The Leadership Playbook: Drive Results through Culture, Change & Performance

We got a lot to unpack.
A lot to learn. Very lucky to have Tracy
and Culture partners with us here today.
So can we give a warm welcome to Tracy Dodds,
senior culture strategist at Culture Partners?
Really excited to learn this
because I think with how chaotic it is out there,
how many pressures and changes we have out there right now,
we really need to learn how to support our leaders
and develop them
and enable them to guide us into this next kind of stage
of whatever we're all going through, right?
So that being said, I'm gonna pass it over
to our partner in crime here today.
Let's give Tracy a warm welcome, Tracy.
Thank you so much for being here with us.
Uh, really excited to learn with you.
And that being said, I am going to pass it over to you.
Thank you so much. It is such a pleasure to be here.
And what an amazing start to a program.
I think it's one of the most engaging in energizing, um,
beginnings to any program I've participated in.
Happy birthday to Zach, and welcome to everyone.
It is so incredible to see, um, some familiar names, uh,
in the chat, as well as seeing all of the amazing locations
that you're joining us from, including Bermuda.
I have to say, very jealous
that I'm not in Bermuda right now.
One of my favorite, favorite places to visit.
I'm so excited to be with you today.
And, uh, one of the things I love about, uh,
doing these types of sessions
that each time I talk about these
topics, I learn something new.
And I love engaging with a community like this
because I feel like I learn as much from all of you
as I hope to help, um, others learn today.
Um, so with that, I'd love to ask a question of all
of you since you are so engaged in the chat, which I love,
and I encourage you to do it throughout the session, is
what do you feel in, in terms of your own experiences,
what do you feel or believe are the top challenges
facing leaders today?
We'd love to get a few thoughts from you in the chat.
Burnout, doing more
with less consistency, pace of change.
Yes, yes. Vuca yes, yes. All of the above.
Absolutely, absolutely agree.
Yes, I'm seeing a lot of similarities
and some themes rising to the top.
Great. So I think today's content is definitely, uh,
quite relevant to the experiences that we're all having, um,
especially leaders and middle managers
who are really feeling that that squeeze from both
senior levels and, um, leading their teams, uh, below them,
tsunami of retirements and transitions.
Yes, absolutely. Could not agree more.
So I'm gonna start off with a little quiz for all of you.
Quick quiz. Um, what do you think these three numbers
represent in terms of leadership today?
So according to our own workplace accountability study,
we have found that 93% of employees are unable
to align their work
or take accountability for desired results.
Due to a lack of clarity,
70% believe their key results are in jeopardy
because of that lack of clarity.
And 87% cited leadership behavior
as the key factor affecting accountability.
Think about that. 84% of leadership behavior
is 84%.
Believe that leadership behavior is a key factor affecting
accountability today.
And organizations often struggle to develop leaders
and managers who not only take accountability themselves,
but also role model it and instill it within their teams.
This gra this gap is creating misalignment in goals
and beliefs directly impacting business results.
Despite that, only 15% have clearly defined
and communicated their key results to employees.
So without a culture of accountability,
change feels chaotic, performance suffers,
and teams lack the clarity needed to execute effectively.
This is all about culture, right?
Culture of accountability, a culture
of clarity and alignment.
But what is culture? How would you define culture?
We're actually going to key up a poll to see
what your thoughts are in terms
of when you hear the phrase culture, what is it?
Is it the way people feel?
Is it the way people think and act?
Is it the way people behave? Is it something else?
What are your thoughts?
Okay, here are the results. 43%.
It's the, it's believe it's the way people think
and act with 35% believing the way people behave,
the way people feel.
Yes, in simplest terms, we at Culture Partners say
that culture is the way that people think
and act to get results.
You'll never see a more simpler definition of culture.
And I'd love to, uh, share with you a model that helps
to explain why we say that culture is the way
that people think and act to get results, right?
The experiences that we have each
and every day, the experiences that we are creating
for others, create beliefs
that we hold about the organization, beliefs
that we hold about each other, beliefs about whether,
whether or not it's safe to speak up around here, beliefs
around whether or not people are truly open to new ideas.
Those beliefs that are shaped
and formed by our day-to-day experiences lead to the actions
that we take or actions that we don't take, right?
Whether we truly lean in and take ownership
and accountability, whether
or not we, um, make decisions quickly or whether we wait
and kind of see to see what others are thinking, whether
or not the experience
of making decisions is consensus driven
or top down, all of those actions
or lack of actions lead to the results
that we're getting in organizations.
So we truly believe that culture is truly defined
by the way people think and act to get results.
The leadership playbook that we are going, um,
to talk about today consists of
what I call three chapters, right?
So our focus today is gonna be on three distinct chapters.
An accountability mindset,
creating meaningful experiences, and leading change.
Leading change, um, is a theme
that I I definitely saw in in the chat, um, moments ago.
Um, creating meaningful experiences, um, that lead
to burnout, that help build resilience, adaptability,
agility, and having an accountabi an accountable mindset
in terms of fostering accountability
where we can ensure alignment
and performance is achieved
by clearly defining results at the very beginning
and being super clear about what the results are
that we're looking to achieve.
We can create empowerment, alignment,
and focus for our teams, especially during times
of change and uncertainty.
But when we say an accountable mindset,
what does that actually mean?
What does accountability actually look like?
So at Culture Partners, we define accountability
in these ways.
It really consists of two parts of this model separated
by this line in the middle
and below the line is where we often see behaviors
that we call the blame game.
People wait and see, tell me what to do, cover your tail,
finger pointing, ignore or deny.
It's not my job. And this is, um, where we focus on things
that we cannot control, right?
We're above the line where you see the steps
to see it own itself.
It do, it is where we're taking accountability.
And below the line is
where we sometimes can feel victimized.
We become frozen in our actions.
There's so much change, uncertainty, chaos,
we're not really sure what to do.
There's a lack of clarity
or understanding of what we're doing
and why we're doing it, why we need to change.
And we don't feel empowered to take initiative.
We feel frustrated and we miss opportunities
and things don't seem to go anywhere.
It's not wrong to go along below the line.
It's absolutely normal.
It's how we're wired as human beings.
We're looking for certainty.
We're looking for patterns,
and our brains are wired to protect ourselves.
When we feel that there is volatility, uncertainty,
complexity, and ambiguity,
and we don't feel that there's safety, we tend to, uh, go
below the line and wait and see
and, um, expect that others are going
to provide us with that clarity.
Whereas the steps to accountability is helping others to
and helping ourselves really to see the opportunities
to move from below the line behaviors to be able
to actually take some meaningful steps towards taking
accountability and ownership.
And what are those steps?
Well, in my experience with working
with leaders at all levels across many, many industries
and companies of all sizes,
I've seen firsthand consistent best practices
that result in true accountability.
They're capture here, detailed within the model, see it,
own it, solve it, do it.
And they essentially come down
to these fundamental questions asked at each step
of the model and see it.
We're asking, what reality do I most need to acknowledge?
Own it. How am I involved in the solution, solve it,
what else can I do and do it, what do I need to do?
And by when and organizations where people consistently ask,
what else can I do, create a huge competitive advantage
with 86% increase in innovation
and 90% faster execution than organizations
with lower levels of accountability.
I'm gonna, uh, queue up another polling question for you.
As we think about the importance of accountability
and the see it step, I'd love
to get your thoughts on this Next question, what percentage
of CEOs do you think believe
that their company will no longer be viable
in 10 years if it continues on its current path?
Okay, wow, we're quite split
with the highest percentage believing it's 60%.
Well, you're super close, you're super close.
Uh, according to some research that we did, 40%
of CEOs that's one in four believe that if their company
continues on its current path, that it may no longer
actually exist in 10 years.
Can you think of any
organizations that have experienced that?
Can you think of any organizations?
Please feel free to type them in the chat that, um,
didn't see something that was important to see that missed
a key defining moment and they're no longer in existence.
Blockbuster, yes. Radio Shack, Kodak, Blackberry.
Oh, how I miss my Blackberry. JC Penney's.
Yes, absolutely. They're easy.
They come to mind immediately, right?
We can all think of those organizations where they fail
to see something pretty significant
and the result is that they went out of business.
The hardest step in the model is to see it, right?
We often think that we fully understand
or know what the challenge or obstacle or problem
or opportunity is,
but we're often missing some key pieces of information
and we can't see the whole picture.
And the reason for that is that as leaders, we often fail
to gain the perspectives of others, right?
And as you read through these best practices
for all four steps, not just the see it step,
think about two
or three that you might be able to lean into
to improve your own level of accountability.
Take note of what those two or three are.
Just take a moment think about which of these behaviors
or skill sets, um, do you think that you could lean into
and demonstrate even more to demonstrate higher levels
of accountability for yourself
and to role model, model that for others.
Feel free to take note of that.
So I mentioned that the see it step is the step
where we often move quite quickly.
Um, we think we understand what the problem is,
we think we know what it is.
And a result of that is that we,
we often don't seek perspectives of others.
A simple yet effective
and underutilized way to increase your own accountability is
by asking for feedback.
Simple. Yet, powerful leaders can create more meaningful
experiences for others by simply asking
for feedback and accountable.
People don't wait for feedback.
They go out and seek it.
In fact, leaders usually don't get the feedback
that they need unless they ask for it, right?
The truth is, as leaders continue to move into roles
of increased scope and responsibility
and power, as they continue to be promoted
and move up through the ranks of organizations,
they actually receive fewer and fewer feedback.
The bigger the role, the more power the ha they have,
the less amount of feedback that they're receiving
and feedback is necessary to create accountable people.
It helps them to see it.
That key step that CEOs even referenced,
that if they don't see things that are right in front
of them and they don't make the shifts
and adapt as necessary,
the organization may not even be viable
several years from now.
And we have found that over the years that how you ask
for feedback directly impacts the quality
and the quantity of feedback that you receive.
So a quick and easy model that we'd love to share
with you today, um, is again, another simple
yet powerful model.
Um, it's based on the understanding that giving
and receiving fed feedback can be very uncomfortable,
which is why many people don't do it.
This model changes all of that.
It gives you a simple drama free method for asking for
and offering feedback.
And we know that words matter. I'll give you an example.
When someone is seeking feedback, isn't the question
that we often hear, do you have any feedback for me?
And that question can be answered, yes
or no, which means you may not get any feedback
and phrase the right way.
You are communicating your belief
that someone has feedback for you.
What feedback do you have for me?
And in reality, if you've worked with someone
for more than an hour, they have feedback for you.
And that's the first part
of the question in this model, but not all of it.
The second part identifies one
of the 16 accountability best practices, right?
So look back and think,
reflect back on the question I asked you on the last slide
or two slides ago, um, around one or two
or three of the behaviors in the steps to accountability
where you, um, possibly could lean in more
and demonstrate more of that in order
to take more personal accountability.
That's a key behavior that you can ask
for feedback from others using this model,
what feedback do you have for me around
how well I seek the perspectives of others?
Right? And this is the first part of the question.
The second part is, um, focusing it on one
of those 16 accountability best practices
and focusing it on the results that you're looking
to achieve in organization.
What feedback do you have for me around creative
creatively dealing with obstacles?
Right? So what does it mean to give appreciative feedback?
Appreciative feedback is your opportunity to tell others
what you feel they are doing well and constructive feedback.
You'll notice here, it's not critical feedback.
Constructive meaning construct.
Construct means build to build someone up
to build on the foundation.
Here's what you're doing really well
around creatively dealing with obstacles,
and here's where you can do it even more, right?
It's about building people up
and providing them with feedback that's useful
and can be applied immediately.
And a leader who seeks feedback creates more accountability
for themselves and their teams.
Coaching others to demonstrate more.
Accountability is a skill that also builds accountability
and helps others to operate
above the line more frequently than not.
Increasing productivity, empowerment, accountability
and results and leaders who can lift others
through the simple coaching model.
Coaching is not telling, it's not directing, it's not, um,
telling people how to do things or why they should do it.
It's a way of creating accountability, personal ownership
and empowerment that helps others to see it, own it,
solve it, and do it.
When coaching others to help move them above the line,
including peers
and direct managers, you begin by listening for obstacles,
asking what are the obstacles that are getting in the way
of making progress?
This encourages an accountable mindset in others.
Then helping them to identify what they can influence
creates movement and helps them get unstuck.
And this is incredibly important during times of change
and uncertainty, it's so natural.
Our brains are wired to protect us, that when there's a lot
of chaos, uh, confusion, uncertainty, complexity,
we often feel paralyzed and we feel stuck.
Helping others by coaching them
with these open-ended questions can help them get unstuck
and help to facilitate problem solving by asking
what else can you do?
Notice the question is not what more can you do,
but what else can you do?
People have tried a lot of things
and trying to solve problems.
So it's not about creating more, uh, work for them.
It's asking them to think about the problem differently.
What else can you do?
And finally, helping them to move forward by testing
for movement and asking a very specific question,
what actions are you going to take?
This helps to create alignment
and movement toward action, eliminating unnecessary time
and wasted effort.
Ruminating about the problem or the challenge.
Creating meaningful experiences, in my opinion,
requires curiosity and the courage to ask for feedback.
Being curious about how,
how others are experiencing your leadership, being willing
to adapt and adjust to ensure
that those experiences are enabling results.
And increasingly important during times of change
or uncertainty, what
experiences am I creating for you?
What beliefs are you holding
or are you starting to hold hold?
Is there a belief you don't want to hold?
Let's agree on some experiences to help shift your beliefs.
Powerful questions designed to enable others
to gain insights that they can then activate.
Yes, Jen, thank you so much. I love that.
So as we think about leading change, that third chapter
of the playbook change is now a constant.
All of you mentioned change,
or most of you mentioned change earlier when I asked
what were some of the top challenges facing leaders today.
Change was a very consistent answer.
The pace of change is unrelenting, right?
Nearly tripling over the past five years,
and there's no such thing as one
and done now with change management when it comes
to corporate transformation initiatives,
digital transformation, AI design
and implementation, restructuring, cost cutting,
reductions in force, return to office, hybrid staffing,
changing business models, mergers
and acquisitions, divestitures,
they're happening all the time.
They're all happening at the same time, right?
Yet most organizations to con continue to get change wrong,
only about 12% achieve the original goals that they set out
for whatever change or transformation they're leading.
And what separates the resilient companies from the
change resistant organizations?
Well, here's another polling question for you.
The question that you'll see on your screen is
what percentage of employees feel
included in co-creating change strategies
in their organizations?
What percentage feel included?
Yeah, 21% get the highest vote.
That would've been my vote too.
I was a little surprised to see that the answer was 42%
for some, uh, based on a workplace study that we conducted,
42% feel included in co-creating change strategies.
So it's a little bit higher than I expected.
I guess that's encouraging.
Um, but yes, if from my own experience, I would've expected
that number to be a bit a bit lower.
Um, but the the reality is
that our teams are stressed, right?
Um, someone mentioned burnout earlier.
Um, definitely with 73% reporting moderate
to high stress levels, 80% don't know how
to balance the cultural tensions within their organization
or the competing priorities
with all the change that's happening.
And 44% are fatigued,
and we know that fat fatigue, I'm sorry, 44%
of fatigued employees are less likely to stay.
We know that if employees are feeling fatigued,
if they're feeling burnt out, as was mentioned earlier,
that they are more likely to look for another job, right?
So retention becomes a huge challenge.
So while leaders have been focusing on planning
for transformation, the underlying, um, challenge is
that your culture has become resistant to change.
I personally don't believe that it's simply a resistance
to change in and of itself.
I believe it's a resistance to confusion
and a lack of clarity about the change.
And what often leads to a lack of clarity about change
and feeling, uh, burnt out is a lack
of trust within organizations.
Just one in four workers say that their leaders
are inspiring and engaging employees effectively.
There is a huge misalignment between
what employees believe about the company, right?
The beliefs that they hold.
If we go back to that pyramid that I, I shared earlier,
their buy-in to what is being asked of them
and the behaviors in the workplace, the, the experiences
that they're having are shaping the beliefs
that they're holding about the
organization and about their leaders.
And there is a significant lack of trust and transparency.
The challenge is no longer just managing change.
It's about building a resilient organization
that is more adaptable
and more capable of driving business results
whenever the inevitable change happens.
And we know that those inevitable changes are all around us.
So three things that leaders can do
to lead change more effectively is to
create more clarity
to present change initiatives with clarity.
Successful change management really requires changing
employees' mindsets
and behaviors, their beliefs in their mindsets.
As a first step, leaders really need to provide a clear
and focused picture of what and why the change is needed
and what success looks like.
Disruption is often very unexpected.
Sometimes disruption is intentional
and caused by the organization itself,
and sometimes it's coming from outside factors.
But most organizations strategic plans need retooling
regardless of whether they're disrupting themselves
or others are disrupting them.
And for most teams and organizations
that experiencing major disruption,
there's very little value to leaning into long-term goals
or planning for the future when
that future feels very uncertain.
And while key results can help provide direction,
when leaders find that they're not truly realistic
or achievable results,
they must be reexamined to be effective.
And what's most needed during disruption is clarity
around the two to three short-term results that are needed
for the next 60 to 90 days.
People crave the clarity that prioritization provides.
So really being clear about what are the top two
to three things and prioritizing those for employees,
they really need to know where to focus their attention.
There's so much noise going on around them, so much change.
It's very, very easy to lose attention.
So really focusing their attention
and getting them, um, to understand
and become aligned on the top three key results.
And unfortunately, only 16% of employees
that we surveyed strongly agree
that individuals in their organization are clear on
what those top three results are.
16%. That is really incredible.
So with the uncertainty that you may be facing,
that number is likely much lower, both
for short term results and certainly for year end results.
And right now the need
for clarity is more important than ever before.
Here's a simple test that you can use to check to see
how clear your team is
around the expectations In your next staff meeting,
ask team members to take out a piece of paper
and write down the top three key results that they need
to achieve in the next 60 days.
As a team, listen for consistency
and responses to understand
how clear your team is about what's important right now,
what's most important right now, I bet you're going
to get very different answers.
I saw this happen at a global luxury retailer organization
when we got the top 85 leaders together in a room,
and actually someone on this call was in that room
and we asked them, what are the top three key results
that we need to achieve the CEO?
The CFO. And every head
of each region all had different numbers.
It was actually fascinating to watch.
So the need for clarity is so important,
even at the most senior levels in organization.
And that runs throughout.
If your C-E-O-C-F-O
and your heads of regions are not clear on
what the results are, certainly employees, three
or four levels down are not clear on what the results are.
Second is alignment, right?
Aligning your vision with change.
Only 42% of employees feel included in co-create
and change strategies, right?
You answered that poll a few moments ago.
Yet, research tells us that a culture
that shares implementation planning with employees
increases the probability of success by 12%.
Leaders must drive alignment throughout the organization.
They have to empower bottom up contributions
and help employees see themselves in the goals
and at level every level in the organization.
And finally, we've been talking about this,
creating a culture of accountability.
The difference between taking accountability
and being accountable is that connection
between individual work and company goals.
Not surprisingly, the shift from passively accepting change
to actively buying into it can change dramatically.
The impacts that you achieve
that buy-in happens when employees understand the change,
how it will impact them and their job,
and they feel empowered to contribute to it moving forward.
So including employees in change, co-creating change
is incredibly important and necessary.
We know that a more resilient business is a business
that is ready to deliver results,
and successful organizations are taking on change, not
as a mandate, but as a mantra.
We mentioned that foreign 10 CEOs believe
that their companies will no longer be viable in 10 years if
it continues on its current path.
So providing that clarity around goals, aligning leadership
with execution and driving accountability
are incredibly important.
It creates a more resilient and adaptable culture.
And when you do this, you'll be able to create
and execute on strategies that can withstand
sustained change, delivering sustainable business results.
I've spent hundreds of hours with leaders of organizations
and teams, large
and small, across almost every industry you can think of,
who've been tasked with the unexpected responsibility
of preserving the future viability of their organizations.
They feel the weight of calming fears, of preserving jobs,
of maintaining customer trust, employee trust.
And while each and every situation has been unique,
each interaction has informed our view of what it looks like
for leaders to rise up
and lean into the difficulties that this disruption brings.
Through our interactions, we've identified several
critical skills that impact a team's ability to adapt,
to change at the required speed.
The success of those of those adjustments
really hinge upon the team leader's
competency in these skills.
We mentioned clarity, we mentioned alignment.
We mentioned accountability.
The others that I wanna talk about with all
of you are visibility, agility, and empathy.
When these are all deployed together as a system,
they help a leader create incredible speed and engagement.
Visibility seems pretty obvious, right?
It's not surprising to hear that leaders need to be
more visible during times of change and disruption.
This is aimed in part, certainly at increase,
increasing clarity.
Clarity around the key results of the team, department
or organization, clarity around the change that's needed.
Those who are closest to the customer, right?
Those who are making critical decisions need access
to visible leaders in order to ensure alignment.
And when leaders and teams don't intentionally increase
their visibility and accessibility,
speed suffers affecting an organization's ability
to pivot as needed.
Some leaders demonstrate visibility and accessibility,
but we're still not seeing acceleration.
And a lot of that is due to the lack of trust
and the lack of transparency.
Transparency leads to trust and trust fosters engagement.
Truly transparent leaders don't just get
satisfaction from having the most information in the room.
They get satisfaction from knowing that everyone has access
to that information and are aligned
and able to move together with speed and agility.
I don't think anyone needs an explanation
for why agility made the list, right?
But what does it look like
and how do you know if you're good at it?
Most people like to think that they're agile, right?
I'm flexible, I'm open to new ways of thinking, of course,
but many of us really fail to demonstrate it.
And most organizations don't prioritize
and execute in an agile way.
Agility requires the ability to learn fast and move fast.
When, um, we look at the most significant consistent trait
of high potential leaders, it's learning agility,
their ability to learn and adapt to new
and different things based on the previous experiences.
They have a healthy relationship with failure, right?
Not being afraid to take risk and make mistakes
and learn from it, and carry those learnings forward.
They have a willingness
to fly a plane while building the engine, right?
Not having all the answers.
Managing through un uncertainty
and complexity, being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
And they have an understanding that pressure
to execute won't fix alignment problems,
but rather exposes them, right?
So forcing people
and pushing them to move faster, move faster,
move faster without clarity
and alignment does not enable teams to move faster.
It just exposes the challenges
and the problems with alignment and clarity.
Agile teams innovate faster than competition,
and they bring greater value to the end customer.
Doing this well requires accountability.
And we know that in a culture with high levels
of accountability, people feel connected to the purpose
of their work, enabling them
to recognize gaps in performance, take personal ownership
for closing those gaps and for delivering solutions.
In fact, according to the research that we did
with Stanford, high levels
of accountability are directly correlated
to accelerated speed to market, greater growth
and increased agility in adapting to change.
Finally, empathy.
The final competency required
during disruption has a major impact on a team's level
of engagement and ownership.
The question of how are you doing right?
Used should be throwaway greeting. Hi, how are you?
It's just such a natural instinctive things to say,
but do we really pause and are we really open
and curious to the answer to that question?
This isn't the case though.
During times of disruption, when stress can be high,
empathy is your ability to deepen the understanding of
what someone within your team is experiencing
from their perspective.
Apathy is the opposite and suggests a disinterest
or a lack of concern.
Each one of us falls on the empathy
to apathy spectrum at any one time, especially when it comes
to how others are experiencing our leadership style.
And if you're looking for a way to demonstrate empathy,
start with being curious about how others, at both
professional and personal level,
be genuinely curious about them
and be genuinely curious about
how others are feeling about your leadership style
and what you could be working on, right?
Seeking the diverse perspectives of others
and seeking feedback is
how you can demonstrate curiosity and empathy.
So by spending a few minutes at the beginning
of your meetings, really hearing how people are doing
and what their opinions
and perspectives are about initiatives, results
and change can really go a long way.
The line between personal
and professional life continues to narrow
and blur with many people embracing
and enjoying an increased connection to one another
and to the purpose that they bring to the organization
and the purpose of the organization itself.
So empathy is, is no longer a nice to have.
Um, it impacts collaboration, ownership, accountability,
and ultimately speed.
So this may feel overwhelming looking at all of these things
and thinking, oh my gosh, I have
to do all of these things better.
No one can claim mastery of all
of these competencies, right?
Some of us are more naturally gifted at some
of them than others, but all
of us could benefit from picking one
or two where we need the most work.
And consider how we can strengthen our ability in those
areas before you decide what to lean into,
seek feedback from others, right?
Truly ask and get curious about
how you're showing up in each of these areas.
Gaining the perspective of others is critical
to leading change and disruption effectively.
So with all of that said,
and again, in an attempt to help you focus, here are
three things that you can put into practice today, right?
The first step is you can see it, right?
You can ask yourself,
what reality do I most need to acknowledge?
Communicate openly and candidly and be willing to hear
and say the hard things to see reality.
The second ask for feedback, ask
to obtain the perspectives of others.
What feedback do you have for me?
And finally, lift others by asking open-ended questions
that encourage an accountability mindset
and facilitate ownership to see it, own it,
solve it, and do it.
So I believe we have some time for questions.
We left, uh, about 10 minutes or so.
Um, in order to, uh, facilitate a dialogue, I'd love
to hear your thoughts, reactions, comments, feedback,
what feedback do you have for me?
What questions do you have? And I welcome Zach
to come back on to help facilitate some questions.
Wow, thank you so much, Tracy. First of all, rockstar job.
Those frameworks were incredible.
I would be curious in the chat as well, like, which one
of those frameworks do you wanna start taking
action on right away?
I mean, we talked about a few of 'em, right?
The results pyramid, like maybe introducing that
and the whole idea of working above and below the line.
I love that piece. Uh, the accountability best practices.
We talked about feedback
and what are some of the models behind that, uh,
the leading change effectively, what were some
of the models you all really need to hone in on today?
I would love to see that in the chat.
And I know for some of you, uh, that want to, uh,
get the slides and things like that, I know these are,
you know, key frameworks that were built
and proven in the field by culture partners.
So make sure that you connect with them directly
for a strategy session
and they can start to share some
of these frameworks on the slides directly.
So that being said, first question that came in the q
and a Tracy that, uh, I would love for you to revisit,
if you can just reaffirm it
or talk about again, which was the experience,
dialogue, questions.
Uh, I agree with what Nicole shared in the question.
It's a very powerful framework
and kind of way that we might approach this.
And, uh, could you just revisit
and talk through the experience blog a little bit more?
Absolutely. Let me, um, get back to
that slide for you.
Gimme one second. Pop back over there.
One more than one second. Couple of seconds.
No problem. I'm looking in the chat though. Uh, let's see.
The lead change effectively came up.
Um, what else we have there?
Accountability above and below the line.
I think that's just even a,
just a great conversation you should be
having with your leaders, right?
Like, what does it mean in our organization to be operating
above or below the line?
Like how do you define that for your culture? Mm-hmm.
Absolutely. So, um, there were two models I shared.
Uh, actually three. There's the feedback model of
how you ask for feedback.
Um, there's the lift model of how you lift others
through some open-ended coaching questions,
and then there's the experience dialogue, um, for how you,
um, talk through the experiences that you are creating
for others and the experiences they're creating for you.
Um, which specific model was Nicole interested in?
Was it the feedback model or the experience dialogue?
The experience Dialogue, yeah.
Alright, lemme move forward to that one. Thank you.
Okay. So the experience dialogue, this model
is based on the results pyramid that I shared earlier
where the experiences that we're having
with one another are shaping the beliefs
that we hold about each other, about the organization,
about our team, et cetera.
And those beliefs are what are leading to the actions
that we take, right?
And ultimately the actions we take
or don't take leach the results that we're getting.
So when you are having experiences with others, um,
that are shaping beliefs that you hold, this is a,
a dialogue that you can have.
And when you're curious to know
how are others perceiving the experiences that I'm creating,
what are the beliefs that they're holding
about me as a leader?
Um, this is a, a very impactful
and simple framework that you can use.
So, um, if you are looking to share an experience
with someone, we recommend that you say,
the experience I'm having is right.
An example might be maybe you're coaching a direct report,
and you might say, the experience I'm having is
that you are showing up late to every staff meeting,
and it's leading me to believe
that our meetings are not a priority for you.
The belief I want to hold is
that you are making every effort
to be present in our staff meetings
because you're a key contributor to the team,
and your updates that we are looking for you
to share every week are so important to the work we're doing
that we really need, um, to hear from you
because we value, uh, your feedback and your experiences.
Let's agree on some experiences to help create the belief
that I want to hold, right?
That that's an example I just made up on the fly.
Um, and then if you're looking to understand, um,
a belief that someone is holding about you based on the
experiences you are creating, right?
You can say, what experiences am I creating for you?
You can even get more specific and intentional.
What experiences am I creating for you around,
um, accountability?
Or what experiences am I creating for you
around sharing feedback?
What beliefs are you holding or starting to hold, right?
Is there a belief you want to hold but you don't today?
And then let's agree on some experiences
to help create this belief.
This is a really simple framework
that you can use when coaching others, when asking
for feedback, when trying to have a meaningful dialogue
around the experiences that are being created within Teams.
It's a great way to handle conflict, right?
Because it really assumes that there's positive intent
that we're all trying to create through the experiences
that we're having with each other.
I hope that that helps answer the question. Sure.
Yeah. And I think I encourage for everyone listening too,
like, look at the simplicity of these things, right?
It's, it's really about, I think creating that space
and giving yourself with,
just like I think about even when I have to do speak
and engagements or engage
with a team member on a difficult conversation,
sometimes it's just like, how do I start it?
Right? And then after that it's easy.
Like it's just, but the beginning can be some
of the most awkward pieces of it.
So just use these taglines and these questions
and statements just to, just to get you, get you rolling.
And I think that's the space
after that the space is created.
So one thing I'll, uh, I'll, I'll prompt on here
because I see a lot of people really excited about these
frameworks, really excited about, uh, bringing these
to your teams and things like that.
And I think I do want to make sure
that we're giving you an opportunity just
to hit the ground running right away.
So if you want to kind of get some more direct support,
you want to get access to some of these frameworks
and talk through where it could apply right now, uh,
I'm gonna launch a poll here
because you should take some time
and get a consultation directly
with Culture Partners and with their team.
Put that in there. Now, if that's you, maybe some
of you have already done this with the team
and you're looking to bring it to the rest
of the organization or whatever that might be, uh,
raise your hand in there
and we can make sure you get set up with the right person.
And then we can also talk through some
of these other opportunities that they're rolling,
like their Accountability for Leaders Workshop
or the Leadership Accelerator.
Yeah, I, I would love to share, uh,
a little bit more about these.
Our prog our programs provide organization wide development
for leaders at all levels, helping them to make decisions
that drive impact to create
and embody an accountability mindset
to drive high performing teams
and to lead change effectively.
Um, so, uh,
if you're interested in learning more about these programs,
accountability for Leaders
and Leadership Accelerator, please, uh, answer yes
to this question and we'd be happy
to follow up with you and share more.
And one thing we share with all of you, I'm sorry, Zach,
just one quick thing that I'd love to share with everyone.
I was actually a four-time client
before working for Culture Partners, so I have seen, uh,
the direct impact, um, of these programs
inside of organizations.
So just thought that would be really
important to share with all of you.
Yeah, I mean, if you just use this session
as just like a taste of what they are, they're capable
of bringing, obviously I think it's worth your time
checking it out and having a deeper dialogue.
Uh, since we do have a couple more minutes, I'll leave
that hand, I'll leave that question on on there for those
of you that need to fill it out still.
But I think, um, a common scenario, many people
that are listening today have is especially HR leaders
and people leaders in our network, is a lot
of times they're looking for buy-in
and alignment from their leadership team,
but maybe they're not getting it, maybe they're not aligned
or they're just not bought in, into investing
or looking at some of these things.
So what are some strategies you recommend
to get alignment when there's so many different stakeholders
with different perspectives on these things?
Yes, great question. Um, there there is a simple question
that we, uh, encourage leaders to ask,
especially when they're making big decisions
or they're having a, a meeting with direct reports
and there may not be, um, uh,
psychological safety in the organization, right?
Um, not everyone, uh, is comfortable speaking up
and challenging their boss in front
of their peers if they don't agree with something
or they have a different perspective.
And so, especially in organizations where there may,
may be varying levels of psychological safety, we ask, uh,
and encourage leaders to ask the question on a scale of one
to 10, how aligned are you with this decision?
And it really helps people to really pause
and think realistically about, on a scale of one to 10, how
how really bought am am I to this?
And when they give their answer, um, it could be a five,
a six, a seven, an eight.
The follow up question the leader should ask is,
what will it take to get you to a 10?
Or what will it take to get you closer to a 10? Right?
That is a powerful set of questions.
Most leaders go, everyone good with this?
Does everyone agree? And you get the heads nod, right?
Because people don't feel comfortable speaking up
and saying that they don't, right?
So when you ask how aligned are you on a scale of one to 10,
you get much more realist, realistic and honest answers.
And then when you follow up with the question,
what will it take to get you closer to a 10?
You get meaningful opinions
and ha can have a meaningful conversation around how
to improve the decision
or move the work forward in a way
that will create more alignment, which ultimately leads
to more ownership and accountability for the decision.
I love that. I also like that it helps you quantify
where people are and you can actually sort of measure,
maybe check up in a week after you had that session
and now that you've been taking action since the alignment
session, you go, Hey, where are you at now?
Do you still feel like you're a four
or are you more at an That's right?
And you can actually see, you can actually
quantify the growth and the progress that people are having.
Mm-hmm. So I think that exactly
that is always like the hardest thing within pe
people oriented culture.
It's like, how do you quantify this?
So that's a a that's a awesome, awesome question.
Okay, so we have about a minute left here, Tracy.
I'm gonna post some free resources
in the chat here for everyone.
We're gonna share the recording and the follow up as well.
But yeah, Tracy, any closing words for our community
as they go on this journey to creating an accountability
and, and leveling up their leaders?
The final thing I'll say is it starts with each
of us as individuals.
We can't expect others
to be accountable if we're not accountable ourselves.
So I always suggest to look inward and
and ensure that you have more self-awareness so
that you can role, role model the
behaviors that you expect of others.
I love it. Yes, everyone in the room, we can be
the lighthouse and the role model
for these things within our organizations.
And through that you can help guide
and create ripples of change.
And that's truly how movements within our culture starts.
So I encourage you all to, to be that role model.
Let's give a yeah, mic drop to Tracy
for doing this amazing session and sharing these frameworks
and these really actionable strategies that all
of us can do today.
So Tracy, thank you so much. This was wonderful.
Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.
All right. Happy Birthday.
Yes, thank you. This was like talking about culture
and people and strategy, like
what else would I want to do on my birthday?
This is honestly a, a gift.
So, uh, thank you again
and thank you everyone for taking some time outta your
schedule as I gotta to sharpen your crafts,
develop yourselves, and uh, learn some new ways
to make a bigger impact out there.
So keep going.
You know, we're here with, uh, here for you as a community
and we hope to see you at the next one.
Thank you so much everyone.

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