Management Café

Pilar and Tim have a meta conversation about conversations. Participating in a good conversation means we listen, we get to talk, we feel heard, we deepen our understanding of a topic and we build connection with the other person. However not all conversations are created equal. Sometimes we are in a glorious free flowing exchange of ideas and other times we have internal dialogues about the conversation running parallel with the conversation itself. "Am I talking too much?" or "Are they talking enough?" or "Is this conversation going the way I/they wanted it to?" or even "Are they paying attention?" Paying attention is important, let's not get too caught up in our meta thoughts that we forget to be present and attentive! As you can see, there is a lot going on. Luckily the Management Cafe is a safe space for deep thinking and discussion... 01:50 mins Managers should be paying attention to how things are flowing and they should avoid dominating conversations. 3:45 Managers also need to be wary of dominating conversations. Especially because their direct reports might be deferential to them. 4:40 Pilar suggests that the person who initiates or leads the conversation is normally the one who pays closest attention to the dynamics. Tim agrees, but feels managers always have an additional responsibility to role model and encourage good communication. Not just so their own conversations go well, but also so that good behaviours ripple out through their teams. 7:25 Dominating a conversation doesn't necessarily involve talking a lot. And someone might talk a lot without wanting to dominate. 8:15 People also have their own habits and patterns they bring with them. For example, Tim has a tendency to "think out loud" and lose track of the conversation as he gets excited. 9:30 Conversations, regardless of what we are talking about, are always an opportunity to build relationships. 10:30 Tim shares how he used to shut down one of his direct reports who had lots of opinions. But over time he realised he valued their independent thinking and shutting them down was also limiting their contribution. 12:00 Pilar relates to this especially from her past as a theatre director. A director can't listen to everyone - the whole piece needs coherence. 13:15 This is a common tension: we want people to be engaged and interested but within reason. As managers we can carefully establish boundaries so people understand that whilst we value them and their opinion, it isn't the right time for their input just now. 15:00 Managers can set "rules of collaboration" so their teams understand the norms of behaviour. And this is the sort of meta stuff we're thinking about in conversations. Are the individuals and teams we manage behaving in the ways that we want? How can we encourage and reward good behaviours in their everyday actions and discussions? 16:30 Contribution or involvement can look different for different people. Maybe they take notes instead of talking. Maybe they listen until their thoughts are clear and then they start speaking. 17:00 Having everyone contribute to a conversation in terms of "time spent speaking" does not mean everyone had an equal contribution. Some people need 10 minutes, others only need 3. 18:45 Interesting things happen when we go against our default behaviour and see what changes. 19:55 Tim recounts a story of a CEO who would gradually move further and further back during a meeting. For him a successful meeting was one where he didn't need to say anything. Pilar highlights that this is the facilitator's role - to just guide the conversation. 22:00 We'll cover the dynamics of group conversations in a future episode What about you, dear listener? How do you approach individual conversations? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

As managers we will normally have a peer network within our company. But occasionally we might experience problems that our in-house peer network can't help us with. For example, when the issue is with those same colleagues or our organisation itself. At times like this an external professional network can be invaluable. In this conversation Pilar and Tim primarily talk about networks which can provide different forms of support such as showing a different perspective, learning from someone with more or different experience, getting greater clarity in your own thoughts through talking them out, or even just solidarity from someone who's suffered in a similar way. No surprise that our hosts, who have never met in person, have both had success in building relationships and networks online. Over coffee they share some of the techniques that have worked for them to expand and sustain their professional networks. 00:30 mins Pilar calls back to our conversation about men's mental health at work to highlight that building a network outside your organisation can be a valuable strategy when you're struggling to be yourself at work. 1:25 Tim shares how external support network helped him when he was struggling and feeling isolated. These mutually beneficial relationships are much more positive and rewarding than his first conceptions of business networks - like "old boys networks" as a back channel for getting a job. 3:00 Pilar used to do a lot of networking to get work, but she approached it as reaching out to people she enjoyed talking to. She has found this led to relationships that were long-lasting and much more fun. 4:30 Things changed for Tim when he realised that he enjoyed being helpful. This brought him into contact with a lot more people, some of whom became a network. 5:30 Networking will mean different things to us at different points in our career and our lives. The key for Pilar and one of her strengths is how to sustain those relationships. 7:00 She shares some of the ways she has built networks and communities like the Virtual Team Talk Slack Group and a new writing community she is building. 9:00 Tim has been lucky in joining existing communities where his "being helpful" approach helped him integrate. He prefers this to transactional networking, where you are aiming for a particular outcome. 11:10 It is so helpful for managers to be able to talk freely with other people who have had similar experiences. Getting different perspectives and insights or even just solidarity is an enormous advantage when you are stuck, or caught up in your own thoughts and emotions. Tim references the Rands Leadership Slack community created by Michael Lopp as a place he's been able to get help outside of his workplace. 13:00 You don't want to wait until you're going through a really tricky situation before you start trying to find support. Building a good network takes time! 14:00 Companies could assign some of their learning and development budgets to encourage people to build their networks and learn outside their organisation. 14:45 As a shy person, Pilar has had success asking people to introduce her to others. Even her mum has made some great introductions for her! 15:45 Tim has found reaching out to people digitally has been really helpful. Especially so he had some familiar faces at a conference or event. 17:45 Donut calls can be an easy way to build connections within Slack communities. Tim meets several new people each month this way. 19:30 KLM, the Dutch airline, once piloted a program called Meet & Seat which let passengers choose people they wanted to connect with on a flight. 20:15 At various times in Tim and Pilar's friendship she's brought groups together. For example during Covid there were small "Coffee around the corner" groups Pilar created for Zoom calls which she and Tim both enjoyed. 21:00 Tim encourages listeners to have an open mind about what value they might get from meeting new people in a professional context and building relationships with them. What about you dear listener? Do you go out to meet new people, and nurture those you've already met? Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Our hosts discuss the recent research by Jindi Mann into men's emotional experiences at work. It is easily downloaded as a pdf and it's freely available - no email signup or any hoops to jump through. They surveyed 55 male managers, primarily British and working in a mid to senior management role. The results show a surprisingly broad range of responses. Over coffee Pilar and Tim explore what it means to be a male manager. A big theme that emerges is that whilst 21st century corporate leadership has been dominated by men, men feel limited in how much of themselves they can bring to work. Show notes: 00:30 mins Pilar shares how she came into contact with Jindi and his men's circles through her Facilitation Stories podcast (you can listen to Jindi and Pilar's conversation about facilitating dialogue spaces in episode 58) 4:45 The first section of the report (page 6) shows the emotions that men feel most often at work: frustration 33%, anxiety 24%, anticipation 22%, fear 22%, joy 20%, trust 16% and anger 13%. Tim is surprised how many of these are emotions he'd prefer to not experience at work (with a quick shoutout to Jeremy Dean's Emotional Culture Deck.). Pilar as always tries to see the bright side, but even she is worried after seeing the full range of responses as a word cloud (page 7). 7:45 Tim struggles to understand the irony that our workplaces have been so dominated by men, particularly at the most senior levels, and yet this same work environment creates so much unhappiness for male managers. 8:50 Many work cultures have become warmer and more inclusive but there is still a lot of room for improvement. 9:30 The second section talks about what men would like to be able to talk about at work: mental health, stress, insecurity and their personal life. Pilar and Tim speculate on whether these responses would be different with women. It's interesting to note how men want something quite different to the alpha male stereotype. 14:10 It feels like progress just for men to be sharing their emotional needs. Tim jumps down to section 6 which talks about what vulnerability means to men. The results are so polarising: Some men view vulnerability as strength and courage, whereas others see it as weakness and shame. What a cognitive dissonance it must create for this latter group when modern leadership practice encourages leaders to be vulnerable! 17:10 We've been rightly focussed on gender equality in the workplace and the world is changing. It's important that men also get some space to explore these changes. It's complicated, we still need so much to change but we need men to be a part of the solution. And understanding how men might struggle with the direction work is heading can help us all. 21:30 It's important that those with a natural affinity for emotional literacy and vulnerability are aware that not everyone finds it easy. For some men particularly it can be a real struggle and they have an easy out to default back to a "strong silent type". 23:30 Some of the actions proposed in the research include role modelling, safe spaces for conversations and greater psychological safety. 25:40 Tim shares that he and Duncan were lucky to work in an environment at Shield GEO that was 80% female. And amongst the many benefits they experienced, it was relatively easier to be expressive because it was a safe and supportive environment. Which brings us to another point of irony - that men might feel better able to express themselves at work if there was more diversity in management roles. 27:30 Tim thinks that men are secretly crying out for more gender balanced leadership. What about you, dear listener? Do you think male leaders are finding it difficult to be themselves at work? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Pilar and Tim discuss the fascinating article 3 Ways Our Brains Undermine Our Ability to Be a Good Leader by Cian McEnroe and David Rock at the Neuroleadership Institute. David's book "Your Brain at Work" was one of the first to bring brain science into leadership. In this latest research they argue that our basic brain behaviour can get in the way of our work as leaders. They go even further to suggest that the experience of leading can evolve our brains in ways that make it even harder to be a great leader. This leads our hosts into a far reaching conversation debating big questions: Is leadership a natural human trait? Is modern leadership a different challenge to the leadership we have evolved for? Does climbing the leadership ladder diminish our capacity for empathy and connection? We dive into some statistics. And as a rare bonus, we have a disagreement between our co-hosts! Show notes: 00:00 mins We open by discussing whether modern organisations and work practices have created new challenges for leadership. 2:00 The article says leaders often fail at three core areas: focusing on the future, being good with people and driving realistic results. 5:00 Tim struggles with the premise that we aren't wired for leadership. He thinks leadership is a default behaviour for humans. 6:00 Pilar views it differently - not everyone is wired for leadership and the way we lead now is a bit different to what we are wired for. Maybe our biological disposition is towards a more collective and collaborative form of leadership. 8:20 According to the authors 60% of new managers fail within the first 24 months. This is a staggering statistic! 10:50 As people become more powerful they also become more optimistic. This can lead to inflated expectations and setting unrealistic targets. Which creates a disconnect between the leaders and individuals who do the heavy lifting. Pilar sees a direct link between this phenomenon and the failure rates in "top down" change initiatives. Those at the top are seeing the world differently. But it's important for leaders to stay connected to those who are doing work at the ground level. 11:40 Our brains view power as a reward, so we get a positive reinforcement from becoming more powerful. Which explains why those who want to climb the ladder can prioritise acquiring power at the expense of performing their actual job. 14:00 We see plenty of examples of this power/reality disconnect in tech companies like Basecamp. 16:45 People often get promoted into leadership positions because of technical skills, not people skills. But people skills are crucial in leadership! 17:10 Neuro-imaging studies have shown that focussing on goals has a seesaw relationship to focussing on people. Pay attention to one and the other gets dialled down. Research also shows that as someone becomes more powerful, their goal focus becomes more dominant. The authors argue that when making decisions, leaders must often detach and view individuals as chess pieces instead of human beings. Tim disagrees, he thinks it's a risk, not a requirement. Part of the challenge of being a whole hearted leader is blending the hard requirements of goals with the very real human elements of our people. Tim likes the phrase used by Jerry Colonna to describe this balanced stance "strong back and open heart". 18:50 Managers who are just focused on results and not people have a 14% chance of being viewed as a great leader. The opposite path of "people not results" reduces the odds to 12%. The key is to be good at both, this gives a 72% chance of being a great leader. Tim gets very excited by the remainder - 2% of leaders have no social skills and ignore results but are still viewed as a great leader! 21:20 Back to the topic of detachment, Pilar remembers a CEO who was asked how they slept at night having laid off a lot of people. Their answer? "I think about all the ones who are staying". She likens it to doctors who can emotionally attach to every patient or they will burn out. Tim disagrees strongly, feels the best doctors are those who find a way to stay open hearted. It's very difficult to do but it makes a big difference. Which, Pilar reminds him, is the argument the authors have put forward! 25:40 One of the great gifts a leader can give their team is bringing a different perspective. Pilar has always viewed focusing on the future as a core part of the manager's role. 27:45 We shoutout the 27% of Americans who the researchers found "rarely or never" think about five years in the future. Our hosts are not fans of five year plans either! What about you, dear listener? Do you agree that our brains can get in the way of our leadership practice? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Action-centred leadership asks managers to juggle three priorities: the team, the task and the individual. and in this conversation Pilar and Tim discuss one-on-one meetings, one of the best tools that managers have to work on their relationship with an individual employee. Over coffee we talk about the nuances of this style of meeting and the myriad ways managers can benefit from them. Spoiler alert: Tim is a huge fan of one-on-one meetings. Today's shows are full of links, and one or two analogies! 00:00 mins We open with Tim sharing that he's only ever had one-on-ones as the manager, never the employee. 2:30 According to the Fellow.app guide to one-on-ones you should factor in the frequency of your current work communication when setting the pattern of your one-on-ones. 3:45 Employees benefit from getting their manager's undivided attention. It feels good! 5:30 One-on-ones are particularly important for relationship building in a remote work environment, where a manager and their direct report are unlikely to "bump into" each other. 9:00 Managers can get lots of benefits from one-on-ones. It's a great place for coaching. And also for managers to dust off their technical knowledge and share it. 11:00 Tim enjoyed using one-on-ones to practice things he found challenging. Which leads to Tim sharing his "work is like a video game" analogy. 14:10 Pilar quotes from Redesigning Work by Linda Gratton where Tata Consulting found managers who initiated frequent one-to-one meetings with their team members had the highest performing teams. 14:50 Manuela Bárcenas wrote an amazingly comprehensive guide to one-on-ones for Fellow. Artemis Connection made a nice short video for how employees can get the most from them. 15:30 Even if managers don't love one-on-ones they are valuable and we need to find ways to be effective at them. Tim took a long time to feel comfortable and relied on the Know Your Team application to provide him with structure. And excellent question cards from the 1:1 starter pack and manager pack produced by Jen Dary at Be Plucky. 18:30 Having a regular one-on-one schedule is helpful to make sure that issues will be discussed. 19:40 The one-on-one is the direct report's meeting. They should get priority in setting the agenda and items for discussion. But the manager still needs to be prepared just in case the employee doesn't bring an agenda. 20:50 Tim found that when he was managing managers the one-on-ones were an important place to build alignment on big picture topics like strategy, culture and values. 22:45 It's easy to slip into operational mode. But much of the value in one-on-ones comes from it being a discussion space that is free from operational issues. 25:50 Just because it's not operational it doesn't have to be personal. There is still a lot that you can discuss. Which leads Tim to a new analogy: work is like a soap opera. What about you, dear listener? Do you do one-on-ones? Are they valuable? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Going deeper into their exploration of different leadership styles, and inspired by this article on the MindTools blog, Pilar and Tim look at the Emotional Leadership Theory pioneered by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. It ends up being another therapy session in the café as Pilar and Tim talk about their own preferences, strengths and weaknesses. 02:30 mins We step through the six styles of Emotional Leadership: Visionary (come with me), Coaching (try this), Affiliative (people come first), Democratic (what do you think?), Pacesetting (do as I do, now!), and Commanding (do what I tell you). 4:10 Tim likes that Emotional Leadership theory gives us permission to change styles to match the circumstances. 5:10 This theory is really about our connection to our team and the emotional impact of our behaviour on our team members. 6:40 Pilar thinks when people point to a "leadership crisis" it is code for wanting more visionary leadership. But as she points out, visionary is just one style among six. It doesn't work in all situations. 8:10 Applying the wrong leadership style can create an emotional or cultural debt which is hard to undo. So it's important that leaders think about the style they are using and it's impact on the team. 9:15 Tim feels drawn to the Coaching and Affiliative styles. He'd like to be better at the Democratic. Pilar feels the Democratic style of leadership is essential to integrating the team goals and output with the need to support individuals within the team. 13:25 The Coaching style has long timelines which can be great for helping people who are trying to change. 16:40 Tim diverts to a long rant about the visionary leadership style with particular focus on Adam Neumann at WeWork. Visionary leaders and their followers can get swept away with big plans and future goals and lose touch with the messy reality of right now. Pilar reminds us of a similar situation at Basecamp where visionary leadership lead to a big cultural mismatch within the company. The founders chose a hard reset via the Commanding style to regain control and lost a third of their staff in the process. 20:40 Pilar is comfortable in the Pacesetting leadership style. In particular she relates to the danger of jumping in to fix things instead of having the conversation with the person. She remembers switching from Democratic to Command when the more collaborative style hasn't worked. And she is strong at Affiliative leadership - although counterintuitively, she's also found that sometimes friction might improve the quality of the work. 23:50 Tim goes to Commanding leader when he's insecure or scared. And Pacesetting when he's stressed. Pacesetting can lead to burnout but for Tim it can also be symptomatic of it. 26:20 Pilar and Tim reflect on how therapeutic they are finding these discussions of styles and their own patterns. What about you, dear listener? What emotional leadership styles work best for you? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

There are far too many leaders who don't really want to be managers. Given most workers cite their manager as their main reason for leaving a company, this is a big problem. It's hard to love your job when your boss hates theirs. How do so many people end up as managers when they shouldn't? Who should be a manager? Is leadership a natural trait or a learned skill? It's a wide ranging conversation in the café today, including a rare disagreement between our co-hosts Pilar and Tim! 00:00 mins We open with a discussion about whether leaders are born or made and Pilar's answer surprises Tim. 2:30 Pilar shares a story about helping someone who had the skills to lead but lacked confidence. 4:50 Unfortunately leaders aren't always promoted due to their leadership skills. Which reminds Tim of a friend who's had a very successful executive career through knowing how to "play the game". 7:40 A big part of who gets management roles, and particularly who succeeds at them, is based on fit. Does your leadership style fit with what the company wants? Tim recounts his experience of being in a management role where his style was poorly suited to the company. And a time at a different company where it was well suited. 10:30 Oftentimes people wind up in management positions because they want a promotion and more money. But management is not just a promotion, it is a profession. If you don't want to be a good manager you will be a bad manager. And an unhappy one. 11:40 If management is the only growth path available to people, companies are incentivising some of the wrong people to become managers. 12:50 Shopify and other tech companies have promotion pathways that don't involve management. Often the founders are keen to stay in tech instead of being in a "people" role. This allows companies to still reward people who have valuable experience and technical ability but don't want to be a manager. 15:20 Pilar references the book "Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us" by Brian Klaas which says 34% of people aspire to a leadership position. It also claims that gene location 876 increases the probability of ending up in a position of authority by 25%. 16:50 Tim struggles to accept the idea of a "leadership gene", he's clearly team nurture. Pilar is team nature. (Kind of.) 19:50 Tim learns not to debate DNA with a biologist. 20:30 On the After Hours podcast hosted by two HBR professors, there was a story about doctors who moved into management roles and were unhappy at being removed from their former role. The podcast claimed the solution was to train them better, but Pilar disagrees: if someone doesn't want to be a manager, find another way of promoting them! 21:30 It's important that companies are clear about what being a leader means within their organisation. This helps them select better people as managers. It also helps those people better understand the manager role and decide if they want to do it. What about you, dear listener? Do you think there are natural leaders? Or is it a learned skill? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Continuing with our discussions on leadership frameworks, Pilar and Tim discuss John Adair's Action-Centred Leadership which was first introduced in 1973. Adair uses three overlapping circles to illustrate that effective leadership happens at the intersection of the task, the team and the individual. And it is this deceptive simplicity which is a big part of the appeal. The model doesn't rely on a particular leadership style or organisational culture. Instead it reminds us that if we "zoom out" of our current situation we can identify which of the three areas needs our attention. 00:00 mins (yes, we went straight into it this time!) Pilar shares a story of when she applied Action-Centered Leadership at her theatre company. The model suggests we focus on leading on three different levels: the team level, the individual, and the task. 3:50 Pilar quotes Judy Rees: frameworks are helpful because "they direct our attention to something". As managers we rarely have all 3 focus areas in balance all the time. We can use the Action-Centred Leadership framework to guide us to the area needing the most attention. 5:00 Tim has tended to focus on individual and task while neglecting the team dynamic. 6:00 These 3 elements are interconnected and interdependent. If you try to shift one element it will inevitably also change the dynamic in the others. 10:00 Tim goes down a long rabbit hole talking about how management thought-leadership tends to show things as simple. But management is actually really hard and complicated. We speculate how this real world complexity would influence the menu and service in our Management Café. 11:30 Pilar recalls going to a training session which didn't have a set objective. Instead the facilitators asked the attendees what problems they needed to solve. She loved it, but noted that this approach didn't work for all attendees. 13:45 Prescriptive theory and processes are great in a book or training session. But when you get back to your actual job, things rarely play out the same way. People are unpredictable! What about you, dear listener? What do you think of Action-Centred Leadership? Are there other leadership frameworks we should discuss? We'd love to hear about your experiences! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/

Inspired by the article about leadership on the Asana blog, Pilar and Tim discuss Kurt Lewin's 3 leadership styles. In a seminal study conducted in 1939, groups of 10 year old children were given a craft task and assigned an adult leader using either an authoritarian, democratic or laissez-faire leadership style. They concluded that democratic leadership was the most effective. Pilar and Tim share their experiences of these 3 styles and spend some time debating the laissez-faire and authoritarian styles. And whether there is a distinction between management and leadership. Pilar throws a few more models into the mix: Ken Blanchard's situational leadership and John Adair's Action Centered Leadership. Ultimately our default style isn't going to suit every circumstance. We need to switch between styles to get the best results. TIME CODED SHOW NOTES 01:30 min There can be times where the appropriate leadership style for a situation is one that we don't like. But our default style isn't going to suit every situation and team. And all styles have pros and cons. 4:25 Pilar references Ken Blanchard's situational leadership model and how it encourages us to consider which leadership approach might work best in a particular situation. 5:00 Lewin classified 3 leadership styles: authoritarian, participative and laissez-faire. Tim has a reaction to calling something laissez-faire. But Pilar and the dictionary keep us on track. 7:20 Tim's a bit suspicious of drawing conclusions about workplace productivity based on how school children react to laissez-faire leadership. 8:50 If you have a really experienced and high performing team you should be able to be a bit laissez-faire. Tim has found being more authoritative can sometimes be helpful when dealing with an inexperienced person or team. But less so with experienced teams. 11:00 Pilar shares a story of her husband having a very laissez-faire manager and loving it. 13:30 Laissez-faire leader doesn't mean that you neglect the core tasks of management like setting priorities or providing support when your team needs it. 15:50 Jurgen Appelo said "Manage the system, not the people", it's the fourth principle of Management 3.0. A leadership approach will only work if the system is setup to support it. 18:30 Tim has struggled to adapt when his preferred style isn't what the team member needs. 19:15 Pilar introduces another model! John Adair's Action Centered Leadership says managers need to be balancing their attention between the task, individual and the team. 21:30 Part of the leader's job description is to take charge in difficult moments. 22:15 Authoritative leadership often brings up negative connotations. 23:15 We assume that adoption of a leadership styles is based on personality and the good intent of a leader. But it isn't always the case. This leads us to speculate about the difference between managing in a particular style because of your personal reasons vs managing in that style because it works best for the the task or individual or team. What about you, dear listener? What is your default style? Do you ever use other styles? We'd love to hear about your experiences! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/ or tell us on Twitter - we are @managementcaf

Inspired by Liz and Mollie's wonderful book "No Hard Feelings" we talk about the role of emotions in our work, especially when hiring. One of the key principles in this book is that our emotions are a part of who we are at work and they impact our behaviour. Being aware of this helps us better understand ourselves and others, and ultimately helps us make better decisions. Choosing who to hire is an important task for any manager. It's also a great example of a decision where we need to be aware of how our emotions are influencing us. 01:15 min We really enjoyed this book, especially how it blends advice with really funny cartoons to bring humour to some quite heavy topics. 5:15 The book lists 4 reasons why we lose motivation at work: lack of control over our work, we don't find the work meaningful, we aren't learning anything or we don't like our co-workers. This is missed in a lot of the rhetoric about returning to the office. Sometimes it's not the office that people are avoiding but rather some of the people who are in that office. 6:15 Studies have shown people of colour prefer to remote work at increased rates because being in the office is exhausting. 7:00 Job crafting is the art of shifting your work towards what you enjoy doing. When it comes to our happiness at work, we might have more control over it than we think. 9:30 We don't have to always be positive and happy at work, it's ok to experience a range of emotions. 10:30 Expressing our emotions, even just acknowledging them, can free us to move forward. However if we keep them bottled up it means they are going to come out somehow. Perhaps in ways that we don't want. 12:15 An easy mistake to make when hiring is to unwittingly be overly influenced by your emotions. We can get swept up and hire someone just because we feel good around them. Our positive emotional response can distract us from realistically assessing their capability to do the work. 13:15 Tim recounts getting swept up in an interview with a charismatic applicant. 18:00 The benefits of using actual work samples in a hiring process and how it gives better information than you can get just from questions during an interview. But best not to take advantage of people's free labour - make it a piece of work that your company won't profit from. 19:25 For jobs like management where it can be hard to do a small work project, Tim has used role plays to see what the applicant was like "in live action". Especially valuable when followed by a feedback session to learn how the applicant gives and receives feedback (this last tip was borrowed from Basecamp's hiring process). 21:00 Behavioural questions (tell me about a time when you did X) are much better than theoretical questions (how would you do X) particularly when you use the applicant's answer as a starting point for a detailed conversation about what happened and why. In a free flowing conversation the applicant has to make quick decisions about what to say. If you listen closely they are often telling you about their priorities and values. 23:45 It can be worthwhile asking questions about the things that make us uncomfortable because we then get a sense of what our relationship with this person might be like when, inevitably, we're experiencing discomfort. What about you, dear listener? How have emotions influenced your hiring decisions? We'd love to hear about your experiences! And we'd love any future recommendations for books. Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/ or tell us on Twitter - we are @managementcaf