By Beth Porter, Four Corners Broadcasting

Whether it’s local elections for plastic shopping bags or the polarizing 2024 presidential elections, political discussions in the workplace can disrupt team cohesion, cause tension to those not voicing their opinions and generally disrupt the office. How do you lead your team through this quagmire and what can you do legally?

Surveys show that more than half of employees believe that their leader’s political beliefs influence their management styles and decision-making. Wow! In today’s scramble to attract and retain good employees, it matters that survey respondents revealed they have left or wanted to leave a position because of the boss’s politics, and 23 percent of potential job applicants decided not to apply because of a company’s perceived political stance.

It’s probably unlikely that you can create your employee roster with people whose politics align with yours…and you’ll lose out on all the benefits that workforce diversity offer. What are the laws surrounding this topic and as a leader, how can you navigate these often incendiary discussions?

Not a First Amendment Issue

Employees do not have the constitutional right to express political beliefs in a private workplace. The First Amendment only applies to government actions that ban speech. In fact, private employers often can refuse to hire and even fire “at will” people because of their political views.
However, depending on the interpretation of some labor laws, employers cannot restrict politics during non-work time, i.e. breaks, or in non-work areas, like break rooms. At times, labor laws under the NLRA conflict with state and federal EEO laws. You may want to review these laws as we are ramping up to a volatile political showdown.

Create Guidelines and boundaries

Regardless of the legal ramifications, how do you create an environment that give employees the strategies to avoid conflict over politics in a way that allows them to continue to work together amicably? A recent article in SHRM offers these guidelines:

• Acknowledge that with regards to political party or beliefs, tensions are running high and team members may be feeling stress or fear related to the upcoming election.
• Remind employees that everyone in your workplace should feel safe, welcomed, respected and included.
• Communicate that the company isn’t trying to limit healthy dialogue about social issues, but does want to reduce disruptions and maintain a culture of respect
• Encourage employees to approach these conversations from a place of curiosity and accept that they may not find common ground. Further, these types of discussions are unlikely to change someone’s mind, but they may lead to better understanding of each other’s opinions.

Of course, some of this advice can apply to your next family gathering, too!

An article in the Harvard Business Review also recommends you personally set the example.

Set the tone during staff meetings by encouraging different views, demonstrating respect for others and showing a willingness to challenge your own assumptions. Here’s where the bumper sticker, Don’t believe everything you think, applies! Remind everyone that regardless of different voting records, it is still possible to care for and respect that person.

Though tempting, it’s better to NOT ban political talk in the workplace. It’s just at the forefront of too many peoples’ minds. BUT make it clear that conversations should be between team members who want to participate. No one should be subjected to the discussion if they don’t want to be. Stress that communication should be based on curiosity and humility and that someone who was willing to banter yesterday may not be in the same headspace today to be interested or be able to exercise restraint.

As a leader, it is also your responsibility to call someone out if they make an insensitive or inappropriate remark. Let the team know the comment was out of bounds. Follow up with the individual in private to be sure they understand you won’t allow employees to make offensive, hurtful comments.

Whether it’s Red vs. Blue, Cats vs. Dogs or any other topic that people are passionate about, they have the potential to disrupt the team and workplace productivity. These guidelines can help you craft a work environment that encourages inclusivity, demonstrates respect for each other and challenges assumptions.

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata, an excellent local resource. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

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https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/political-discussions-workplace
https://hbr.org/2020/10/managing-a-team-with-conflicting-political-views

We are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, fueled by data and emerging technologies. Like previous industrial revolutions, the cost of goods are falling with a concurrent increase in quality. Ease of transactions are evident in activities like organizing transportation, making a restaurant reservation, buying pretty much anything, online bill-pay, listening to music, reading books or watching your favorite show or sporting event on your laptop or phone.

And of course, as with any change in business, leaders have to be on top of these new trends to understand how to leverage them for success and guard against becoming outdated and irrelevant in the eyes of their customers and other stakeholders.

For the past few months, these articles have been inspired by a Forbes article outlining leadership trends for 2024. One of the trends we’ve already explored is adaptive leadership, meaning the ability to lead in unpredictable and ever-changing environments. The data and technology landscape is certainly one that needs constant observation and the ability to adopt those technologies that will serve the best interests of the business.

While your business may not be data or technology driven in terms of products or services, all businesses are impacted by an increasing dependence on cyber security. Furthermore, good data can be invaluable for critical decision-making. Businesses with manufacturing capabilities need to be aware of existing and emerging automation technologies to stay current in the marketplace.

For retail businesses, data literacy is used to understand customer data and take action in response to that data to bring new customers in and keep current customers coming back. That then leads to using data to understand and predict sales trends, manage inventory and understand market dynamics.

Business leaders must understand current and emerging technologies and how to leverage data for critical thinking in making decisions. Being able to understand and adapt to evolving technologies and data sets are contingent on understanding digital tools and platforms, plus the ability to extract meaningful insights from that data.

New advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are happening daily. They will continue to impact our lives, from workplace automation to stores with advanced self-checkout to fully autonomous self-driving vehicles. These innovations mean leaders in all industries need to stay abreast of the latest technologies available as they will impact costs, workforce and customer expectations.

Data is increasingly important in driving decisions. Understanding the data, how it is collected and collated, is key to making sound strategic decisions. Here’s where the adage bad data in, bad data out can mean the difference between a decision that leads to success and one that leads, well, elsewhere.

What are some of today’s emerging technologies? If you’ve used digital street view or an interior decorator app to see what a paint color looks like in your living room, you’ve used augmented reality. Blockchain is a digital platform for recording transactions in a way that eliminates the need for third-party verification and also have an uncorruptible time stamp. Blockchain technology can be used for things as diverse as managing supply chains to protecting copyrights to managing  clinical trials data and electronic medical records.

Whether we want to or not, we are all using artificial intelligence (AI) in activities as common as Google searches for soil amendments! Being able to understand these technologies means being able to harness their potential to create more efficient processes and to improve overall productivity.

Technology and data literacy means the ability to identify, understand, operate on, and use data and emerging technologies. This can be using data-based communication to bring clarity to enterprise-wide communications. Harvesting data from website traffic, transactions, social media and more to better understand customers and to harness new platforms to keep those customers engaged with your business. Using data to clarify and quantify for better decisions, essentially turning data into action. Adopting emerging technologies to increase productivity or enhance cyber security. Today’s leaders must stay abreast of new technologies and data usage to confidently lead their teams and to anticipate future breakthroughs.

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

I see some of you rolling your eyes. Emotional Intelligence isn’t about pampering fragile personalities. After all, you don’t get much tougher than the United States Naval Special Operations Community. You know, the guys that can run a marathon with a 100lb pack on their backs and know how to turn an envelope into a machete. These elite warriors are also experts in navigating complex emotional terrains, a skill they consider necessary to success in the many missions.

Why Focus on EQ?

Think of some of the key things successful leaders do: motivate their team, provide feedback, manage stress, resolve conflicts and collaborate with others. All of these functions are going to be enhanced when the leader has the emotional intelligence to recognize and manage emotions. A leader who excels at managing conflict is able to bring a team together, reduce the water cooler complaints and boost motivation, all leading to more productivity.

Now think about the flip side: without critical EQ skills, for instance the inability to recognize or understand emotions leads to workplace conflict. Without emotional awareness and the inability to practice empathy allows bad feelings to go unresolved and worse, fester.

Beyond cases of hurt feelings, research by organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich shows that teams with members who lack emotional intelligence can cut a team’s success in half…yes, 50%! That’s a big number. Eurich’s research also shows the situation leads to increased stress and decreased motivation.

The Hallmarks of Emotional Intelligence

1. Self Awareness and Self Regulation:
Emotional intelligence starts with self-awareness and self-regulation. If your goal as a leader is team success due to collaboration and positive team dynamics, you must first understand and manage your own emotions. Do you understand your own strengths and weaknesses? Think about how an emotional reaction can impact the ability to make the right decisions, especially in a challenging situation.

According to an article in the Harvard Business School Online Business Insights, there are 3 key ways to promote self awareness and self-regulation of outbursts:

• Pause Before Responding: Even taking a deep breath and pausing for 20 seconds helps settle your emotions.
• Take a Step Back: This could mean leaving the room. Take a walk, drink some water, anything rather than make a snap judgment, send a scathing email, or lash out at your team.
• Recognize Your Emotions: This could be journaling your feelings and what triggered them. It’s a great way to identify patterns and triggers so the next time a similar situation occurs, you’ll be better positioned to handle it in a healthy, positive way.
  

2. Empathy
Now think about how the ability to understand the emotions of others is going to affect communications whether team members, customers and stakeholders. How much better you would be at understanding how others may be making decisions based on their emotions. Leaders who excel at listening and responding with empathy are much better at coaching, planning, and decision-making. 

Empathy will also boost engagement and build trust, leading to higher morale and a more robust company culture.

3. Motivation
As so beautifully illustrated by Ted Lasso, motivation is the ability to inspire yourself and others to action. These leaders care more about organizational goals than monetary ones. They stay optimistic when the wheels are falling off. It all leads to building team confidence.

Researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey first used the term Emotional Intelligence in 1990. Psychologist Daniel Goleman later was who brought the idea into popular awareness. In fact, he highlighted how important EI is in leadership in the Harvard Business Review saying, “The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but...they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions.”

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata this year. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

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Purpose-driven leadership and organizational identity used to be mainly for non-profit organizations. Running a business meant the bottom line, and profit dollars were the defining criteria of success. Sure, there’s a mission statement, but that defines how a business is going to make money. Company leaders made decisions that might be good for the bottom line, but negatively impacted employees, the environment or their communities.

In one of my Leadership La Plata classes, I was introduced to the 3-P bottom line: a mission that strives to balance People, Planet and Profit. I was entranced by this idea, where every decision and action are weighed against how it will affect employees, the environment, as well as how it will impact profit.

One of the 5 top trends identified by FORBES magazine in their article, “The Top 5 Leadership Trends that will Drive success in 2024” is Purpose-driven leadership. This means a company that aligns organizational goals with a broader sense of purpose and societal impact and leaders who prioritize values, ethics, and social responsibility in their decision-making.

Some of the defining qualities of this leadership style include:

• Compelling mission: leaders define and communicate the mission beyond financial goals. It serves as a guiding force and is top-of-mind in decision-making and in developing strategic direction.
• Sustained commitment: it takes patience and sustained commitment to achieve a meaningful purpose. Leaders focus on the long term, sometimes making short-term sacrifices, which foster organizational resilience and adaptability.
• Aligned values: organizational values are aligned with a broader purpose, and these values are shared by leaders, employees and stakeholders.
  

Some of the benefits of purpose-driven focus:

Attracting, engaging, and retaining talent.
Today’s work force, especially younger generations, looks for meaning in their work. Purpose can be of greater import than their financial compensation. Leaders who can communicate a sense of commitment to shared values help employees and other stakeholders to develop and maintain satisfaction with their efforts and with the organization.

Ways to communicate purpose to employees:

• Demonstrate how the work is relevant to goals and aspirations
• Work leads to personal development
• The work makes a tangible, positive difference in the world around us, for the greater good of society, our communities or those close to use
• Our work aligns with core elements of who we are, reinforcing our sense of self
• It naturally appeals to our interests, meaning it is enjoyable and energizing
• Work leads to a desirable outcome, from paychecks to promotions, benefits and perks.

Enhanced brand reputation

As the world reads headlines of crisis after crisis, from natural to financial to political, business leaders are realizing that market value and brand reputation are becoming more closely connected. Brand value is enhanced by illustrating integrity through societal purpose, which in turn attracts more business opportunities.

Studies show that companies employing and living purpose-driven leadership gain market share faster and grow on average three times faster than their competitors. Yes, consumers look at product quality and value for the purchase price. But they are becoming much more sensitive to doing business with companies that share their societal values.

Increased Innovation

When employees embrace and understand how their actions fulfill the company’s purpose, they become inspired to problem-solve, which by its very nature is innovation. When they get the “big picture,” they look beyond short-term sacrifices and keep working toward that larger than them, world changing shared goal.

The true power of purpose-driven leadership is that defining how the company delivers value to the greater good inspires employees at every level to do their best work, and to feel energized while doing it.  Prosperous companies have well-defined values, not a total focus on financial metrics, which guide their businesses.

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata this year. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

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Unknown interest rates and scarcity of traditional business loans. New technology. Increasing competition in the marketplace. Supply chain issues. Attracting and keeping talent. 

Successful leadership has always been a balancing act between maintaining the course and navigating change. However, in today’s business climate, navigating constant, unpredictable change seems to be the norm. Adaptive leadership not only provides solutions to challenges, but it also sets up a culture where the company is always on the lookout for new opportunities for growth and innovation.

Adaptive leadership is all about the pivot. It is one of the 5 leadership trends Forbes magazine has identified for 2024. Adaptive leadership is characterized by:

• Quick decision-making
• Ability to adjust plans in real time
• Creating a culture of continuous learning and adaptability
  

Besides developing skills to keep a business afloat when facing a challenge, Adaptive Leadership creates the ability to exploit opportunities for growth and innovation.

A recent advice article in LinkedIn outlined several components of Adaptive Leadership. 

Diagnose the challenge
Challenges can be technical or adaptive. Technical challenges can be resolved using existing skills, technologies or resources. They are often mechanical and can be resolved by pre-existing experts, within or outside your organization.

Adaptive challenges are vague, and more difficult to diagnose. There are no experts or pre-defined strategies to deal with them. They can involve company culture, mindsets, behaviors or values. These are the situations where the leader and team members must embrace creativity and innovation, possibly going where no one has gone before. It’s both exciting and nerve-racking!

Examine the challenge to decide which type you are dealing with.

Mobilize stakeholders
It usually takes a team to successfully address a challenge. A good leader knows their role is to identify the issue, communicate the situation, and rally the major stakeholders involved. Emotional intelligence is a must, knowing how to build trust and promote quality relationships. 

Experiment with solutions
One of the hallmarks of an adaptive challenge is that no one, from leadership down, has the answer or possibly even the skills to apply immediately. These circumstances require accepting that growth, new skills and different strategies may be the only solution. There’s no looking to past situations to find the answer.

During the brainstorming and research phases, it might be enticing to pursue the first reasonable solution that comes up. But the best solution usually requires creativity AND testing. Generate scenarios and test ideas. Gather and analyze feedback and results, then put the plan into action.

Learn from the outcomes
Adaptive leadership is ongoing. Once you’ve implemented a plan, continue to monitor the outcomes. In today’s environment, part of the success of solving this morning’s challenge is to apply those lessons to this afternoon’s situation! Measure and evaluate. Identify what worked and what didn’t. Take the time for a group debrief of lessons and insights.

Manage yourself
As we’ve all learned over the past few years, constant adaptation is difficult for most of us. It is demanding and draining. Be sure to take time for yourself and to watch your team for burnout.

Develop others
Adaptive leadership includes a healthy dose of mentorship, supporting and developing skills needed, and determining the capacity of your team. This includes delegating, distributing authority to team members, recognizing and rewarding effort and success.

Challenges in this management style:

• First and foremost, abandoning the hero model and realizing it takes a team.
• Understanding what was successful in the past may be the thing that is creating the biggest barrier to current and future success. 
• How to convince stakeholders to leave behind old strategies and embrace new ones.
• Being willing to listen and embrace the new ideas that are generated in this management style.

Successful leadership and the ability to pivot really is a team sport in today’s business. While it may take some deep personal work to let go of the “Captain of the Ship” mentality, adaptive leadership offers a real opportunity to develop and motivate a team, maximize everyone’s skills and creativity, and create a culture of trust and resilience. All of which can help your company identify and weather changes, while recognizing and exploiting opportunities for growth and innovation.

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata this year. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

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Along with most everyone else, I started working remotely in 2020. As an introvert, it suited me. In the years since, I’ve adopted a bit of a hybrid work environment. Granted, my office is only 8 minutes away, so I guess you could say it’s more work-from-home than remote.

In casual conversation with others, many of us are appreciating the work-life balance that this method of officing fosters. Leaders are embracing remote or hybrid work environments and the healthy work-life balance it can promote. However, leaders face new challenges managing these new types of teams. 

COMMUNICATION AND TEAM BUILDING
Team building is a huge hurdle. Luckily, technology and structure help with communication and creating new ways to build and track team work product. While face-to-face is best in any circumstance, and is the first to suffer in a remote environment, there are solutions. 

Choosing the right technology is paramount to keeping those lines open and productive. A recent article in Forbes magazine had three recommendations:

1. Effective Communication: Encourage the use of video calls for team meetings. Seeing each other's faces enhances communication and helps build stronger connections. You can integrate multiple communication channels, as different messages may be better suited to different ways of communication. Use a mix of emails, instant messaging, video calls, and collaboration tools to convey information effectively.
2. Fostering Team Cohesion: Schedule informal virtual gatherings where team members can discuss non-work-related topics. This helps build relationships and recreates the casual interactions of an office setting—foster collaboration through team challenges or projects that require members to work together toward a common goal. Engage in activities such as online games, virtual escape rooms, or collaborative workshops to strengthen team bonds.
3. Training and Skill Development: Invest in professional development by offering training and skill development opportunities. Remote and hybrid teams will benefit from learning new technologies, improving virtual collaboration skills, and enhancing their overall capabilities. Additionally, it encourages cross-training among team members to increase flexibility and resilience within the team.
   

If your team is within striking distance geographically, ensure there are opportunities for face-to-face interactions. These can be on a professional footing, with occasional in-person meetings or team projects, or social with out-of-office events. 

HIRING
New skills become a priority when looking for new hires. The ability to communicate well in a virtual environment is one of them. Use a conference interview to help demonstrate how well an individual will do in remote meetings. A series of back and forth emails help you to evaluate written communication skills.

Can the individual self-manage? One thing the pandemic taught us is some employees just don’t do well out of the traditional collocated office environment. 

Qualities that demonstrate the ability to self-manage include:

• Previous proven success in a remote environment 
• A commitment to goal setting
• Good time management skills and the ability to work with deadlines 
  

MANAGING PRODUCTIVITY
In these new work models, how do you track productivity and work product? Time spent in the office or observed activity no longer suffice. Managers must focus on outcomes, and need to set clear expectations. Luckily there are documenting digital platforms that can help track work and productivity. 

ERGONOMICS
Lastly, while working remotely can be as simple as providing a laptop, internet connection and remote access software, there are other considerations to giving employees the support they need for optimal productivity. That support could be literally physical: help with creating comfortable spaces including ergonomic office furniture and computer accessories and video call equipment.

Whether or not we’re comfortable with the new office arrangements fostered by the pandemic, it does seem to be a huge trend for at least the near future. With just a few tweaks and a big help from technology, leaders can reap the benefits and successfully traverse the obstacles. 

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata this year. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information

Happy New Year! Out with the old, in with the new! Before we all go charging into 2024 with new ideas about leadership and teamwork, let’s take a moment to reflect on the year just past. Cataloging our triumphs…and examining our defeats…reinforces our strengths and informs our weaknesses. There is great value in revisiting those leadership attributes that have led to success. Instead of starting with a clean slate, let’s build on our past achievements, our skills and knowledge base, our hard-won wisdom.

As you look back on 2023, what were the major projects or improvements you and your team tackled this past year? Which were successful? Take a deep dive to identify the whys of those successes. Add your own success qualifiers to fully understand what your team and you as a leader bring to the table for 2024.

Here are some items to get you started:

• Was it a quantifiable success?
• Was it a timely success?
• Is it a project that still yields benefits to your organization or to team members?
• Which of your leadership skills were integral to this challenge? For instance
  • Decisiveness
  • Integrity
  • Communication
  • Problem solving

What were the leadership highlights?

• Creativity
• Flexibility
• Relationship building

Now take the time to evaluate the team. What skills or attributes did each team member bring to the project that led to success? How could they work better together? If you need to add to the team, either to grow it or to replace someone, what are the key skills and personality traits you want to fill that position with regards to the rest of the team?

The results of this deep dive give you a template for future projects. Of course, areas that need improvement probably came to mind during this exercise. Note those as well. Think about the team you have going forward. Which of their skills are underutilized? Can an individual or the team as a whole benefit from new resources? Training? Shifting their position or responsibilities? If, like so many of us, you need to fill a position, what are the skill or personality gaps?

This immersive review gives you an idea of the areas you need to improve upon, and as an added bonus, gives you a dynamic basis for individual team member reviews.

Before tackling how to improve in the coming year, give yourself the time and space to appreciate everything you are. This has become my morning mantra, paraphrased from “Undeniably Fierce Morning Manifesto” by Jennifer Ransaw Smith, founder of Personal Elevation Lab:

Bring your full self to the world.  Think of your stories. The countless wins. Those dues you’ve already paid. You are undeniably fierce! There is no one else who has the exact mixture of talent, skills, education, experience, creativity, successes, failures, background, life perspective or je ne sais quoi. You are an undeniable asset to every team, project and organization. Know your worth and except nothing less from the universe!

Looking for an immersive experience in leadership development or to develop leadership skills for a team member? Consider Leadership La Plata this year. Check out www.LeadershipLaPlata.org for more information.

Beth Porter is the Senior Marketing Consultant with Four Corners Broadcasting and an alumni of Leadership La Plata Class of 2015-2016.

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To pay your dues, please do one of the following:

• To pay your 2024 dues click here. (click “Register” below the price chart. Yes, it will refer to you as an “Attendee” and refer to your payment as your “Registration.” That’s right!)  
  
• Mail a check in the amount of $45 (+ any amount of donation if desired) to Durango Chamber (include “LLP Alumni Dues” on the memo line), P.O. Box 2587, Durango, CO 81302

Your dues provide scholarships and financial assistance to new class members and support the creation of alumni events and programs. In the past year, these are some of the engaging activities that we have facilitated:

• LLP Alumni hosted a Beer and Food Pairing event in April at Steamworks 
• LLP Alumni volunteered at Brewfest to help set up for the event in August
• The highly anticipated return of the LLP Kitchen event was held in September 
• The annual Meet and Greet for the 2023-2024 LLP Class was held at Steamworks in September
• The collaborative Volunteer Day was in October with YPODs and Chamber Diplomats at the Manna Soup Kitchen Garden

Upcoming Alumni Events in 2024 and Reasons to Celebrate:

• The Class of 2023-2024 is well underway, follow them on the LLP Facebook or Instagram pages
• Stay tuned for the date of our popular annual Tasting and Food Pairing event! 
• The annual fall Volunteer Day will continue 
• The new class Meet and Greet will welcome the class of 2025
• Let us know if you’d like to see or support a particular event! 
  

Interested in joining an LLP Committee? Please contact Janae Hunderman at [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support!
Nora Stafford and Suzanne Serianni 
LLP Alumni Committee Co-Chairs
Janae Hunderman
LLP Steering Committee Chair