Developing Business Leadership skills in our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world is an evolving and non-stop process.  Every day, existing and new leaders face both unique and similar leadership challenges to the way they execute the strategy of their businesses through other people. One difficult leadership challenge they face is managing direct reports who were once peers.

In Advantexe’s new business leadership business simulation, Fundamentals of Business Leadership, participants take on the role of a new leader managing a team trying to execute the overall strategy of the business and hit the specific targets related to their department including project management and new product development issues.

The simulation is an abstraction of reality and presents participants with about 40 different “scenarios” to think through so they can ultimately develop their leadership best practices.

About half-way through the first round, there is the realization that one of the people you are leading on your simulated team used to be a peer and is acting a little unusual because of the transition from peer to manager.  Often, we have deep discussions about this scenario and the practical implications of taking the learning back to the real word.

Based on our simulation experiences, feedback, and addition research, I share with you 5 techniques to employ if you are faced with this situation:

1 – Manage and Focus to the Big Picture

You have a team of people, most likely not just one or two people that used to be peers.  You need to start your leadership process with a big picture perspective and manage to your goals, objectives, and key priorities.  Focusing on making sure a couple of people are happy at the start of your leadership process will set a negative tone that may not be able to overcome.

2 – Acknowledge the Reality that Things are Different

Part of becoming a leader is growing up and acknowledging that things change; part of your new responsibilities are to evaluate performance and provide coaching and feedback to everyone on your team.  You need to take the time and find the methods to communicate to everyone on the team that this is the way it is going to be.

3 – Be Direct with Feedback and Coaching

Based on dozens of conversations with leaders in this situation, they always share that this is the hardest part.  You cannot sidestep issues and you cannot be soft.  You need to be direct and factual with your coaching and feedback. There are great tools such as the GROW model that is based in observed facts which can be used as the basis for the coaching.

4 – Take Immediate Action when Action is Needed

If performance is falling short and a former peer who is now a direct report isn’t responding to the coaching and feedback then you must take the same action you would with any other team member.  Again, I realize this is harder than it sounds.  You need to remember as a new leader, everyone on the team is watching and if they think you are playing favorites you could lose the respect of the team and any chance to be an effective manager.

5 - Make Adjustments to Your Style and Behaviors Based on Results

You are not going to be perfect and you are going to make mistakes.  You need to illustrate to your former peers that are now direct reports that you are constantly evaluating and evolving as a leader and are willing to learn and adapt. Doing this will earn their respect and more importantly show them you are a different person as a manager.

As the world of human capital management continues to evolve and change so do the tools and techniques that measure and drive performance.  One of the tools that has captured the attention of many organizations is data analytics.  Data analytics has moved from an isolated concept such as “Moneyball” to mainstream practical applications that transcends everything from politics to the way organizations create culture. The purpose of this blog is to share interesting insights into how data analytics from Business Simulations are helping to change organizational culture.

The Four Types of Data Analytics

With so much data available and so many people trying to figure out what to do with it, it’s important to stay focused on the four primary uses of data analytics:

Prescriptive

This type of analytics shows what actions should be taken.

Predictive

This type of analytics provides the ability to forecast what will happen.

Diagnostic

This type of analytics looks at past performance to determine why things happened.

Descriptive

This type of analytics provides insights into what is happening now.

These four types of approaches can be used to analyze data coming from business simulations.

Analytics from Business Simulations

Over the past year, I have had the privilege of supporting several large companies by designing, developing, and delivering a Fundamentals of Leadership simulation.  The purpose of the simulation is to provide the skills and tools needed to develop a strong and realistic leadership culture of accountability and success.

In the simulation, small teams (3-4 participants) collectively take on the role of a new leader weaving through more than 30 different leadership scenarios working with simulated peers, direct reports, customers, and other key stakeholders.  Every scenario presents participants with different options and the chance to learn about the best practices of leadership.  And just like the real world, nothing is every as it seems and nothing is ever black and white; there are always layers of ambiguity.

As we rolled out the simulation in cohorts, we keep track of the data from every scenario and regularly perform analytics which is shared with the client.  The data for 30 scenarios is fascinating and truly provides the opportunity to be prescriptive, predictive, diagnostic, and descriptive.

For sharing purposes, let’s examine the data analytics for just one scenario about coaching your team to have difficult conversations, diffusing conflict, and giving feedback.

The character of “Ellen” is a strong performer, but she also has an overly aggressive, confrontational style.  She recently got into a shouting match with another team member, Theo, about who had the right to use a conference room.  And a customer was on the phone during the entire incident!  Ellen later apologized but was still not being very collegial to Theo and continued to bad mouth Theo behind his back.  You as the manager got together with Ellen to provide feedback and coaching, Ellen shared some things about Theo and their relationship that you didn’t know including the fact that Ellen has been covering up some of Theo’s mistakes to try to mentor him.  You also discovered that Ellen did indeed have the conference room scheduled and Theo didn’t respect Ellen enough to ask if it was ok to have for a few minutes to take the very important customer call.  Regardless of that new information, you as the manager must take action with Ellen, what do you do?

A) Tell Ellen that the only thing that matters is her poor behavior which is inappropriate and needs to be changed immediately

B) Share with Ellen that she needs to have hard yet constructive conversations with Theo and work through tough issues

C) When Theo feels threatened, he shuts down and then solicits others to commiserate with him and plot against Ellen causing productivity and potential legal issues

D) Share with Ellen that she needs to be a lot nicer to Theo

The choice that our client selected as the best practice answer is B.  The primary reason is that senior leadership thinks that organization is conflict averse and does not have the skills or tools to have difficult conversations.  So take a look at the data coming from the first 6 cohorts:

The aggregate average for A is 17%, B is 16%, C is 13%, and D is 53%.  The diagnostic analysis of this scenario illustrates that the organization feels more comfortable avoiding conflict. 

Based on the data and based on the results, our facilitation team shared with the cohorts that they need to focus on the skills and tools needed to have hard conversations.  In addition, we are providing every participant with reinforcement scenarios to practice having these hard conversations and providing real-time coaching over their smartphones.

And that’s just for one scenario!  By using data analytic techniques on all of the scenarios we are able to find patterns and relate them back to both their competency model and their core values for further improvement.