Have you done your 1.5.30's today?
Hack No.10 Get Your Rhythm Right. As a manager looking to lead well and get the results we expect, we need to get in the game, and that means getting the right drum beat in our day. The problem for new leaders (and sometimes experienced leaders), is understanding how to be active in the business without being seen to be micro-managing. How you check-in with your teams, how regularly, and how active you are in the business, will dictate your ability to enable your teams to achieve their results today and the changes they are often called upon to make to enable tomorrow's results.
It’s about getting the right balance in where you invest your time, not just how you spend it. As a simple rule, the more you invest in your people, the better the outcome. But there are many ways of investing so you are present and active, not controlling and doing. So where do you start?
As a frontline leader, if you can get your energy into a routine that enables you to connect with your people with a view that helps them be successful, one that works for you and your people, you hit the multiplier effect. So, you must invest in two areas – agree and clarify expectations so people are working on the right things, and enable people to be their best, so people can achieve the right outcomes.
Key is not spending your time following up on people. This is all about the art of the check in and not the checking up! Your job is to help people find purpose, make sure people understand what they must achieve, and then hold up the roof to ensure nothing gets in their way to achieve it. You enable people to do great work.
When you get that right, with the right conversations and the right timeframes, your actions keep working for you even when you’re not there. That's the multiplier.
1.5.30. is a great place to start - real time leadership that engages, enables, and energizes people to achieve remarkable results. Routinely checking in (not checking up) and connecting with people with a view to know them better; enable them to achieve remarkable results and energize them to bring their best selves to work.
We know the future of work requires a new kind of leadership model. One that manages to engage and leads people forward in this new world of work. Here's how 1.5.30 can do that:
1: Check in with your team member once a day – A quick hi to see how they are doing (personally) and then a ‘how can I help?’ to make sure they are Ok to achieve what they set out to achieve.
5: Check in once a week - A bit more detail on how the week has progressed, did they feel they accomplished what they set out to achieve, ask ‘how can I help?’ This should take about 30 mins.
30: Check in once a month and dig deep - How is the job going, what development needs are their, and ask yourself ‘how can you help’? This should be a meaningful conversation, a coaching and development opportunity, as well as building better connection between you and your team member.
The real beauty of 1.5.30. is that it addresses so many needs: getting more meaningful connection with your people; variance management and helping to close the gap; it brings continuous improvement to life and provides teams with feedback that helps rather than hinders performance. It also covers off your annual performance review that you know doesn’t work or help any way, right? It provides an alternative to that awful annual review process! replacing it with real-time performance management because you’re already talking to people routinely about their performance, the businesses performance, their development, catching coaching moments, and talking about where they want to be, as humans.
Done right, it also enables you to learn more. When you’re in the game you learn what needs to change in the business to help results; you learn if people have innovative solutions to business issues you would not ordinarily talk about in more formal meetings; you see the real world.
If you’re business is going through a major transformation or trying to implement change, 1.5.30 also helps you keep that on track. That routine check-in doesn’t just earn you the right to ask people to change (because you’re actively involved in the business and people see your support routinely), but it also enables you to manage the change. After all, how long can you afford to go before you know something is wrong? 1.5.30 helps prevent things slipping through the cracks and becoming bigger problems than they needed to be.
It's that simple – 1.5.30.
Have you done your 1.5.30s today?
From the book Manage to Engage. How Great Managers Create Remarkable Results. The post-pandemic how-to guide for engaging in the new world of work.
This is another #HackingitwithHackett - the Q4 Challenge. Post-sized Hacks to help leaders better engage, enable and energize their teams, and improve their operational results - before year end.
Here's an additional resource for context of 1.5.30: