Bossit

Getting started Bossit’s an early stage start up with the ambition of helping you develop your professional and personal life skills. The long-term plan is to do this using bitesize lessons, over audio, in core leadership skills delivered through a mobile app. It will address topics such as productivity, communication, resilience, coaching, building relationships, team management, problem-solving, etc. It will offer short bursts of insights, tactical tips and tricks, questions to consider and activities to try. We’ll ask you to do something or reflect on something in order to get you to consider the way you approach tasks, people and problems. The lessons are bitesize, taking about 10 minutes each day and leveraging what you’re already working on in your day to day, to help you improve immediately and with minimal overhead on your time and energy. A series of sessions on a given topic will progress incrementally, building off of the previous session, to help you form habits and make it easier to retain what you learn. We welcome you to try out as many of the topics as you deem relevant. The cadence we suggest is once you start a series, that you listen to a session every work day unless otherwise advised. We would greatly appreciate it if you’d be willing to provide feedback on a series by completing an online survey. The survey has 10 questions and would take less than 3 minutes to complete. The relevant link can be found in the Episode Web Page link of every final session in a given series. Thanks for listening and we hope that you find Bossit useful to developing yourself as a better business leader.

Setting up meetings for success Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 You can set up a meeting for success by having a clear purpose/goal and the right resources. If the goal can be achieved through other, easier means, such as a call, email or text, do this instead of holding a meeting to save effort. Determine the resources you need by establishing: - A list of attendees with reasons for why they’re attending - what do they offer or get out of the meeting? - A proposed time and place - considering how long it should take, any deadlines and attendee availability. - Any materials you need during the meeting or to send out in advance as a pre-read. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes picking a meeting you have coming up: - Define its goal; - Prepare an attendee list; - Have a time and place in mind; and - A perspective on what materials you’ll need.

Preparing meeting resources Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 A structured meeting agenda is key to success. It should feature a table with the topics being addressed and headers such as: 1. The meeting topics (in order of priority); 2. Who’ll lead the topic discussion; 3. The time allocated to it; 4. The topic’s goal; and 5. Any relevant pre-read pages (if applicable). When preparing an agenda, there are some considerations you can make: - The topics’ importance and urgency to all attendees. - The overall flow of topics by priority and whether a decision is required on one before discussing another. - The overall volume of content to cover. - Who should lead a topic based on their knowledge, experience and development goals and what coaching they may require. - What the time allocated to a topic will signal to your attendees about its importance or relevance to you. If you want input before setting up the meeting, share the following and ask for any proposed changes or additions: - The agenda; - The attendee list (with reasons for their attendance); and - The proposed date, time and location of the meeting. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes developing your agenda and share it with others for feedback if you want their input. And if there’s materials that need preparing, be intentional about what’s going in them and when you’ll send them.

Aligning on rules for success Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Establish ground rules for your meetings and align these with your attendees to get them bought in, building on any pre-defined rules your organisation already has. Consider what should the rules be and why? Where possible, make rules based around specific behaviours, for example: - Seek understanding of others’ perspectives by asking genuine questions; - Share your rationale when expressing a view, as well as share all pertinent information and examples when applicable; - Check alignment among participants before moving off of a topic; - When using pre-defined terms, ensure everyone knows what they mean; - Test the veracity of each-others’ assumptions; - Request and encourage dissent when others’ share an opposing perspective; - Jointly agree next steps before ending a meeting. You should compose your own ground rules, seeking input from the other attendees if possible to garner insight and help establish buy-in. Then consider how to communicate the rules and ensure buy-in with all participants. Your task for today is to take 5-10 minutes to establish your ground rules and generate buy-in for them.

Facilitating the meeting Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Well-prepared meetings can still fail when they don’t have a facilitator. There is a difference between leading a topic of discussion and facilitating the meeting as a whole. - A topic leader will be driving the content discussion on that topic; whereas - A facilitator will focus on the overall process and meeting progress. A meeting facilitator will ensure that: - Everyone’s objectives and roles are clear; - Attendees are bought into and adhere to the meeting rules; - Time is effectively managed throughout; - The agenda is adhered to; and - Meeting objectives are met. Effective facilitators add value to the meeting by first aligning on a process with the attendees and then ensuring that process is adhered to. They’re prescriptive on process, not content. Examples of how facilitators intervene during a meeting include: - If an agenda point is over-running they’ll halt the discussion temporarily and explicitly call out a choice for the attendees on whether to continue the discussion and sacrifice the time from another agenda point or move on now. - If things need to be parked, they’ll be the ones to capture them for follow up. - If someone is breaching the ground rules, they’ll question this. - Implementing breaks and keeping to time overall, ensuring sufficient pace to avoid boredom. - Encouraging attendees to engage when required. - Capturing next steps and aligning on these in a wrap-up, agreeing: what the actions are; who has responsibility for them; and how and when they’ll be followed up. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes identifying who should and will fulfil the facilitator role in your meeting. If it’s you, prepare for it. Consider how you’ll do it successfully and if it’s not you, spend some time coaching who it will be.

How feedback helps you Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Effective feedback isn’t a judgement about you as an individual; it’s when someone offers you their perspective on what you say or how you act and how that affects them, potentially making a suggestion for further action. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes considering what useful feedback you’re already receiving and from whom, as well as who you need more from. Write out the answers as a list of; - People that you receive or want to receive feedback from; - The quality of that feedback; and - How often they share it, as well as anything specific you want to know from them. The list should encompass everyone you have meaningful interactions with.

How to get the feedback you need Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 If someone isn’t sharing feedback with you as often as you’d like, it could be because: 1. They don’t know how important it is to you; 2. They don’t recognise what to share; or 3. They’re apprehensive about sharing. These can be addressed by: (1) Explicitly requesting the feedback you want from them; not just encouraging it. (2) Help someone formulate more useful feedback for you by: - Telling them the strengths and development areas that you’re most interested in shaping. - Letting them know what tasks or activities you’d most like them to consider. - Asking them to keep a live record of observations with what you did or what you said that they liked or wish you’d done differently. - Sharing an example of feedback you’ve received in the past which was particularly helpful for you. - Sharing a feedback model for delivering feedback which you and they might both find helpful. (3) Reassuring them by: - Fostering a supportive, open environment which builds their confidence. - Appearing accessible and receptive to feedback. - Not putting them on the spot and affording them time to prepare. - Demonstrating that you will fully consider or action what they have to share with you. - Making clear you won’t hold it against them if they criticise you. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes identifying why you might not be receiving the feedback you need from someone in particular and then engage them to see if you can address this.

How to ready yourself for feedback Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 You can affect the feedback offered to you by: - How you request it; - How you support preparations; - Your mindset going into the discussion and the associated behaviours you exhibit; - The questions you ask; and - How you wrap-up the session. Request feedback by being specific about what you want from the other person, both in terms of topics and in terms of style. Support preparations through helpful suggestions: - Schedule the session into both of your calendars, mutually agreeing a time and date that doesn’t put them under pressure and affords them time to prepare; - Consider how long you’ll need together and discuss this with them - enough time not to feel rushed but not so long as to feel like a burden; - Suggest a safe space - somewhere they feel comfortable confiding in you without being overheard or where they may have to pause due to interruptions; - Make regular appointments in a time slot that is unlikely to be cancelled; - Make feedback sessions about just one individual at a time. Adopt a mindset that recognises feedback as a gift - you want to be appreciative and receptive throughout the discussion and decide what to do with it afterwards. Avoid your body language coming across as defensive. Asking genuine questions to understand why they have their perception and what specifically you can to to address it are helpful. Questions designed to try and change their perception are less helpful. Wrap-up effectively by summarising what you heard from them, asking them to provide more feedback going forward and by thanking them will help demonstrate your appreciation. Your task for today is to identify 2 or 3 suggestions that you like the most and put them into action ahead of your next feedback session.

Actioning your feedback Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 It can help if you capture all of the feedback you receive in a journal, including: - The feedback topic; - Who provided it and when; - What example they shared and when that took place; and - What suggestion they have for you. Having a detailed feedback journal can: - Help you decide what feedback to prioritise for development; - Tracking your development by checking in with the feedback provider. Once you’ve decided what feedback you want to prioritise, develop an action plan to address it, potentially asking the feedback provider for their input or review. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes setting up your feedback journal, adding any relevant feedback you’ve already had. Once you’ve had some of your feedback sessions and filled it out further, take the time to prioritise what you want to address and develop a plan for working at it.

Why share feedback? Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 A common wish for many is to receive more actionable feedback from their colleagues. Feedback that will help them improve, help them to develop and also, make them feel valued. If you help others grow through effective feedback, they’re better able to support you and more likely to commit to your shared endeavours. So your task for today is to spend 5 minutes reflecting on this and making a list of: - Who you’re sharing feedback with and how often; and - What kind of feedback you’ve been sharing with them - how actionable is it? Then consider: - Who else you ought to be sharing feedback with? You should be sharing it with anyone you value and have meaningful interactions with. - Whether you should be sharing more often? It should be regular and frequent enough to help them learn. - Whether you’re giving them the feedback they need to improve? It should cover topics relevant to their development and be clearly actionable.

Developing actionable feedback to share Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Being intentional about when you choose to share feedback, considering the other person’s preferences and the feedback you have to share, will generally lead to a better outcome. In the event that you share feedback in scheduled 1-to-1 settings, it can help if you’re prepared for it by arming yourself with actionable comments that you’ve developed beforehand. A great way to do this is by taking notes on those you’ll be sharing feedback with, keeping a feedback log always to hand such as a notebook or mobile app. When you see something worth providing feedback on, you can take a note of: - What did they actually do or say and when did this happen; - The implication of what they did or said - such as how it made you feel or how it affected the work you’re doing; and - If you already have a clear idea of anything they should do differently, make a note of that too. This will help make your feedback fact-based, targeted and actionable - key ingredients to making it more valuable for them. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes preparing your feedback log and adding the people you want to offer feedback to, as well as incorporating any feedback you already have for them in the above format.

Delivering feedback constructively Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Before sharing feedback, consider the other person’s feedback preferences to determine: - When you should do it - a time unlikely to be cancelled and soon enough to be useful; - Where - ideally a safe space that’s comfortable for sharing confidentially; and - For how long - enough time for questions and to make it a collaborative discussion. If you don’t know the other person well, or you’re concerned about how they might react to the feedback, then there’s a feedback delivery framework you can try called OILS: - Observation - what did they say or do and when? - Implication - how did their actions affect you? - Listen - invite them to ask questions and get clarity. - Suggest - propose what they could do. When you share an implication, it’s crucial to steer clear of subjective judgements about them as an individual, such as who they are or what they believe. Either stay objective or if you make things subjective, make it about your own feelings. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes preparing some feedback for someone in particular. Determine the time and place, as well as outline what you’ll share with them. Refer to your feedback log and be sure to prioritise what you want to share, trying to include both strengths and development ideas. Once you’ve shared feedback with them, consider asking them for feedback on your approach.

Ongoing feedback and support Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Asking whether someone wants ongoing support from you, hearing what they have to say, and being honest about what you can provide them with is a great step forward. If they ask you to provide ongoing feedback on a specific area or relating to a particular task, be sure to make a note of that and find a suitable trigger to ensure that you follow through. Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes adding notes to your feedback log for the person you most recently shared feedback with: - What do they most want feedback on going forward? - What tasks will they be doing that present opportunities to address that feedback? - Can you add triggers to remind you to observe them for feedback at those times? Keep your feedback log to hand and add to it when you make an observation that you want to share feedback on. Alternatively, spend 5 minutes on it daily, capturing what you observed in the day. A calendar reminder in the afternoon can serve as a trigger to make this a habit.

What it means to storyline Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 When you do need to affect someone in someway, then there are few ways to do this more powerfully than with a good story. Your messages, the actual substance of what you’re saying, are crucial to affecting your audience. How you word them and the order in which you deliver them matter just as much as how you deliver them. In the business environment, a storyline would look like a series of bullet point messages, one after the other, which if your audience read from start to finish would not just convey key facts and insights but also their meaning and implications for the audience. The messages also need to be written and sequenced in such a way as to make them clear, coherent and compelling. And it’s crucial to develop this storyline before you start putting together slides or preparing speaker notes for a presentation in order to realise its power. Since messaging is such a crucial competent of storylining, a pre-requisite skill is the ability to synthesise - to be able to draw out the meaning and implications of facts and insight. You need to be able to take a step back from data and information, go beyond what is merely interesting and ask yourself “so what?”. Why does this matter? What does this mean? Your task for today is to start warming up this skill by practising some synthesis. Spend 5 minutes choosing your favourite movie or book and try to synthesis its meaning into a single sentence. For example, my synthesis of the movie Titanic might be “arrogance results in tragedy”.

How to be a better storyliner Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 If we want to do better, we need to be intentional and apply a structured process that can guide our approach to storylining. In this series we’re going to talk through a structured approach to building storylines, and practice on one that you need to write currently. We’ll be leveraging a framework called “GAME” developed by an expert in the field called Steve Seager, as well as leveraging some techniques used by the pros at the consulting firms. “GAME” stands for: - Goal - what is the objective of your communication? - Audience - what do we know about them that will affect our messages? - Message - what should the content and structure be? - Expression - how should it be delivered? Your task for today is to spend 5 minutes choosing a communication or meeting that you have coming up where you know you’ll need to convince others of something. Identify who will be at the meeting, what it’s about and broadly what you’re trying to convince them of. The meeting will need to be in more than two weeks, in order to have the necessary time to progress through the series, assuming that you do one session a day.

Setting your Goals Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 When it comes to defining a Goal for a storyline we suggest being tactical and having specific goals for your specific audience, around the themes of: - “Head” - how do you want them to think? - “Heart” - how do you want them to feel? - “Hands” - what do you want them to do? The clearer you are on what you’re trying to achieve with your storyline, the easier it should be to create the right messages. Defining goals also acts as a very helpful checklist once your story’s been drafted to compare against and confirm whether the story you’ve developed will actually help you achieve them or not. Your task for today is to spend 5-10 minutes thinking about your upcoming presentation or meeting and its audience, in order to determine what you’re trying to achieve. - What are your goals? Write them down. - What do you want your audience to think, to feel, to do? - Do these goals differ by the different members of your audience? If so, you want to capture this. Remember, you want your goals to be granular and clear, but not overly complicated.

Analysing the Audience Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Audience is the second component of the GAME framework. GAME stands for: Goal, Audience, Message, Expression. Explore what you know about the audience, in order to determine how that should affect the messaging and overall storyline. We can understand our audience better by performing what’s known as “audience analysis” - a series of questions that we need to ask ourselves. Your task for today is to perform audience analysis for your upcoming meeting, so grab a pad of paper and draw up up 8 columns. In the first column, write down the names of your audience members as rows. Then in the second column, note down the goals for each audience member. Then column by column we will be answering relevant questions for each audience member: 1. Where are they in terms of their understanding and involvement in our story - what do they currently think, feel or do about the topic we’re raising? 2. What are they expecting from us? If we’re bringing them something different then we need to recognise this and not surprise or confuse them. 3. What are they most concerned about? This needs to be acknowledged. 4. What drives them about our topic and will hold their interest or motivate them most? 5. What do we need from them? This can affect our style. 6. What format and style of communications do they prefer? Once you’ve gone through these questions and considered them for your audience, it may be worth validating these with someone else if you can.

Creating your Messages Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 You need 5-10 key messages that will form the backbone of your storyline and lay the foundation for everything else you want to say. Initially, don’t worry about their order or their precise wording, just write down the the first 5-10 bullet points that come to mind as the most important points you would want to make to your specific audience. Try to ensure your messages are appropriately synthesised - If you can imagine your audience asking you the question “so what” in response to you saying one of your messages then identify how you’d answer them and use that as your message instead. Next, run through each message, checking to see whether it needs to be supported. If you’re asserting a conclusion, you need to ask yourself whether it requires facts or insights to be shared in order to back it up. Next, read through your points again removing any superfluous adjectives. These are adjectives which are subjective and which don’t add value to the message. Your task for today is to spend 10 minutes writing down your main messages, as well as any keys facts and insights you need to justify them.

Structuring your Messages Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 Storylining structure is how your messages tie together and flow from start to finish. The structure you want to use will depend on the content of your messages, your audience, the story’s goals and your own style. A common business storylining structure is called SCR, which is an acronym for Situation, Complication, Resolution. - The situation is the context; - The complication is the problem that has arisen; and - The resolution is the answer to that problem. Imagine how your audience would react to each of your messages as you go through them in sequence. - Would they react positively or negatively? - Would they want to hear more, or cut you off? - Would they have a question which might interrupt your flow? By imagining how your audience might react, you can re-structure your storyline to make it more conducive to your specific audience. Great storylines also exhibit certain characteristics. You want to ask yourself: - Is it clear? - Is it concise? - Is it coherent i.e., does it make sense? - Is it compelling to the audience? Does it make them think, feel or do something different? You can leverage the goals you defined as a checklist too. Imagine yourself as the audience and determine whether your storyline, as it stands, would achieve those goals. Your task for today is to spend 10 minutes structuring your storyline into your first full draft.

Refining your Messages Want to share feedback about the podcast? It would be much appreciated. 3 min survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N72QP67 The best storylines tend to have more than one person crafting them. It’s best not to spend too long working on a storyline by yourself before you take it to someone else - someone who knows the situation and the topic - and ask them to review it and give you feedback. They can offer you a new perspective. You want to take their feedback, ensure you understand it fully, consider it openly, and only then iterate your storyline as you see fit. Spend 10 minutes identifying someone who can review your storyline for you and offer you feedback. Then tomorrow, or once they have provided you with the feedback, take some time to consider it and iterate your storyline.