Blog, culture and engagement | Ambition In Motion

by Kendall Barndollar

Fri 24 January 2025

In the modern workplace, prioritizing clear and effective communication is paramount to team and individual success. Sustained productivity is fostered through effective capacity management and maintaining morale while preventing burnout. While to-do lists continuously grow, many struggle to communicate their overwhelm or burnout to their managers. Without clear communication, many will stay silent or eventually leave the organization, eliminating the possibility of collaborating and growing through innovative solutions.

Addressing capacity management issues with a boss can be daunting, many fear they will be perceived as lazy or ‘not team players’. To change the tone of these meetings, professionals should suggest strategy sessions to propose solutions to the problems they are experiencing. The key to discussing these issues with a superior is to switch the mindset from discussing problems to proposing solutions.

For example, let's consider Joe, who manages a team of about 15 professionals at an emerging tech company. Joe’s team generally has a pretty productive team culture and they work really well together. In the past few months, the team has been working around the clock for a launch date in two weeks. Throughout the project, Joe noticed interpersonal conflict and tensions continuously heightened as the deadline became near.

Joe’s boss, Rebecca, emailed to inform him of an exciting new client the company has just landed and how Joe’s team will be involved in the project, with a deadline in two weeks. Joe becomes worried because he knows his team has already been putting in overtime and it will jeopardize their team culture and productivity to add another task to the to-do list with a short deadline. Joe schedules a meeting with Rebecca to discuss their management strategy for his team.

If Joe comes to the meeting angry or upset about the tasks needed from his team, Rebecca will likely not have a positive response. She may think members of Joe’s team are not contributing, or that Joe has not adequately instructed and motivated them to complete their deliverables. Instead, Joe should come to the meeting with potential solutions and an open mindset to discuss deprioritizing certain tasks or finding alternative solutions to manage the workload. Through a productive conversation, Joe can foster a collaborative approach to capacity management; listening to his team, discussing with his superior, and finding a balance. Furthermore, in advocating for his team, Joe would have contributed to building team trust and enforcing a productive, positive environment.

More than being able to manage a team's capacity, proactive capacity management prevents immediate burnout and stress, setting a foundation for long-term productivity and collaboration. Managers monitoring and adjusting workloads to reflect appropriate team capacity build a strong, connected, and supported workforce. Employees feel a stronger organizational commitment and value to the organization and team when understood. When employees are more committed and aligned with the organization, they have higher job satisfaction and strive for growth in their roles.

Additionally, a well-managed team can more effectively handle unexpected challenges, as they are not already operating at their highest capacity. Flexibility and adaptability ensure smooth project executions and foster innovation when team members work together to find solutions. By prioritizing capacity management, managers enable their teams to cultivate positive environments for clear and effective communication and collaboration. Here are 3 foundational aspects to recall for managers working on capacity management:

Open Communication

The most critical aspect of being able to effectively manage a team's capacity is establishing clear, effective, and open communication. Without communication, managers would only find out of instances of capacity overload from failures to meet deliverables or assignments. By encouraging open discussion, managers can cultivate a communication culture that empowers the voices of their direct reports and, prevents team failure or backup. Furthermore, to truly manage capacity, managers need to communicate effectively with their executives in order to meet deadlines.

2. Work-Life Balance & Psychological Safety

Another prominent aspect of prioritizing capacity management is considering work-life balance and psychological safety within the office. Work-life balance ensures that team members do not struggle in their personal lives for work and psychological safety prioritizes a positive team culture and mindset. By focusing on these two factors, managers are able to better grasp the capacity and boundaries of their teams.

3. Training and Development

A final foundational aspect of capacity management is the training and development opportunities available to teams. To truly improve a team's capacity without conceding accuracy or work quality, organizations need to invest time and resources into team training and development. Depending on the organization these experiences may take different forms and could be team bonding exercises, technical classes, or skills workshops that improve team productivity.

Managers concerned with overloading their team or those struggling with capacity management should consider utilizing goal-setting and tracking software. Many managers face challenges in capacity management because they do not appropriately gauge the capacity of individuals and teams. Through goal-tracking software such as AIM Insights, managers and their direct reports can benchmark goal achievement and progress. Furthermore, utilizing tracking software enables managers to have a more objective view of overall progress and growth. Finally, through utilizing software, managers are able to self-reflect and grow through provided feedback.

Proactive capacity management is essential to sustain productivity, and team morale while preventing burnout. Through fostering open communication, encouraging a healthy work-life balance and team environment, and providing continuous training opportunities, managers create an adaptable and productive workforce. Through leveraging tools to understand team members' goals and progress, managers are enabled to be great leaders who vouch for their team. Ultimately prioritizing proactive capacity management creates a foundation for long-term success and a sustained positive team culture.

by Kayla Ambrose

Fri 24 January 2025

A manager is responsible for ensuring deadlines are met and tasks are completed. Naturally, managers want the best for their team and are willing to assume more roles in order to help their team achieve success. Once managers begin completing entry-level tasks, strive for absolute perfection, and become overly attentive to their direct reports, they enter the territory of micromanaging.

Although micromanagement often develops with good intentions for wanting the team to succeed, this management style can cause a lot of unintended consequences. When direct reports experience micromanaging, creativity is stifled, morale is decreased, and trust is lost. Micromanagement doesn’t just negatively impact employees, the additional effort used by managers who micromanage leads to severe exhaustion. Despite these negative implications on teams, micromanagers often continue these behaviors because they fail to recognize that they are micromanaging.

How to Recognize Micromanaging Behaviors?

1. Reluctance to Delegate

An indication of micromanagement is resistance to delegating tasks. As a manager with more experience than other team members, it may feel challenging to assign tasks to direct reports who may have more underdeveloped skill sets. Something important to consider is the opportunity cost of completing these more entry-level tasks. Senior managers are more suited for higher-level tasks, so it wouldn’t be valuable for high-level managers to be completing entry-level tasks. Managers' time is more valuable on something that can only be completed with their knowledge and specific skill set.

Imagine if Tom Brady spent his life mowing lawns instead of playing quarterback. His great attention to detail and strong work ethic would allow him to be very good at mowing lawns, but this wouldn’t be the best use of his unique skill set as a professional athlete. The same idea translates to managers struggling to delegate tasks. When managers spend time completing tasks that their team can handle, they become like Tom Brady mowing lawns instead of winning with their team. Effective delegation isn’t solely about assigning tasks to employees It’s about recognizing the team's strengths and trusting them to complete tasks, allowing managers to focus on tasks only they can do as a leader.

2. Over Involvement in Employees Work

As a manager, it is critical to understand what team members are doing and how it contributes to the overall objectives of the team. Managers who take this a step further, through very frequent updates and constantly involving themselves in employees' work, become micromanagers. Although it can be tempting to step in and help an employee who is struggling, managers shouldn’t be constantly working with employees on their tasks or taking over for them.

Make sure to reflect on how frequently communication is conducted with employees. Managers who are constantly asking for updates and asking questions about minor details may be micromanaging their team. This is also applicable to managers who have employees constantly reaching out for confirmation. Whether or not it is explicitly stated, if employees frequently need to have their managers approve of interim task phases, there is likely a micromanaging relationship present.

3. Constantly Monitoring Employees

Another sign that a manager is a micromanager is how they monitor their employees. Constant oversight from managers can make employees feel scrutinized. Whether a manager is monitoring their team by being physically present or digital tools to keep tabs on everyone, a compulsion to constantly supervise employees is an indication of micromanaging.

Micromanagers often confuse visibility with control. While managers need to be informed about their team’s progress, there’s a difference between keeping track of outcomes and obsessively monitoring every detail within the process. A healthy management strategy is to build trust and open communication with team members so they feel empowered within their roles. Employees are more likely to feel motivated and deliver creative solutions when managers provide them with more autonomy.

Reflecting on the three previous behaviors is an important step to counteract micromanaging. Since it can be difficult to self-assess, asking for feedback from employees can be a powerful tool to recognize micromanagement. Creating an anonymous feedback mechanism where employees can share honest criticism can be a helpful way to diagnose micromanagement.

What are Ways to Reduce Micromangement Tendencies?

1. Develop Effective Communication Skills

Oftentimes, micromanaging can stem from managers stepping in when their employees are confused about a project. To prevent employees from becoming confused about a task, make sure to effectively communicate expectations. Not only should managers properly discuss what is expected from employees, but they must also encourage employees to ask questions to promote a better understanding.

2. Practice Delegating

Micromanagers struggle to delegate tasks and often assume way more responsibility than they should. To feel more comfortable delegating tasks, managers can practice delegating less complex responsibilities. Gradually shifting responsibilities to employees works to establish trust and build confidence for employees. Not only will employees become more confident, but managers will also become more confident in the competencies of their employees.

3. Expand Employees’ Skillsets

Micromaning often stems from managers feeling that their employees aren’t capable of completing their assigned tasks. Similar to practicing gradual delegation, managers should also collaborate with employees to further develop their skill sets. If an employee struggles with a particular software or another critical component of their role, managers can provide resources or specific training to help enhance their skills. By working to expand employees’ abilities, managers will be more confident in allowing their employees to assume more responsibility.

4. Establish a Growth Mindset

Fear of failure motivates managers to develop micromanagement behaviors. One way to counteract this fear of failure is to work on developing a growth mindset. Managers who are able to shift their thinking to consider setbacks as a learning opportunity are more able to let go of their micromanaging behaviors because they are less hyper-focused on ensuring a standard of perfection.

Changing subconscious behaviors is an incredibly difficult task. As a manager hoping to stop micromanaging tendencies, make sure to self-reflect often and evaluate the effectiveness of changes in management styles. Throughout this journey to stop being a micromanager, it is beneficial to receive guidance from peer mentors who have similar experiences. No one wants to be micromanaged and it isn't a productive strategy for managers either. Make sure to focus on the big picture and the benefits that will be experienced once micromanaging is out of the picture.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 24 January 2025

Jessica, mid-level employee, sat at her desk, staring at a growing to-do list and an inbox full of unanswered emails. Her frustration wasn’t just about the workload; it was about the lack of direction. She felt disconnected from her manager, unsure if her efforts aligned with the team's priorities. She had tried to initiate one-on-one meetings to clarify her goals, but her manager always seemed unprepared or distracted. Jessica worried her career was stagnating, and her upcoming performance review loomed over her like a dark cloud.

Then she decided to try something different. Instead of asking for another generic check-in, Jessica approached her manager and said, “Hey, can we have a strategy session?” The response was immediate. Her manager’s eyes lit up with interest, and they scheduled a dedicated hour later that week. Little did Jessica know, this simple shift in language would transform not only her relationship with her boss but also her career trajectory.

Why “Strategy Session” Resonates with Managers

The term “strategy session” holds power. Unlike vague requests for a “1:1” or a “check-in,” it signals intentionality and alignment. Most managers juggle competing priorities and dread meetings that lack a clear purpose. By framing the conversation around strategy, you’re tapping into your manager’s mindset of planning and action, making them more likely to engage meaningfully.

Here’s why this approach works:

Managers value alignment: The phrase “strategy session” suggests you’re focused on aligning your personal goals with the team’s overall vision.
It emphasizes forward-thinking: It shifts the conversation from reactive problem-solving to proactive planning.
It positions you as a partner: By prioritizing strategy, you show that you’re invested in the team’s success, not just your own.

How to Prepare for a Strategy Session

To ensure a productive meeting, preparation is key. Here’s how you can take charge of the conversation:

Clarify your objectives:

Identify what you want to achieve from the session. Are you seeking clarity on your role? Do you want feedback on recent work? Are you planning for the next quarter?

2. Align with team goals:
Review your team’s objectives and think about how your contributions fit into the bigger picture. Be ready to discuss how your work supports overall priorities.

3. Draft an agenda:
Include topics like:

Reviewing current responsibilities and performance.
Discussing alignment between your goals and the team’s mission.
Identifying areas for growth and development.
Planning next steps for key projects.

4. Gather data:
Bring examples of your achievements, challenges, and areas where you need support. Be ready to back up your points with metrics or specific anecdotes.

Setting Expectations and Taking Control

When the strategy session begins, set the tone with clear communication and actionable steps. Here’s a framework you can follow:

Start with context:
- Begin by thanking your manager for the time and explaining the purpose of the session. For example: “I wanted to take this time to ensure my work is aligned with our team’s priorities and to map out a clear path forward.”
Review your goals and alignment:
- Share your current goals and ask for input on how they align with team objectives. For example: “Here are the key projects I’m focusing on. Do these align with what the team needs most right now?”
Seek feedback:
- Proactively ask for insights on your performance. Use open-ended questions like:
  - “What’s going well from your perspective?”
  - “Are there areas where I could improve or add more value?”
Plan for the future:
- Work together to outline next steps. Discuss what’s needed to achieve both your goals and the team’s priorities. For example: “What should I focus on in the next quarter to contribute more effectively?”
Summarize and confirm:
- At the end of the session, recap key takeaways and agreed-upon action items. For example: “To summarize, I’ll focus on X project, improve Y skill, and check in with you on Z progress in two weeks. Does that sound right?”

Making Strategy Sessions Routine

To maximize the impact, don’t let strategy sessions be a one-time event. Incorporate them into your routine by:

Scheduling regular meetings: Aim for monthly or quarterly meetings to stay aligned.
Preparing in advance: Treat each session as an opportunity to showcase your growth and recalibrate priorities.
Following up: After each session, send a brief email summarizing key points and next steps to ensure accountability.

Strategy sessions aren’t just about day-to-day alignment; they also set the stage for successful performance reviews. By proactively discussing your goals, progress, and challenges, you demonstrate ownership of your career and make it easier for your manager to advocate for you. These sessions create a narrative of consistent growth and alignment, which can lead to better evaluations and opportunities for advancement.

Jessica’s decision to ask for a strategy session not only clarified her goals but also strengthened her relationship with her manager. She felt more confident, focused, and motivated—and her manager appreciated her proactive approach. By adopting this simple yet effective strategy, you too can take control of your career, ensure alignment with your team, and set yourself up for success. Start today by asking, “Hey, can we have a strategy session?” and watch how it transforms your professional journey.

by Garrett Mintz

Wed 22 January 2025

Are company reorganizations (reorgs) bad?

It depends on who you ask and how the reorg was handled.

Most people associate reorgs with negative experiences because they often signify significant changes to the business. For better or worse, people tend to resist change, making reorgs an uphill battle when it comes to winning hearts and minds.

Whether a company has determined a business unit is no longer profitable, their success metrics need to change, or that they are simply moving in a different direction, a reorg means that change is coming.

The challenge most companies run into when attempting to successfully enact a reorg is effectively communicating the strategy, getting buy-in, and achieving adoption of the new status quo.

A typical reorg looks like this:
The CEO, often under pressure from the board, decides to implement a change in how the business operates. Perhaps the company isn’t profitable enough, early indicators suggest the need for proactive adjustments, or a new strategy seems necessary. The CEO shares this plan with the executive team, expecting them to communicate and champion the change with the same enthusiasm.

In an ideal world, employees would immediately understand, embrace, and adapt to the changes.

In reality, direct reports—wanting to appear as team players—often say, “I’m on board and looking forward to this change!” whether they genuinely feel that way or not. This lack of transparency creates a false sense of confidence for the CEO, who believes their team is fully aligned.

But then... the wheels fall off.

And then…egg on his face (metaphorically). The proposed changes fail to gain traction. Confused and frustrated, the CEO demands answers: “Why isn’t everyone as excited about this change as I am?!”

The truth might eventually surface, often at great cost. A brave executive who explains the lack of adoption risks being labeled insubordinate—and perhaps even losing their job. Others in leadership take note and quickly learn that honesty about these matters is unwelcome.

So what actually happened when the CEO proposed these changes?

First, his executive team who report to him, conceptually understand why the change is being proposed, but they aren’t fully sold on the solution. It wasn’t their idea and they haven’t had enough time to think through the ramifications and determine the best outcome. The change feels very sudden.

They then go to their next level of leadership and say “A change is being made. We are now transitioning from operating like xyz and are now going to be operating like abc.” The team asks “Why?” And those leaders say because the CEO has determined that we need to make this change.

That next level of leader now has to communicate down to their direct reports admonishing “I didn’t make this change! My hands are tied. I can’t control it but the executives at this company are now making us operate like this. Don’t kill the messenger!” You might have seen this exact scenario play out at your company on remote work policies as we get further from the pandemic.

The individual contributors doing the work at this company do one of two things:

Continue work as normal and not implement the change, or
Adopt the new change but do it very lazily and not work very hard intentionally scuffling the change process with the hopes that the executive team will see that this new way isn’t working and that they will revert back to the old way.

The result…complete and utter failure at worst, and a major distraction at best

But reorg’s don’t have to be this way. Shoot, if reorg’s were always failures, companies would stop pursuing them.

It is just critical that companies pursue reorgs in the right way.

Here are a few tips on how to successfully enact a reorg:

Start with Pilot Teams
Develop tiger teams or experimental teams that can begin to work on this new change. If they are successful, it creates a template for which to refer to in terms of setting expectations for the rest of the organization when the wide scale roll-out happens. It also creates an early group of advocates for the change.
Involve the right stakeholders early
Incorporate a strong team of relevant folks to set proper expectations based on full knowledge. Get as many people as relevant and necessary to be involved in the change and get a clear understanding and alignment on the problem statement that needs to be solved. If everyone isn’t in agreement on the problem to be solved, it will be impossible to create a successful solution and get buy-in. This requires vulnerability and openness from the executive team to show data on why it isn’t working.
Ensure leadership buy-in
Have your team communicate back to you, in their own words, why the change is happening and why it will help the business. Act skeptical, and only until you are convinced based on their argument to you why the change needs to happen, can you feel comfortable knowing that they are officially bought into the change.

Ultimately, reorgs are hard but necessary things for companies to innovate and continue to grow. If a reorg can be enacted successfully, that company will be in an incredible position to thrive moving forward.

If you are interested in engaging further into this conversation, follow the Ambition In Motion YouTube channel and look for virtual Pre-Symposium Panels covering this topic (Pre-Symposium Panels are virtual panels covering relevant business topics). And if you happen to be in Austin, TX on 2/13/25, come to the Executive Symposium which will debate and discuss this exact topic - RSVP’s here: ambition-in-motion.com/events.

by Kendall Barndollar

Fri 10 January 2025

In the ever-evolving corporate environment, setting clear and actionable objectives is a critical responsibility of every leader. Companies have been navigating a world which has been formed through digital changes and a rapidly changing workforce. To sustain a competitive advantage and align with broader company objectives both employees and leaders must set goals that are ambitious, but also measurable and relevant. The SMART goal framework is an effective tool for creating specific measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Finding innovative paths to utilize this framework will enable teams to push boundaries and reach higher achievements.

For many individuals, the new year brings times of change and new beginnings. Commonly, this era of change can be overwhelming for the mental health of many individuals. A plethora of people start the year with a new mindset and goals in mind yet fail to achieve them. Tendencies of setting unrealistic or unattainable goals are common practices that must be broken. Setting realistic goals help divide achievements into smaller, more attainable targets. For the more crucial aspect of goal-making is creating timeout goals on a realistic deadline that enables a positive mindset towards reaching relevant objectives.

The SMART framework emphasizes setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. By ensuring each goal meets the above criteria, individuals can create a clear timeline and roadmap to effectively track their progress. Moreover, this approach helps build momentum and confidence in addition to holding individuals and teams accountable. For professionals to best utilize the SMART goal framework, it is crucial to understand each individual aspect and how these tools can be utilized in the workplace:

Specific

SMART goals are meant to be specific in that they are not too vague and clearly identify a target. This could include a goal with a few targets, falling within it or one main specific target, but it should clearly outline the objectives that the individual is aiming to achieve. In circumstances where managers are creating these goals along with their employees or for their employees, leaders must be clear in their expectations and the deliverables expected from each specific target.

Measurable

Goals should be measurable, meaning that there are defined points, benchmarks, metrics, or evaluations that will objectively demonstrate the progress made or potential completion of the goal. While it is helpful to use qualitative measures such as percentage growth or a certain dollar amount of sales, goals can be measurable in a variety of ways. For example, a leader could be working to improve their team culture and use the team communication habits or norms as a measure of their success. The most crucial part of making a goal measurable is having a defined point from the beginning that will clearly demonstrate the progression of completing the objectives. In the professional environment, a useful tool that will enable individuals to measure their success is a tool such as AIM Insights. AIM Insights is a platform that enables both managers and their direct reports to track goals, achievements, and progress.

Achievable

SMART goals should also be realistically achievable. Frequently, individuals become discouraged or overwhelmed when tasked with overly optimistic, unattainable goals. When goals are broken down into smaller targets or objectives, individuals feel empowered to tackle small portions at a time, eventually completing the large goal. Thus, it is important to frame goals in achievable ways that are realistic for parties to complete. In the professional setting, team members can work to make goals achievable by reviewing past metrics and data as a benchmark and utilizing the information as a predictor for future capabilities and performance. Finding innovative ways to benchmark and track performance will give a more realistic understanding of a team or individual’s capacity, encouraging realistic and reachable goals.

Relevant

SMART goals should be relevant to the individual or team tasked with them. Most notably, the goal should be related to a broader idea project, or initiative that people may be working on. Furthermore, goals can be effective in aligning with personal, team or organizational objectives. When a goal is relevant in the workplace, it directly aligns to a professional’s role and responsibilities in the organization. Through enabling their direct reports to find this alignment, managers, and leaders set a great example for including relevant goals in the workplace. Additionally, leaders should ensure that goals are pertinent to the teams, challenges opportunities, and experience experiences to make them feel motivated and connected to the overall goal for the team or organization.

Time-Bound

A crucial aspect of setting SMART goals is ensuring that they are time-bound. Time-bound goals have a clear deadline or timeframe by which they must be achieved, which creates accountability and motivation for teams and individuals. When goals are set without a specific timeframe, many tend to procrastinate and usually make progress toward goals much slower. In the workplace, team leaders should be cognizant of direct reports' mental health and team-wide culture that can be impacted by setting goals within an unrealistic time frame. In many circumstances, inadequate time to complete the goal will result in poor performance, and high team, stress, and can severely detriment team culture.

Many see the start of the new year as an opportunity to reset and focus on self-improvement. In 2025, the smart goal framework remains an essential tool for navigating the complexities of the current workplace. Through intense eras of change, growth, and learning, SMART goals, are a great tool to utilize for tracking progress and creating some accountability. In the dynamic workplace, it is most important for professionals to set specific measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals to ensure clarity, focus, and improved communication. By incorporating the smart goal framework, many organizations may reap the benefits of improved productivity, communication, and team culture.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 10 January 2025

Mentorship is often seen as a cornerstone of personal and career growth. However, to truly unlock the potential of a mentorship relationship, it is critical to establish mutual respect, value each other's time, and foster an environment of growth and collaboration. By examining the perspectives of mentors, mentees, and the dynamics of their partnership, we can uncover the principles that make mentorship thrive. Additionally, these principles align with the values of mastermind groups, where professionals come together as equals to accelerate collective growth.

The Mentor’s Perspective: Guiding with Intentionality

A good mentor recognizes the privilege and responsibility of shaping another’s professional journey. Key attributes of effective mentorship include:

Respect for the Mentee’s Goals: Tailoring advice and guidance to align with the mentee’s aspirations fosters trust and ensures relevance. A mentor should take the time to understand the mentee’s long-term objectives and provide guidance that bridges the gap between current skills and future ambitions. This approach ensures that the mentorship remains focused and meaningful.
Consistent Availability: Being present and honoring scheduled commitments demonstrates respect and professionalism. Mentors who consistently make time for their mentees signal that they value the relationship. This consistency builds trust and sets the tone for productive interactions, even when schedules are demanding.
Constructive Feedback: Providing actionable insights helps mentees navigate challenges and hone their skills. Constructive criticism, when delivered thoughtfully, can inspire growth and encourage mentees to embrace new opportunities. A mentor should also celebrate the mentee’s progress, reinforcing confidence and motivation.

Beyond these traits, mentors should remain adaptable, as each mentee brings unique needs and challenges. By cultivating empathy and remaining approachable, mentors can create an environment that fosters open dialogue and shared success.

The Mentee’s Perspective: Learning with Humility and Drive

Being a good mentee goes beyond absorbing wisdom; it involves active engagement and respect for the mentor’s time and expertise. Key qualities of effective mentees include:

Preparation: Coming to meetings with clear questions or updates maximizes the mentor’s time and creates productive conversations. This practice signals that the mentee values the mentor’s guidance and is willing to take the necessary steps to benefit from the relationship.
Gratitude: Expressing appreciation for the mentor’s efforts strengthens the relationship. Small gestures of acknowledgment, such as a thank-you note or verbal recognition, can go a long way in reinforcing a positive dynamic.
Accountability: Following through on advice or agreed-upon actions demonstrates dedication to personal growth. Mentees who consistently act on their mentor’s guidance show that they value the relationship and are committed to improving their skills and achieving their goals.

Effective mentees also embrace a growth mindset, viewing challenges as opportunities to learn rather than setbacks. By staying curious and maintaining a proactive attitude, mentees can deepen the relationship and derive greater value from the mentorship.

Working Together: Building Mutual Respect

The mentor-mentee relationship thrives on mutual respect and shared effort. Common pitfalls, such as rescheduling meetings last minute or failing to show up prepared, can erode trust and diminish the partnership’s value. To cultivate a healthy dynamic:

Value Each Other’s Time: Both mentors and mentees should honor commitments and communicate proactively if changes arise. This mutual respect helps establish a professional tone and ensures that both parties feel their time is appreciated.
Set Clear Expectations: Define the purpose, frequency, and boundaries of the relationship to avoid misunderstandings. Regularly revisiting these expectations ensures that both parties remain aligned and can adapt to evolving needs.
Celebrate Progress: Acknowledge milestones and successes to reinforce the partnership’s impact. Celebrating achievements, no matter how small, can strengthen the bond between mentors and mentees and maintain momentum in the relationship.

Moreover, both parties should prioritize open communication. Addressing concerns or challenges directly and respectfully can prevent minor issues from escalating and ensure a productive partnership.

The Mastermind Group Connection

Mastermind groups offer a unique space where mentorship principles intersect with peer collaboration. Defined as small, focused groups of professionals who meet regularly to support and challenge each other, mastermind groups operate on the mantra that all members are equals, regardless of career stage or experience level. The only prerequisite is the willingness to add value to others’ journeys.

Ambition In Motion (AIM) exemplifies the power of mastermind groups in professional development. These groups prioritize diverse perspectives by bringing together members with varied experiences and insights, enriching discussions and broadening viewpoints. This diversity fosters creativity and innovation, exposing members to ideas they might not encounter in their immediate professional circles. Structured accountability is another cornerstone of AIM, as regular meetings with defined goals encourage participants to stay on track and make meaningful progress. By holding each other accountable, members create a supportive yet challenging environment that drives growth. Additionally, collaborative growth is achieved as members share challenges and solutions, accelerating each other’s learning and professional success. This approach ensures that all participants benefit, regardless of their career stages or industries. In AIM mastermind groups, participants are encouraged to be both learners and contributors, mirroring the essence of mentorship where mutual respect and shared effort drive success.

Whether in one-on-one mentorships or mastermind groups, respect and intentionality are non-negotiable. By valuing each other’s time, honoring commitments, and fostering open communication, professionals can create relationships that elevate everyone involved. Mastermind groups, like those offered by Ambition In Motion, take this principle further by creating a platform where equals collaborate to achieve unparalleled growth.

by Kayla Ambrose

Fri 27 December 2024

When leaders interact with their employees, they gain insights into their employees' sentiments and commitment to their role. While this can provide valuable information to managers, these insights might not be entirely accurate. Managers shouldn’t solely rely on their instincts and the general mood of employees to determine job satisfaction and motivation. Conducting employee engagement surveys can allow managers to gather valuable data from employees that can be used to improve processes and increase employee satisfaction.

Although engagement surveys are most commonly used by large organizations, small and medium-sized organizations would also benefit from the incorporation of engagement surveys. Leaders of smaller organizations may feel they can accurately measure the company pulse since they interact with employees on a regular basis and may even have a personal relationship with most employees. While this can certainly help gauge sentiments, some employees may not provide feedback if unprompted or they may not feel comfortable verbally relaying honest insights. An engagement survey can bridge this gap by providing a structured way for leaders to solicit honest feedback, allowing them to address employees' concerns and improve organizational performance.

Understanding Employee Engagement Surveys

Employee engagement is a metric that represents how employees feel about their organization, which consists of how motivated they are to work and their level of commitment to the company. Employee engagement may sound like a vague concept, but the utilization of engagement surveys can allow organizations to take abstract employee feelings and convert them into quantifiable metrics to make productive organizational changes.

An employee engagement survey is a tool companies use to gather engagement data from their employees. The survey typically consists of questions covering key engagement drivers, including leadership, company alignment, and professional development. Employees respond using a consistent scale indicating whether they agree or disagree with a question. Companies often also include open-ended questions and general comment sections to gather employee insights that might not have been captured directly by the close-ended survey questions.

Employee Engagement Survey Benefits for Small to Medium Sized Organizations:

Insight into Employee Satisfaction

While owners and leaders of small organizations may believe they know what works and what doesn’t at their organization, an engagement survey creates measurable insights into employees’ feelings about various aspects of the organization. Engagement surveys will not only provide data on overall company engagement but also specific aspects that are driving engagement to better understand employee motivations. These surveys can help uncover company aspects that motivate employees that might not otherwise have been considered an important part of the organization.

2. Identify Areas for Improvement

Engagement surveys can allow leaders to better determine opportunities to improve the employee experience. Aspects of an engagement survey that receive lower scores from employees can indicate important areas for leaders to prioritize improvement. Engagement survey analytic tools help management sift through the data points generated from engagement surveys to identify critical areas of improvement more clearly.

3. Measure Engagement Over Time

Organizations should conduct engagement surveys periodically to monitor employee engagement over time. This strategy allows organizations to observe trends and measure the impact of various initiatives. A single survey is valuable to gather information but is limited to that point in time. Regularly conducted surveys allow organizations to understand their strategic decisions. Tracking engagement over time takes away some of the uncertainty of improving employee engagement.

4. Cultivate Employee Trust

Organizing employee engagement surveys allows employees to feel more heard within their organization because gathering feedback signals that management cares about their input. This creates a more supportive environment that fosters a culture of valuing individual contributions. A key component of fostering trust through engagement surveys is to make tangible changes to reflect the feedback from employees. There is no importance to gathering feedback if there aren’t actionable steps that reflect them. Ensure that the implemented changes are communicated to employees so they are in the loop and continue to feel valued.

5. Retain Valuable Talent

Specifically, within small to medium-sized businesses, it is crucial for companies to retain their employees. These more close-knit organizations may have less standardized roles that require knowledge about specific company practices. Losing employees who have developed a deep understanding of the organization over time is incredibly valuable to the organization. Furthermore, replacing employees is a costly endeavor due to the time and resources required to retrain employees. Understanding what motivates employees and areas of concern will work to retain valuable talent which overall benefits the productivity of the organization.

While engagement surveys provide many benefits, their value heavily relies on the quality of questions being asked. Using software specifically developed to provide employee engagement survey questions can help organizations ensure their engagement survey-driven improvement efforts are done effectively. Ambition in Motion’s AIM Insights tool provides valuable insights that deliver tangible results companies can use to benefit their employees and the organization as a whole. Through survey question creation and visual reports, Ambition in Motion provides deliverables to effectively identify areas of improvement and streamline action planning for organizational improvements.

Specific Ambition In Motion Benefits

As a leader of a small or medium-sized business, Ambition in Motion recognizes that spending on engagement surveys may not be a top priority and provides completely free engagement survey services. These surveys focus on critical aspects of company productivity: ream cohesion, energy from doing work, alignment with the company mission, and work complementing strengths. After distributing surveys to employees, leaders can visualize areas for improvement and areas of company strengths.

Another benefit of Ambition In Motion’s employee engagement survey, AIM Insights, offerings is the ability to learn how various leaders respond to different scenarios. Using a database from other leaders, Ambition In Motion provides insights about what a good, medium-performing, and poor leader would do in scenarios leaders commonly face. Furthermore, an AI reporting structure is under refinement that gathers employee sentiments and provides specific feedback to managers on how to improve their management style. With all of these tools, managers can be well-equipped to make tangible improvements in response to their employee engagement survey feedback.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 27 December 2024

In her early days as a department manager, Casey prided herself on her ability to adapt quickly and solve problems on the fly. Yet, she often found herself wondering if she was truly excelling or just keeping her head above water. Without a clear benchmark to compare her performance to other leaders, Casey’s confidence wavered. She worked hard, but without a frame of reference, she struggled to identify areas for improvement or celebrate meaningful progress.

Casey’s lack of benchmarks led to a cascade of challenges. Team morale was inconsistent, as she couldn’t pinpoint where her leadership strategies fell short. Her department’s performance was average, which was frustrating for someone who aspired to excellence. And personally, she felt stuck, unsure how to position herself for the next level in her career. It was clear: Casey needed a way to measure herself not only against her past performance but also against other successful leaders.

Discovering Benchmarks and the Journey Ahead

Everything changed when Casey discovered a leadership development program through AIM Insights, a system dedicated to helping managers grow through actionable data. The program introduced her to benchmarking, a way to compare her leadership practices and team performance against other managers in similar roles.

At first, Casey felt apprehensive. Comparing herself to others seemed intimidating. But she quickly realized that benchmarks weren’t about competition; they were about clarity. By leveraging AIM Insights’ analytics, Casey gained access to key metrics, such as employee engagement scores, project delivery timelines, and leadership style assessments. She also participated in peer-to-peer feedback sessions, where she could learn directly from other managers.

The Benefits of Benchmarking

Through this process, Casey experienced several transformative benefits:

Clarity on Strengths and Weaknesses: By comparing her team’s performance to industry standards, Casey identified her core strengths, such as fostering innovation, while recognizing areas like delegation that needed improvement.
Actionable Goals: Benchmarks helped her set measurable, realistic goals. For instance, she aimed to improve her team’s engagement score by 10% within six months, a target informed by best-in-class practices.
Enhanced Leadership Strategies: Learning from peers allowed Casey to adopt proven strategies, such as conducting weekly one-on-one check-ins, which boosted team accountability and trust.
Confidence in Performance: Benchmarks validated her efforts. When her department exceeded the average productivity rate for similar teams, Casey celebrated this as a milestone.
Career Advancement: With clear data to back her leadership effectiveness, Casey positioned herself as a strong candidate for promotions.

AIM Insights: Tracking Data for Growth

AIM Insights goes beyond simply providing benchmarks as it tracks comprehensive performance management data for both managers and their teams. By analyzing key metrics like productivity, engagement, and leadership effectiveness, AIM Insights empowers managers to identify growth opportunities and implement targeted improvements. This continuous feedback loop not only helps individual leaders like Casey advance in their careers but also drives collective growth within their organizations, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation.

Six months into using benchmarks, the results were evident. Casey’s team exceeded their project deadlines by 20% according to the AIM Insights analytics tool, and their employee engagement scores were among the highest in the company. Her newfound clarity and confidence also led to her promotion to Senior Manager, where she continued to inspire her team and peers.

Casey’s journey illustrates the immense value of benchmarking. For managers looking to elevate their leadership and create measurable impacts, tools like those offered by AIM Insights provide the roadmap to success. By comparing herself to other leaders and leveraging benchmarks, Casey not only achieved her career goals but also cultivated a thriving, high-performing team.

For managers who feel stuck or unsure of their progress, AIM Insights is a powerful resource to gain perspective, set goals, and transform your leadership. Just as Casey discovered, benchmarks aren’t just a tool, they’re a catalyst for growth and excellence.

by Kendall Barndollar

Fri 27 December 2024

In today’s fast-paced work environment, clear and consistent communication between employees and their managers is paramount to success. A critical aspect of this communication is being able to effectively understand workload capacity, and recognize when an employee is approaching a stage of burnout. To ensure that no one is overburdened with tasks, managers need to ensure and consider the circumstances of each employee. To effectively follow through with this both the employee and manager must have a platform or system to communicate and openly discuss workload, stressors from the work environment, and potential feedback. Additionally, goal setting should be a primary focus and metric used along with benchmarking to follow and understand employees’ productivity capacity. Open communication prevents burnout, enables a more productive team, and, fosters a healthy workplace culture. A primary concern of communication with employees and managers is understanding the workload is capable of each person.

1. Fostering Transparency in Workload Management

A primary concern of communication with employees and managers is understanding the workload manageable by each person. Every employee has different limits and boundaries for the work they’re able to complete and different strengths and weaknesses enabling them to be efficient in different roles. When a team goes without a platform for communicating workload, it is common for employees to become overwhelmed, which leads to an ineffective and frankly unorganized team.

When employees are able to communicate their capacity to their managers, they can indicate whether they are at full capacity or if they have bandwidth for additional tasks. This transparency not only helps managers allocate work more effectively but also gives employees a sense of control over their responsibilities. By understanding what their team members can handle, managers are better equipped to balance the distribution of tasks in a way that maintains productivity without overwhelming anyone.

Capacity management strategies are used to optimize the resources of a team, and ensure that workloads are matched to employees' capacity if employees have already taken out multiple projects adding more tasks could lead to an overwhelm and decrease productivity. AIM Insights is a primary resource companies can utilize to organize and align goals, benchmarks, and progress for managers and their direct reports. AIM Insights enables managers to analyze and track capacity and expectations in a transparent measure with their employees. Aim insights enable managers to analyze and track capacity and expectations in a transparent measure with their employees.

2. Identifying and Preventing Burnout

Burnout is a prevalent concern in the current workforce. Commonly in industries where high pressure and deadlines sculpt team culture, professionals are feeling burnout and changing careers accordingly. Without being monitored burnout severely impacts employees and the organization as a whole, possibly causing irreparable damage in the loss of valuable talent, but, burnout doesn’t become apparent until the individual has really reached their tipping point. So employees may hesitate to raise concerns, and then the employee will have found a new employer before resolving the issues or bringing them to someone’s attention.

This is another prime example of why communication platforms are crucial for maintaining a beneficial work environment, and culture. If employees have a direct channel to communicate struggles and concerns, they can easily share their feelings and their experiences within the team. A productive executive team will help managers identify patterns or signs of burnout early on.

When managers actively communicate with their direct reports about their work experiences and stress levels, they can provide effective solutions, such as redistributing tasks or potentially modifying to more realistic deadlines. This proactive approach is paramount to sustaining a healthy, productive workforce and ensuring that employees can thrive in their environment.

3. Preventing Overload

Employees already staffed on multiple projects can be added to others which will generally cause a decrease in performance. Frequently, this snowballs into a plethora of other issues, including low-performance reviews, low engagement, employee turnover, and overall negative workplace culture. On the other hand when employees are utilized they may feel unimportant or unvalued, which can lead to to an engagement or a lack of motivation. The key is for managers to find the right balance, and they can only do so through effective communication and clarity with their direct reports.

A productive communication platform would allow managers to keep track of individual workload and assignments, allocate tasks and review each person‘s capacity, and analyze how much of an employee's time is being utilized, through real time visibility and data analytics into the status of each employee managers can make better informed decisions on the day-to-day tasks and assignments for each of their team members.

AIM Insights allows tracking metrics, and can be useful across different measures for a variety of users. The implementation of overall management ratings will enable a variety of users to understand the skills and efficacy of an individual. An implemented tracking system would enable managers and employees to view progress, assignments and expectations and establishes open and direct communications.

The ability to communicate workload capacity, concerns, and availability is crucial for maintaining productive workplace culture, and balance. By providing employees with the opportunity to communicate and share their experiences with their managers, organizations can optimize their workforce. Effective communication and capacity management are paramount to fostering a culture of transparency, trust in collaboration for every level to thrive in. By prioritizing transparent communication and supporting employee well-being, organizations can build a resilient, engaged workforce that drives long-term success.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 13 December 2024

When organizations invest in tools like personality assessments to improve team dynamics, they expect measurable improvements in collaboration and communication. However, it’s common for teams to excel in leveraging these tools externally, such as tailoring customer interactions, while falling short internally. The disconnect lies not in the absence of tools but in the difficulty of applying them consistently under tight deadlines and high stress.

The challenges teams face when applying communication tools internally often stem from several factors:

Stress and Time Pressure: High-stakes environments naturally create tension, and team members may revert to ingrained habits rather than intentionally using learned communication strategies.
Lack of Reinforcement: While assessments provide valuable insights, without consistent practice and reinforcement, teams struggle to integrate these tools into daily interactions.
Misaligned Priorities: Teams often prioritize external-facing excellence, such as client communication, over internal cohesion, believing that internal dynamics are secondary.
Limited Accountability: Teams may lack a structured process for holding themselves accountable to the principles outlined in their assessments.

For example, a consulting company specializing in marketing, faces this exact issue. Despite regular use of personality and communication style assessments, such as DISC and Myers-Briggs, the team struggles with miscommunication during internal projects. Deadlines only increase the problem, causing team members to default to their natural tendencies and creating unnecessary conflict.

Take Emma, a results-driven leader, and Liam, an analytical thinker. When collaborating on a critical 48-hour project, Emma’s direct and urgent communication style overwhelmed Liam, who preferred deliberate planning. As a result, Liam became defensive, and their collaboration suffered, despite both having the tools to bridge their differences.

Building a Foundation for Better Internal Communication

To address these challenges, teams need a foundation of shared understanding and intentionality. This foundation should include actionable strategies that are regularly practiced and refined.

Cultivating Everyday Intentionality

To make communication tools actionable, teams must normalize their use in daily interactions:

Integrate Tools into Workflow: Encourage team members to actively reference their communication styles in meetings and collaborative work. For instance, Emma might say, “I know you prefer structured plans, Liam, so here’s a quick outline before we discuss timelines.” This small acknowledgment aligns both perspectives and using tools like AIM Insights helps facilitate the organization of these meetings including goal tracking and metrics.
Create Visual Reminders: Post quick-reference summaries of team members’ communication styles in shared spaces to make these tools visible and accessible.
Mentorship Best Practices: Leaders should consistently demonstrate how to apply these tools, setting an example for the team. For instance, a manager at a consulting company could start each meeting with a brief check-in: “What communication styles should we keep in mind as we tackle this project?”

2. Establishing Processes for Alignment

Intentionality is particularly critical when stress levels are high and time is short. Teams should adopt structured processes to align expectations and mitigate potential conflicts:

Pre-Project Meetings: Before starting a project, hold a brief meeting to discuss goals, roles, and communication preferences. This ensures clarity and minimizes misunderstandings.
Shared Language: Develop a common vocabulary for describing communication styles, such as “fast decision-maker” or “detail-oriented processor.” This shared language fosters empathy and streamlines problem-solving.
Regular Check-Ins: Schedule short daily check-ins to address concerns and realign priorities. Even five minutes can prevent small issues from escalating.

In the case of the consulting company, a quick alignment session could have helped Emma and Liam understand each other’s priorities before the project began. Emma might express her urgency while Liam outlines the steps he needs to complete his analysis efficiently.

3. Maintaining Momentum Through Reflection and Growth

Consistency in applying communication tools requires regular reflection and opportunities for growth:

Consistent Trial and Error: After each project, dedicate time to discuss how well communication tools were used. What worked? What didn’t? Use these insights to refine future approaches.
Stress-Management Training: High stress often leads to reversion. Equip teams with stress-management techniques, such as mindfulness or brief breathing exercises, to stay focused and intentional.
Celebrate Wins: Acknowledge and celebrate instances where communication tools were used effectively. This reinforces positive behavior and motivates the team to continue their efforts.

At the consulting company, a post-project review helped Emma and Liam identify areas for improvement. Emma learned to soften her urgent tone by providing more context, while Liam practiced responding more flexibly under pressure. Over time, these adjustments strengthened their collaboration.

When teams commit to consistently applying communication tools, they transform a common pain point into a competitive advantage. This requires:

Accountability: Assign champions within the team to encourage the ongoing application of tools.
Adaptability: Tailor communication strategies to fit the team’s evolving needs and challenges.
Visibility: Keep communication insights front and center in daily operations.

By prioritizing internal communication with the same care they give to client interactions, teams can navigate conflicting perspectives, meet tight deadlines, and foster stronger relationships. Emma and Liam’s journey illustrates how intentionality, alignment, and reflection can turn communication tools into actionable strategies, even in the most demanding environments.

When leaders create a culture of intentional communication, teams thrive under pressure, achieving better outcomes and building deeper cohesion. This not only enhances productivity but also sets the foundation for long-term success.

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