Quick Fixes: How to step into leadership, improve your organization, and regain lost support

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fixable – "Quick Fixes: How to Step into Leadership, Improve Your Organization, and Regain Lost Support"

Hosts: Anne Morriss & Frances Frei
Date: November 3, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Fixable centers around "excellence by design" and how leaders at every stage can create environments where both they and their teams thrive. Anne Morriss and Frances Frei apply their coaching philosophies to answer three listener questions, each focused on challenges related to assuming new leadership roles, deciding whether to stay or leave a challenging organization, and regaining lost support as a manager. Throughout, the hosts emphasize actionable mindsets, practical tools, and experiments for real workplace change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Moving from Individual Contributor to Leader

Caller Situation: Listener is beginning their leadership journey in marine conservation, feeling out of depth but motivated to lead effectively.
(03:16–08:49, 12:37–13:05)

Mindset Shift:

• Leadership is about making others better.

  “Leadership is the practice of making other people better. It’s a significant other orientation.” —Frances, 04:50

• The path of an individual contributor focuses on mastery, while leadership is about enabling others’ success.

  “When you are on the path of individual contributor, it is a path of mastery... It is a very different mindset to how will I enable impact by working through these other complicated, imperfect human beings.” —Anne, 05:53

Core Toolkit for New Leaders:

• Growth mindset
  • Recommended Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” (drawing on Satya Nadella’s experience at Microsoft) as foundational reading.

  “If you want to get started on this lifelong journey... this is the beginning of your toolkit.” —Anne, 08:18

• Three Practical Behaviors (Frances, 09:01–11:09):
  1. Build and rebuild trust.
     • Trust is foundational; must be intentionally developed and restored when broken.
  2. High standards and deep devotion.
     • Set ambitious expectations while demonstrating care and commitment to team members.
  3. Seek difference.
     • Embrace and lead diverse viewpoints and skills — don’t default to people “just like you.”

Embracing Mistakes:

“Be very excited about learning things for the first time, which often is accompanied by getting it wrong before you get it right.”—Frances, 12:01

Summary List (Anne, 12:37):

• Adopt a growth mindset
• Intentionally build trust
• Set others up for success (high standards, deep devotion)
• Seek out difference

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2. Should I Stay or Go? Agency in Middle Management

Caller Situation: Middle manager at a large vet hospital feels powerless to advocate for her team due to disconnected and overburdened HR/upper management. She asks: Should she continue fighting for change or consider leaving?
(16:09–27:19)

Reclaiming Power & Agency

• Before leaving, ask: Is my powerlessness because of others’ failings — or because I haven’t learned how to step into my own power?

  "An alternate hypothesis is you’re feeling powerless because you have not yet learned how to step into your power. I'd like you to explore that..." —Frances, 17:25

• “Lift your head,” see your options, and realize you aren’t “held captive.” This realization reduces the grip of survival anxiety and opens up new possibilities.

  “There’s a lot of power and agency that comes with picking your head up, looking around, realizing you have options…” —Anne, 17:51

Running Experiments

• Try new advocacy approaches:

  “Run experiments in how to make this system better, take more risk, take more decisive action...” —Anne, 17:51

• If standard approaches haven’t worked, experiment with:
  • Language (Is it us vs. them? Are there unintended ‘villains’?)
  • Protagonists and KPIs (Are you focusing on what matters most to leadership?)
• Link advocacy to upper management's priorities:

  “Link the efficacy and support of your team to whatever this objective is that the leaders in the system are trying to achieve.” —Anne, 22:56

Critical Path Framing

• Get yourself and your team on the ‘critical path’ of leadership’s immediate needs — especially in times of crisis (e.g., pivot to helping with profitability, sales, etc.).

  “Leadership does not currently see you on the critical path to their success... Even if it means you and your team have to pivot and reframe what you’re doing.” —Frances, 23:45

Concrete Example:

• Cross-functional collaboration (e.g., customer service teaming with sales during revenue crunches) can make a middle manager’s team indispensable and earn leadership attention.

  “You make the shift... co-sign with sales. How can we sign up to be helpful to your revenue numbers?” —Frances, 26:23

Exit Only If...

• After creative experimentation, if no progress is made and power remains elusive, then build a plan to exit.

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3. Rebuilding Trust as a New Leader

Caller Situation: First-time manager at a fast-growing company—team is losing faith, and projects are stalling. She feels promises of leadership responsibility weren’t matched by actual autonomy.
(29:48–39:48)

Redefining Leadership (Away from ‘Autonomy’)

“Leadership is not a pass to go figure it out on your own and come back with the polished solution... It comes with full accountability, not full license... you have accountability to win.” —Frances, 30:31

Co-Production, Not Solo Effort

• Leaders must co-produce results with both their teams and those above them.
• “Co-production” is standard in education & healthcare (teacher/student; doctor/patient) but applies in all organizational leadership settings.

  “Great leaders have a co-productive mindset… Great leadership is always co-productive with the other stakeholders.” —Frances, 33:25

Practical Steps for the Manager:

• Approach stakeholders early and often — learn their ideas and concerns BEFORE finalizing plans.
• Reframe “feedback” as a co-production opportunity, not as a personal failure.

On Tough Feedback:

• Recognize when frustration with upper management may have unintentionally “leaked” to your team and undermined trust.

  “When we, even in the smallest way, make a two-dimensional caricature of other people or even hint at throwing other people under the bus, the person who suffers most is... the person who does that.” —Frances, 36:09

Memorable Insight on Feedback’s Pain

“Other people’s words will only hurt you to the degree to which you already believe them.” —Anne (summarizing Peter Crone), 37:16

• The feedback that “stings” is often feedback we fear to be true; do the emotional work to become curious instead of wounded.

Cultivate Curiosity:

• “Summon that gorgeous curiosity. Particularly when it smarts, because that’s the gold here when we get feedback.” —Anne, 39:34

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Notable Quotes (with Attribution & Timestamps)

• “Leadership is the practice of making other people better. It’s a significant other orientation.” —Frances, 04:50
• “The artist’s path is a path towards expertise and excellence... It is a very different mindset — from self to other, artist to operator or leader.” —Anne, 05:53
• “Be very excited about learning things for the first time, which often is accompanied by getting it wrong before you get it right. Enjoy.” —Frances, 12:01
• “You’re feeling powerless because you have not yet learned how to step into your power. I'd like you to explore that...” —Frances, 17:25
• “There’s a lot of power and agency that comes with picking your head up, looking around, realizing you have options…” —Anne, 17:51
• “Run experiments in how to make this system better, take more risk, take more decisive action...” —Anne, 17:51
• “Leadership is not a pass to go figure it out on your own and come back with the polished solution.” —Frances, 30:31
• “Great leaders have a co-productive mindset… Great leadership is always co-productive with the other stakeholders.” —Frances, 33:25
• “When we... even hint at throwing other people under the bus, the person who suffers most is... the person who does that.” —Frances, 36:09
• “Other people’s words will only hurt you to the degree to which you already believe them.” —Anne, 37:16
• “Summon that gorgeous curiosity. Particularly when it smarts, because that’s the gold here when we get feedback.” —Anne, 39:34

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:16] – New manager asks for leadership toolkit
• [04:50] – Leadership as “making others better”
• [05:53] – Shift from “artist” to “operator/leader” mindset
• [08:18] – Growth mindset book recommendation
• [09:01–11:09] – Three behaviors for leaders: trust, high standards/devotion, seeking difference
• [12:01] – Embracing mistakes and learning
• [16:09] – Middle manager asks: stay or go?
• [17:25] – Stepping into your own power
• [17:51] – Agency from imagining options
• [22:56] – Linking advocacy to leadership priorities
• [23:45] – Getting on ‘critical path’ for leadership attention
• [26:23] – Example: Service teams supporting sales during crisis
• [30:31] – Leadership as accountability, not unchecked autonomy
• [33:25] – The ‘co-production’ principle in leadership
• [36:09] – Watch for ‘leaked’ frustration
• [37:16 & 39:34] – Quotes on receiving and metabolizing hard feedback

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Closing Thoughts

Anne Morriss and Frances Frei urge listeners to approach leadership as both a mindset (curiosity, learning, service to others) and a set of repeatable experiments (trust, standards, seeking difference, and co-production). Their practical advice is to run experiments, stay in dialogue with stakeholders, and use feedback — even (especially) when it stings — as fuel for growth. The throughline: meaningful change, both personal and organizational, can happen fast with the right focus and intention.

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Contact the show: [e-mail] or call 234-FIXABLE (234-349-2253)

Transcript

[A]

TED Talks Daily is supported by Northwestern Mutual. Just like all of us, Northwestern Mutual financial professionals love a good talk. They're curious and they know that asking better questions leads to better conversations. And better conversations are how they get to know you, your life and your unique goals. They meet you where you are, help you find any financial blind spots you might have and uncover opportunities that others may miss. They'll work with you to build a personalized financial plan designed to help you reach your short and long term financial goals. And it's a better way to money. Learn more at NM.com, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[B]

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[C]

It's not a tour, not with that attitude.

[B]

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[C]

Delivery available for select devices [e-mail].

[B]

Hello everyone. Welcome to Fixable, a podcast from Ted. I'm your host, Anne Morris. I am a company builder and leadership coach.

[C]

And I'm your co host, Frances Fry. I'm a Harvard Business School professor and I'm Ann's wife.

[B]

On today's show, we're going to explore how to design the job you want to be doing and by extension, the life you want to be living.

[C]

Or as we like to call it, excellence by design.

[B]

By design. Yes. Today we're going to get after this theme through our favorite structure, which is the quick fix. Three quick questions from our listeners, three quick answers, two very happy hosts, one extremely happy host, one particularly happy host.

[C]

This is my favorite because it just shows what's possible.

[B]

Yes, meaningful change happens fast.

[C]

It sure does. What have our fixers brought us today?

[B]

Today's questions come from managers who want to be more structured and deliberate about their own career choices and more intentional in creating a context where other people can thrive.

[C]

These are our people. They're proactive, they're forward looking and most importantly, they're focused on other people.

[B]

Yes, that was my reaction too. And they're asking questions that we think about every single day. So first we're going to hear from an individual contributor who is just getting started in her career as a leader. Then we'll move to a more seasoned manager who's deciding whether to stay or go in a job where she's not thriving. And finally, we're going to hear from a leader who's getting some feedback that she may not actually be in the right role. We're Going to help her try to find the invitation for growth in the signals that she's getting.

[C]

These are all great questions and they cover quite a quite a wide spectrum. I think this is going to be awesome.

[B]

Yes, I agree completely. So let's dive in and see if we can be helpful. All right, first up, let's hear from our listener who is nervous about being a manager for the first time. Throughout my career after graduation, I've mostly been in individual contributor roles for nonprofits with an emphasis on marine conservation.

[C]

And I've been fairly successful as an individual contributor.

[B]

But my responsibilities are starting to scale up and are branching out into mentoring interns and potentially scaling up our team. And I'm looking for toolkit I could use to help facilitate that because I.

[C]

Feel very out of my depth but very motivated to get better at this new skill and these responsibilities that are coming up on my plate. Thank you so much and have a great day.

[B]

I love her. We get a lot of animal lovers on this show and I credit you entirely for that. There's a magnetic pull, animal lover to animal lover.

[C]

If I've manifested it, I take full credit. It's my favorite trait in a person.

[B]

So I really want to think about this toolkit question, like, can we give people bite sized ways to start eating this next delicious meal that is becoming a leader?

[C]

Yeah. Well, so I hope so. Or at least give people some guidance on how to. The mindset. I think, I think about a toolkit as mindsets and behaviors. I think we can probably help with both.

[B]

Do you want to get us started?

[C]

Yeah. So I think the mindset and I think our caller is right there and ready for it. But we'll just.

[B]

I heard so much good stuff on mindset, so.

[C]

Yeah. But just to formalize the mindset, leadership is the practice of making other people better. It's a significant other orientation. And so you can think about when we put the oxygen mask on ourself, we're not leading, we're preparing to lead. And then when we put the oxygen mask on others, we're leading. And so the. So that's the first thing I would have is that you can't lead 247 and you have to be prepared to lead. So you have to be oxygenated. So that's the first thing. But in. And then how do we set other people up for success?

[B]

Yeah. And I'll add one more thing on the mindset part, which is one of the things that is so captivating about the practice of leadership is that you will never master it captivating for you.

[C]

You know, not captivating for me, that I can never finish something.

[B]

I mean, because I'm distraught.

[C]

I'm distraught.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But anyway, I think it's what makes mottos.

[B]

I think it is what makes this interesting. I know is.

[C]

And that makes you distinct from me.

[B]

But. But here he. But it's also distinct from the individual contributor path, which is why I'm flagging it. When you are on the path of individual contributor, it is a path of mastery. Like, you are on the path towards expertise and excellence and your own individual contribution. We sometimes describe this path as the artist's path. It is a very different mindset to how will I enable impact by working through these other complicated, imperfect human beings. So it's from self to other. I would say it's also this shift from kind of artist to operator or artist to leader. All right, what do we do next? Frances Fry.

[C]

All right, so when do you get the mindset?

[B]

Okay, I'm going to. I want to challenge us to make this super tactical, because this woman is asking for a toolkit.

[C]

Yeah. Okay.

[B]

So you and I have taken a swing at trying to, like, every time we try to write a book, we try to narrow the focus, and we end up really trying to describe the practice of leadership. But I want to offer her. So go. Ready to go first. So go read those books. But I want to offer another book that contains many of these elements of the toolkit, which is Carol Dweck's book on mindset. And we've talked about it on the show before. I'll give a little color on how we got introduced to this book, which is reading Satya Nadella's fantastic book about his experience of turning around Microsoft called Push Play. And there's a moment in that book where he and his wife are trying to figure out how to be better parents. And so they pick up this book. Carol Dweck started out in the child psychology space, and they're reading it, and they're realizing this isn't just a book about parenting. It's also a book about leadership. It is also a book about being human. And the invitation in that book is to really think about all of our challenges and setbacks and imperfections really differently as. As opportunities for growth and development and learning. And if you want to get started on this lifelong journey that is becoming a leader.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And you really want to get in the headspace to get up that learning curve as fast as possible with as little friction and suffering as you can, then I would say Go read this book. This is the beginning of your toolkit. Because this is what's going to allow you to to hang all of those insights and learnings and capabilities on a framework of possibility and impact rather than deficiency and imperfection. And to me, that is the very first step on this journey.

[C]

I love it. And I'll then talk about the pragmatic second steps and it's gonna be a little bit more behaviors than mindset.

[B]

Please do, because I am out in the atmosphere of esoteric right now.

[C]

So bring us home and ground us. My feet are on the ground. I think that there are three things you have to learn and you will learn and then practice until you'll do some learning before doing. But the real learning is going to be by doing because you're going to. That's when you try it on and you get the fit right and things like that. The first one is learn how to build and rebuild trust. It is the foundation of every relationship. And I just want you to imagine if you had magic dust and you could sprinkle it on your interactions with people and if when they trust you, everything is easier, you go faster, you go higher. Well, it turns out you can deliberately and intentionally build trust. And whenever trust is broken and that will happen, you can intentionally rebuild trust. So number one, trust. Number two, learning how to bring out the best in other people. We know you can do that with high standards and deep devotion. And so thinking about how can you set really high standards for people while simultaneously revealing that you are deeply devoted to their success. And then number three, seek difference. And what I mean by that, that as human beings, we really like people who are really like us. But your competitive advantage is going to be not in hiring people that are redundant to you, not by leading people that are similar to you, but by leading as much difference as you can bear. In the beginning, it's probably not going to be very much. But as you become a better leader and better at this game, I want you to seek difference because that's when your compliments to one another as opposed to redundant to one another. And we can go and more or less in each of those. But those are the. That's the toolkit in my mind. Build and rebuild trust. Set high standards while revealing deep devotion. Seek difference.

[B]

I love all three of those and we've gone deep on all three of those topics on the show. So I would encourage our listener to go find those episodes and maybe we can in the show notes, point them out. What I love about your meta point here too is all three of these topics are topics where bringing even just a little bit of intention, a little bit, you know, on theme for what we've been talking about the last couple weeks. A little bit of intention can unlock tremendous progress and the ROI on, on bringing deliberation to each three of those topics, which kind of historically we've kind of found our way towards. But bringing some structure to them is really the path to getting the impact that we're looking for. So I love it. I vote we stop here.

[C]

And the only thing, the final thing I will say, and this will be at a mindset, is I want you to be very excited about learning things for the first time, which often is accompanied by getting it wrong before you get it right. Enjoy.

[B]

Yeah, that's. That's dweck's big message.

[C]

Yeah, leave your perfectionist tendencies to your past version of your individual contributor self. Now we're getting into the gloriously messy part of leadership and enjoy the learning process.

[B]

All right, let's review the components of our toolkit. Get your way into a growth mindset and then bring intention to building trust, setting other people up for success with high standards and deep devotion, and seeking out difference as a way to make you better. Is that a fair summary?

[C]

There it is.

[B]

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[A]

TED Talks Daily is supported by Northwestern Mutual. Just like all of us, Northwestern Mutual financial professionals love a good talk. They're curious and they know that asking better questions leads to better conversations. And better conversations are how they get to know you, your life and your unique goals. They meet you where you are, help you find any financial blind spots you might have, and uncover opportunities that others may miss. They'll work with you to build a personalized financial plan designed to help you reach your short and long term financial goals. It's a better way to money. Learn [e-mail] the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[B]

Frances our next question comes from a fixer. She wants to know whether she should invest her time and energy in making her organization better or is it the right time to consider moving on? So let's listen. Hi guys. I'm in middle management at a very large veterinary hospital and my question is if you're a middle manager and you're just feeling powerless when advocating for your teams because HR and your upper management is so overburdened and they frankly are disconnected from our overall core values, it feels like it's really challenging for me when I look at my future to see is this a place that I can grow and lead my team in a positive direction or will I constantly be, you know, pushed aside and my team feeling even more disempowered by upper management? How do you strike that balance when you're in middle management? I'm just wondering if it's time for me to consider a career change.

[C]

Thanks.

[B]

Mmm, I love yes. And baby, can I go first? Can I go first? Yeah. Get us started.

[C]

Yeah. So I would make sure you're right before leaving, which is it could be you're feeling powerless because of the shortcomings of HR and upper management. An alternate hypothesis is you're feeling powerless because you have not yet learned how to step into your power. I'd like you to explore that and then if you really do have dysfunctional HR and upper management, then go. But I don't think you've tested it yet.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I mean my answer is both is she should do both. And we have conversations like this with people all the time. I think these tough moments in our careers and in organizations are also huge opportunities for growth. So what we'll often coach people is first of all, there's a lot of power and agency that comes from picking your head up, looking around, realizing that you have options, reminding your prehistoric brain that kind of over indexes on our current trough that your survival does not depend on succeeding in the system. There are lots of other options now. Really cool things often happen next. Right. Those are, that's a very practical process because she's going to lift her head. But what also can happen in that moment is that these survival thoughts, the volume on our survival thoughts goes down and all this other possibility goes up. And now she's got nothing to lose. She's like the most dangerous thing in an organization which is a woman who has nothing to lose. So now she can run all of these experiments in how to make this system better, take more risk, take more decisive action, push the envelope a little bit maybe with the leadership team above her. What's cool about those moments too is suddenly her job becomes more interesting. Suddenly she's feeling less powerless. Suddenly she's taken back the power that she has decided that HR has has removed from her and she's now using it in the system. So that kind of cycle, it can be very counterintuitive and counterintuitively, it often starts with picking your head up and realizing that there are other places who might value your time and talent more. I love it.

[C]

I love the let's go and just start to imagine being elsewhere, even if you never go elsewhere, as a way to just get the liberty and agency that comes from not being held captive.

[B]

I love that.

[C]

And then the also the unleashing now you want to advocate for your team better.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And now I want you to be a scientist running experiments. So what I heard is the way in which you have advocated hasn't worked. So please don't advocate in the same way you've already run that experiment. My guess is multiple times hoping for a different outcome, not going to happen. But now I would experiment pretty wildly, try vastly different ways of advocating and let's learn which ones stick and which Ones don't, because I believe upper management is in some kind of contextual thing and so is hr. And let's now try to send in different pings for doing it and learn.

[B]

From whatever happens next.

[C]

And learn from whatever happens next. So I would really experiment and say, well, for these folks, what kind of advocacy might work? So you've tried advocacy A, try advocacy B, C and D here. Now to make it a little more practical, here are some degrees of freedom that you might experiment with when you've been advocating for your team. What's the language you have been using? Is the language us versus them? Is the language winning, losing? Like, what are the performance goals? Is it to make them happy? Is it to make them productive? I would really interrogate the language. Who are the protagonists? What are the hidden KPIs in what you're advocating for? And are there any villains that you didn't even mean to put into play but you actually accidentally slipped in there? Because you can use the wrong protagonist, you can use the wrong performance outcomes. And if you want to put people in a defensive crouch or have anyone else be a silent villain.

[B]

Yeah, I love your focus on language because language is the building blocks of stories which are the building blocks of our reality. So if she starts to bring some intention again, that's our word of the month. Brings some intention to replacing this current story where she's disempowered and the leaders in the system are not operating in good faith. Let's use the same data, build another story. So they're probably self distracted, they're probably worrying about the fate of the organization. They probably got a lot going on. So does anything open up or become available to her in this alternative explanation of the facts that will allow her to be a more effective advocate for her team? Okay. And you know, if she were with us, we'd start playing with that. So, okay, let's link your advocacy to whatever is keeping these leaders up at night and distracting them from what your team needs?

[C]

Right.

[B]

They're thinking about other things, so what are they thinking about? Let's go find out. And can you link the efficacy and support of your team to whatever this objective is that the leaders in the system are trying to achieve? So let's get her in motion, gather some more facts, create a story that's going to serve her on this team and then to your point, run some experiments. And if the data comes back that she's making no progress, she has pulled back some power, she's taken it for a death stripe, she's making no progress, then yes, then let's start putting in a plan for exiting this organization. But at this point in this story, based on the facts we know, I think there's a ton of room to experiment, have some fun, try something new here before heading to the door.

[C]

And if you want one North Star to think about as you're doing it, what I would say is that the leadership does not currently see you on the critical path to their success, their immediate success. And so experiment with getting on the critical path. What can you do is critically important to what they do, Even if it means you and your team have to pivot and reframe what you're doing a hundred percent.

[B]

That is the place to start. I love that framing just for people listening. Now what might that look like?

[C]

Yeah, so I have seen in middle management where somebody is advocating for their team because their team's satisfaction is not very high, their team is disengaged and management thinks that's a luxury in the current climate when profitability is at stake. Well, there's a win win. Get your team more engaged in solving the profitability problem of the organization. And so it could be that they're not engaged because what they're doing doesn't seem to be respected enough. Instead of trying to make what I'm currently doing respected, shift what I'm doing to be more in the sweet spot of what the company needs. So how can my team help in the profitability challenge?

[B]

Yeah, I'll give a super simple example. You know, one of the reasons I love working in early stage companies is that this kind of dynamism is happening all of the time. And example I've seen again and again is, is people. You know, so there's line roles and staff roles or market facing roles and kind of back office, front office, back office. I've seen customer service teams who have all of these incredible people skills and have unique insight into what the market needs very proactively make themselves available and start partnering in a different way with the sales team. I've even seen people transfer from service to sales to in these moments and just roll up their sleeves and like what's okay. This is the problem facing the company. Like all hands on deck, like let's go find the market, let's understand it, let's over deliver and let's, you know, let's bring parts of this organization together to focus on that problem in, in this moment. Sometimes that can be a directive from above, but sometimes it can be a very entrepreneurial decision from People lower in the organization who are seeing the opportunity, putting the pieces together and realizing that they do have some agency around shifting these capabilities to solve urgent problems.

[C]

You know, a classic example of this are the roles of service and sales. So let's say there's been an external shock to the company and revenue is existential. I'm in the service organization and I've been trying to advocate for my team that wants to deliver better service and everybody is like, where are the sales? Well, one of the things you can do as part of a service organization is how can you be helpful to the sales team in your service calls? How can you be helpful to sales? And so you make the shift. You almost co sign with sales. How can we sign up to be helpful to your revenue numbers? Of course we're going to still do what we're doing, but we're going to inch towards the current relevant. And I think the leaders that are proactive in that way, all of a sudden HR and upper management are going to be interested because you're helping to solve their current existential problem.

[B]

I just love your framing and how can you get in the critical path of this organization's success? And I think that's a fantastic example of a pivot that can come from the middle of the organization without waiting for a directive from above. Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro? Got it from Verizon, the best 5G network in America. I never looked so good.

[C]

You look the same.

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But with this camera, everything looks better. Especially me.

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You haven't changed your hair in 15 years. Selfies, Jack, please, please. With Verizon, get the new iPhone 17 Pro. Designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever. Plus a new iPad and Apple One. No trade in needed. Offer ends November 5th with a new line on Unlimited Ultimate Best 5G Swords. Route Metrics Data United States 2020 25. All rights reserved. Additional terms apply for all offers. See verizon.com for details. Hi, this is Sherrell Dorsey from the TED Tech podcast, and today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile. So you're thinking about upgrading to the amazing new iPhone 17 Pro, the most powerful iPhone yet with 8 times optical zoom. But are you also thinking about the traffic on your way to the store or transferring all your data?

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Well, good news.

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[B]

All right, Frances, Our final question is an email that comes from another new manager who wants to know how she can rebuild trust in her leadership. She writes, I'm a new manager working at a large organization that is growing quickly and has great values and a strong foundation around culture and development. My problem is that I have no experience in this type of role and I was given the feedback that my support team is losing faith in my leadership. When I started in the role, I was told that I would be able to lead the project. I then felt like every time I made suggestions I was told to change direction or slow down. I'm feeling so disheartened by this whole situation. I just want to know how to get the support of my team back and how to get my project off the ground and doing well.

[C]

This is such a classic problem, which is I was told I was the leader and then I wasn't left alone to lead. And I think it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what leadership is. Leadership is not a pass to go figure it out on your own and come back with the polished solution that we will just grant you. Okay with. I think leadership doesn't come with full agency. It comes with full accountability. So you don't have license to do it your way. You have accountability to win and it sounds like you have interested stakeholders. So I would go to them early, not with baked plans. I would go to them early with initial plans and I would learn their ideas and more importantly, I would learn about their concerns underlying the ideas so that when I came up with a solution, it's already taking into account what their input is and what their concerns are. So my sense is going too late in the game with with suggestions or going with too much isolation with your suggestions and think about it more. You're helping to solve their problems, learn what their problems are, get licensed to go forward with those, and then go ahead and use all of your agency.

[B]

I love you complicating this word agency because I think we Bring our very. We bring very individual expectations about what leadership is going to feel like. And what I hear from your framing is this word that you use all the time that I love is co production. Francis, people have heard us throw this word around a lot. But can you give us an example of an organization that does this?

[C]

Well, so co production first, the definition of it is that you and I work together to produce an outcome. So there are some industries where co production is vital. Education, it's not that the students consume what the faculty like. You're better off. Healthcare, the doctor prescribes some things. But then I have to take my medicine. Right. So it's some places where you need co production and other places where you don't. Tide makes detergent and then I buy the detergent. I didn't co produce the production of the detergent. Right. So I think there's just a natural continuum.

[B]

Right. That's the origin of the word. And when we think about the co production and leadership sense, even though I might be the leader of my team or the leader of my department, I am co producing the success of this organization with the leaders above me. Right. And there's always a leader above me. Right. Even when I'm the big chief. Right. I am reporting to a board and I have to co produce outcomes with the board.

[C]

And I would say that great leaders have a co productive mindset. There are some industries that are just naturally co productive industries, education, healthcare, are the two that comes to mind. That is the best education comes when the teachers and the students co produce the learning. The best health care comes when the physician and the patient co produce the health outcome as compared to when Tide manufactures detergent. I'm not co producing the detergent with them. They're all set. So there are some industries where there is more co production than others. There are some roles within companies that are more co productive than others. Great leadership is always co productive with the other stakeholders.

[B]

In your context, we're often not handed the script on this is exactly how this is going to go. Right. Unless the relationship is deep and you're bringing skill set and pattern recognition that it's the people above you. The script is never like just go do it and tell us about it later. And this woman is at the very beginning of her career. Right. So there's no chance that's what's on the invisible piece of paper.

[C]

Yeah. Right.

[B]

I think this is a huge opportunity and it's coming very early in her career as a leader. And I'm going to bring Back Carol Dweck, who's our mascot today, which is that there is a ton of opportunity for growth here if she can get herself into the right mindset to go on that ride. First of all, she's got to forgive herself. She didn't get it right the first time. No one ever does. No one ever does. So where does she go from here? I think, you know, it really is about getting into a place of curiosity and then going and finding out what she can do better. And she can think about it as lots of different ways, you know, what it, what's like, what's working, what's not working, what's missing. I think there's a lot of simple frameworks to think about it, but I think she has to be in dialogue with her colleagues, both above and her support team around how she can improve. What do they need from her? And to your point about the definition of leadership at the top of this conversation, what do they need from her in order to succeed wildly? Let's keep the bar high as usual. What do they need from her to succeed wildly? And let's get her in a position so that she can really receive that information and use it to get better at her job.

[C]

And I would love to use this opportunity for a public service announcement, which is if she's frustrated with her leaders, chances are, if she's human, she will have leaked that frustration to her team. And that may well be the reason that her team is losing trust in her. When we, even in the smallest way, make a two dimensional caricature of other people, or even hint at throwing other people under the bus, the person who suffers most is the person who does that. It's not the protagonist of who we were talking about. And so I could imagine that one way to clean up some of the dynamics is to change your frame of the people you've been interacting with, from frustration in them to experimental in you. These are really good people. You often say, what? What must your well intentioned, gorgeous colleagues be thinking in order to act this way? Get in touch with how well intentioned and gorgeous your leaders are and leak.

[B]

That I love it. I want to make one final public service announcement myself on this one, which may or may not be relevant to our caller, but has been relevant to me when I've gotten tough feedback like this in the workplace. And I'm going to try to summarize, I think the person who summarized this for me most beautifully, a thinker and teacher named Peter Crone, who I think is very effective. And he said Something like other people's words will only affect you to the extent that you already believe them. He said something to the effect of other people's words will only hurt you to the degree to which you already believe them. I'll give you an example of this. So if you called me a selfish, self distracted diva, my reaction would be.

[C]

Huh, Like, I wonder why you're thinking that.

[B]

I'm so curious about how you reach that conclusion. And I would really want to figure out the puzzle of how this person that I respect and love and care about has come to the conclusion that I am a selfish. Because it doesn't really make sense, but let's go find out, right? And I would be very open to the discovery process and driven fundamentally by this idea of curiosity. If you, however, if you called me a people pleaser who feels absurdly responsible for the emotional experience of other people, that would smart a little bit, right?

[C]

It would.

[B]

That would. You would like, you would have hit a little bit of a nerve there. And before I could go on that glorious discovery process, I would have to metabolize a lot of other feelings and get them out of the way. And I want this caller, you, me, all of us on this planet, when we get these signals, to do the work, to get into that open, curious place on this whole spectrum of critique, because that is gonna be the fastest path to getting better.

[C]

And so even when it's smarts, you want us to summon that gorgeous curiosity.

[B]

Particularly when it's smarts, because that's the stuff. Like, that's the gold here when we get feedback. But we have to do the work to get ourselves into a place where we can receive it and learn from it.

[C]

Such a great illustrative example.

[B]

All right, Francis, we're going to stop there. I feel like we've put our listeners through a lot already.

[C]

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Your participation helps us make great episodes like this one. You co produce them with us. So please keep reaching out directly. If you want to figure out any questions about your workplace problem together, send us a message. Email, call [e-mail] or 23 Fixable. That's 234-349-2253.

[B]

We love hearing from you, so please don't hesitate to reach out. Fixable is a podcast from ted. It's hosted by me, Anne Morris and me, Frances Frey. This episode was produced by Rahima Nassa from Pushkin Industries. Our team includes Constanza Gallardo, Banban Chang, Daniela Balaurasso and Roxanne Hi Lash.

[C]

And our show was mixed by Louis at Storyyard.

[B]

Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro? Got it from Verizon, the best 5G network in America. I never look so good.

[C]

You look the same.

[B]

But with this camera everything looks better. Especially me.

[C]

You haven't changed your hair in 15 years. Selfies check please with Verizon. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever. Plus a new iPad and Apple One. No trade in needed. Offer ends November 5th with a new line on Unlimited Ultimate Best 5G swears, Route Metrics Data United States 2020 25. All rights reserved. Additional terms apply for all offers. See verizon.com for details.

[B]

Imagine the merging of trusted intelligence into a unified experience. Imagine collaboration amongst teams and across continents. Imagine an empowered ecosystem designed to deliver actionable insights that inspire growth and sustainability. That's the power of the Connect Industrial Intelligence platform to help you see further, innovate faster, accomplish more. That's the Connect effect. Learn [e-mail] Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in Die My Love, a ferocious portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness. Lawrence and Pattinson play a passionate couple who, after moving to an isolated house in the country, find their relationship unraveling following the birth of their first child. Vanity Fair hails Lawrence's performance as astonishing and Time calls it the kind of performance you go to the movies for. From director Lynne Ramsey, Die My Love is Only in theaters November 7th. Rated R. Par le tu francais hablas espanol parl italiano?

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If you've used Babbel, you would Babbel's conversation based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel to Today get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com acast spelled B A B-B-E-L.com acast rules and restrictions may apply.