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🤸 Balancing accountability with empathy, small wins, & Spanish palm trees

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Cristina & Jenni
March 30, 2023

Hey — it’s Cristina & Jenni.

Each week, we share leadership reflections, resources, and laughs to help you excel in your role (+ have fun along the way).

As two tech leaders, we’re here to “lead in public” by sharing what we’re learning in our day-to-day roles, encouraging others to do the same, and learning and growing as leaders together.

Enjoy!

What we’re reflecting on this week

Annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed.

These are three emotions I work hard to avoid feeling.

Yet, I found myself feeling all 3 of these emotions with teams in the past when I’d notice a lack of engagement and a drop in performance.

As managers, we sometimes come across scenarios like these with our teams - lack of productivity, failure to meet expectations, and inability to deliver results.

It's not fun being in these situations, especially when you're feeling pressure from your boss and working against tough deadlines.

Balancing accountability with empathy can be hard… but it’s essential for good leadership.

I used to be afraid of having performance conversations.

I'd try to avoid or gloss over them for as long as possible, which was counterproductive. Not only does it hurt your company's performance, but it also sets your team up to fail, which is the number one thing you want to avoid.

The good news is that it can get easier to manage a drop in performance from your team and course-correct quickly before it spirals into something greater.

This was my experience thanks to one powerful reframe and 4 guiding principles.

So what's the reframe?

Instead of having a "performance" conversation, have a "direct and compassionate" conversation about what's going on.

This, combined with the 4 guiding principles, will help:

  • Get you in the right mindset → from judgement to resolution, which will lead to productive conversations

  • Increase your team's accountability

  • Create a more supportive environment

Here are the four principles to keep in mind:

  1. Say less and ask more. Hard conversations are so much easier when we lead with curiosity, avoid making assumptions, listen actively, and ask open-ended questions about their experience with their work and your expectations.

  2. Assume positive intent. We all have things going on, so is there something in their personal life that you don't know about? Or blockers that haven't been raised?

  3. Small wins for the win. When your team is struggling, it's easy to get tunnel vision and only focus on what's not working instead of what is. But when we forget to acknowledge and celebrate the small wins, we're killing motivation and therefore momentum.

  4. Give and seek actionable feedback that is clear, firm, and kind. Delaying feedback tends to turn minor concerns into bigger issues down the line. And when you start the conversation leading with curiosity you’re making them feel seen and heard first to understand any unknowns before diving straight to feedback.

By taking these steps, you can change your mindset and approach to tackling performance conversations, creating a more productive and supportive work environment. This will help your team members thrive with accountability and strengthen your leadership skills.

Before you know it, you'll be balancing accountability with empathy like a pro.

→ What do you keep in mind before having performance related conversations to make sure they’re constructive and actionable?

What we’re learning this week

What we’re enjoying this week

One of my favorite views from my speedy trip to Mallorca this week.

Sun + beach + mountains + great food = perfect holiday!

That’s it for this week — thanks for reading.

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️

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