The Three-Step Process for Practicing Managerial Courage

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We also discuss why managerial courage is essential for every leader. We talk about some actual scenarios you can apply it, and how this will completely transform your culture. Managerial courage is the number one quality missing in corporate leaders today, and it will help you become an incredible coaching leader.

We hope you enjoyed this episode.

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Thank you. One of my favorite subjects. I always say that I feel like, but this one I really mean it. This

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I love that phrase too.

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and what I love about it too, and, and actually this is what's really cool, so managerial courage, as Matthew Kelly talks about it in his book, the Culture Solution, and one of the things that I really appreciate about this book is that he actually does give language to a number of different things, including managerial courage.

And I love that he talks about culture advocates. When we have a name for something, it's easier for us to practice it cause we know that we can be more intentional about what does that mean and how are we incorporating that into our leadership style.

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And we're gonna talk today a little bit about not only the three step process, but why it's important, where are you using managerial courage to develop your people, to become a better leader? And we'll share some examples of that. So let's dive into this three step process. It's a simple, not easy, simple three step process.

Um, and step number one is expect.

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with expectations. Whether you're a new hire or anybody, again in your organization, everyone should know what's expected of them.

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What are we expecting them to do when they're coming into the office every day? So we as leaders should expect great things from our people, right? We hire them to do great work, but we have to set those clear expectations so that people know. this is what winning looks like. this is what I'm here for.

this is my role description. This is my scorecard. This is how I'm being evaluated. this is the work that I really need to do in order to fulfill the mission of my role as well as the mission of the organization. So that is so important. We've gotta establish that first.

So step number one, in managerial courage, expect.

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It doesn't talk about how to do it. And if we think about managerial courage, most of the issues when we get to talking about difficult conversations, all that, they're mostly, I'd say honestly, eight out of 10 times they're behaviorally based. It's not what the person's doing, it's how they're doing it. So super important to link into your role descriptions, into your scorecards, very specifically, your core values.

So your core values, whatever they are, making sure that you're communicating, again, through expectations. This is what it means to demonstrate integrity. this is what it means to demonstrate commitment so that you're really having that conversation about expectations, not just what to do.

But how to do it, how we treat each other, how we treat our customers. That's an important part of that first step that Matthew talks about.

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Seeing people do that kind of work and we get to, share with them. Yes, this is an example of how we treat people, but when it comes to the how of their work, another thing that's so wonderful is when you hire the right people, they just need to know the expectation and what and the goal, what they're trying to go after.

you hire them to do the how like you hire them because they are good at what they do. And when we allow people to do what they are best at, they're going to fulfill that role, which leads beautifully into step number two, which is inspect. So a leader should be inspecting their team member's work.

Now when we say this, you know what? What if some leaders in initially think of they think, That's micromanaging. I'm not gonna micromanage my people. Inspect does not mean hovering over them and telling them, Hey, this is how you need to do something. Or hovering over their every single move. This is inspecting their work to just, Hey, how are they working?

When we as leaders get to know more about how are people work, we can help. Coach them better. Right? Cuz we're understanding like, this is what I love about people, right? If you give Michelle and myself and whoever, whoever's listening right now, if, if we, all three of us have a, different task at hand, we might all do it completely different ways, but get to the same result.

And there's something so interesting about that, right? Because we all work differently, think differently. And even in the office, you'll notice with, uh, your coworkers, oftentimes you might tease people, cuz I know we do at our office, we'll tease people about. what is in that mind?

Like what is happening in that head of yours, like the way that we all think? But what's so funny is that like as long as we know the outcome we're searching for, we all get to that outcome together in uniquely different ways, which is why it's so important to hire the right people in the right roles because they should be able to understand, Hey, if this is the goal, I know how to get there.

It might look different. But this is why we get to inspect our people's work so that not only are we understanding a little bit more about how they work and how they're getting to the outcome, but also we've gotta know, are they actually fulfilling the role?

Are they actually getting done? What needs to get done?

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If you're asking the right questions. So doing the check-ins on a regular basis, making sure that they feel comfortable. Everybody feels comfortable in their roles and what they're doing and that they're on track. It makes them feel good also. So definitely worth that investment of time.

So, so it's sort of changing your mindset, change your mindset about inspection.

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Hey, after we've done gone through the inspection process, you're gonna notice some things. You're gonna notice ways that they can improve. You're gonna notice areas that they are really excelling, and then some places where they might need a little bit more help and assistance. And so that's where coaching comes into play.

And we get to build them up. We get to give them that feedback. We get to work together. And you get to, as the leader, help your team member grow. Because oftentimes, I mean, look, everyone needs a coach, right? we are so in our own, not only. Personally in our lives, but with the role that you're in, you're in the middle of it.

So other people can see where there might be opportunities for growth, where you're just missing it.

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That also develops, and I think Matthew talked about this a lot in the chapter, develops trust and respect. Because people want to be known. They want to be known, and they wanna usually wanna improve themselves, right? They're there to do a great job, so helping them find ways to really deliver the best of them.

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We can put this into place in our coaching style, in our leadership style and working with our people. So let's talk a little bit about why that's so important in different opportunities of growth and in leadership. Because, Michelle and I, when we were talking before we jumped on the call, We were saying if somebody heard the term managerial courage, what's the first thing that would come to most people's minds?

So if you're listening, what's the first thing that came to your mind when you heard the term managerial courage? For many people, it's having uncomfortable and difficult conversations with your team, and we see this challenge among almost all the executives that we work with because no one wants to have these uncomfortable conversations.

They're not fun.

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The expectations are already there. What you may find is an expectation gap. and then again, you get back to yourself. maybe I didn't communicate properly. So know yourself and know your people. That's what this three step process does for difficult conversations. It should minimize that.

I'll call it uncomfortable feeling. I love the way Matthew said it in there. get comfortable being uncomfortable. Well, this takes that comfortable level up a notch because. You feel good that you've set clear expectations, you've inspected, you've done check-ins, you've been talking to them all along.

That minimizes difficult conversations guaranteed.

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Like, that's an uncomfortable conversation. But if we, if you're having that conversation consistently, then the, not only does the leader is it, Easier for the leader to ha to bring that conversation up. But it's easier for the team member to hear it because they know, and you already talked about trust.

When you trust your leader and you know that they are there to help you get better having that conversation. You actually appreciate it. You're not upset that your leader said, Hey, maybe you're not living up to the expectations or you're not doing what needs to be done.

You're like, wow. I didn't even realize it. Or maybe, maybe when we're honest with ourselves, we did know, cuz maybe we did know that we're not really performing at our best. And what gets uncovered is so great because it could just be, hey, we're not performing at our best, for a number of different reasons.

But some of those reasons could be. Because you're just really challenged at home right now, and that's an opportunity for you to talk to your leader about that and what that looks like and what you're going through. And that is, building a great culture, right? When we have a culture where we're able to have those conversations, who wouldn't wanna work with an organization where you feel like it's okay?

It's okay when things are going wrong and you know you can talk to your leader about it and you're gonna work through it, you're gonna coach through it. So, difficult conversations alone could be a number of different episodes because there's so many ways to handle them.

There's so many ways, that we need to, to just be comfortable having more of them. And so I love that we have a process now to set you up for success to, to start having those conversations. And look, there's some conversations that are always gonna be a little uncomfortable, but. we get to get through them and both parties get better afterwards.

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And what does that mean? So something to really think about is how do you wanna see someone demonstrating managerial courage in your organization? So one of the other things that comes up is innovation. Having the courage to bring about new ideas. this three-step process really promotes that.

It makes that happen in a more natural, organic way. It's amazing because that's where you get to really listen to people and get their ideas and really encourage new ideas. If you don't have this process in place and you only speak to someone, Once a year about their performance and what's going on.

you're not gonna be able to take advantage of that. So I think a big part of, managerial courage is if fosters innovative ideas and communication up from the people that are actually doing the work. So, just a another way to think about managerial courage and hiring for it.

Really looking for that skill in someone and developing it along the way.

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Your fault. Like we put if we think that we're gonna share an idea and it's gonna be like a blame on us, if it doesn't go well, well then obviously people are gonna shy away from sharing their ideas. But when we build this culture of, Hey, we can talk about all the ideas we want, it doesn't mean they're all gonna work.

It doesn't mean that we should try all of these things. And it doesn't mean we can just try them all now, but maybe in the future. But when we have that kind of, that culture where we feel like we can at least bring those things up, and if we did try them, it's not a matter of, oh. It didn't work and it's your fault.

It's like, oh, that didn't work. What else? What's next? What else are we gonna do? When you look at it as data and feedback instead of a blaming situation, then we're not scared to share our ideas. We're not scared to try some new things because I mean, that's what business is, right? if you're, we're going to be innovative.

not every idea is a great idea.

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To your point, they don't wanna fail, but encouraging that. Because it may not be the first idea you bring. That's the big idea, but encouraging that on a regular basis could be big

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Because what sometimes we come up with these great big ideas and we don't really think them through. We're just like, this would be amazing. Well, now if you as a leader say, great, what would that look like? Like, how would you implement that? How, how is that gonna impact our business? Why is that the idea that's gonna take us from here to there in, in six months, 12 months?

And now you, you're tasking that person with, oh, I didn't really think about it like that. And now they have to go back and actually consider it. And they might actually come up with a really great plan. They also might come back and say, Ooh, this wasn't the best idea. So you're empowering your people to think about those ideas, but also to be more strategic and think through, is this really what's best for the organization and your role?

Because I wonder how many people are out there and they're so upset because their leader is just not listening to them. They have all these ideas, but really if they thought through their ideas, it's not the right idea, or maybe not the right time.

right? I mean, we talk about that in our office all the time.

We have those, we have idea journals because everyone on the team has incredible ideas. And I think Matthew had said it one time, he is like, every idea in silo is a good idea technically, right? Like if it's like in a, but not in a collective as you're running a business or for your life. And so this idea that you're allowing people, Hey, write all these ideas down and let's see what you think about them in a month.

Or in two months, do you still think it's the great idea? And so that as a leader, it's up to you to dis to really discern where you're going, which is why always goes back to expect, right?

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And what would that look like? So Michelle, if you were, coaching a leader right now and you recognize that they were definitely putting off uncomfortable conversations. Maybe they have someone on their team that has been a challenge and they just kind of keep letting it go instead of addressing the conversation head on.

What is one thing that you would share with somebody right now that might be going through something, that they need to take care of?

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And again, not just the what, but the how.

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We are so grateful that you're listening. We really enjoy, doing the show. If there's any topic or conversations you would love for us to have or. Dive into, please let us know. And if you are interested in learning a little bit more about not only managerial courage, but how to create a coaching culture, how to create a dynamic culture for your organization, we of course would, suggest that you read Matthew Kelly's book, the Culture Solution.

And also we have a really fun tool. That you can actually discover the culture score of your organization. how would you rate your culture? How would your team rate your culture? and you can go and get that free assessment over at floyd consulting.com/culture.

And uh, until next time, lead with culture.