Recognize Leadership Webinar Series: Unconquerable Leadership in HR

Awardco recently sat down with HR-industry-expert and author Nathan Tanner. Nathan has worked as an executive coach and helped many companies, including large enterprises such as DoorDash and LinkedIn, to help leaders level up and up their management games.

This post will review the advice and industry guidance Nathan provided—so let’s dive in!

The Biggest Mistake HR Teams Can Make

One mistake is consistent in many of the organizations Nathan has worked with, and that’s trying to focus on disrupting HR.

HR leaders put a lot of their efforts into trying to flip HR on its head or coming up with new, exciting perks and benefits. But this focus is a waste of time for most organizations.

Instead of trying to reimagine HR, it’s always better to focus on the fundamentals. Does the HR system work and have accurate data, is the compensation accurate and appropriate, are performance reviews done successfully, is the culture healthy, etc. These basics are difficult to get right, so instead of trying to disrupt things, focus on the little things that make the company run smoothly.

The Role of HR in Leadership Training

There are two types of training that employees go through at a company:

1. Functional training. This is training new employees or employees in new roles exactly what their responsibilities and how to do their jobs.
2. Manager training. This is all about developing managers into better leaders.

Functional training should not be on HR’s plate. HR can plan this training, but managers or departments should be in charge of training their employees when necessary.

However, HR SHOULD be in charge of manager training. HR can and should own the following topics when it comes to manager training:

• Holding effective 1:1s
• Giving clear and direct feedback
• Managing underperformance, behavior, and terminations
• Helping employees set goals and holding them accountable
• Having career and growth conversations
• Coaching employees
• Recruiting best practices
• Motivating and engaging their teams

HR should never simply assume that managers will just figure it out. Instead, they have the responsibility of setting a standard of management across the company and helping managers hit that standard.

HR doesn’t need to actually deliver this training, especially if they don’t have the knowledge or expertise necessary. But they need to organize it, find respected leaders in the company to deliver it, etc.

Can HR Outsource Training?

Because most of the manager training is very specific to a company’s culture, completely outsourcing training to a third-party isn’t ideal. If you do decide to go with an outside source for training, you have to make sure they understand your culture. The training shouldn’t be so far removed from day-to-day life that managers can’t apply the general advice to their specific situations.

How to Become a Strong People Leader to Drive Engagement and Retention

Here are five strategies to become the type of people leader that HR professionals need to become.

1. Set Clear Expectations

There is often a disconnect between what leaders think an employee should do and what the employee thinks is expected of them. Set clear expectations like these:

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• What does it take to succeed in their job?
• How is success measured?
• How will they be rewarded?
• How will they be able to grow in their career?

Try putting this in writing or asking the employee to repeat what is expected back to ensure there aren’t any miscommunications.

2. Care Personally

If the employee feels that the leader genuinely cares about them, they will be far more engaged. Even something as simple as checking in about their weekend or their loved ones will show that you care.

3. Challenge Directly (Demand Excellence)

A lot of managers are afraid to push their teams too hard. However, top performers want challenges and they want to accomplish big things. And even the most self-driven employees benefit from having a leader who sets high standards.

4. Give Regular Feedback (Especially to High Performers)

Carve out time to make sure that you’re focused on both high performers and lower performers. Give feedback to everyone, especially those who you think already know what they’re doing. Push them to work even harder and be even better.

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5. Surprise and Delight

Do things that employees aren’t expecting. Go above and beyond for them. Recognition and rewards are a great way to do this. Spot bonuses, personal gifts, or a genuine note are great ways to surprise and delight the teams.

How to Give Effective Feedback

Cultures where there is very little direct feedback are not high performing cultures. You can’t drive correct behaviors and help employees improve without it.

When it comes to feedback, leaders must strike the balance between caring personally and challenging directly. When employees know their managers care, they’ll be much more receptive to direct challenges and constructive feedback because they know the manager has their best interests at heart.

7 Rules for Giving Effective Employee Feedback

Giving feedback can be hard, but these seven tips will help:

1. Be as specific as possible, whether it’s negative or positive
2. Deliver feedback as soon as possible
3. Ask for permission, such as “Hey, do you have a few minutes for me to give you some feedback?”
4. Make it a conversation
5. Be public with praise and private with criticism
6. Be aspirational, such as, “You’ve told me you want [promotion]. Based on what I’ve seen, [helpful feedback to help them get promotion].”
7. Emphasize that you value them and their growth

SBI Framework for Giving Difficult Feedback

Here is a framework for giving hard feedback to employees:

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• Situation. Describe the situation and be specific about when and where it occurred.
• Behavior. Describe the observable behavior—don’t assume you know what the employee was thinking.
• Impact. Describe what you thought or felt in reaction to the behavior.

Hard Conversations: What If Employees Can’t Turn Things Around?

Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of LinkedIn, said this:

“Leaving a member of your team in a key role when it’s no longer the right fit is one of the most common—and costly—mistakes a manager can make. The good news is that with practice and experience it’s also one of the most avoidable.”

Sometimes, transitioning employees to a new role can help them become more engaged and enjoy their work more. But on the flip side, termination is needed in certain situations, and leaders can’t avoid this difficult decision or conversation just to avoid the situation.

Become an Unconquerable Leader

Leading a team, big or small, is no easy task. We hope the strategies and advice in this blog will help your HR team know how to help themselves and help the managers in your organization become better leaders, which, in turn, will help employees improve, too.

Watch the full webinar with Nathan Tanner here.