October 29, 2024 • 17 mins
“Psychological safety is paramount to creating a high performing team and getting the most out of your experiences with that team."
Notable Moments
01:02 Surveys can reveal blind spots, improve processes, bolster safety.
04:04 Psychological safety builds high-performing, trusting teams.
09:47 Leader's mindset key; feedback aggregated confidentially.
11:22 Gather actionable feedback, ensure transparency, build trust.
15:08 Assess company culture and leadership alignment effectively.
When done with intention, leadership surveys can transform your workplace culture. Surveys that are well-developed are rolled out with meaning help organizations gauge their work culture and leadership. Unfortunately, many people have had experiences with surveys that leave them skeptical or fearful there would be retaliation if they were too candid. That doesn’t have to be the case for your company though. Read the blog on our website for how we've found success building culture with leadership surveys.
Connect with Tim and his team:
Website: https://bestculturesolutions.ca/
LinkedIn: Best Culture Solutions, Inc
Instagram: @best.culture.solutions
Email: tim@bestculturesolutions.ca
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to the World at Work podcast, where business leaders and
job seekers come together to create winning cultures and
fulfilling careers. I'm your host Jody Mayberry, and I'm here
with Tim Dick, the founder of Best Culture Solutions.
Hello, Tim. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm glad
to be back in the rotation here. I feel like Katie was
(00:29):
just starting to feel like she was taking over the prime host position.
Yeah. She definitely was positioning herself that way. And, I
mean, she did it, and she was successful, I think, for a while. She actually
does a very good job, I think. And so the best way to get a
job is to do it well, I guess. And she Oh, my. There there could
be a topic for a show right there. Yeah. Yeah.
(00:52):
And she will be back. But other than that, I have been preparing for your
next visit up to Fort McMurray because I fixed my NBA Jam
arcade game. It was broken. Now it's fixed. So
no. Yes. I do look forward to getting back up there to
Fort McMurray. I've had a wonderful time on my trips to Alberta
this year, and we Tim and I will do some more in
(01:14):
person episodes. The last time we only recorded the one in
his truck, while driving, which I have recorded
many podcasts in many situations. That was the first one I recorded
from the passenger seat. Yeah. But let's be clear to people. We did
not violate any distracted driving laws with that at
all. No. Not at all. Okay, Tim. I'm gonna jump right into
(01:37):
the topic. There is something that's been on my mind for a
while. Way back when I was a park ranger, they
being the government every once in a while, our agency
every once in a while, not annually, but they would send out
these surveys to question employees
on their leadership, on how do you like working at the park? What's
(02:00):
the culture? What do you think of your leader? Very specific
things. And although I appreciated the effort,
we did not have a good culture at the park I worked at.
And I thought, wait a minute now. If I answer these truthfully
and candidly, it's gonna be obvious they came we
had a very small staff. There was the park manager. And
(02:22):
then beyond that, it's not hard to figure out who
said what when the results come in. Ever since then,
I've thought leadership surveys could be useful,
but if people don't think they're anonymous, if people think there's going to
be retaliation, then they're just not ever going to be
honest or candid. They're going to say what's going to allow them
(02:44):
to just keep getting along. So my opinion of
leadership surveys hasn't it was shaped by
that. So I said, okay. I'm gonna go to an expert and
ask about this. So, Tim, what is your opinion on
leadership surveys? And in that setting, a
small staff like that, can they work in a
(03:06):
small setting? They can. I mean, I've done them in small
settings before, but sometimes in small settings, what we'll do is we'll
interview the staff 1 on 1 instead of sending them out. So it's a little
bit it's my notes instead of their notes when they write write their things in
there. But my opinion is that if they are
handled well, if they are handled with care, and
(03:27):
if they are handled genuinely, then they can be incredible
tools, and not in 2 ways. But the first thing is
that you can find out what your blind spots are as a leader. Right? Like,
what's going on in the operation that you might not see or hear or you
can't be everywhere at once, so it's a way you can see what's going on
on the ground. They are incredibly valuable that
(03:49):
way, And I have used them with success to find things out that
were going on or to get suggestions for process improvements or things that we could
do differently or better with great success. But they could also be
used to build the psychological safety in your
team. And, you know, as we've gotten smarter about
cultures, as we've gotten smarter about leadership over the years, one thing
(04:10):
that we have learned is that psychological safety is
paramount to creating a high performing team and getting the most out of your
experiences with that team. And
if you are doing these surveys right and
well and you're following through with the
anonymous factor that you just mentioned, People will
(04:32):
notice and they it will build trust with them. The first
couple times that you do it, people won't be sure. Right? And
you need to use those times to them to see that the proof is in
the pudding, that you're not going to use them against them or try to figure
out who so and they truly are anonymous. But if you can
follow a good, clean, thorough
(04:53):
process that is transparent, that is truly anonymous,
where people do not truly need to fear reprisal, then they can
become a powerful tool, not only in getting the advice that you need to really,
really, really get better, but also
in building trust with your team in your leadership
relationship and building psychological safety in your team. Well, I
(05:15):
gave an example of leadership survey that didn't
work the way it should have because the staff
thought, If I fill this out, the manager will know what I said
and then it's not gonna go well for me. Give us a picture
of what it looks like when leadership surveys are done the
proper way. Yeah. Great question. So here's what I would
(05:38):
do with them. So the first thing that that we do whenever we do leadership
surveys or culture surveys or what have you is
before I get into this, you know, I think it's one of the things that's
worth mentioning is that a high response rate for these types of
surveys is 60%, typically. We've been
able to achieve results where the lowest number that we've gotten
was 65%, 66%. So the lowest number of
(06:01):
engagement when we've done these with clients has already been
one been such that we get better
results using these parameters and these methods than what would be
considered a highly results for a highly engaged workforce. So I know that this
works, but people need to trust that it's anonymous. They need to trust that
they need to trust a few things. First of all, they do need to trust
(06:22):
that it really well and truly is anonymous. They need to trust
that a 100%. But the second thing is that they need to trust that it's
not going to be a useless exercise. They need to trust that you really
will take action when you say you'll take action, right? They need
to trust that you will really follow
through and listen to what they're saying, otherwise they're not going to participate But they
(06:44):
also need to trust, and this goes hand in hand with
the anonymous piece, they need to trust
that you are not going to try to figure out
who said what and that there's no threat to reprisal on them,
if that makes sense. They need to trust that you mean it. Right?
And if they trust those things, and you can get great feedback from people, but
(07:07):
it also then cultivates trust with the people that you're working
with. And so we have a different method of doing it. A lot of companies
will just do an online survey and and hand it in. We do it
differently. We actually administer them using a fillable PDF. And
the reason for that is because people can trust that we're not tracking
an email address associated with a survey. Even though online
(07:29):
surveys generally don't do that, sometimes people are worried that it's happening. But the other
concern that people have is that they will think
that even if it's not online and they're writing it out, that you can read
their penmanship. And so we use a fillable PDF form that they can type
their answers into and then print it off, so that way I can't read the
handwriting. And then we'll have them put it in an envelope, and we'll keep all
(07:51):
the envelopes together until a deadline day. So that way, they
know that envelopes aren't being opened as they're handed in. People don't think they're getting
read individually, and then we'll compile the results based on those anonymous
results after that. And that goes a long way to helping build that trust. There's
other things that we do after the survey that build the trust too, but I
think for the purposes of this conversation, that's where it starts. Right? It's having a
(08:11):
good, clean process that people know is gonna remain anonymous.
Yeah. That is an interesting approach, the fillable PDF that is
printed out. How do you address or
handle the idea that, well, I feel
like my supervisor will know if I say
something that it was one of his direct reports that said
(08:33):
this, and then it's either gonna be uncomfortable for me
or uncomfortable for the whole department? Yeah. A few ways.
And that's a great question. The first thing is that, you know, we always make
it clear to those leaders and supervisors that the best way to address this
feedback, the best way to address what you've just heard, is to spend
no time trying to find out who said what. And if you can't
(08:55):
instinctively figure it out, then just put it out of your head. I know it's
easier said than done, but just put it out of your head. But there's other
things that we do to mitigate it as well. You know? For instance, when we
go in and do it on behalf of a client, I'll introduce myself to the
team, and I'll tell them who I am, and I'll tell them why I'm there.
And I'll explain to them that's anonymous. And I will also explain to them one
of the ways that we know it's anonymous is because I
(09:17):
will be the one that is handing you like,
walking you through the process. Wherever you put the envelopes, and I give you
all an envelope that you can seal and put in there, Those
envelopes will stay there sealed until I come back, not anybody in
this workplace, but until I come back and pick them up. I'm
gonna pick them all up at once. So none of them have been open. They're
(09:38):
still sealed, and I, the 3rd party surveyor, has them. Not
anybody in your office. That way you know that your supervisor has
not opened them up. We'll often go to a team meeting and just
and show them that we have the whole box or bag of them all sealed
and thank them for participating just so that they can see that we've done that.
But then what we'll do is we will take the results and we will put
(09:59):
them into buckets and different categories based on the feedback that we've gotten,
and we will rewrite them using and paraphrase them using our own words and aggregate
them together. So that way it's harder to tell the language that somebody might use
as well. And I find that all those things help. At the end of the
day, though, the biggest thing is the mindset of the leader. Right? If the if
the leader does not have an open mindset where they're gonna say, you know what?
(10:19):
If I catch myself trying to guess who said this, I'm gonna stop myself from
doing that, then it doesn't really matter. Right? The leader has to be in on
this, and they have to be committed with their mind to that, to having
no reprisal. When you do leadership surveys,
unless it is just a terrible culture, I
know you get you collect more good feedback
(10:41):
than bad feedback. How do you take the good stuff, the
bad stuff, and collect it and then
present it to the leaders? Tell us a little bit about that
process. Yeah. Well, we come up with questions that,
you know, run the range of everything from, if you could give us advice, what
would it be? Right? And that's a better way of saying, what's going wrong? Right?
(11:02):
It's a more positive and constructive way of finding out what to really do. And
what we'll do is we'll just come up with a variety of questions. Right? Depending
on what's going on in the organization, you know, what's going on with the culture
or what the leader is sensing to try to get to the truth of it,
then we'll just present to the leaders as is. Right? It just, hey, look. This
is what they're saying. This is what they're saying is going well. This is what
they would improve. Right? And this is what they would change. But one of the
(11:24):
things that we do is that if if an employee or or somebody who's answering
the survey is gonna answer a question, we require them to
say and we ask questions in a way where they are compelled to actually
tell us what to do as opposed to just complain. Right? Like, what would you
change? How would you implement it? What action do you take? What do you really
do instead of just complaining about it? And that helps us as well make
(11:45):
sure that the the feedback we're getting is actually helpful and useful. But how
do we present it to the leaders? Well, first of all, we aggregate it, we
paraphrase it, and then I'll sit with them and walk them through it. But the
other thing that we'll tell them, and I actually will not work with leaders unless
they do this, is that they need to report their results back to their people.
So there's transparency. Right? That's one way to build trust around them, is to
(12:06):
have those results aggregated and
brought back to the people. So that way there's transparency and the
loop is closed for the people who answered the survey. And so we'll actually help
the leader prepare for that too. Hey. Here's what the results are, and let's get
how do we wanna get in front of them and tell them that this is
what what it was, if that makes sense. Do
(12:26):
you come up with an action plan at that time
on what to do with the information that you've found in
the surveys? Yeah. Good question. Yes.
Because, again, we talked about why people don't trust these things.
Right? It's because they do it, and they either never hear they they either do
not trust that it's anonymous, or they do
(12:48):
not trust that anybody's actually gonna do
anything with it, right, or read it, and they do not trust that anything
will change. Right? And so when we give this
and, you know, the techniques help with the anonymous
thing. Presenting the results back help with the, I don't believe that
anybody actually read this or cares thing. Right? But the
(13:10):
action thing, you know, that's where it really meets the road. You really
wanna build trust with people and take action on what they've told you. Right? And
so what we'll do is we will sit with the leaders
in question, and we'll say, here's what we see. Now
and we'll say, by the way, you don't want to action every single thing that
they've told you. And the reason for that is is twofold. First of all, you
(13:32):
just don't have time. Right? You can't do everything that everybody tells you to do
just because they told you to do it. But the other thing is
that sometimes people give you contradictory advice. Right?
And you're not doing this to try to be a people pleaser. You're not doing
this to try to make every single person happy. You're doing this to try to
get a wide range of opinions to figure out which levers can you pull
(13:54):
that'll have the greatest positive impact on your business. And so
the idea that you can make everybody happy just isn't gonna work. And so what
we'll do is after we get the data to the leaders, is we'll pull them
in and we'll say, I want you to pick 3 to 5
priorities from these suggestions based on
what you believe will make the greatest impact on your business. And then
(14:16):
create an action plan, a transparent action plan that you're gonna
share with your people afterwards to show them what you're doing
and report back to them, right, what it is you're doing and when you're gonna
do it. And as you complete items from that action log or action plan,
make sure that they know it's being done. So that way they know. And it
will build trust with them, so that way next time you do
(14:39):
these types of surveys, you'll get better results because they trust you.
But then afterwards as well, they'll just continually build that trust that you
actually are listening, that you're gonna take action, if that makes sense. Okay.
This I see the benefit in this to understand what's going
on with leaders, how people are feeling about the work they do,
who they work with, how they'd work. Do you ever use leadership
(15:02):
surveys to measure, to see if people understand
organizational priorities? Absolutely. We just did a an endeavor
like this for a client where it was what we talked a little bit about
what's your company's culture. Right? And and we asked their their people, what are the
shared values and behaviors in your company to see if there is alignment with what
the company is aiming for, and we did that. Another great way to use these
(15:22):
things is to actually do a direct and I used to do this quite a
bit. I had 4 or 5 assistant managers working with me
in in one job. And one thing about leaders is
that if you're the one that they report to, then they're
going to it's gonna look like everything's great. Right? If
I wanna find out how our leader is really doing and how they're really leading
(15:44):
people and how they're really behaving, I'm gonna ask the people they lead, what's
really happening when I'm not here or when I'm not watching. Right?
And, you know, I can tell you right now, I found out
pretty quickly, you know, which leaders were the ones that
were taking leadership seriously and which leaders weren't. Right? And so
doing that type of a feedback survey for one level below the people that
(16:06):
you manage is actually quite smart, and it can make a big difference. So there's
different ways, yes, for sure, that you can use this. You know, you can find
out if the culture aligns. You can also find out what how your leaders are
doing, You know, stuff like that. And so to answer your question, yes.
There's definitely different applications than just the global how are we doing
survey. This has been a a good introduction to
leadership surveys. Hopefully, you now
(16:29):
realize it's not all like this situation I gave
at the beginning. Tim has done a great job in helping us
understand how to implement, how to apply, and
how to benefit from doing leadership surveys. But
Tim, if we've never done a leadership survey, this can be a tall
task. We may not know where to begin, how to collect, what to
(16:52):
do with what we get. I'm sure there is someone out there
that can help us put this together. Who are you talking about? Well, I'll
tell you, I had in mind best culture solutions. Well, we definitely can. Yeah.
And we do help people with this pretty often, you know, and we help them
build trust with their people through this. And, yeah, we can definitely help, and we
always love doing stuff like this because it's one of the best tools that you
(17:13):
can use not only to improve your business and find out, you know, how you
can be better and where you can improve, but it's also one of the best
tools you can use to retain people and build trust with them, as a result.
But we can definitely help. Our website is bestculturesolutions.ca,
and I can be reached at tim@bestculturesolutions.ca.
Alright. Thank you, Tim. This has been a great conversation, and thank
(17:34):
you for listening to World at Work.
Welcome to the World at Work podcast, where business leaders and
job seekers come together to create winning cultures and
fulfilling careers. I'm your host Jody Mayberry, and I'm here
with Tim Dick, the founder of Best Culture Solutions.
Hello, Tim. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm glad
to be back in the rotation here. I feel like Katie was
(00:29):
just starting to feel like she was taking over the prime host position.
Yeah. She definitely was positioning herself that way. And, I
mean, she did it, and she was successful, I think, for a while. She actually
does a very good job, I think. And so the best way to get a
job is to do it well, I guess. And she Oh, my. There there could
be a topic for a show right there. Yeah. Yeah.
(00:52):
And she will be back. But other than that, I have been preparing for your
next visit up to Fort McMurray because I fixed my NBA Jam
arcade game. It was broken. Now it's fixed. So
no. Yes. I do look forward to getting back up there to
Fort McMurray. I've had a wonderful time on my trips to Alberta
this year, and we Tim and I will do some more in
(01:14):
person episodes. The last time we only recorded the one in
his truck, while driving, which I have recorded
many podcasts in many situations. That was the first one I recorded
from the passenger seat. Yeah. But let's be clear to people. We did
not violate any distracted driving laws with that at
all. No. Not at all. Okay, Tim. I'm gonna jump right into
(01:37):
the topic. There is something that's been on my mind for a
while. Way back when I was a park ranger, they
being the government every once in a while, our agency
every once in a while, not annually, but they would send out
these surveys to question employees
on their leadership, on how do you like working at the park? What's
(02:00):
the culture? What do you think of your leader? Very specific
things. And although I appreciated the effort,
we did not have a good culture at the park I worked at.
And I thought, wait a minute now. If I answer these truthfully
and candidly, it's gonna be obvious they came we
had a very small staff. There was the park manager. And
(02:22):
then beyond that, it's not hard to figure out who
said what when the results come in. Ever since then,
I've thought leadership surveys could be useful,
but if people don't think they're anonymous, if people think there's going to
be retaliation, then they're just not ever going to be
honest or candid. They're going to say what's going to allow them
(02:44):
to just keep getting along. So my opinion of
leadership surveys hasn't it was shaped by
that. So I said, okay. I'm gonna go to an expert and
ask about this. So, Tim, what is your opinion on
leadership surveys? And in that setting, a
small staff like that, can they work in a
(03:06):
small setting? They can. I mean, I've done them in small
settings before, but sometimes in small settings, what we'll do is we'll
interview the staff 1 on 1 instead of sending them out. So it's a little
bit it's my notes instead of their notes when they write write their things in
there. But my opinion is that if they are
handled well, if they are handled with care, and
(03:27):
if they are handled genuinely, then they can be incredible
tools, and not in 2 ways. But the first thing is
that you can find out what your blind spots are as a leader. Right? Like,
what's going on in the operation that you might not see or hear or you
can't be everywhere at once, so it's a way you can see what's going on
on the ground. They are incredibly valuable that
(03:49):
way, And I have used them with success to find things out that
were going on or to get suggestions for process improvements or things that we could
do differently or better with great success. But they could also be
used to build the psychological safety in your
team. And, you know, as we've gotten smarter about
cultures, as we've gotten smarter about leadership over the years, one thing
(04:10):
that we have learned is that psychological safety is
paramount to creating a high performing team and getting the most out of your
experiences with that team. And
if you are doing these surveys right and
well and you're following through with the
anonymous factor that you just mentioned, People will
(04:32):
notice and they it will build trust with them. The first
couple times that you do it, people won't be sure. Right? And
you need to use those times to them to see that the proof is in
the pudding, that you're not going to use them against them or try to figure
out who so and they truly are anonymous. But if you can
follow a good, clean, thorough
(04:53):
process that is transparent, that is truly anonymous,
where people do not truly need to fear reprisal, then they can
become a powerful tool, not only in getting the advice that you need to really,
really, really get better, but also
in building trust with your team in your leadership
relationship and building psychological safety in your team. Well, I
(05:15):
gave an example of leadership survey that didn't
work the way it should have because the staff
thought, If I fill this out, the manager will know what I said
and then it's not gonna go well for me. Give us a picture
of what it looks like when leadership surveys are done the
proper way. Yeah. Great question. So here's what I would
(05:38):
do with them. So the first thing that that we do whenever we do leadership
surveys or culture surveys or what have you is
before I get into this, you know, I think it's one of the things that's
worth mentioning is that a high response rate for these types of
surveys is 60%, typically. We've been
able to achieve results where the lowest number that we've gotten
was 65%, 66%. So the lowest number of
(06:01):
engagement when we've done these with clients has already been
one been such that we get better
results using these parameters and these methods than what would be
considered a highly results for a highly engaged workforce. So I know that this
works, but people need to trust that it's anonymous. They need to trust that
they need to trust a few things. First of all, they do need to trust
(06:22):
that it really well and truly is anonymous. They need to trust
that a 100%. But the second thing is that they need to trust that it's
not going to be a useless exercise. They need to trust that you really
will take action when you say you'll take action, right? They need
to trust that you will really follow
through and listen to what they're saying, otherwise they're not going to participate But they
(06:44):
also need to trust, and this goes hand in hand with
the anonymous piece, they need to trust
that you are not going to try to figure out
who said what and that there's no threat to reprisal on them,
if that makes sense. They need to trust that you mean it. Right?
And if they trust those things, and you can get great feedback from people, but
(07:07):
it also then cultivates trust with the people that you're working
with. And so we have a different method of doing it. A lot of companies
will just do an online survey and and hand it in. We do it
differently. We actually administer them using a fillable PDF. And
the reason for that is because people can trust that we're not tracking
an email address associated with a survey. Even though online
(07:29):
surveys generally don't do that, sometimes people are worried that it's happening. But the other
concern that people have is that they will think
that even if it's not online and they're writing it out, that you can read
their penmanship. And so we use a fillable PDF form that they can type
their answers into and then print it off, so that way I can't read the
handwriting. And then we'll have them put it in an envelope, and we'll keep all
(07:51):
the envelopes together until a deadline day. So that way, they
know that envelopes aren't being opened as they're handed in. People don't think they're getting
read individually, and then we'll compile the results based on those anonymous
results after that. And that goes a long way to helping build that trust. There's
other things that we do after the survey that build the trust too, but I
think for the purposes of this conversation, that's where it starts. Right? It's having a
(08:11):
good, clean process that people know is gonna remain anonymous.
Yeah. That is an interesting approach, the fillable PDF that is
printed out. How do you address or
handle the idea that, well, I feel
like my supervisor will know if I say
something that it was one of his direct reports that said
(08:33):
this, and then it's either gonna be uncomfortable for me
or uncomfortable for the whole department? Yeah. A few ways.
And that's a great question. The first thing is that, you know, we always make
it clear to those leaders and supervisors that the best way to address this
feedback, the best way to address what you've just heard, is to spend
no time trying to find out who said what. And if you can't
(08:55):
instinctively figure it out, then just put it out of your head. I know it's
easier said than done, but just put it out of your head. But there's other
things that we do to mitigate it as well. You know? For instance, when we
go in and do it on behalf of a client, I'll introduce myself to the
team, and I'll tell them who I am, and I'll tell them why I'm there.
And I'll explain to them that's anonymous. And I will also explain to them one
of the ways that we know it's anonymous is because I
(09:17):
will be the one that is handing you like,
walking you through the process. Wherever you put the envelopes, and I give you
all an envelope that you can seal and put in there, Those
envelopes will stay there sealed until I come back, not anybody in
this workplace, but until I come back and pick them up. I'm
gonna pick them all up at once. So none of them have been open. They're
(09:38):
still sealed, and I, the 3rd party surveyor, has them. Not
anybody in your office. That way you know that your supervisor has
not opened them up. We'll often go to a team meeting and just
and show them that we have the whole box or bag of them all sealed
and thank them for participating just so that they can see that we've done that.
But then what we'll do is we will take the results and we will put
(09:59):
them into buckets and different categories based on the feedback that we've gotten,
and we will rewrite them using and paraphrase them using our own words and aggregate
them together. So that way it's harder to tell the language that somebody might use
as well. And I find that all those things help. At the end of the
day, though, the biggest thing is the mindset of the leader. Right? If the if
the leader does not have an open mindset where they're gonna say, you know what?
(10:19):
If I catch myself trying to guess who said this, I'm gonna stop myself from
doing that, then it doesn't really matter. Right? The leader has to be in on
this, and they have to be committed with their mind to that, to having
no reprisal. When you do leadership surveys,
unless it is just a terrible culture, I
know you get you collect more good feedback
(10:41):
than bad feedback. How do you take the good stuff, the
bad stuff, and collect it and then
present it to the leaders? Tell us a little bit about that
process. Yeah. Well, we come up with questions that,
you know, run the range of everything from, if you could give us advice, what
would it be? Right? And that's a better way of saying, what's going wrong? Right?
(11:02):
It's a more positive and constructive way of finding out what to really do. And
what we'll do is we'll just come up with a variety of questions. Right? Depending
on what's going on in the organization, you know, what's going on with the culture
or what the leader is sensing to try to get to the truth of it,
then we'll just present to the leaders as is. Right? It just, hey, look. This
is what they're saying. This is what they're saying is going well. This is what
they would improve. Right? And this is what they would change. But one of the
(11:24):
things that we do is that if if an employee or or somebody who's answering
the survey is gonna answer a question, we require them to
say and we ask questions in a way where they are compelled to actually
tell us what to do as opposed to just complain. Right? Like, what would you
change? How would you implement it? What action do you take? What do you really
do instead of just complaining about it? And that helps us as well make
(11:45):
sure that the the feedback we're getting is actually helpful and useful. But how
do we present it to the leaders? Well, first of all, we aggregate it, we
paraphrase it, and then I'll sit with them and walk them through it. But the
other thing that we'll tell them, and I actually will not work with leaders unless
they do this, is that they need to report their results back to their people.
So there's transparency. Right? That's one way to build trust around them, is to
(12:06):
have those results aggregated and
brought back to the people. So that way there's transparency and the
loop is closed for the people who answered the survey. And so we'll actually help
the leader prepare for that too. Hey. Here's what the results are, and let's get
how do we wanna get in front of them and tell them that this is
what what it was, if that makes sense. Do
(12:26):
you come up with an action plan at that time
on what to do with the information that you've found in
the surveys? Yeah. Good question. Yes.
Because, again, we talked about why people don't trust these things.
Right? It's because they do it, and they either never hear they they either do
not trust that it's anonymous, or they do
(12:48):
not trust that anybody's actually gonna do
anything with it, right, or read it, and they do not trust that anything
will change. Right? And so when we give this
and, you know, the techniques help with the anonymous
thing. Presenting the results back help with the, I don't believe that
anybody actually read this or cares thing. Right? But the
(13:10):
action thing, you know, that's where it really meets the road. You really
wanna build trust with people and take action on what they've told you. Right? And
so what we'll do is we will sit with the leaders
in question, and we'll say, here's what we see. Now
and we'll say, by the way, you don't want to action every single thing that
they've told you. And the reason for that is is twofold. First of all, you
(13:32):
just don't have time. Right? You can't do everything that everybody tells you to do
just because they told you to do it. But the other thing is
that sometimes people give you contradictory advice. Right?
And you're not doing this to try to be a people pleaser. You're not doing
this to try to make every single person happy. You're doing this to try to
get a wide range of opinions to figure out which levers can you pull
(13:54):
that'll have the greatest positive impact on your business. And so
the idea that you can make everybody happy just isn't gonna work. And so what
we'll do is after we get the data to the leaders, is we'll pull them
in and we'll say, I want you to pick 3 to 5
priorities from these suggestions based on
what you believe will make the greatest impact on your business. And then
(14:16):
create an action plan, a transparent action plan that you're gonna
share with your people afterwards to show them what you're doing
and report back to them, right, what it is you're doing and when you're gonna
do it. And as you complete items from that action log or action plan,
make sure that they know it's being done. So that way they know. And it
will build trust with them, so that way next time you do
(14:39):
these types of surveys, you'll get better results because they trust you.
But then afterwards as well, they'll just continually build that trust that you
actually are listening, that you're gonna take action, if that makes sense. Okay.
This I see the benefit in this to understand what's going
on with leaders, how people are feeling about the work they do,
who they work with, how they'd work. Do you ever use leadership
(15:02):
surveys to measure, to see if people understand
organizational priorities? Absolutely. We just did a an endeavor
like this for a client where it was what we talked a little bit about
what's your company's culture. Right? And and we asked their their people, what are the
shared values and behaviors in your company to see if there is alignment with what
the company is aiming for, and we did that. Another great way to use these
(15:22):
things is to actually do a direct and I used to do this quite a
bit. I had 4 or 5 assistant managers working with me
in in one job. And one thing about leaders is
that if you're the one that they report to, then they're
going to it's gonna look like everything's great. Right? If
I wanna find out how our leader is really doing and how they're really leading
(15:44):
people and how they're really behaving, I'm gonna ask the people they lead, what's
really happening when I'm not here or when I'm not watching. Right?
And, you know, I can tell you right now, I found out
pretty quickly, you know, which leaders were the ones that
were taking leadership seriously and which leaders weren't. Right? And so
doing that type of a feedback survey for one level below the people that
(16:06):
you manage is actually quite smart, and it can make a big difference. So there's
different ways, yes, for sure, that you can use this. You know, you can find
out if the culture aligns. You can also find out what how your leaders are
doing, You know, stuff like that. And so to answer your question, yes.
There's definitely different applications than just the global how are we doing
survey. This has been a a good introduction to
leadership surveys. Hopefully, you now
(16:29):
realize it's not all like this situation I gave
at the beginning. Tim has done a great job in helping us
understand how to implement, how to apply, and
how to benefit from doing leadership surveys. But
Tim, if we've never done a leadership survey, this can be a tall
task. We may not know where to begin, how to collect, what to
(16:52):
do with what we get. I'm sure there is someone out there
that can help us put this together. Who are you talking about? Well, I'll
tell you, I had in mind best culture solutions. Well, we definitely can. Yeah.
And we do help people with this pretty often, you know, and we help them
build trust with their people through this. And, yeah, we can definitely help, and we
always love doing stuff like this because it's one of the best tools that you
(17:13):
can use not only to improve your business and find out, you know, how you
can be better and where you can improve, but it's also one of the best
tools you can use to retain people and build trust with them, as a result.
But we can definitely help. Our website is bestculturesolutions.ca,
and I can be reached at tim@bestculturesolutions.ca.
Alright. Thank you, Tim. This has been a great conversation, and thank
(17:34):
you for listening to World at Work.
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