These are just two of the easy tips that you can use tomorrow to have greater clarity for yourself and/or within your teams. These tips ensure clarity and build trust leading to more productive interactions.
1. Permission Slips
Permissions slips are used when you go into any situation where you want to be courageous and hence vulnerable such as a brainstorming session, new customer meeting, or a performance review discussion to name just a few. Take out a sticky note or piece of paper and write down what you need to give yourself permission to do or how to be in that situation. For example, be brave, ask questions, stay open minded.
In my Dare to Lead training, I gave myself permission to write in my workbook. It was pristine so I needed permission to be wrong, curious, and ok with the not knowing. I’m familiar being the trainer so letting go of being the expert can be difficult for me.
You can take permission slips a step further and use them with your teams. When you go into a team meeting have everyone write their permission slip and then share them with each other. This requires trust for people to be truthful on their slips. This helps everyone step into their better selves and push the edges of their leadership.
2. Turn and Learn
Turn and Learn is used in a group situation where there might be different, or conflicting perspectives. This is also helpful if people tend to be silent in the presence of senior leaders. Again, get out a sticky note or piece of paper and write their perspective on the note. Each person turns the note at the same time, to reveal all the ideas simultaneously and hence everyone learns everyone else’s view at the same time.
An example Brené Brown shares is that she is terrible with timelines, always assuming things can be done faster than realistically possible. In her team meetings when they are talking about the launch date for a new initiative, each member of her team writes down their estimate of the launch date and they all share it simultaneously. They aren’t influenced by Brene’s ‘wish’ and she sees the reality as many in her team have longer timelines.
What situations do you have where you could try out these two tools?
