Leadership in Organisations

Leading High Performance

Video 1: Leading High Performance: Module Overview

Let's start this module, with thinking about what helps us to perform at our best. Take a
moment to reflect on your experiences of being deeply motivated and where you have achieved
high performance in the workplace. "What helped you to achieve this?" "What's your experience
of supporting others to perform better?" Whenever I ask these questions, I generally hear some
key themes emerge, such as: the importance of starting with the end in mind. Without a clear
picture of where you're going, it's awfully hard to create the map to get there. So, we need to
make sure our new employees and current employees, know what is expected of them and how
they fit into the workplace culture.
Establishing a clear goal and direction with accountability steps along the way will help your
employees to stay on track, stay motivated, and know when they have hit the expected
milestones. You rarely need to believe in your employees potential to develop, and ensure that
they have the right support. If people do not have a clear sense of their expectations of their
role, and how this will be monitored and measured, they cannot possibly meet the
requirements.
I am always astonished about how many people are not clear about their role expectations, and
how many managers do not have a specific conversation upfront with new team members. In
this case, it only emerges as the employee starts to fail to meet the requirements. Another key
theme is around don't just train your employees, but coach them. There's a huge difference
between training your employees and coaching them.
Clearly, training is a requirement in the workplace, but coaching can make all the difference.
Coaching your employees is the art of helping them to set and achieve their goals, and then
setting standards for accountability in your organisational culture. Be clear and courageous; we
often have a critical recurring conversation about the person and their behaviour which is likely
to interfere with our ability to act with kindness or to ask interested questions to develop a
deeper understanding of the problem. Consider how you may have contributed to the problem.
Adjust your attitude to be as positive as possible, and in so doing own your part of the problem
because we always have a part to play. Once you've spent some time in self reflection, then try
to imagine what the other person may be thinking or feeling. Try putting yourself in their shoes
so that you may enter the process with empathy and acknowledgement that their perspective
may be quite different from yours and driven by their own inner dialogue with themselves.
Prepare questions that invite an understanding of their thinking and behaviour. This stays the
foundation for active listening, aimed at understanding the other person's perspective, so that a
shared understanding can be developed. This in turn forms the basis for the desired outcomes.
A coaching approach not only ensures accountability and support, but it is also the most
effective way of supporting proactive and empowered employees.

Later on in this module, we are going to explore coaching framework as an easy way to move to
a coaching approach where we learn to ask don't tell.

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 Another key theme that comes through is the importance of equipping people to have the skills
to have crucial conversations. A crucial conversation is characterised by three conditions, where
they're high stakes, opposing opinions had strong emotions. So, often in organisations and in
our lives, we become stuck in some aspect of a situation or relationship, and this is when there
needs to be a crucial conversation.
When most people face such a conversation, they're natural tendencies to either clam up and
eventually blow up as things worsen. Holding a crucial conversation is a healthy and helpful
alternative to silence and violence. We need clear and effective communication in both
directions, as this is key to peak performance in the workplace, and there needs to be much
more investment in teaching employees and leaders these skills. Understanding what motivates
employees and creates peak performance in the workplace is a fundamental element to creating
success in your organisation.
The truth is, we are always motivated by something. The trick is to know what motivates us and
also our employees learning the art of both giving and receiving feedback. This is an area that
comes up time after time. Feedback is an important part of how we work. It can be a simple
comment on a piece of work, or even a more detailed and structured discussion about how we
are going and what we could do even better. Getting and giving good quality feedback means
that we have an accurate idea of how we going at work. We all need to hear what we did well
and what improvements we can make.
If an individual is not meeting performance expectations, then we need timely, specific feedback
that includes concrete and recent examples of what expectations we did or didn't meet. By
receiving this kind of feedback, the individual or people has a much better chance of improving
the way they work. And last but definitely not least, our organisations systems and culture,
including our performance management systems, are frequently no longer fit for purpose.
They're costly and they do not have much to do with increased performance at all.

Video 2: Transforming Performance Management for Growth

In this video, we're going to explore the role of motivation in performance. The question isn't if
a person is motivated. The question is what are they motivated by, and why is this absent from
the work environment? I often hear managers describe team members or employees as lacking
motivation or being just plain unmotivated and even lazy. The reality is that people are always
motivated, but not necessarily in the same way or by the same things that motivate us. The key
skill becomes to figure out what motivates the individual, and how this can be leveraged in their
role.
It is very useful to explore some of the research that has been carried out on this topic, Daniel
Pink wrote. Drive the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us that actually brings together
50 years of research into this topic. Drive explores what has motivated humans throughout
history, and it explains how we have shifted from mere survival to the carrot and stick approach
that's still practised today and why it's so outdated.
Daniel Pink explains how we've gone from being mostly intrinsically motivated, in other words,
to survive, to jumping through hoops for carrots while trying to avoid the sticks being dangled
over our heads, our bosses and employees. He argues that it's time to go back to give workers
autonomy, a sense of purpose, and the freedom to master their craft so we can go back to being
as intrinsically motivated as we were as kids, an approach that he calls Motivation 3.0.

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 This contrasts with motivation 1.0 that assumes that we are driven by our biological and
survival needs, and motivation 2.0 that assumes we seek rewards and avoid punishments. This
is the carrot and stick approach that focuses on extrinsic motivation. According to Self
determination theory, people need to feel the following in order to achieve psychological
growth. They need to feel mastery or sense of competence. People need to gain mastery of tasks
and to learn different skills. When people feel that they have the skills needed for success, they
are more likely to take actions that will help them achieve their goals.
Another key aspect is that of connection to purpose, all relatedness. People need to experience a
sense of belonging and attachment to other people, and they need to feel attachment to a sense
of purpose, connection to something that's greater than themselves. The third aspect is that of
autonomy. We need to feel in control of our own behaviours and goals. This sense of being able
to take direct action that will result in real change plays a major part in helping people feel more
self-determined.
So, there are three key lessons to be learned from the research that Pink has pulled together.
The first one is that both the carrot and stick are dead as we shifting from the industrial age to
the information age. Adding on a bonus for fast delivery doesn't work anymore. Most people
simply don't care. Expenses to cover our basic needs like rent and food have never been
cheaper. What we really value now is time, but that's not the only problem with external
rewards and punishments.
Pink provides the example of with the car mechanic is promised a 50% salary bonus when he
completes 200 repairs in three months. Guess what he does? He tells more of his customers that
their car needs repairs. The money becomes the driving force and will lead him to do repairs
where none are needed, and maybe even do a sloppy job just to meet the quota. So, instead of
leading to better and faster work, this creates dissatisfied customers and stressed workers.
Even more intriguing for tasks that require creative thinking. Add in financial incentives put so
much pressure on workers that they simply become incapable of performing the task. The more
money that is on the line, the worse it gets.
Lesson two overtime extrinsic rewards destroy our inner drive. Almost all jobs nowadays are
somewhat creative. Of course, this applies to developed countries more than to emerging ones.
But eventually we'll all end up with jobs that require us to only work with information people
and creatively solve problems, Daniel Pink says, "That just succeed at this kind of work. What
we really need is intrinsic motivation, doing something for the sheer enjoyment of doing it,
either because we're passionate about it or we just want to learn more and develop our sense of
mastery." Unfortunately, we do live in this. If you do this, then you get that world and it's ruining
our motivation.
Lesson three. Find your flow at work and you'll be a lot happier. This is what Motivation 3.0, as
Daniel Pink calls it, comes in. Being in the zone or flow is where there is a beautiful balance
between the challenge that we are facing, and our current level of skill. If we're given a task that
challenges our skills without being overwhelming or boring, and we then allow to
autonomously work on it, we love to give our best.
So, in summary, the carrot and stick approach is dead, and extrinsic motivators do not work.
Extrinsic motivation destroys intrinsic motivation. So, strive for the flow state in everything you
do. The three routes to intrinsic motivation are mastery, connection to purpose and others, and
the opportunity to be autonomous.

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 Video 3: The Role of Motivation in Performance
Let's start by understanding the individual factors in performance. We're going to use the case
example of Brett and Anne that has been provided to you. So, please make sure that you've read
this before you watch the video. The case example emphasises the importance of exploring both
individual and environmental factors that influence the situation, such as the team
organisational culture and the systems within the organisation.

We will explore what can be done within an organisation to create an environment that
constructively supports individuals to achieve the required improvements in their behaviour
and performance. In both Anne and Brett, we can see that underneath the behaviours of their
attitudes, feelings, judgments and desires, referred to as their mindsets. Another way of thinking
about this situation is to liken it to an iceberg floating in the ocean.

The behaviours and actions are what can be seen, the visible part of the iceberg underneath the
surface, or the attitudes, feelings, judgments, values and the person's sense of self, their mindset.
This is the unseen part of the iceberg. While Anne's behaviour seemed to be the entire focus of
the problem, the problem was actually much wider. "What had allowed this behaviour to
develop in the first place, and how had this gone on for over 18 months without being
corrected?" "Why did the culture of the team allow this behaviour to go on?" "And why didn't
other staff members tell her that their behaviour was inappropriate?" "And then what about the
systems of the organisation?" "Did Anne have a performance review and was she actually told
that she needed to change her behaviour?" All administrative staff received the same profit
share bonus at the end of the year.

So, Anne was rewarded the same as everyone else, even though her behaviour was causing
problems. There were many factors for Brett to consider before he could effectively address
these issues. Brett implemented a range of approaches to support Anne to make the desired
changes, and she ended up becoming a valued employee, a good performer and a positive
member of the team. Once things were going well, and trusted Brett enough to have a talk with
him about her real interests, and shared that what she really wanted to do was graphic art, and
to start her own business. And part of the reason for her frustration, was that she said she
wasn't able to make progress on changing her career.

Brett encouraged aunt to pursue her dream and actually had the organisation pay for her to
attend a course on small business and graphic design. Anne eventually got the courage to leave
the organisation, and start her own small business. What we can see from the six example is that
there were many different factors at play related to Anne's behaviour, such as human resources,
performance, reward and other systems that the organisation had in place which would either
limit Anne's behaviour or manage it in a positive way. The culture of the team and the
organisation, including its values and purpose for doing the work, also played an important role
in determining Anne's behaviour.

An approach that can be useful to understand and manage poor performance is the Integral
Model developed by Ken Wilber. The integral theory and framework aims to be a complete
theory of everything and a way to understand each other, the world and how we live in it. It's a
four quadrant model with the four quadrants providing a comprehensive way of dealing with
the person's attitude, their behaviours, their culture and the systems that are surrounding the
situation. The integral quadrants that can be seen in any situation are firstly the inner world.
This refers to a person's inner thoughts and feelings and the sense of self of the person. In other
words, their inner world of interpretations.

A person may do or say something, but it is how it is interpreted in the inner world that is
crucial for understanding. This quadrant includes the individual's motivation and intention,

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 their desires and needs. The most fundamental aspect of this inner world, is the person's sense
of self. The next quadrant is that of behaviours. This quadrant is the external behaviours that we
can actually see. In this quadrant, we observe the behaviours of, for example, coming late to
meetings, criticising people, saying negative things about management, etc. So, this quadrant
represents the actual observable actions and behaviour of the person and the people who
respond to this behaviour.

For example, the manager and coworkers. The next quadrant is that of culture. These are the
values of the group or the team norms that make up the culture. If difficult or toxic behaviour is
going on, it means the culture either ignores, avoids or supports this behaviour. The leadership
of the team and the organisation have a major impact on the culture of the environment. And
then the fourth quadrant is the systems that encourage, allow or ignore the problems of poor
behaviour.

These can be selection systems, induction systems, how we run meetings, performance
appraisal systems, reward recognition and promotional systems. For example, if the
performance management system identifies, and deals with poor behaviour, the individual will
have a strong incentive to modify his or her behaviour.

So, these quadrants help us to understand a person and situation more fully. Whenever there is
an overemphasis or a lack of concern for one of the quadrants, this will result in the
manifestation of other team and individual issues. Performance problems indicate that there is
something missing in one or more of these quadrants. The integral approach involves being
aware of, working with and integrating all quadrants to be complementary and effective.

So, challenges of poor performance must consider the broader context, that will need to be
addressed with the right systems, goals, processes and priorities that are developed to support
positive behaviour. The integral approach presents 4 quadrants that need to be understood
before change can be implemented. So, it is not enough to just focus on individual factors. We
need to take a holistic or integral approach to looking at both the individual, and the individual
within the system or culture that they are working.

Video 4: Understanding Individual and Systemic Factors

Let's start by understanding the individual factors in performance. We're going to use the case
example of Brett and Anne that has been provided to you. So, please make sure that you've read
this before you watch the video. The case example emphasises the importance of exploring both
individual and environmental factors that influence the situation, such as the team
organisational culture and the systems within the organisation.
We will explore what can be done within an organisation to create an environment that
constructively supports individuals to achieve the required improvements in their behaviour
and performance. In both Anne and Brett, we can see that underneath the behaviours of their
attitudes, feelings, judgments and desires, referred to as their mindsets. Another way of thinking
about this situation is to liken it to an iceberg floating in the ocean.
The behaviours and actions are what can be seen, the visible part of the iceberg underneath the
surface, or the attitudes, feelings, judgments, values and the person's sense of self, their mindset.
This is the unseen part of the iceberg. While Anne's behaviour seemed to be the entire focus of
the problem, the problem was actually much wider. "What had allowed this behaviour to
develop in the first place, and how had this gone on for over 18 months without being
corrected?" "Why did the culture of the team allow this behaviour to go on?" "And why didn't
other staff members tell her that their behaviour was inappropriate?" "And then what about the

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 systems of the organisation?" "Did Anne have a performance review and was she actually told
that she needed to change her behaviour?"
All administrative staff received the same profit share bonus at the end of the year. So, Anne was
rewarded the same as everyone else, even though her behaviour was causing problems. There
were many factors for Brett to consider before he could effectively address these issues. Brett
implemented a range of approaches to support Anne to make the desired changes, and she
ended up becoming a valued employee, a good performer and a positive member of the team.
Once things were going well, and trusted Brett enough to have a talk with him about her real
interests, and shared that what she really wanted to do was graphic art, and to start her own
business. And part of the reason for her frustration, was that she said she wasn't able to make
progress on changing her career. Brett encouraged aunt to pursue her dream and actually had
the organisation pay for her to attend a course on small business and graphic design.
Anne eventually got the courage to leave the organisation, and start her own small business.
What we can see from the six example is that there were many different factors at play related
to Anne's behaviour, such as human resources, performance, reward and other systems that the
organisation had in place which would either limit Anne's behaviour or manage it in a positive
way. The culture of the team and the organisation, including its values and purpose for doing
the work, also played an important role in determining Anne's behaviour.
An approach that can be useful to understand and manage poor performance is the Integral
Model developed by Ken Wilber. The integral theory and framework aims to be a complete
theory of everything and a way to understand each other, the world and how we live in it. It's a
four quadrant model with the four quadrants providing a comprehensive way of dealing with
the person's attitude, their behaviours, their culture and the systems that are surrounding the
situation. The integral quadrants that can be seen in any situation are firstly the inner world.
This refers to a person's inner thoughts and feelings and the sense of self of the person. In other
words, their inner world of interpretations. A person may do or say something, but it is how it is
interpreted in the inner world that is crucial for understanding. This quadrant includes the
individual's motivation and intention, their desires and needs. The most fundamental aspect of
this inner world, is the person's sense of self. The next quadrant is that of behaviours. This
quadrant is the external behaviours that we can actually see.
In this quadrant, we observe the behaviours of, for example, coming late to meetings, criticising
people, saying negative things about management, etc. So, this quadrant represents the actual
observable actions and behaviour of the person and the people who respond to this behaviour.
For example, the manager and coworkers. The next quadrant is that of culture. These are the
values of the group or the team norms that make up the culture. If difficult or toxic behaviour is
going on, it means the culture either ignores, avoids or supports this behaviour.
The leadership of the team and the organisation have a major impact on the culture of the
environment. And then the fourth quadrant is the systems that encourage, allow or ignore the
problems of poor behaviour. These can be selection systems, induction systems, how we run
meetings, performance appraisal systems, reward recognition and promotional systems. For
example, if the performance management system identifies, and deals with poor behaviour, the
individual will have a strong incentive to modify his or her behaviour.
So, these quadrants help us to understand a person and situation more fully. Whenever there is
an overemphasis or a lack of concern for one of the quadrants, this will result in the
manifestation of other team and individual issues. Performance problems indicate that there is

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 something missing in one or more of these quadrants. The integral approach involves being
aware of, working with and integrating all quadrants to be complementary and effective.
So, challenges of poor performance must consider the broader context, that will need to be
addressed with the right systems, goals, processes and priorities that are developed to support
positive behaviour. The integral approach presents 4 quadrants that need to be understood
before change can be implemented. So, it is not enough to just focus on individual factors. We
need to take a holistic or integral approach to looking at both the individual, and the individual
within the system or culture that they are working.

Video 5: Key Concepts for Thinking about Performance

I want to talk with you now about some key concepts for thinking about performance. Think
about the last time you had to manage the poor performance of one of your team members or an
employee. Now, beware of the fundamental attribution error. Attribution, the process of
understanding and perceiving causes in evaluating performance, behaviour and outcomes. We
all tend to suffer from this bias or error.
When we think about the performance of others, our tendency is to underestimate the influence
of situational factors and overestimate the influence of dispositional factors of the individual.
This is what leads us to personalised feedback. Become judgmental about the behaviour of
others and to attribute performance problems to the individual rather than to the contextual or
situational factors.
Now think about the last time you encountered your own performance issue. How did you
explain this to yourself? When we consider ourselves, we tend to apply a self-serving bias. We
attribute our own performance success or not to dispositional factors and attribute our own
performance failure to situational factors. In other words, we excuse all explain our behaviour
in terms of contextual factors rather than owning our individual input and responsibility.
Another key concept that is critical to consider in managing the performance of others is the
Pygmalion Effect. The Pygmalion effect was first observed in a classroom in 1968. Rosenthal and
Jackson conducted an experiment to test whether student's achievements could be self fulfilling
based on their teachers expectations. They gave elementary school children an IQ test and then
informed their teachers which children were going to be average and which children were going
to be what they're called bloomers. The 20% of students who showed unusual potential for
intellectual growth?
They found that the teachers did not expect too much from the average children and gave all the
attention to the bloomers. The teachers created a nicely environment with the bloomers. They
gave them much more time and attention. They're called on them for answers more often. And
they gave them more detailed feedback when they got something wrong. However, unknown to
the teachers, these students were selected randomly and may or may not have fulfilled their
criteria.
After eight months, they came back and retested the children's intelligence. The results showed
that bloomers IQ scores had risen significantly higher than the average students even though
these academic bloomers were chosen at random. The bloomers gained an average of 2 IQ
points in verbal ability, 7 points in reasoning and 4 points in overall IQ.
This research identified that there are four factors that explain how the Pygmalion effect works.
The first one is climate. To what extent they receive warm and friendly behaviour? The second

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 one is input, the tendency for teachers to devote energy to their special students. The third one
is output. The way teachers call on those students much more frequently for answers. And then
feedback, giving more helpful responses to students who they are considered special. So, what
does this mean for managers? Our expectations of the performance o f our team members
becomes a self fulfilling process. And beware that this also works in reverse with the golem
effect where low expectations of others also become self fulfilling.
Therefore, aim to expect high performance. Set challenging goals not too challenging. Promote
confidence of your followers. Build their self efficacy. For example, through good work design
encourage others to expect more of themselves. And beware of assumptions that followers are
low performers or not stellar or lack of talent. And consider what this means for those
leadership programmes for what we call high potentials. What happens to everybody else in the
organisation who may be wanting to develop their leadership?

Video 6: The Neuroscience of Conversations

There is an increased focus on conversational intelligence in the workplace. And much of this is
due to the powerful and influential work of Judith Glaser. Judith proposed that to get to the next
level of greatness, depends on the quality of the culture, which depends on the quality of
relationships, which depends on the quality of conversations. Because everything happens
through a conversation, this means that we not only have to improve our emotional intelligence,
but also our conversational intelligence to increase the effectiveness of our conversational skills.
Conversations with others individually and groups really makes a difference. The question is
which conversations are growth producing and problem solving, and which ones are
debilitating and energy sapping, Glaser said, "Without healthy conversations, we shrivel up and
die." This is what we are now learning from the world of neuroscience. Words are not things,
they are the representations and symbols we used to view, think about, and process our
perceptions of reality, and the means of sharing these perceptions with others.
Judith Glaser developed a conversational dashboard referred to as the Arc of Engagement. As
you move from left, which is low, trust, to the right, which is high trust, there are stages that
people progress through. Conversations can facilitate people's movement through these stages,
but not all conversations facilitate moving to the right. We move from resistor to sceptic to wait
and see, to Experimenter to Co-creator, Judith Glaser also writes about the three parts of
Conversational Intelligence. And also represents this as a dashboard in her book.
Think of the speedometer on the dashboard of your car. Level 1 is the left side, which is all
around conversations that are transactional, really just sharing information. Level 2 is in the
middle, more about sharing our point of view. This is where we really want to start to influence
others. Level 3 is the right side, which becomes more of a dialogue. Creating meaning by Co
creating. Addiction to being right is a major barrier to understanding others’ point of view. This
research also identified the two least developed skills in the workplace. One, the ability to have
uncomfortable conversations. And two, the ability to ask what if questions.
We all have conversational blind spots, let's explore the five most common ones. Lind spot
number 1 involves an assumption that others see what we see, feel what we feel, and think what
we think. We get attached to our point of view, and we are actually unable to connect with this
perspectives of others.
Blind spot number 2 is the failure to realise that fear, trust and distrust changes how we see and
interpret reality and how we talk about it.

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 Blind Spot number 3 is an inability to stand in each other's shoes when we are fearful or upset,
when we listen deeply, turn off our judgement mechanisms, and allow ourselves to connect with
others. We are activating our mirror neuron system., Now, thought of as having empathy for
others.
Which brings me to Blind Spot number 4, which is the assumption that we remember what
others say, when we remember what we think about what others say, we drop out of
conversations every 12 to 18 seconds to process what people are saying. And we often
remember what we think about the other person is saying, because there is a stronger internal
process and chemical signal. In other words, our internal listening and dialogue trump the other
person's speech.
Blind spot 5 is the assumption that meaning resides in the speaker when in fact it resides in the
listener. Our blind spots spring from reality gaps. Your reality and mine are not the same. You
and I have different experiences. We know different people, we come from different parts of the
world, and we use different language to label our world. There is so much wisdom in the work
of Judith Glaser, and sadly she passed away at the end of 2018. I encourage you to read her
books to learn more about her work, as these are such important skills.

Video 7: Performance Conversations

Performance Conversations is designed to be an alternative to the traditional performance
management system. This model has you and your manager come together for 30 minutes on a
regular basis, preferably not more than a month apart. At its essence, it is a two way interaction
dialogue which uses questions to stimulate collaborative problem solving, coordination and
improvement planning. With this method, questions can be harnessed and channeled toward
the goal of performance improvement. So, why the emphasis on questions?
Questions gather information about the quality and quantity of work being performed like a
normal performance review, but with additional advantages. These advantages include
stimulating dialogue while encouraging employee involvement, encouraging employee
ownership of their work, and the challenges associated with their work, also creating discovery
and brainstorming opportunities, and discovering the greatest potential in people and
organisations through positive, and appreciative inquiry.
This approach moves away from traditional performance appraisal designed to evaluate
performance history with the assumption that rating the past would prompt people to perform
better in the future. The performance conversations method is not designed to be a
performance management tool. It is a performance improvement system. It's future oriented
and focuses on productivity. It is designed around a set of questions designed to help people get
and feel better about their work. This feeling better stems from rapport, encouragement,
reflection, positivity, collaboration, and other characteristics of one's relationship with the
manager.
The model uses two-way conversations to improve performance and productivity and involves
brief, structured, planned, periodic conversations, semi formal 30 minute conversations
regarding the things that matter most in one's work and environment. They occur on a regular
basis and with a specific focus on the highest work priorities. They are designed to be
interactive as a question-based dialogue. The employee is a participant, not a passenger, in the
discussion. This includes coming prepared for the meeting, and armed with good questions. It is

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 oriented towards the future and improvements as the past is not subject to change. The focus is
on coaching and Co-performance concepts was coaching implies a relationship.
The coach only wins if the employee wins too. It really encompasses A holistic approach to
improvement, including efforts, outcomes and behaviours, said. The focus is on both the person
and the performer. Their joint efforts are the building blocks that produce outcomes, and their
attitudes and behaviours either support or inhibit greatness. So, moving to this model may feel
somewhat daunting, especially as you may be restricted by the current performance appraisal
in your organisation and this may feel too burdensome to do in addition to that.
So, one suggestion is to just begin by practising with using a small set of specific questions. I
often recommend that people start with just three simple questions, What is going well, what is
not going well, and what else is going on. There are variations available to these, so make them
your own. And next step, once you've started to use this more of a conversational and
questioning approach, is to move to introducing the Five Conversations framework, which is
based on five themed conversations that you have with each of your people, one seen per month
for five months out of the six. This means that each topic is covered twice in a year, helping you
review their development easily. A conversation with your team member should last around 15
minutes and focus on one of the following themes.
Firstly, climate review. This measures job satisfaction and morale, second strengths and talents
to identify and develop in net abilities. The third conversation is about opportunities for growth,
and this focuses on improving performance and standards. And then we moved to learning and
development. This identifies and supports future learning opportunities and then the 5th
conversation is innovation and continuous improvement to improve theirs, and your teams
effectiveness in line with organisational needs. And then, perhaps you might try another
approach, which is to use the magnificent 7 questions.
So, these are: "What's going well?" "What is not going well?" and "What else is going on?" "What
is the status of your short and long term goals, action plans and follow up items?" "What can I do
for you?" And "How are your internal and external relationships going?" And "How are you?"
The last one is perhaps the most critical because engagement is all about discretionary effort.
So, if you do not know who I am or care about what I think and feel, I will never voluntarily give
you 100% of my commitment and effort.
So, please think about how you can shift to a two way conversation that uses positive
appreciative questions to shift from evaluation to conversation, from judge to coach, from
power relationship to partnership. From doing those annual reviews to checking conversations
including 30 minute ones from end of year adjustment to real time feedback and adjustment. So,
how you can shift from directing to coaching to improve, and from past performance to future
orientation?

Video 8: Giving and Receiving Feedback

One of the most important aspects of giving feedback is to be specific and detailed enough that
the person receiving it actually knows what to do with it. So, for example, consider the following
feedback. Your work group performed to only 75% of expectation. What would you do with this
feedback? How could you use it to improve performance? Is it helpful? I think most of us would
say no. Now consider this feedback. Your work group performed to only 75% of expectations
because you allocated staff to the wrong jobs and you failed to set realistic goals for them. To

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 achieve your goal, you need to assign Jack to job X and Jill to job Y and set them goals within
20% of their last month's performance. Can you see the difference?
Providing feedback requires careful preparation as well as school. So, consider using one of the
many feedback models to structure your feedback. Practice with somebody and never provide
feedback when you are annoyed or upset. The situation, behaviour, impact, intent. SBII method
is a research pact widely used model for delivering feedback. You capture and clarify the
situation, describe the specific behaviours that you have observed, and explain the impact that
the person's behaviour had on you.
You then seek to close the gap between intent and impact by asking specific questions about
what the intent of the person was. This helps to dispel any stories we've made-up about the
person, including our assumptions about why they have acted in a particular way.
Another model is the idea feedback model. That includes being clear about your intent so you
can lead with compassion, describing the behaviour and impact, exchanging ideas and listening
to develop shared understanding, and then agreeing on the actions to follow up. The truth is,
there are a plethora of these models and you may even have one in your workplace that you can
use. They are all skill based and much more difficult to apply than at first glance. So, practice,
practice, practice.

Video 9: Preparing to Give Feedback

So, how do we prepare to give feedback? Brené Brown teaches us that, sometimes speaking the
truth feels as if we are being unkind, especially when sharing difficult information or feedback.
But in reality, dancing around the truth is unkind. When we avoid stating the truth, when we are
vague or ambiguous under the guise of being kind. It is often because we are trying to lessen the
discomfort for ourselves. Not for the other person.
Brenne's work outlines the need for us to face our own vulnerability, to be prepared to rumble
with our vulnerability. A rumble is a conversation, a discussion or meeting that is defined by a
commitment to lean into vulnerability, to stay curious, and to be generous. And most of all, to be
utterly fearless in owning our part in a situation.
Tim Gallwey in 'The Inner Game' refers to a Self 1 and a Self 2. Self 1 provides a running
commentary on everything that's Self 2 does, and it is often a critical one. Self 1 not only
reminds Self of the baggage of previous failure, but creates the tension and fear that tend to
beset us when we are confronted by our challenge. In fact, Self 1 is creating the worst of the
challenges, yet manages to throw all the blame onto Self 2. With inner dialogue like "you really
blew that, you'll never be any good at this." He summed up the effect of Self 1's interference in
the following theory. P = P - I which stands for: Performance = Potential - Interference.
He says, "That the opponent within one's own head. Is more formidable than the one on the
other side of the net." Both Gallwey and Brené Brown alert us to the importance of non-
judgmental awareness, simply asking questions which brings about an awareness of what is
happening in any situation physically, mentally and emotionally. And this has to start with us.

So, how do we determine whether we are ready to rumble to have that feedback conversation?
Brené Brown has a powerful checklist, that I really recommend that you use when preparing to
provide somebody with some feedback. It emphasises the way process of dialogue where you

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 partner with somebody else, you sit next to them and you put the problem in front of you, rather
than between you or sliding it towards the other person. This is due to you being open to
owning your part. You accept the need to be curious, to ask questions and that you may not fully
understand the issue. You model the vulnerability and openness that you expect to see from the
other. You are also ready to acknowledge what the other person does well instead of just
picking apart their mistakes.
You recognise their strengths and how they use them to address their challenges, while also
holding them accountable without shaming or blaming. You can genuinely thank someone for
their efforts rather than criticise them for their failings. You can talk about how resolving these
challenges will lead to growth and opportunity. And you are aware of power dynamics, implicit
bias and stereotypes. When you can genuinely say yes to the above, it is only then that you know
that you are ready to give feedback.
The next challenge is how to open the conversation. Failure to have an opening sentence often
gets the conversation on the wrong track right from the beginning. So, think about how you will
language the beginning of the feedback process. I am not talking about scripting the
conversation, but at least have the first sentence or worked out.
You can think about using sentences such as, "I have something I would like to discuss with you
that I think will help us to work together more effectively." Or "I'd like to talk about... with you,
but first I'd like to get your point of view." "I need your help with what just happened. Do you
have a few minutes to talk?" "I think we may have different perceptions about... I'd like to hear
your thinking on this." "I'd like to see if we might reach a better understanding about something.
I really want to hear your feelings about this and share my perspective as well." So, let's talk
about top tips for successful feedback conversations. Well, you will have already guessed.
Prepare for these conversations, including how you are going to manage yourself and your own
emotions in thinking. Being really clear about your intent. Aim for acceptance rather than
compliance. You are seeking to develop a shared understanding. And do choose an appropriate
setting. Make sure that it is private. And be timely and specific. No corridor conversations.
Establish rapport and build shared positive purpose. We can do this through adopting a
strength-based approach. And providing honest, positive feedback about strengths. Describe the
situation, and the facts by asking open questions and listening actively. Framing corrective
feedback positively to prevent defensiveness. Seek to build trust and maintain the long-term
relationship. Own your feedback. Use I language. Clarify any misunderstandings, and jointly
explore the problem and the solutions. Try to focus on knowledge and skills to improve and
develop, not talent. Ask for ideas and suggestions. And definitely summarise agreed actions,
while checking for understanding and commitment.
A really critical aspect is to follow up. Let the person know when the next conversation will be
happening. And last but definitely not least, model openness to feedback yourself. Use the Brené
Brown checklist.

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 Video 10: The Role of Goals and Ability on Motivating High performance
In a previous video, we talked about the importance of providing both feedback and clear goals
to increase motivation to perform. Goals plus ability combined with motivation leads to high
performance. I want to talk in a bit more detail about both of these elements, goals and ability,
and how we can use them skillfully to increase effort and motivation to achieve high
performance.
Let's start with goals. So, ensure that goal is challenging and specific. Make sure that it's actually
understood and accepted by engaging people in setting up the goal. Give effective feedback on
progress while allowing adjustments to be made. Remember the power of small wins. Mitigate
complexity. If the task is complex, break it down or give a learning goal incremental steps,
rather than one large change or goal. And don't have too many goals. Put effort into lining up
goals with what is actually required.
People need to understand the significance of the goal to their actual role, to the team goals, and
to the organisations goals. Be prepared to translate these goals into something meaningful for
the person, so that they understand where their input impacts. On the whole, be prepared to
answer the why of the goal. Set team goals if it's team performance you actually require.
So, let's move on to ensuring that the person has the ability; knowledge and skill to do the job.
This is the is the performance issue related to skills, knowledge or ability? If you don't know the
answer to this question, you may land up sending people off to a training programme when it's
actually a matter of having the ability. But because this is not a strength of the person, they are
not able to use it. So, this is likely to make the person even more anxious and haphazard in
pursuit of the goal. Provide a facilitative environment, which means removing obstacles, and red
tape to ensure people have the resources that they need to do the job well. Don't set them up to
fail.
So, this includes providing the necessary support, including training. Think about how you can
adopt a risk friendly orientation. Allowing people to make mistakes and fail safely, and reduce
the excess focus on rewards and punishments. As we know that this reduces intrinsic
motivation, and introduces a fear-based culture and this will lead to reduced performance as
people withdraw their discretionary effort, become less engaged, and reduce productivity.

Video 11: Leaders as Coach

One of the most significant shifts that we need to make in our leadership is to move to leader as
coach. For many, coaching is a life changing experience that dramatically improves their outlook
on work, and life while improving leadership skills. Daniel Goleman, the psychologist and
journalist, who popularised the concept of emotional intelligence, put a stake in the ground
more than 15 years ago in his Harvard Business Review article, Leadership that Gets Results. He
suggested that there are 6 essential leadership styles, and coaching was one of them. It was
shown to have a markedly positive impact on performance, climate or culture, and the bottom
line. At the same time, it was the least used leadership style. So why?
Goleman wrote, many leaders told us, "They don't have the time in this high pressure economy
for the slow and tedious work of teaching people and helping them to grow." Luckily, many
organisations are now encouraging their leaders to use a coaching approach to shift from telling
to asking. So, ask, don't tell.

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 Sir John Whitmore defined coaching as releasing a person's potential to maximise their own
performance, helping them to learn, rather than teaching them. Coaching is not the same as
mentoring, and definitely not the same as counselling, although people frequently mix up these
terms, especially mentoring and coaching.
Coaching is a structured, future focused conversation based on adult learning principles, and the
belief that we all have our own answers. It's just sometimes they are hidden from us. Mentoring,
on the other hand, is an activity that we usually receive from a more senior, more experienced
person, in our industry who gives us advice, support, and often connects us with their network.
Mentoring is highly beneficial for leaders, but it's not coaching. So, coaches do not explore the
past or traumatic events from childhood or help you to process difficult experiences from the
past. This is the arena of counselling or therapy. There's a whole range of ways that you can use
a coaching approach, such as On the Run coaching conversations that you can do within 3 to 5
minutes, to the more informal conversations within 10 to 15 minutes, all the way to structured
and formal coaching sessions with the professional coach, which are most often an hour or so.
In the workplace, we often use the On the Run and Informal coaching conversations, as we look
for those small coachable moments. The biggest resistance to coaching is our own addiction to
the advice monster. We pride ourselves on our ability to come up with the answer to problems.
Our ego is often attached to decisive and effective decision-making, even when it hasn't been
asked for. Many people, if not all, have this advice monster habit that they don't know how to
shift. You really have to focus on changing these long embedded behaviours, and to uncover the
rewards for, and risks of defaulting to your advice monster habit. You can actually coach
someone in 10 minutes or less. And in today's busy world, you have to be able to coach in 10
minutes or less. Coaching should be a daily, informal act, not an occasional formal, it's coaching
time, event. You can actually build a coaching habit. Remember the habit loop, but only if you
understand, and use the proven mechanics of building and embedding new habits.
So, many leaders will say that they just don't have time to coach. The reality is that sometimes
they've actually created a high level of dependency in their teams, and there's a double
whammy here. First, if you've trained your people to become excessively reliant on you, a
situation that turns out to be disempowering for them and very frustrating for you. And, then as
an unwelcome bonus, because you've been so successful in creating this dependency, that you
now have way too much work to do, you may also have become a bottleneck in the system.
So, everyone loses momentum and motivation from these kinds of situations. The more you can
help your people, the more they seem to need your help. The more they need your help, the
more time you spend helping them. So, this is where building a coaching habit will help your
team to become more self-sufficient by increasing their autonomy and a sense of mastery.

Video 12: Module Summary

Performance management systems and processes are largely ineffective in many organisations.
They're overly focused on compliance rather than on growth and development. Performance
management is complex and we often forget that there are both individual and system or
organisational factors that are impacting performance.

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 We want to tap into intrinsic motivators, rather than extrinsic ones through understanding
what really motivates employees. So, focus on how you can increase mastery, learning, purpose
and autonomy while increasing the sense of belatedness. Leadership is a discipline that has
rarely shifted focus from IQ, as in leaders are born to include emotional intelligence and now
conversational intelligence, where we use neuroscience to lead more effectively.
Organisational culture can be changed one conversation at a time. If we need to shift from our
annual performance appraisals to regular conversational catchups focused on identifying how
individual team members can be supported to achieve high performance, we know that
performance improves specific and behavioural feedback, plus effective goal setting and ability
enhanced through access to training and resources.
As leaders, we rarely need to shift to a coaching approach that asks not tails. Coaching is the
most powerful way to improve performance, productivity and a range of other organisational
outcomes, while also empowering individuals to be more proactive, creating the space for
leaders to lead, not manage.

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