Leadership | Dave Holvig

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022

GET UNTOXIC! Soak Your Splinters Out And Change Your Culture Now

Your culture is at risk.

It’s amazing what happens when you get a splinter. It’s barely noticeable to the human eye, and yet it becomes the only thing that matters in your life the moment it enters your body.

Everything is on hold until you get that little wooden sword out.

Some people in your ranks are splinters. They are disruptive on purpose and intend to cause division in your culture. Their behavior is toxic. Unthinkable, I know.

Too many leaders wait it out and hope it works itself out. Don’t wait!

Looking the other way is how a culture turns toxic.

This two-part blog will either help you reverse the tide of toxicity or help you build immunity.

After all, you’ve come this far, don’t let a couple “bozos” ruin it for everybody.

June 30, 2022July 1, 2022

This Is Not My First Rodeo Leadership

Moving From Proving To Improving

Have you noticed—no matter what kind of work you’re having done on your house—the person giving you a bid always rips on the work that’s already been done?

Is there a drywall guy on the planet that thinks someone else’s work is good?

No one comes in and says, “Well, it looks like the drywall was done by a pro.”

Usually, it sounds more like…

“Well, whoever did this must have been completely insane, possibly drunk and a bonified ‘hack,’ BUT we can rip it all out, do the same thing and keep this cycle of insanity going if you’d like. You are lucky to be alive.”

“Also, this is not my first rodeo.”

Proving mode: A state of needing everyone to know that you know.

This is not just a drywall problem; this is an occupational hazard that permeates every profession at any level of the org chart. It’s one of the least talked about, most pervasive reasons people don’t thrive in their careers.

None of us are safe from it and becoming it. Our inner ‘know-it all’ is one weak moment away from making us walk the proving plank. So, the faster we recognize it, the sooner we can “knock it off!” Then improving can begin.

This blog will outline three overly practical steps to help eliminate the urge to tell people it's not your first rodeo. And more importantly, help you start moving from proving to improving.

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today

PART 2

Welcome to the final installment of “3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today.”

If you missed PART 1 you can read it here. It will give you context for where we’re headed next. Briefly, we covered the importance of culture at this unique moment in history, the reasons we struggle to recruit and retain Gen-Z, and why we need to make specific shifts.

Now it’s time to talk shift? 😬 Let’s start future proofing…

April 29, 2022May 3, 2024

3 Ways To Unlock A Gen-Z Friendly Culture Today

PART 1

Generation Z is leaving. That’s right. Gen-Z is now running late to the office if you’re lucky… or happen to be a “Gen-Z friendly culture.”

A scary number of them are planning their goodbye parties, which we all know only happens if you’ve been around for AT LEAST ten years (twenty in Gen-Z years). Sixty-five percent of Gen-Z plan to quit their job this year. Yikes!

So, if we’re going to convince them to stick around, we’ve got to hurry up and find a way to lead them… right?

Wrong.

Before we can lead them, we need to find a way to love them.

If you just rolled your eyes, this blog’s for you!
And if you quietly said “Amen,” this blog’s about you.

This two-part blog series will outline three shifts that will help you unlock a Gen-Z friendly culture today.

Also, these shifts are no longer suggestions; they are ‘make or break’ for Gen-Z.

Good news—every ‘Gen’ will appreciate them. After two years of constant covid change, there’s no better time to make some moves.

Hint: It has nothing to do with ping-pong tables and flexibility. That’s icing. First, we must build the cake.

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022

The Best Question Ever And How To Help Others Grow

Lead or be liked is bogus.

No doubt, one of the most challenging parts of leadership is facing into the conversations no one else will, but someone must. It’s also the most rewarding.

That’s where it’s at.

Growth happens in the last one percent, in the ‘thing behind the thing’ that most are unwilling to point out. And that’s why—leaders say what peers wish someone would say to their co-workers.

Unfortunately, that means not everyone will like you; but they will have to respect you—if you do it well.

I’m human.

I like to be liked, but I’ve learned to love watching others soar more.

So how do we help others grow?

We care enough to share what’s holding them back and walk with them through whatever’s next.

When we do that, they begin to grow. And when your people start growing, they have no interest in going anywhere.

Simple right?

But there’s a catch.

If you don’t genuinely care, you need to focus there first. And possibly buy a nice tent. After that, it might be time for some camping.

That will make sense later. I promise.

February 11, 2022February 11, 2022

How To Build A Fear LESS Feedback Culture Part 2

PART 2 “What You See Is What You Say.”

Feedback is the ongoing conversation of an organization and one of the most OBVIOUS indicators of cultural health. It’s the dialogue of development.

Tragically, we can go for years without paying any attention to how that convo is being handled.

It can become a routine part of the job; even if it’s toxic, it’s just what we do. Or worse, it’s who we think we are.

It’s not.

You might just need a new view, which is what this blog is all about.

If you missed PART 1, you can read it here.

To Review…

Fear less feedback is helpful, not hurtful; it’s timely and ‘for the love,’ fixable. It’s motivated by the desire to help others grow and develop. And most importantly, it’s rooted in relationship.

Give that kind of feedback consistently over time, and people will begin to fear less and hear more.

Simple right?

But what if your culture is past the point of tweaks and needs a full-on pile driver?

This post will help leaders change the type of feedback they are getting by changing the questions they are asking, which becomes the lens for everything.

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

How To Build A Fear LESS Feedback Culture Part 1

PART 1 “Fear LESS, Hear More.”

If you had something in your teeth, would you want to know about it?

Maybe something (hard to hear) is holding you back from getting to the next level in your career—a specific reason you are not being promoted—would you want to know why?

For most of us, the answer would be—OF COURSE!!!

This is my year to go all in btw. Anyone else rockin’ Invisalign?

But what if the last ten times you had lettuce lodged in your adult braces, it was brought to you in a hurtful, unnecessarily public, or shame-inducing way?

I’m guessing the answer would be more like:

“It depends… Who’s giving me the feedback? Do I know them? Do they care about me? Are they telling me in private or making a scene? Are they judging me for having braces as an adult?

There is no in-between.

In my experience, organizations either give hurtful, overly direct feedback or dance around the issues for days. They give way too much feedback, nitpicking their people to death or none at all.

No feedback is ONLY better than bad feedback, but here’s the problem:

We all need feedback!

A thriving feedback culture is often what separates good from great organizations and is one of the most overt indicators of health.

So how do we create a culture that wants to hear it, doesn’t fear it, and does it in a way that honors the people involved?

It starts with getting 3 things in place.

October 8, 2021October 8, 2021

How to lead people through trying-times online (with no regrets).

I can’t be the only one who’s gotten that unsolicited weekly usage report from my iPhone and thought the average time was for the week—not the day.

…Luckily, I’m able to quickly justify it because of my insatiable desire to learn through long-form podcasts.

Yes, I’m delusional, but so are you!

Most of us are online a lot of the time.

**Somewhere along the line we became unhinged from our ‘digital self.’**

We started to believe we could say and do things online because that was just our shadow self, our avatar.

We get into weird arguments and draw hard lines. We barge into conversations with high passion and ‘low to no expertise’ and then scratch our heads in disbelief when it’s not embraced. It’s madness. But why?

Would we do that in real life?

How often do you find yourself arguing with someone at the grocery store? When’s the last time you insulted your neighbor? “Hey Scott, the guy you voted for is an idiot!”

The answer should be never, I hope! But it happens all the time online.

Here’s the problem: Who you are online is who you are.

August 6, 2021August 6, 2021

Mandatory Influence (Please Read Now!)

The Art Of Requiring Participation.

Every time I receive an email in outlook with a high-priority flag and a required response, I giggle. So, what you’re saying is, “I care about this thing a lot, but I don’t have time to write an email that will convince you of its importance. Instead, I’m forcing you to respond whether you care or not.”

Got it!

The bummer is that they will never know who would have responded uncoerced and what they could have done better next time.

Two big misses!

Make it mandatory and you’ll never know if you could have led through it.

Make it mandatory and you’ll never know if you could have led through it. Share on X Continue reading

June 4, 2021June 19, 2021

Why Encouragement Is The Nourishment We Need Right Now

Today is traumatic. We were not designed to carry this much weight in perpetuity. Constant pivoting wears people down. And whether we know it or not, after more than a year of trying to lead through this craziness, we are all experiencing some degree of trauma with a healthy dose of PTSD to wash it down.

We are not entirely out of the covid-woods yet, but we are running out of gas. And to top it off, the way we work has fundamentally changed, maybe forever. “We can either run from it or learn from it,” as the wise baboon ‘Rafikki’ once said. (Lion King)

Decision fatigue is now a default setting for leaders after facing impossible scenarios and lose-lose catch-22’s day after day with no definitive end in sight.

Our teams are looking to us for answers that nobody has, not even Fauci. We are exhausted. Some leaders have already tapped out.

But I’m afraid it won’t be decision fatigue that ultimately takes us out; it will be a lack of encouragement over a long period of time…