Lab class for life’s most useful skills
Groundhog Day again. Gallup released its State of the Workplace: 2022 report and one headline, Stressed, Sad, and Anxious: A Snapshot of the Workforce, summarizes what is a surprise to no one.
What is a bit different about it, though, is despite the myriad reasons for misery at work shouting at us from headlines daily, Gallup lays blame at the feet of managers. Their research suggests that the top reasons for burnout — unfair treatment, workload, poor communication, lack of support, and time pressure — all point to the manager. Gallup’s CEO says, “A manager’s effect on a workplace is so significant that Gallup can predict 70% of the variance in team engagement just by getting to know the boss.”
“The real fix is this simple,” he goes on to say, “better leaders in the workplace . . . better listeners, coaches, and collaborators” that celebrate good work, help people learn, grow, and feel cared about.
LifeLabs Learning to the rescue
Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger founded Lifelabs Learning on the premise that “. . . great managers are rare, and becoming a great manager can take many (difficult) years. But what if there were a way to simplify the complexity of leadership and become a great manager faster?” The science of learning tells us that mastering new skills requires breaking them down into simple elements and practicing the heck out of them. LifeLabs took that to heart in creating a robust slate of two-hour workshops focused on “tipping point skills” that are hands-on practice labs for faster and “stickier’ learning.
LifeLabs Manager Core 1: Coaching Skills, Feedback Skills, Productivity & Prioritization, and Effective 1:1s, and Manager Core 2: Strategic Thinking, Meetings Mastery, Leading Change, and People Development are built on small but powerful “Core Behavioral Units, or BUs” — behaviors of great managers that make for better conversations, relationships, work execution, and decisions:
Q-Step. The best managers ask five times more questions than average managers. And, importantly, they put questions before telling, even if it’s just one question. Questions lead to faster diagnosis of underlying problems, quicker and deeper learning, and fuel empowerment and commitment.
Playback. Great managers are powerful listeners. They playback — paraphrase — what they heard a person say to create clarity, avoid misunderstandings and build trust.
Deblur. Many of the words we use are interpreted differently by different people. Effective managers Deblur — they create clarity — for expectations of work product and timelines, feedback, and decision-making. They get specific about what ” better” means, or when “as soon as possible” is.
Validate. They validate to help people feel seen, heard, respected and cared for. Offering “Thank you for bringing this up to me,” “Your suggestion makes sense,” or “Your reaction makes sense” reduces stress and builds trust.
Linkup. Great managers connect work tasks to goals or the greater vision — the “why” of the tasks. This creates alignment, gets buy-in, and enables autonomy.
Pause. The most productive managers take the time to… do nothing. Doing nothing well is a skill. It refreshes and feeds productivity and innovation, and aids in conflict resolution. Pauses can be brief, like mindful breathing or a walk, or longer — a few hours or even days away from work.
Extract. The best managers mine experiences for new learnings — for themselves and their teams — through what are often called retros or lessons learned: What went well? What could've been better? This accelerates learning and improvement and builds trust and camaraderie. Reflection can boost learning more than practice.
LifeLabs offers individual workshops on a variety of skills for $250 each several times a month. The Manager Core I and Core 2, as well as several offerings for the whole organization are easily scheduled and within most small budgets.
Luna and Renninger also published The Leader Lab, an excellent example and practice-filled summary of the BUs and Manager Core 1 and Core 2 offerings.
Whose job is it?
In a perfect world, organizations provide great training, and embed the language and practices into their norms. The world is not perfect, though, and even with great training, it often doesn't stick — people go back to doing what they’ve always done, and there isn’t accountability to consistent organizational practices.
The real responsibility for learning and using tools like Lifelabs’ lies with the learner. Managers have to approach management with a mindset of personal responsibility and intention, seek training, and continuously work to be better.
Not just for managers
I’ve long felt that management training isn’t just for managers. All can gain from learning those basic skills, which really boil down to communication 101. Take a look at those core BUs. They’re universal: Listening. Understanding. Validating. Making meaning and connections. Recharging. Learning from experiences. Beyond the workplace, parents. spouses/partners, teachers, and, really, all of us benefit from leveling up in what Lifelabs calls “life’s most useful skills.” Luna and Renninger tell us, “As you master each skill, you’ll notice your life getting easier, and you’ll see yourself making a bigger difference in the world, every day.”