Agata Bloswick, Ph.D.

With any type of networking opportunities, online or in-person, it's important to be remembered after the meeting is over. It can be really difficult for some to remember people who they met online because a lot of the backgrounds look the same (i.e. they are blurred), so the connection of a 2 dimensional face with a situation (sitting at a desk) does not stand out too strongly. Make an effort to curate your virtual presence i.e. via memorable background, and make it a part of your brand, so that you are remembered better.

Your role as an executive is to translate overall company targets into actionable objectives and goals of specific business units. For instance, if your company is trying to improve the revenue, help the team understand how this specific department contributes to the revenue target and work with them to define actions to be taken to improve the number. The goals can’t be abstract and need to connect to the daily work of the department or business unit.

People tend to give feedback mostly on negative things (they stand out more, and we see them as errors), and we also tend to remember the negative feedback stronger than the positive (even when receiving feedback that starts with "This has been a great success", we tend to listen for whether there is a "but" or a "however" at the end!). In my past experience, a company I worked for made a mandatory unconcious bias training and workshop session for all people managers - it was a very good level setting experience that also provided some actionable tools for people giving annual reviews and performance feedback to minimize the bias.

The most valuable piece of advice I have received on the front of managing promotions and salary adjustments is to have a discussion about how you can add value into the organization. Asking your manager "what is the most difficult challenge you're trying to solve now", and volonteering to help to work on this is a strategic way to prove your value to the company and subsequently steer the conversation towards a promotion or a salary adjustment, to a mutual benefit.

In crisis, form an emergency action team - meet often, even twice a day if needed, to move through the challenges at pace. Then make sure to communicate down and around - to give your organization a sense of being in control of the crisis - as an executive you're in charge of the situation. More communication is better than less at the peak of the crisis, as you should avoid any speculation that may spiral out of control.

A game changing question is to ask the team to assess how much time per week they spend planning the future vs. managing the present, and what they think the time allocation of a stategic leader should be - aspirations completely miss the daily grind. This exercie allows to set the aspirational target for the team and stay focused on active planning of their time to move towards it.