Where to Start Making Meaningful Changes for Your Team

Aug 14

Show Notes

This episode is all about getting your ideas flowing and polishing up your plans to make impactful changes for your team. If you listened to the last episode and found yourself wondering where to start, this episode will guide you through five high-level areas where you can begin making a difference.

Take Action

Think about the one change you want to make for your team. Start small—each change has a bigger impact than you might expect.

Plus, you can always message me (Odalis) to share your thoughts or ask questions about the changes you're considering.

References

Cal Newport’s book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, page 18, where Cal discusses the Self-Determination Theory and how it applies to motivation at work, and happiness at work.

Organized Transcript

This is the Change Lives with Your Leadership series for leaders and managers who want to leverage the coolest f*cking thing ever... the fact that, as a leader, you get to change people’s lives every. single. day. without any corporate, toxic f*ckery.

Hey, Odalis here 👋🏼

And if after that last episode, you were like, “Yes, I want to make changes! But where do I start? Or what change do I even make?” Then this episode is going to help you get some clarity on next steps.

If you already have an idea in mind, then this episode will help you polish it up or expand on it so it is still worth sticking around.

Message me

As a reminder, this is not a one-sided conversation. I invite you to message me with any thoughts, ideas, or questions. Because it's in discussion that we learn and grow and, honestly, get a little boost to actually take action.

So message me—I want to hear from you.

There’s no Committee of Experts on All Things Done Exactly Right

Now, before we get into any of the ideas for changes you can make, I want to be clear about something.

What I’ll be sharing in this episode will be questions that you can ask yourself to spark ideas for your specific team. I will cover common questions and nuances that come up when discussing what changes to make to impact your people’s lives.

This is not going to be a list of changes that have already been officially reviewed and approved and are now being bestowed upon you by the Committee of Experts on All Things Done Exactly Right.

There’s no way for me to know what’s exactly right for your team, because every team is different. Your company and its current state and current goals are different. The time is different. Your resources and availability to those resources are different.

I’m bringing this up because I know people are used to being given the answers when they are learning something new. It’s actually something that’s taught to content creators and teachers because it’s a natural human instinct to want to seek answers especially when we think there is a problem that needs solving.

As humans, we want to get away from the discomfort of our problems, and creators and teachers are taught to relieve that discomfort for you.

But this is a situation where only you and your team can come up with what is going to be helpful for all of you.

Trust yourself

I want you to trust that you will figure it out because you are smart and capable and learning. You don’t need me to give you all the answers. You have so much wisdom and insight within yourself. Please trust that.

And if you’re thinking…

Nope, I can’t be trusted.
I’m new to leading.
I don’t know what I’m doing.

Or you’re just feeling overwhelmed by the idea of having to come up with answers yourself that haven’t been approved by an expert…

Listen to the “Overcome the Mental F*ckery” episode in this series and work through the steps. Those thoughts are the mental f*ckery your mind is designed to smack you with when it’s trying to protect you from any discomfort. That episode will show you why you don’t need protection from your mind and it help you work through the thoughts.

Now let's get to it.

Let's talk about the many ways you can have a life-changing impact on your people.

And I want to start by clarifying your role in changing your people's lives.

Your role in changing your people’s lives

You don't get to choose in what ways their lives will change. (I know, that would be amazing and god-like but who wants to deal with a god complex?)

How someone's life changes is specific to each person since their experiences, personality, current place in life, mindset, and all the other factors are what's going to dictate what ultimately changes for them.

Howevvvveeerrr....

You DO get to directly impact and change the values, the goals, and the culture you cultivate for your people.

The way that they get to exist at work is what leads to changes in their lives.

As a leader, your role is to solve problems, to remove roadblocks, and to provide the resources that your people need to do their best work, and contribute to the achievement of company and team goals. In other words, you get to support your people in getting their best work done.

And what we're discussing here is doing that job in a way that also impacts their lives in a positive way.

So where do you start?

You start by asking your team. You’re doing this for them so bring them into the process.

Now how you ask your team will depend on the relationship that you have with your team and what kind of culture is already in place at your company and on your team.

Human-centered is already part of the culture

If the culture at your company or on your team (since those cultures can be very different) already includes discussions and openness about nurturing a culture that supports humans and doesn’t treat them like just “labor resources”, then you can be open and direct with them.

Tell them why you’re looking to make changes and ask them if there are any changes they’d like to see.

Human-centered is NOT part of the culture

If you don’t have a company or team culture where these topics are commonly discussed, that’s okay.

Honestly, I’d bet all the money I spend on food these days (prices are truly ridiculous right now in 2024) that at least 97% of companies fall into this category.

Yes, there are more and more companies out there talking about caring for their employees than we had 20 years ago. But it’s usually surface-level stuff like ordering lunch on Fridays or a sh*tty bait-and-switch like you can have a flexible schedule but you’re still working 50 hours per week and the flexibility is between working nights or weekends to fit in all those hours.

And a lot of companies only discuss their benefits during the hiring process when they are trying to attract better candidates. But once you’re working within the company, you see that people are overworked, over-stressed, and not-so-secretly fantasizing about their boss getting slurped down by a sinkhole.

So if you work at a company like this or you’re still introducing your team to doing things differently and creating a more human and supportive culture, then asking them directly may lead to a lot of confused faces.

Because here’s the thing…

When most of us have only experienced working at companies where we know that we, as individuals, do not matter and that only our output, results, and labor matters…

It’s hard to know what to even ask for.

It’s unfamiliar and alien and it doesn’t set them up to share valuable ideas and insights.

Start where you are

So, instead, consider the processes you already have in place. The policies and guidelines and systems…

Are there any that could use some changes to make them more in line with the culture you want to offer your people?
Are there any existing places where you can introduce more trust, honesty, support, consideration, growth, humanness, or anything else you want to offer your people?

And to be clear, you will still involve your people in making any changes. However, if you come to them with a suggested change in mind, it takes away the pressure on them to come up with something from scratch.

It’s the difference between giving them a blank page to fill and giving them a template to get started. Your suggested change will give them something to start from and edit.

And it takes the pressure off of you (because I’m also looking out for you), because you only need to pick one thing to change.

And, honestly, what you pick doesn’t matter.

Seriously.

Each change creates a bigger impact (thank you ripple effect)

I want you to keep in mind that as you make changes, you will impact more than just one specific area.

Your changes are interconnected in creating a culture and environment for your team, which is truly f*cking awesome.

Because it means that with each change, no matter how small, you can have a bigger impact, a bigger ripple effect.

(I'm talking an eighteen-person canon ball into an Olympic-sized pool that drenches every dog, human, and baby within a 56-inch radius.)

For example, you might find that while creating more respectful spaces and relationships on your team, you also create more safe and enjoyable spaces. Or that by introducing more conversations about specific growth goals, you also build more trust, collaboration, and greater fulfillment for your people.

So it truly is worth it to pick one thing, even a small thing, and start there.

Like the PTO request example in the last episode, small changes can be mighty in impact. Then you get to pick another change and keep going from there.

Don’t worry about prioritization

Also, there's no particular order or priority for choosing your one change. So if you have lots of ideas you can prioritize them, if you need to, based on things like what's easier or harder for you, what may be easier or harder for your people, whether you need approval from someone else and other things like that.

But there is no inherent "this change is better than that one" to start. So don't let that get in the way of what's important, which is to make a change.

So pick one thing.

Now, if you need somewhere to start from that doesn’t feel like a blank page, let's talk about the different areas where you may want to make changes for your team.

I still recommend that you start by looking at your existing processes, guidelines, and policies. But if that doesn’t spark anything for you, this can help.

The Five Areas

Here are the five areas you can think about when considering what change to make.

Changes in these areas will help your people get their jobs done while impacting their lives in a positive way.

These five areas aren’t a comprehensive list, but they will give you lots of ideas to work with.

Basic Needs
Safety
Support
Autonomy & Empowerment
Advocacy

Area 1: Basic Needs

There are basic needs we all need met that can distract us from work and make it more difficult to do our jobs if they aren't met.

These are both basic human needs and basic work needs. For example:

Are your people getting enough time to eat every day?
Do they have something to eat that's not unhealthy every day?
Do they have clean water to drink?
Are they able to get enough sleep every night?
Do the bathrooms work on a regular basis?
Is the internal temperature of the office comfortable?
Do they have desks and chairs that allow them to get work done?
Do they have computers or laptops with stable internet connections?

Now, some of these, or maybe most, may seem like things that are the responsibility of that individual person and not you as a manager or leader. I get that. You can't force your employees to get eight hours of sleep, for example.

(Though imagine if you could get everyone at least 8 hours of sleep... our super-advanced future would be here in 2 years, tops, and we wouldn't have the typical dystopian sh*t show or millions of people wearing head-to-toe pleather since apparently pleather was the only material available to the costume depts on 80's movie sets.)

However, you can create an environment that is so stressful and demanding that your people regularly have trouble sleeping because of the anxiety and stress of their work. So yes, each person is responsible for managing their own stress and anxiety and what they eat and how much they sleep, but that doesn't mean that we as leaders aren't also responsible for not making that harder for them to do.

Same goes for something like access to healthy food. We can't force anyone to eat a certain way or to manage their finances to afford a certain type of food, but we can ensure that healthy snacks or meals are available for them at the office or that we pay them good enough to cover their living expenses plus afford to buy good food.

The point is that your team needs some basic needs met to do their jobs well. And if you're not seeing those needs being met, then that might be an area that you want to focus on.

Area 2: Safety

As humans, we all want to feel safe.

Fear plays an important role in the decisions we make because of how our brains are designed and how our body responds in certain situations. Safety means that fear is minimized and we can move more effortlessly and even take more risks.

Safety is a basic need that often gets overlooked at work. But what does it actually mean to create safety in your workplace spaces?

Well, there's physical safety. So if your people work in an office:

Are there any changes to their physical safety you could make?
Does the building have secure locks?
Is the parking lot well lit?
Is the office open all year long at all times of the day?
Are people coming in early or having to stay late and end up being alone at the office?

Keep in mind that you don't need to know the answer to these questions. You can ask your team if they have any safety concerns and go from there.

Which brings us to another form of safety that can be more important than physical safety.And that's psychological safety…

Does your team feel safe to speak up when something is wrong or they need something?
Do they feel safe to disagree with you, each other or the company?
Can they come to you when something outside of work is affecting them?
Can they share feedback with you or others without retaliation?
Can they make mistakes without punishment?
Do they feel respected and valued and worthy enough to share their thoughts, ideas, and questions?
Can they trust that you will help them work through any issues or disagreements between each other?

Creating more safety will lead to a more positive and supportive environment. So this may be an area that you want to spend some time working on.

Area 3: Support

Now let's talk about support.

Support can mean providing your people with all the resources (beyond basic needs) that they need to do their best work.

This can be things like software and apps, subscription services, internal documentation, policies and processes, and anything else they need to do their work faster, easier, or to a higher quality. I find that leaders tend to spend the most time providing solutions for this area, which makes total sense and can have a positive impact.

But if this is an area you tend to focus on, now may be a good time to explore some other areas.

Support can also mean support for their goals and growth.

The Self-Determination theory developed from the work of psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (shout out to Cal Newport for introducing me to it), states that motivation at work requires three psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

But meeting those needs doesn't just impact motivation. As Cal points out in his book, So Good They Can't Ignore You, having those needs met impacts how happy you are at work. And given that we spend thousands of hours at work, being happy at work means a happier life.

Supporting your team's goals and growth includes providing them with feedback and opportunities to grow their competence, which is the feeling that they are good at what they do.

So can your people…

Explore different career paths within your company?
Do they have opportunities to work on challenging projects?
Are you talking about their growth and goals during one-on-ones or feedback sessions?
Are you providing them with regular feedback to help them improve their skills?

This area is about anything that helps to support their skill development, career growth, company growth, and professional or personal goals.

Then we have emotional support, which ties into psychological safety.

Here are some questions for this area…

Do you expect people to be happy and positive all the time or can someone have a bad day?
If they're going through a tough time, does someone on your team have the space or additional time to get their work done while dealing with those issues?
Can your people take a mental health day or a day off without having to jump through eight different hoops?
Do they have access to mental health services through the benefits that the company provides?
Can they opt out of team building events or activities if they don't feel up to it?
Do you make it possible for people with different personalities to succeed and contribute to your team?

That kind of emotional support that allows them to be more human and personally cared for at work is going to have a positive impact, especially when most people expect to be treated like labor providers in exchange for compensation in an almost machine-like or robotic way when they're at most companies.

These changes can be just as powerful, if not more so, for your people than more physical changes or things that are concrete, like providing them with a new laptop or a new desk.

Area 4: Autonomy

Now let's talk about autonomy.

Going back to the Self-Determination Theory and Cal Newport's work, autonomy is an important part of motivating people at work and making them happier at work. People want the option to choose their work, which is no surprise since we often want to feel like we have control over our own lives.

So are you…

Giving your people opportunities to choose for themselves what's best, what projects to work on, what work to do?
Are you giving them chances to make decisions and show leadership?
Do they get to make decisions that are final versus you or someone else overturning their decisions later?
Can they choose how they get work done or must they follow some specific guidelines for how to complete their work?
Are you giving them all the information they need to make an informed decision for themselves?
Or do you share information strategically to get them to come to the conclusion you want them to come to?

Giving your people more autonomy usually means having to let go of the idea that you have to make all the decisions for your people. That being a leader means choosing for others versus letting them choose for themselves while we support them.

Yes, your team has company goals they must meet and specific job responsibilities that they must fulfill. But that doesn't mean that they aren't capable of choosing for themselves how those goals are met and how those responsibilities are fulfilled.

(This ties into the idea that hierarchies are bullsh*t and that leadership is not about ruling over or commanding folks. Leaders are here to play a role, just like everyone else. Yes, it involves a group instead of an individual, but that doesn't make it better or superior. I leave this tiny soap box here for now and we'll get more into this later.)

Area 5: Advocacy

This one is mostly about you advocating for your people and it can be tough to do for a lot of reasons (that I will cover in a later episode).

Still, it is an incredibly impactful thing that you can personally do for your people that they will not always have the chance to do for themselves. As a leader, your boss often expects that you will advocate on behalf of your team, that that is your responsibility. So don't skip out on it.

Develop the courage and communication skills to advocate for your team successfully.

So here are your questions to think about…

Are you advocating for your team's needs right now?
Will you go to bat for them?
Will you stand up and speak out for their needs and wants even when they might be competing or contradictory to current company goals or policies and rules?
Can they trust that you have their best interest in mind because you know what their best interest is and you aren't deciding for them what's best?
Also, can they advocate for themselves knowing that you will truly listen and make an effort to understand?

So again, advocate for your people and make it as easy as you can for them to advocate for themselves.

Pick one thing

All right, I'm gonna stop here since I don't wanna overwhelm you. I mean, I might have already done that but here's a reminder…

You only need to change one thing.

Just pick one thing to change and it will impact multiple areas because these are interconnected. They all tie into the culture that you are building and cultivating from your team and what they can expect from you.

And if you wanna see a clear list of all the areas and questions and ideas I just mentioned in this episode, check out this transcript.

So your next step here, or action step, is to think about what one change you'd like to make.

What's one change you can make to create more of what you want to offer your team?

Sit with it…

Think about it…

Practice running it by your dog, Rufus, who will give you plenty of positive reinforcement (especially if you're holding a piece of chicken jerky).

In the next episode…

We'll talk about how to implement the change that you want to make.

Because how you choose to implement it is actually another opportunity to create the culture and environment that you want for your team. The way you do things can often have a greater impact than the action that you choose to take.

Don't you just love how everything is yet another opportunity to do amazing things? Being a leader is the f*cking best and you'll never convince me that it's not.

Share this to help us make a bigger impact…

And if you want to create a whole other ripple, share this episode with the other leaders in your life and managers in your life who you know want to change their people's lives too.

The more of us there are, the bigger the impact.

You’re triple-certified to message me…

Of course, if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas or musings about what I shared in this episode, message me . I want to hear from you. I want us to keep the conversation going so we can continue to learn and grow with each other.

Let's continue to change lives with our leadership—together.

Episode 2

Odalis Salazar Mullins