Professional Development – 2022 – Week 47

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54585499@N04/

Managing people

6 Ways to Reenergize a Depleted Team (via HBR)

  1. Initiate purpose-driven career conversations
  2. Create team rituals that foster mutual care and belonging
  3. Help build a portfolio of diverse relationships (i.e., not just their peers)
  4. Model being okay with not being okay
  5. Swap productivity paranoia for helpful prioritization
  6. Watch for signs of flourishing and intervene when it’s waning

Mental health

How to Respond When an Employee Shares a Mental Health Challenge (via HBR)

  • You are not their therapist; know what’s in your ability to help with.
  • Be prepared for vulnerable conversations.
  • Set and protect boundaries.
  • Showing up is the most important thing.

Operations

What Really Makes Toyota’s Production System Resilient (via HBR)

  • Lean doesn’t mean zero inventory; bottlenecks and lead times are always considered for safety stock
  • Multiple suppliers are a source of resiliency
  • Supplier relations are built on trust rather than competing for the lowest price; by compensating properly and focusing on building relationships, both parties win
  • The system is always learning and flexing where needed
  • The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a way of thinking and working together — it’s culture

Values

What Does Your Company Really Stand For? (via HBR)

  • Values are the ends you pursue; beliefs are how you get there. (Ex: Two people can value creativity. One prefers quiet contemplation (belief), and the other prefers interaction.)
  • You can improve/change beliefs, but values are more fixed.
  • Beware of “values as magic” — if you repeat them enough times, people will believe them.
  • Steps to ensure the values of your employees align with the vision
    • Identify the individual values of all the organization members.
    • Get top management to identify priorities from strategy.
    • Look for values candidates that serve strategy and individuals.
    • Assess the values candidates. Include people broadly to share their voice. Idea: pair values and ask people to identify which one is more true/useful.
    • Edit the top-ranking candidates to generate a final set of values.

Time management

When — and How — to Say No to Extra Work (via HBR)

  • “While an increase in scope can temporarily boost individual commitment and performance, in the long-term it can lead to burnout and hurt the organization’s results as a whole.”
  • Decline if your job responsibilities will suffer
  • Decline if it’s truly someone else’s job
  • Decline if there’s no end defined
  • Decline if it’s an unreasonable request