I’m told that one quote preachers try to live by is, “If it’s foggy in the pulpit, it’s cloudy in the pew.” In other words, as the leader and communicator, if you’re unclear about any part of your message, it’s a sure bet everyone else is as well.

You don’t have to be a preacher to risk setting unclear expectations. If you’re responsible for performance outcomes of any kind, unclear expectations could be your biggest kryptonite. In fact, if the expectations you set are unclear, you force members of your team to work as much as three times as hard.

Consensus on the Intention Must Be Reached

With unclear expectations, before any work can be done, the folks performing the work must determine what they think the expectations are. Depending on the size or scope of the project, this could require significant time and energy. When an entire team is involved, the level of effort, time and cost adds up quickly.

The Original Work Must Be Completed

Regardless of expectations, the team must complete the initial set of tasks.

Constant Troubleshooting Must Be Performed

This is where the cost really multiplies. Whenever new information comes in, the team must halt their progress and redirect. In many unfortunate cases, additional re-work is required.

And this doesn’t factor in the cost of morale lost in the process!

So how can you make sure you’re expectations are clear as crystal?

First, always assume that the expectations you give will be misinterpreted. Then go the extra mile to reiterate your message. At the very least, for everyone performing the work, provide clarity of outcome and clarity of role.

One of the reasons the best bosses have the highest engaged teams is because everyone knows where they stand in relation to the goal. No one has to wonder and feedback can be more focused on what’s next, not what’s wrong. So go the extra inch – or mile – to create clarity from the start. Everyone comes out on top.

What did you do in that situation? What should you do? Many leaders of former peers struggle at first. Some even go so far as to request a demotion in order to return to the way things were. There has to be a better way.

If you find yourself leading former peers, here are some steps you can take.

Address the Elephant in the Room

When you get promoted to the new boss, it’s a cause for celebration. But it’s also a cause for concern. Your old pals want special treatment. The rest want to be treated as equals. They probably doubt your ability to stay objective. Everyone will be waiting to see what happens.

The easiest way to address this situation is head on – in one of your first team meetings.

“I’d like take a minute to address the elephant in the room. I went from a peer to the boss. This means my level of responsibility has changed. It’s been a privilege to work along side of you and I’m excited to play a bigger role on this team.”

Acknowledge Prior Relationships

The quickest way to diffuse a tense situation is to acknowledge it directly. Your doubters will be forced to agree with you. So acknowledge your prior relationships in a positive way. Share how important they’ve been to you and how much you value them.

“It’s true that I’ve developed some strong relationships on this team over the time we’ve worked together. I wouldn’t be the professional I am today without your support. On a personal level, I value our relationship and the camaraderie we’ve enjoyed. I’m excited to be your leader, even though it means our interactions will need to be more inclusive of the rest of the team.”

Develop Relationships with New Team Members

Make it a strong point to reach out and get to know members of the team you have less of a connection with. Schedule group or 1:1 meetings. Make it a high priority to elicit their input. Find out what they are working on and ask specifically for their recommendations, concerns and personal aspirations.

“For those of you I haven’t worked with as closely, I need to tell you that you are as much a part of this team as everyone else and I value your contribution. I’m going to make it a point to get understand your work, recommendations, concerns and aspirations so I can be the leader you deserve.”

Set Clear Expectations for Everyone

Let everyone know what you expect from a relationship commitment standpoint – what you expect from them and what they should expect from you.

“I’m committed to working with each of you and supporting you regardless of how much we’ve worked together in the past. Everyone has equal “say” here and everyone will be held to the same standard.”

Ask for Input

It’s one thing to make a declaration, but in reality, that is only one-way communication. Teammates communicate with each other differently than they do with “management.” Go the extra mile to encourage two-way communication with your team. The moment they stop communicating with you, you’ve lost them.

“This is a big deal to me, which is why I bring this up today. But I want our ability to work together to be an open, ongoing discussion. If you ever feel that I’m not supporting you the way you need, will you let me know? We can fix anything if we’re open with each other.”

Repeat and Reinforce

It’d be nice if one interaction set the tone for the rest of time, but that’s rarely the case. What’s important must be repeated – often. Significant doubts often require multiple interactions to quell.

Of course, the most critical component is for your actions to match your message. This may mean saying no to happy hour with your buddies and insisting on a team event instead. It means being intentional about building new relationships. It definitely means listening and asking questions.

It’s never easy to lead former peers. But your organization wants (and needs) you to succeed. You were their choice to lead the team. The last thing they want is for you fail. But regardless of how supported you feel by your leadership team (they are busy, stressed and imperfect, just like you are!), your commitment to your new team is your responsibility.

Giving great feedback isn’t easy. It’s tricky, it’s not much fun and to top it off, none of us were born knowing how to give great feedback. We have to learn how over time – often the hard way.

If you’ve struggled with giving feedback before, here are some tricks to get you pointed in the right direction quickly.

Identify Your Feedback Bias

When it comes to giving feedback, leaders tend to fall into two categories: they’re usually too quick (e.g. unprepared/knee jerk response) to give feedback or too slow (e.g. allowing too much time to pass, or never get around to it). In both cases, your lack of feedback effectiveness can make the situation worse instead of better. The first step is to identify which end of the spectrum you start from. Are you too proactive or too reactive? When you know your default setting, it’s easier to shift from there.

Avoid Common Feedback Pitfalls

Part of a leader’s job is to give appropriate feedback in appropriate ways to the right people at the right time. But there can be several pitfalls along the way. Here are some of the most common:

• Giving feedback in the heat of the moment when emotions are high – give yourself a cooling off period if you need one!
• Being unprepared when giving important feedback – decide what you want to accomplish before you begin.
• Declining to give necessary feedback due to fear, intimidation or procrastination.
• Not giving enough positive feedback – if you have the reputation for being a Negative Nancy, you’ll always be start feedback conversations at a deficit.

Ace Positive Feedback

Let’s be honest, it’s not impending positive feedback that keeps people up at night. But that said, the quality of your positive feedback will determine the responsiveness to your constructive feedback. Great positive feedback should be:

• Quick – to immediately reinforce the positive action.
• Often – to sustain motivation. (If you ever wonder whether you are giving enough positive feedback, you aren’t!)
• Specific – to make the action easy to replicate in the future.

Make Negative Feedback Constructive

Negative feedback is by far the most tricky type of feedback. Keep in mind that negative feedback shouldn’t be personal – it shouldn’t be about the person but about the behavior or action. To make negative feedback constructive:

• Create a “safe zone” – Let the other person know you’re here to share some input with them, not attack them. Make it easy for them to listen and overcome their initial defensiveness.
• Make it specific – Make it simple for the other person to understand how they can improve next time (and give them positive feedback when they do!).
• Tie it to something the other person wants – Show that by following the feedback, the other person is more likely to achieve something that is important to them.

Keep Growing!

One of my favorite books on feedback is Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone an Sheila Heen. Crucial Accountability by the Vital Smarts authors is another. Both have too many helpful tips to share here. There are many other books, articles and resources as well. Bottom line: giving feedback won’t become easy overnight but more help is available.

As leaders, it’s our responsibility not only to give feedback, but to give great feedback. If you stumble, don’t give up. Keep trying. The better your feedback, the greater your influence.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

The words you use as a leader matter too. Here are some simple but powerful phrases that set great leaders apart from the rest.

“We” (not “me”)

Leaders should think and communicate with inclusive language, as Coach K is fond of saying. It’s not “my” team, it’s “our” team. Shared victories only comes through shared ownership. Along the way, leaders also find a way to share the credit.

“Thank you”

Having a positive relationship with one’s boss is one of the highest drivers of employee engagement and retention. The reverse is also true. One of the easiest (and cheapest) ways leaders engage their teams is acknowledging the contribution of each person. A “thank you” can go an incredibly long way – maybe that’s why Dale Carnegie‘s #2 principle for success was, “Show honest, sincere appreciation.”

“I’m sorry”

Apologizing can be very difficult sometimes and requires self-awareness, objectivity and discipline. “I’m sorry” are important words for a leader because they are steeped in humility and the understanding that none of us are immune to human error (whether consciously or unconsciously), regardless of our position.

“Tell me more”

Great listeners are unfortunately few and far between but perhaps nothing says, “I hear you and I’m interested” more than this little phrase – especially when you mean it. Leaders understand they need the input of others in order to succeed – but ideas don’t come automatically. They must be invited and engaged.

“How can I support you?”

This is perhaps my favorite leadership phrase of all. Leaders often struggle with the time and attention both to delegate and develop key team members. This phrase solves both challenges – it keeps all the responsibility with the team member but expresses a willingness to help when and where able.

Your words will mark you as a leader because words always matter. Which phrases do you need to add to your leadership interactions? And what others might you include in a list like this?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

That’s a question we considered at a workshop I attended recently. Author Mark Miller and a team of facilitators walked a large group through the content of his new book Chess Not Checkers. The boardgame imagery? It’s symbolic for what happens as organizations grow. In the early stages of most small organizations or teams, the rules are simplistic and team members may play interchangeable roles much like the game pieces in a checkers game. But as growth occurs, complexity kicks in. Roles require specialists to address additional complications. The playing field starts to resemble a game of chess, rather than checkers. If we’re not careful, we’ll fall behind.

That’s what the workshop addressed. How do leaders elevate their game to match new organizational complexities? You can find the answers in the book (as well as the digital field guide), but let me share the four big ideas we discussed.

Bet on Leadership

It shouldn’t be a surprise that organizational success starts with leadership. But many organization are extremely reactive in this respect. They place their bet too late by waiting until new leaders are needed to begin looking for them. The best organizations have a strong leadership bench. They know who their future leaders are and work hard to prepare them beforehand so they are ready to go when the call comes.

The other thing to note is that a bet is not a sure thing. Not every leader works out. But in Mark Miller’s words, “You cannot be a great organization without great leadership.” Why? Because leadership growth always precedes organizational growth.

Act as One

It’s one thing for a leadership team to be on the same page. But what about the rest of the organization? It’s true that leadership teams are uniquely responsible for creating clarity. That is one job that cannot be outsourced. But do key organizational messages cascade effectively throughout the organization or quickly go awry like a kid’s game of telephone? Or worse yet, do they even leave the boardroom?

The silver lining in this regard is that nearly every organization struggles with communication at least to some extent. Perhaps it’s just part of the human condition. But great leaders make the extra effort to ensure key messages get to every level using multiple communication methods. And by the way, it’s impossible to over-communicate what’s truly important (in case you were worried about that).

Win the Heart

Great organizations foster a spirit of shared ownership. Instead of working for “the man,” followers and employees show up to work for themselves. It’s a completely different mentality, but it’s starts with leadership.

Has your organization ever helped your followers’ dreams come true? I’m not just talking about their need to make rent that month. Actual dreams. This was a real question posed at the workshop. Everyone present wrote down a life dream and shared it with the rest of the table. It may not be realistic to deliver the final product, but many times we can do more than we think to help followers take the next step on their journey.

Remember this: when you win the heart, you get best of everything else a person brings to the table with them (hands, mind, energy, skills, etc.).

Excel at Execution

Without results, the rest of the discussion about leadership is pretty useless. What’s the point? Unfortunately this is where many leadership initiatives start rather than end. Still, excelling at execution is a leadership responsibility. One way to improve is simply sharing the score. People tend to work harder and smarter when they know where they stand.

If your team is operating at less than full potential, there’s room to improve your leadership execution. It may be up to you to raise the bar.

So how about you – are you playing chess or checkers?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

That was one of the key messages of a sales training event I visited recently. The new sales consultants were supposed to realize they didn’t need to know everything about the services they were providing – they had plenty of other “experts” to support various parts of the deal. It’s a lot easier to sell when you don’t have to know everything yourself.

Which leads me to ask the question: whose “guy” (or gal) are you? And do they know it?

Here’s why it matters:

You are someone’s “guy.”

If you’re working at all, you’re serving someone. It may be an outside customer, another department, a territory, an interest group – you name it. You may be someone’s car guy (car dealer or mechanic), teeth gal (dentist), organization guy (office manager) or even leadership guy (consultant). The first step is to think in those terms. Instead of simply identifying yourself by a job title (“I work in finance”), make your role personal to the people you serve (I’m your forecasting guy).

If you aren’t clear on who you support (or how), your level of service will be low.

Nothing kills progress like lack of clarity. Several years ago, one of my team’s clients in IT realized everyone in the organization was unhappy with them. It wasn’t due to poor quality, but rather that they didn’t set clear service expectations – and therefore couldn’t met or exceed them. No one knew exactly what to expect. Establishing clarity became the first order of business. The same goes for you. Be clear or what you provide and how.

Your value proposition is what will set you apart.

Your value proposition is the reason why your customers get greater value from working with you than they would from working with someone else (or with no one at all). You provide more products, higher quality, better service, lower price, peace of mind – whatever it is, be clear, confident and upfront about it.

If your customers don’t know you serve them, they won’t reach out.

I got a new automobile headlight guy last week. Honestly, I didn’t know I needed a headlight guy. But one of my friends recently started his own headlight business and explained that if my headlights fade, I’ll be a safety hazard to myself and others – and risk getting a ticket as well. It will be much safer and cheaper to let him take care of my problem. So from now on, if I have any headlight issues (or hear of any), I know who to call. But it wasn’t until we had that conversation that I realized I even needed a headlight guy. Your customers (or clients, colleagues, or followers) likely won’t know why (or how) to utilize you unless you tell them.

If you can’t be #1, do everything you can to be #2.

Sometimes, the people you try to serve will already have a “guy” who does what you do. That’s okay. Share your value proposition and let them know you’re still ready to serve them. And if you can’t be #1, communicate that you’ll be thrilled to be #2 and fully ready to fill-in when needed.

When things get busy and the workload piles up, don’t forget that it really is a privilege to be someone’s guy (or gal). At the end of the day, we’re all in the people business, regardless of what our day-to-day entails.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

Automation has added enormous business efficiency over the years and will continue. But it’s important to keep in mind that whatever business we’re in, we’re ultimately in the people business. Since we can’t eliminate the human element (besides, would we really want to?), we’ll have to figure out how to capitalize on it.

Here are some of the ways each of us can win with people at work.

Built Trust with Results AND Relationships

Trust isn’t just a two-way street. It’s a converging superhighway. So many factors come into play. Here’s an example: what comes to mind when you think about a century old world-class financial institution? Large stone buildings with Corinthian columns? Dark suits? No nonsense serif fonts? All of those are just images. But what makes long-term trust possible are attention to both results and relationships. The results create confidence in future performance. The relationships enable commitment.

Trust is at the core of the human element – it’s intensely personal. Just ask someone who has had a trust broken (whether a person or brand). They usually aren’t happy. But trust isn’t a destination. It’s an ongoing process.

Use Stories to Connect

In my opinion, the world of advertising has taken some tremendous leaps in the last decade. Sure, there are still some television commercials that make us want to stab our eyes out, but for the most part, campaigns have shifted from “proving” that their product is the best to “telling” how it makes a difference. Social media has obviously played a role. And it’s not just advertising. Some of the most popular business books are written in fable form.

Stories are uniquely human – people connect with them. Facts and figures will always be important, but the power of narrative is as strong as it’s ever been. So find the story in the details and make it part of the advertising campaign, shareholder report, corporate policy or boardroom presentation.

Create Brand Ambassadors

People go from not knowing you to being acquainted enough to form an opinion. And that opinion can either be a great one or a terrible one. Here’s why you should care: you don’t just want customers – you want customers who will recruit (rather than repel) other customers on their own initiative. You don’t just want employee applicants – you want ones who already love your business. Have a strategy for your customer experience, employee engagement and community outreach that gives you an opportunity to deliver a good impression – in addition to the value your business creates in the day-to-day.

Find Creative Solutions

At a recent training event, we decided to let new managers work together to come up with solutions to problems they were facing. The risk was that they might come up with lousy ideas based on their limited experience so far. Instead, they generated many good ideas with several worth considering as we work to continuously improve the organizational system. It’s quicker, easier and cheaper to tell others what to do. But you’ll get more creative solutions (not to mention buy-in) when you make them part of the process.

Connect with Your Purpose

At the end of the day, we all serve a purpose. The tragedy is that both people and organization’s are often unsure exactly what it is. That’s why purpose statements are so important – ones that speak to the beliefs, the bottom line, the “why this even matters” that keeps people coming back each day. Unfortunately, corporate purpose statements can be extremely “corporate” and not very human at all. The silver lining is that it’s easy for the good ones to stand out. Think about it. No one wants to work only to create shareholder value. We want to make a difference in the process.

At the end of the day, people are here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. Our organizations, titles and roles may change, but we’ll still be around. So let’s win with people.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

You don’t have to be special to be a leader and you don’t have to be an expert to help other leaders succeed. You can start right now, right where you are.

Trusted Leadership Advisor is a compilation of some of my previous posts on this topic. In the ebook, I show you how to think about your role as a trusted leadership advisor, what to say and how to get started. Take a look – and if you find it helpful, please share it.

I’d also appreciate your feedback. This is my first ebook and I want to know if the format, structure and ideas prove to be helpful for you. You can leave me a comment below or contact me directly.

There’s so much work to do – let’s work together!

Why Ask Questions?

Many leaders hesitate to ask questions because they fear it will make them appear weak. Leaders are suppose to have the all the answers, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the world we live in has become so complex that it is simply not possible for anyone to have all the answers, no matter how tenured he or she is. But there are all kinds of benefits to asking questions, regardless of how much you know. Here are a few:

Great questions lead to great discoveries. Author and consultant Bobb Biehl likes to say, “If you ask profound questions, you get profound answers. If you ask shallow questions, you get shallow answers. If you ask no questions, you get no answers at all.”

Great questions are the antidote to advice. Our own advice can be intelligent and fitting sometimes, but lousy or misinformed other times. Giving advice is easy and costs little, at least on the surface. In organizational settings however, a leader’s advice can quickly gets translated into a “direct order” with no room for further discussion.

Great questions develop the critical thinking skills of others. If you’re a leader, the critical thinking skills of your team will likely determine how far you go. When you give answers, you get followers. When you give questions (and coach through the process of determining the best answer), you develop leaders.

Great questions delegates responsibility. At the end of the day, if you’re the person everyone comes to with every problem, your leadership bar will remain low. Leaders need followers who can solve problems on their own. And keep in mind that a person is always more motivated to act on and own a solution he’s come up with himself than to follow the guidance of someone else.

What do Great Questions Look Like?

It’s true that most leaders don’t become great at asking questions until they become great at listening (something that should cause each of us to pause and consider). There’s a learning process for everything. But in the meantime, let’s consider some examples of what great, powerful questions look like.

Leading vs. Non-Leading Questions: A leading question proposes a solution in the form of a question. A non-leading question opens up the possibility for multiple solutions. Consider the differences between these two examples.

• Leading: “What would happen if you tried having training meetings on Tuesdays?”
• Non-Leading: “What are some different options for conducting training?”

Closed vs. Open-ended Questions: Closed questions require a “yes” or “no” answer while open-ended questions can have many outcomes.

• Closed: “Have you thought about creating a new task force?”
• Open-ended: “What are some ways you could approach this challenge?”

Advice vs. Possibility Questions: An advice question is basically just implied advice in the form of a question.

• Advice: “Couldn’t you address that situation with the sales rep directly?”
• Possibility: “How could you address that situation?”

Why vs. “Tell Me More” Questions: Why questions can feel abrasive and accusatory, regardless of intent. No one likes being interrogated. Using a “tell me more” approach opens up the dialogue.

• Why: “Why did you decide to ship only seven orders?”
• Tell me more: “Can you tell me more about the thought process for this shipment?”

Learning to ask great questions instead of giving advice is probably one of the hardest disciplines leaders encounter. (It’s right up there with active listening!) I know by personal experience and from conducting training with seasoned leaders. The first step is to stop yourself from giving unsolicited advice. The next step is to respond with a question. The final step is to make that question a powerful one. My encouragement is to give it a try and stick with it. Ask someone to give you feedback on your question-asking ability. It’ll be slow at first, but eventually start becoming natural. And the leaders you serve will develop right along with you.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

In all of these cases, the difference between good feedback and poor feedback can easily be the difference between success and failure. The implications can affect our organization’s market share, our revenues, our project quality or our ability to be promoted.

Great feedback is crucial. But it’s not always easy to come by. So how do we get the feedback we need – either individually or corporately? Let’s take a closer look at seven feedback tips.

Ask For It

If you don’t ask for feedback, you’ll probably still get some. You just won’t get as much. And it will be lower quality and much less organized. The feedback experience will also be much poorer both for you and for the other party. On the other hand, when you ask for feedback, people are much more likely to give it to you – in the time frame and context you want it.

Demonstrate that You Acknowledged It Last Time

If you get feedback but ignore it, it’s much harder for people to take you seriously when you ask for it again. What’s in it for them? Their giving feedback will seem like an extra task that isn’t worth their time because you never completed the previous transaction by acknowledging the receipt.

Tell How It Will Be (or Has Been) Used

If people aren’t sure how you will use their feedback, they’ll be skeptical – and rightly so. No one wants their candor to be taken advantage of. Will their feedback be anonymous? Is there even a chance there will be any repercussions? Be upfront about this – as well as the positive changes that have been made with feedback that was provided previously.

Make it Easy for People to Give It

It is very unpleasant to provide feedback when it doesn’t appear to be wanted. This goes for feedback to individuals or organizations. When there is a poor system to collect the feedback (or no system), it communicates a lack of interest – regardless of the stated request. Make sure people know where and how to provide the feedback you are asking for. Use an easy, time-efficient system. The smoother the process, the more feedback you’ll receive.

Be Specific

If you make generic requests, you’ll get generic answers. The last thing you want is for people to tell you things were “fine.” It’s hard to take action on improving “fine.” So be specific in your requests. Give 1:5 or 1:10 feedback ranges. Provide feedback categories. Or ask different audiences to provide feedback on different areas. Ask what went well and what could be improved. But also ask for specific details on critical areas.

Use it

If you never use any of the feedback you get, eventually, you one will provide you with any more. Like lack of acknowledgement, lack of use means it’s not worth the time to give it. And if you don’t communicate that you will use the feedback you get (or how it was used in the past), it’s the same result. Don’t forget to show your feedback audience how their input will improve things.

Say Thank You

Remember, whenever people give you feedback, they are doing you a favor. You don’t have to use it. You can take it or leave it. But you should always say thank you regardless of the content – especially if you asked for it.

It’s difficult to get good feedback, but it’s a lot easier when you help yourself.

Which of these tips can you use this week?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.