The mid-year check in Pt. 5

Welcome to Leadership Sovereignty. I'm your host Terry Baylor along with Ralph Owens. And today we'll discuss questions such as what is an NPS score and how is

it

used? The mid year check-in with your leader and staying aligned. The nuance of a boss versus a leader and defining a manager and a direct report. Enjoy the show. You know, I think that's great Ralph and I think I want to just chime back on the on the net promoter score.

Most times people are doing that and because how I was referencing it is how our internal customers do that with with

our The external.

Yeah, the external. This concept that Ralph was introducing was, hey, let's do that internally with our customers. That's That's Jedi like, stuff at that next level. Because this is typically only tracked for external customers. And again, that is a more experienced technique.

But what we wanna do is just introduce the concept to you. Not really saying, hey, let's not jump from zero to 120. No, let's get on the highway. We're do the speed limit 65.

That's right. In Missouri.

That's right. 75 here in Texas.

That's right.

And the speed limit for now. Yeah. I just want to clear on that.

That's good. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Alright, so we'll go into the last point in this section, which is have you conducted your mid year check-in with your boss? So you've determined your KPIs, you're tracking your numbers month to month or whatever cases you use.

You're presenting it to your business stakeholders, getting their feedback, maybe even possibly taking a survey to get satisfaction, responses from them. You have your roadmap that you committed to do from, January to December. And you're measuring yourself against that. Do not negate or neglect, having the time to sit down with your boss and present this data. So some of the things that come to mind as to why you want to do this is number one, you want to make sure that you're still in alignment with what your boss's goals are.

And if you're going in one direction and they're going in a different direction, that's going to be a problem. And you don't want to wait until the end of the year to find that out. Right? By presenting these things, these metrics and, your roadmap and your updates and things to your boss, it allows them to have an opportunity to give you guidance on, hey, you know what, the company's decided to go this direction. So we probably don't wanna do that this year, but we wanna do this.

Right? And the more often you could do this, obviously the better because as business changes and directions change, you'll be able to flow as quickly as the changes in the business are without losing a whole bunch of time that goes along with that. But what are your thoughts on that, Tear?

No, I think that is a great point. And here's the thing too. I don't know if we've used this term before, but man, sometimes you got to manage up. Ralph and I, we've been in situations I'm trying to find a graceful way to say this. Sometimes you may be better than the person that's leading you.

And that's okay. That's okay. That's quite honestly, I would say most, it's not that uncommon.

Right.

It is not that uncommon. And because they may be in that role because they were able to facilitate a particular thing, a particular nature that business needs. And they may not be the most technical persons. And what I mean technical, I'm not just talking about from a technology standpoint, let's just say for instance, you are a numbers person. Right.

That's still a very technical job. Right. So the technical meaning, the day to day operational aspects of doing that job. So managing up basically means sometimes getting your leader and Ralph, I'm going tell you that you're going to help me with this. Was talking with my wife about this.

I said, you know what? I don't like that word, boss. Because McCormick started calling him the leader in my area. Because here's the thing, man. I posted something on our social platforms a few weeks ago.

Everything in life is a negotiation. Everything is so I think sometimes when we and I'm getting a little off topic here, but sometimes when we think in those terms, I believe it lessens our ability to influence.

Yes, I totally agree with that.

You know what I'm saying? It will lessen your ability to hear yourself before you hear somebody else. Right? I mean, meaning and what I mean by that is here your ideas, your thoughts, here your inclinations, your inspirations.

Right. Yeah.

So I've started practicing saying, oh yeah, the leader in my area. Yeah, my leader.

Yeah, I'll say this. I've never seen a job description with the word boss in it.

You see what I'm saying? That's

Right. And it's usually my direct manager or my manager's manager. Boss has this implied feeling that goes along with that to your point that may reduce your ability to feel as though you have the longitude and latitude to be able to, make good decisions or make good suggestions and things of that nature. So I think boss is a self proclaimed thing more than it is, a true role.

That's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Because, you know, we have people we have people who say, yeah, I'm the king of this. No. You proclaimed yourself king. Right?

If you really we we have this conversation all the time. Who's the GOAT? Right? Well, the one thing you can't do is declare yourself as the

GOAT. Right. Somebody else has the same. So it's funny, it's funny. I told you, me and Terence just came back from a camp and man, we do it with Q and A with the coach.

He went on about a fifteen minute on how he was like, Jordan is the GOAT. I mean, he was adamant. About it. But he was proclaiming who to go. But to your point, you're right.

It's not the individual who who basically makes that proclamation about themselves.

Yeah.

So no. And so and I say that to say, really, when you do meet with your leader, come with your ideas, right? Come with your suggestions, come with ways to improve. You know, ways to improve the intersection between your team and the business. Right.

Because again, that leader is looking for you. And I say this all the time, right? I would tell my teams this guys, we're not order takers.

That's right.

We're not order takers. We're not walking around with a bucket waiting for you to put some in it.

That's right.

But what I am here to do is partner with you and bring my know how with your know how and we can do something great together.

That's right. That's right. That's right. It's and to your point, Terry, you know, and I think if if if there if if if I said the word manager and then you ask me, well, what comes to mind when you hear that? I hear one word, alignment, right?

Not people pleaser or a butt kisser or anything like that. I need to understand your goals to make sure that what I'm doing is in alignment with you, your goals to help make you successful. Correct. That is our relationship. Correct.

Now, when I think of direct reports, think of trust and enablement.

Oh, that's good.

Right? I need to build trust with you and I need to enable you to perform at the highest level possible. Yep. Right? But nurturing both of those, relationships is critical for you to your success in corporate America.

You can't you can't go around talking bad about your boss and then think that just because when you get in their face, you smile, that they don't know who you are.

Yeah.

They can feel it. I guarantee you, they can feel it. So don't do that. And same thing about your direct reports. If you don't like them and you're going around talking about them behind their back, then it's gonna be something that they could feel when they talk to you.

You know what I'm saying?

Yes. Yes, most definitely. Because here's the thing, right? At the root of who we are and what we do, where we go, man, it's about our character.

That's

right. It is about matter of fact, I got I got one of the you know, one of my one of my previous leaders that gave me a book and something I had, you know. Reading. And I'm just gonna this is the name of this book is called the US Army Leadership Field Manual. Battle tested wisdom.

This is the sub topic. Battle tested wisdom for leaders in any organization. And I'm just going to read this. Leaders inspire others towards uncommon goals and never lose sight of the future even as they labor tirelessly for the demands of today.

That's good.

Thank you for being with us today on Leadership Sovereignty. Stay connected with us on X, formerly known as Twitter, and on Instagram by searching for Leadership Sovereignty. And just like this podcast, let's all collectively grow as we go. God bless.