Six Gifts of 2020 Clarity

Nuggets of 20/20 vision, golden snippets of leadership learning sparkle against a backdrop of the unknown. Here are my personal leadership essentials: six core elements I need so that I can show up as my best self and be there for my people.

Would you consider 2020 the largest community breakdown most of us have ever experienced? As a combination of hope and havoc continues to swirl across the globe, I’m searching through the pandemic haze to find my gifts of clarity. Nuggets of 20/20 vision, golden snippets of leadership learning sparkle against a backdrop of the unknown.

The biggest learning I’ve had in 2020 is a new awareness. I’ve realized that my most important contributions to the government have been shaping a culture of listening. I’m learning that this kind of listening helps me to foster a coaching leadership style that enables our people to work together, better. Leaders who create new spaces to listen deeply to our employees is where it begins.

Since my tour of Civic Tech Duty began in 2017, I’ve served over a half dozen federal agencies and initiatives. My leadership has helped advance the Biden Cancer Moonshot at the intersection of AI and workforce transformation and centers around people, culture, and employee experience advocacy in technology spaces. In a recent conversation with a colleague, she flattered me by saying that she’s “so glad to have someone like me here in government.” As we move into 2021, I’m questioning what it means to be “someone like me.”

What is it that I do that makes me be a leader that people are glad to have around? What does it mean when people tell me things that they’re afraid to tell other leaders? I’ve written about my leadership philosophy on nina.bianchi.com. In reflection, here’s a simple list of what I consider to be my personal leadership essentials: the core elements I need to survive to be there for my people.

Physical and mental fitness. The two most important practices!

I hold time to do something for my body and mind almost every day. I’m an avid runner, walker, hiker, and meditator. A balance of movement and stillness is the antidote to anxiety. I create space and time for reflection because when we create space, new ideas can emerge. Sometimes I’ll solve a really big problem I’m working on in the middle of a run or meditation. And let’s be real, I’m no superstar athlete or certified buddha. I use an app like InsightTimer or something for guided yoga. I encourage all leaders, from frontlines to C-suite, to take time out of their daily routines to do something mindful for themselves. Sometimes it’s movement for the sake of being, sometimes it’s stillness for the sake of wellness. For those of us who have worn suits to work in the past, the telework culture’s call for athleisure attire, my favorites being Nike and Lululemon, has been a most welcome shift. (I haven’t worn a formal suit in almost a year!) I encourage everyone to experiment with new tools, products, and practices through their wellness journey. Keep things interesting along the path because, in the end, it’s all about the process.

Creativity. When the future is unknown, anything is possible.

I love using Einstein’s quote to back this one up: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” If you needed evidence that the only constant is change, the pandemic proves that we live in an uncertain and often volatile world. A McKinsey team said it well in this article about the toughest leadership challenge, it’s true that “The COVID-19 crisis is a once-in-a-century event, and no training or experience in previous downturns has prepared CEOs for it.” Good news: you don’t have to be an artist to get creative with how you engage your employees and build a forward-thinking culture. You can train your brain to turn a situation around 360 degrees, zoom in, zoom out, deconstruct, and reconstruct as needed. As I think of the creative problem solving and community building we need in the future, I ask: how are you strengthening your creative muscles? How are leaders across the world pumping up their creative energy to get ready for the future? It can be small things to start. Try it. Tweak it. Try it again. Here are some creative employee experience tactics we’ve tried to foster more innovative connections in government.

Fun is essential. It’s part of the solution.

Fun can make a big difference in improving our work experiences and how employees perform. Before the pandemic, a colleague of mine said my teams had the power to make meetings feel like a family reunion. A pretty hefty compliment considering that meetings can feel more often like a chore and are rarely a joyful experience. Pre-COVID, my teams would turn a meeting (loaded with outcome-oriented business agenda items) into a memorable experience that resonated for months. My teams would bring food, music, dynamic data collection to crowdsource ideas, as well as interactive learning activities and delightful sensory toys to help our brains better process complex information. Some of these fun experiences can be spotted in this article I wrote about fostering collaborative employee experiences. Since moving into full work from home, I’ve continued to play while I work from my home office and love Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty. Go for the glitter!

Scifi and dreaming. Make room for your vision amidst the daily grind.

I’ve been thinking about space travel. In the early 1950s, getting something — let alone a human being — up into orbit was merely scifi. Just 70 years later, we’re talking about colonizing the moon. Small steps make great change possible. We’re seeing a substantial shift to longer-term remote work leadership (Chief of Remote Work?) and Medallia’s thought leadership on how we need to design new ways for employees to connect. I’m starting to see a group — industry, and government — emerge ahead of the pack in the frontier of defining new work experience norms for all employees. I’m helping to usher in this future of employee experience — how employees connect to serve one another better is the power behind people delivering better business outcomes. What role will more thoughtful listening and informed sensing play in the virtual workplace?

Discipline. I’m all about modular routines and flexible lists.

In this reflection, I’m advocating for a list of leadership tactics that evolve from self-care practice and habitual discipline. The first four items I’m talking about here — physical and mental fitness, creativity, fun, and dreaming — these need to be part of your core ways of working — intentional habits that come together to form healthy leadership routines. Everything comes in doses and it’s your diet of these essentials that make an impact. Currently, I use a lot of time blocking techniques that are echoed in this resource. I blend the best of a variety of methods and put them to the real-world test to refine over time. I’ve enjoyed thought leadership on futurist methods from Vanessa Mason and habit building with James Clear’s Atomic Habits. I’ve also written some more tech geeky takes on my love of index cards for organizing data, ideas, and time. I’m always dreaming about how to automate parts of my work so I can show up and listen to my people, better.

Accessorize. Lead and facilitate people with style.

With the paradigm shift to virtual telepresence, I‘m thinking about how I show up as a leader on video. From a fashion standpoint, I’ve been exploring festive accessories at various price points, like this Uniqlo Marimekko Scarf or glittery cashmere wraps that make meetings more magical. On the tech side, I’ve been experimenting with different office “set-ups” — keeping it fresh by moving to different rooms with mobile options, like this stand up tripod desk from Intension Design. I’ve tried working from my meditation cushion with a low profile bench and that has been quite nice at times, too. For audio and lighting, I’m slowly working up my game here. I recommend wireless headphones if you haven’t got them yet. The freedom to move around during long meetings is priceless. I like Jaybird Bluetooth headphones and also bought a Blueparrot Bluetooth headset (designed for truckers on the road which may be a bit much for my federal role). I took a workshop with Gary Ware, Culture Amp’s Culture First Chapter Leader, leadership coach, and podcaster from San Diego. His studio was off the charts awesome, I aspire to get some of the equipment off Gary’s Amazon shopping list in the coming year.

I’m on a journey to build a community where people are learning to connect and serve one another better. Our listening helps us better understand what people need to be their best. No matter where you sit in your organization, from frontlines to C-suite, we can come together to listen better and make the impossible possible.

Let’s shape the future of work together! Stay tuned for more resources and reflections in 2021.

Find me on the Twitterverse @Ninafuture or on LinkedIn, too.