The full episode and transcript are below, but here are a few of our favourite insights from the season.
What we learned from Paul Teshima, co-founder and CEO of Nudge.ai
In short, how to make sure strategic priorities are being communicated across all levels of the organization. Paul says it’s about getting people leaders to get their employees to ask the questions they (the people leaders) are asking the CEO.
What he means is, as a manager, your job is to give people context about the business and make sure they understand how the work they’re doing impacts the bigger organizational goals. If you’re doing that right, they’ll inevitably start asking you the questions you’re asking the CEO because you’re all marching to the beat of the same drum and have the same understanding of what’s important to the business.
It’s about getting your team to the same place you’re at in terms of information and understanding about the company’s vision, mission, goals and strategy.
Listen to Paul’s episode to hear more about how he has inspired managers to become some of the best people leaders in the Toronto tech scene.
"It’s about getting your team to the same place you’re at in terms of information and understanding about the company’s vision, mission, goals and strategy." – recapping @paulteshima of @NudgeAI on the #PeopleLeadingPeople podcast Share on X
What we learned from Alyssa Furtado, CEO of Ratehub.ca
Alyssa gave us some awesome tools to communicate information from top of the organization to the front line. One of our favourites was Rock Setting.
The idea here is to decide on a small number of “rocks,” or priorities, that the company determines are the most important things to focus on to achieve success. The process of setting – and sticking to! – rocks helps everyone prioritize their work and ensure only the most important things for the business are being focused on.
Listen to Alyssa’s episode to learn how they set rocks at Ratehub.ca.
What we learned from Derek Marshall, CTO of Flight Network
With Derek, we took a bottom-up perspective – how an individual contributor can better understand the system they’re working within.
We talked about the “bureaucracy hacks” people can use to if they’re struggling to get their work passed through the bureaucratic system in their organization. This could mean building strong personal connections in the workplace. This could mean removing roadblocks for people. And it could mean being vulnerable and sharing your growth needs, so that others feel comfortable doing the same with you.
Listen to Derek’s episode for all the hacks, and tips for building trust with your team.
"We talked about the bureaucracy hacks people can use to if they’re struggling to get their work passed through the bureaucratic system in their organization." – recapping Derek Marshall of @FlightNetwork on the #PeopleLeadingPeople podcast Share on X
What we learned from Mike Katchen, co-founder of Wealthsimple
With Mike, we talked about job mapping at Wealthsimple, and his philosophy about letting people remain individual contributors if that’s what they’re really passionate about.
Mike knows not everyone wants to be a manager. And when you think about it, it’s not surprising. Being a manager is a career change: suddenly, instead of focusing on the skills you’ve worked so hard to master, you’re being asked to coach others to do that skill. Essentially you’re being asked to be a psychologist, a motivator, a people leader. So, Wealthsimple has created alternative career paths that allow people to move up in seniority, title and compensation, without having to move into the management track.
Listen to Mike’s episode to learn more about Wealthsimple’s career paths, and how Mike scaled people management at a rapidly growing company.
What we learned from Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale, co-founders of Raw Signal Group
A big thing we learned from Johnathan and Melissa is that if you’re looking for ways to coach managers, understanding where they fall on the relationship versus results scale is helpful.
Every manager falls somewhere between the two extremes. Do you care more about people’s feelings than giving them clear feedback? Or do think personal conversations get in the way of getting sh*t done?
Neither is necessarily better than the other, but it’s definitely not a good thing to be at either end of the continuum (100% relationship or 100% results). Whether you’re on an extreme or right in the middle though, the important thing is to be self-aware and intentional about the way you manage.
Listen to Johnathan and Melissa’s episode to hear more about the relationship versus results spectrum.
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