Learn how to walk the stairs!
Photo by Serhat Beyazkaya on Unsplash
Three Super Easy but Important Communication Strategies for New Leaders
Learn how to walk the stairs!
“I don’t know how to get the team to understand. They don’t seem to get it”, she said to me while sitting in the partially sunlit room overlooking the park in our second story meeting room.
“It seems like every problem they come to me with needs to be explained, then they are coming straight back with the next thing they don’t understand. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong”, she says with exasperation.
We had been having these mentoring chats since Kelly had been promoted to a team lead role, and she was struggling with the team and how to help them understand what they were trying to achieve. Kelly had previously made similar comments about her own manager, Jane, not really understanding the technical detail enough to make good decisions (in her opinion).
“Even when I think Jane gets it, she looks like she understands, then she says something that confuses me, and we spend the next five minutes going over old ground”, she says, finishing with a sigh.
I had heard this type of frustration from new leaders before. They seem to have to spend their time always translating. Taking information from their leaders and turning it into information for their teams. Then taking information from the team to turn it into information digestible by their boss. Back and forth between the two, churning so much energy and not feeling like you are accomplishing anything.
I call this jumping from the balcony to the dance floor, and the way to gain more energy and time back is to learn how to walk the stairs. Then teach others to walk them too.
Leaders can use three super easy concepts to walk the stairs, freeing up their energy to achieve more. But first, let me explore the analogy of the dance floor and the balcony.
Attending the music festival of leadership
Most people will have attended some concert or music festival. You will know that there are a few different preferences among people that attend. Some want to feel the press of people, the intensity of the speakers, and the feeling of moving as a group.
Photo by Danny Howe on Unsplash
There will be others that want space to dance to their own groove the express their own feelings in their dance. There will be those who prefer to sit on the balcony seats to see the band and the movement of the people. To see how the whole concert hangs together. They might comment on how one person dancing uniquely influences those around them. They might see how people get angry with others, and tension builds.
In team dynamics at your organisation, the same applies. Some want to be in the messiness doing their thing. Others want the freedom to dance to their own tune, and some prefer the balcony. It is a team leader’s role to be able to go between the two. Seeing how the dance floor is playing out, how the different teams and team members are interacting in their dancing to the beat of the music and working out how to influence it.
However, it is not healthy to try and jump between the balcony and the dance floor. If a leader comes crashing in from above, they can damage themselves and the team. Further, it takes a lot of energy to jump a team member up to the balcony to see how their work contributes to the larger dance.
A better way is to take the stairs, and there are a few easy steps to help new leaders find their way up and down.
1. Zoom in, Zoom out
This is the simplest and least complicated of the strategies for walking the stairs. Because of that, it can be down reasonably quickly, but it also isn’t always effective. Though the words themselves can be used to trigger a different thought process for individuals, that in itself is useful.
I often use it like this.
“I wanted to tell you about the issue we’ve seen in the production line,” they said to me. I replied, “I can see that you’ve found something, but would you mind zooming out for me so I can understand the wider situation behind the problem. Then zoom me back into this particular issue”.
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This triggers the person communicating with you to think about the wider situation in which this particular problem manifests. In addition, it allows you to understand what they know about the situating the work they are involved in, which may provide a clue to how the problem might relate to other teams.
This example relates to having the team member walk up to the balcony with you for a moment to understand where their issue fits within the wider view. However, it is also applicable to your boss.
Consider you have an issue with a team member’s performance and want to describe how it affects throughput in the graphics team. You might want to start with the individual’s ineffective use of the team planning software. But, instead, start on the balcony, and zoom in.
“I’ve noticed that our graphics team output is down this term, affecting time to market with the new advertising material. I have done some investigation and identified that team members are struggling with the task management software. I’d like to have a few team members attend a training course and have one of them placed on a performance management program”.
Notice that the starting point is in the wider picture, and then zooms into the detail. Starting with the detail would have required them to jump to the detail, jump from the balcony.
As I said, this works sometimes, but there are instances where it isn’t as effective. You need a few more steps for these more complicated or complex scenarios.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
2. What, So What, What Now
This strategy adds a step in climbing up to the balcony. Forcing team members to walk with you up the stairs to identify a path forward.
The ‘What, So What, What Now’ mantra has existed for some time as a method of reflective learning (Rolfe et al.) and is prominent as a guide to composing written communication. However, it has an important place within team communication.
Walking from the dance floor to the balcony takes some effort. It is easy for the person with an issue to focus on the what. To stay on the dance floor in their space. The ‘what’ is important to them, stopping them from moving forward. Asking for the ‘So What’ forces them off the dance floor, halfway up the stairs.
I get that your issue is important, but why? What is the ‘so what’ here?
The next and final step in this communication strategy takes them up to the balcony. By asking ‘what now’, they are forced to identify the heart of their issue and how they think it might be progressed.
This makes them part of the solution, not just responsible for identifying the problem. It forces them to survey the dance floor from the balcony and determine how the problem might be addressed.
This is a powerful tool for walking the stairs, as it not only enables a balcony view. In addition, it forces participation in finding a solution. I highly recommend this when you need to communicate with someone a level above you. It forces you to reflect before speaking and more accurately conveys the real issue and what needs to be done.
However, it is still only three steps between the dance floor and the balcony. It still requires some effort to take large steps. So the final practice inserts another two steps between the dance floor and the balcony.
Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash
3. The 5-C’s on the Stairs
I must admit to borrowing this one from the wonderful Brené Brown, overhearing it in her Podcast. Brené spoke about the framework she and her team use when making sound business decisions.
However, the same steps can allow people to move from the dance floor to the balcony or back down again.
The 5-C’s are…
- Colour (as in, the ‘What’).
- Context (the ‘Why’).
- Connective Tissue (What it’s connected to).
- Cost of doing it.
- The Consequence of not doing it.
These steps allow a leader to walk a team member from the dance floor to the balcony to understand the larger context. Or to walk one of their leaders down into the team detail to supply more context (walk from the 2nd-floor balcony down to the first).
Here is an example.
Jenny needs Dave to understand the importance of updating the status reports on Friday morning, and she often doesn’t remember to do it till Monday.
Dave: I don’t understand why it is that important.
Jenny: The reports feed into a company-wide system, and those reports indicate our progress towards company KPIs, like time to market, program predictability, and resource allocation (Colour — the what). These KPIs indicate how we are progressing against quarterly goals, and they feed into stakeholder reports and division funding allocations (Context — Why).
Through the reports, we influence the company’s view on our division’s performance. I use the information to discuss how we can better work together to improve our overall performance with other division heads. Further, through those conversations, I make arguments to improve our resourcing so we can achieve more and unburden some people to look for the next opportunities to improve. Your timely submission of those reports provides a backbone for these conversations (Connective tissue).
I know it takes some effort to compile the weekly data in one day, and I realise that the systems don’t readily support data aggregation. Therefore, we may need to discuss how to help you streamline the activity so that we can reduce the total effort (Cost).
However, if we don’t get it in on time, we risk not getting additional resources and being seen as an underperforming part of the company. This actually impedes the opportunity of all of our staff to progress. It puts us at a disadvantage and does not reflect the amazing work done here each week (Consequence).
Dave can see out from the balcony and understand how his small piece of the dance floor impacts the wider company. This is a rich picture. It is a complete view of the role and its fit into the wider systems.
Walking the stairs
Leaders must learn to walk the stairs. It conserves their energy by removing the need to jump from the balcony down to the dance floor and then try and jump a team member back up to the balcony.
It provides a method of structuring correspondence within the team and through the command chain.
It allows the team to understand the wider picture and, in doing so, find ways for them to self-manage or coordinate solutions to issues as they arrive. It situates their input within the wider company intent.
Learning to walk the stairs effectively will take teams to the next level and fast track the development of skills necessary to thrive as a leader in today’s fast-paced world.
Leon writes about leadership and personal development. Inspired by creating high-performing teams and growing leaders, he blogs, mentors and coaches leaders and future leaders from across industries. Editor of Sparks Publication, a publication aimed at transferring a spark from the writer’s mind to the soul of the readers.
By Leon Purton on April 9, 2022.
Exported from Medium on December 22, 2023.
