Check in on the Difference Makers
We've been talking about meaningfulness and purpose as a way to retain and engage employees the past few episodes. And I've talked about it from the perspective of these are questions that you can be asking yourself or a colleague or a friend to be thinking about the ways that you show up in your work with purpose and connection to your deeper core values.
But I now want to shift this conversation a bit, I want to turn back and focus for a minute on the leader.
How might they be feeling during a busy season at work when they're feeling burnt out? What's happening behind the scenes for them when they're super driven by purpose, but they're also super tired? Today I want to share how to identify these leaders in your organization so you can effectively care for them.
On this episode you’ll hear…
How collaboration can burn people out and why this burden often falls on the best, most engaged employees
Breaking down what it means to be in demand but disengaged and how to fight this within your organization
How to identify the impact players within your team so that you can effectively check in on them
Ready for more?
Listen in:
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Chaili Trentham 00:01
We've been talking about meaningfulness and purpose as a way to retain and engage employees the past few episodes. And I've talked about it from the perspective of these are questions that you can be asking yourself or a colleague or a friend to be thinking about the ways that you show up in your work with purpose and connection to your deeper core values. But I now want to shift this conversation a bit. Because last week's episode focused on those questions that you can ask a colleague or an employee to dig into their purpose, or get them thinking about it or start that conversation. But I want to turn back and focus for a minute on the leader. And that might be I know that I tend to take a really positive approach for this podcast, that's my personality and the way I approach most of life. Like best case scenario, it's always that's what I'm looking for, for sure. But what if this whole purpose thing isn't going well in the workplace. And so I was thinking through specific people, I've worked with specific leaders, who are the most purpose driven people I know, like, these are the ones that I want to be alongside on any project, because I know that their behavior is driven by a true connection to the work that they're doing a deeper purpose. And there's when you are working with teams of people who are connected to that deeper purpose. It's not just that you buy in and get it, it's that you want to be a part of it, because you can tangibly see the connection to something greater through that person, you know, and trust. So, there's leaders like that. And I know you have leaders like that, who have probably been in your life in some capacity or on some team. But when we look at those leaders, how might they be feeling during a busy season at work, when they're feeling burnt out? What's happening behind the scenes for them, when they're super driven by purpose, but they're also super tired. So that's where I want to take us today. So Sarah Roberts is an author who wrote a great book on workplace culture that I love called nimble, focused, feisty, pick it up. And she says this, in a feisty organization, everyone is engaged in the active pursuit of value discovery, innovation, and customer focus. And then she's writing a bit more. So I love her breakdown. If I see organizations and that part, I'm like, yes, she engages everyone in these three active pursuits in order to be more nimble and more competitive. But she goes on to say this. Now, difference makers can only make a difference if they're enabled and positioned to do so. So everyone can be engaged. But the ones who are really making the key difference can only make a difference if they're enabled in position to do so it doesn't matter how feisty the organization is. Let me tell you about an article in 2016. Adam Grant, who many of you have heard of, he's written a few books recently that have gained a lot of traction, and he has been on Brene Browns podcast. So you've likely heard him if you listen to me and also listen to a few of his colleagues, and then wrote an article back in 2016, where they interviewed leaders across 300 organizations and found that while collaboration across teams was blooming at the time, like this was the height of collaboration, really gaining some momentum in the workplace, where we had tactical data showing how much more impactful it could be if we're bringing collaborative work teams together. So it's ballooning. But they found it was burning out some of the best employees, which kind of can resonate, right. So I was a college professor and my class notes, I would talk about group projects, because we always had them. But I absolutely knew that there were people in the group project who would rise to the occasion, and there were people who would not contribute fully. And that has been the nature of group projects for as long as they've existed. But that's also why we empower college students to learn that critical thinking and communication skills that need to happen when they're in those group project settings, right? Anyway, we know that collaboration can burn people out, right. And we know that that can sometimes be the best employees because a lot falls on them in collaborative environments. So this article showed that at the time three to 5% of people who were on these collaborative teams were contributing to like 25 to 35% of the value added collaborations that were coming out of organizations. So the collaborations that had the most impact for the bottom line at the organization had like the same three to five names, three to 5% groups of people's names coming up in that case, which probably doesn't surprise you. Because there are impact players like this. Alyssa Wiseman writes about impact players who tend to be everywhere in an organization, right? Like we see their name pop up over and over, or they're the people if we're like, team captain, right, we're picking our small group for a collaborative project for like, I want them They are the what I want my team because I know that they will follow through. The same goes for group projects in college, if you can think back to those moments where you're like, I absolutely know we're picking group projects today. So I am going to pick my seat accordingly. So those impact players, those employees who were bringing the most value to collaborative projects, they were tired. And at the same time, those impact players are also getting tapped more and more across the organization. Right. So Adam Grant in his colleagues called this in demand, but disengaged, so data on leaders across just 20 of those organizations found that those people who were the best sources of information because they held the keys to the kingdom, right, like they knew all of the information from serving on all these project teams and for having organizational info that helped others. They were the best sources of information made the best collaborators, and they were the ones with the lowest engagement and lowest career satisfaction scores in demand, but disengaged. So this is a reminder for leaders to remember to check in on your impact players, right? Because these are the high functioning leaders who managed to do it all, do it all well feel connected to the mission and vision and purpose. And so they're often burnt out on that values alignment, right? Because they know deep down that if they stop, like who will pick up the torch and carry it. And they feel intrinsically motivated to make it work. And they often make it look easy, because they never complain, right? Because they know it's connected to a greater purpose. And it's more than just a job. It's more than just a career. It's a calling. So those leaders who never complain, are they okay? Listen, no matter how bad and passionate connected individuals are to the work, overload is still overload. And just because they might mask their burnout better, or still deliver really great results, doesn't mean they're not at a tipping point. Or pretty soon, it might be too much. difference makers and organizations impact players, our most informed, most collaborative, most skilled person can still choose to leave. And we see that happen all the time where great people leave purpose driven organizations. So let's think about are they okay? Are you okay? If you are one of those leaders. So as you're thinking about that, I want to talk about how you spot one of those difference makers on your team, because you might be thinking, This is me. And I really need to take a step back and figure out why I'm disengaged. Or if I'm over collaborating right now. Or you might be listening in as a leader who feels like I don't know, If my people feel this way, I need to go check in and ask if they're okay. Or you might be in a spot where you're like, I don't even know who these impact players are. So Sarah Roberts, the author who wrote nimble, focused, feisty, she helps us unpack this by talking about how you spot a difference maker. And I thinking about as leaders that I said, inspired kind of this podcast episode of thinking about the people who are true difference makers on a team and really get everyone around them to buy into the mission and vision of what is ahead. This is this is them. There's kind of four parts to this. Number one, our difference makers are action oriented. And that bias toward action means they identify the problem, and at the same time are already thinking about the solution. These are the people who come into the meeting, and they're like we have a problem. But I have an idea for how we can fix this. They come in with a solution before you even ask. Number two, they're motivated to get results. So these are purpose driven people. And since they're already looking for solutions, they don't need a policy or procedure to get them moving or a job title to make it happen. They want those results. And those solutions because of that internal drive. And the internal drive is what makes failure and setbacks and tenacity on the journey all worth it. And they're already all in. Number three, our difference makers, the ones on our team that we need. They deliver work at speed. So a friend of mine works in the leadership development field and uses a spectrum to define this, where the quality and quantity of good and important work is defined by her team as being expeditious. And other people don't know how they get it all done. But it's a it's a matter of just different pacing in life and how their brain works. Because they sometimes allow it maybe not always by choice but allow it to consume them. It's always on their brain so that solution comes to them because they might be at their kids soccer game thinking through way Is that they could change things. And they're expeditious and that their brain just moves at a pace and we sometimes can't keep up with, they see the connection points, I think these are our most connected leaders. And number four, collaboration is key to a difference maker. So Robert says this. makers believe in unifying people, bringing them together to discover the best outcomes, and they are more than willing to demolish silos and institutional barriers to do so. That's big. The difference makers on your teams do not care about silos or institutional barriers that could hold them back. Because they see the greater purpose in the midst of it all. And they believe in unifying one great big collaborative team who can come together, who can look past differences in order to serve that greater mission or purpose. Our difference makers are huge, huge impact players in every position, they sit in every role that they have, from the conversations that they're having with the in group that they're a part of at work, like their friends at work, to the ways that they're leading meetings and rallying people, galvanizing people to move forward with that mission. And so they're doing a lot. And so how do you spot burnout and a difference maker on your team, right? Well, you start paying attention and asking more questions. One, because different speakers are the first people we tend to skip over when we're doing check ins, because we're like, they're reliable. I know those deliver on time, they're likely our MVP. So are you the MVP? You might be if you're like, Wow, this is all resonating for me, this is how I feel right now. But that means leaders of difference makers need to lean into their relationship with them to go deeper on check ins and really connect with them to uncover where they may need reckoning recognition, or reward right for their All Star contributions, or help in redistributing responsibilities. Remember, our difference makers are driven by their core values and connection to purpose. And so taking away that responsibility could feel like you're taking away the meaning in their work. But if we look at it as a redistribution, and a way to increase collaboration, and bring in other key difference makers, then we have an opportunity to create more momentum, an exponential understanding of what that purpose should be and could be for the organization. So the underlying connection to trust is so important. To facilitate with difference makers, they need loyal leaders. And listen, that check in with them. When I say check in on your impact players, it's not just to make sure that they're not burnt out, it's to align, to make sure that you're celebrating what they value, or difference makers on teams are motivated by their purpose, right, which is cross our fingers, we should absolutely connect to the greater mission of the organization, right, we should say, Hey, you find meaning and purpose in this work. And here's why that matters in the work that you do every single day for this company or this organization. And if we say we value it, and they're here working for it, then we better be celebrating it. Right? Another reason to dig into our personal core values and directly tether them to the actual work we do day in and day out. Is this right? I want people to love what they do because it feels right. And I hope you as a leader do to like when we're seeing waves of employees still resigning and quitting even in the midst of economic instability, realigning their careers, even after a global pandemic, right, focusing on work life balance more than any other time in history, then I've got to believe that we should be having conversations about values and meaning and a redistribution of the way we spend our energy and time at work as a way to lead into the future. I think it's a transformative approach, right? It requires heavy transformation on the personal side, and on the organizational side. But it's one that pushes us to consider wholeness of our people and our teams and our friends. And that's a lasting conversation we should continue having. So check in on you're passionate people. Check in on the people who are expeditious in their work and somehow get it all down and you never have to check in on them. Check in on the people who come already prepared with the solutions. Check in on the people who are constantly coming up in conversation because they are the best collaborators checking in on the people who likely seem totally okay. And make sure they're really Okay. And if they are, that's great, right? That's best case scenario. But remember that our highest performers have been in that high performance zone for so long, that they may not know that they need to take a break or may not know how to get out of that zone or may not know how to slow down for a second to really check in on how they're doing personally and professionally. So leaders, let's check in on them this week. Cheers