Danny Langloss

What are 2 of a leader's greatest tools?

Asking questions AND listening

BUT

The key isn't just to ask any question....The key is to ask the right questions.

The right questions give insight to our team members, both personally and professionally.

The right questions allow us to find common ground.

The right questions allow us to connect on a much deeper level.

Asking the right questions allows us to know what matters to our team members.

It allows us to know what drives positive energy in them.

Asking the right questions AND listening to understand instead of listening to respond allows us to build rapport and earn the trust of our team members.

AND

It gives us a roadmap on how to lead them individually.

This is a critical aspect of our 21st Century: Leading the Whole Person framework.

So what are some of the right questions?

“What are the things that matter the most in your life?“

“What sets you on fire?“

“What do you really want? How will you know when you have achieved it?“

“What is a question you have been afraid to ask?“

“What tasks or situations energize you?“

“What do you wish you could do more of?“

These are just some of the questions that give a deep insight into our people, personally and professionally.

What questions help you get to know your people better? What questions help you build rapport and earn trust?

FREEBIE!!!

What if I told you we were giving away 3 pages of great questions to help leaders build rapport, earn trust, and create very high levels of psychological safety within their teams?

Well we are!!! There is a direct link in the comments below to these 44 great questions. Click on the link and download the PDF.

Follow Danny Langloss for daily leadership, mindset, and motivation content.

(Infograph Credit: Image by Slyvia Duckworth based on the work of Holiday Phillips)

#leadership #empathy #rapport #trust #psychologicalsafety #purpose #empowerment #ownership #dannylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast

7 Critical Components of Empathy

We never know what the person standing across from us is going through.

Over this past week, there has been so much adversity in our family. My brother-in-law suffered severe burns to most of his body in a bonfire accident, we have been supporting his wife and caring for his 3 young children, and we have been getting about 2 hours of sleep a night because our 11 month old son is sick.

If you ran into me this week and did not know me well, you would have no idea these things are going on in my life. I don't wear them on my sleeve. Like most people, I put a smile on my face and show up the best I can.

However, there are a couple of leaders in our organization who have been able to pick up on my energy shift. They are people that care about me, people who know me well, people who I trust and who trust me.

They have demonstrated empathy, and this empathy has been so important for my ability to stay strong for my wife and my family and to give focus to some important tasks at work. Through their empathy, they made me feel cared about and supported. They gave me a safe place to share my emotion and “get it off of my chest“. Their compassion and offers to help acted as an incredible stress reliever. The problems still exist, but I feel so much better.

This is why leading the whole person is so essential. As the #infographic below demonstrates, most of the time, we only see what is on the surface. Rarely do we know what is really going on in our team members' lives. However, when we lead the whole person and have established meaningful relationships, we can see and feel the shifts that happen in their energy and emotion. Not only can we see these shifts, but our team members will proactively let us know when they are struggling or facing adversity.

So what are the 7 Critical Components of Empathy?

1. Demonstrate Genuine Care & Concern
2. Listen to Understand, Not to Respond
3. Be Curious
4. Be Supportive, Not Judgemental
5. Connect Through Emotion
6. Demonstrate Understanding
7. Take Compassionate Action

What am I missing?

What would you add?

The past couple of weeks, we have been breaking down the importance of empathy and why we believe empathy is the heartbeat of leadership. We encourage you to check out the other posts if you are interested in learning more.

(Credit: Image source The Mind Academy. I originally saw this graphic in a post from David McLean, MA (Leadership) CHRL)

Follow Danny Langloss for leadership, mindset, and motivation content.

#leadership #empathy #culture #psychologicalsafety #belonging #purpose #empowerment #dannylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast

Would it surprise you to know that only 3 out of every 10 people say their opinion counts at work?

7 out of 10 people do not feel like their voice, ideas, and opinions matter. Therefore, they do not feel like they matter.

When we think about fixing the root causes of dysfunctional teams, I think this is a great place to start.

Why?

Because when we don't feel like we matter, there is no way for trust, psychological safety and belonging to exist.

There is no way for us to feel empowered or be in a position to demonstrate ownership.

So as leaders, how do we fix this problem?

EMPATHY

That's right, the number 1 way we can let people know they matter is to care about them, give them a voice, and seek to understand how they feel, what they are going through, and how we can help them contribute in a positive way to our team.

This is why we believe empathy is the heartbeat of leadership.

Empathy gives people a voice and lets them know we care about them and they matter.

So how do we do this?

Demonstrating empathy requires us to use 2 of a leaders greatest tools:

1. Asking questions
2. Listening

AND

Instead of listening to judge or respond, we must listen with curiosity. We must listen to learn.

This past week, I sat down with Forbes Leadership Contributor Tony Gambill on the Leadership Excellence Podcast, and he shared the 5 Characteristics of High Trust Teams. (Linked Below)

Number 1 is “Team members feel valued and heard“.

During our conversation, Tony shared processes and behaviors to bring this and the other 4 characteristics to life. It was a great conversation filled with so many pieces of pure gold.

So let me ask you a question.

How important is it for you to feel valued and have a voice at work?

How do you demonstrate empathy at work?

(CREDIT: Image - Sylvia Duckworth and Holiday Phillips)

Follow Danny Langloss for leadership, mindset, and motivation content.

#leadership #trust #empathy #psychologicalsafety #belonging #empowerment #ownership #dannylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast

Relationships are gold and Trust is the foundation of all relationships.

Have you ever heard of the Leadership Bank Account?

It is a relationship account we have with every person on our team.

We always want to make sure the balance in this account is positive AND positive by a lot.

This is why we have developed a philosophy called “10 to 1“.

Here is how it works. As leaders, we always try to have 10 positive, trust building interactions to every 1 negative interaction.

Why?

By the pure nature of leadership, there are going to be withdrawals.

Leadership is full of tough decisions, difficult conversations, change, and accountability.

On a scale of 1 -10, withdrawals are almost always a 5 or higher, while deposits typically range anywhere from a 1 to a 4 or 5.

This is why it is so intentional for us to proactively create deposits and build us a strong reserve.

What do these deposits look like?

- A short positive interaction
- Giving praise or recognition
- Coaching 
- Mentoring
- Assigning meaningful tasks
- Caring about a person beyond work
- Being vulnerable
- Admitting mistakes
- Being fair and consistent
- Being inclusive

AND

One of the biggest deposits is HAVING SOMEONE'S BACK.

This deposit will probably rise to a 7 or 8. 

What are some other deposits?

What are some major withdrawals?

(Credit: Sketchnote by Tanmay Vora based on insights by Matt Whiat)

Follow Danny Langloss for leadership, mindset, and motivation content.

#leadership #trust #culture #psychologicalsafety #belonging #purpose #empowerment #danntylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast

The emotional stamp is a stamp that drives the release of chemicals in our brain.

These chemicals are responsible for driving motivation, connection, trust, the feeling of significance, excitement, and so many other positive emotions and feelings.

These chemicals can also create stress, anxiety, fear, distrust, resentment, avoidance, shame, and disgust.

Every interaction we have with our team members is leaving an emotional stamp, some are significant and some create a minor impact.

For leaders, it is critical to be intentional about the emotional stamp we are leaving on our team members.

The stamp will be the difference between connection, collaboration, trust, belonging, confidence, empowerment, commitment, and ownership...

OR

Distrust, disengagement, avoidance, resentment, anger, etc... and overall dysfunction across our organization.

So what are some ways to create this positive stamp?

- Give recognition and praise
- Assign team members meaningful work
- Share a smile and positive energy
- Provide coaching and mentoring 
- Demonstrate empathy and take compassionate action
- Engage in active listening
- Engage team member in meaningful conversations, like solving a problem or creating a new initiative
- Pushing a major project over the finish line

These are just a few ways to leave a positive emotional stamp on our team members and drive connection, beloninging, trust, and ownership in the organization.

What would you add?

(CREDIT: Sketchnote by Tanmay Vora)

Follow Danny Langloss for leadership, mindset, and motivation content.

#leadership #empathy #trust #belonging #ownership #dannylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast

Leadership is not about power and control.

Leadership is about service and empowerment.

Leadership is the ability to influence, connect, inspire, empower, motivate, and unite a person or a group of people towards a common vision, goal, or purpose.

The true test of leadership is whether or not people CHOOSE to follow us.

This is a great sketchnote by Tanmay Vora outlining several factors that create influence. All of these elements are very important.

As I think about them, they all come back to 3 primary things:

1. Empathy
2. Rapport
3. Trust

These are 3 of the most essential elements of positive human connection that lead to incredible levels of influence.

This is why we believe....

Empathy is the heartbeat of leadership

AND

Trust is the currency of leadership

What do you think?

What do you think are the most important drivers of influence?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

(Sketchnote Credit: Tanmay Vora)

Follow Danny Langloss for leadership, mindset, and motivation content.
__________________________________________________________

Are you interested in 44 questions that build RAPPORT, earn TRUST, and create PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

Download the free PDF by clicking the link below.

#leadership #empathy #trust #psychologicalsafety #purpose #empowerment #ownership #dannylangloss #leadershipexcellencepodcast