Christian Idiodi: evaluation

Transcript context

…ys, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well is it first of all safe for me to do this with the team?" So I go back to the team and I say, "Look, I'm going to try to say what the CEO was trying to say again. He's giving me permission for you to speak freely and candidly, I want your honest opinion as to what was more effective and why." And I took a stab at kind of representing what he was trying to say and I asked the team and it's like, yeah, it's the same thing kind of message, but when he tells us this stuff we just go do it. We get it, we go do it. But the way you described it right now to us, I can think of four other things I need to do. I even understand some other things that may be missing that we need to now go tackle. And the CEO is kind of really taken aback and it's kind of in some ways he has never seen an alternative. And he's never seen if an alternative be effective. Most people need to see something then they need to do it before they can even teach it, in some ways. Now I'm saying this all because I need to make a very strong argument for people understanding coaching. And in some ways I probably did not know that I was probably good at coaching. I coached my kids in soccer for eight years and we always won the championship, my boys team and I had long waiting list of people and I thought I had a fundamental flaw in understanding it because when my kids were all four years old, when you have the kids run around the soccer field just kicking the ball any way, my team always had plays, they all have strategy. So winning games like 10 to zero, other kids, I thought I'm like, maybe I was born in another country. I didn't know you were just meant to let them play. And I was really coaching kids and I was treating four-year-olds like adults. We're watching video, watching tape, having real... [inaudible 00:54:05] But it was so funny when you see them execute on the field. But I've kind of always had this mentality about the truest forms like companies cannot care for people, people care for people. And the representation of what is acceptable in an environment or what we do is by the leaders. Now there's some different dynamic to why that's not happening with how we promote people and the whole poor structure around that. But fundamentally, trust is a key part of doing this. And I think when I tell these people, I say, "Look, most people don't know that you know something until they test you." We do it a whole lot in our environment. I ask you a question, I see how you answer and it's like I might ask you what's one plus one? It's two and now I know that one plus one is two. I don't care when you learned it. I need you to know that it's two to do my work. So it happens in everyday environment and what people fail to do is to do the learning so they get the question wrong and they lose trust. And trust is based on competence and character, there are other values like communication and concern and care, but most corporate environments, it's a competency thing. That's why you see so many companies accept people with bad communication, bad care, because they're very good at their job. concern and care, but most corporate environments, it's a competency thing. That's why you see so many companies accept people with bad communication, bad care, because they're very good at their job. So if you can demonstrate competence, you will earn some trust, at least the trust of competence from people. So I kind of explained to people a whole lot that the real core of their job at first is to learn, to seek to understand before they are understood, to know what you don't know. That humility and ego only last a small minute. The most powerful way I have found to get trust with many people is to have them accountable for an outcome of mine, which is to know. So if I wanted to accelerate trust with Lenny, I will ask Lenny to teach me. And I see this like an emotional intelligence, black belt technique here, but many environments, if you get into environment, it's very quickly for you to identify the power in that environment. Who is influential? Who has loudest voice and all? And there's something behind why they're powerful. Yes it is title, but if you think about why someone is called a CEO, it's because there's some competence that made someone give them the title, they are great at growing businesses, they have a good stride, whatever it is. So what you do to build trust is you want that person to trust you. Okay. But the only way that person will know that they trust you is if they test you. And unfortunately many environments they do that publicly. I'm in a meeting, I ask Lenny a question. He bumps a presentation like, oh, product managers are useless. That person doesn't know anything. So here's what I do when I want to build trust, if Lenny's a new hire in my company, I take Lenny to the loudest, most influential person in the company. And I say, "Look, I just hired Lenny. Super rockstar, did all of this. But he knows nothing about that business, nothing about how we work and stuff. I will love for you to teach him some things." Now he may be like, "I'm super busy, I'm involved." I say, "Look, Lenny should just hang with you. I've played his calendar for the whole week. He's just got to sit in meetings you are, quiet, observe, just by observing you, he will be a rockstar. No stress, nothing to give." Now it's impossible for this leader to sit with you for a whole week without saying things like, "So Lenny, where are you from? What do you do? Tell me about yourself." What have I now done? I forced a relationship between a very powerful, trustworthy, influential person and somebody else that doesn't have it. If you are walking around the company with this person, what is everybody going to say? Oh my goodness, you're friends with that person. I want to know Lenny because we can never get him to agree on it. So if I know Lenny, I'll be close with it. Lenny is more accessible, he's new, but how did Lenny break in? I'm extending somebody else's trust to you. Now by also making that person share in the accountability of training you or teaching you, in some ways, I am now making them accountable for your growth. It's impossible two months from now for that person to say, "Oh, Lenny doesn't do anything." Why? ility of training you or teaching you, in some ways, I am now making them accountable for your growth. It's impossible two months from now for that person to say, "Oh, Lenny doesn't do anything." Why? Because it makes them a bad teacher. So they're always going to be friendly, be like, "Oh yeah, Lenny, let's have a conversation. Don't do it like this in this way." They will prep you because it makes them look bad if you're not competent. Now, this technique accelerates relationships and trust. It's the help me teach me type of technique. It also allows them to observe the dynamics within the company, but it accelerates relationships because it's impossible for you to be in a meeting with a leader all the time without the person saying something like, "Oh yeah, hey folks, let me introduce you to Lenny." Now that person is now the one introducing you to more connections within the company. Fastest way to build is, now feels like it's a expense but this is the job of a coach. You are designing a very specific playbook to help people achieve the outcomes reward and that's by getting them competent at their job and then their potential where they need to go next.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.