Author: Andre Vidal

As you grow inside an organization, you need to shift your approach to be less tactical and more strategic in order to be able to think long term and project what success will look like in the future. 

Throughout the past years I have been focusing on developing this mindset to be more aligned with the company strategy and I put together what I consider should be your next steps if you are focusing on the same:

1. Develop your direct reports and delegate

When you are focusing on the tactical side of your role, it means you are looking at the day-to-day operation and trying to solve immediate problems. You are paying attention to details and trying to have quick wins that will impact your results short-term. In order for you to have the time to focus on the strategy, you will need to delegate some of these tactical tasks to your team. This will not only free up your time, but also give your reports the opportunity to develop and grow in their positions. In Customer Support, these tasks tend to be tasks such as: analyzing staffing needs and plan day-to-day coverage, understanding CSAT trends and identifying training needs, implementing small changes to processes and ways of working.

2. Look at the big picture

Book some time for you to start understanding how your function is tied to other departments inside the company. Make sure you talk to other stakeholders who focus on the strategy and start analyzing the data. Once you start having a helicopter view over the different departments, you will get a lot of insights of how your role aligns with everyone else’s and how you can cross-collaborate to achieve meaningful change. This for Customer Support is crucial. The customer experience represents everything that customers go through during their journey using the product. If I just focus on how I answer them when they reach out to support, I am losing sight of how well the company is serving them. That is why it is so important for you to understand what their experience is like when they get in touch with Sales, how their digital onboarding works, what messages they see, what campaigns they receive, how they use your online materials and how Success teams follow up with their requests for optimization. Once you start getting to know other team’s processes and results, you will start having a lot of ideas of how these different departments can collaborate to simultaneously influence their results in a positive way and thrive for a better and consistent customer experience.

3. Focus on the vision first

When we are in tactical roles, we tend to be very detail-oriented and we may be killing some good ideas, just because we didn’t immediately see how they could be implemented short-term. However, as you transition into a strategic role, make sure you educate yourself not to do that. Focus on what the vision is for the future and how you want the customer experience to be. If you are really solid on the “what” and the “why”, the “how” can be dealt with later. It doesn’t mean that it will not be taken care of, but when we’re sure it is the right strategic move, we’ll find a way.

4. Resources allocation

If we are in tactical roles, resources are not something which is always on our mind when we think about what we need to do. If we are working on something we will look at the resources we have to implement it and adjust the plan according to them. When we transition into a strategic role, we need to think ahead and understand how we will allocate existing results to implement the changes long-term and if we need additional resources. This, sometimes, can involve changes in the structure of the team, or changes in some of the specific roles. We shouldn’t be afraid of these changes. We may not be able to achieve our vision with how the resources are currently allocated, but if we change them, it can all be possible.

5. Return of Investment

Finally, when you start looking at the bigger picture, working on the strategy and long term plans, you will feel the need to look at different hypotheses and plan some impactful changes. With this level of responsibility, you can’t just trust your gut feeling to sustain your ideas. The higher level of effort to put things in motion will require a much higher investment, and this investment needs to create enough value in return. This requires a change in the mindset, as you will have to always consider what is the impact for the business.

Strategic leadership is challenging. You may feel that, sometimes, it is hard to get all the data you would need to feel absolutely confident of what should be your next step. However, surround yourself with other leaders, keep track of the market trends, prioritize planning over immediate action and always involve your team. This should help keep you on the right path.

I am about to complete 5 years at Pipedrive and I can’t help but feeling a bit nostalgic, although excited for what comes next. When I ask myself what I learned during these past 5 years, the first answer that occurs to me is “everything”, but that wouldn’t be interesting for an article, would it? Don’t worry, I will try to be more specific than that. 

After the economic crisis of 2008, the job market in Portugal deteriorated even more. For those applying for jobs after that, like me, we got used to awful job offers, if we were lucky enough to have offers. Everytime I opened a job post, the list of requirements was so big that I was already excluded before even applying. But I applied to hundreds and hundreds of them. We all did that. We lowered our standards to a point where all we wanted was to have something paid, even if poorly, to be able to say to ourselves “you’re trying”, “everyone is in the same situation”, “we have to do what we have to do”.

Before joining Pipedrive I worked for a consultancy firm and I was paid the minimum wage with a 4 months contract. After the contract ended, I was presented with an amazing offer impossible to refuse: “We’re very happy with your work and, out of the 10 people that started 4 months ago, we are only going to keep 5 and you are one of them.”. Of course the wage would be the same and the expectations higher. I refused.

Most of the people in that project had two jobs to be able to pay the bills. They were unhappy with what they were doing, some even depressed. The quality of what they did was also really low and, when I looked at our direct report, I was always thinking of how bad I would feel if I was leading that team. But again, I bet she was also fighting to survive like everyone else. Once a week, there was a company delivering baskets of fruit on our floor. Employees would run to the kitchen to be able to get some of the fruits and they would save them to give to their kids at home. People would fight over fruit, which was overwhelmingly shocking for me. How can this happen? How can people work 8 hours a day and live a miserable life like this? And how is this considered normal?

That job showed me everything that was wrong and, trust me, I’ll make sure I will never forget it. When Pipedrive appeared for me, it was a breath of fresh air and the opposite experience. It showed me everything that was right.

Pipedrive completely changed my perspective and helped me shape what I am today as an employee, as a person and as a leader. I felt valued from the moment I had contact with the recruiters and especially when I started, which was something that I never felt before professionally. I was not fighting to survive anymore. I was an asset and I was seen as one. 

I remember that, during my recruitment process, it was very hard for me to answer the question “how do you see yourself in 5 years?”. How could I answer that? After years of crappy and temporary jobs, was I allowed to have expectations? Was it worth it for me to have them? I looked at the recruiter and answered honestly: “I don’t really think of the path that I want to follow, I just want to be happy following it”. Never have I thought that this would be the perfect place to do just that. 

After 5 years of working at Pipedrive I learned how important it is to promote an environment where people value, respect and feed from each other. And it all starts with recruiting the right people and by “right” I mean people that are completely aligned with the values we want to promote. I learned that people need to be compensated fairly and competitively and that a work relationship absolutely needs to be a commitment from both ends. I learned that you get nowhere if you don’t have amazing colleagues to rely on. And I learned that it is such a good feeling to let yourself be inspired by those who surround you. I learned to be an agent of change and to embrace failure as a growth opportunity. I learned that with passion, anything is possible. And I learned to be valued and value others. 

I learned a lot more, but I am afraid I would bother you with pages and pages. No one reads this much online anyways and I am lucky if you’ve made it this far. I just want to end by thanking everyone who crossed paths with me during these past 5 years. You were my main motivation to keep going and growing. And today, I can answer back to the recruiter with full confidence: I am definitely where I wanted to be 5 years ago. I am happy and I am so grateful.

Starting a new year can be, for some, the perfect timing to plan changes. A new year is coming, time to turn over a new leaf and determine what we are going to do to reach that next level in our role. As a manager, one of the challenges that you’ll often face is how to keep productive and manage better all the tasks that are on your plate. Here are 5 things you should consider when working on your improvement plan: 

1. List all the things that may be preventing you from being more productive

Finding the root causes should always be the first step. Reflect on the past year and try to find what is really impacting your productivity. Is there a specific period of the day when you’re usually feeling less productive? Why? Why did certain meetings that you had were not efficient? Was your motivation always at the same level? Why not? Challenge yourself to really find what is impacting your productivity. And do not limit yourself: a lot of these causes can be things you do in your personal life. And then, depending on the causes, you can already start planning what you are going to change.

2. Set clear action points for you and do not forget to set deadlines

After identifying the causes, you are already able to check what is in your power to change and set specific actions for you to perform. They can be one-time tasks like “change the time for these recurring meetings” or “schedule time for me every week to analyze this data” or they can be actions that you will always need to do like “waking up 1 hour earlier” or “do exercise 3 times a week”. A tip to better set what actions you need to plan is to group the root-causes that are related and then set the actions for each group. Groups can be “meetings” or “personal habits” or “organization” or “people”, depending on what you have as causes. 

3. Define how you are going to track success

One important part of your plan is to define how you will track your own progress. Are you going to review your progress each month, each quarter? What will you do if you do not meet your goals? What will you do if you meet them? It is also important to think about how to celebrate your success and not only how to punish yourself because you didn’t do well. 

4. Share your plan with your manager and include them

We all know that, as humans, we tend to plan a lot and then we follow some of the things we planned, but then, with time, we kind of forget to check and the plan loses its purpose. Including your manager in the plan will, first of all, make you more accountable for that plan. You will feel that it is not only yours after that and that you will also have a responsibility towards someone to report on progress. Second of all, including your manager also means setting specific actions for your manager. Your manager also wants you to succeed. So don’t hesitate to give them some work to do. Think about what exactly your manager could be doing to help you with the goals that you set. And then, define specific actions for them and discuss them with your manager.

5. Question your plan during the year

It is not just important to set the plan and follow the action points that we set at the beginning of the year. It is also important to understand if they are producing the results we wanted. Changing that meeting time actually helped with my productivity? Doing quarter reviews was enough for me to stay on track? Setting a plan does not mean that you can’t change it from time to time, as long as you’re working to achieve the goals that you initially wanted. 

Defining a plan can take time, but without it, I guarantee you that you’ll be less focused on what would really help you improve. Setting a plan will help you be more efficient, feel more rewarded and also motivated. We don’t all need to use the same method when planning, but it is important that we do plan and focus on what we need to be successful. 

When leading people we, sometimes, tend to think that sharing our struggles with the people we lead may undermine our authority or change the way people perceive us. It is usually common to share our issues with the person we report to. However, is it beneficial to also share them with the people that report to us? 

I have been thinking more about it and I came to the conclusion that sharing my own struggles with the people that report to me for the last months has not only helped me, but also helped them and us as a team. And it is something that I didn’t do intentionally, but I ended up realizing that it strengthened our relationship. 

To be fair, there are things which shouldn’t be shared with someone that is reporting to you. Let’s say you’re having an issue managing another employee. It would be crazy to consult with a colleague of that employee to get advice. Or let’s say you are having a hard time planning how you are going to communicate something with the team that is going to impact them negatively. It wouldn’t be a good idea to share this with someone that is part of the team that will receive the news before all the others do. There is a place for everything and common sense needs to be applied.

What kind of things should you share with the people that report to you, then? I found that it was productive to share things related to my own work method, for instance. I was having a hard time finding the best system for me to stay organized and make sure I followed up with everything I was supposed to. By asking a few of the people in my team what their method was like and what worked well for them, I not only got really useful insights to help me with what I needed. but I also learned more about how they work. 

I also asked some of them to help me brainstorm about how to move forward with certain projects from time to time and what would be important to consider. This was not only helpful to help me reach some conclusions, but it was also helpful to understand how they think and how they prioritize tasks. 

Both of these examples were important for me to understand that when I was asking advice or help from the people that reported to me about something that wasn’t directly their responsibility, I was also helping them develop by putting them in a position where they would have to provide guidance, think critically and coach. On one hand I felt that I was being vulnerable and that it would change the way they perceive me, however it was not at all what I think happened. 

Sharing your own struggles with the people that report to you can be a good way for them to consider you more as part of the team, as someone who faces some of the struggles they also face. If people relate more to you, they will also feel more comfortable sharing what they are going through with you, they’ll trust you more. This transparency can also increase the team’s spirit as helping someone asking for advice is also helping the entire team be better and stronger. At the end of the day we are all a team, regardless of the position we have, right? 

When you are a Customer Service Representative or a Customer Service Manager, your satisfaction scores are usually something you take pretty seriously. There is something about being rated that creates that extra pressure. However, sometimes you may feel like you are giving a 100%, but your scores are not really reflecting it. Here are 10 things you can do to take your satisfaction scores to the next level: 

1. Don’t assume that the answers you have are the answers the customer needs. Also, don’t assume that what the customer wants is what he really needs. Always try to get more information about the process that the customer wants to implement and make sure the suggestion given is not only helpful to solve the customer’s problem now, but also useful to the customer’s business in the future; 
2. Always confirm that the customer implemented your suggestion whenever you have the chance. If you can access information internally to confirm that, you should check that before following up. Caring about how exactly our suggestions worked out for the customer makes a difference to them and can improve the empathy they feel towards us;
3. If you work for a B2B business, when a customer reaches out, you should worry, not only about helping him with that specific issue, but also help his business. You need to take into consideration if what you are suggesting will benefit his business as well. You should always look at yourself as part of the business of the customer and help him to make money with your product, because that will also mean more money for your company. Helping him to find the best practices, processes and workflows will improve his efficiency, his satisfaction and his willingness to continue the subscription. You should act like a consultant of their business sometimes, not just a support representative that answers questions, because that is what will distinguish you from the other competitors out there. That is the human touch not only in the form, but also in the spirit;
4. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. Try to understand what he is going through, how he and his business are being affected and what things could help. Knowing the customer context is really important to give better solutions. Real Estate companies are really different from Tech companies or Distribution companies. Understanding the specific needs of different types of business will help you to be better prepared to help other customers in the future and understand more about your product and how it can serve your customers;
5. Manage expectations. This is so important. You need to think that there is someone on the other side that needs to know what you’re doing, because he can’t see that. Say that you are investigating and how much time it will take, say that you are escalating and say how much time it will take. If you say that you will follow up at the end of the day, then follow up at the end of the day, even if the issue is not yet fixed. Communication is key; 
6. Follow ups also matter. When you are following up the next day, always try to customize your follow up, especially if you are still waiting for an answer from the customer, if you are not sure if the problem was fixed or if you still need to get more information to troubleshoot. A general follow up will not get the customer to reply. If we clearly say why we are following up and what we need to move on, the customer will be reminded of what was being discussed and he will probably follow up sooner; 
7. Send more customized content overall. Show the customer what you are trying to explain with customized videos or screenshots. Customers enjoy when we are specific with the examples we show. Sending general support articles is good, but it can’t be presented as the final solution you are offering;
8. When the customer asks for something which is not possible to do with your product, the conversation does not need to end there. Ask the customer exactly why he was looking for something like that and how he envisions your product in the future to be able to respond to that need. The customer will see that you are interested and you will also have specific feedback to share with the Product team, which will be valuable for your company. In these situations, also try to think of what else you can suggest to the customer that could help him, even if that is not quite what he was looking for. This way, you can help him find something that would help him in the meantime, even if it does not serve 100% of his needs; 
9. Watch your tone. You may follow all of the points above, but if you don’t do it with a proper tone, then it won’t have the same effect on the customer. First thing you should be doing is analyzing the tone of the customer: is he really straightforward and practical? Is he informal and likes to tell jokes? This will determine how you can adapt your communication to him. However, regardless of the customer, always be respectful, positive and solutions-oriented. If the customer senses this from you he will feel way more supported;
10. Stay responsive. There is nothing worse than being “on hold” forever or to receive a reply to an email 1 week later. The time matters, so find ways that will help you with this. Organize your workplace in a way that will help you be more productive. Have the material ready for the types of inquiries which are more common. Use shortcuts to help you find the information faster. Record videos if it is going to be quicker than typing. 

Hopefully these tips will help you improve your customer satisfaction score. If you have other tips, feel free to share them in the comments!

In these past few weeks I started following some pages about leadership that often post those images with sentences in bold about leading people and companies. When you see them for the first time, they all make a lot of sense. You feel like someone heard your thoughts and put them into writing, you go and like the post, even comment with something that describes how you try to do the same at your job. And it ends up with you thinking you have all this knowledge about what being a leader really means. However, there is a lot that these inspirational sentences are not telling you. 

I saw one this week about micromanaging and how this ends up frustrating and pressuring employees. And the sentence ended with something like “hire the right people instead”, basically showing that you should provide autonomy and trust your team and, in order to do that, you would need to hire better. This is all great in theory, but I can’t just enter the office on Monday and fire all people that are not working as expected. And, in reality, I don’t want to.

There was another one about how important it is to surround yourself with people who talk about visions and ideas, which is also great in theory, but isn’t it important to be influenced by all kinds of people? Won’t I need to go to the office on Monday and talk with everyone about what’s on their mind? Is the vision all that matters to employees?

Don’t get me wrong. There is always some truth behind each of these sentences. However there is so much more to consider when we are leading people and organizations. True, no one should have micromanagement as their number 1 method. The principle of micromanaging is just wrong to begin with. Does this mean that we should never do it? No. If micromanaging someone’s work is the best way to help them develop and people understand why you’re doing that and value your contribution, it can be the right approach. Should you continue doing it in the long run? Probably not, as it will be important for people to learn something from the micromanagement, otherwise it won’t be worth it. 

Hiring the right people should be one of our goals as leaders. However, developing the people we are already working with should be our number 1 priority. And a lot of methods can be considered for this. Your job will be to find the one which is right for you and for the person. And what does the term “right people” even mean? I was probably not the right person to perform in the role i am at the moment when I join the company. But I can be that right person now. I guess I was the one lucky enough to have the right leader all this time. 

Inspiring sentences are great to motivate ourselves. However, be cautious, as they hide a lot of the struggles you will face at your job and not everything is black or white. We’re people, are we that predictable? 

A lot of people of my generation and those after mine are eager to develop, earn more money and be recognized for their success. However, what ends up happening a lot of times is that some of them gain the habit of waiting for opportunities instead of creating them or, at least, chasing them, and they never understand what is important for them..

During my experience, and also speaking for myself, what I noticed is that it especially happens when you don’t know exactly what you want to do or where you want to be professionally in a few years. This makes it really hard for you to have a clear plan or know exactly where you need to spend your energy. And I came to the conclusion that this is an obstacle we create for ourselves. 

When I think about why we create that obstacle for ourselves, it isn’t hard to understand. A lot of the narratives that influence us online or in more conventional media are based on these stories of people who always knew what they wanted to do and proved to everyone that they were exceptional at it. Writers who always wanted to be writers, musicians that sold everything to pursue their dream since they couldn’t do anything else or people that created IT companies that turned into millions when they were teenagers. I mean, the pressure is huge! Unconsciously, the following question starts growing inside our brains: “why don’t I know what I want to be?”

If we think about it even more, it starts when we are kids. Everyone asks children what they want to be when they grow older, as if they had to know already or, at least, have a desire to become something specific years and years away. And the answer always has to be specific, like “a doctor” or “a firefighter”. I wonder what our reaction would be if a child answered us something like “I want to be someone who encourages other people to improve and gets to have direct contact with people in my everyday routine”, focusing their answer on what would be important for them, rather than what the profession needs to be. 

I always struggled with this dilemma myself. “What do I want to be?”. I really liked writing and reading. And when I looked at the conventional jobs’ list, journalism seemed like a good fit. So, I put a lot of energy into it and spent 5 years in the university studying. However, when I got to experience what it meant to be a journalist in the real world, only part of the job really fulfilled me. Journalists need to go to a lot of events, press conferences, places where things are happening that need to be covered and I realized that a job where I had to be physically moving all the time was not something I enjoyed. Journalists need to be able to go to a place and recognize all the people that need to be interviewed, sometimes, from a distance. I always had vision problems, which made it hard for me to do this in crowded places. Finally, journalists in Portugal, in general, have low incomes and I realized it was important for me to earn more to be able to have enough money to travel, to go out for dinner or buy a house. 

With time, I understood how important it is to focus on the things that are important for you and not on the job title you should have. And you only learn about the things which are important for you if you challenge yourself and if you put yourself out of your comfort zone. I started exploring other opportunities. I worked in sales, I did administrative tasks and I worked in customer service. All these experiences allowed me to understand exactly what I liked and what I didn’t like. And today, more than wanting to be something specific, I want to find opportunities to work on something which includes everything I realized was important for me. 

Not all jobs will fulfil you completely. All of them will have things you like and things you don’t like. What you should be thinking about is how you can turn these experiences into learning experiences and find opportunities inside your workplace to find the things that are relevant to you and will make your experience a lot better. 

We live in a society of feedback. There was never a time where feedback was as important as now. We seek validation in everything we do. The social networks created a culture of validation, where likes and hearts are the end goal. Platforms like Zomato, Arbnb, Yelp or Uber even increased the feedback need with their reviews system. We want to express our opinion and we want to know what others think of us. To ignore this as a manager is one of the biggest mistakes one can do. 

There are two sides of this coin. if, on one hand, people are more receptive to feedback and they expect it, on the other hand, they also feel more entitled to share their opinion and voice their concerns. Both are extremely important to an organization, but it is important to balance them to take the most out of this communication.

if you’re a manager, you need to know one thing: people react differently to feedback. And this is the first thing you should be observing in your employees. This is what is going to determine why, when and and how you share feedback with them and it is going to help you making sure that your feedback is producing the best results. 

From my experience there are 4 types of, let’s call it, “feedback profiles”:

1. The takers: they will take every little feedback you provide to them as their greatest mission. This is when you know that your feedback is always going to take effect, so you can be really specific about the things that you would think should be changed. Usually these are either people that have a lower confidence and they always think that others’ perspective is more valuable than they’re own or people that are confident with their work, but they are always willing to try other things because they recognize how important it is to develop. Takers will apply everything you say, because they want to improve. You, as a manager, with this type of profile don’t need to show a lot of examples to convince them. They will take your word.
2. The idealists: they will value your feedback, but they will only apply it up to a certain point. Idealists are moved by principles, values and what their own view is for the work that they do. With this type of profile you need to invest a lot of time showing why doing things in a certain way is needed. A classic example is people that, when they’re doing customer service calls, take a long time to finish the call because they don’t want to compromise the quality of their support. They often have great and valid points when explaining why they take so long. To make sure they apply the feedback you are providing, you need to use arguments you know they care about. “Less time with calls will allow you to help more customers. Customers appreciate shorter calls, as long as they are effective. Calls can still be effective when they are short and we can still be empathetic during quicker calls. Here is something very small you can start trying from now on.” With this kind of profile, you need to ask for smaller changes, one at a time. They will not radically change the way they work before they believe in it and they see results. 
3. The defensive: they will take things personally and it will be very hard for you to have them on board with just one conversation. These are people that often mistake feedback with personal criticism. They will see something negative you say about their work as if you were saying they are incompetent. Their pride will get in the way and they will start finding reasons.to sustain their actions. They may blame other things for their results and it is going to be hard to make them take ownership of what you need them to change. With such a description, how to deal with this profile? It is not easy to have a clear answer, but I found it is useful to get them to be the ones mentioning what needs to be improved first. In order to to this, you can ask them to analyse something they did and let you know how they feel about it and if they would have done something different. If they can’t identify what you would like them to identify, you can give a hint, but always start with something positive first. The point is to always try to get them to say it first. However, that is not always possible and, sometimes, you need to point out what is wrong. But, if you have do it, always think of how you say it. Try not to impose something to begin with, like “this is how I want you to do it from now on”. It will work better if you say it like “have you noticed what happens when you do this? Would you do something different?”. if people with this profile start finding excuses or looking at other things to blame, it is very important to try to show to them what is in their power to change, because other factors will always influence our work, but there are always some things we can do to improve as well. 
4. The numb: they will hear your feedback and say “yes” to everything, but they won’t really apply it. It is hard to understand when they are taking the feedback seriously. It is hard to know if they are motivated to apply it. You will need to make an extra effort to understand what triggers them, what motivates them, as they don’t really care about the feedback, they care more about the effects of applying it or not applying it. Finding their purpose is what you should be worried about. If they want to progress internally, maybe showing them how that feedback is going to help them get there is what is needed.

These profile types are not static. And one very important thing to remember is that people may not always take feedback in the same way during their entire lives. I tend to remember the feedback that was provided to me during periods where I was more vulnerable (positive or negative). During the first months at a new company, we tend to be very receptive to feedback and when we are there for a long time and develop some frustrations we tend to disregard feedback a lot more. If I am upset about something in my personal life, I can be more defensive in the office. If my manager did something I didn’t like recently, I can be tempted to question his views. If someone I care about in the company reacts to feedback in a certain way, I can be tempted to mimic that person, because I admire them. There are so many variables in the equation that it is really hard to always know how to approach someone. However, a few key things can always be considered: 

1. Always plan how you are going to pass your feedback according to the person that will listen;
2. Have examples that support your feedback, as showing the person is always better then just telling;
3. Let the person come to the conclusion themselves, if possible;
4. Be specific about the things that need to be worked on and avoid using expressions like “you always”, “you never”;
5. Providing positive feedback is as important as providing negative feedback. Also be specific about the positive feedback as well, so that the person repeats those behaviours. 
6. Always be respectful and make sure you differentiate how you feel about the person and how you feel about their work. 
7. Ask your employees how they prefer to receive their feedback. Not everyone enjoys receiving it in the same way or with the same frequency. If you don’t see an improvement, revisit this with them.

Managing employees is definitely a hard and challenging task, but if you want your team to develop you can’t dismiss how important feedback is. Be patient, observe and ask for feedback as well, as you don’t need to do this alone. 

There are dozens of things that come to my mind when I think about what is important to do when you are in a management role. However there is one that stands out. It is hard to say if it is the most important (you’ll see that with management skills you cannot easily rank them), but it is definitely one that is often overlooked: Active Listening. 

Let ‘s be frank. Companies today need to grow fast, especially if they are a SaaS business. Companies have a lot of competitors and need investments. Showing good results is crucial to add value to their proposition. And to grow fast usually means hiring a lot of people and developing big marketing initiatives that will enlarge their customers’ list. What does this mean if you’re a manager? You’re always running to keep up with the rhythm your company needs. Lots of meetings, product changes, new processes to follow and in the middle of this you still need to run the operations and make sure your team adapts well to all of this. With so much going on, we tend to focus more on passing the information that these changes require than to take time to listen to our people. 

Listening, or Active Listening, is one of the key things you should be doing if you’re a manager, no matter the workload you have or the rhythm you’ve been trying to follow, as it will help you and your team face the challenges that are coming. Active Listening, to be practical, means asking more than talking. We may feel like we know our team really well and we know how they are reacting to each situation, but this leads us to assume things that may not be true and we may be creating bigger problems than the ones we already have. 

Active Listening helps us understand the reason behind someone’s behaviour and it can be incredibly useful to find out the best way of improving. It can help you deal with someone that is demotivated, stressed, less productive or under performing. And that is why you constantly need to do it to make sure you have a healthy team working alongside you. 

How to put this into practice though? Here are a few things you can try:

1. What’s on your mind? This question sounds silly, but it is useful if you notice that someone is not well and you don’t really know the reason why. The advantage of this question is that you won’t influence the way the conversation goes as the person can literally bring anything they want to the table. You can use the information the person shared with you to find out if what is on their mind can be the reason for their recent behaviour. 
2. Ask the question instead of assuming and implying something which may not be true. This is useful for situations where you think you know what is going on, but you should not assume. Example: if you notice someone reacted badly to a change you announced, instead of saying to the person “I noticed you didn’t receive well the changes I announced”, ask “How do you feel about the changes that I announced?”
3. “Why?” is your best friend. It will seem like you are in a session with your therapist, but “Why?” is the most useful question when you want to find the root of the issue and also when you are trying to fix it. “Why” will force the person to put into words what are the reasons behind what they think. What will happen is that you will understand the person better, but they will also understand themselves better. Sometimes we feel something and when we need to justify why we feel that way, we realize that we really shouldn’t feel that way because the reason we express is not strong enough. Or, we actually have a valid reason but it is something else unrelated to what is changing. Maybe the person doesn’t mind the change and what is really upsetting them is the fact that they would like to be trained sooner. 
4. Make statements based on what you’re hearing. it is important that throughout the conversation you also try to validate what you’re hearing to avoid assuming something again and know what to ask next to dig deeper. However, you should not express your opinion or perspective. Remember, you’re just listening. You can say something like “So, what you are saying is that when you are in a meeting and need to express your views, you hold back because you don’t like to be judged, is that right?” Asking the question this way helps you to be sure that you interpreted things correctly and gives the opportunity to the person to reflect more as maybe they said that was the reason, but now that someone else said it, it doesn’t really make sense. 
5. Try to lead the conversation to an end, but don’t impose the end. This is the most difficult thing about Active Listening. You want the other person to realize something or understand something, but you can’t tell them. You need to let them come to that conclusion themselves. It is important to let the person be the one owning the actions coming out of that meeting and it is much easier if the actions were proposed by them. So, in order to do this, instead of telling the person what to do, ask them what they want to do about it. Of course, sometimes the person may not know what is best. In these situations you can always give the person some options and ask which one they prefer. This way they are, at least, picking the one they like more and owning that responsibility. 

There is a lot more to write about Active Listening, but this post is already long and I am sure I will write about it again. I would just like to end by saying that Active Listening is not useful just for understanding your employees and making them understand themselves. If you take the effort to really listen to them, you’ll earn their trust, they’ll know you got their perspective, they will feel heard and they will listen to you a lot more as well. So, if you want to be listened to, be sure you listen first and always.

In my early twenties, when I first started thinking about building a career, I had the idea that people in management roles had to be older than 40 and have a lot of experience and knowledge of what their company is selling or developing in order to be in a management position. And I realized I was not the only one with this mindset. However, in these past years, I discovered that I was completely mistaken about this and so much more. Here are the top 5 myths about managers:

1. Managers need to be older than other employees on their team;

Age is a thing of the past. Respect is not earned by how many candles you blow on your birthday. Old or young, what matters is your talent and your management skills. If you truly help your team, it won’t matter whether you’re 45 or 22. 

2. Managers know the product inside out. 

What a lie as you probably know! We all had managers who were not experts in the area they were managing and we all thought, at some point, that, if for some reason they had to replace us, they would be clueless. Although knowledge of the product is important to earn the trust of your team, it is not everything. It is ok to be honest when you don’t know something and it is fine to realize you have people in your team much more knowledgeable than you. In fact, they will come handy when you need their help. What is important is that you consider yourself as part of the team and that your team feels they also want to help you as much as you help them.

3. Managers need to dress up for work. 

It is the 21st century and this is definitely something that is changing. It is true that some people will perceive their manager differently if he/she dresses up for work. However, when you think about it, if you’re a manager, is this really the reason why you want to be viewed as competent and skilled? If you’re good at what you do, you’re good, period. 

4. Managers can’t be friends with the people they’re managing.

That old idea that the manager is someone who is more distant who only sets targets and looks at numbers is outdated. Managers don’t hang out only with other managers. They can have fun, they can tell jokes and they can be friends with their employees. The only thing to have in mind is to never let these relationships interfere with how you manage your team. if you’re consistent, fair, and set the right expectations from the beginning, no one is going to unfriend you because of the way you acted at work. 

5. Managers are responsible to always tell employees what to do

If you are a manager, you may feel the pressure all the time to check in with your employees, know how they are doing and analyze what they need to improve on. Although it is part of your tasks to do this regularly, you can’t hold this responsibility alone. Remember, you are in a team! Encourage your team members to be autonomous and pro-active. They are also responsible for their development. They can also be the ones who share with you how they are doing and how they could use your help to improve. Always set the right expectations and agree with each employee how you can help each other moving forward. Sometimes, it is as simple as that. 

It is hard to define what a manager should be, but there are just some ideas that expired with time. What other myths are on your mind?