Articles by Ed Batista
Mind the Gap (On Leading Senior Executives)Ed covers 3 aspects of managing executives well, whether it's your first time managing them or whether you're looking to get to an advanced level: 1. Accountability: ensured that they're held accountable for achieving agreed-upon objectives by providing clarity, feedback, and empathy 2. Motivation: understand and influence your executives' intrinsic and extrinsic motivators 3. Team Dynamics: address the gaps that can emerge on the team across evolving norms, cultural integration, and functional rivalries
- Currencies (On Motivating Different People)
Leaders seeking to uplift employee motivation should steer from traditional positive or negative methods - known as "KITA" (Kicks in the Ass) - and focus on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, according to 20th-century psychologist, Frederick Herzberg. These motivators, which lead to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction, suggest that satisfaction stems from intrinsic factors such as achievement recognition and growth opportunities, while dissatisfaction stems from inadequate extrinsic elements like poor working conditions or low pay. Offering currencies such as vision, challenges, recognition, inclusion and affirmation as rewards can encourage genuine motivation over mere compliance. However, individual value and preferences should guide the motivational approach.
- Defensiveness Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Defensiveness can hinder growth, but properly addressed, it can stimulate self-improvement. Defensiveness is seen as a disproportionate or persistent negative response to criticism. Don't label a person defensive as it amplifies negative emotions. Instead, help them regulate their emotions, and later discuss their reaction for learning purposes. For those labelled defensive, see defensiveness as a learning opportunity, accept the feedback as data and commit to gaining understanding. Defensiveness is context-based, so acknowledging that and taking responsibility for it can incite growth and improve relationships.
- Startup Leadership: A Greater Us
Ed describes challenges he often sees leaders face when scaling their company "from family to tribe to village."