SigmaU Blog

Most leaders I meet hate firing people. Even if there was absolutely no way the relationship could continue and it was the wrong fit, firing still feels awful. 

I did this poorly for so many years and wish I had done a lot differently, but we live and learn. As entrepreneurs we don't have the luxury of a corporate HR team guiding our steps or doing the dirty deed on our behalf. 

One thing that I wish I did differently was address the issue with the entire team right away. Having said that, I'm grateful to say that it's been a very long time since I've had to terminate someone but these are the steps I would take again.

Rally the Troops 

Bring your entire team together, preferably in person or at least virtually if you're reading this during a lockdown. Without disclosing anything confidential and while respecting the terminated team member, explain that the team member has been asked to leave the premises and their employment has come to an end. It may be nice to...

Our leadership team had a terrific coaching session with our mentor Rob recently. We talked about the negative impact of leaders ignoring their people. He mentioned that when a relationship gets so broken down, the leader may actually give team members the silent treatment and start avoiding them altogether. What a terrible feeling for the team member trying to navigate their job!

This made me pause and really think about how our actions communicate to our employees that they’re not worth our time. See if any of these ring true for you as a leader or if you’ve experienced this yourself.

1. Constant Rescheduling

Nothing says “you’re not important to me” like consistently bailing on meetings. Obviously, there are some situations in which you’ll need to reschedule. Recently I signed up for a six-week training course. The team was gracious enough to reschedule my coaching with them only to have the course get cancelled. It was a bit of a palaver to...

We’ve all worked for draining leaders. One may come to mind immediately, or someone may pop in to your thoughts as I describe one of the worst bosses I’ve ever had. Let’s call him “John” for sake of anonymity! John was a charismatic salesperson who started a side hustle and recruited me from my part-time job in college to be his administrative assistant. I was so excited for the fancy title until I was about a week in.

See, while John was excited about his venture, he wasn’t an inspiring leader. In fact, it was draining to be around John because he just expected me to know how to do a job that I was never trained for. He would fly off on business trips, send me a list of 35 “urgent” emails that needed to be addressed and provided zero clarity on how to attack each one. He was wishy washy about expectations and when I asked him which email was the most important since they were all marked urgent, his response was “they’re...

I’ll be honest with you. I’m a pretty impatient person. I want things done yesterday and I don’t like waiting. It’s an area of improvement and growth for me, along with being flexible. When I’m hyper focused, I tend to be rigid and I am certainly not naturally wired to “go with the flow!” Having said all of that, I feel like COVID has forced a bit of patience and understanding on all of us during the past year.

P – Present

This forced slow down has made many of us pause and enjoy the moment. There has been an increased awareness of our humanity, fragility, and our ability to adapt. We’ve been forced to slow down, take stock and be grateful for our health and celebrate if we have been able to keep jobs and businesses running while so many others have suffered tremendously!

A – Adaptable

Whether we were a buttoned-up banker, lawyer or other professional, we adapted to living from home. We leaned in to the change where pets...

The Pressures and Loneliness

I’m gonna be real with you guys for a minute. I’ve experienced some of my loneliest moments as an entrepreneur and leader during COVID.

For the most part, I stuck to my healthy habits and routines and, despite those efforts, I found myself in super dark moments where I felt very alone. I felt like I was drowning and treading water at a pace I wasn’t sure I could manage.  A few months ago, I spent several weeks in a row just focusing on getting through the day, so it brought me one step closer to the weekend. It was like I was having an out of body experience and then Friday came! I felt like I could release the breath I was holding in and find refuge in the distractions of weekend activity.

As leaders, we have a tremendous amount of weight on our shoulders. You’re dealing with financial pressures, keeping up with the latest safety regulations. Your concerned about your team’s well-being and mental health. You’re...

When I wrote my first book Relationship ROI I focused on the importance of cultivating deep relationships with clients. That transitioned in to keynotes on building great professional relationships and generating repeat and referral business by being a magnetic person to be around. The core of it all was what I call The EVA Principle! Regardless of age, gender, status, it does not matter, people are desperate to feel Engaged, Valued and Appreciated!

While I walked the talk and took The EVA Principle seriously when it came to clients, I ignored it when it came to my team!  I was always so careful to be fully present and to make my clients feel special but had zero relationship with my team members! Thank goodness things have changed and I’ve recognized the importance of having equally if not stronger relationships with your people than your clients.

Here’s how we can display The EVA Principle with our teams:

Be Fully Present

In a world of distractions, this is by far...

Your parents were rightly concerned about the shady friends you may have had during your school years. My parents always wanted to know who I was hanging out with and warning me when they felt uneasy about someone’s character. Our friendships and associations have a massive impact on our actions and character. This got me thinking about positive friendships and those associations that achievers look to have. Here are the four P’s to look for…

1. Push You!

Great friends, mentors and associates push you to be a better version of yourself. If you say you’re going to run 5KM and you only run 4KM, a great influencer will hold your feet to the fire. They will make you uncomfortable, so you reach your potential! They will challenge you when you settle for mediocre thinking or goals. They will stretch your current beliefs and replace skepticism with possibility thinking. The wrong person in your circle will tell you that you “work too hard.” None of my...

The mind is such a powerful force! I recently listened to an Ed Mylett podcast with Trevor Moawad. They talked about just how powerful our minds are and what we feed it matters a whole lot! They talked about the science behind our words and how much power we give our words. When we talk, our brain goes to work to close the gap and make our words our reality!

They shared two powerful stories which I will leave to you to hear about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzIXv9XY7Q as it’s definitely worth the time. Your mind will be BLOWN when you hear about someone who lost a championship by self-prophesying defeat and someone who DIED because their negative beliefs took over!

Awareness

I used to really struggle with negative self-talk. For me, my struggle was body shaming. I used to remind myself several hundred times a day how awful I looked. I spent time in therapy bringing awareness to this toxicity and have released something that once had a powerful grip on me. My...

The word sacrifice isn’t sexy or exciting for most people but it’s evidence of a highly engaged team! Check out what I mean…

Sacrifice Ego

Team members who are full engaged in the company’s mission and the role they play don’t care who gets the credit for success. They will easily put aside their own time “on the stage” to put someone else in the spotlight. They will also readily correct you if you praise them for something that their team member in fact was responsible for achieving and be quick to give kudos and heartfelt congratulations to other team members. Where there’s engagement there’s low ego-driven behaviours1

Sacrifice Time

Highly engaged team members are willing to put in more time without recognition to make a project come together or to keep a client happy. It means that they’ll jump in the car and personally deliver an order to make sure that the client is happy! It means that if they’re working on...

I had a coach who would often probe for greater detail by asking “I’m curious Nikki….” followed by “why do you feel that way”, or “what else could it be” questions. He taught me an incredibly valuable lesson and that is the power of being curious!

Being curious is a strong desire to know or learn something. How true! When we are closed-minded or have already made assumptions, we are not open to learning a new perspective or hearing others’ views. By contrast, when we are genuinely curious we open the door for greater connectivity.

1. We Breakdown Walls

Genuinely seeking to understand another’s perspective and gently asking a curious question gets others to open up about their viewpoint. The important part is actually being curious and non-judgemental in your approach. You can see that “I’m curious why…” could sound judgemental if it is not delivered with a sincere desire to be open to...