Leading with Family

This week's post was written by Doug Post.

No core value has generated more discussion and a wider range of opinions at Interstates than family. So let's start by aligning around Interstates' definition:

"Family focuses on building a strong sense of community at work and at home. At work, our team is a family – we learn and grow together, building strong relationships and a support network with each other. At home, we encourage our employees to keep their families a priority – making time for them and strengthening these relationships."

When we recently surveyed a number of our employees on their definition of work family and nuclear family, it was striking to see the frequency of common terms showing up in both definitions. Terms like care, support, openness, trust, and respect for each other.

As servant leaders we are responsible to provide opportunities for our people. This includes building and maintaining a culture where we can thrive at work and thrive at home. A culture where work-life balance is a priority and where the family definitions just shared are held dear.

To lead with family, we need to forgo some of the rigid rules and structure of a typical work week. It is important to recognize traditional work-life balance assumptions do not apply to all. For example, to our traveling employees and to today's typical millennial (if there is such a person). So let's actively lead by asking ourselves questions like the following:

·        Jennie just committed to a personally demanding client requirement, how can I take something off of her plate?

·        Since I ask Bill to travel regularly, how do I ensure he has plenty of family time/personal flexibility when he's not travelling?

·        Am I leading assertively when I notice our family core value is not being lived out at work?

·        Am I helping others focus and say no in effective, productive ways?

·        Does my team embrace differing views on work-life balance?

·        Do my employees know their family time is a priority for me? Are they willing to share work-life balance concerns with me?

What other family related questions would you add to the list above?  

With differing business units, field and office employees, personal schedules and varied viewpoints, this isn't a cut and dried topic.  And work-life balance is not easy.  It isn't self-correcting.  You need to be aware of your imbalances and monitor to ensure you are keeping your work-life balanced in your own life and help ensure that for your team as well. 

Additionally, healthy home-lives support a healthy employee at work. Strained relationships distract and cause one to lose focus. I encourage you to nurture relationships both at home and work. Building relationships provides a good support network for the challenges as well as the celebrations and trials of life. Are you leading with the family core value in mind?

Keep leading the Interstates way!

Doug Post

Develops, Coaches, and Motivates

This week's post was written by Scott Peterson.

During most Excellence in Leadership 1 classes, we ask two very telling questions:

1.       Who was the best supervisor/leader you have ever had, and why?

2.       Who was the worst supervisor/leader you have ever had, and why?

The answer to the first question revolves around development, coaching and motivation. Most of the time, the leader that tops the "best" list focused on helping the person grow, elevating their performance, and helping them achieve more than the employee thought was possible. They played the role of a mentor, coach, cheerleader, etc. Their goals were balanced between getting things done and positioning other people to learn and grow. 

The answer to the second question is also interesting. Leaders on the "worst" list are focused on themselves and getting things done.  They treat their people as tools. 

I have had many people from the Interstates family invest their time in me to help me grow. For example:

• Jim Franken - coached and pushed me about leadership and being forward-thinking.

• Darrel Ramhorst - gave me hard feedback, pushed me to have high standards, and encouraged me when I needed it.

• John DeZeeuw - helped me understand the business of construction, engineering and automation. He also inspired me to have a balanced perspective (balancing the needs of the employees, the needs of the clients, and the needs of the business).

•  Larry Den Herder - focuses on providing feedback and direction on how to make a difference for our clients.

• Jack Woelber - provides great feedback and support. He also helps reinforce the desire to build a great culture, live our core values, and provide opportunities for people.

• Dave Crumrine - helps me to think broadly and deeply about our clients and our business.  His ideas, feedback and passion around pursuing a better way have raised the expectations of myself and our team.

• Doug Post - encourages me to be a better systems thinker and to constantly read and look for solutions for our teams and for our clients.

• Kristi Segar and Lori Van Beek - provide great feedback, insight and perspective to help me grow as a leader.

As you think about how to develop, coach and motivate your team, there are two approaches that are effective. If you want to have amazing results, the key is to implement them together. These approaches are:

Planned Development

As a leader, know your team. Know what they want to develop and support that. You should also have open and candid conversations with them about what they need to develop and why. As you get to know them you'll find out what they need (e.g. skill development, experience, self-awareness, confidence, etc.).

Teachable Moments

These moments pop up every day, but many of them go unnoticed. A great leader has the ability to see them and leverage them. They may not see 100% of them; it is more like baseball - hitting 300 is great. They connect the teachable moment with the development that employee needs at that time. When it happens - it is powerful and can really motivate the employee, and the leader. 

Interstates excels at development, both on the technical side and on the leadership side. Your responsibility, your opportunity, your privilege is investing some of yourself into your team, your peers and other leaders to help them reach their potential. When it happens, it's a win/win situation. When you invest in people, you ARE leading The Interstates Way!

Continue leading The Interstates Way!

Scott Peterson

Relates with Others

This week's post was written by Jack Woelber

Let me start with a question. Whose responsibility is it to relate well with others, the leader’s or the “other’s”? I’d like to suggest that, even though both parties have a responsibility, it is up to the leader to take the necessary steps for relating with others. What steps can a leader take to help ensure that they are relating well with others?

Build rapport. It takes time and intentionality to build rapport with someone, but through good listening and being approachable, you can find commonality that allows individuals to connect. Connecting with someone is very helpful in relating to him or her. Through that connection, it is easier to be empathetic when a person is sharing his or her point of view.

Once you have built rapport, a safe environment can be created for people to share their viewpoints, even though they might be different than yours. Seeking out those differing views allows you to think more broadly and possibly achieve a perspective you might not have gotten if you hadn’t tried to understand. I had a customer tell me one time, “Think about it until you agree with me.” While he was just kidding, that kind of attitude creates an unsafe environment and will shut down opportunities to relate well with others.

Phil Quigley, former CEO of Pacific Bell, once said, “I don’t think of leadership as a skill. I think of leadership as a relationship.” This attitude allows everyone you work with to feel important and to know his or her opinion is valued and matters. Thinking of leadership as a relationship magnifies the opportunity to draw out the opinions of others and to glean more candid, honest input and feedback that you would otherwise not get.

As a servant leader, one of your responsibilities is to meet others where they are. You may need to modify your typical approach, or at some level who you are, to be sure to engage others in order to relate well with them. Modifying your typical approach takes humility and emotional intelligence. This self-awareness and ability to adapt is crucial for relating well with others.

When I first came to Interstates, Darrel Ramhorst was my supervisor and mentor. I understood computers and programming, but I didn’t understand PLCs or electricity. Darrel was a master at coming to my level to teach me what I needed to know to be more effective in my role. With his master’s degree in engineering from MIT, it would have been very easy for him to speak well above my head and lose me in the conversation, as well as frustrate me. (He may have been frustrated, but he didn’t show it!) However, Darrel first understood who I was and where I was. He then adjusted so we could relate at an appropriate level for me to learn and grow in my understanding of the industry. He was a great example for me. My hope is that each of us will do what we can to become better at relating well with others.

Continue leading the Interstates Way! Jack Woelber