Author: Amy Gallo

You’ve been told that getting the most from your team depends on rewarding and recognizing them collectively. But it’s tough to do that, especially when most management systems are so focused on individual performance, undermining the very teamwork you’re hoping to encourage. Luckily, you don’t have to overhaul your company’s evaluation process or pay structure. As a team manager, you can support the right behaviors with things that are in your control.

What Experts Say
A few decades ago, companies were struggling with how to measure and reward individual performance. But in their quest do so, many overreached, says Michael Mankins, a partner at Bain & Company and coauthor of Decide and Deliver: Five Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization. “The pendulum has swung too far, and now those measures are getting in the way of forming good teams,” he explains. At the same time, compensating people for collaboration can be tricky, says Deborah Ancona, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and coauthor of X-Teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed. “The boundaries are often blurry and people work on multiple teams at the same time, making it hard for the manager.” Still, both she and Mankins agree, it’s worth the effort to get it right. “Rewarding a team dramatically improves not only the team performance but also the individual’s experience,” says Mankins. Here’s how to do it effectively.

Set clear objectives
Team members have to understand and agree on what success looks like. “You need to have some way of assessing the group’s performance — a common set of objectives or aspirations,” says Mankins. He advises bringing everyone together to discuss goals and metrics. Have them answer the question: What would it take for us to give ourselves an A? “Having this sort of dialogue can be motivational and lays the groundwork for collaboration in an objective way,” he says.

Check in on progress
Once the team knows what it’s supposed to do and how the work will be evaluated, check in regularly. Pose questions that help the group assess its progress: How are we performing as a team? What obstacles can we remove? You can have this conversation in a meeting or do it anonymously. “Use a service like SurveyMonkey and ask team members to give themselves a collective grade. If everybody agrees that it has been a C week for the team, then you can discuss how to improve,” Mankins says. “If you give yourselves an A, it’s something worth celebrating.”

Use the full arsenal of rewards
Most managers don’t have the power to change how salaries or bonuses are handled at their organizations. If you do, be sure to tie a portion of the discretionary compensation to team or unit performance — the bigger the percentage the better. But if you don’t control the purse strings, don’t fret. There are lots of non-monetary rewards at your disposal. “Think beyond team dinners and social events. Those are just table stakes,” says Mankins. Ancona has studied hospitals where administrators put pictures of groups that have drastically lowered infection rates on prominent display to recognize them for a job well done. You can also give your team exposure to senior leaders. “Teams like to be seen as part of a project that contributes at a high level,” Ancona says.

Get to know your team
Of course rewards are only motivating if you give the team something it wants. This can be challenging because what makes one person feel appreciated may have no effect on another. Spend the time to get to know your team members and look for things they all value. If you’re at a loss, ask them for input.

Focus discussions on collective efforts
Ancona says that many companies include teamwork as a core competency in their leadership development models. As a manager, you can further encourage your people to collaborate by talking about them as a team, not as a set of individuals. Be sure to celebrate successes and discuss setbacks collectively. “The less you talk about individual contribution the better,” says Mankins. Instead, praise the behaviors that contribute to the team’s overall success such as chipping in on others’ projects and giving candid peer feedback.

Evaluate team performance
In addition to completing individual performance reviews, consider conducting a team review as well. Mankins says that companies like Apple and Google have made this part of their formal processes, but you can do it on your own too. Every six months or so, take a close look at the group’s progress, noting its accomplishments, where it has succeeded, and how it can further develop. Don’t mention individuals in this appraisal but focus on what the team has done — and can do — together.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Agree on what success looks like
• Bring the group together to discuss progress against goals and how to improve
• Consider doing a formal evaluation of the team

Don’t:

• Only think of rewards as money — there are lots of non-monetary perks that people appreciate
• Focus on individual performance — emphasize the team’s accomplishments
• Reward your team with something they don’t collectively value

Case study#1: Set a team purpose and measure against it
To help launch PfizerWorks, a productivity initiative that allows employees to outsource boring parts of their jobs, Jordan Cohen put together a small team including his two direct reports, Tanya and Seth, and started by devising a collective purpose. Following the advice of David Collis and Michael Rukstad in “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” the group worked together to come up with a strategy statement of no more than 35 words. “These were the words we were going to live by and we struggled over every clause,” he says. Next, they developed metrics tied directly to their strategy. “We had measures for inputs, outputs, and customer satisfaction, all of which we agreed to,” he says. Meeting those goals was a reward in itself because team members could see how their actions contributed. “It was a source of great pride. It made them feel like they could win everyday,” he says.

Jordan also found ways to make sure his team members were publicly recognized for their work. When PfizerWorks launched, he stopped going to meetings with senior leaders and let Tanya and Seth handle them instead. They became the face of the program. At a meeting with Gary Hamel, just before the famed management thinker was about to give a speech referencing PfizerWorks at the World Business Forum, Jordan asked if he’d be willing to mention the team by name. He did, leaving Tanya and Seth “somewhere between paralyzed and over the moon.”

Case study #2: Let them improve their skills
When Christopher Lind worked at a software company, he led a team of eight people who were responsible for training the company’s sales force. Most of them had been with the company for a while, but many didn’t have formal skills in instructional technology and design. Still, “I was fortunate that everyone on the team had a strong desire to learn,” Christopher says. “They wanted to grow their skillset and familiarize themselves with new technology.”

The team made great progress, exceeding every goal Christopher set and then asking for new ones, so when it came time to reward them as a group, more advanced training seemed to be an obvious choice. He purchased a multi-license agreement to instructional design software. “I had spent enough time with my team to know they were eager to expand their experience and technical abilities,” he explains. “I knew it could lead to them moving on to more senior jobs,” he says. But “I ultimately decided that providing them with a valuable development opportunity outweighed that risk.” In fact, he hoped it would give them a reason to stay. And he was right. Several team members told him that his investment, of both money and time, made them feel valued. It also gave the team something extra to work on together.

If you want to become a leader, don’t wait for the fancy title or the corner office. You can begin to act, think, and communicate like a leader long before that promotion. Even if you’re still several levels down and someone else is calling all the shots, there are numerous ways to demonstrate your potential and carve your path to the role you want.

What the Experts Say
“It’s never foolish to begin preparing for a transition no matter how many years away it is or where you are in your career,” says Muriel Maignan Wilkins, coauthor of Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence. Michael Watkins, the chairman of Genesis Advisers and author of The First 90 Days and Your Next Move, agrees. Not only does the planning help you develop the necessary skills and leadership presence, it also increases your chances of getting the promotion because people will already recognize you as a leader. The key is to take on opportunities now, regardless of your tenure or role. “You can demonstrate leadership at any time no matter what your title is,” says Amy Jen Su, coauthor of Own the Room. Here are several ways to start laying the groundwork.

Knock your responsibilities out of the park
No matter how big your ambitions, don’t let them distract you from excelling in your current role. Focus on the present as much as — or more than — the future. “You still have to deliver results in your day job,” says Jen Su. Adds Maignan Wilkins: “You always need to take care of today’s business so that nobody — peers, direct reports, or those above you — questions your performance.” That’s the first step to getting ahead.

Help your boss succeed
“You have to execute on your boss’s priorities too,” says Watkins. “Show her that you’re willing to pick up the baton on important projects.” Maignan Wilkins also suggests you “lean more towards yes than no” whenever your boss asks you to help with something new. Find out what keeps your manager up at night and propose solutions to those problems.

Seize leadership opportunities, no matter how small
Make sure your “let me take that on” attitude extends beyond your relationship with your boss. Raise your hand for new initiatives, especially ones that might be visible to those outside your unit. “This will give others a taste of what you’ll be like in a more senior role,” says Maignan Wilkins. It doesn’t have to be an intense, months-long project. It might be something as simple as facilitating a meeting, offering to help with recruiting events, or stepping in to negotiate a conflict between peers. You might find opportunities outside of work, too. You can sit on the board of a local nonprofit or organize your community’s volunteer day. “These activities send the signal that you aspire to leadership potential,” Watkins says.

Look for the white space
Another way to prove your potential is to take on projects in the “white space.” These are problems that others aren’t willing to tackle or don’t even know exist. “Every organization has needs that nobody is paying attention to, or people are actively ignoring,” Maignan Wilkins says. For example, you might be able to identify a customer need that isn’t being met by your company’s current product line, and propose a new one. Or you could do a quick analysis of how much a specific change would save the company. When you take on a task that no one else is willing to do, you make yourself stand out.

Don’t be a jerk
There’s a fine line between being ambitious and acting like you’re too big for your britches. “Don’t try to exert authority when you don’t have it,” says Watkins. Practice what he calls “steward leadership”: focus on what your team wants to accomplish instead of putting yourself first. Jen Su recommends “humble confidence,” showing appropriate modesty in your role, while having the self-assurance to know that you will rise to the next level.

Be cautious when sharing your ambitions
It’s appropriate to raise your ambitions with your manager if you have a trusting, solid relationship, but frame them in a way that focuses on what’s best for the company. Jen Su suggests you lay out your accomplishments for the past year and then ask something like, “As we look further out, where do you see me continuing to make a contribution?” Watkins warns that these conversations shouldn’t come off as being all about you. Instead, engage in a two-way conversation with your boss. If you have the kind of boss who may feel threatened by your aspirations, it’s better to keep your ambitions quiet and prove your potential.

Find role models
Look for people who have the roles you want and study what they do — how they act, communicate, and dress. “Pick someone at the next level, someone similar to you, and find a way to work with them,” says Watkins. Volunteer for a committee they’re spearheading or offer to help with one of their pet projects. Identify behaviors that you can emulate while being true to yourself. “You don’t want to fake it,” says Maignan Wilkins. It might also help to study people who are stuck in their careers as examples of what not to do, Watkins says. Are they clumsy politically? Do they disrespect the lines of authority? Do they fail to make connections between departments?

Build relationships
There’s an old adage, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” When you’re evaluated for a promotion, it’s unlikely your boss will sit in a room alone and contemplate your potential. She’ll rely on others to assess your ability, which means you need supporters across the organization — people who are aware of the work you’re doing. “If you find yourself walking down the hall with the most senior person at your company, be prepared to answer the question, ‘So what are you up to?’” Maignan Wilkins says, “Don’t take lightly any interactions that may seem informal. Treat every situation as an opportunity to demonstrate the value you bring to the organization and your knowledge of the business.”

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Look for every opportunity to demonstrate your leadership potential, at work and outside the office
• Support your boss in reaching her goals
• Find people in positions you aspire to and study what makes them successful

Don’t:

• Let your ambitions distract you from doing your current job well
• Exert authority where you don’t have any — use influence to prove your leadership chops
• Openly discuss your ambitions — it’s safer to take a “show, don’t tell” approach

Case study #1: Focus on solving problems, not getting promoted
In late 2010, after ten years at Citi, Heather Espinosa was promoted to managing director. She reached this executive position by continuously challenging herself — and by making the most of each of her previous roles. “I’ve never been concerned with my title. When I thought an assignment was a stretch, I took it,” she explains. “When I applied for my previous position, the job carried the title ‘project manager.’ But after my first conversation with the manager, I knew it was a position that would require complex leadership skills and challenge me, so I accepted the job.”

In each role, Heather embraced additional responsibilities without being asked. “I make an effort to volunteer and raise my hand where I see a need. I started taking on the responsibility of managing director with the hope that if I performed well, the title would come.” And her bosses have always respected this approach. “I rarely walk into my manager’s office and say I want to talk about my career or my next promotion. I walk in and say here’s a problem and here’s how we might address it,” she says.

Case study #2: Take any leadership opportunity you can get
Mike Subelsky, the co-founder and CTO at Staq, a tech start-up that makes software for digital advertising companies, spent most of his early career in roles with lots of responsibility, but not much authority. “I held a number of positions where I felt I had a great deal of influence, but I was never the one calling the shots,” he says.

Still he worked hard, hoping to someday move up the ladder. “I’ve always tried to be the kind of employee that the boss never has to worry about,” he explains. He focused on doing the best he could in whatever role he had, and always raised his hand for projects. He also looked for opportunities to exercise leadership outside of the office. In 2004, he started a nonprofit in Baltimore. “It was a great laboratory,” he says. “It allowed me to practice being a leader.”

Then, last year, he and his partner co-founded Staq. All of Mike’s preparation had paid off. In fact, the company received $1 million in seed funding this past month. “I always knew I wanted to be where I am now: I am hiring employees and creating a wonderful place to work.”

No one likes review time. For many, self-appraisals are a particularly annoying part of the process. What can you say about your own performance? How can you be honest without coming off as arrogant, or shooting yourself in the foot?

What the Experts Say
Dick Grote, author of How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals, has a lot to say about self-appraisals and most of it isn’t good. “I’ll admit it’s important to get the employee’s point of view in the process but this is the wrong way to do it,” he says. In his view, since study after study has shown that we are horrible judges of our own performance, any self-evaluation should focus exclusively on positives; people should not be self-critics. Timothy Butler, a senior fellow and the director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School, agrees that self-assessments aren’t the best way to evaluate performance, but believes they do serve a purpose: “They’re an important source of information about what happened in the past year,” Butler says.

No matter where you stand on their value, self-appraisals are a staple of office life. So the question is how to handle them. Here are some principles to help you when review time rolls around.

Know how your boss will use it
Before you put pen to paper, ask your boss how he plans to use the self-appraisal. Will it play a key role in his review? Will he use it to make decisions about promotions and bonuses? Will he share it with anyone else? Knowing these things will inform what and how you write. “Many lazy bosses see it as an easy way to shuffle off the difficult task of writing a review,” says Grote. If that sounds like your manager, write your appraisal in a way that allows him to copy and paste from your form to his, replacing every “I” and “my” with “she” and “her.”

Emphasize your accomplishments
Both Grote and Butler agree that you should emphasize your achievements. Don’t be arrogant but don’t downplay your successes either. “If you’ve had a great year, you should talk explicitly about your accomplishments,” says Butler. “Be very clear about what contributions you’ve made to the business unit.” Grote adds there is no shame in being political. “It’s OK to put the best face on what you did,” he says.

Acknowledge mistakes — carefully
Of course, unless you’re the best thing that ever happened to your office, you’re likely to have faults or have made missteps too, and you should mention those, even if it’s only in passing. Grote again advises to put the best possible spin on problem areas so you don’t give your boss “the noose with which to hang you.” Butler suggests using developmental language. “You don’t want to say, ‘Here’s where I really fall down.’ Instead, say ‘Here’s an area I want to work on. This is what I’ve learned. This is what we should do going forward.’”

Keep the focus on you
It can be tempting to talk about others in your appraisal — particularly if they’re hindering your progress — but remember this is about you, not them. “Don’t use defensive language or criticize other parties. That doesn’t move things forward,” Butler says. “If you’re having a significant problem with a co-worker, talk to your manager long before the review — with the door closed, not in a written document.”

Ask for what you need
Smart employees use self-appraisals to lobby for career development opportunities. Even if your boss doesn’t explicitly ask for this, Butler says you should include it anyway “because if you don’t ask, it’s not going to happen.” Be specific. Explain the aspects of your job that most excite you and suggest ways you can become more involved in those things. You might ask to be included in certain brainstorming meetings or request funding to take a class on data analytics. Just remember to make sure these requests reflect what your business unit needs as well.

Managers: Work to improve the process
Both Butler and Grote believe there are ways for managers to make self-appraisals more effective. Butler would like to see managers ask more about employees’ motivations and interests so they can create jobs that are better suited for them. He suggests asking questions like, “Where do you think you can make your biggest contributions in the coming year?” and “Which types of projects and activities would you like to see more of in your day-to-day work?” Grote recommends focusing on the positive. Maybe ask for a “good stuff list,” where employees can write down what they’re really proud of. “That puts a very appropriate, positive view on the process,” he says.

Principles to Remember

Do

• Understand how your self-appraisal is going to be used
• Focus mostly on what you’ve accomplished in the past year
• Try to improve the process if you’re a manager — ask about your employees’ motivations and interests

Don’t

• Harp on your weaknesses — talk about them carefully, using developmental language
• Be defensive or criticize others — this is about your performance
• Forget to ask about growth opportunities — be specific about what you need

Case Study #1: Take it seriously and they will too
Darin Freitag has filled out six self-appraisal forms in his time at Ryan Associates, an employee-owned construction company based in San Francisco. The company uses a standard form that includes a handful of questions such as, “What are your job responsibilities and have you gone above and beyond them this year?”

Darin spends between two and four hours filling out his form each review time. “I make sure my managers know that I take this seriously,” he says. He knows that his immediate boss (the company’s COO), the CFO, and the head of HR all review his form and he gears it toward them. “This is my one time of year to push for my career growth,” Darin says. He’s explicit about how they can help. In the past, he’s used the form to request new responsibilities and exposure to different types of projects. But he’s honest about his performance as well. “I know that I have characteristics that require some comment. For example, I often get sucked into the details,” he says. “I don’t make a big deal about it but I recognize that’s what I’m working on.”

Case Study #2: Be honest when you can be
Two years in a row, Liz Steele*, a senior HR partner at a global non-profit, didn’t achieve the goals she set for herself. “I was just too optimistic about what I could accomplish,” she says. Since her self-appraisal required that she assess her performance against those objectives, she struggled with what to do. “Most people just talk about their accomplishments but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” she says. After carefully thinking it through, she decided to list each goal, explaining which ones she didn’t meet. She also highlighted work she delivered that wasn’t part of her original plan. She admits that it was a risky move: “I knew that it could backfire. In some cultures that would’ve been equivalent to career suicide.” But she was confident in the security of her role and knew she was well-respected by her manager and her clients. Plus she felt her integrity mattered more. As an HR partner, Liz’s success relies on her ability to influence others. “I can’t influence if people don’t trust me,” she says.

Her immediate boss and the Head of HR reviewed her self-appraisal and were surprised. “They were amused but they also appreciated that I was willing to call myself out on my own failures,” she explains. Her manager specifically noted on this year’s evaluation that she was not afraid to admit her own mistakes. She knows she took a calculated risk by being so truthful, but in this case, her honest and careful approach paid off.

*not her real name

Innovative social entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses are using data, social media, mobile apps, and other technologies to better solve problems around the world and reach more people and communities.

Take Ushahidi, a nonprofit tech company using the internet and mobile applications to crowd source information during natural disasters, epidemics, and political crises. Or Kiva Zip, which relies on M-PESA, a mobile payment system, to allow people to make direct loans to micro-entrepreneurs in Kenya. There’s also Khan Academy, the nonprofit website that removes economic barriers to education by putting free video tutorials online. And even less tech-oriented organizations are using open source software simply to lower the costs of running a business — expense reporting, document storage, etc. — and put more money into serving their missions.

But these technologies have also put new burdens on some nonprofits and social entrepreneurs. Organizations find themselves under increasing pressure to collect and produce data that proves their worth to funders. Many want to take advantage of social media and data analytics but can’t afford the capabilities needed to do so (not many nonprofits have data scientists on their teams).

This month, HBR.org and The Bridgespan Group continue our three-month-long series on scaling entrepreneurial solutions that benefit society by focusing on how technology and data can fuel social good. We’ll explore questions such as:

• How can big data have a social impact?
• In what new ways are organizations using technology and data to scale the best ideas?
• What data is needed to prove what works?
• How should mission-driven organizations use social media?

To start, Peter Roberts from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University shares early findings from his research on the link between social media presence and a social entrepreneur’s future success. Jeff Bladt and Bob Filbin, the data scientists from DoSomething.org, talk about the important distinction between data and metrics. Throughout the month, we’ll continue to draw on leading experts and practitioners from the nonprofit world, business community, academia, and the growing field of social enterprise.

Please join the conversation and check back for regular updates. Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.

We’re all taught that gossip — talking about someone when he or she isn’t there — is not only rude but also possibly hurtful to feelings or damaging to reputations. And yet everyone does it. It would be difficult to find an office where there wasn’t some sort of chatter about people who aren’t present. Should you be polite and stay above it all? Or does it make sense to get involved in this information sharing?

What the Experts Say
Gossip is an important part of life, not just office culture. “We learn who we are through what people say to us and about us,” says Kathleen Reardon, a professor of management at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and author of Comebacks at Work: Using Conversation to Master Confrontation. Because we’re social beings, we want to connect to people and talking about others is one way to do that. It’s particularly difficult to avoid in an office setting. “Gossip happens all the time so you’re going to hear it,” says Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and coauthor of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader. And chances are that you sometimes perpetuate it too. “Research shows that everyone participates in all kinds of gossip: positive, neutral, and negative,” says Joe LaBianca, a Gatton Endowed Associate Professor of Management at the University of Kentucky’s LINKS Center for Research on Social Networks in Business. Is that wise? Or should you try harder to refrain? Here are several principles to help you decide when to stay above the fray and when to get involved.

Know the benefits
If you have a blanket rule of staying out of discussions about other people, you may be missing out. “You’re going to dismiss all kinds of information that could be useful to you, your career, and your work,” says LaBianca. Hill points out that listening to office banter is a great way to learn what’s going on at your company — what group recently landed a big deal, why the CFO was out of the office for a week, or what initiatives the CEO is likely to approve. Informal exchanges of information can be just as useful as formal ones and they help you connect with colleagues. “It builds a bond because people think you trust them to share sensitive information,” says Hill. “Information is power.”

Differentiate between useful and negative
Not all gossip is created equal however, and some chatter does have negative implications. “Once you find yourself listening to comments about someone’s family or personal life, you’ve crossed the line,” Reardon says. It’s also a problem if people are talking about others so often that everyone’s afraid of being gossiped about. However, negative gossip is far more rare than we think. “Most of what we call gossip is usually positive or neutral,” says LaBianca, and that kind can be quite useful to listen to and pass on.

Remember that it reflects on you
Before you feed information into the grapevine, make sure to consider how you’ll be perceived as a result. Listeners might wonder if they can trust you with their information. Negative gossip especially can affect how others think of you. “You want to think about what you’re passing on. The person receiving that information is going to use it to evaluate your character,” says Hill.

Trust your fellow gossipers
In addition to tainting your own reputation, there is another risk to gossiping: That the subject will find out you talked about him behind his back. Talk only to colleagues you trust not to reveal your actions. If you’re unsure about someone’s reliability or if you are trying to build a new relationship with someone you don’t know well, take it slowly. Trade small, harmless pieces of information at first. Then evaluate your colleague’s trustworthiness before moving on to more important topics.

Don’t do it openly
Because others are likely to make judgments, be careful about where and how you share information. LaBianca advises against doing it in front of your boss who may look down on such behavior. “Gossiping makes you more influential amongst your peers but it can also get you more negative performance ratings from managers if you’re seen as threatening,” he says. Do it behind closed doors, and definitely never use email. “You should assume all emails could be made public,” says Hill. If others are gossiping in a place you feel is inappropriate, you don’t have to chime in. LaBianca points out that you can listen without necessarily contributing. Nodding your head and giving simple responses such as “I didn’t know that” allow you to hear information without actively participating.

Intercept negative gossip when you can
If you partake in discussions about others, and you hear something that could harm another person’s feelings or reputation, you should speak up. “It takes courage to say, ‘That’s hurtful to her’ or ‘I don’t see why any of us here needs to know that’ but that’s what is needed,” Reardon says. You can even go a step further, says LaBianca, and neutralize what’s been said by adding your own information. For example, if someone speaks poorly of a colleague’s performance, you can mention a time you were impressed with her work.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Use your informal relationships to gather information about what’s happening at your company
• Choose your medium wisely — gossiping over email can be particularly precarious
• Think about how your words will reflect back on you

Don’t:

• Dismiss gossip as useless or petty — it can be a good way to connect with others
• Gossip in front of your superiors who may frown upon such behavior
• Turn a blind eye to negative comments about a colleague, especially if they’re unfounded

Case Study #1: Use it to test the waters
Carl Kerrigan,* a director of operations at a large pharmaceutical company, sees office gossip as an important communication tool. He admits that he has both listened and fed news into gossip channels. “Those who were the most active gossipers were the gatekeepers of company information. It’s useful to take advantage of these people and put your own information in the flow, even adding some positive company spin.” When his firm was negotiating a move from its current premises to another site five miles away, Carl mentioned to a few of the gossipers the possibility of relocation and the likelihood that staff would receive a bonus if it all went well. He wanted to gauge reaction. When he heard positive feedback, he gradually fed more information about the move and its benefits. “It proved successful — by the time we publicized the move, most people were accustomed to it and we averted the need for a long consultation process.”

He strongly believes that this sort of communication is critical. “Ignoring it or treating it as nonsense without hearing what’s being said is negligent in my view,” he says.

Case Study #2: Be honest and fair
Sherry Ellner,* a professor at an Ivy League college knows how gossip can make you feel torn. A few years ago she received a call from a colleague, Lauren, who wanted to ask her a confidential question about another colleague, Randall.

Randall and Lauren had been working on a project together that had gone poorly. Randall wasn’t pulling his weight and they were going to miss their deadline. Lauren wanted to know if Sherry had experienced similar difficulties with Randall in their years of working together. “When I heard the story, I didn’t think it was out of the realm of possibility so I felt quite torn in my loyalties,” she says. On the one hand, she respected Randall and didn’t want to damage his reputation. She also worried that whatever she said would become part of the rumor mill. On the other, she wanted to help Lauren understand what was going on so she could solve her problem. “When people share gossip with you, there’s supposed to be some reciprocity,” she says.

After thinking it through, she told Lauren that she had heard stories from other people that were consistent with what she described, but Sherry hadn’t personally experienced those difficulties. To her, this felt like a good compromise. “It was gossiping, yes,” she says, “but I knew I was being honest and fair.” By listening to Lauren, she also gained new insight. “As a consequence of this conversation, I won’t recommend Randall again,” she says.

*names and other details have been changed

Attracting, managing, and retaining the best talent is rarely straightforward in any business. It takes time to find people with the right mix of skills, experience, and values. And they need to fit into your organization. This is especially important in small businesses where every employee greatly influences the company’s success.

In organizations trying to have a social impact, finding, hiring, and developing the right talent can be particularly complicated. You need to find people who are as passionate about your social mission as you are. You often need to manage a mix of volunteers and paid staff. And you need to bring in and develop leaders with the right balance of business acumen and knowledge about the problem you’re trying to solve.

This month, HBR.org and The Bridgespan Group continue our three-month-long series on scaling entrepreneurial solutions that benefit society by focusing on the talent it takes. We’ll explore questions such as:

• What types of talent are necessary to scale the best ideas?
• How can organizations build bench strength on a tight budget?
• What can for-profit companies learn from how social enterprises manage talent?
• How can you be sure people have a passion about your cause and the business skills they need to execute?

To start us off, Matthew Lee and Julie Battilana from Harvard Business School share their early findings that the most effective social entrepreneurs get limited exposure to business concepts. Lara Galinksy from angel funder Echoing Green explains the lesson she’s learned about moving toward fear rather than away from it. Throughout the month, we’ll continue to draw on voices from the non-profit community, corporate world, academia, and the growing field of social enterprise.

Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.

Everyone has bad days at work or even long periods when they feel disheartened about their job. But how do you know the difference between ordinary, occasional dissatisfaction and a genuine mismatch? How do you know when you’re truly ready to move on? And how do you then get out gracefully?

What the Experts Say
Quitting a job can negatively impact your career and disrupt your personal life. But staying in an undesirable situation can be worse. “I find a lot of people paralyzed by their unhappiness with their current reality,” says Leonard Schlesinger, the president of Babson College and coauthor of Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future. It’s often easier to stay put. “Most people stay too long in bad jobs because the corporate world is geared towards keeping us in roles, not matching individuals up with their ideal roles,” says Daniel Gulati, a tech entrepreneur and coauthor of Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. But don’t let yourself get stuck. Here’s how to decide whether it’s really time to quit, and if so, how to leave effectively:

Watch for signals
Start by figuring out whether you lack excitement about the bigger picture or the day-to-day activities. “When people ask me how things are going, my standard response is that I love what I’m doing, which doesn’t mean that I like it on any given day,” says Schlesinger. Here are some signs that something larger is going on:

• You keep promising yourself you’ll quit but never do. Gulati says that these false starts are often indicative of an underlying problem.
• You don’t want your boss’s job. If you can’t stand the idea of having your manager’s job, you need to think hard about what’s next. Chances are that “your hungrier peers will soon pass you, creating more job dissatisfaction,” says Gulati.
• You’re consistently underperforming. If you keep trying to get better but you’re not seeing results, it may be time to consider whether you have what it takes, or if your boss and colleagues value what you have to offer. Schlesinger warns that sometimes you’re up against an impossible task — the job is too big, the politics are too tricky, there aren’t enough resources, or you don’t have the required skills and experience.

If you notice one or more of these signs, pay attention and ask yourself whether the costs of staying in the job are reasonable and acceptable to you. It may be that the “price of admission” — opportunity loss, emotional toll — aren’t worth it.

Test the waters
To further explore if you’re ready to leave, run a few experiments to assess whether your perception is reality. “It’s better to rely on information gathered from live interaction with people rather than spinning around in your own chair,” says Schlesinger. He suggests having an honest conversation with your boss about how you’re perceived and what you’re capable of achieving in your role. If you think your manager wouldn’t be open to that kind of discussion, Gulati advises looking at your last two annual performance reviews. “Do the comments make you feel empowered or disheartened? If your performance is stagnating despite your best efforts, you might want to quit before further reputational damage is done,” he says. You can also test whether there’s a mismatch by putting your hat in the ring the next time your boss has a high-profile piece of work to be done. If you’re overlooked, it may be that he doesn’t appreciate your skills and it’s time to move on.

Know the risks
Before making a final decision, make sure you’ve assessed the downsides. Even if you’re certain you’re in the wrong job, there are risks to leaving — you may damage existing relationships, lose needed income, or blemish your resume. According to Gulati, people usually get ten chances to quit a job in their lifetime, which works out to an average of every four years. “If you’re changing things up much more than that, companies will start looking at you as a serial job-hopper,” he says. This will hurt your professional reputation and your chances of getting jobs in the future. “This could become especially problematic if you find a role you really want but can’t get a foot in the door because of your dicey resume,” says Gulati.

Always leave toward something
You can mitigate some of the risks by deciding what’s next before you leave. Both experts agree that it’s better to have at least an inkling of what you want to do, if not a full-fledged plan. “People should quit to secure a positive role, not on an emotional whim to avoid a negative situation. If you truly hate what you’re doing, you should absolutely leave but not before you identify something that you have a good chance of loving in the future,” says Gulati. Scheslinger adds “I wouldn’t leave without some sort of plan, whether it’s a set of experiments to confirm what you’re excited about doing next or a conscious strategy to make something happen.” Of course, that’s not always possible. “Many people leave it open ended, especially if they’re financially secure or craving an uninterrupted period of introspection,” says Gulati.

Don’t run out the door
You may fantasize about telling your boss to take this job and shove it, but that will only give you short-term relief and could possibly ruin your professional life. “There’s nothing worse than taking a bad situation and leaving it badly. How you leave is as important as how you arrive,” says Schlesinger. Discuss the decision with people who matter in your life: spouse, children, friends. Ask mentors or former bosses for advice. Most importantly, Schlesinger recommends, “Look at it from your boss’s point of view and think about how you can communicate a process for disengagement that is respectful of the situation.” Gulati agrees: “Once you’ve decided to quit and have a last day in mind, you should let your immediate supervisor know and follow due process.”

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Ask yourself whether the job can be done, whether you can do it, and if the costs of doing it are too high
• Run short experiments to test whether your current situation is unfixable
• Have some sense of what you want to do next before your quit

Don’t:

• Stay if you don’t want the job your boss or another superior is doing — you need to have a vision of what will come next
• Burn bridges no matter how dissatisfied you are — it could ruin your professional reputation
• Make quitting a habit — you’ll blemish your resume

Case Study #1: Weigh the costs of staying
Adam Park (not his real name) joined Goldman Sachs’ Hong Kong office in early 2007 as an associate in their equity derivatives division. Adam loved his job and was having the experience he had hoped for: he was learning tons and working with smart, capable people. Toward the end of 2008, however, things changed.

The financial crisis forced the firm to make cuts. Adam was spared in the first round of layoffs, and in subsequent ones as well, but the situation was unsettling. “You would go out to lunch and when you came back, the person sitting next to you would be gone,” he says. He also felt the layoffs were handled poorly. “A coworker had been there for 20 years and was let go the same way as everyone else,” he explains. After the first round, managers told the survivors in his division they’d been spared because they were the firm’s best people. But then a few months later some of those very people were let go. That’s when Adam considered leaving. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’m not that important to these people. None of us are.’” It was a hard time to lose your job never mind leave one so he stayed put for a while. But he started to keep his eyes open for other opportunities.

Then one day he was on his way to the gym during lunch and he saw a young boy separated from his mother. When a police officer asked Adam to help locate the boy, Adam’s first thought was, “I don’t have time for this.” He assisted, but later that day kicked himself for his initial reaction, “I wasn’t this person two years ago: someone too busy to help a woman reunite with her child. What happened to me?” The experience convinced Adam he needed to leave his job. The cost of staying outweighed the benefits. After waiting to receive his next bonus, he quit. He didn’t take a job right away (though 14 months later he joined the legal department at another bank) but instead traveled and visited friends and family. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he says. “It’s not often you get that mental silence.”

Case Study #2: Ask yourself one question
Amal Kapur (not his real name) had been working at a global management consulting firm as a senior consultant for a year and a half when he started to consider whether he should leave. He simply wasn’t feeling engaged in his work. “This wasn’t just a valley in the natural ebb and flow of a job. I was thinking about my role and whether the company was still the right place for me to be,” he says. He tried to think through all the factors that should influence his decision — finances, work/life balance, development opportunities — but couldn’t figure out which mattered most to him.

Then his mentor encouraged him to answer just one question: What do you need your job to do? Amal realized that he wanted a job that would prepare him to someday lead a start-up venture. He therefore needed operational experience and leadership opportunities, neither of which he was getting in his current role.

He decided to look for a more execution-focused position at a smaller company. He started to look for a job while still employed but it proved difficult to dedicate enough time to it. Amal saw the biggest risk in leaving as financial but he figured he could float for several months without an income. And he didn’t want to get stuck. “The longer I stayed in a role that was clearly not fulfilling my aspirations, the more I would’ve been disappointed in my inability to take action. Ultimately I had to bet on myself and my ability to find not just ‘a job’ but ‘the job’,” he says. After searching for two and a half months, Amal recently started a new position at a small media company.