How to Onboard Employees Virtually

The COVID-19 quarantine has changed a lot and changed the way we used to do business. Onboarding new employee is just one perfect example. We can no longer welcome a new employee in person at the office due to COVID-19 pandemic. The organizations have to rethink how to create an employee experience virtually. Check out the 3-step process to virtually onboard employees.

How and Why to Ask For What You Want at Work

I still cringe when I think of the time I got my haircut during my teenage years. The hairdresser asked how I wanted it cut and I replied, “I don’t care. You choose.” In that moment, I gave away total control of how I looked to a complete stranger!

As a child, I never learned to clearly ask for what I wanted. I always said, “I don’t care” even when I did care. I didn’t want to rock the boat and create conflict, so I kept quiet instead of voicing my opinion or request.

Through lots of personal development work, I slowly improved in speaking up. In fact, I went a little overboard and became a touch demanding at times. Telling my mom, “I need you to do this by tomorrow” was probably not the best way to treat her! Over time, I’ve slowly learned when to speak up and when not to speak up.

What is Self-Advocating?

Though it often doesn’t come naturally, speaking up and self-advocating is a vital professional and personal skill. What is it? It’s the ability to say what we need, want and hope for in life and at work. It’s the capacity to ask questions humbly, and admit mistakes. It’s about standing up for yourself and others in the face of large or small injustices.

Why You Need to Speak Up at Work

Let’s talk about work. When you don’t self-advocate, your approach to your career is passive. You rely on your manager to know what is best for you, how you’d like to progress, and what factors and peer behaviors are impacting your work. But not all managers can keep track of exactly what’s going on in their team member’s day-to-day life, and zero managers can read minds. Without communicating what you want, and what is standing in your way, you are relying on the unknown to shape your career and life.

Much of my coaching focuses on speaking up and asking for what you want. And I don’t just mean asking for a raise or a new position. It can be small things too, like when a colleague does something that irritates you, or when a client asks for more than the contract stipulates. These are examples of speaking up for your own good, as well as the good of your team or organization.

But How Do You Self-Advocate?

So how do you do it? I asked Jezra Kaye, a public speaking coach who works with people to improve public speaking skills. Her company is called Speak Up for Success; she’s the perfect person to turn to for self-advocacy help! Here are her five steps for asking for what you want.

Asking For What You Want at Work: 5 Steps

1.    Know Your Value— What do you bring to your company or team that they would otherwise have to do without? What have you accomplished for them? Can you put a dollar figure on the clients you’ve won, or the time you’ve saved through good practices? Even intangibles like increasing team morale can sometimes be quantified (“Our team lost only one member last year; the other teams all lost two or more”).

2.    Do Your Research— What do others at your level, in your field, get paid? How fast have others in your company been promoted? Are you being fairly compensated (often, women and people of color are not)?  Should you be making more than others, because you supervise more people, manage more projects, or have special expertise?

3.    Develop Your Strategy— You know your manager! Are they best approached at 8 am on Monday morning? Over drinks on Thursday night? After a difficult project has wrapped? Should you make an appointment, or have a casual conversation? Do they need time to process, or pressure to decide? And WHAT is the argument that will win them over?

4.    Plan Your Speech— Don’t leave this important conversation to chance! Work out what you’re going to say, and then…

5.    Practice, Practice, PRACTICE Look, asking for what you want can make you uncomfortable. It can make all of us uncomfortable. The truth is, there is a very slim chance you will get what you want unless you ask. Follow these five steps and give it a shot.

Do you have a story about self-advocacy in your own life? Maybe a time where it made all the difference for you or a time that it could have?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

How to Onboard Employees Virtually During a Quarantine

The COVID-19 quarantine changed how we do business. Onboarding a new employee is just one example; since we can no longer welcome a new employee in person at the office, we must rethink how to create the new employee experience virtually. Our company had the opportunity to virtually onboard employees multiple times in the past few weeks, using a 3-step process.

Step 1: Pre-Onboard

It’s best to plan ahead for logistics and communications when virtually onboarding. If your entire office is working from home, communicate the plan one week ahead of time to all employees with this type of message and action step:

Maria is joining the team. Her first day is on Monday, April 20th. As usual with onboarding, Maria’s first few days will be consumed with meetings and greetings. Her current schedule for Monday and Tuesday is:

• Monday, 10 am: Organizational onboarding with team lead
• Monday, 11am: Meet the President / CEO
• Monday, 1 pm – 4 pm: On an individual basis, meet each team member (15-30 minutes each)
• Tuesday: Connect with the IT department for allocation of computer system
• Tuesday 2 pm: Weekly project meeting

TAKE ACTION: Please set up a 30-minute Zoom session with Maria on Monday between 1 – 4 pm.

For uniformity of information, please use the below agenda during your meeting to help Maria to digest all the information she is receiving:

1.    Introduce yourself

·         Role in the project

·         Assignments and interest outside of the project

·         How long you have been with the organization

2.    Three interesting things about the project, team &/or the organization

3.    Ask questions

·         Show interest in her background

·         Answer work questions

Step 2: Onboard

The actual onboarding call is similar to an in-person onboarding meeting. You will cover the same material, just via video or phone. A possible agenda could include:

1.    Organization History

2.    Organization Structure

3.    Administrative

Step 3: Post-Onboard

This step is the most challenging in a virtual situation. Once the new employee meets everyone and understands team roles, how do you ensure the employee feels challenged and engaged? If you can no longer chat over lunch or coffee in the office, how do you stay connected with the person, to answer any questions they may have?

Our team texts new employees daily at first, to ask about what support they may need. In addition, we do video coffee chats and regular calls, to let them know we’re available to answer any questions. Also, the HR team discusses new employees weekly, to ensure all leaders are aware of any new employee challenges and/or success stories.

If we were operating in an office environment, new employees would have the opportunity to listen to and participate in informal office discussions about the work, accelerating their situational awareness. Since many organizations don’t currently operate in a face to face environment, consider inviting the new hires to participate in your phone calls and Zoom calls, as schedules permit, even in those areas that may not be their primary areas of responsibility. This will allow them to gain background context.

That’s our employer perspective. What do our virtually onboarded employees say? Here’s what one new employee wrote about her virtual onboarding experience.

I met all employees virtually and completed the onboarding process via numerous Zoom meetings in my first week. The President already had two Zoom calls with me prior to onboarding, which increased my employee engagement prior to joining the company.

I have had the best experience as a new employee so far. The importance of working from home and its success lies in the management of work via the remote desktop and accessing shared files. I was provided with the login for this remote desktop and could access all important information to start my work. I did face some technological glitches in the functioning of remote desktop, but they were quickly resolved.

Managers you’ve read about the employer and employee experience with virtual onboarding. Now we want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience with virtual onboarding. What worked and didn’t work for you and your new hires? What has been the role of HR and individual employees in this process?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Listening: The Do’s and Don’ts and How To Master It

The human mouth plods along at 125 words per minute, while a neuron in the brain can fire about 200 times a second. No wonder our mind wanders when there’s so much time in between the words of a conversation. This is part of the reason we remember only 25 to 50% of what we hear.

Yet listening is an incredibly important skill for everyone—including leaders. Why? If you’re not listening at work, it’s easy to misinterpret a discussion as a decision. You may underestimate the importance of objections and ambivalence. And not listening is a quick way to dissolve trust between leaders and their teams.

From my experience, leaders could use some listening practice. Why don’t they listen? Though Richard Branson once joked that leaders love to hear their own voices, there are two main reasons. For one, in general, people are not taught how to carefully listen. And secondly, society expects leaders and entrepreneurs to have all the answers.

Truly listening to someone is more difficult than it seems and requires practice. Yet practicing takes more than just “keeping it in mind” throughout your day. Let’s look at five levels of listening, the do’s and don’ts of listening, and steps you can take to improve your listening skills.

There are several levels of listening, but here are five I find most important.

Highlight: Five Levels of Listening

1.    Ignoring is something we have all done. Someone is talking to us, but we are exploring things on the Internet, checking text messages, or thinking “what’s for dinner”. We are not actually hearing much of anything. 

2.    Pretend listening occurs when a person acts as if they are listening but is not following the full story of what is being said. They nod and smile but do not actually take in the message. This is a skill that can be finely honed by people who do a lot of inconsequential listening, such as politicians and royalty. We all do pretend listening at times; be careful because it can damage relationships when you get caught.

3.    Selective listening involves listening for particular things and ignoring other things. We hear what we want to hear and sometimes block out details that we are not interested in, or simply don’t want to hear. We listen for what we agree with, and then only remember that. Or we listen only for ways we don’t agree (this is usually as a result of a conflict), which can be quite frustrating when trying to come to an agreement.

4.    Attentive listening is what many of us do most of the time. This is when we listen to the other person with the best intention, yet become distracted by our thoughts of how we will respond. In attentive listening, we dip inside our own heads for a short while, try to determine what the person really means, and formulate questions for the person before we start listening again. If you find that you’re doing this, ‘fess up! Let the other person know that your mind wandered and say, “Could you please repeat that?”

5.    Empathic listening happens when the listener pays very close attention to what is being said, how it is being said, the message that is being portrayed, and what is not being said. Empathic listening takes much more effort than attentive listening, as it requires close concentration. It also requires empathy and understanding. You’re listening for the emotions, watching the body language and listening for needs, goals, preferences, biases, beliefs, values and so on. In other words, you’re listening in surround sound.

How to Be a Better Listener

Listening is actually a little painful. When we talk, we get a rush of chemicals sent to our reward and pleasure centers, so it is a selfish brain activity. There is no reward like that for listening. When you listen, you are halting your natural ways of thinking; it’s like holding your breath. Yet listening is a skill that can be learned, like a fitness test of the brain.

The first step to better listening is to choose to be a better listener and decide that it’s an important skill to you. It takes effort and a strategy and much like any sport, you will want to learn the steps, and then practice, practice, practice.

A Listening Acronym to Keep In Mind

Here is an acronym to help you become a better listener: NALE it.

N         Note what is being said.

A          Ask questions to clarify the story, and refine ambiguous words.

L          Look at what the other person is doing. Are they relaxed, tense, looking             away? This is all part of the communication they are sharing with you.

E          Evaluate what you think is really going on with the person. You are not   a psychologist yet, with a little empathy, you might pick up on some messages that are not being said. This gives you an opportunity to ask more questions. Stay in a curious state and you will learn so much more in less time.

Listening Do’s and Don’ts

To improve your listening, DO:

• Be 100% present. This means turning off all electronics, and keeping your eyes on the person.
• Be content to listen and to stay in the conversation until they feel like they are fully heard.
• Ask questions and take notes, including clarifying meanings of words. Many words in the English language have more than one meaning, or can vary drastically (such as the word “soon”).
• Show courtesy in your posture and your tone of voice by leaning into the conversation, and keeping your voice level.
• Allow emotions to flow freely, and acknowledge the emotions with your words.
• Pretend that you will be tested on what you heard and understood, if you are finding it difficult to concentrate.
  
  

To improve your listening, DON’T:

• React emotionally. Stay calm and focused on the other person.
• Offer suggestions or advice. This is a hard one! Yet if you are truly listening, all you’re doing is pulling information out. As soon as you start suggesting solutions, you are no longer listening.
• Talk about yourself. Even if you have had the same experience, don’t tell your story. It takes the attention off the person and back onto you. A simple “I have been there” can do the trick.
• Look at anything but the person. Stay focused on the person’s eyes, facial expressions, and body language.
  
  

Are you good at fully listening to others? Is listening a challenge for you? We’d love to hear your ideas about why listening may be difficult for leaders. Also, if you have experience working on your listening skills, let us know what steps you have taken.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

A Quick and Creative Way to Solve Problems at Work

Most of us have seen this image before. Some swear it’s a duck, while others swear it is a rabbit. Both are correct! But this exercise gives us a clear example of how individuals naturally see the world differently. And in the work environment, this different way of seeing things, if leveraged, presents a huge advantage.

Seeing the world, and situations, in only one way can interfere with our ability to problem solve. We look at situations in a way that comes naturally, and are blind to other perspectives that may increase our ability to solve problems or innovate. Each of us benefits greatly from the perspectives of others at the workplace.

Yet it doesn’t always feel that way. Often times sharing an idea in a meeting is like morphing into a dartboard. You share your idea, and then everyone throws darts at it. You may even try to get the buy-in from coworkers in advance of the meeting to mitigate getting shot down, frustrated—even embarrassed—so quickly.

What if I told you there was an easy and fun way to prevent this kind of meeting? What if you were able to use a simple methodology that instigates participation and positive outcomes to problem solving?

Enter the “Six Thinking Hats,” developed by Edward de Bono. As Freddi Donner explains, the Six Thinking Hats is “a tool for group discussion and individual thinking that involves six colored hats. “Six Thinking Hats”, and the associated idea parallel thinking, provide a means for groups to execute a thinking process in a detailed and cohesive way, which allows them to think together more effectively.”

What Are The Six Thinking Hats?

Here’s a great video explaining what the Six Hats are, and how the method works.

De Bono writes, “Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic ‘thinking hat.’ By mentally wearing and switching ‘hats,’ you can easily focus or redirect thoughts, the conversation, or the meeting.”

To understand each hat and the associated roles, take a look at the table below.

As a basic example, if you were “wearing” the green hat, you would approach an issue or conversation as creatively as possible. You’d look for possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas.

Yet if you were “wearing” the black hat, you’d look at the same issue or conversation with a keen eye for danger. You’d attempt to ferret-out anything that could go wrong.

Now, you must be prepared to be a little uncomfortable. It’s common to feel uneasy approaching an issue in a way you’re not used to. For example, if you’re someone who informs your own decisions based solely on facts, you may feel awkward or resistant to approaching an issue by expressing your fears, likes, dislikes, loves or hates. After all, you’re a facts person, not an emotions person. But forcing yourself to think from that perspective might surprise you with innovative ideas.

A Basic Example of Using the Six Thinking Hats

Let’s take a look at basic example and run through each of the six hats in action. Let’s say you are the leader at a software development company, which has been steadily growing. While you still feel like a startup, the fact is, you’ve outgrown your office. Employees are sharing desks, the space is crowded and cluttered, and two of the three meeting rooms have had to be converted into offices. This leads to unnecessary tension in the office, and people are starting to complain. You haven’t made the move yet because you know it will significantly increase operational costs.

Let’s approach this problem using the six thinking hats as a guide:

White Hat: What are the facts about this problem?

The basic facts are there are 50 employees (and growing) in an office space that comfortably accommodates 30.

Yellow Hat: What is good about having this problem?

It’s great to be growing! We’ve added amazing talent to the team and we will now be able to accomplish even more as a company. We can expand our current offerings and add new products to grow the business even more.

Black Hat: What is the worst that could happen if we don’t fix this problem?

If we stay in this office, the worst that can happen is expensive attrition. We will lose the great talent that it took us months to find. That will lead to low employee engagement, which leads to poor productivity and even more attrition. We won’t be able to move forward as a business without our talent.

Red Hat: What do I feel about this problem?

I feel conflicted. On one hand, my employees and their needs are the most important thing to me, so seeing them crammed in together makes me feel like I’m disappointing them. On the other hand, I’m hesitant to increase expenses in what feels like a pivotal time in the business. That makes me very nervous.

Green Hat: What are some creative ways to address this situation?

One idea is to have some of our team work from home to free up space in the office. Another possibility would be moving into a shared office space with another startup. This would cut the costs of a larger office space. Also, we could leave this area of town and move to the new burgeoning warehouse district, where rent is cheaper.

Blue Hat: How do you know you are following the six hats method?

I’ve written all of these questions down and written my answers under the designated color for each hat. I can share these notes with my VP and get her feedback.

In the end, this leader decided to create a small task force to investigate the new warehouse district, and possible shared office spaces with the other startups around town. They have a three-week discovery period, after which the team will meet with the heads of each department to vote on the best course of action. They will use the six hats again!

As you can see, this exercise enabled the head of our hypothetical software development company to think through the situation from several perspectives. And by forcing the consideration of different perspectives she may not naturally be drawn to, she achieved “parallel thinking,” which is a more dynamic way to work through a problem.

Let’s move beyond the individual and discuss how to incorporate the Six Thinking Hats method into our workplace. Here is a step-by-step guide.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Incorporating the Six Thinking Hats at Work

 

1.    To prepare, choose a work challenge and form a small team of 4 or 5 people.

2.    Make sure that your attendees are aware that you will be using this method and that your goal is to fully investigate the situation at hand and develop an execution plan based on the meeting. Therefore, all attendees who can contribute to the facts should plan to bring them to the meeting.

3.    Before the meeting, create an agenda, including a video link from the first lesson in this course, and ask your team to watch this video before the meeting. Ask your participants to be prepared to use this methodology when coming to the meeting.

4.    Make sure it is a safe environment and that no one is “wrong” for adding to the content of the meeting. Even if you do not agree, say, “That’s interesting” or “Let’s note that point of view”.

5.    Be sure to ask one of the participants to record all the points of view.

6.    Be sure to ask one of the participants to record all the points of view.

White Hat: The facts. What do you already know?

Note: Facts often get disguised as opinions. If someone states a “fact” that appears to be an opinion, ask the participant (without judgment): “What specific behaviors cause you to think that?” Or “How do you know that?” Listen for the fine line between opinions and fact.

Red Hat: What is your gut feeling about the situation? How do you feel about the situation? (Happy, angry, etc.; all emotions are to be recorded.)

Black Hat: What do we need to look out for?

Yellow Hat: What are the reasons to say yes? What are the benefits and upsides of this situation?

Green Hat: What are other ideas that can be a part of this thinking?

Blue Hat: Make sure all the participants are maintaining the parallel thinking.

These questions should really get the team thinking and spur an active discussion. For fun, if you can access paper (or hats) in the six colors, bring them to the meeting to reinforce the colored thinking. Bandanas would work as well.

If you’ve never tried the Six Thinking Hats method, we are excited for you to do so. As De Bono says, The Six Thinking Hats is “A powerful tool set, which once learned can be applied immediately!” We’d love to hear about your experiences with this method.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter