Unlocking the Full Potential of Workplace Culture Through Approachability & Coachability

Discover the transformative power of meaningful conversations that shape the heart of workplace culture. Our latest episode unveils the often overlooked but immense potential of individual contributors within the traditional corporate hierarchy. A riveting real-life story highlights the staggering speed at which negative narratives can infect an organization, corroding the trust and integrity that are the cornerstones of any successful team. We delve into the critical importance of both approachability and coachability—not just among leaders but across all levels of the workforce. It's a compelling case for reimagining leadership development, emphasizing the need to train everyone in the nuanced art of giving and receiving feedback to foster an environment ripe for growth and mentorship.

Step inside a world where feedback isn't merely tolerated but actively sought after and celebrated. This episode breaks down the 'Eat, feedback, embrace, ask and tell' method, a revolutionary framework designed to instill a robust culture of feedback within any organization. Our guest expert guides you through this approach, demonstrating how it can encourage employees to seek feedback proactively, value it, and use it as a stepping stone for personal and professional development. Tune in to learn how embracing this culture not only leads to accountability and ownership but also benefits the entire company, revolutionizing trust, communication, and collaboration along the way. Get ready to unlock the full potential of your team and witness the incredible impact of a truly open workplace culture.

Welcome to Coaching Conversations

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Checkout our Approachability & Coachability series where we use a webinar-based coaching approach to develop all employees to become approachable and coachable. This leads to better teamwork for leadership and organizational culture improvement

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

When I think of the workplace culture, and I think about cultures in general. You know, we hear from organizations all the time things such as we're going through change, transformation, we're going through a lot, we have a new CEO, our leadership has changed, we have succession planning underway All of these things will affect our culture. Now, all of those things are not incorrect. I want to give you a different view. I think about organizations for lack of better description in a triangle. At the base of the triangle is roughly 70% to 80% of our employees at our organizations are employees or individual contributors. Then we get into team leaders, supervisors, and then, above that, we get into team leaders, supervisors, and then, above that, we get managers, directors, vice presidents, and then we get to the C-suite. I think that's a fairly high-level, safe assumption, okay. Now, with that being said, we spend a lot of time developing from the top of the triangle down, and I think we might be missing a really fundamental opportunity. Now let me go back to the base of the triangle. When I think about high school and college, I think about things like approachability, coachability, approachability, coachability, taking classes, semester-long classes, and seeking and accepting feedback professionally as a great employee. I bet you've never heard of anything like that. I'm not sure it even exists. So the funny thing is, when we are in an organization, I believe cultures are made up of the conversations within them. Let me give you an example. I've used this example a lot, but I'm going to use it again.

Speaker 1: 2:33

We were working with a company working very hard in their workplace culture and I had a young lady who interviewed. She worked on the shop floor, wanted to get off her feet seven days a week, nine hours a day no exaggeration wanted a Monday through Friday desk job and she wanted to go into customer service. I think she'd be very good. Yet she had never turned on a computer, she didn't really know or anything about technology and, quite frankly, really was not qualified for the job. So she gets done and she's down in the lunchroom. I'm walking behind her and she approaches three coworkers and they said how'd the interview go? She said oh, it was so unfair. The guy totally attacked me throughout the interview. That is a verbatim quote.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Now we may not want to talk about this because it isn't tactical, it's not strategic. We know what happens. We tend to blow it happens. We tend to blow it off, we tend to dismiss it. Yet that becomes a part of our culture Now. When we hear good news studies have reported we hear up to, or we tell up to, three people. When we hear something that's negative, we tend to tell up to 23 people. So this employee talked to three people. Let's just say those three people shared it with five people, that would be 15. And those three people, or those 15 people, shared it with three people, that would be 45 people total.

Speaker 1: 3:56

That would hear absolute, irrational, fabricated, non-factual narration of an interview. So I stood behind her and I tapped her on the shoulder and she got this nervous look and she said oh, I didn't know you were there. Hi, how are you? I said he attacked you Like he got you in a headlock. Well, no, but I just felt really, you know, I was upset because he said I wasn't a viable candidate. I said so he was honest with you, yeah, but I just think that's BS, because and I said wait, what do I stop? He was honest with you, yeah, but I just felt like I said stop, I didn't ask how you felt. I think that's important. How did he attack you? Well, he didn't really attack me.

Speaker 1: 4:41

The three coworkers walk away as this conversation unfolds and I thought to myself and I looked at her and I go those three people, by 11 o'clock, are going to have probably 12 to 15 other people hearing your narrative of your interviewclock, are going to have probably 12 to 15 other people hearing your narrative of your interview. That's going to get back to that person who interviewed you. Now you may not want to answer this, but the question is would he ever want to interview you again? She goes a dark shade of red. I said look, you exposed yourself, you showed courage, you showed positive attitude and now you're in the lunchroom saying he attacked you. Do you know what people think about when they hear a woman say he attacked? She gets a darker shade of red. I said so you have an opportunity to make this right, but your window is small and, to her credit, she went up to the gentleman right afterwards when we were done talking, shared what had happened, shared our conversation in the lunchroom, apologized and he smiled and he said no, I get it. I could see you were disappointed and she did something that I encourage. She said you know what? I guess I wasn't qualified. I need a mentor, I need someone to help me. I don't want to be on my feet seven days a week. He said absolutely, I would love to mentor you. Now what would have happened in that workplace situation had she not done that? And someone came up to that gentleman and said oh, I heard so-and-so, was really upset that you attacked her in the interview.

Speaker 1: 6:04

That conversation creates distortion. That distortion we don't want to talk about. It becomes a part of our culture. See, so many companies have trust and integrity in their corporate values. Then why is trust and integrity always in question at almost every company? I don't trust that guy because it's our interpretation. See, we listen and react emotionally. Now, that is not to say we want workplace cultures of robots. That's not my suggestion. So what we have to work on is something called approachability and coachability. We have to train employees how to seek and accept feedback. We have to also educate and train leaders how to pull people in to conversations where they're comfortable, where trust can be built.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Let me give you two examples For leaders. We teach something called listening chat. Somebody comes into the office. You call them in and say look, john Susie, what are you seeing on the front lines that I might not be seeing? Educate me on two things you think I should pay more attention to and then only say thank you. Don't disagree and say yeah, but Because the minute you do that they're wondering why don't disagree and say yeah? But because the minute you do that they're wondering why did you call me in if you wanted to argue with me? We may not think that's our intention and it probably isn't, yet that's the perception we can create.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Now, on the flip side, we teach employees, we encourage employees to do this one time a week and we actually facilitate this as a service Eat, feedback, embrace, ask and tell. So that employee would go up to the boss and say well, you know, mr and Mrs Boss, you know what am I doing really well and what's that one area you would encourage me to improve? And the boss gives feedback and the embraces. Well, first of all, thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. The A is ask. Let me ask you what are two suggestions you would make for me to improve and really target that area based on the feedback you gave. The employee is going to hear some things and then they go to the T. Well, let me tell you what I'm going to do with your feedback, which creates accountability and ownership. Now I will tell you this Clients who have employees doing this. The employees will first say this is weird. I hate this. Right, it's uncomfortable Because we're disrupting the typical reaction of dismissal of feedback based on agreement or disagreement.

Speaker 1: 8:18

It is fundamentally a part of our cultures.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So if we can practice approachability, making it easy for us to be approached as leaders if we can create coachability and oh, by the way, employees and individual contributors making it easy for you to be approached and coached I often share this with individual contributors, employees, who take up 70 to 80% of our organization population Would you want to manage you? Would you want to give feedback to you? And I often get these blank stares and I said no, think about it. How do you react in the moment? And I've had more leaders come back and say you know, it's really funny. I was remembering that statement and someone was giving me feedback and I was feeling defensive and all of a sudden, I thought to myself oh my gosh, I'm telling this person right now to never give me feedback again based on my emotional reaction. A culture of approachability and coachability can create the foundation that can build trust, that can build teamwork, that can build better communication. See, we tend to look at culture tactically. Strategically, I think we have to look at it foundationally from an approachability and coachability standpoint. Okay,