changes you make today can go a long way in helping your team members be as successful as you are.
• Assign problems to solve, instead of solutions to implement.
• Ask about progress toward achieving business outcomes rather than status of activities.
• Encourage team members to make decisions, and then pressure test those decisions to build confidence and capability.
• When mistakes happen, put an emphasis on lessons learned rather than assigning blame.
• Encourage team members to use customer and business data to inform decisions rather than “experience and gut feelings.”

*tl;dr = “typed long, didn’t read” and is an executive summary of the points contained in this message.