7. Exercise #2: If You Really Knew Me…
• Each person gets 2min to complete the
sentence “If you really knew me (right now)….”
• No responses except “Thank you”
8. Self-Disclosure
Will I be less
liked,
respected,
influential
(leader-like)?
Is it relevant?
Will it further the
discussion – the
relationship?
Will others
use this
information
against me?
How will
others
see/assess/
judge me?
“What in
my ‘bubble’
should I
share?”
Self-Disclosure
10. Authentic Leaders
“The single factor distinguishing top quartile
managers from bottom quartile managers
was strength of affection.”
--“Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Recognizing and Rewarding Others”,
Kouzes & Posner
Authentic Leaders
15. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityHow to Give Effective Feedback
“When you do [x]…”
Focus on specific, observable behavior
"I feel [y]…”
Describe the impact of that behavior on you (disclosure)
“Can you tell me what’s going on for you?”
Ask about the other person’s intentions and perspective
Stay on your side of the net!
16. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityLet’s try some examples…
1. AJ, you clearly don’t care about this presentation.
2. AJ, I noticed that you are looking at your phone. You are
clearly bored with this presentation.
3. AJ, I noticed that you are looking at your phone. I am feeling
anxious about what message that might send to others in
the room.
17. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityLet’s try another example…
1. You’re not very approachable.
2. When I asked you for time off last week, you didn’t respond
very well. You’re not very approachable.
3. When I asked you for time off last week and you said “oh
man, the team really needs you right now,” I felt guilty for
asking, even though that time off is important to me. And I’ve
noticed I’m more hesitant now to approach you with
questions or requests.
18. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityHow to Give Effective Feedback
Step 1: Open with mutual goals and positive intent.
What do you really want for this relationship?
What is your intention in giving this feedback?
Step 2: Stay on your side of the net
a. Stick to observable behavior (“When you did [x]…”)
b. Share your reaction (“I felt [y], and my story is [z]”)
c. Ask for their perspective (“What was going on for you?”)
Step 3: Enter joint problem-solving.
Decide together how to make things better.
Design some experiments.
21. Exercise #4: Complimentary Feedback
Think of one thing your coworker does that
you really appreciate
1. Describe the behavior as specifically as
possible
2. Describe the impact the behavior has on
you
22. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityReceiving Feedback
Manage your own defensiveness
• Notice it
• Name it: “Affect Labeling”
Goal is understanding, not winning
• “Can you tell me more about that?"
• Restate what you’ve heard to confirm understanding
Gift mentality: Say “Thank you!”
23. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilityLast Reminder
Stay on your side of the net:
When you do [x]…
I feel [y]…
And my story is [z].
Can you tell me what’s going on for you?
Use the Vocabulary of Emotions.
24. Benefits of Self-Disclosure / VulnerabilitySuggested Topics For Feedback
Work Product
– Timeliness, quality, quantity,
focus area
Communication & Management
– Too much/little
– Choice of format
– Email etiquette
– Language choices,
communication style with others
– Transparency of project status,
hiring/firing/promotions
Role Modeling & Presence
– What energy do you feel from
this person?
– How do they impact others?
– What do they model well?
– Anything you worry about?
– Arrival/departure times
– How they speak/listen/act/dress
who are we
lucky to be part of a team that took this stuff seriously (communication & culture)
fortunate to be involved in the early part of a company that was well run and had a successful exit
and was the founder of a company that may or may not have been well run, but didn't have a successful exit
***feelings & emotions
music has treble and clef
1. if you only have cognition and words without feelings, you don't have the full score, the full story
2. most of the time, people are "leaky" -- however they are feeling, they are emoting non-verbally. incongruence btwn words v behavior comes at the expense of credibility. therefore want congruence (so you dont want *only* thoughts or *only* feelings -- you want to communicate both)
3. "there's no room for feelings in business" -- is inspiring pple important in business? how do you inspire people without making them feel something?
important for motivation
Suppressing leads to lack of congruence – we are leaky.
At WePay one of your values, Bill told us, is investing in authentic relationships, so we’re going to dive right in with an exercise that can quickly foster deeper relationships.
We’re going to go in a circle, and each person will have a minute and a half to complete the phrase If you really knew me…
…with whatever is going on for you in this moment – whatever you brought in the room with you.
The invitation is to share a bit more of yourself than usual. I know that this might feel a bit uncomfortable for some of you.
But since we’re here to do some experiments together, I’m going to encourage you to push yourself a bit outside of your comfort zone. Imagine my hand on your shoulder gently encouraging you to challenge yourself with what you share.
Each person will have a full 90 seconds. There are no responses except for maybe Thank You. We’ll go one by one in a circle, starting with Joe.
I’d like everyone to pause for a moment. In your 2-min introduction, think about what you chose to say… and what you chose not to say.
Out of your entire life – your past, your future, your personal life, your hobbies, everything there is to know about you as a person… what did you choose to share. Why? pause
What decisions did you make about what was relevant or interesting or safe to share with this person in this context?
Now you’re going to introduce yourself again… and this time I want you to step outside of your comfort zone and share something you didn’t the first time. Imagine my hand on your back gently encouraging you to challenge yourself a bit.
“…highest-performing managers show more warmth and fondness towards others than do the bottom 25%. They get closer to people, they’re significantly more open in sharing thoughts and feelings than their low-performing counterparts.
Note that they also scored high on “thinking” and a need to have power and influence over others, but that didn’t distinguish them from the bottom quartile.
1:21- 1:21
Why is feedback scary?
Might hurt person’s feelings if they knew how I feel?
If I tell them how I really feel, they might tell me how they really feel?
Setting the Context for Feedback
Groundrules Discussion (What groundrules would help me be an effective participant in giving and receiving feedback)
Organize folks so that each person has two people they work with/know well
Give them time to plan feedback with each
Bring them back and do “speed dating” format feedback– two rounds so that every person has done it twice
Facilitator calls out time for switching
"Second conversation" about feedback