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[0:08] Well, welcome to It's an Inside Job Bite Size Fridays, your weekly dose of resilience, optimism, and well-being to get you ready for the weekend. Now, each week, I'll bring you insightful tips and uplifting stories to help you navigate life's challenges and embrace a more positive mindset. And so with that said, let's slip into the stream.
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[0:36] In this week's bite size we travel back to season 3 episode 26 with mark style and so during this segment our discussion revolves around the importance of embracing a growth mindset to enhance leadership qualities and to drive innovation and so some of the key topics that I've included in this soundbite is effective communication strategies, encouraging creativity and innovation. And Mark also talks about building resilience, you know, methods to help leaders and their teams adapt to change and overcome challenges. So I hope you enjoy this Friday's Bite Size.
[1:12] And it's basically how to empower not just managers, but how to empower catalysts through the company that are focusing not just on the strategy growth and how to enable able solution focus mindset and how to cope with uncertainty so you know we teach them techniques and different tools to be to become more resilient and to cope with this uncertainty but as well how can they.
[1:33] Also empower other people so how can people themselves become catalysts for growth for other people to have these abilities to inspire and coach with other peers at work so you have those two elements in place you know a top leadership that is more transformational inspiring others with this passion hunger and drive and then enabling them and giving them the tools to become good at solving and developing solutions solving problems and also coaching inspiring other people through the whole company then you have the magic solution but you need to trust them you need to create a psychological empowerment through the company and allow them to make mistakes allow them to feel comfortable with trial and error and especially allow them to concentrate in the short-term steps something i noticed that brings and comes to a lot anxiety in company is when they have cleared the long-term vision but they can focus on the short-term steps for some reason the more certainty you can bring to people that is anxiety and stress there is so the more we can focus on the short-term steps always aligned you know the kind of thing of a one one step at a time it is here to to run 100 times one kilometer and one time 100 kilometers so the more we can help people to focus on this one kilometer and helping them to make sense of the big picture and empowering them.
[2:45] Allowing them to try and work together towards that purpose.
[2:50] The better, the more pleasant and fulfilling the working experience it's going to be. And the second fault, because this is related to leadership, so what can leaders do?
[3:03] Uh the second part is what you were saying about there's a lot of people that work for a paycheck and it just there's nothing wrong with that you know if if somebody's listening to the podcast and and they say that hey but i feel happy i feel fulfilled and that's uh that's how i you know i feel uh when i wake up in the morning i see a purpose to do that hey that's totally fine, that's awesome then you found your purpose which is get a paycheck that's fine but then there's other type of people that they need more more than that and that's where self-empowerment it's extremely important for all of us to understand that that doesn't depend on our managers or our leaders and others. That's our own responsibility then to build that link.
[3:43] And to build that link, we need to understand, you know, it's a very simple triangulation that I usually talk about. And I call it the feed pyramid. And this feed pyramid is a triangulation between, first of all.
[3:56] Understand what's the company's ambition what's the company trying to achieve which are those goals that the company is having especially for the next 12 months and also which are the ethical principles that the company practices and ethical principles i do not i'm not talking about those values that you see some most of the times in posters hanged on the wall that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about the behaviors you see around you especially the bad ones which are allowed are those ethical you know just for you first of all to be make sure that they are clear which are those ethical principles how the company makes decisions and which are the behaviors that are allowed in the company and then after that's understood the first step is to see okay how is now my role and responsibility and here's the trick most of the people they go into the okay let's let me take a look at my uh contract the definition of my role forget about that, think about what does your role and responsibility which kind of value does it bring to the company's ambition. Just make a direct link between your role and your responsibility and what can you be accountable for to bring value to the company's pain points.
[5:04] And what the company expects from you, not because of your role, but because the value you bring to the company strategy. And this is the first hurdle that many leaders even struggle with, that they don't know. Actually, I don't know what my company is trying to achieve. One day we had this PowerPoint, we had this Teams meeting, but I don't actually know. So that's the first step.
[5:23] Make sure that you understand and there's a clear vision, a very clear understanding on the goals and the strategy and how you bring value to it. It the second fault is about okay now that i understand the ethical principles of my company, how are they aligned with my personal expectations because it's never going to be 100 but am i willing to make those trade-offs but you know on those elements which are not aligned with my values and my ethical principles because many people try to change companies but you know i and i did the same mistake when i moved to finland you know i didn't really fit right the way and i I really tried to change 5.5 million people so they would fit into my values. But I noticed that after some time, like it's going to be difficult, things are maybe like I should make some trade-off and adapt myself. So that's the first thing. Are you willing to trade off and then find a common ground between your own personal ethical values and principles on what the company practices? And the third one, the last one, this is where the secret is for growth. It's okay. Now that I understand the ways of working and ethical principles of my company, You know, they understand how my role brings value to the company's pain points and challenges. How can those challenges help me grow as a professional?
[6:38] And I've noticed that many times it goes the other way around. People go to their manager and ask them, okay, tell me which kind of trains can I go? What can I do to become a better professional? It's the other way around. It's for each one of us to think, if these are the problems that my company has to solve, the company I'm working with has to solve. If these are the challenges my strategy needs to solve and find solutions for, how can I grow at the same time while.
[7:05] I'm solving those challenges and then find growth opportunities because then that's how we turn from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset because then we get excited about those challenges we understand what's in it for us we understand the reason why should I be sharing that passion and that hunger then I have the drive and the interest to solve the challenges and help the company because I understand that I'm gonna grow I'm gonna learn something new and I'm not scared of it even if it's not comfortable I need to step out of my comfort zone because there are many things I don't know i'm gonna go for it because i do understand that i can grow while i'm helping the company do that that you know with those two things together the leadership bringing that um that understanding on the passion that the dimension of trust and psychological safety and then empower people to find themselves into the the growth path i think you know we can do a lot and of course it sounds easy it takes a long time but you know that would say that this is the very solid basis to build a successful, sustainable transformation.
[8:03] And as you said, you know, depending upon, it doesn't matter what the team is called, but the C-suite or the executive team and such. So what I hear you saying is like, a lot of companies can be driven by short-term goals, such as meeting quarterly numbers and such. What I hear you saying is that that's important, but we also need it to align it with the long-term. The long-term, what is the outcome we're trying to achieve? What is it we are trying to do as a company? As you said, in the long term, whether that's a 5-, 10-, or 20-year perspective, I guess that depends upon business and industry.
[8:37] But as you said, it's also to bring the company, the employees, along with that to push a message which is based on not just the values of the company, which are important, but the ethical principles of the company, which are much more deeply grounded, I think, in this, as you called it, the human capability or the PhD.
[8:59] And you know if we got really nuts and bolts here i think it's very important what you're speaking about this is psychological safety now you were mentioned coaching and mentoring so i think, in order to create that connective tissue, to create that cohesiveness, I concur with you because I think it's about creating a feedback culture.
[9:19] When I mean a feedback culture, I'm talking a feedback culture that is direct and diplomatic, where you can have hard conversations and you don't always have to worry about the delicate flour in the room because that's a danger in itself. I think also what you're saying is also managing expectations.
[9:37] And sometimes those expectations are going to be hard for people to swallow, especially if it's hard economic times or volatility or uncertainty. But it's trying to align that the best you can and keep people informed. So it's communication.
[9:51] And I think when you're talking about empowering, for me, I've been talking to a lot of soldiers and such and understanding because the military is a machine that is based on communication. Everything comes down to communication. And one of the principles that's really been burned into me is centralized command, decentralized control. So centralized command is just that. We tell you the what and the why of what we need to do, but you figure out the how. You are in charge of the implementation. So that empowers people, that allows them to grow, make mistakes. But it's important that the what and the why of the mission of the objective of the project is well defined for roles and responsibilities, which you're were talking about. So a lot of what you've said to me, Mark, really, I concur with it really resonates with what I do and what you do. I mean, we may take two different approaches, but I see a lot of parallels there. Have I kind of captured to some extent what you've just articulated?
[10:53] Yeah, you have, especially on the trust towards, you know, the last example you were talking about. I think it reflects pretty well what we are talking about. And of course, it doesn't mean to tell people what to do and let them run freely. And that's where like agile principles are extremely, extremely beneficial, like having these monthly retrospectives and, you know, quick checks about, hey, you know, what's next. And that's also the main difference on, you know, also related to the example you were saying in those kind of events that you are deploying troops.
[11:22] I'm sure they don't talk about after they meet one week or every month, whatever timing they utilize. They don't talk about, hey, let's make a root cause analysis and let's understand just what happened last week. But it's all about what are we going to do next. So they focus a lot on the next step. They have this solution mindset to see how can we improve. Instead of saying, what can we point fingers to see who was the one to blame? It's more about what can we do as a team to solve and get better? How can we improve our deployment capabilities? capabilities next time that we have a mission how can we do it better so how to have that dialogue what were you indicating now it's extremely important to feel safe to point out mistakes you know to find who's the one to blame but also learn to talk in a different way about mistakes it's not just about you know daring to speak up and listen up and create a common understanding within the team but it's also daring to stop digging into finding the one to to blame for what has happened taking a team ownership and as soon as you have identified the reason not the person but the decision that was made wrong and why it was made wrong then right away to start to think next time that we have to make the same type of decision the next time that we are moving ahead what can we change from our plan you know what can we do better as a team so when the dialogue is on that way you notice that people are less afraid to speak up and to have those difficult conversations because they do understand that when they speak up and they bring something that is wrong in the past people will utilize that as an insight and that's the difference between information and insight information is just pointing at something is wrong.
[12:50] Insight is that using that knowledge to improve for the future and make a difference make an impact because there is zero value saying okay yeah it was it was stephanie that you know she sent the email too late and nobody could read it like okay but so how that you know how did that help hey guys you know last time somebody sent an email too late at night what about if next week, we send the presentations the day you know two days before so everybody has time to present can we commit to that yes that's it move on.
[13:20] And then there's no need to start to talk about why somebody sent an email the day before. You know, just a simple example. But to make the point that when the team focuses on how to improve the decision-making capabilities and utilize this information to transform them into insights and
[13:35] then become better and better as a team without having the need. And that's the last point when you were talking that came to my mind is that the personal agendas. When there's no alignment in the team, when people don't share common goals and they don't share the ambition, then you start to see these individuals that they have a different agenda. And then the long-term perspective is not respected. That's why it is important to bring the alignment and also have these quick checks on the team that, hey, is everything that we are doing, what is the value that the things that we are doing bring into the long-term vision? It's just a simple question to bring the dialogue and to make sure that there are no hidden agendas on the team. Otherwise, it's like having a football team with 11 players and having half of the team trying to score a goal in their own goal, which doesn't make any sense, right? In sports, everybody has, they understand what they want to, what to score the goal.
[14:26] So this is why it's so important, this initial step of alignment, bringing that confidence to be able to speak up and, you know, bring difficult conversations and then make sure that there are no, you know, that the common agendas and the private agendas are fully aligned. Otherwise, you know, if you go to battle in those examples you were describing and somebody wants to have a coffee while the others have to go to South and the other ones want to go to East. Yeah. Good luck with that, with that battle. Right.
[14:55] It's very important to bring those. Yeah. Again, I think you've made a lot of salient points for me when I see organizations under stress, as you said, it comes back down to the human capabilities. It comes back down to the individual people. That's what it does. You know, when we are under stress and I'm talking about duress or distress, negative stress is that people will go into self-preservation mode. It's not that they're negative. No, that's just what we are. are that's our brains are wired for survival as you said we can blame steven or stephanie for the not sending out the email and that characteristic or a sign that we are in self-preservation mode we're thinking about ourselves right or teams will fragment i'm thinking about my people and you're thinking about that people and so you get this sort of fracturing the connective tissue kind of disintegrates and you see this sort of silo mentality if not we find a scapegoat we find a fall guy to take the heat. And so for me, I think it's very important. Every team will go through this at some point. But for me, I think it's so important to do sort of a case study.
[16:01] Okay, this didn't go so well. Let's understand the issues and the setbacks. What was the problem? If we talk about a current issue, Mark, I think it can become very emotionally engaging because people are emotionally invested and that can come out in different ways. But I think once a case is being done, whether it was a success or whether it was a failure or just a flop, it's to look at it because then the emotional weight is no longer there. Then we can take it apart and be a little more objective to understand what's going wrong. Because then I think then this becomes an experience we can draw from the next time we're in crisis. Then we can say, okay, guys, remember remember the last time we went through this, this is what happened, whether they succeeded or whether they flopped. Is this something you see in yourself from your years of experience working internationally?
[16:55] Especially, and I just put on there, especially when you go into this self-preservation mode. And most of us, we are not that highly self-aware. So we're saying that now we have hit on the bullseye when saying, okay, at least what I'm hearing, that the first step to start with is self-awareness. To understand before it happens, because when those moments take place and we go into self-preservation, there is a part of our brain in the prefrontal cortex where all our cognitive capabilities are, you know, most of them are stored, that they just don't work. The brain actually unplugs it literally. When they've been scanning brains, they notice that when we go into that mode.
[17:32] There's no synaptic connections in that part of the brain that allows us to be more cognitive, which means that good luck to come up with good ideas. At that stage, we just go into autopilot. And there is zero chance that we can be cognitive animals at that stage. Even if we think we are intellectual people, when we hit that spot that you were describing, it just doesn't work, which means that if we have not prepared beforehand, if we don't, we are not self-aware about how we are reacting into those moments, how are our emotions, how, uh, how are, how are they handled? You know, how do we experience our emotions in that moment? Then it is impossible to get anything good out of it. So this, this initial part of self-awareness and understanding how we react and having a plan ahead to put those team, you know, what I call team norms. Okay, guys, at some point, you know, you guys, ladies and gentlemen, so let's be inclusive because ladies and gentlemen and everything in between so when this when she hits the fan.
[18:27] And this is because this is going to happen because if it doesn't happen we are doing something wrong then it's too easy right so at some point if we want to face challenges if we want to be ambitious you know it's going to hit the fan and there will be tensions we're going to be tired there will be stress we're going to you know get into each other's nerves when that happens what's the plan what is the plan b how do we want to talk to each other which are the norms to go into the cage and start to fight in a way that, you know, at the end, we're going to become, come out stronger. So talk one step ahead. And there's many ways to do that. You know, usually I have this list of 17 norms that I use. I create it. And then, you know, the team picks up the ones that they feel that is going to help them. And then they agree to have this kind of symbolic team agreement.
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[19:13] If you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest, you will find the link in the episode in the show notes. So make sure you hit that subscribe button and I'll be back next week with my long form conversational episodes on Monday and the latest Bite Sites episode on Friday. And have yourself a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend.
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