The Management Tip of the Day

  Most of us are aware of microaggressions: subtle comments or acts of exclusion that can negatively impact the well-being of people who belong to historically marginalized groups. To go farther than simply recognizing and avoiding microaggressions, try using microvalidations: equally subtle but powerful actions or language that affirm and encourage your underrepresented colleagues.  Acknowledge people’s presence.  Give a nod, a warm smile, or a greeting when your colleague enters a room or a virtual meeting. In many cultures, simply addressing someone by name and making eye contact signals positive regard. And when someone is speaking, give them your full attention—put your phone away, close your laptop, and listen.  Validate people’s identity.  Refer to people in a way that’s in line with how they think of themselves. For example, call your colleagues by their preferred names. Don’t use unsolicited nicknames or anglicize names that are less common or difficult...

  If you’re grappling with the isolation that can come with working from home, these steps can help you address it.  Identify your needs.  What type of interaction and levels of engagement do you enjoy? Is it small talk, one-on-one meetings, or group conversations? Are you looking for a lunch buddy? Do you wish you had a bigger team to collaborate with? Reflecting on your answers will make it easier to determine if a solution could be a quick fix or something that requires a bigger change.  Assess your options.  Ask yourself questions like: What resources already exist that I may not be utilizing? What parts of my routine can I adjust to better suit my social needs? Are there new opportunities for socializing that I could learn more about and try?  Take a first step.  For example, if you love collaborating with others, could you ask your manager if you could mentor someone who needs to learn a skill that you have? If you miss small social interactions,...

  You plan a vacation to relax, rejuvenate, and forget all about work. But being out of the office often means doing a mountain of extra work before you leave and after you return. How can you ensure your time off doesn’t inadvertently make you even more stressed? Before your vacation, overcommunicate and delegate. Make a prioritized list of tasks that need to be done during your time off and establish a handoff process for each one, coordinating with anyone who will be filling in while you’re away. Then send out advance notice of your vacation to anyone who might be impacted, so they’re all aware of how long you’ll be gone and whom to go to in your absence. During your vacation, set an intention: Are you trying to relax, learn about a new culture, or connect with friends and family? Think of this intention as your only job during your time off—and give yourself permission to unplug from work so you can focus on achieving it. Finally, when you return from vacation, take the first 3...

  In a down economy, asking for a raise can feel even more difficult than usual. Increasing your chances for success comes down to preparation and timing. Here’s some advice to help you get to the outcome you want. Ask yourself:  Why do I deserve this raise? Maybe your team is understaffed and your manager has shared that they want to retain you, or you’ve been receiving excellent feedback about your growth. Or perhaps you recently learned that you’re underpaid compared to your colleagues. In any case, identify what’s driving your ask. Prepare data to share with your boss.  Document positive feedback about your work, along with any quantitative or qualitative metrics that speak to your value to the organization. You also might want to look at websites like Payscale and Salary.com to get an understanding of the market rate for a role like yours. Ask compassionately and clearly.  Begin the conversation by acknowledging that this may be a difficult time for th...

  More than 50% of managers report feeling burned out. Guiding their employees through the pandemic and its aftermath have exacerbated three hallmarks of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism, and a perceived lack of professional accomplishment. If you’re managing a front-line manager, how can you address this? First, proactively tie their work to a greater meaning. Have conversations about what matters most to them and connect their work to those motivators. Next, focus on learning and development. Assign them new, exciting projects, have open conversations about what’s needed to accomplish their goals, and be transparent about potential career paths at the company. Continue to support flexible work to give managers a sense of empowerment over their schedules and help reduce feelings of exhaustion or lack of autonomy. Finally, create a psychologically safe environment where these employees feel comfortable speaking up about their burnout in the first place—and encourage them to take any s...

  As a leader, you have the power to reduce the stigma around mental health by telling your personal story. If you’re comfortable sharing, here are some suggestions to keep in mind. First, speak from your experience, not someone else’s. If your story involves other people’s mental health (like a family member’s or close friend’s), make sure to anonymize the details unless you have their permission to share. Next, remember: Sharing your story doesn’t have to mean divulging every single detail, so decide what you’re comfortable disclosing and what you’d rather keep private. Once you’ve defined your boundaries, be honest: What did you experience? How did your mental health affect your work? What support did you get—and how did you get it? Acknowledge that your mental health experience is just one of many. If you’re comfortable, name the identity markers, like gender or race, that were relevant in your mental health journey. To conclude your story, talk about why addressing mental heal...

  In a remote or hybrid organization, it can be easy to overlook the value of face time with your employees. In a decentralized work environment, leaders must be creative and intentional about when—and how—you show your face. Here are some strategies that can help.  Make in-office days about communication.  Use these days to schedule individual and group meetings, office hours, and informal conversations with your reports. Your leadership impact will be greater if you schedule a “hub day” where the full team is present in the office.  Embrace video as a backup.  For fully or partially remote companies, video calls may be the only option. Keeping your camera on—especially when discussing a tricky topic—will help you command focus and attention. Manage your nonverbal communication.  Ensure that your nonverbal cues are aligned with your message and the leadership you hope to project even in your most routine meetings. Keep your body language open, posture up, ...

  Generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, will have major implications for employee productivity. As your team starts experimenting with the technology, managers must educate people on what AI can—and can’t—do well. For example, while AI is excellent at spotting patterns, aggregating information, and making predictions, it’s not yet capable of generating truly original insights. With this in mind, encourage your employees to evaluate whether AI’s capabilities match with a task and proceed accordingly. For example, it could help people process a lot of information quickly or generate a bunch of new ideas. It can even offer advice to help people make a difficult decision, provided it’s been trained on relevant data. But emphasize to your employees that they shouldn’t use AI to create meaningful work products without human oversight. The most important thing to stress at this early stage is that AI’s outputs are only as good as its datasets and algorithm...

  Afro-textured hair is stereotyped and stigmatized around the world. Recent research found that, despite some legislative progress over the past few years, race-based hair discrimination remains a widespread issue for Black women in the workplace. As a leader, how can you mitigate the destructive effects of hair bias and discrimination at your organization? It starts with awareness. First, ensure that any conversation about racial equity and supporting Black employees includes discussions about hair discrimination and texturism and how they harm Black employees—especially Black women. It’s also critical to be intentional about the images your organization uses in any corporate context. Consider the stock images included in routine workshops and presentations. Do they represent a wide variety of both hairstyles and hair textures? These seemingly minor details can normalize Black hair and interrupt the bias that wrongfully deems it “unprofessional.” Finally, solicit employee feedbac...

  When an employee tells you they’re burned out, regardless of what’s on your plate, set aside a dedicated time to have a one-on-one conversation about their experience. Be sure to let them fully express their thoughts without interrupting. Allow their words to sink in: Wait about seven seconds, or approximately two deep breaths, before responding. Don’t jump to conclusions about their feelings or what the cause may be. Instead, practice active listening by repeating back what you’ve heard and asking if you’ve understood them correctly. Once you have a sense of their experience, ask them about what’s underlying it. Simple questions like “What are your biggest stressors?” or “When have you felt stressed or burned out most recently?” can help you get an idea of the root causes. Finally, ask how you can help them in the short- and long-term. Take some time to consider their needs and craft a plan to support them—and monitor their burnout—in a way that’s viable and sustainable.

  Given the rapid emergence of generative AI, you may be wondering how you should prepare to introduce it at your organization. Start by framing the technology as a set of systems your team can use for collaboration. You can do this by focusing on three things:  Ensure everyone has a basic understanding of how digital systems work.  Emphasize to your team that they don’t have to become programmers or data scientists. You simply need them to take a new and proactive approach to collaboration (learning to work across platforms), computation (asking and answering the right questions), and change (accepting that it’s the only constant).  Make sure your organization is prepared for continuous adaptation and change.  Communicate with other leaders to break down silos and build a centralized repository of knowledge and data. Integrating AI not only means familiarizing yourself and your employees with today’s technologies, but also being structurally prepared to adapt t...

  Disagreements in the workplace don’t have to fuel conflict. If you handle them well, they can be opportunities to build closer relationships and come up with better ideas. Here are some strategies for navigating these difficult conversations. First, approach the exchange with a willingness to learn, rather than a persuasive or combative attitude. Be humble. It’s possible that you’re missing something, and an open mind will invite your counterpart in instead of pushing them away. On the flip side, don’t underestimate their interest in learning from you. Give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove that they haven’t earned it. This kind of generosity will make the exchange more pleasant for both of you. Finally, be explicit about your intentions. For example, before making your own argument, you might say: “This is an important topic. I’m curious to hear what people who disagree with me think about this issue.” Then you could close your own argument with: “I recognize that n...

  If you’re a working parent, it’s time to ask yourself whether the strategies you developed to balance your job and childcare during the pandemic are still serving you. Here are four common mindsets you might want to revisit.  Making do with limited childcare.  Has the fact that you’ve made it this far without regular or reliable daycare or in-person schooling left you with the unrealistic expectation that you should be able to do it all—without much support? Instead of holding yourself to an impossible standard, instead ask: What care arrangement do I really need today in order to do my job effectively?  Seeing remote work as the only answer.  If your organization is asking you to return to the office, don’t panic. Think as broadly and creatively as possible about the flex arrangement that will work for you—and ask your manager for what you need. Day-by-day thinking.  Survival mode can lead to short-term thinking in a crisis. Give yourself permission to a...

  While layoffs are devastating to those who lose their jobs, their impact also extends to those who remain at the company in the aftermath. If you’ve recently lost colleagues to layoffs, here’s how you can move forward.  Take time to process your emotions.  You can experience relief about keeping your job and grief for those who were impacted simultaneously. It’s not selfish to feel grateful, and it’s not wrong to feel a sense of loss. And remember, there’s no call for guilt; the layoffs were not your fault. If you’re able to, ask to postpone any non-urgent meetings and focus on the parts of your work you find most rewarding.  Reach out.  Once you’ve taken time for yourself, show support for your peers and friends who’ve been let go. On a professional level, a sure way to support someone is to help them find a new role, so offer them assistance if you can. Clarify your responsibilities.  It’s likely that you’ll be expected to take on new work in the absenc...

  Writing a self-appraisal can be daunting—but it’s a skill you should get comfortable with to get both the recognition and guidance you need to grow. Here’s how you can approach the task with humility, honesty, and confidence. Start by distinguishing your sense of self from your work. The goal isn’t to judge your value as a person—it’s to evaluate your performance as an employee. The content of your appraisal should therefore focus on what you’ve produced, rather than your personality. Steer clear of “I am” statements and frame your work as the subject of each sentence. Consider your performance through the eyes of your stakeholders—the people inside and outside your organization whom your work affects—and communicate what problems you solved and what value you created for them. Include hard evidence, including qualitative and quantitative data, to back up these points. And don’t shy away from self-criticism. While it’s certainly important to highlight your positive contributions,...

  As a manager, you need a strategy to harness the benefits of employee complaints—and mitigate their destructive potential. Start by expressing interest in the complainer’s experience or observation, and gratitude that they’ve placed their trust in you. Then have an open conversation with them to uncover the nature of their complaint. Be open to the possibility that they may be offering you valuable information, highlighting a problem that needs to be fixed or an opportunity that needs to be seized. If you suspect that they’re simply venting to you because they need support, respond with compassion to provide them a space of psychological safety. Alternatively, if this person is a chronic complainer who always has something negative to say, the complaint is likely a reflection of their attitude more than an objective problem. Still, these sorts of “trouble-finders” can help you spot potential red flags before they become widespread, so it can be useful to hear them out. Finally, i...

  Yesterday’s Management Tip of the Day laid out the best approach to answering the first half of one of the most common interview questions: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” But what about that trickier second half? Here’s how to respond if an interviewer asks you to describe your weaknesses. First and foremost, your goal is to be authentic and honest—without self-sabotaging. Start by reframing weakness as a challenge, even replacing the word “weakness” with “challenge” in your response. Then, highlight a skill that’s easily correctable through training or commitment, rather than a personality trait. A few examples might be: needing more experience in data analysis or financial forecasting, feeling uncomfortable giving developmental feedback, or being unfamiliar with certain software. Then express your eagerness to grow in that area. Here’s an example of how this might sound when you put everything together: “One of my challenges is my lack of professional experience with...

  Your responses to the most predictable interview questions can make the difference between getting passed over for a job and moving on to the next round. One question that’s almost certain to come up: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” Here’s how to nail the first half of that question: What are your strengths? Start by looking for the attributes listed under the “preferred qualifications” or “required skills” section of the job description. Then, reframe the skill to make it as specific as possible. For example, rather than simply saying you have excellent communication skills, describe your successes in public speaking and giving presentations. Rather than simply touting your people skills, talk about your experience managing teams and individuals. Then highlight an example of that strength in practice—and the specific impact it made. And finally, don’t forget to emphasize how much you enjoy tapping into your specific strength. When you put these steps all together, a re...

  The best strategies benefit all your stakeholders—including customers, workers, suppliers, communities, and investors. As a senior leader, how can you design a strategy that balances these competing priorities? It starts with using data to your advantage. First, consider external perspectives of your company. How are you rated across various criteria like social justice, management effectiveness, or brand value? While these assessments may not always be 100% accurate, exploring third-party perspectives on your company will help you overcome confirmation bias and perhaps uncover useful data about the value you’re delivering to various stakeholders. Then bolster that data with internal insights (from employee surveys, for example) to determine how your stakeholders relate to one another. Once you’ve done that, you can begin crafting your strategy, which should provide a clear description of your company’s purpose, establish criteria for evaluating progress toward it, determine prio...

  It’s natural for people to avoid taking risks at work—especially in economically turbulent times like these. If you notice your team is reluctant to point out mistakes, ask questions, offer new ideas, or challenge plans, how can you intervene and make them feel psychologically safe to speak up? Express to your employees why each of their contributions are needed and how speaking up benefits each of them individually as well as the organization as a whole. Be specific; you might emphasize how attracting new customers is dependent upon each team member’s bold ideas and different perspectives, or how an honest, rigorous self-assessment will help the team build a better product. Then issue targeted invitations for input. Having an “open door policy” or being “available anytime” isn’t good enough. Give employees specific direction for how to effectively speak up—and about what. Ask them direct questions to get their perspectives. You might host town halls, create a dedicated Slack cha...

  As a manager, how can you help your team become more comfortable giving and receiving feedback? It’s all about making the process less formal and intimidating and the feedback more frequent and actionable. To embed feedback into your team’s culture, start by creating a shared understanding of what feedback really is. Host an open discussion where you ask questions like: What does feedback mean to you? When feedback is effective, how does it feel? When does feedback feel forced or scary? The answers will help your team come up with a definition that works for everyone. Next, develop a new process that makes it faster and easier for everyone to give useful insights to each other. This might mean dedicating time in meetings or creating space on virtual channels for people to request feedback, deliver specific praise, and raise ideas for improvement. Finally, in your one-on-one meetings with direct reports, you can take the fear out of feedback by starting the conversation with thoug...

  If you’re worried that AI could replace you, you’re not alone. But while the fast-developing technology is certain to disrupt many jobs and industries, you can take steps now to future-proof your career. Hone the people skills AI imitates.  While AI can display empathy, self-awareness, and creativity, it’s important to remember that this is just an illusion. People skills still belong to people. Double down on the real world.  AI can’t disrupt our analog work or our physical, in-person connections with each other. Carve out time to safeguard that work and those relationships. Invest in your personal brand.  Especially when it comes to creative fields, strong human brands will continue to be more valuable than generic AI work. Develop recognized expertise in your industry.  Even if AI performs “first draft” functions, its output still has to be double-checked by a trusted, reliable source. If that’s you, you’ll continue to be sought out because you’ll have the ...

  Saying no when your boss or a colleague asks you to take on additional work can be uncomfortable. But there are graceful ways to turn down a request when you simply don’t have the bandwidth for more responsibilities. Here are some ways to say “no,” including sample language. Give a clear reason.  Try something like: “With my current workload, I don’t think I’ll be able to meet the expectations you have for this project.” If the person making the request is your manager, you might ask them to help you shift your current priorities to make room for the new work. Reframe the opportunity.  You might say: “Since this project is outside of my typical responsibilities, I’m not sure I’ll be able to deliver high-quality results in the desired timeframe. However, if you accept that I’d need a little extra time to learn on the job, I’d be happy to take it on.” Explain why your “no” is in everyone’s best interest. Point to the broader context by saying: “While this sounds like a gr...