September typically marks the return to school for children all over the country, but earlier this summer I had the opportunity to pack up my notebooks and pencils and head off to Harvard for a leadership workshop with Communiqué PR’s management team.
The session, “Managing Yourself and Leading Others” was packed into a solid two days of case studies, live group discussions, role playing and, of course, marshmallows (but more on that later).
I’ve managed people for almost 10 years now and, like a lot of people, didn’t go through much formal training to do so. I’ve tried to base my management style on those managers who have really affected my professional and personal development – those I loved and learned from, and others who I learned from in far less positive ways.
Understanding Motivations: Good Days and Bad
Some of the most compelling and interesting exercises for me during the workshop involved taking the time to reflect on both my personal and professional motivations as a manager, and those of my team and organization.
To start things off, the instructor asked us to think back to a day when we came home from work feeling truly excited and fulfilled about our job. Similarly, we thought about days when we came home feeling a little beaten down and discouraged about work.
Some of us are motivated by money, titles or promotions, meaningful work, or a public acknowledgement of a job well done. When you think back on an awesome, inspiring day at work, what about it made it great? Do you know what motivates your team and employees?
Going through this exercise helped us to not only identify our own motivations but to consider those of the people we manage – understanding that can help us to adapt the way we manage and mentor them.
Which leads us to our next point…
Flex Your Leadership Style
Every manager is unique and will bring their own leadership style to an organization, but staying in your management “comfort zone” too frequently can be a drawback for you and those you manage. Managers need to use a variety of leadership styles depending on the business situation and the people or teams they are managing.
Some leadership styles are more authoritative and coercive, others more democratic or mentoring/coaching-focused. Part of our leadership styles comes from our personalities, our backgrounds, or the way we were managed previously. The reality is that none of these styles on their own are wrong, but focusing on one style too heavily can create challenges.
What works for a self-motivated, highly competent employee may not work with another that needs more development and coaching. In an emergency situation, a coercive style (“Do what I say!”) can be very effective, but it can also impact motivation long-term. An affiliative style, focused on team building, can increase morale, but has the potential to allow poor performance to go uncorrected. Daniel Goleman has identified six main leadership styles in this article from Harvard Business Review (registration required).
Goleman’s article underscores the importance of thinking outside our comfort zones as managers and adapting our preferred style based on the person and the situation. Being flexible to switching between styles, as the circumstances require, is an indication of both emotional intelligence and strong, adaptive leadership.
Don’t Eat the Marshmallow!
Then, as with all executive leadership seminars, we also discussed the power of marshmallows.
This stemmed from Walter Mischel’s work on impulse control and delayed gratification in the 1960s where he gave preschoolers a choice: You can have one marshmallow now, or wait a few minutes and then have two marshmallows. The results showed that those children able to wait for the second marshmallow (i.e., focused on long-term goals) were more successful later in life than those who immediately ate the first marshmallow (i.e., focused on short-term satisfaction).
As a manager – and a longtime PR agency employee – I found this analogy fascinating. Too often we focus on quick wins and short-term success that don’t connect to the bigger picture or objective. For our clients, we want to show value and results, especially early on in the engagement, but if those results don’t drive their businesses forward in a meaningful way, are they really worth it?
Perceived Versus Actual Rules
In another marshmallow-centric exercise, teams competed to build the tallest structure out of dry spaghetti sticks, masking tape and string that would support a single marshmallow (Spoiler alert: Marshmallows are surprisingly heavy!).
While this task seems ridiculous at first, it actually allowed our teams to put the workshop’s lessons into action. It presented an opportunity to collaborate quickly, understand each team member’s strengths and roles, test and re-test prototypes, and learn from those results.
For my group specifically, we learned the drawbacks of following perceived rules versus actual rules. Long story short, we assumed we couldn’t build the structure’s foundation in a certain way, and no one thought to ask the instructor or conduct competitive research to see what other groups were doing. We just kept plodding along assuming we were right. We lost the competition as a result.
The dangers of following perceived rules have huge repercussions when it comes to managing others and your own professional development. If you keep your head down, assuming you’re following the right path, you’re not guaranteed to succeed. There might be new and different paths to take, or even an escape ladder hiding in the corner that will take you to another destination entirely!
I realize it’s not always feasible to cross the country and head to Harvard for a two-day workshop, but I would highly recommend the power of external training for anyone who manages people, in any capacity. Getting outside of your day-to-day business routine and interacting with new people from vastly different backgrounds and professions was almost as helpful as the workshop’s lessons themselves.
What type of leadership or management training has been useful to you as a PR professional? Has any of it involved marshmallows? Tell us here, in the comments!