Tag: HR Leadership | Mariposa Leadership

Bay Area Executive Leadership Coach Services. We help HR Leadership improve CEO and team communication, culture, productivity, innovation, and revenue.

Let’s Leave the Armor Off, for Good

A personal perspective on leading differently in the next pandemic transition

We have choices as we emerge from the pandemic: We can go back to what now seems like an unsustainable pre-Covid frenetic pace, or we can use this next pandemic transition phase to start afresh, to have different kinds of conversations with our teams (and ourselves). What’s at stake is our well-being, actually. The pandemic has taken its toll on us (collectively and individually), and we are still in the midst of having to weather a storm unlike any other in our lifetimes.

So, let us admit that we are more fragile now; that we need to be more patient with each other; and that we need to be more mindful about truly understanding each other and not leave it to happenstance or the occasional meetup.

This next pandemic transition is an opportunity for leaders to be real: We can focus on bringing our full selves to work and breathe a sigh of relief that we don’t have to put on the armor anymore.

It’s an opportunity to care for each other in ways we really didn’t have to in the “Before.” We can deepen connections with our team members, focus on staying flexible and open amidst constant (and continued) uncertainty, and model self-care to keep ourselves and our teams resilient.

CONNECT. FLEX. CARE. Hopefully, you can hang your hat on these, and put that armor in the junk pile.

ONE: Stay close and stay connected.

Most likely your company is sticking to a remote-only WFA (work-from-anywhere) model OR a hybrid model with some over-arching RTO (return-to-office) policies. Whichever work model your company has or is adopting, it’s vital to stay close and connected to your team members in some way, every day. Closeness comes in various forms and builds the trust needed as we enter this transitional and uncertain hybrid phase. With the daunting amount of Zoom calls endured over the past 18 months, we have glanced into our work colleague’s living rooms, kitchens, and makeshift offices in bedrooms and closets; and we have chuckled with each dog and child passer-by. We have also experimented with a myriad of coffee-, drink-, game-, knitting-, movie-, you-name-it affinity-group meet-ups. These glimpses and Zoom micro-meetings have brought us a bit closer and allowed us to stay connected to our work colleagues. And so-called work-life balance has become more like work-life intertwine. Yes, we have struggled with boundaries, but we have also opened up in ways we haven’t before. What are some ways we can continue to open up, to deepen closeness and connection? Here are some ideas to try out, drawn from my own experiences with running a 13-person team of coaches and listening to many leaders tell me their stories. One, encourage others to share thoughts and feelings in 1-1s and team meetings. This flows better if you: a) create a safe space with thoughtful questions, and b) model your own vulnerability and share what’s happening for you. Here are two examples:

Do consistent check-ins at the top of team meetings. We don’t mean just a “how’s-everyone-doing-today” check-in. We have found with our team — and in listening to our clients talk about what works with their teams — having an initial 3-5 minutes to banter is important; then asking one specific question that allows people to be themselves and learn about each other works well. Questions like:
- What is one thing you overcame this week that surprised you?
- What activity did you do with a friend or family member that gave you joy?
- What skill are you working on outside of work that you kicked ass on?
- What movie or show did you watch that you adored?
- What conversation did you have with a colleague that gave you the support you didn’t even know you needed?

Have lunch, coffee, drinks in-person, outside whether you’re WFA or RTO. Perhaps you will discover some new places near the office, renew ties with old haunts, and/or meet up with a team member at a halfway point between your homes. And decide if it’s feasible to travel to see team members (if WFA) or bring them to headquarters. All of these ideas take time and there is nothing scalable about it. On purpose. The presence you share will go a long way. And it sure beats emailing an Uber-Eats gift card.

Two, coaching your team members regularly is also a way to stay close and stay connected. For example:

Put more attention on in-the-moment coaching. Linger after Zoom group meetings by picking up the phone with a team member or use Slack to continue a conversation; or, if you’re in the office, walk team members to their next meeting. These in-between moments are not only ripe for learning and problem-solving, but also demonstrate you’re going the extra mile for your team members.

Listen for the “hard stuff.” By giving your team members more opportunities to be themselves and talk about what’s going on for them, people will inevitably bring up hard things. Like, someone might express grief over the death of a loved one from Covid; or express overwhelm with balancing kids and work; or express fears about coming into the office. Just listening and acknowledging people’s pain may be all they need; yet in some cases, a person may need much more support — from inside or outside the company. You might suggest that they chat with HR and/or Employee Assistance. Perhaps they have their own coach or therapist; check in with them about that, and if not, suggest it.

TWO: Stay flexible, open, and experiment.

(Especially if your company is doing an RTO hybrid.) I have written previously about the importance of a leader thinking like a designer. Staying flexible and experimenting — central tenets of design thinking — is going to come in handy here in this next pandemic transition phase. Back in March 2020, we all went out of the office together, and as tech leaders and employees, you were mostly in the same boat as far as being disadvantaged or advantaged (depending on your perspective) by working from home. Not the case now. The RTO hybrid is about to be different-day-different-company-different-boat. This is concerning for many reasons, mostly because things and people will get lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, this is a perfect storm for even more exclusion and lack of continuity. Yet, there are things you can control and design for.

One, do a mindset re-set: Prepare yourself for even more uncertainty. (“Oh god,” you’re whispering under your breath right now). If you expect that things (i.e., outside-the-company forces, inside-the-company policies), will be in constant motion, then when you hear about (yet again), another shift in mask-wearing, or that you can’t get monitors for your new hoteling desks because the supply chain is four months behind, or that the facilities app that determines who is in-the-office-what-days completely gets f**ked up, then you could say to yourself, “It’s ok, we are expecting these snafus to happen…this isn’t a surprise.” We know this is easier said than done. But this is the point. With prototyping new work models and any new apps/tools/platforms, etc., there will be failures. Fail fast, get the feedback, and try a different way.

Two, in the midst of the grandest prototyping experiment ever, it’s important to check your anxiety along the way. Your anxiety level very much will determine how much uncertainty you can handle. Part of being flexible means being calm in the midst of a big, fat mess. What can you do to be more patient, overall, and catch yourself when things aren’t going the way you want them to, or the way they should be going? We know meditation and breathing helps. We know that people who meditate regularly (sitting for as little as 10 minutes a day) will be able to access the calmness they experience when they meditate when the going gets tough at the office, at home, or in-between (because we know that commuting on those freeways again is really going to suck).

Three, another aspect of being flexible is the discernment you model when dealing with the myriad of new circumstances-turned-dilemmas that are already popping up in the RTO hybrid. From our vantage point at Mariposa (currently working with approximately 24 companies and 70+ leaders), the primary problem in the RTO hybrid is “managing by exception.” This could be related to everything from how many days in the office to traveling to offsites to mask-wearing (and a host of other new policies).

For example, if your company has instituted a mandatory 3/2 hybrid (three days in the office, two at home), and you have a team member who moved away during the pandemic, what do you do? This situation came up with one of our clients recently. The leader — a senior director at a 1500-person tech firm — wasn’t sure what to do with a top performer who had permanently moved 1000 miles away in the early part of the pandemic. She didn’t want to lose the employee, so she granted an exception to the company policy. The leader made the decision based on a lot of communication with her team member — to understand their situation — and she looked at all the possible angles. The leader was definitely concerned about flight risk (because her team member could easily go work for another remote-only company — even a competitor). However, in the end, it wasn’t just about the flight risk. By taking ample time to learn about the employee’s circumstances at home, the leader gained a deeper understanding and more empathy, so ultimately, the decision wasn’t that hard to make. This senior director is not alone in trying to solve for these types of dilemmas. (In fact, her situation is so typical that “remote-only” companies are starting to capitalize on this status as a competitive advantage.) We have all seen the headlines about the protesting at large tech companies (e.g., company wants 3,4,5 days in the office; employees want less). Now multiply that by every tech company. Wow. Each tech company has its own RTO hybrid policies. And bosses on every level are going to be bombarded with exceptions to the policies (e.g., company wants 3 days in the office; employees want 0,1,2). There aren’t scalable solutions here; in fact, by its nature, “manage by exception” IS one person at a time. Thus, in anticipation of this messiness, we have outlined some questions you can ask yourself when you’re working with your team(s):

- What are your initial criteria for granting an exception? While performance most likely is one of the criteria, what other criteria are you considering? (Their home life circumstances, their value to team, etc.)
- What is your opinion of the RTO policies? How might your views be affecting how you’ll be granting exceptions?
- What is your relationship with the person you’re granting the exception to? Are you granting exceptions to people you know better and trust more? In other words, check yourself on favoring people you know better.
- How can you be the most flexible and still hold to the company policies?

Expect the unexpected, continue to hone and experiment, and do the best you can to discern the optimal solution for that day or that situation, person, or team.

THREE: Do self-care and help others do it, too.

All through the pandemic, in our coaching work, we have supported leaders in many areas of skill and design; and self-care and well-being have been a central focus. In the initial stages of the pandemic, we helped clients design boundaries around what-was-work-and-what-was-home — everything from “Zoom Room” logistics to exercise routines to how to hide out from one’s two-year-old. More than anything we focused on helping clients model what Tony Schwartz so aptly calls “manage your energy, not your time.” Now, 18 months later, we have not changed our tune. We still think self-care is the single most important act you can do right now for yourself, and it’s a twofer: Modeling self-care is the single most important leaderly act you can do for your team or organization’s culture.

One, as we move into the next pandemic transition phase, what are the self-care routines you will want to keep that have served you well during the pandemic?

- Are you getting outside every day, for example, and if so, if you’re continuing with WFA, how can you increase that outside time? If you’re going to a RTO hybrid, how can you keep your commitment to outside time (no matter what!)?
- What other exercise routines will you keep and add to?
- What about your nutrition?
- Your sleep?
- Your meditation and/or alone time?

Two, what are some rituals you would like to add now that being social is a thing, again? For example:

- How will you socialize at work?
- When and where will you travel for work and for fun?
- What networking events will you do?
- How will you deal with some of the awkwardness of greetings, leavings, and lingerings? (A colleague said to us the other day that he went to a networking event, and he found himself not knowing what to do with his hands; he had to think about it way too much. While it was so welcomed to get out there, he said, it was super awkward, too. This, too, shall pass…with practice.)
- How will you see your in-work and out-of-work friends regularly? And could you up your game in keeping it real?

Three, how will you encourage others to focus on their self-care and well-being? One way is by making it a standing agenda item in your team meetings by asking: How do you rate your well-being on a scale of 1-10 today? And what could you do to up it a notch the rest of the day? Another way to encourage your team members’ self-care is by matching up team members with each other as support partners or buddies. Ask that they meet up once a week for 20-30 minutes to ask each other how they’re meeting their self-care goals.

Finally, hopefully, it goes without saying, that you, as a leader, need support, too. Please be gentle with yourself and ask for the support you need.

Last week, one of my favorite people, Steve Cadigan, happened to be in Maui at the same time as I, and we took a walk on Kama’ole I, my favorite beach. He asked me: “Sue, how are you doing, really?” I thanked him for asking and said: “Well, the pandemic has kicked my ass, no question about it, and I don’t think I will ever be the same. And…I have gotten through it, thanks to being outside like we are now in this glorious place…and, well, the Giants’ winning ways have helped my spirits immensely.” We both laughed out loud. All kidding aside, I got through the pandemic and will continue to “keep it real” for one primary reason: I ask for support. For example, I have worked with both an executive coach and a therapist on-and-off over the past 25 years; during the pandemic, I have upped this to every week without fail. I have sought out professionals for my teenager to support him through distance learning and to help me support him as well. I have regularly connected with my friends for their support and to get us outside so none of us get too isolated. I initiated and still facilitate two Zoom support groups (one with my best friends which meets Monday nights; and one with executive coaches across the U.S., which meets every other Wednesday morning). My weekly calls with my business partner, Tawny Lees (another one of my favorite people), have been focused on our respective well-being as much (or more) as our strategy and operational agenda items. And Tawny and I shifted the Mariposa team weekly Zoom meetings so we could spend more time on individual and collective well-being, including helping each other through continued uncertainty. In this essay, I have asked you to take the opportunity now, in this next pandemic transition phase, to refresh your conversations with your teams — to connect, to flex, and to model self-care. I can ask (and hopefully, inspire) you to do these things because I am on the same journey to do these things, myself.

My best to you as we all navigate this new world. I welcome your comments and ideas.

Thank You’s

I want to acknowledge the Mariposa Leadership team, all of whom are partners in these white paper endeavors. We try to practice what we preach in giving each other constant feedback and in trying new things (ad nauseam). Special thanks to Tawny Lees and Allison Adams for their edits and insights. And we owe all of this to the Mariposa clients. Their ideas, practices, and successes are woven throughout these pages.

About the Author

Susan J. Bethanis, Ed.D., is the Founder/CEO of Mariposa Leadership, Inc., a 13-person San Francisco-based firm that provides executive coaching and design thinking to tech and biotech leaders. Sue’s book, Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage, is a fly-on-the-wall account of real conversations between a coach and an executive. Sue received her Doctorate in Education at USF, specializing in Organizational Leadership; her dissertation looked at the interdependence between language and change in organization culture. She received her Master’s Degree in Education from Stanford, specializing in Instructional Design. Sue also has a certification in Design Thinking from Stanford’s d.School. Sue lives in San Francisco and Maui with her 15-year-old entrepreneurial teen, Max. When she’s not coaching, Sue’s playing tennis, pickleball, and (attempts) golf; and she makes photographs all over the world. Contact her at 415-265-3142, sueb@mariposaleadership.com. Follow her at @suebethanis on Twitter and Instagram.

About Mariposa

For 25 years, Mariposa has been offering leadership coaching and consulting to tech leaders in both 1-1 and group formats. Mariposa’s recent clients include AppFolio, AWS, Gilead, Honor, Intel, Nvidia, PayPal, Peloton, Tapestry, Twitch, Theravance, Zuora, and Zynga. Leaders are turning to Mariposa’s executive coaches to help pivot, plan, and perform through this uncertainty. For more information, visit us at www.mariposaleadership.com. Download the PDF here

July 27th, 2021|Categories: Blog, Culture, Leadership, Mariposa Articles|Tags: company culture, design thinking, effective leadership, executive coaching, executive leadership coaching, HR Leadership, Mariposa Leadership, sue bethanis|

May 26, 2021 / Blog / Culture / Leadership / Wise Talk

Herminia Ibarra on Career Reinvention – Post Pandemic

We featured author Herminia Ibarra on our executive leadership podcast, WiseTalk just before the release of her book Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader. The intelligent, insightful discussion (see recap and link to recording below) covered topics including the outsight principle, how behavior drives attitudes (as opposed to the other way around), and why people fall into the authenticity trap – and how to get out.

As a recognized authority on leadership and career development, we were curious to learn how Herminia is coaching leaders in today’s strange corporate climate.

Here’s what we learned – At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, as early as April 2020, Herminia Ibarra was quick to consider and share the effects the pandemic and its newly created challenges might have on the workforce. As a twenty-year scholar of career change studying periods including the dot-com boom and bust, the 2008 financial crisis, and the subsequently extended bull-market run, she is all too familiar with unexpected, even catastrophic change on company leaders, employees, and culture.

In an article for Harvard Business Review titled Reinventing Your Career in the Time of Coronavirus dated April 2020, Herminia states,

Unexpected events or shocks disrupt our habitual routines, jolt us out of our comfort zones, and lead us to ask big questions about what matters and what is worth doing. It’s no wonder, then, that during the current pandemic, many people are rethinking their careers.

Today, more than ever, the path to your next career will be circuitous. To cover all of the ground you’ll need to cover, it’s vital to let yourself imagine a divergent set of possible selves and futures. Embrace that process and explore as many of them as you can.

At that time, among her recommendations was to welcome the downtime. She urged people to get involved in projects, take courses, cultivate new knowledge, skills and relationships, do pro bono work, investigate start-up ideas, etc, until they can achieve a state of confidence or better footing.

Lockdown imposed limitations but, the concept was, as is in line with Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, that the time could be an opportunity to learn about yourself and the kinds of contexts and people that bring out the best in you.

Now that we have traveled through these strange months and are emerging back into the world and some semblance of normalcy – Herminia considers lessons learned by the upheaval and the downtime as they relate to career and reinvention. She shares in a recent interview with RSA events, called Precarious Reinvention Through Precarious Times that, while there were rumblings of career change before the pandemic, since Covid those thoughts have been exasperated. The downtime activities and reflection she refers to in April of 2020 are now percolating ideas and actions for change. What is now occurring is a deep dig into what people really want in their careers. People can typically talk about what they do not want in a job. But identifying needs and desires is harder.

The pandemic caused a shock to the system that opened a window for consideration and contemplation. People merely dreaming about a job with more substance, meaning, passion, balance, and control became jolted into a new reality. Mortality entered the equation. Whether their health was in question or they experienced fatal or near-fatal events with friends, family, or colleagues, the question – Is what I am doing worth it? – And so now the real change begins. And, if you did not take the time early in isolation to practice self-reflection, skills building, or experience experimentation, it may be the time to do that now.

Our WiseTalk discussion between Sue and Herminia provides profound insights into how leaders and employees can come to purpose, understand and overcome the common traps that get in the way of stepping up to bigger or different positions or careers. You’ll learn how change really works when we are attempting to grow professionally, and how applying the “outsight” principle reshapes our image of ourselves, our jobs, and our potential. You can listen here.

In case you don’t know Herminia, she is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Before joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. Herminia was ranked 18th among the top management thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50 in 2019. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, and one of Apolitical’s 100 most influential people in gender policy.

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WiseTalk recap:

Favorite Quote:

“Until you can feel it in your bones, it’s very hard to have thinking drive your behavior.”

Insights:

The “outsight” principle means learning by going outside the norm. It’s an external perspective that you get from doing new things and experimenting, by interacting with new people, going outside your past experience, outside your usual network of contacts, and getting a more external perspective to open your eyes to a different reality.
Traditional leadership development methods tend to emphasize learning through introspection, which is the opposite of the outsight principle. Sue inquired about this juxtaposition. While there is a place for introspection in developing leaders, Herminia’s research showed that behavior drives attitudes and thought processes as opposed to another way around, particularly when the end state is unclear. When transitioning from A to B, and B as the end state is known, it’s easier to plan the steps to get to B. But when the end state is unknown or murky, all the thinking in the world is theory and likely to not match reality. When transitioning to a leadership role for the first time, Herminia explains the only way to aspire to that goal in a way that’s motivating, is to get closer to it through experimentation. Only then will you have fresh material for reflection afterward.
To gain outsight, Herminia suggested three areas for aspiring leaders to create some experiments: redefining your job, extending your network away from the usual suspects, and being more playful with yourself. Getting started with experiments in these three areas, especially with job activities and network building, will help you gain positive momentum. The people you meet along the way make a huge difference because they become kindred spirits or people who can guide you or you can bounce ideas off of because they are going through something similar. The more time spent thinking about it and conceptualizing this concept, the slower the learnings will come. But those who take action even if they aren’t sure where they are going, or because it feels unnatural, will learn more quickly.

What we found most interesting:

As people try to step up to leadership, they sometimes experience the authenticity trap. Things that don’t feel comfortable for people tend to feel inauthentic. But Herminia explained authenticity can be a defense against learning and a defense against getting out of your comfort zone. Authenticity can be defined in a number of ways, but when people hide behind it they tend to mean, “being as I’ve always been.” Which is not great, because you can be authentic and change a lot. She says, “The way you actually become really authentic is by changing and adapting and by doing so, mean you remain true to yourself in an evolving way…we all want to be ourselves at work but we want to be ourselves in a way that takes into account growth and evolution.”

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Join us on WiseTalk for inspiring conversation and practical insights when Founder/CEO Susan Bethanis speaks to thought leaders in leadership, tech, design thinking, and human resources.

May 26th, 2021|Categories: Blog, Culture, Leadership, Wise Talk|Tags: act like a leader think like a leader, career strategy, coaching, company culture, covid-19, executive leadership, herminia ibarra, HR Leadership, sue bethanis, wisetalk|

April 21, 2021 / Blog / Leadership / Stress / Work-Life Integration

Leading in the New Normal

Leadership Questions and Coaching Support During Uncertain Times

How are you surviving in this strangest-of-times? We are listening deeply to what our clients are experiencing. Here is what we are hearing:

Getting set up: How do we logistically move to a primarily virtual work environment for the foreseeable future? There is a recognition that this is NOT a three-week thing, it’s most likely at least a three-month thing.
Protecting our families: How do we keep ourselves and our families safe? How do we work it out together to be in the same household (to be productive and not get on each other’s nerves)?
Relieving anxiety: How do we keep calm in the face of such uncertainty? What can we control in the face of complete overwhelm? How do we deal with isolation—it’s already setting in—including how to show compassion for our teammates and for someone who may be sick?
Redesign: How do we start to reprioritize, reengineer, reorganize, rethink, and/or re-message our products, services, business models, marketing needs, talent needs? In other words, how do we redesign anything big or small, to get ahead of the curve? There is a sense we should redesign now.

Resources to Support You

1-1 Executive Leadership Coaching

We can help you set up communication practices with your directs that help things run more smoothly.
We can help you redesign your work environments and your business.
We can work with you on video over a week, 3 months, or 6 months; we will flex with you.

Learn more about leadership coaching.

Group Learning on Videoconferencing (VC)

Morale boosters that can prevent isolation and relieve anxiety:

Quick one-hour VC booster: Happy to work with you and your managers on a variety of topics: OVER-communicate effectively, establish boundaries for WFH, best practices to deal with family obligations and sick team members.
2-hour VC boosters: Happy to facilitate mini-workshops for you that will build your team up and bring them together.
- StrengthsFinder: We love the positivity of the StrengthsFinder tool, and in 2 hours, your team can learn to leverage each other to get more done, get to know each other better, and support each other.
- In-the-Moment Coaching: How do you and your directs continue to give regular feedback and problem-solve when you’re not seeing each other in the hallway? In 2 hours, learn how you can coach on-the-spot and teach others to do that as well.
- Influence + Impact in the NEW NORMAL: Given our collective new reality, how do you influence others to take into account that: 1) people are in different stages of overwhelm, which calls for strong empathy skills, and 2) your job now may be more about helping your colleagues or customers rethink priorities and generate completely new ideas.

Strategy and Redesign:

Have you already planned a Strategy Offsite? Or need to plan one to re-think your 2020 plans? Happy to help you facilitate this on Zoom.
Want to get ahead of the curve on redesigning organizational priorities, business practices, or products?
We can support you using a Design Thinking approach and successfully facilitate group brainstorming sessions on Zoom. You can, in turn, use these techniques with your customers.

Need content to send to your colleagues?

Visit our blog for the latest posts on Leading in the New Normal
Join WiseTalk: A free one-hour monthly teleconference with leadership experts; our theme for 2021 is “Corporate Culture-Navigating the New Normal”
Follow us on Twitter: @MariposaLeader @SueBethanis

For over 25 years, Mariposa has been offering leadership coaching to tech leaders in both 1-1 and group formats virtually and in person.

Happy to offer you VC meetings now.

Please connect if you’d like to chat:

Click here to download the pdf

April 21st, 2021|Categories: Blog, Leadership, Stress / Work-Life Integration|Tags: covid-19, executive leadership coaching, HR Leadership, new normal, strengths finder, uncertain times|

May 4, 2020 / Blog / Design Thinking / Creativity / Innovation / Stress / Work-Life Integration

UPDATED: Workplace Culture (Now and the Next Normal)

Culture – the cohesiveness that shapes a company. I like to describe culture as the “ways things are around here” and see it as imperative to your company’s success — just like strategy, structure, and operations.

by Sue Bethanis, CEO/Founder of Mariposa, sueb@mariposaleadership.com, @suebethanis

Understandably, in the past month, conscious attention to culture might have fallen by the wayside as your company had to abruptly move from an office work environment to WFH (work from home). You’ve probably been mired in contingency plans and focused on getting situated. If you’re a parent, homeschooling has taken much of your time and energy, and you’re probably still overwhelmed by it (and it’s really okay). Many of you are mastering videoconferencing and finding your team’s productivity sweet spot. Some of you are relishing being at home because fewer distractions equate to higher quality output. And we have heard that for all of you, it’s been tough to create the “water cooler” on Zoom (or Teams or Slack or Hang-outs), and certainly, the “way things are around here” is markedly different now. There is no “here” because there is no office; collaboration is more challenging, cultural artifacts (like snacks to share, those comfy chairs by the window, elevator signage, even the cool color schemes) have faded away; and heightened stress and anxiety from isolation, uncertainty, and/or fear has come into full view.

In this essay, I want to address how you can put more attention on culture now and for the future (the “next” normal); it’s a future that is going to look very different from before Covid-19. If you can put solid practices in place now, and at the same time, design for the future, your team/organization will be better set up for success; you will also be able to cope with stress better and create loyalty and inspiration that will have a lasting effect. Creating consistent cultural rituals, for example, will be the things that people will remember you for. They’ll remember that you checked in with them every week just to be sure they were doing okay. Or that you spent extra time to work out a problem with them regarding a customer. Or that you showed genuine sensitivity when a team member’s loved one got sick.

Let’s look at three areas of culture: 1) consistent communication practices, 2) morale boosters, and 3) design. These practices are associated with three important and far-reaching cultural values: productivity, engagement, and innovation.

Consistent communication practices (to be productive)

Much of what I am going to suggest here are practices we are hearing from our clients. We have a nose-to-the-ground knowledge because Mariposa has 12 coaches who collectively work with approximately 110 leaders, and we have many HR partners. We have a pretty good handle on how tech leaders are coping with Covid-19, and I want to share what we consider the best practices.

Messaging: Clear constant messaging is vital from the top of your company. I can’t emphasize this enough. Make your messaging a newsletter or a personal email and make it weekly. Directs and employees want transparency, and they want to hear from you as often as possible. Further, if you’re not the head of your company, demonstrate clear leadership with your own team, and email/phone/Slack/Zoom to ask the CEO to be consistent and transparent.

Communication Channels/Tools: Review all the ways people can effectively communicate now and get clear about how and when teams will use each method. For example:

How will they communicate real-time? Phone, vidcon, etc.
How will they communicate asynchronously? Email, chat, text, etc.
How will they think visually together?
How will they share content?
How will results, recognition, progress be posted/shared?

Meetings: Make all meeting types clear and whatever you were doing before Covid-19, double it; this will demonstrate the value you are putting on communication and connecting. This uptick in communications is not intended to be micro-management; you will need to trust team members and use the time to support and align on expectations and intended outcomes. For example:

Have a 15-minute daily video huddle at 9 am and end with one at 5 pm. Use it as a way to get clear on goals for the day and any important updates.
If you used to have 30 minute bi-weekly 1-1s with each of your directs, make them weekly. Ask each time, “how are you doing?” Or “how are you holding up?”
For team meetings, take the time to let everyone check-in and establish clear agendas, actions, and document any actions taken away. For these check-in’s you might try one question each time and hold people to a minute:
- What’s been hard to navigate lately?
- What’s been a silver lining in WFH?
- What’s an achievement you can share?
- What have you learned about yourself in the last week or two?
Use a consistent virtual collaboration tool, to keep meetings fresh and ideas plentiful. We like Stormboard.
You can’t do “walkarounds” anymore, but you can do “call arounds” while you’re taking a walk in your neighborhood. We are hearing that team members are already growing tired of formal video meetings all day. So, pick up the phone and call instead, and suggest that you both walk and talk (or talk and walk). Also, consider this practice for skip-level meetings. Walk&Talks are the one practice that leaders and employees covet the most and the one they hope to continue, for sure.
Simulate the “water cooler” by using a Slack channel or Zoom for one hour a day. As the leader, you’re there and encourage others to stop by and gather around. (And some very collaborative, smallish teams are keeping a Slack or Zoom channel open from 9-5).

Scheduling: I just outlined a lot of meetings; at the same time, it’s important you don’t over-rotate on meetings. Choose a few and do them well and consistently. Get input from your team(s) and identify scheduling norms that will work for most everyone. (These will likely change as you transition through different phases over the coming months.) The very best tip we have heard from clients is one from a VP of a 200-person service organization: Two weeks into their now eight-week WFH policy, he highly encouraged (instituted) a 9-12, 2-5 meeting schedule. He did this to give time for parents to be with and teach their kids, have lunch with family, and emphasize self-care and mental health. This schedule has contributed to great success. Their overall productivity is up, and they are now planning on a WFH approach for the foreseeable future. It has completely changed their thinking and orientation. Put simply, this has changed their culture.

Morale Boosters (to engage)

Morale is a critical component of culture. It is the outlook, attitude, satisfaction, and confidence that team members feel working together and working for your company. For many, work is not just work; it’s social, too. A lot of people — especially single employees — depend on work colleagues. We have heard Shelter-in-Place has been especially isolating for them. Further, getting creative about coping with isolation is already hitting some roadblocks.

Here are some ideas that our clients have done, and the Mariposa team has generated in a brainstorming session. These morale boosters serve as ongoing cultural rituals that can hopefully carry on once you are “back-to-the-office.”

For fun:
- Virtual happy and coffee hours have been done a lot. Ask a team member to continue to RIF on it to keep it fresh. Change up the drinks, change up the theme.
- There’s HouseParty – a fun app where a team can get together to enjoy a drink and a game. Give it a try.
- If you haven’t already, try the best mask contest.
- Online gaming together.
- How about sending an inspirational quote every week?
For learning:
- Send each other articles/blogs/videos that are helpful to culture, leadership, teaming, etc., that you circulate once a week. Ask a team member to curate them in one place. Leading effective remote meetings is a hot topic right now!
- Teach other skills: nutrition, cooking, knitting
- Use a Slack channel for various things: Share self-care routines, parenting tips, movie tips, etc.
- Lead a class: Pilates, yoga, weight training. Share your trainer with teammates.
For giving and supporting each other:
- One of our clients — a sales director for a small tech firm — uses UberEats gift cards to get time on their customers’ calendars. Surprise your directs, peers, or customers with lunch or dinner delivery or a gift card they can use for a local restaurant. This supports local small businesses, too.
- Encourage your team to take walks with each other in their neighborhoods, walking at least 6 feet apart.
- Use a virtual collaboration tool/whiteboard to post wins, thank you’s, etc.
- Take time in a regular meeting to allow people to give shout-outs, thank-yous.
- Create a chat thread all about recognition.
- Whatever was working before, amp it up in the digital world.

Design (to understand & innovate)

Cultural rituals like consistent communication practices and morale boosters will go a long way to engage and support your employees during WFH. It’s important to keep the pulse on what’s working and not working. There are various ways to do this, and using a design thinking approach will help you determine what of your company/team cultural values and rituals are most important to keep, and what to shift now and in the “next” normal. Putting together a design team (culture committee) is the first step to innovation.

Culture chair and committee Ask someone to be the Culture Head (guru, czar, chair), who facilitates the culture committee. This committee will be in charge of understanding, developing, and sustaining culture values and rituals. The primary role of this group is to be the holder of the secret sauce. Here are some questions the committee can begin with:

What makes your company or team special?
What are your most sacred values and principles?
What is it about the way things were around here (pre-Covid-19) that we want to keep?
How do we change in our cultural rituals — communication practices and morale boosters — as the work environment shifts?
What do we want to add now and more?
How do we keep engagement fresh and fun?

And most importantly, how do you get ongoing feedback, distill it, and continuously feed it back to the sponsor, boss, etc., so adjustments can be made. Using a design thinking (Empathy, Brainstorming, Prototyping, Test) approach will be helpful here. Cultural values and rituals cannot and should not be decided in the back room. It requires many voices and iteration. Experimentation is a healthy way of looking at what’s ahead of us. There will be “rolling blackouts” type situations where WFH and/or WFO (work from office) will be more predominant at various times. This means getting clear NOW on what’s most important in your team/company’s collaboration and communication practices, for example, will make it easier as you navigate the scenarios that come next.

Feedback will be especially important when the transition to the “next” normal happens. Because the next normal will be unlike anything any of us have experienced here in the U.S. Other cultures have some experience with it from the SARS and MERS epidemic, and China is in the midst of coming back to offices now. See an example here.

Dealing with the experience of the “next” normal: The “way things are around here” is going to be very different when it is deemed okay from a public health standpoint to start going back to the office. From my research, the common theme among policymakers is that there is no rush: the curve and testing will determine when the economy should open up. #TestTraceIsolate will become standard in our lexicon, and we should brace ourselves for a pandemic summer that includes physical distancing that could last way beyond the summer months.

Here are some excellent resources to learn more about the public policy planning that emphasizes #TestTraceIsolate.

Three Harvard’s public health academics view here.
Former FDA head, Scott Gottlieb, and his team at AEI here.
Earlier this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom laid out the factors he and his team are using to decide on reopening. He explains reopening businesses will begin slowly when both the curve has not only flattened, but starts to go down, and when testing becomes more ubiquitous. Right now, tests are designated for health care workers and those who show obvious symptoms of Covid-19. Ubiquitous testing translates to approximately 10,000 a day for those who have mild symptoms and for those who might have been exposed to someone who has had Covid-19. This type of testing then is followed by careful tracing of others who have been exposed to those who are positive and then isolating those who are positive (by quarantining). For more details, see press conference here, and summary here.

So what might the first phase after Shelter-in-Place look and feel like? Here is a glimpse into the “next” WFO environment.

Coming into the office is purely voluntary;
There will be required temperature checks to come into your building and your floor;
There will be only 2 people to 1 elevator ride, so you will be waiting in line for elevators;
There will be physical distancing in cubes and conference rooms (depending on the size of the conference room, that means 2-4 people in conference rooms with others on Zoom);
Odd floors are used one day; even the next (so there can be a rotation in deep cleaning);
Alternating when segments of your company/team come in: some come in on MW, others on TTh;
Touchless doors; touchless coffee makers (does Amazon carry those?);
Hand sanitizer and wipes at your desk and every conference room, and an expectation that you wipe your chair, table, and equipment down every time you transition;
Everyone wears face protection at all times;
You will be happy to go out to lunch with one colleague, grab a sandwich together, and then walk outside to a place where you can sit at least 6 feet apart (well, unless you are freezing your ass off in San Francisco’s July weather — in that case, you will go to a restaurant inside by yourself and sit at least 6 feet apart from the next table over and be greeted with a waiter with face protection).

Picture all of that for a minute. It has a very different feeling than pre-Covid-1, doesn’t it? Safety — both physical and psychological — is paramount. So, in order for a culture committee not to become the culture police, it’s going to take some “experience” design to ensure your culture isn’t sterile, even though the work environment has to be. I have addressed with you previously in this paper the importance of simulating the “water cooler” in the WFH work environment. The same holds true for the new WFO environment: how will you create the “water cooler” in the “next” normal? The culture head and committee should be in charge of this, and brainstorming and prototyping new ideas is key.

The “next” normal is really a hybrid: In addition to coming to grips with how the next office environment is going to be experienced, there is also the issue of having two work environments (WFO and WFH) — and two cultures — being managed at the same time. Preliminary data from our clients suggests that WFH might be preferable for some employees. Some reasons include higher productivity from WFH (more convenience, time, and fewer distractions) and fewer costs (as a VC colleague told me, one of his start-ups could save $10mil in real estate costs). Further, as this article points out and as I outlined above, there is actually a heightened awareness/attention on communication practices out of necessity. Finally, the prospect of office meetings with others — all wearing masks, 6 feet away — might just feel too off-putting for some people.

We all were literally thrown into WFH in a matter of days; and what if this experiment works? Many levels have to be considered here, and many logistics to coordinate. There are tremendous implications for real estate, as well as facilities, and IT. My suggestion is that before this becomes more than an informal nice to have — “gee, I would rather just go into the office 2-3 days instead of 5” — those cultural rituals are considered along with the usual operational and workplace issues. What are the communication practices that will work in this hybrid (WFO and WFH) environment, what are the points of engagement and morale that should be considered, and how do we get continuous feedback to ensure it’s working (through design work).

Creating and sustaining the culture you want in this hybrid environment starts with having an elevated role for a culture head, to put culture central to your company’s success. Here are some more specific suggestions:

I welcome your feedback, questions, and your ideas. Sharing helps everyone. Contact us

To download a PDF of this article, click here.

May 4th, 2020|Categories: Blog, Design Thinking / Creativity / Innovation, Stress / Work-Life Integration|Tags: collaborative communication, corporate culture, covid-19, culture design, design thinking, executive coaching, executive leadership, HR Leadership, hybrid, leadership|

March 3, 2020 / Mariposa Articles

How to Be Leaderly in Utter Uncertainty (and what behaviors to focus on in this current coronavirus situation)

How HR and business leaders coach their teams in uncertain times

by Sue Bethanis, CEO/Founder of Mariposa, sueb@mariposaleadership.com, @suebethanis

Like you, I have been flooded the last three days with news and emails about coronavirus precautions. To allay my own anxiety, I spent much of this last weekend reading, and today, I am writing because I want to help reduce anxiety and be practical about how we can act as leaders of our organizations. As a leadership coach, it follows that I am focusing on leadership behaviors.

We have an obligation to protect and care for those we work with. It’s on us, and we can’t rely on politicians. There are potentially two pandemics here – wide-spread Covid-19 and wide-spread panic. Whether either becomes a pandemic in the US depends a lot on the actions we take.

What are our primary goals as leaders in this situation?

Plan for uncertainty
Overcommunicate with empathy and clarity
Model diligent healthy behaviors to limit spread

First, planning for uncertainty means planning for the worst-case scenario. If you have not developed a revised travel policy, remote working policy, and sick/leave policy, it’s time to do so now. I also suggest sharing your plans and learnings with colleagues in other organizations. Coinbase, for example, has open-sourced their plans. Check out how HR leaders and Coinbase are on top of this here and how a seven-point plan from McKinsey covers business practices here.

Frankly, I think developing these policies is the easy part; it is tedious, but you can borrow from and benchmark with others on this. The harder part is putting these policies into action and having to make decisions in the moment when you don’t have all the information you need. How do you plan for that?

This is the time to uplevel your flexibility skills and mindfulness. Planning for uncertainty also means expecting the unexpected and priming yourself for surprises. Go into your day thinking that there will be something that happens that you have never dealt with before. This will help you be calmer in a crisis because the surprise doesn’t cause as much of a stress (fight-or-flight) response in you. Your calmness will help others be calm and will lead to less anxiety and overall panic.

This is also the time to re-engage in a meditation/breathing practice if you have let it slip lately. Doing even 5-10 minutes of meditation to start your day will help you through the rest of your day.

Second, practice overcommunicating with empathy and clarity. Here are some examples:

Set up regular communication practices via all channels to get the word out about revised policies and ongoing revisions. It’s important that employees get into the habit of checking @all for the latest info.
If someone wants to stay home because they are sick, potentially sick, or has been in contact with someone sick, grant it without hesitation. But don’t stop there: have a conversation with them and go out of your way to ask about your team members’ concerns and what support they need. These simple words can go a long way to quell fear and anxiety. That’s your job always, but it’s especially your job now: support, support, support.
On the other side of that situation is this: a sick employee or co-worker who insists on coming into work because they have an important meeting with clients/customers or internal colleagues. Gently insist they don’t come in, and work through who else can cover for them. Further, if there has ever been a time to have back up to the backups, now is the time. Look at your team, chat with your team, and think about the importance of supporting each other. Who can back up whom? What does each member of your team need to get up to speed on to be able to cover for each other?
No doubt we are going to be doing more videoconferencing because many employees will be working from home. Be sure to communicate regularly about how working from home can be potentially isolating for you/your team. Give peeps a chance to voice their concerns about this and ways to overcome this.

(Click here for a handy infographic on “overcommunicating” practices.)

Third, it’s vital as leaders that we model healthy behaviors with diligence! This will limit the spread of the virus. Based on what I have read in the last three days, this is a good list for leaders to model:

Wash your hands for at least 15-20 secs, including the top of hands and in between fingers. Good idea to use (and provide) hand lotion as well because our hands are dry from all this washing.
Use hand sanitizer every time you enter a new place and every time you leave; have a personal size bottle with you at all times. Organizations should also have them in every room; and employees should use it at the beginning and end of every meeting. Also ensure to wipe down all touched surfaces with disinfectant anti-bacterial routinely.
Don’t touch your face! The best article I have read is on hand-to-face transmission; read here.
Do not hug, shake hands, or fist bump. Elbow bumping is now in vogue.
If you have not had a flu shot, get one now! It won’t stop the coronavirus, but it will aid in stopping other flus. From a public health perspective, this will have less impact on hospitals and clinics. In the U.S., 32 million people got the flu last year; 310,000 people were hospitalized; 18,000 people died. In Japan, the “regular” flu rate has gone down in the last 2 months because people are hand washing more often. Fascinating article on this here.
If you are sick, do not go into work and expose people (this should be the case for any type of sickness). It will also make it less awkward for everyone. When you have to cough or sneeze, do it into tissues or your sleeve at all times.
Stop buying face masks because they are ineffective for those without symptoms of the coronavirus. These purchases deplete the supplies needed for medical professionals.
Get better at video conferencing! If you don’t already do it on a regular basis, start practicing. Here are a few things to know:
- We at Mariposa have been using Zoom, a video conference software for 3 years and it does take practice. Plan a time with your team to work remotely and start teaching them the protocols. Zoom also offers free webinars and live training guides on how to use their services.
- Get the right technology tools in place NOW and help keep your team connected when they aren’t in the same physical location. Think about what specific tools and devices will be needed, i.e., online file sharing tools, laptops, webcams, smartphones, etc.

(Click here for a handy infographic on “healthy behaviors.”)

If you would like to chat more about how to lead in this time of uncertainty, ping me. Happy to help anytime. 4152653142, sueb@mariposaleadership.com

Finally, here are some more excellent resources in addition to ones hyperlinked above.

Center for Disease Control: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
ELAD: Coronavirus (COVID-19) PSA for Startups
TechCrunch: How to work during a pandemic
Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Hits U.S. Business Activity
Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Is Different. It’s Rapidly Hitting Supply and Demand.
Harvard Business Review: 8 Questions Employers Should Ask About Coronavirus

To download a PDF of this article, click here.

March 3rd, 2020|Categories: Mariposa Articles|Tags: communication, coronavirus, covid-19, executive leadership coaching, HR Leadership, leadership behaviors, uncertain times, working from home|

January 30, 2018 / Articles We Like / Influencing Skills

On “3 Ways #MeToo Will Influence the Business World in 2018”

In the wake of recent scandals and controversy sparking the #MeToo movement, there is growing pressure on organizations to reveal more about their cultures and workplace practices. What does this mean for leadership in 2018?

In a recent Inc. article “3 Ways #MeToo Will Influence the Business World in 2018,” Spencer Rascoff, Zillow Group CEO, argues why organizations must first embrace unprecedented transparency and how leaders must shift their focus to HR and company culture.

We each play a role in creating a strong company culture, and the key is combining transparency with trust and respect for all employees.

January 30th, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: #metoo, company culture, executive leadership coaching, hr development, HR Leadership, influence|

July 31, 2015 / Book Reviews

Book Review | Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
By Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright

Heart: (5 out of 5)
Head: (4 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (5 out of 5)

Human beings naturally form tribes, even within companies. Tribes are how work gets done. The relationship between tribes and their leaders lies at the heart of performance. Leaders who are successful at developing tribal culture are rewarded with recognition of the leader, tribe loyalty and high performance. It’s no surprise then that companies with successful tribal leaders tend to attract and retain top talent.

This book explains the five tribal stages and the culture of each, so that leaders can learn how to identify the stage of their tribes and take action to lead them through to the next level. Leverage points are included to help leaders unstick groups at each stage and coaching tips help them accomplish their goals.

Though backed by research into 24,000 people in 24 organizations, readers will not find a statistical read but a people book, with faces and stories showcasing principles backed by research and practical experience.

At a time in which many companies are engaged in a war for talent, developing the leadership ability to identify and up-level tribal culture for maximum productivity should be a strategic talent imperative. This is a unique business management book that leaders will want in their personal toolkit. Buy it now.

July 31st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: HR Leadership, Mariposa Leadership, talent management, team performance, tribal leadership|

June 29, 2015 / Articles We Like / Leadership

On “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders”

Trust is a key ingredient for creating an engaged and productive workforce. Yet competing priorities, daily pressures and sometimes a lack of self-awareness can get in the way of effective communication and leadership. When we read the survey results in this article, the list of complaints employees have about their leaders seemed all too familiar to us as executive coaches. But by bringing awareness to the power of meaningful connection with employees, we know leaders can make a huge impact on productivity in the workplace.

We share the Harvard Business Review article, “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders“, by Lou Solomon, to help raise awareness of your communication and connection with employees. Try implementing the suggestions to build more trust!

Tell us: What communication practices do you find most effective for connecting with your employees?

June 29th, 2015|Categories: Articles We Like, Leadership|Tags: communication, effective communication, Harvard Business Review, HR Leadership, HR management, lou solomon, talent management|

May 29, 2015 / Book Reviews

Book Review | Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
By Herminia Ibarra

Head: (3 out of 5)
Heart: (4 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (5 out of 5)

At the root of many traditional leadership development methods lie self-awareness and the promise of change through reflection and introspection. This inside-out model can be helpful in identifying your leadership style, defining your purpose and authentic self. But according to the author, these methods fall short of changing the deep-seated ways of thinking which keep us from behaving differently. A new approach is needed: the outsight principle.

The outsight principle is fairly easy to understand: Branch out beyond your routine work, your networks, and current ways of defining yourself, and by doing so, these new ways of acting will begin to change how you think about your work and yourself, and expand your leadership horizons. Instead of thinking about how you will behave as a leader, new behaviors will emerge organically by experimenting with the unfamiliar and interacting with different people. This approach allows us to challenge existing notions of our capacity to lead.

This easy-to-read book offers interesting insight on how change really works. The information is backed by research, exercises and case studies to help readers understand and apply the outsight principle and bridge the gap between where they are today and where they could be. Leaders interested in new ways of thinking about developing their talent, and professionals who want extra motivation to step up to lead will want to read this book. Buy it now.

May 29th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: executive development, executive leadership, herminia ibarra, HR Leadership, HR management, talent management, wise talk|

April 23, 2015 / Book Reviews

Book Review | Demystifying Talent Management

Demystifying Talent Management: Unleash People’s Potential to Deliver Superior Results
By Kimberly Janson

Head: (4 out of 5)
Heart: (4 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (5 out of 5)

All companies aspire to get the most out of their employees, yet often stumble along the way. The results of annual employee surveys often offer the evidence, such as a lack of development, a lack of feedback and coaching, and a lack of direction. But according to the author, good talent management doesn’t need to be as hard as a lot of companies experience it today. It just needs commitment, as well as the will and skill from managers, to be able to unleash the potential in their employees.

In this easy-to-digest book, the author, Kimberly Janson, lays out a simple framework for understanding what talent management is and how managers can get the most out of their employees. While there are two major components of talent management – managing performance and developing employees – she defines all key talent management terms, and helps readers understand how they all fit together. In understanding the interconnectivities, organizations can truly get the most from their talent as drivers of business strategy. The section on talent management stakeholders and their perspectives can be useful in this regard.

Leaders, managers and human resource professionals who aspire to be excellent at managing and developing their talent and want to improve the quality of their talent management practices will want to read this book. Buy it now.

April 23rd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: hr leaders, HR Leadership, HR management, kimberly janson, talent management|

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