PRINCIPLES: P – Plan for Presence

Principles - Presence

Alright, so I have a bit of an embarrassing story for you all, to start the week…

Recently, I was on my way into work and stopped to get a coffee. It’s my morning routine, so I was on autopilot—deep in thought about my daily meetings and a big keynote presentation I had coming up. I ordered my coffee at the drive thru, pulled up to the window, paid for my drink, then continued my commute to work. It wasn’t until about ten minutes later I noticed something was wrong. I didn’t have my coffee! I had driven off without it. How embarrassing. All I could do was shrug it off and laugh. I was definitely not “present” that morning.

The greatest present is presence

Being present every moment of our daily lives is difficult. And even though I’m obviously not a pro at it, it’s a principle I try to live by because I’ve seen it have a huge impact on my conversations and relationships.

Presence is about living in the moment, listening intently, and not letting your brain slip back into all the things we have going on in the background. It’s not always easy, but one mindful approach we can take is to actually listen to every word when someone is talking to you—hearing what they’re saying, instead of thinking about what we’re going to say back.

I think about it like this—someone is taking time out of their day to share something with me.  I need to honor that moment by being present. 

I don’t know if this happens to you, but my kids can tell immediately when I’ve slipped out of presence, and they have no problem calling-me on it. ”Mom, PAY ATTENTION!” Oftentimes, we don’t even realize when we drift out of a conversation, which is why it takes practice to have presence.

Principles - Presence

Ditch the urge to multi-task

Here’s the thing—and some of you may disagree with me on this—there’s no such thing as being a “great multi-tasker.” Research shows our brains can only concentrate fully on one thing at a time. If you’re working on emails in a meeting (which we’ve ALL done), you aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in the room. You think you are, but you aren’t.

You may hear a few key points, but you’re not fully listening or absorbing the information being shared. In fact, one of my favorite studies about this showed that having our cell phones on the table, even with notifications turned off, is a distraction that limits our concentration. That’s why my leadership team at Microsoft has adopted a “Laptop Down/Stay Engaged” policy for meetings. It makes a real difference. We accomplish much more when everyone is ready to focus on objectives.

The practice of presence

Make no mistake, being “present” all day takes a lot of energy, and I know many of you have a lot on your plates (who doesn’t?).  So, we have to be intentional about making space for ourselves/ I try to build solitary work time into my daily schedule every day. It’s a chance for me to take a mental break and focus on what I need to get done. Even though I’m still working, it’s a different kind of energy that allows me to rest my mind so that I’m ready to be present for my next conversation or meeting.

We all have a tremendous amount of things going on in our brains. When things get busy, being present can slip down the list of priorities. But I encourage you to try your best to always focus on what’s happening in the moment. I guarantee it will boost your productivity, improve your meetings, and strengthen your relationships. Plus, when you’re present and engaged, you won’t forget your coffee!

 

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PRINCIPLES – L: Learning to lead

Principles - Leadership

I would imagine that many of you are familiar with Simon Sinek. Simon is a renowned author, speaker, and expert in business relationships and human behavior. In 2019, Simon joined me on stage at Microsoft Inspire. It was a great opportunity to bring his thoughts on leadership and collaboration to Microsoft’s global partner conference!

Simon often talks about the qualities of successful leadership. This quote from our conversation continues to resonate with me:

“Leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s about taking care of people in your charge. People always ask me, ‘How do I get the most out of my people?’ I tell them, ‘First of all, people aren’t towels. We don’t wring them out. The correct question is, How do we create an environment where people can work at their natural best?’ And that is the responsibility of leadership. We have to act in the way we expect our people to act. We have to be the leaders we wish we had…at all times.”

Taking good care of people in your charge is not always easy to do. But it’s imperative for ensuring success as a team. Creating a culture that enables people to do their best is what Microsoft’s three Leadership Principles are all about.

Microsoft’s leadership principles lay the ground for some great leadership principles

Creating clarity

If people aren’t clear about what the goal is, they’ll never reach it. Likewise, if people aren’t clear about what their role is in reaching the goal, they feel confined. Satya once called-out that Microsoft is great at creating clarity on Horizon 2—where we’re headed and what the technology landscape will look like five years from now. But we can improve our illustration of Horizon 1—the path we lay out to get to the North Star.

A great leader paints a clear picture of where they want their organization to go and every person’s role to get there. They lay out the roadmap and milestones—especially in the face of ambiguity—so the whole team is clear on what success looks like. A great leader then continues to communicate and clarify this vision to keep everyone on the right path.

Generating energy

My take on this leadership principle is all about matching people to their passion. I’ve worked on teams where I see people who really excel at something, but not the specific job they’re doing. On my teams, when I spot this, I try to correct it.

Some leaders prefer to build an organizational structure and then put people in the roles. I think that’s kind of backwards. You could be looking forever to find the “perfect” person for a specific role! My approach is to look at the people on your team—and the experience and perspective they bring—then build jobs around their strengths. Capitalizing on the unique abilities of your team members will position them for greater success. This approach inspires creativity, optimism, and growth, and generates energy and enthusiasm around your organization’s goals and mission.

Delivering success

This is critical: results matter. And the results should be visible. How are you providing value to your team, your manager, and the business? People need to be aligned and know the success you’re aiming to deliver.

The unfortunate truth is, we live and work in a what-have-you-done-for-me-today kind of world. Everything you’ve done has helped you get to this point, but what matters most is delivering success today. Ongoing success builds your credibility, your brand, and your network.

As a leader, you deliver success in many ways. You do it by helping others succeed—ensuring your team members are able to work productively toward a goal. You do it by innovating constantly and coming up with new and better ideas. And you do it by relentlessly pursuing solutions to seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Principles - Leadership

Learning the art of leadership is a lifelong journey. Each one of us has a role to play in creating a culture where people can thrive and be their “natural best.” How are you creating that culture on your team?

Have a great week everyone!

If you’re reading on mobile, swipe your screen left to view more of the PRINCIPLES I’ve covered the past few weeks!

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PRINCIPLES: E- Execution is Elemental

Principles - Execute

Sue Grafton—a best-selling American novelist—once said, “ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” She couldn’t be more right.

You can have the best idea and a strong plan, but if you can’t execute, then it’s all for not. I’ve seen a lot of great ideas fall flat because they simply weren’t executed well. Unfortunately, some of those were my own “great” ideas. 😊

This is where I’ve found it’s often better to have an okay idea that’s well executed than a great idea that doesn’t get off the ground. How we set ourselves up to execute on our ideas and visions is what makes all the difference.

Principles - Execute

Getting off the ground: executing your plan

So, what are the steps necessary to execute on your plan? For me there are four, straight-forward components:

  • Get Aligned – Everyone has to be rowing in the same direction. Create clarity by defining a strategy, principles and an execution plan with a clearly defined outcome. What does success look like? Get people excited about the vision and help them buy-in. Always build the execution plan TOGETHER.
  • Socialize the Plan – Talk about the strategy with everyone—to the point where you can’t think of someone you haven’t Debate it and collect feedback throughout the process. That’s when good ideas become terrific ideas. Getting input from people who will question the plan’s success, will push the team to do better and keep things on track.  Don’t forget: socialization is iterative – not a one-and-done thing. 
  • Create Clear Roles & Responsibilities – How are you going to bring the vision to life? Who’s doing what to get there? One of the keys to proper execution is matching responsibilities to capabilities. Great project managers know their team’s individual skill sets and play to those strengths.
  • Check as you Go – Are you on the right path?  Execution requires ongoing project management. When you lay out the roadmap to success, build check-ins and milestones, build in go/no-go checkpoints to measure if you’re on track. 

If the project has taken you on a path different from your execution plan, analyze and be prepared to shift and even to restart if it has gone off track from the objective or something in the business case has significantly shifted.

Avoiding the crash and burn

Many things can derail a good execution plan. In my experience, complexity is the number one cause for crash and burn.

I remember when I was running the licensing team at Microsoft and we were coming up on our first set of renewals. Our first pass at an execution plan revolved around “12 steps to renew.”  TWELVE STEPS! We determined that was way too many and boiled it down to THREE:

  • Connect with your customer at least 12 months prior in advance to their renewal.
  • Set up a meeting with the partner to create a T-12 customer engagement plan. 
  • Prepare the renewal proposal consistent with the customer’s conditions of success plan.

Once we did that, renewals took off. Simplicity is nearly always key. Which makes sense because our brains can really only handle three or four steps at a time.

In order to drive execution, you need a simple motion that is continuous, functional, and repeatable. We tend to over-complicate things. But when you boil things down to a 1-2-3 process, you’ll drive real success.

Delivering results and executing is critical.  As I’ve said before, we work in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of world. Whether you’re working on a small project or a big game-changing idea, stay focused—with clarity and vision—and you will execute your goals.

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