A People-First Mindset
FountainBlue's February 8 Front Line Managers Online program was on the topic of 'A People-First Mindset'. Please join me in thanking our panelists.
as a People Leader - Tammy Sanders, Lam Research
as an Operations Leader - Louise Lamb, former Coupa
as a Product Leader - Ronald Goossens, ASML
as a Business Leader - Suvidha Kovuri, Cisco
Although they represent a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and responsibilities, our dynamic and passionate panelists had much in common:
As leaders and managers, they are strategic and empathetic, consistently putting their people first.
As authentic and transparent leaders, they build credibility and trust, working in community with their people to create value and deliver on metrics.
As flexible, lifelong learners, they challenge themselves to be better and do more, while empowering and inspiring their team to do the same.
Below is a compilation of their recommended best practices:
Bring your full self to the table.
Show up fully and be present to contribute to the common cause.
Nurture and grow a culture who welcomes people with diverse backgrounds to participate.
Build a community and lean into it, so you can be better together.
Share your successes and your stories.
Support each other with inevitable setbacks.
Empower and enable those around you to succeed.
Leverage each other to come back stronger from setbacks.
Challenge each other in constructive, positive ways.
Embrace the differences which make us all unique and valuable.
Communicate to inform, to connect, to inspire, to deliver.
Be curious about how your communication is intended and how it is received.
Be curious about how what you heard might be in alignment with the intended message.
Communicate with transparency, vulnerability and authenticity, in alignment with corporate values, mission, goals.
Create value, working toward a common purpose.
Work for a company, product, service which creates value.
Ensure that people understand how what they do creates value for others.
Align projects and work with corporate objectives.
Measure and report on the impact made, the value created.
Align a people-first mindset from the top-down, from the bottom-up.
Brainstorm: What can we each do to shift the culture more toward putting people first?
Listen better
Practice Self-reflection
Reflect: How you do anything is how you do everything
Transparency
Lead by example
Tell stories
Be vulnerable
Learn from failures
Curiosity
Learn to re-set
Be metrics-driven
Create space
Put people first while honoring boundaries
Respect and support your people and their needs
Have a sense of humor
We ended by stating the 'culture eats strategy for lunch' - our people must come first! And we must prove that people come first by consistently aligning our thoughts, speaking and actions to reflect that mindset.