The Figure-It-Out Mindset with Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work at Microsoft
06/15/21 • 27 min
How do the leaders of one of the biggest and most successful tech companies in the world lead in the Hybrid Revolution? With a figure-it-out mindset. Today on the podcast, Erica chats with Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work at Microsoft. Colette explains Microsoft's approach to Hybrid work—it’s centered around a three-part framework: people, places, and processes. They’re using technology and research to implement best practices around empowering managers, hiring diverse talent, embracing flexibility, creating connection and culture in new ways, and staying agile with touch points. Because at the end of the day, as Colette asserts, leading IN a crisis is far different than leading OUT of a crisis.
Instead of taking our bad pandemic habits (like working into the evenings and weekends and taking endless back-to-back Zoom calls) with us into the Hybrid Revolution, Microsoft is shifting away from reactive and into proactive processes. Colette also shares some professional and personal rituals from that past year that made quarantine a bit brighter. Listen in to hear insights from one of the leading vanguards in the future of work.
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Quotes:
1:48 – "We no longer believe that work is a place, right? It’s more of a state of mind and that we want to help be successful in this new normal from anywhere.”
3:05 – "In Hybrid, which we’re moving into now, there isn’t a standard. Everything becomes more complex in flexible work. And that’s really the new leadership challenge for every leader and every organization. It’s going to be figuring that out and figuring out how to empower people in this new, new normal.”
12:43 – "We have a three-part framework around people, places, and processes...And it obviously starts with people. Getting that people piece right is critical."
23:38 – "The key to flexibility is lots of little things that can have a big impact.”
24:21 – “Taking just a small break—even 5 to 10 minutes between meetings—has a dramatic impact. It resets your brain, it lowers your stress levels, and it increases your cognitive function. And so we just last month came out with a new default setting in Outlook, so people could set that automatically in their organization."
Links to Websites or Resources, text numbers email signups
WorkLab: Vital facts about the future of work. (microsoft.com)
Order Erica’s book, Rituals Roadmap
Order Erica’s book, Bring Your Human to Work
Text ‘human’ to 66866 to sign up for Erica’s newsletter where she shares how to honor relationships well and how to bring your human to work and life.
Connect with Colette:
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How do the leaders of one of the biggest and most successful tech companies in the world lead in the Hybrid Revolution? With a figure-it-out mindset. Today on the podcast, Erica chats with Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work at Microsoft. Colette explains Microsoft's approach to Hybrid work—it’s centered around a three-part framework: people, places, and processes. They’re using technology and research to implement best practices around empowering managers, hiring diverse talent, embracing flexibility, creating connection and culture in new ways, and staying agile with touch points. Because at the end of the day, as Colette asserts, leading IN a crisis is far different than leading OUT of a crisis.
Instead of taking our bad pandemic habits (like working into the evenings and weekends and taking endless back-to-back Zoom calls) with us into the Hybrid Revolution, Microsoft is shifting away from reactive and into proactive processes. Colette also shares some professional and personal rituals from that past year that made quarantine a bit brighter. Listen in to hear insights from one of the leading vanguards in the future of work.
Please Subscribe, Rate and Review on Apple Podcasts
You can also listen to the show on:
Quotes:
1:48 – "We no longer believe that work is a place, right? It’s more of a state of mind and that we want to help be successful in this new normal from anywhere.”
3:05 – "In Hybrid, which we’re moving into now, there isn’t a standard. Everything becomes more complex in flexible work. And that’s really the new leadership challenge for every leader and every organization. It’s going to be figuring that out and figuring out how to empower people in this new, new normal.”
12:43 – "We have a three-part framework around people, places, and processes...And it obviously starts with people. Getting that people piece right is critical."
23:38 – "The key to flexibility is lots of little things that can have a big impact.”
24:21 – “Taking just a small break—even 5 to 10 minutes between meetings—has a dramatic impact. It resets your brain, it lowers your stress levels, and it increases your cognitive function. And so we just last month came out with a new default setting in Outlook, so people could set that automatically in their organization."
Links to Websites or Resources, text numbers email signups
WorkLab: Vital facts about the future of work. (microsoft.com)
Order Erica’s book, Rituals Roadmap
Order Erica’s book, Bring Your Human to Work
Text ‘human’ to 66866 to sign up for Erica’s newsletter where she shares how to honor relationships well and how to bring your human to work and life.
Connect with Colette:
Connect with Erica:
Previous Episode
How to Develop Talent in Turbulent Times, with Betterment VP of Talent Development, Susan Justus
How do you develop great talent in turbulent times? What about for a future of work which has never yet existed? By being a people-first leader. This week on Left to Our Own Devices, Erica sits down with Susan Justus, VP of Talent Development at Betterment, a digital automated investment platform. Susan has spent many years in the talent development space and understands that building relationships with people “beyond the task” (part of The Betterment Way) is key. To develop employees with clarity, confidence, and purpose, leaders must be able to connect on a deeper level and reinforce psychological safety, EQ, transparency, and values. The work itself must also be meaningful for people to truly connect to an organization and thrive. And at Betterment, they really listen to their people. Which is why this summer, they’re running testing grounds on their hybrid model to work out any kinks, find balance, and help everyone prepare for the full hybrid model which will kick off in the fall. Listen in for more on this Hybrid model that every leader should be paying attention to.
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Quotes:
3:30 – “I’ve really tried to deepened the connection that I have by getting to the core of who they are as individuals, not just about the work...we’re moving so quickly in regards to our priorities, our OKRs, and the things we’re focused on for the year and for the quarter, etc. that sometimes we forget who our people are. So this past year, one of the ways I’ve shifted is really getting to know my team first in terms of, what’s important to them at this moment? How can I support them? Because the better they are, in terms of how they’re doing, the best work they can bring into the organization and what they bring to the team.”
10:53 – “We do have folks internal within the people team that are going to start these hybrid team sessions in the summer just to get people comfortable with what it looks like to be in the office and those who may be virtual or not based in New York. Just to get them comfortable with the idea of, what does it look like to have a hybrid team in place? What best practices do we need to put in place because obviously we have to start all over again in really figuring out, how do we find the balance and make our team most effective in this new way of working? So there will be a bunch of testing grounds around this summer just to get people to a good place by the fall when we fully reopen.”
12:15 – “How can you lead your team in the most inclusive manner? How can you make them feel safe? Because at the end of the day, that builds trust. Trust is a really important behavior to demonstrate for your teams so they feel like they belong within your team, within the organization.”
13:08 – “How can you give your team members the work that really makes them thrive and they’re excited about. That they feel like they’re connected to the organization—even if they’re virtual. Being really transparent about, ‘You’re doing this project because this is the ultimate goal that we’re looking to solve for, and this is the part you play in that ultimate goal.”
15:29 – “We’ve found that defining the behavior and what it looks like in action is so critical to anything we do around development at Betterment. Because if people don’t understand what does that behavior even look like in action, why would they be interested in participating in the training, if the expectation isn’t aligned to the actual training and purpose of their role? So we’re trying to be more and more intentional about communicating that across the board with everything that we offer around education.”
Links to Websites or Resources, text numbers email signups
Order Erica’s book, Rituals Roadmap
Order Erica’s book, Bring Your Human to Work
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Next Episode
How to Bring Yourself to Everything you do with Author Expert Mori Taheripour
What’s important to you? What are your non-negotiables? What are your goals? When it comes to negotiating what’s best for each person in the hybrid workplace, answering those questions is a great place to start, says Mori Taheripour, this week’s guest on Left to Our Own Devices.
Mori is a globally recognized negotiation and DEI expert, executive, Wharton professor, and author of Bring Yourself: How to Harness the Power of Connections to Negotiate Fearlessly. Erica and Mori discuss why it’s important to be straight forward about our needs at work, how companies will have to look at the future of work on a more individual, holistic level, and why it’s key to set boundaries with our values in mind and learn to communicate effectively and with curiosity. Listen in for a thoughtful conversation around bringing our best selves to work and life in an authentic way, and stick around to the end for some sage advice Mori gives to Erica as the parent of two college-bound kids.
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Quotes:
6:46 – “Companies are going to have to look at this very differently as well. and you can’t just force feed people into what this used to be. A lot has changed, and so I think they’ll have to have individual conversations, because one size does not fit all. And I think that part of those conversations, obviously there has to be some amount of compromise, because it could be that they want a lot of people back just to create that sense of camaraderie and connection, even a greater sense of maybe innovation and bringing people together—that energy that is hard to replace even at your finest moments virtually, right? So I think those conversations have to be tailored to people.”
8:44 – on being straightforward about your needs: “I’m hoping that the HR folks, your boss, your manager, or whatever it is, will be able to have those conversations so it’s more like collaborative problem solving as opposed to ‘this is the way it’s going to be, and this is what you have to do,’ because I don’t think workforces will fare that well if that’s how they approach it.”
11:33 – “Everybody doesn’t deserve every part of you and all the information you have at the beginning. You give a little, you take a little, you give a little. And then, as you become more comfortable, even in that first negotiation, that first conversation, you can see that natural progression, because the connection is made, the empathy is created, the rapport is built.”
12:28 – “It’s also the values piece of it, right? Being very true to who you are from a values perspective. So that’s less about, not necessarily behavior, so much as it is knowing your boundaries and the things that are important to you.”
17:25 – on the conversations around the future of work: “Too much has changed to unsee what has happened. And so I think a lot of those conversations are going to change, pick up, be a little more malleable, pliable, and really individualized.”
23:42 – “When I first started teaching negotiations, it took me a little while, but the essence of it is communicating effectively and being heard, and being curious and going into conversations not with your mind made up but being open to ideas and somebody else’s ways of communicating with you and perspective—hearing things from a different perspectives before you actually draw your own, and maybe what you end up with is far better than you ever thought was possible because it was innovative and you were open and curious.”
Links to Websites or Resources, text numbers email signups
Order Erica’s book, Rituals Roadmap
Order Erica’s book, Bring Your Human to Work
Text ‘human’ to 66866 to sign up for Erica’s newsletter where she shares how to honor relationships well and how to bring your human to work and life.
Connect with Mori:
Connect with Erica:
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