Maureen Breeze

Two weeks ago, Nicolas Kristof wrote an Op-Ed piece, Why 2017 Was the Best Year in History, for The New York Times. His point was that in a time of hurricanes and fires, disruption and political unrest, it’s easy to overlook that in 2017 fewer people around the world went hungry, more were literate than ever, fewer lived in extreme poverty, and more had access to clean drinking water.

Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going well.

We’re conditioned to look for what’s wrong and aim to improve it. But overlooking what is going well can impede our abilities to make positive gains. It takes a lot of energy to address weaknesses, and a clear picture of what is going well can provide much needed fuel and perspective.

Gallup has invested heavily in this thinking. Their StrengthsFinder curriculum, based on Don Clifton’s strength psychology, helps people identify their strengths and leverage what they do well. Their research points out that people who are working with their ‘strengths’ do better, have more energy and are better equipped to manage shortcomings.

It’s a luxury to always be working in our strength areas, and as leaders and managers, we must examine both our own and our team’s weaknesses if we want to stay in business. But strategic leaders ensure there is plenty of fuel to tackle difficult situations – fuel in terms of time, support, and most importantly, energy. Knowing what is going well can provide a tangible and positive source of energy.

In Jim Collins’s latest book, Great by Choice, he shares stories of companies who have thrived in uncertainty and chaos to beat their industry indexes by ten times or more over fifteen years. One example he cites is how Southwest Airlines focused on what they did well in the midst of industry change, crises and recession. A big part of their operational strategy was to collect empirical evidence for what they did well – ensuring high aircraft utilization, short turn around times, and a fun people-oriented culture – and remain committed to these things in times of distraction and chaos.

This practice of assessing what is going well is one we can integrate with regularity into our businesses and personal lives.

When working with clients, I begin by assessing what’s working well across the board. And when I’m coaching someone through a difficult failure, I always begin with “What went well in this situation?”

If we can start the exploration from this point of view, teasing through challenges and failures is often less daunting. There is a lot of wisdom to glean from what’s right in a given situation.

Engaging in a “well” inventory on a regular basis can be a powerful practice. How might your business evolve when you are clear about what you do well? How might New Year’s resolutions differ if you launch from this perspective? How might addressing your challenges and inefficiencies be informed by knowing what you are doing right?

Here are a few questions to jumpstart your reflection:

• What are three successes your organization has had this past year?
• What contributed to these successes?
• What are you proud of?
• What would outsiders say that your enterprise does well?
• What about your work would your competitors wish to copy?
• Where have you had the greatest growth this year?
• Where did you have the highest return on your effort?
• Who has benefited from your work this year?
• How might you quantify this benefit?
• In five years, if you were to look back, what were the best things the organization accomplished this year?
• If you could live last year over again, what would you do the same?

If you’d like to learn more about integrating “well” inventories into your business strategy or personal practice, please contact us at [email protected].

Many leaders cite resilience – the ability to bounce back after adverse experiences – as a critical skill they look for when assembling a team. In fact, a media executive I recently spoke to said it’s the number one thing he looks for when hiring. “In my industry, tough things happen. I don’t have time to worry how my team will handle challenges. I need to know that they are resilient and can move forward.”

The professional landscape is rapidly changing. Unlike Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y professionals, students graduating from college today can expect to hold many different jobs in various industries over the course of their career. Losing jobs will be the new norm. According to McKinsey Global Institute’s research on the future of work, approximately 375 million workers will need to change occupations by 2030 due to automation. Young professionals will need to be resilient and skilled at reinventing themselves to adapt to this new professional reality.

Technology is at the heart of this new world. According to Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, authors of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, today’s technology has an average shelf life of five years. That means five years for people to learn a technology, incorporate it into daily routines, absorb ensuing disruptions, and prepare for the next wave. Only the resilient will be able to metabolize this rapid pace of change.

So how do we stay strong, and help those we manage stay afloat in this sea of flux?

Professor Robert Sinclair and Dr. Janelle Cheung reviewed years of literature on personal characteristics that promote resilience. They developed the acronym POWER to encapsulate the elements most social psychologists deem important. POWER stands for purpose, optimism, will power, emotional stability and resourcefulness. Let’s look at how these elements relate to thriving in the workforce.

Purpose – When people have a strong sense of purpose, they are anchored in something bigger than both themselves and the immediate moment. Whether someone is motivated by a personal passion, a connection to an organization’s mission, or a desire to provide for a family, they are better able to withstand adversity. To cultivate purpose requires reflection, an awareness of core values, and a commitment to growth.

Optimism – Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania professor and father of Positive Psychology, defines optimism as the belief that with effort one can influence the outcome. Optimism isn’t a ‘rose- colored glasses’ attitude, but a belief that one can access personal power in adverse situations. His research with organizations such as MetLife Insurance and the military academy at West Point shows that people who tend to be optimistic perform better in highly challenging environments.

Will power – My favorite coaching question to ask clients is “What are you willing to do?” It’s rumored that when Sofia Coppola wanted to make her film, Lost in Translation, she asked her famed father how to go about it. He responded, “You will it to happen.” What does it take to ‘will’ something to happen? Action, resourcefulness and perseverance. While want reflects desires, will demands commitment. Those who are willing are more resilient.

Emotional Stability – In times of adversity, emotions run high. Most of us have received damaging emails sent in the heat of the moment, heard hostile confrontations in the hallways, and witnessed toddler like behavior at work when tension permeates the air. Understanding emotional triggers and how to manage them is critical to keep stressful moments from destroying collegiality and teamwork. While resilience is about being able to bounce back after adversity, volatile emotions have the power to snap us during adversity.

Resourcefulness – Those who are able to look beyond the norm and discover innovative ways to solve problems demonstrate higher levels of resilience. Adam Grant, author of Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World, shares a study that found customer service representatives and call center employees who used Chrome and Firefox as their browsers both performed better on the job and had a longer tenure of employment. The research revealed that it wasn’t the browser, but the fact that these people didn’t accept the default on their computers – Safari or Internet Explorer. Instead, they took initiative to download something they believed to perform better. This trait of resourcefulness translated into higher workplace performance. With the coming wave of automation, perhaps nothing will be as important for resilience as resourcefulness.

In order not to simply survive but thrive in today’s economy, resilience is mandatory for the agility needed to take advantage of opportunities. So, how are you helping your employees and teams cultivate POWER?

In my next blog, you’ll read about personality attributes that diminish resilience and strategies to safe guard against them.

When Fear Strikes…

For the last several months I’ve been toying with an idea. A big idea. One that pulls me from the familiar and forces me to build new networks, dapple in new technology, and envision a unique business model. I was joy-riding the wave of this idea until fear struck.

Fear choked my energy. It was like a floodgate lowered keeping insights from flowing. Slowly the idea started fading.

“It’s not that great of a concept.” “Someone else is better suited to do this.” “It’s impossible.” “This is a young person’s business.” All the justifications and disempowering beliefs tumbled in. I found myself slowly retreating.

What does fear do to you?

Does it cause self-doubt or create blind spots? Does it lead to denial, justification or blame? Perhaps it serves you as fuel to push through obstacles.

Regardless of how you respond to fear, it’s something that must be managed both personally and professionally. We must cultivate a healthy relationship with fear. It can be a trusted warning sign. An indicator to assess, look from all directions and dig deep for the right direction. But when fear moves from a healthy reservation to chief perspective it can paralyze us, or even worse, disengage us from the important work we want to do.

Unfortunately, underlying fears infiltrate many work environments. Employees wonder if their jobs will eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence. Business owners worry that products may become obsolete due to rapidly evolving technologies. And while the overall economy has rebounded, the impact of the Great Recession still lingers.

Employees are expected to show up to work fully engaged, feeling purposeful and committed to the organization. They are expected to add value by bringing their best ideas to the table. Yet nothing chokes innovation and engagement like fear.

So what can you do to manage fear in the workplace?

• Build a culture of connection. When people know and like their colleagues, trust ensues. Take time to see people for who they are, beyond what they do at work, to help break down the detrimental effects of fear.
• Value ideas. Create simple systems to acknowledge workers’ engagement and strides for innovation.
• Create time and space for employees to engage in innovative thinking. When people are engaged in problem solving and solutions, their fears often recede.
• Work towards a healthy framework for success. Knowing that not every initiative and project will succeed, acknowledge setbacks in ways that promote learning, while generating optimism for future opportunities and risks.
• Talk about fears. Make time for employees to share what they are experiencing (both within and outside of management’s control) and how these issues relate to the company’s culture.

On a personal level, what can you do when fear strikes?

• Learn to see it’s warning signs. Look for patterns when fear arises. Does it strike just before you make a big commitment? Does it hit when you hear one specific person’s feedback? When you see yourself moving into a fearful mode, begin asking questions. Take time to deconstruct the fear so that it can serve you, not paralyze you.
• Reconnect with your idea. Spend time cultivating it – by taking a walk, journaling, sharing it with a trusted friend – and then observe what happens to the fear. Often it will subside as you reengage and move back to the sidelines in its role of a ‘healthy fear’.
• Remind yourself that fear is normal. If you are entertaining a bad idea, that can be revealed through conscious, active examination.

In the end, fear isn’t something we can eradicate or absolutely control, but it is a phenomena, that if managed well, can positively impact engagement, innovation productivity.

Empathy – the capacity to be aware of and sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and experience of others – is something we often associate with learning on the grade school playground. However, it is not a skill all master equally, and yet it is critical to success in the work place.

As many companies strive for innovation, empathy as a professional skill is garnering attention. The popularity of design thinking as a problem solving strategy relies on empathy to put the ‘end’ users’ needs at the forefront of the process. Designers spend significant time considering how the end user might benefit from a new product or solution, what needs and challenges they have, and what other experiences they may be bringing to the situation, all which influence the creative problem-solving process. Innovators often spend significant time building ‘personas’ – templates that drive thinking to get into the heads of their customers and see how they live day in and day out. In the realm of technology and engineering, design thinking has elevated the ability to empathize as a prime professional skill.

Professionals concerned with customer service have long understood the value of empathy. Knowing how a customer experiences an existing product or service, or how he or she perceives an organization is critical for a business’s success. Today, some companies go the extra mile to truly understand their customers’ and employees’ experience. An executive at one of the premier pay-for-TV companies recently told me about their policy of having executives ride with technicians and go into people’s home to install equipment and trouble-shoot problems. He said that nothing helps upper management solve problems faster and more effectively than truly knowing their customer base and seeing for themselves what it’s like to represent the company on the front lines.

Empathy impacts our day-to-day interactions at work as well. The ability to manage up, across and down, often directly correlates with one’s empathy quotient. When coaching new managers, I spend time exploring strategies for boosting empathy. How can they better understand and anticipate their boss’s needs? How can they individualize their management style to suit a team of direct reports demonstrating different levels of motivation, experience and engagement? How do they add-value to a team of colleagues with conflicting personalities and challenging dynamics? The skill of empathy can be a new manager’s best tool for success.

Nothing can sabotage success like the lack of empathy. Just this week a coffee shop in the historical Five Points neighborhood of Denver made headlines for posting a sign that read, “Happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014.” Longtime residents who have called the neighborhood home for generations were insulted. The CEO apologized for his ‘blind spot’ to others’ interpretations of the sign. Empathy as to how his message could be received could have prevented a now damaged reputation.

At the most basic level, empathy can be a defining metric for appropriate and inappropriate behavior, all by simply understanding how someone might perceive one’s actions. Just last week David Brooks, Opinion Editor at the New York Times, was asked about the recent string of sexual harassment allegations in the press. He said he was surprised by how often the accused responded by saying “they had no idea women were thinking this way.” Brooks goes on to comment, “it’s an inability to put your mind in the mind of the person…it’s a sort of moral and human blindness toward another human being’s experience.”

Today, this blindness – or lack of empathy – is toppling many at the height of their careers. The time is ripe to rethink empathy as a professional skill so that all may survive and thrive in today’s workplace.

Creating a Culture of Connection

What is the value of human connection? We are learning that it’s much greater than previously thought. A growing body of research reveals the positive impact human connection has on wellbeing and productivity in our workplaces, educational institutions and community at large. At a time when technology has the power to infringe on personal connection, it’s more important than ever for leaders to foster opportunities for employees to come together and engage in authentic exchange.

Connection at work – According to research conducted by the firm Globoforce, over 90 percent of workers spend upwards of 30 hours a week with colleagues, while only 52 percent of people spend that much time with family. Yet the Gallup Poll’s findings indicate less than 1/3 of employees are ‘engaged’ at work and experience a strong connection to their workplace. When employees are strongly connected at work, they expend more effort, go out of their way for other employees, and speak highly of their organizations. The result? Lower turnover, better attention to detail, higher morale, and greater profits. Creating a culture where employees feel a sense of belonging with one another and to the organization at large has never been more important for leaders and managers.

Connection at school – Our education institutions are no different than workplaces. This sense of belonging is critical for student success and organization sustainability. In the late 70’s, Dr. Uri Treisman, then at UC Berkeley, questioned why his African American male students were struggling in Calculus class at higher rates than other student groups. His research uncovered one critical difference exhibited by his African American male students: they tended to study alone as opposed to working with others. When he introduced study groups for all students this gap closed. These study groups created a sense of belonging and connection to the institution that made significant difference in these students’ overall experience and academic outcomes.

Connection in the community – The implications of connection, or lack of it, reach well beyond work and school. Loneliness is found to increase chances of stroke or heart disease by 30%. On the other hand, feelings of social connection can strengthen the immune system, lengthen life, and lower rates of anxiety and depression (Harvard Business Review, 6/29/17). John Cacioppo, a social neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, defines loneliness as perceived social isolation, which is different than introversion or the state of being alone. He’s found that loneliness can predict morbidity and mortality. At the same time, deep connection, and the experience of having a true confidant, helps people thrive. Deep reciprocal relationships counter loneliness and increase the levels of cortisol and oxytocin in the brain. Perhaps even more important is that loneliness appears to be contagious, which has dangerous implications for the workplace. If one person is lonely, they are more likely to deal with others cautiously and defensively, creating potential negative social reactions and repercussions.

In this era of striving to do everything faster with greater efficiency, how can we step back and create opportunities for human connection? Here are a few questions and ideas to consider:

Remove barriers – Look to see where barriers exist at your institution. What type of open workspaces might be created? What cross-functional teams can be formed to address a problem? And how might management and leadership development programs integrate employees from all ranks? Perhaps most importantly, how can building trust be a primary goal for all? Nothing impedes connection like fear and distrust. A simple rule of thumb – criticize in private, acknowledge in public – goes along way toward building rapport that leads to authentic connection.

Create opportunities for exchanges – In the last ten years the emphasis on architectural design to promote collaboration has skyrocketed. Open work environments, shared community spaces such as kitchens and lounges, and bathroom placement along the periphery to promote people walking past one another, all drive human connection. How can you create opportunities for serendipitous encounters that drive innovation, wellbeing and connection?

Structure events – Schedule regular events for employees to engage with one another. Whether they’re lectures, Friday lunches, or an afternoon outing to the ball- park, these opportunities allow employees to connect beyond the professional setting. While it may seem like valuable work time will be lost, close work friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%, and people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged on the job, all which positively impact productivity and the bottom line (Gallup Report, State of the American Workplace).

Coach employees for personal development – More important than social connections are employees’ personal connections to the organization, its mission, and their own professional sense of purpose. When leaders and managers coach employees, they are able to build bonds that allow for personal development that reach well beyond traditional performance reviews. Coaching employees to cultivate their purpose within their roles, establish concrete goals, explore avenues for growth and challenge, and develop actionable plans, fosters authentic relationships that enhance connection and camaraderie, all while boosting job performance.

To learn more, contact us to explore how you can create connections at your workplace that foster engagement and wellbeing for your most valuable resource – your people!